Ultima VIII: Pagan Retrospective (AD FREE)
The moment we've all been dreading has arrived. Ultima VIII is here!
We've got a lot of history and context to work through in this one, so it's another beast. As always, piecing together the narrative based on years of magazine articles and interviews is a fun challenge. I hope you enjoy the video!
Like the Two Worlds video posted on Patreon, this version is being hosted via Vimeo. It should be a bit more feature rich than the Patreon player, like having PiP mode and being compatible with smart TVs. On my end it's a way nicer service to deal with, so hopefully it works for you. The YouTube version will be up tomorrow barring disaster.
Comments (21)
I finally was able to finish the video and the Crusader: No Remorse section was absolutely delightful to discover. I had no idea and actually incredibly happy to discover it came from Pagan or that it did so well. It was such a banger of a game and even the FMV was charming. Love it.
It has finally happened. LETS GO!
I'm not saying we need a Majuular retrospective on Ripper, but I totally need a Majuular retrospective on Ripper.
I was looking away from my PC so when I heard the System Shock theme start up I audibly said "what the hell??!" and my coworkers saw. PSS I joined patreon JUST so I could see this video early. I appreciate what you do and your workmanlike, honest, delightful style. The PCGamer interview was great. Godspeed.
I joined this Patreon just so I could watch this video early. And also because you are currently my favorite video essay creator. I love your work. And I am beyond excited that you're going to cover Ultima Online. Wonderful work as always - I look forward to more.
WHY DID I SEE THIS WAS POSTED RIGHT BEFORE I HAD TO GO TO BED I BEEN WAITING ON THIS FOR A YEAR ARRRRRGH! Seriously though U8 was my first Ultima game back in the 90's so its special to me, despite its flaws, and I've been so, so hyped for this one.
Great retrospective, as always. 5 year old me howling with rage empathizes with your pain of enduring this Ultima. Also thanks for putting these on Vimeo instead of Patreon's video player, as I like to watch these on my TV while working on stuff in Blender on my computer. As much as the suggested resolutions of Lost Vale would have helped, I feel like Ultima 8, storywise anyway, missed what could have been a great opportunity to setup a challenge in Ultima 9 to one of the core... not issue but consequence of the Ultima series, which is the conflict between the avatar as an aspiration for all and the series' practice of using The Avatar/Player as Britannia's janitor, endlessly sweeping up all broken things and find everybody's lost bobbles. The Avatar becoming the Titan of Ether pretty much screws the people of Pagan forever, but Titans as far as the people of Pagan are concerned are gods. If the Avatar had lead a mass exodus of the people of Pagan to the promise of a better land, Britannia or Earth, it for one would have given The Avatar/player at least some means of saving face, and could have lead to an interesting flip of the usual RPG dynamic. If the Avatar had a cult of people following him back to Britannia to help fight the Guardian, and follow The Avatar's every command that would thematically follow with the idea of the Guardian being the flipside of the Avatar, but one that eventually the Avatar would have confront, both of the people of Britannia in their dependency and of the cultists in their devotion, for both these extremes focusing on a single person/entity, The Avatar, are anathema to the concept of avatarhood of the Eight Virtues. Finally confronting that power fantasy that an RPG naturally provides to players with Ultima's Virtues as a moral compass could have been a profound ending to the Ultima series. But hind-sight has prescription glasses, and given what Ultima 9 was gameplay-wise, even if someone had a similar idea at the time, goodness knows how the execution of such a storyline would have flattened its face on the proverbial pavement.
If only they'd made the game ass-proof... another banger as usual!
Oh man, this comes at a great time! Thanks for your hard work taking one for the team :)
Damn. Thanks king!
Rewatched all the Ultima vids while packing, now I get a new one for unpacking? Bless 🙏
Thank you for enduring this.
And so we arrive. Cursed Mario.
Lord Lord this gonna be some goooooood watching!!
Oh the video needed after a long day. *sips whiskey* tis a good day!
everybody SHUT UP my show is on
Oh baby
Somehow you always pick a release window where I need something to watch/listen to for a late work night. Super excited.
Ohhhhhhh baby! Here we go!
Hey now! Thank you for powering through and putting this out there! Very much appreciated on this shitty, shitty Monday.
Been so excited/terrified to see the full blown story of this one! Thanks for reigniting my love of Ultima again Maj. I started to watch after describing EA and its failings to my friend and espousing the Life changing and my favorite game of all time with Ultima 4. That's when I stumbled onto your channel. you had just covered ultima 6. My heart soared to see a series so near and dear to my heart that it was an instant binge and subscribe. I have followed you since and watched your other great reviews and If I may Say Maj, you rekindled the creative fire in my soul by showing me that following the virtues like i have tried since 15 was a good life to live. I have since started a Ultima inspired Dnd Homage with my friends that i am still working on to this day. Keep being awesome dude! and thanks again.