Ultima: Exodus by developers Origin Systems and Newtopia Planning and publisher FCI —Nintendo Entertainment System.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
There are two times of the year that tend to get me reflecting on games of old. One is near the end of spring, around my birthday and the other is near Christmas. The connection here should be obvious, as when I was a kid – most of the video games I played were gifted to me during one of those two yearly occasions.
In prior articles, I’ve touched on some of these gifts. Unabashed link-fest coming up, but I still have some strong memories and emotions tied to when I received my Nintendo Entertainment System (and Joust – I’ll have to reminisce on that one soon) from my Uncle Ken for Christmas. That same year my parents got me Elevator Action and Dragon Power as gifts, and my Grandpa Joe and Grandma Bev got me Double Dribble. A few years later, my Grandma Barb picked up Tecmo Basketball for Christmas. Before that my parents had gotten me into gaming with a TI99/4a, and years later my Uncle Ken again came through with the win, giving me a Sega Genesis for my birthday (and a ton of games such as Columns, Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog and an EA golfing game).
Okay, that was a lot of nostalgia. But when I think of Ultima: Exodus, I get hit pretty hard with nostalgia as well. This wasn’t year one of me having my NES – it was a couple after I received it. This title got released on over a dozen platforms, with some variance in the naming such as Exodus: Ultima III and Ultima III: Exodus, but as it was the first release on the Nintendo Entertainment System, they simply went with the title Ultima: Exodus.
I had never heard of this game, and I’m not entirely sure what inspired my parents to pick it up. I vaguely recall my dad saying that he thought the cover of the box looked interesting and he was well aware that I was a big fan of the fantasy genre. This however, was also my true introduction to the roleplaying genre. Dragon Warrior wouldn’t be too far behind – I wound up borrowing that from a friend a few months after discovering my love for grinding through oodles of turn-based battles. This was well before I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons or played my first Final Fantasy.
Now, in retrospect, Ultima: Exodus is a pretty flawed but still fun game. I’ve played it in somewhat recent years, and sure – any game release in 1989 is going to struggle when held up to today’s standards more than three decades later. I’m not talking about the graphics and sound (it is surprising how quickly the music tickled the back of my brain, but I logged dozens and dozens of hours with this game back in the day, so that music’s apparently been burned into my brain by now.
But even comparing this game to some of its contemporaries from around the same time, such as the first Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy titles, Ultima: Exodus just had a lot of rough edges. Several things were poorly explained (somewhat common for the time), leading to a lot of wandering about and happening on to the next steps in the journey. The number scaling was off too, as experience for leveling was far easier to come by than the gold needed to purchase leveling. Those two things feel out of sorts with one another, despite being tied to the same progression system.
Also, the way the world handled levels was a little oddly inconsistent as the overworld scaled with your level but the dungeons were more set to level ranges, leading to an uneven experience if you grind a lot early on. Combat had a sort of weird hit / miss frame thing that was more about timing than the more traditional behind the scenes dice rolling.
However, there was a flexibility to Ultima: Exodus that felt somewhat ahead of its time as well. Character creation was incredibly flexible compared to similar titles. You had greater control over the way you could interact with characters, with commands to attack, attempt to steal or even bribe NPCs. You could even pick a fight with the king (though you’d lose – he’s indestructible). I did a lot of saving back then – but there were a lot of things that you could try – and screw up. Reviving characters is expensive, which makes the game feel more punitive than most of the era.
It's also worth noting that when you discover the hidden land of Ambrosia, the game opened up in a new and unexpected way, including better character progression. That’s sort of the theme of Ultima: Exodus. It was a dense game with a lot of systems that often were not well explained, and there was precious little handholding done. It’s not one of the hardest NES games in the traditional sense, but a lot of hours and perseverance is needed to see it through to the finale.
In the end, however, for all its foibles, Ultima: Exodus is more than just the game it is – at least to me. It’s another set of memories tied to a Christmas gift from loved ones, and it also introduced me to one of my favorite video game genres ever. I think those things make Ultima: Exodus something far more special.
Article by: Nick
