History VideoGame / UltimaVIIPartII

* 0PercentApprovalRating: Lord British is liberally (and sometimes literally) demonized by the denizens of the Isle. Everyone hates him for all sorts of crimes, there's a libelous poem found here and there, and the trial in Fawn has one of your companions almost executed for mentioning British's name (and the trial itself tosses all sorts of baseless accusations at you and Lord British). All because their ancestors thought the Virtue system was a bit oppressive.

* UnwinnableByDesign: The number of plot-critical items in this game is simply crazy, and dropping or consuming one by mistake will leave you stuck forever. By the end of the game your characters' backpacks will be filled with layers upon layers of random items. Things are only made worse by the fact that unlike the previous games in the series, this game is not a WideOpenSandbox, so the area where you left the vital item behind may no longer be accessible to you when you actually need it, and even if it is, the game world is still so huge that you're extremely lucky if you even remember where to begin looking for it.

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: The ranger you meet in the Mountains of Freedom.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The original plan for the opening was much more elabourate, and would have featured the Serpent Pillars rising out of the water as the Avatar's ship approached them. This proved to be too much for the computers of the time to render, so it was changed to just having them standing in the ice.
** In addition, the [[spoiler:Chaos Banes]] storyline was originally meant to be more elaborate than it ended up. [[spoiler:The Bane-possessed Companions were to each take over one of the three cities of Serpent Isle, and rule them according to the Bane. For example, the Anarchy-possessed Shamino was to abolish all laws in Moonshade, leading to the scheming mages to kill each other. The Madness-possessed Iolo would punish people in Fawn with cruel ironies and puns. The Wanton Dupre would turn the knights of Monitor into literal animals, "fulfilling" their desire for the strength of those animals]]. In addition, each one was to be confronted alone. Some of this survived into the game, in semi-finished dialogues, but only some, and for the most part, [[spoiler:the Bane-possessed companion just unceremoniously kill everyone]].

* AscendedToAHigherExistence: [[spoiler:The surviving Ophidians fled through the Wall of Lights when they realized the Imbalance would destroy everything.]]

** In addition, the [[spoiler:Chaos Banes]] storyline was originally meant to be more elaborate than it ended up. [[spoiler:The Bane-possessed Companions were to each take over one of the three cities of Serpent Isle, and rule them according to the Bane. For example, the Anarchy-possessed Shamino was to abolish all laws in Moonshade, leading to the scheming mages to kill each other. The Madness-possessed Iolo would punish people in Fawn with cruel ironies and puns. The Wanton Dupre would unleash the Goblins en masse on the people of Monitor]]. In addition, each one was to be confronted alone. Some of this survived into the game, in semi-finished dialogues, but only some, and for the most part, [[spoiler:the Bane-possessed companion just unceremoniously kill everyone]].

* TakeThat: You can go after a guy pirating Origin video games.
* TheMaze: The labyrinth in the Silver Seed add on.
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Lord Marsten and Spektor give secrets to the Goblins so that they can kill off the Bear and Wolf clan members. Simon is secretly a Goblin spy. Selena is working for Batlin.]]

* AnIcePerson - Frigidazzi
* ApocalypticLog - A very disturbing diary in White Dragon Castle that details [[spoiler: how the king brutally tortured everyone to death.]]
** As well as the Hyerophant Scroll which you get in the hidden cave right at the beggining of the game.
* ATasteOfPower - You start out with good gear only to have it swiped by a magic storm.
* AwesomeButImpractical - The [[strike: Armageddon]] Imbalance spell, which kills everyone except you.
* BalefulPolymorph - Ale the parrot is actually a guy named Edrin who got hit by a Transmutation Storm
* BagOfSpilling - Explained here, as your items are taken away by a magical storm. What's not explained is why you're back at level three, though.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti - The Gwani
* CrapsackWorld - If the magical thunderstorms weren't bad enough, most of the people living on the Serpent Isle are a bunch of bloodthirsty, treacherous, vain [[JerkAss assholes]].
* CommonplaceRare: One of the common reagents you use for spellcasting is mandrake, and indeed it can be found and bought in plenty of places. Later in the game, an NPC gives you the task to obtain mandrake. For some reason, only mandrake from one specific location qualifies, all the other mandrake doesn't work; and you can't get to that spot yet (semi-justified in that he wants ''fresh'' mandrake, and the stuff you can buy is presumably dried: it doesn't make a difference a spell reagent, though).

* ConvectionSchmonvection - Averted here, as your characters will complain about the heat in Furnace and lose health if you don't cast Chill on them.
* CypherLanguage - The Ophidian script is essentially this - the design of the letters and the presence of the Transcribe spell makes it obvious that it wasn't designed for easy reading (Erstam even lampshades its non-intuitiveness in the manual). It has a 1 to 1 correspondence to the Latin alphabet, too.
* DarkerAndEdgier - Arguably more so than even [[UltimaVII The Black Gate]]
* DeadAllAlong - [[spoiler: The ranger you meet in the Mountains of Freedom.]]
* DebugRoom - Claw Island, which you can only get to by teleporting.
* DefeatMeansFriendship - Beating Luther's overconfident self into the ground, in Monitor, makes him your eternal friend. (Sadly, he won't join your party, though.)
* DepravedBisexual - Frigidazzi comes close when she tries to cast a love spell (or rather, a love dance) on the Avatar. She DOES apologize for getting you into trouble and gives you important PlotCoupons later.

* DiscOneNuke - The Silver Seed ExpansionPack offers some. You can start it not too long after you arrive in Monitor.
* DoomedHometown - [[spoiler: Shamino's castle]]
* DreamLand - In Gorlab swamp.
* EndlessCorridor - The Mountains of Freedom has one. You have to search for a randomly generating invisible passageway in the right wall.
* [[spoiler:EverybodysDeadDave - Nearly everyone on the isle dies after the Banes of Chaos are set loose.]]
* FetchQuest - Varo leaves, blood moss, mandrakes, etc.
** TwentyBearAsses - You need "worm hearts" to make [[SoulJar Soul Prisms]], which are dropped by ice snakes. Thankfully, you can get them from other sources too, such as Frigidazzi's lab.
* FindTheCure - After getting poisoned by [[spoiler: Lydia]], the party must make a trip to Fawn to get the cure.
* FiveManBand - There's only four members, so Dupre has to fill two slots, but other than that:

* FurAndLoathing - Hazard. Even moreso since he has no problem with wearing the pelts of ''fully sapient beings.''

* GayOption - If your Avatar is female, you can have some LesYay with Frigidazzi.
* GenreShift - Despite being made on the same engine as ''The Black Gate'', the gameplay of ''Serpent Isle'' is very different from that of its predecessors, playing more like an EasternRPG.
* GetOnTheBoat - Traveling to Moonshade. To reach Erstam's lab, you have to Get On The Turtle.
* GlobalCurrency - Subverted here, as each town (including the fortress in the Silver Seed add on) use different currency.
* HeroesPreferSwords - Averted. The strongest weapons in the game are (in order) an axe, a hammer, and a staff. You do need the Shade Blade for the Banes battle, but it does less damage than the one-handed sword!
* HeroicSacrifice - [[spoiler: Dupre sacrifices himself to restore the Chaos Serpent so that the Avatar doesn't have to.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard - [[spoiler: Batlin]].

* HospitalSurprise - Played with here. If the Avatar is killed, s/he is teleported to Monk Isle. The monks try to teleport you back to where you were, though they do miss sometimes.
* IronicName - while Frigidazzi's name fits with her magic specialization, in romantic matters she's [[AnythingThatMoves anything but frigid]].
* KangarooCourt - TWICE. Dupre is put on trial in Fawn [[spoiler: which is being manipulated by Kalyista and Voldin]], and the Avatar is put on trial in Moonshade.
* KleptomaniacHero - The game practically encourages it. Lampshaded in the KangarooCourt in Fawn, when the prosecution points this out as suspicious behavior.
** KleptomaniacHeroFoundUnderwear - You can find some disturbing stuff if you look around Rotoluncia's "love cabin."
* ImAHumanitarian - Shal the Fiend

* LethalLavaLand - Furnace and the larger Ophidian ruins.
* LightningCanDoAnything - Like teleport or transmute things. It is explained that these storms are magical, however.
* LightIsNotGood - [[spoiler: The worshippers of Order murdered the Hierophant of Balance, then they blamed it on the worshippers of Chaos, and used this as a excuse to wage a genocidal war on the latter.]]
** [[spoiler: Actually, I don't think it's ever made entirely clear who killed the Hierophant. It is clear, though, that the followers of Order blamed it on Chaos with almost no evidence at all.]]
* LostWorld - The Serpent Isle itself.
* MinusWorld - The "land of the dead" where dead characters are sent. You can get there through the teleport cheat.
* MonsterTown - The Goblin and Gwani villages
* {{Muggles}} - The "Mundanes" of Moonshade.
* NoGearLevel - Mildly subverted several times here. In the places where you are stripped of your inventory, you quickly come across replacements.

* OptionalSexualEncounter - You have a couple here. You can have some in Monitor and with Frigidazzi in Moonshade.
* OrderVersusChaos - the quite literal war between Order and Chaos is the main theme of this game. Your task is to restore balance between these two forces.
* OrganDrops - Animals usually drop meat if they are killed - including a wolf you have to fight early in the game.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent - [[spoiler: Vasculio. He's not a vampire proper, but an undead wizard who needs blood as one of the raw materials to cast the spells that keep him "alive". However, he does otherwise behave like a traditional vampire, with habits such as sleeping in a coffin, and writing bad emo poetry]]
* PassFail - [[spoiler: Simon is actually a Goblin in a human disguise.]]
* PixelHunt - Happens a lot, but especially with finding the Ring of Shal amidst rubble.
* PlotlineDeath - [[spoiler: Generally a lot of people, but Dupre in particular.]]
* PowerGlows - Most magic weapons glow. The Helm of Light and Firedoom Staff glows so brightly, they light up a room! (To be fair, this is the explicitly designed purpose of the Helm of Light.)
* PrecisionGuidedBoomerang - Magic Axes and Juggernaut Hammers, as well as regular boomerangs.
* {{Precursors}} - The Ophidians
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld - [[spoiler: Columna is actually an old woman. If you take away the Comb of Beauty before she dies, she'll go back to her true age.]]

* ScriptBreaking - You can do this by talking to the ghosts at the burnt out factory.
* SelfDeprecation - The mocking of Lord British, especially in books.

* ShoutOut - The black "magic orbs" are Magic 8-Balls

* SlippySlideyIceWorld - The northern region of Serpent Isle
* StealthPun - The Sleeping Bull Inn is built on the ruins of an old town, from which it gets its name. The map of Ultima I indicates the town was called Bulldozer.
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption - When you go to get a tattoo from Lydia, [[spoiler: she poisons you. It's pretty obvious that's what she's going to do, since she HAS A POISON DAGGER IN HER HAND.]] However, you need to have the tattoo in order to advance.

* SwordOfPlotAdvancement - The Blackrock Sword is actually needed a few times in the game.
* TakeYourTime - [[spoiler: Don't worry, the universe won't come apart at the seams THAT quickly...]]
* TakeThat - You can go after a guy pirating Origin video games.
* HubLevel - The "Dark Path" that connects all the Serpent Gates.
* TheMaze - The labyrinth in the Silver Seed add on.
* TheMole - [[spoiler: Lord Marsten and Spektor give secrets to the Goblins so that they can kill off the Bear and Wolf clan members. Simon is secretly a Goblin spy. Selena is working for Batlin.]]
* {{Unobtanium}} - Stoneheart. It's needed for instant-death spells.
* UnwinnableByDesign - the number of plot-critical items in this game is simply crazy, and dropping or consuming one by mistake will leave you stuck forever. By the end of the game your characters' backpacks will be filled with layers upon layers of random items. Things are only made worse by the fact that unlike the previous games in the series, this game is not a WideOpenSandbox, so the area where you left the vital item behind may no longer be accessible to you when you actually need it, and even if it is, the game world is still so huge that you're extremely lucky if you even remember where to begin looking for it.

* UnwinnableByMistake - The game release was rushed, so there are many bugs left in the game that can break the plot.

* VendorTrash - Gold nuggets, and gems. You can also sell armor in Monitor.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential - There's plenty of opportunities in this game for Evil Avatars.
* WhamEpisode - The event at the Wall of Lights. [[spoiler: Batlin dies, your friends get possessed, they run off and kill generally a lot of people.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen - The original plan for the opening was much more elabourate, and would have featured the Serpent Pillars rising out of the water as the Avatar's ship approached them. This proved to be too much for the computers of the time to render, so it was changed to just having them standing in the ice.
* WizardNeedsFoodBadly - In this game, you directly feed the characters with a food item. How full the character is depends on what you feed them. Fruits and vegetables are hardly filling, and it won't be long until the character is hungry again. Meat and cheese, however, are very filling. Just watch out for the characters saying they're hungry when they're actually not,
* YouFailEconomicsForever - The False Coin spell should cause inflation to rise. Then again, the false coins [[GoodBadBugs should also vanish after a period of time]].
* YourCheatingHeart - The mages of Moonshade do this constantly. It's hard to keep track of who's sleeping with whom. [[spoiler: One of them even tries to cheat with you!]]

Though its name would suggest it's a GaidenGame, or that UltimaVII was so long that it needed to be divided into two games, it's actually neither. It is a stand-alone game that contains events important to the overall series. The only reason it was not officially named UltimaVIII is because Richard Gariott wanted all Ultima games to have different engines (Serpent Isle uses the exact same engine as UltimaVII). Thus "Part II" was slapped on.

** [[spoiler: Actually, I don't think it's ever made entirely clear who killed the Heirophant. It is clear, though, that the followers of Order blamed it on Chaos with almost no evidence at all.]]

* [[spoiler: ShaggyDogStory: The resolution to the plot with Batlin and the Guardian ends without you having needing to do anything. Batlin attempts to use the parts of the Chaos Serpent to become a god and overthrow the Guardian, who won't have any of that and fries him. Exactly what the Guardian's original plan is isn't stated either.]]

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent - Played straight with the naga and snakeman enemies, but subverted with the Great Earth Serpent.

** The [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail killer rabbit]] in The Mountains of Freedom. His crazy owner also called him [[LooneyTunes Bugs]].

** Supposedly, talking to the factory ghosts way too early could accidentally seal off certain places.

** Also a TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything moment. If you try and subvert this event by dropping all the affected items then walking to the trigger point for the storm, the results are the same. Justified as otherwise the early plot to recover them would make no sense.

* KleptomaniacHero - The game practically encourages it.

* CypherLanguage - The Ophidian script is essentially this - the design of the letters and the presence of the Transcribe spell makes it obvious that it wasn't designed for easy reading (Erstam even lampshades its non-intuitiveness in the manual).

* OrderVersusChaos

** He also prides himself on the fact that every animal he ever skinned, including the sapient Gwani, he skinned ''alive''.