History YMMV / Ultima

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This series wasn't merely Big In Japan, it sparked the entire EasternRPG subgenre there.

* OnceOriginalNowCommon: While definitely heavily respected, the franchise as a whole has not aged as gracefully as other early role-playing games. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time. In an age where role-playing games of all kinds are now much more plentiful and overall more streamlined, even the best ''Ultima'' games can seem much more quaint and cumbersome in comparison when it was originally one of the progenitors of the genre.

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: While definitely heavily respected, the franchise as a whole has not aged as gracefully as other early role-playing games. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time. In an age where role-playing games of all kinds are now much more plentiful and overall more streamlined, even the best Ultima games can seem much more quaint and cumbersome in comparison.

** In ''Akalabeth: World of Doom'', Lord British has the protagonist go on increasingly deadly quests (which includes killing a demon and a Balrog) to prove himself/herself worthy of knighthood. Is this what all the knights have to go through to earn their titles or was this a SnipeHunt that British didn't expect you to complete and made you a knight [[IMeantToDoThat to save face]]?

* OneOriginalNowOverdone: While definitely heavily respected, the franchise as a whole has not aged as gracefully as other early role-playing games. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time. In an age where role-playing games of all kinds are now much more plentiful and overall more streamlined, even the best Ultima games can seem much more quaint and cumbersome in comparison.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While definitely heavily respected, the franchise as a whole has not aged as gracefully as other early role-playing games. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time. In an age where role-playing games of all kinds are now much more plentiful and overall more streamlined, even the best Ultima games can seem much more quaint and cumbersome in comparison.

** In ''Akalabeth: World of Doom'', Lord British has the protagonist go on increasingly deadly quests (which includes killing a demon and a Balrog) to prove his/her worth as a knight. Is this what all the knights have to go through to earn their titles or was this a SnipeHunt that British didn't expect you to complete and made you a knight [[IMeantToDoThat to save face]]?

** In ''Akalabeth: World of Doom'', Lord British has the protagonist go on increasingly deadly quests (which includes killing a demon and a Balrog) to prove his/her worth as a knight. Is this what all the knights have to go through to earn their titles or was this a SnipeHunt that British didn't expect you to complete and made you a knight to save face?

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time. In an age where role-playing games of all kinds are now much more plentiful and overall more streamlined, Ultima in comparison can seem much more quaint and very cumbersome. The series as a whole is still greatly respected though.

* HilariousInHindsight: [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Lord British's name.]]
** [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Even earlier than that.]]

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: At a time when computer RolePlayingGames meant DungeonCrawling, the series changed focus to dwell upon the nature of heroism being more about helping people than beating up goblins. The creators also insisted upon revamping the engine completely between each major installment, and making the world as interactive as possible.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic / WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x8R6M65d5NA The music]] of ''Ultima X'' was sumptuous.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] posits that Lord British is actually a totalitarian tyrant ruling a CrapsaccharineWorld. He lets the player mangle the space-time continnum into a knot to defeat Mondain and Minax before setting up himself up as a supreme ruler of the world which he declares united under his banner, and persons who disagree with his rule are exiled to Serpent Isle. He sets up the quest of the Avatar so you can prove yourself a worthy champion of his new religion, which involves you invading a shrine erected by the Gargoyles (though British didn't know it was their shrine) and stealing their holy book for yourself. That's also not to mention all the problems that Britannia is constantly dealing with that Lord British and his men are powerless to stop, forcing them to summon the Avatar for aid again and again. Spoony also notes that in the setting shift from ''Ultima III'' to ''Ultima IV'', which was when Lord British united the world and began the Virtue system, several races were written out of the franchise's lore; Spoony suggests that this is because as part of his OneWorldOrder, Lord British enacted a genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing and exterminated those other races.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time.

* AwesomeMusic / WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x8R6M65d5NA The music]] of ''Ultima X'' was sumptuous.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: [[WebOriginal/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: [[WebOriginal/Yahtzee]] once described the series as "needlessly obtuse." He wasn't wrong, but there wasn't exactly much competition for a long, long time.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: This series wasn't merely BigInJapan, it sparked the entire EasternRPG subgenre there.

* GermansLoveDavidHasslehoff: This series wasn't merely BigInJapan, it sparked the entire EasternRPG subgenre there.
* HilariousInHindsight: [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} Lord British's name.]]