History YMMV / UltimaIX

* AudienceAlienatingEnding: Ultima IX is infamous for having a plot built out of ContinuitySnarl to the point the game starts with one that contradicts the entire ending of the pervious game and goes on to contradict the entirety of not only ''Ultima VIII'', but the entire rest of the series as well (especially ''VI'', ''VII'', ''VII Part 2'', and ''Underworld''). Long time fans of the franchise ended up rejecting this game entirely, effectively making this game [[FranchiseKiller the death knell for series and causing one of the most important and influential games series of all time to fall into relative obscurity]].

* NightmareFuel: There's an especially grisly EasterEgg at the start of the game where repeatedly opening and closing the freezer in the Avatar's apartment kitchen will reveal [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G99aCtoK-4&t=7m42s a bloody ribcage hanging inside, with a severed head underneath it]].

* ContinuityLockout: {{Averted}}. Nearly every character will be happy to tell you just how the many things in the world of Ultima work if you're just a newb. However, it's too bad that the person they're telling it to in the game is the Avatar, the protagonist for the past eight or so games and should know all this stuff, which puts him in the IdiotHero position.

* ThatOneSidequest: The lighthouse sidequest, which requires you to search all of Britannia to find four gems in order to finish a set of lighthouses commissioned by Lord British. Such a lengthy, difficult quest isn't actually all that uncommon for this series; however, the prior ''Ultima'' games gave you ''much'' better rewards than the 100 gold pieces -- an amount that you can easily get right at the start of the game if you're prepared to put the time into battling the tougher enemies -- that you get for completing this quest.

* EndingAversion -- Many ''Ultima'' fans regard this as a pretty terrible way to end the series.
** Particularly notable is the description on WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment as "a top contender for the most blundered finale to an epic storyline in the history of fiction."
** In particular, the way it soils ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'' is particularly reviled, since [[spoiler:it tries to posit that the Avatar's journey of enlightenment was ultimately a ''bad'' thing]]. On top of that, ''VideoGame/UltimaVI'' had already explored the unintended consequences of that game's storyline, and by common consensus did a ''far'' superior job of it.

** The Guardian, previously an unknown demonic force, is revealed here to be [[spoiler: the darker aspect of the Avatar himself, expunged from him when he went through the Quest of the Avatar in Ultima IV]].
** In Ultima V, Blackthorne was simply a dupe of the Shadowlords, warped by their magic but not inherently evil himself. Subsequent games strongly suggested he was undergoing a RedemptionQuest all his own. Ultima IX has him suddenly evil again, with no clear motivation.

*** [[SurferDude "Surrrrrrrrrre]],[[JerkJock ''let's go!"]]

* SoBadItsGood: * Especially if you abuse glitches and bugs to [[http://www.it-he.org/ultima9.htm complete the game practically backwards.]]

** "What's a paladin?"[[note]]The Avatar asks this despite the fact that his best friend and closest comrade since ''Ultima IV'', Sir Dupre, who made a HeroicSacrifice in the Avatar's place in ''Ultima VII Part 2'', was a Paladin. And in this game the player's own class at the start of the game could be a Paladin.[[/note]]

** "What's a paladin?" [[note]]The Avatar asks this despite the fact that his best friend and closest comrade since ''Ultima IV'', Sir Dupre, who made a HeroicSacrifice in the Avatar's place in ''Ultima VII Part 2'', was a Paladin. And in this game the player's own class at the start of the game could be a Paladin.[[/note]]
** "Your knowledge of the land shall be great!" [[note]]If you pick ranger as your starting class, the fortuneteller at the start of the game says this when telling you to go to Britannia, but the Avatar proves an IdiotHero who is ignorant of the most fundamental concepts of the world lore.[[/note]]
** "The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom?" [[note]]The Avatar doesn't know what the Codex is, despite the fact that finding it was the very thing that made him the Avatar in the first place, it was pivotal to the plot of the middle trilogy of games, and is one of the most critical pieces of lore in the series. Spoony - with little to no exaggeration - compared it to the Pope not knowing what the ''Bible'' is.[[/note]]

* FanonDiscontinuity: Many fans pretend it never happened, and some are working on their own version of the game using other engines.

* SoBadItsGood
** Especially if you abuse glitches and bugs to [[http://www.it-he.org/ultima9.htm complete the game practically backwards.]]

* VillainDecay: The Guardian, previously an unknown demonic force, is revealed here to be [[spoiler: the darker aspect of the Avatar himself, expunged from him when he went through the Quest of the Avatar in Ultima IV]].

** "The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom?" [[note]]The Avatar doesn't know what the Codex is, despite the fact that finding it was the very thing that made him the Avatar in the first place, it was pivotal to the plot of the middle trilogy of games, and is one of the most critical pieces of lore in the series.[[/note]]

* FanPreferredCutContent: The revelation hat [[BigBad The Guardian]] originated from [[spoiler:the evil purged from the Avatar in ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'']] was disliked by fans for giving the idea it would have been better for one not to become the Avatar. In contrast, the original idea that The Guardian came from [[spoiler:the fusion of the Shadowlords]] is more warmly received as not only gets rid of the issue linked to the canon reveal but also ties with Mondain, who had served the role as GreaterScopeVillain in previous ''Ultima'' games.

* FanPrefferedCutContent: The revelation hat [[BigBad The Guardian]] originated from [[spoiler:the evil purged from the Avatar in ''VideoGame/UltimaIV'']] was disliked by fans for giving the idea it would have been better for one not to become the Avatar. In contrast, the original idea that The Guardian came from [[spoiler:the fusion of the Shadowlords]] is more warmly received as not only gets rid of the issue linked to the canon reveal but also ties with Mondain, who had served the role as GreaterScopeVillain in previous ''Ultima'' games.