Ultima III: Exodus on the Nintendo Entertainment System is a port of the PC role-playing game. This is the game that many credit with establishing some of the foundations of what the genre will be known for in the years to come. You get to create a party of four (that can be played at the same time) with various classes, races, and stats. You explore a rather large world with many towns, dungeons, and some other secrets in order to eventually confront the mysterious Exodus. The best part about this game is just the amount of things to explore and do in this rather expansive and relatively open game.
The issue is that there are some glaring flaws that really detract and can even destroy your experience. The most obvious issue is the combat. The combat plays out in a strategy fashion where you can move, attack, cast spells, etc. each turn. The issue is that you can only move one square at a time, which makes combat a real pain for any melee characters. At the beginning, it is a bit novel and enjoyable, yet combat quickly becomes tedious (even with the use of magic) and time consuming unless you do use magic. Oh, and there is no way to retreat / escape...so you get stuck in these boring time sinks. The other glaring flaw is the lack of clear direction in the game. It is built to make you explore, which isn't necessarily bad. However, wondering around while being hindered by long time-sinking battles gets old quick. This is especially bad since some key things in the game have to be stumbled upon in a relatively lucky fashion (there is one town in particular that only appears during certain phases of the moon in the middle of a forest where you can only see a couple squares out).
There are some other flaws of the game (like it being really grindy or having mediocre music), but the combat and lack of direction really stuck out to me. However, there are ways to mitigate these issues (using a magic-heavy party helps with combat and guides can help with getting a good direction in the game). Overall, I do still think that hardcore RPG fans will get some enjoyment out of Ultima III: Exodus, and any fan of the Ultima series should definitely check this out. Anybody else though may have a better time checking out one of the many other great RPGs on the system.