The last distinct Ultima game I had yet to spend any real time with, in no small part because it only came out in Japan and remained untranslated for nearly thirty years. The original release of Savage Empire on PC was built on the same engine as Ultima VI, though its SFC does not use the platform's port of that game as a base, but rather the same action-RPG engine used in the SNES port of Ultima VII. Which means this game has all of SNES Black Gate's problems, further compounded by Savage Empire's sparser design. The hit detection is awkward and annoyingly inconsistent, even the most basic snake and spider enemies take several hits to kill while taking off a huge chunk of your health every time they land a hit. Experience is very sparse, requiring you to fell dozens of enemies to gain just one level and gain more HP. But even that doesn't help you much; the lack of post-hit invincibility and the fact that enemies swarm you on a frequent basis means your only chance of making any real progress is saving every other minute or so. There also do not seem to be any beds or even bedrolls, so when night falls you'd best have a light spell handy. The game does surprisingly retain the small crafting elements of the original, including the ability to construct crude firearms and grenades with Dr. Rafkin's aid, and the overall world map and puzzle design remains largely intact, unlike SNES Black Gate. That said, it's still a pretty underwhelming remake, and the only people will likely have any sliver of interest in it are weird die-hard completionist Ultima nuts like myself. For anyone else interested in checking out Ultima's short-lived Worlds spinoff series, just grab the original PC releases instead; they're both much more playable than this, and free downloads on GOG besides.
Developer: Origin Systems
Publisher: Pony Canyon
Released: 1995
Platforms: Super Famicom