Ultima, if it counts, are some of my favorite games of all time. In particular, I love Ultima 1’s bite-sized first-person dungeons that you do in between overworld exploration. Ultima 4 has you going through first-person tailor-made around eight thematic moral vices. Since the stat-boosting orbs of virtue you’d find at the end of the dungeon respawned, I had fun going back and maxing out my stats.

I’ve been gradually working through the old Might and Magic games. I really enjoy the “scavenger hunt” gameplay loop of that series with how you’re given riddles in the environment to figure out where to go next. I just wish they were a little shorter, so I get the feeling that The Bard’s Tale trilogy will be even more up my alley when I get to them.

I did try Wizardry 1-5, minus 4, and found them all really repetitive, even for the time they came out. You just kill a wizard and draw maps and there’s not much else going on with it. I’d love to try the later games someday, though.

For modern games, I haven’t played Etrian Odyssey yet, but I did play The Dark Spire on DS, from the same developers, and loved the dark tone and horror-esque art direction.