Indeed, FF DQ all took heavy inspiration from Ultima. Now that I've cleared the opening slog of the game it gets more fun when you get a boat (or spaceship, this fantasy game has space travel, foreshadowing Richard Garriott's astronaut forays).

It's too bad there's no real depth to the gameplay though in this first installment. There's races and classes but they're all essentially the same and you can max your stats out anyway pretty easily. I'm hoping by Ultima 4 there's some more variation in these classes since the D&D staples are all here (fighter, cleric, magic user).