I loved Ultima VIII. It had a great story, cool lore. There were parts that seemed missing, but it added to the mystery of the world. I really liked how you could master the various elemental schools, yet there was never enough resources or time to cast spells in many fights and water was completely impossible to master. I ended up mostly running away from most fights and still remember the exciting side track to fetch a maze from underground. I couldn't fight any monsters there, they were too difficult, but managed to grab the mace and escape. Was a great start of the adventure.
In a similar vein, there was a chap who would appear and end your game very quickly if you stole anything from shops. However, the game let you drag items in stores 1 or 2 pixels without triggering the "crime ghost" (I forget who he was) who would end your game. Eventually we worked out you could drag an item to the door, pixel by pixel, then pick it up and run away without being caught.
I may be remembering aspects of this wrong, it was a long time ago!
In the same vein, if you kill (later in the game) the "omnipresent guard", next time you stole something you would be attacked by him regardless, but now his sprite/skin was that of a zombie :) cool easter egg (or bug!).
