Ultima IV: The Quest of the Avatar
Origin systems, 1985
While I did say I was going to do R-type, I've decided to put that on hold for a little while, and do something about one of my unburied retro-gaming demons: Ultima IV.
The game itself, even if it were relesed today, would be an incredible departure from the generally accepted structure of RPGs: There is no big evil bad guy. All of the BBEGs had been disposed of in the previous three games. However, the upheaval, both spiritual and geographical, has left this particular fantasy world with the collective question of: What now? The destruction of the evil forces has allowed for a renaissance of thought directed at producing a philosophy of life. This is where you come in. Your job, essentially, is to become an Avatar by obtaining enlightment at the eight shrines of virtue, and pulling up the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom from the depths of the underworld. More of a quest for the Holy Grail than the standard romp & stomp.
Character creation itself is a bit different than most games as well. There are eight classes, each associated with one of the virtues. Honesty-Mage Compassion-Bard Valor-Fighter Justice-Druid Honor-Paladin Sacrifice-Tinker Spirituality-Ranger Humility-Shepherd. The creation process is a process of elimination which determines which virtue is most important to you, which determines your character in the game world. A small note about gameplay: You cannot win of you're an asshole in the game world. You can't ransack people's houses, or attack random folks in the street, or go around lying to get stuff or information. In other words, you can't act like you can in many other RPGs. The game keeps track of your level in each of the eight virtues, so if you go around being an asshat, people will withhold information from you, and the other party members won't join you. If you're not being helped because of you being a prick, it's no one's fault but yours.
As for other party members, you must recruit one associated with each virtue, so you end up with eight members of your group. The more party members you have, the faster you use up food, and the size of the monster groups you face is also slightly dependant on it. Each one has their own skills with weapons, armor, and magic. It's the usual story with that: Those who are better at magic can cast more spells, and the spells happen to be more powerful, while the ones better at fighting hit more often, and harder. Each virtue also has a town associated with it, and you find said party members in those towns. Leveling is done through talking to Lord British when you have the exp. for it.
The magic system would be a little odd even by today's standards. You have MP, but spells are actually mixtures of combinations of a couple or few of eight spell components (seeing a numerical theme here, folks?), which must be prepared before any spells can be cast. The spells are so costly in MP that even a Mage can only cast a handful of decently powerful spells in a single combat. Two of the eight ingredients can only be found, so what spells you make with them, and when you cast them, requires thought. There are 26 spells, one for each letter of the alphabet (Note: You buy compnents from a blind woman, and you put in what you pay. Honesty test).
The overall game itself is what we would call today "non-linear". You can go anywhere you like, and do the required tasks in any order, so long as you meet all of the conditions you need to in order to challenge the Great Stygian Abyss at the end of the game. I call this game an unburied retro-demon, because, to this day, I have not yet finished the game. Because of the difficulty found in emulating the original incarnation of the game, The most faithful translation to console would be the Master System version. The NES version is very far removed.
The game itself is a long haul, to be sure, but it, as well as Ultimas V and VI, are incredible pieces of work in what Richard Garriot accomplished with the technology at hand. Any miore gameplay questions will be addressed in this thread.
Next up: Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.
