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[Capo]

You should do a video commentary instead.

[jonh_sabugs]

Ultima IV is a great game indeed, played it quite a few times back in the day. I think they explain in Skara Brae how to get to the shrine of spirituality, but I won't spoil it .

[TheChosen]

Originally Posted by jonh_sabugs

Ultima IV is a great game indeed, played it quite a few times back in the day. I think they explain in Skara Brae how to get to the shrine of spirituality, but I won't spoil it .

I've been to Skara Brae several times, but never found a proper way to find the shrine. I did eventually get there, with the same trick I used to obtain the black stone. Must have missed some vital clue.

Originally Posted by Capo

You should do a video commentary instead.

That would be a great idea. However, a lets play out of these games would be several hours long and considering I've been playing this for almost a week now, thats a lot of hours. Somekind of retrospective like the Spoony did would be good too (Darth said I chould do one, as his videos have plenty of mistakes and its pretty clear he hasnt actually played them properly), but Im not really eager to play all of these again for the footage.

[jonh_sabugs]

You had to enter a moongate at a certain time. I clearly remember one of the NPCs referring to it, but I can't remember which, or even if it was really at Skara Brae.

[TheChosen]

The time of peace has come, but there is still work to do. Its time for you to finally become 'an avatar of people'!

I've known Ultima 4 for like 10 years and its kind of amazing to finally be able to beat it.

After the events of Ultima 3, Lord British didn't waste any time to start improving things. With Mondain, Minax and Exodus dead, British hunts down and vanquishes the rest of the evils and unites all of Sosaria under his rule and renames the land Britannia. He also creates what basically is a new kind of religion based on virtues and principles of love, truth and courage. All is good and everything, even though evil still lurks in the darkest corners of the world.

However, land still needs a hero. The adventurer from the previous games is once again called to this world. This time, he has to go on a quest to become the avatar, an embodiment of all that is good. How do you become one? Being a good guy basically and doing good deeds, as well as lot of questing.

Ultima 4 is different. Very different. Not only compared to previous games, but to all other RPG's released before that. For the first time, its not about destroying the bad guy, but to go on a big quest. Its one of the first RPG to emulate the actual role-playing aspect of the pen and paper games rather than just the dice rolling for combat situation.

Game does look and plays very much like the previous game, but with improvements here and there. Character creation is now a question based and you no longer have to fiddle with stats (or select a race). Towns and castles are even more bigger and very different compared to each other, with lots of different kinds of people. First time in the series there's also a more robust dialogue system, where you can say any single word to a person (and get an answer if the word is right). World itself is massive and travelling to places takes a bit more time this time.

Dungeons are no longer huge labyrinths and there seems to be bit more logic behind them. This time they all serve importance too.

Overall combat system is still the same. While you start alone, you can get 7 other party members each corresponding with one of the virtues (minus the one class which you represent) and all the classes are different once again. While casting spells still require MP, you now also have to buy reagens and make spell-mixtures before you can cast them. Its more robust and honestly a bit annoying at the times, especially if you ran out of reagens or accidentally mix the spell wrong.

The quest itself is huge and takes really a lot of time. There's no overall pointers or someone telling what you should do (Although you can ask 'help' from Lord British), so its very free-form adventure. Talking to people is really important this time and dont forget to take notes. This was the first time I had a notepad open, since lot of people tell important stuff. Most of the stuff makes sense too and I recall only few things that were bit cryptic.

Overall, its really unique. It offers something different after all the hack n slash the 3 early games were and the quest is something that still to this day no other RPG have quite done (where your main goal is to become the big good). Its all still really playable and the only downside is that combat tends to slow down a bit when the party gets bigger and some of the solution like the ending still have that bit of cryptisism. Its a big 4 out of 5 and I warmly recommend it.

Bit note on the graphics: Not counting Ultima 1, this was the first PC release to be in EGA. Still no music though. There are patches that give the game VGA tileset and midi-music, but I choosed to use neither (old midi files dont really age well).

Also, all things considered, game is freeware and kind of has been since the 1998 (there was some confusion and some say only certain people had permission to spread it until last year or so, but I call it beh. And EA is said to not actually care about that). You can get it from various sites (including here) as well as GOG (which I recommend, giving that it comes wired with Dosbox and you can get all the manuals you need).

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And now, my playtrough

This will be all over the place since I didnt really took that good screenshots. Sorry

I started the game 16.5, around 17:53 and finished it 4:10 today. Not as easy this time eh?

Still didn't go through this game with a walkthrough on my hands, but I had bit of help. I looked up a tiled-map which had all the dungeons and cities on it, since I got tired of looking around everything. For some reason, at the end of readme file in GOG version, there's list of details about virtues and coordinate locations to all dungeons and items. I used this list once to find a dungeon and other time to locate shrine of spirituality. And finally, I looked up the solution to the final question in the game, which from what I understood is actually never told in the game. The rest, I figured out myself either by talking to NPC, logic or just plain trying around, like how I got to the shrine of spirituality eventually or located the black stone.



So anyway, I start off with character creation. Since I know this game, I can pretty much affect the outcome and decide what class I shall start with. Despite the fact that bard would have been a good choice since I like thief classes, I decide to go for something entirely different and play as a shepherd. They pretty much have no advantages or disadvantages, but I had no trouble playing at all. And in the end, I had stats maxed out and pretty much could defeat anything.



The quest to become the avatar is long one and has many parts on it, so I decided to do things one by one. First was to master all the 8 virtues. This pretty much involves going around, fighting evil and just being a good guy around the towns, being honest and giving to the poor and needy and other stuff. To master a virtue, you need to max out the invisible meter for it (technically, you can ask seer Hawkwind in the Castle Britain how you're doing on each virtue), then you need to meditate on the virtues shrine. However, to get to the shrine, I needed to find the virtues rune and learn its mantra. Quite easy actually, since there is always someone who knows where the rune is (its not visible, you have to go to a specific spot and press s to search) and someone who knows the mantra. And even though I have played this game a lot before, I didnt do any sequence breaking and just gather up runes until someone told me where they are. For some, I didnt actually remember where they were.



Next is to gather up a party. This is actually important, but I didnt know that until very late to this game. More on that later. Every important town that represents a virtue has recruitable party-member. Not much of problems, although one or two dont join unless Im in specific level.



In between all of this includes of course, fighting monsters and collecting gold. Gold goes to buying food, reagens, occasional weapon and tools like lockpicks, torches and peering gems.



In between mastering the virtues, I was also collecting specific items I needed. These are book, bell and a candle. These 3 are needed to open up the gate to Stygian Abyss, where I have to go to finish my quest. These 3 are pretty easy to find as, once again, someone out there knows where they are. I also needed to learn a word which I have to say in the final dungeon which I learn by asking the castle lords who all know one syllable of it.



I also had to hunt down an artifact of doom: Skull of Mondain, the evil sorcerer who I defeated in the first game. Its kind of funny, looking for the remains of the villain I've defeated. Anyway, it can be used to destroy everyone nearby, but all the progress on virtues goes to straight zero. So the only goal is to destroy it, by throwing it to the fires of Stygian Abyss like If it were the one ring.



After mastering the virtues, I managed to track down two paladins who were in posession of mystic weapons and armor. They told me the location of them, since I mastered the virtues and these really help up to defeat pretty much anything. Combat was still kind of chore thanks to a huge party.



And finally, I had to go down to the dungeons. Each virtue also has a colored stone, which I needed to collect. With peering gems giving me overhead maps once again, these dungeon trips werent all that bad. Also with magic and resting, I could easily heal the poison and combat damages. Using spells I could also easily jump through the floors and leave the ending quickly if needed.



Two of the stones were in different places, but I managed to locate those as well. The black stone of humility was weird one though, as it was "trapped in between moon gates", but playing around with gate travel spell I managed to snatch it. With same spell I also managed to get into elusive shrine of spirituality, which I guess was also caught between the moon gates.




And then I had to go down to specific dungeons again in order to insert stones into altars of love, truth and courage. Doing that gave me parts of a key which I needed later. But now I had all the stones, I've mastered the virtues, I got 3 artifacts to open the Stygian Abyss and have the weird keys. Its time to go to the final dungeon located in a rocky island, covered in magma. Artifacts work as I was told (got that info by meditating on specific shrines) and gateway opens.



Stygian Abyss turned out to be the toughest dungeon so far, with many rooms where I had to touch certain tile to open up a passageway, lots of though monsters and all kinds of obstacles. I couldn't even use spells to get to the next floor, but to insert stones in altars. At the bottom though, harsh reality hit me as I wasn't ready yet. Something was wrong and I was wisped right back at the overworld, after two hours of spelunking. Rage ensues.



I looked up online and turns out I had to have a party of 8. I only had six companions and I was missing a druid. I kind of knew that this druid was missing, knew that he or she was around somewhere, but I ignored it as I thought it wouldnt serve real purpose, but turns out its a requirement. Hell, even Lord British said so when I realized I could ask his help. So anyway, this druid can be found in Yew, near two other druids who share the same dialogue (I must have assumed she's just the same as them). And as if the game wants to mock me, this druid is Jaana, based on Lord British's real-life Finnish friend.



I gear up once again and return back to the Abyss (I also gave Jaana and our teams other magic-user staffs that shoot magic. Really useful, especially for Jaana as its too late to start levelling her up). I also forgot to destroy the skull when I entered, so I do so. Hopefully this is the last we hear of Mondain (spoiler: Nope!). Now I quickly make it to the end and yup, no bossfights here. I say the word and answer questions based on virtues and principles. Yet again I had to look up for the final answer to this quiz, since it turns out there's apparently no one to give me that answer. And so, I get access to the codex and finally become the avatar. Mission complete.
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And so that was Ultima 4, a game that I can finally scratch off my backloggery and that feels so good. Im also happy that the series is finally giving me a challenge.

Next up will be Ultima 5 and from what I remember, its once again gonna be an epic quest and things get really darker this time. However, I still need to acquire a copy of this (Legally!) and that may take bit more time. I dont mind though, I could play something more action based after finishing up 4 really old role-playing games..

[TheChosen]

For those following this thread and not the chatbox, I've recently purchased the missing Ultima games. Im still lacking 9 as well as two Worlds of Ultima games, but there's enough time until I get to those. For now, its Ultima 5 time!

I've been playing this for few days and oh boy, after saying how previous games were surprisingly easy, Ultima 5 is kicking my ass.

Right of the bat I have a clear goal, but how to achieve that is once again bit of mystery which involves going around every single town and asking questions. I got a few clues and few ideas on what I should do. Not a big deal, I've figured out the whole Brother Antos thing in 2 so I can figure out this one too.

But the biggest problem is the combat. Say goodbye to 800hp, because now Avatar has about 150hp and he's on level 5 (bit of skip there thanks to importing my Ultima 4 save)! Monsters are the same, as far as I know they haven't been nerfed at all and some monsters like Daemons and Dragons are this time as dangerous as they sound! In comparison, I could wipe out bunch of dragons in previous game and I just got totally destroyed by a SINGLE DRAGON, and Im not even sure If I managed to do any serious damage to it! And it summoned too demons too, so great!

At least with the new day and night cycle the monster encounters aren't that frequent and with new loot system grinding for money is no longer a difficult task. There's lot of technical improvements in this game, plenty of additional details and additions and overall its all making this a really great game.

But more on that in the actual review, once I beat this game. I just wanted to let you know that its on again and Ultima 5 says: The gloves are off!

[DarthHelmet86]

I told you in the Chatbox you are screwed, no Shamino means no Shamino in 6 saving your ass.

[TheChosen]

Mucking around with shrine's and codex of Ultimate wisdom, I've noticed that game has taken a notice that Shamino is dead. I dont think thats a total death though, so he'll be back (although It would be awesome if the game would notice this when I import this save to Ultima 6 and Shamino would be missing in action). And besides, this is a world where there's shops that bring people back to life.

Im doing more progress now. I've gotten all the tools I need to travel anywhere on the map. I've collected Lord British's crown, scepter and one shard of the Mondains gem (that bastard again!) and I assume I still need to find his amulet and two more shards before I....uh, can go look for him I guess? We shall see.

And on excellent news. GOG and EA have released both Worlds of Ultima games for free. With this, I can now play all the games in series up to 8, including these and Underworlds! So yeah, this will be a perfect playthrough.

The chronological order (and the order of which I'll play) for these games are:

The Age of Darkness
Akalabeth (which I skipped)
Ultima I
Ultima II
Ultima III

The Age of Enlightenment
Ultima IV
Ultima V
Ultima VI
Ultima Underworld
Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire
Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams

The Age of Armageddon
Ultima VII + The Forge of Virtue
Ultima Underworld II
Ultima VII Part Two + The Silver Seed
Ultima VIII
Ultima IX

I wont be playing the following games:
Ultima Online - MMORPG's arent really my thing
Escape from Mt. Drash - A standalone Vic-20 game by Sierra. Not really part of the series.
Lord of Ultima - Online browser game, another type of game I really dont play much
Runes of Virtue games - Two spin-off games released for Game Boy and Super Nintendo. Not bad action games, but they're not part of the main series.

So mainly because they're not canon really. Plus I dont really want to do a playthrough of an online game, even if its a brief visit.

But now, back to Ultima 5 because I really want to get to the next games!

[Phreeze_lu]

have fun with ultima underworld2 finished it last year in august, hard even with a walkthrough