Does open world better than many current open world games. It's all a quest to gather information from people, piece it together and eventually reach the end of the game.

The morality system is great and I enjoyed the experience of making my maps for the overworld by hand. Unlike the dungeons, I can quickly draw it and have more room for error in interpretation.

However, it has the WORST battle system I have ever seen. It's also incredibly slow and you need to grind a fair bit. I'd honestly recommend this to anyone interested in RPG history and a unique experience to open world exploration. But don't force yourself past the point it stops being fun.

Played the OG version on PC and the Sega port on emulator, the latter being the absolute best way to play this; it removes none of the complexity and merely streamlines the interface to where it's much more palatable, none of that obtuse and time-consuming typing in keywords to progress and whatnot, as I am clearly a very busy man. The Sega version's combat is also generally more fun, but I almost wish it had adopted the spritework of the NES version (one can dream).

Regardless of which version, this probably has one of my favorite opening sections of any game, just something about the flow and atmosphere of those opening minutes that really gets to me, alongside the simple, clearly composed imagery and writing. At the moment though I don't think I have the stamina to sink my time into something like this (of course I say that while I've been sinking over a dozen hours already into Morrowind with the Tamriel Rebuilt mod), but I may very well pick it back up again later.

Ultima IV might as well be the most influential CRPG of all time. An ambitious game with no true evil, just about a man's adventure to become a good person, a virtous idol known as the Avatar. But this game is one thing for sure, REALLY old, does it hold up well? It's got some roughness, but overall I do think it holds up incredibly well and is the best Ultima game to this point.

This game takes a really fun and interesting approach to it's progression, it's almost entirely nonlinear, requiring you as the Wanderer to go around the world, learning about the different cities and virtues they hold, and adopting those into your own personal lifestyle. Doing this lets you gain karma which will let you elevate into Eight parts of an avatar. These include traits like valor (never fleeing from battle against an evil creature), sacrifice (doing acts that may harm yourself to benefit others, such as spending your last gold coin on a beggar or donating your blood), or even humility which just requires to be a humble person when asked questions.

There's a lot of other mini-quests you need to do throughout the game to enter and complete the final dungeon, so it very much plays like a puzzle as you gather information throughout the world and learn bit by bit about all the different secrets. It's really satisfying taking notes and learning all you can, before inevitably the questline clicks together and you get a sweet new item.

My only major gripe with the game is the combat, there's a lot of it. And it's not really the best, it's basically the same as Ultima 3, which isn't bad in theory, my main issue is this game REQUIRES you to eventually have 8 party members to complete it, and navigating the maps with more than 3 or 4 can get incredibly tedious. I feel like the encounter rate is also too high for the kind of game this is trying to be.

Luckily, even after recruiting characters you can just kill them off and leave them dead. This is how I approached the final dungeon, just going through it with me and my boy Iolo. I would suggest doing this or playing with the Solo mod (which removes the requirement to recruit every party member). Un-Avatar-like, but it makes the game more enjoyable.

Fortunately, the dungeons you actually navigate are very fun to go through with a small group and each one felt pretty memorable, though the final dungeon is most definetly the highlight.

All in all, this game is fantastic without the tedium the combat brings, which can be fixed with a different playstyle. I wish it was a bit faster and better balanced, but it is what it is.

If you do plan to play this game, if you play on DOS please use the Ultima IV Upgrade. https://ultima4.ultimacodex.com/ultima-4-upgrade/ It adds music as well as an optional graphics patch which gives the game VGA graphics.

If you'd prefer a more traditional button control setup, the Sega Master System port is very faithful to the original and adds some nice quality of life such as diagonal shooting of ranged weapons, being able to mix multiple spells at once, and just an overall faster battle speed. The only drawbacks are no 3D dungeons (minor, top down dungeons are still fun) and the replacement of the text-based dialogue system with a more generic keyword system, but for some this might be easier to get into.

And lastly, AVOID THE NES VERSION, it's not terrible, it has a good aesthetic and music. But the conversation system is extremely scuffed and just overall a lot of the original concepts that make Ultima 4 so good are basically removed in that version. I think it's worth checking out, but not as a first run.

All in all, a really well made RPG especially for the time, filled with charm and hearing about Ultima V makes me extra excited for it.. Lord British will also reply to you on twitter if you tell him you beat the game. https://twitter.com/RichardGarriott/status/1415419937032658952

Made my day honestly!

4 Assassinations of Lord British/5

O primeiro jogo da série Ultima que eu diria ser um verdadeiro clássico. Seu conceito extremamente original nunca foi replicado por qualquer jogo que eu conheça: não há malvadões para derrotar ou mundos para salvar; seu objetivo é se tornar um "Avatar da Virtude", um exemplo para os habitantes da nação de Britannia. Para tal, é necessário conhecer bem o mundo para o qual você foi transportado. Em especial, você precisa ter uma boa compreensão do sistema filosófico-moral que guia os habitantes de Britannia, baseado em oito virtudes - Honestidade, Valor, Compaixão, Honra, Justiça, Sacrifício, Espiritualidade e Humildade - que derivam de três princípios - Verdade, Amor e Coragem.

O mais importante: para se tornar o "Avatar da Virtude" você tem que... agir virtuosamente! Todas suas ações e interações afetam seu alinhamento em uma das oito virtudes, de batalhas aleatórias à conversas com NPCs. Sistemas de alinhamento moral não são incomuns em RPGs eletrônico, mas quantos te obrigam a agir de fato moralmente?

Sendo um RPG tão oldschool que faz RPGs oldschool parecerem novos, Ultima IV sofre com algumas limitações técnicas e certas decisões de design que são hoje em dia consideradas obsoletas. Não obstante, ele ainda é uma experiência sem similares anos depois e executa o que pretende de forma genial. Se você conseguir lidar com algumas de suas partes "antiquadas", não vai se arrepender da jornada.

It gets plaudits for recognizing how tiresome saving the world from the big bad evil can get and sending you on an open-ended quest of self improvement instead. These additional game systems of attribute and reputation management, as well as the character creation questions would obviously be hugely influential on future games. Beyond that, it's still the same Ultima formula from the first three games with some of the same warts carrying over. It was definitely the most refined game in the series at its release, but I think the exploration and combat were more tedious than adventurous.

It's a bit harder to player nowadays due to the text parser and our short attention spans. The game requires having maps and taking notes so everything makes sense. Reading the manual is also a must. What is here is an amazing world full of life (as much as it was possible to have in a 1985 hardware) and with more focus on the player choices, such as giving money to a beggar or stealing from a blind shop keeper. Ultima IV is far ahead of everything from its time, but it's better appreciated if you put yourself in the shoes of someone in 1985 or play the Master System version with some quality of life features added in.

Playing this at ages 6-8 was the first time I understood that not only were computers capable of different kinds of games, but that games were capable of being WAY bigger than I ever thought they could be if they were willing to make sacrifices. At the same time, it's also had this knock-on effect where it's made it hard for me to appreciate Open World games as this big revolutionary thing because I've been aware of them in some form or another since before I had two digits in my age. Blame Lord British.

Please read this: https://pastebin.com/CTsJzf1j

I wrote a guide for people who want to play this on the Apple II. You're going to need it.

Now Ultima IV really takes things to a whole new level.

The best way to think of Ultima IV is not as an RPG, where you go around and fight monsters for experience and gold(although that is present). It really isn't. It's more like a LucasArts adventure game where you just go around places and talk to people.

That's really the fascinating thing about Ultima IV, and it also goes a long way to give meaning to the heroic struggles usually present in RPGs and give it a virtue system inspired by(but not based on) Hinduist philosophy. The virutes themselves, Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality and Humility, are penned by Lord British himself. You, the hero, are meant to travel around the world and talk to various people to learn about the eight virtues. Each of the towns symbolises one of the virtues and carries with them a recruitable character, plenty of key items or terms you need later in your quest, and a whole lot of hints you really need to get a notebook for and keep a detailed journal. Playing and figuring out the clues in this game is seriously impossible without commiting to memory every single trivial detail said by the NPCs. Being virtuous in this game is no laughing matter either, as you are expected to enact on these virtues seriously if you mean to finish the game. That means you can't attack NPCs, you can't rob houses or castles, and you can't slaughter animals(who are by definition innocent and non-evil), and breaking these pursuits carries significant penalty.

This very peaceful and exploratory style of play is really pleasant, and I wish all of the game were like that, but the endgame indeed does expect you to combat, and here the many frustrations of old Ultima games, and old RPGs in general, reveal themselves: You will be beset by random encounters that are annoying(especially in the early game, when you just want to travel from city to city). You will have to grind a lot for experience and gold, you need to keep a food supply, and you need many reagants to hols prepared magic spells. Grinding and leveling is even tougher in this game more than any previous Ultima titles because you also have this added duty of not being able to kill certain opponents, some others that will flee before you can reap the experience benefits, and the whole postulate that this game is mostly about peaceful exploration, not fighting. By the time you get ready to brave the dungeons, you will be inadequately prepared, and it shows how jarring this juxtaposition in intent is. Indeed the combat feels like it was an afterthought, and I wish Richard Garriot had the forethought and bravery to streamline or even ignore combat completely in the desisgn if he were to commit fully to an idea of a non-violent game. The endgame puzzles in the last dungeon are so brutal and obtuse that you need a walkthrough for it, and it's a shame, because the early part of the game goes like a breeze and is so sensible in comparison.



Ultima IV is originally made for the Apple II, and that's where I played it. The C64 is also a very faithful port, featuring completely identical graphics and music. If you struggle with loading the Apple II version, the C64 port is a suitable replacement for it.

The DOS versions on the other hand are an iffy matter. It has slightly more colourful EGA graphics, but no music, not unless you use a fan patch. These fan patches can bump the graphics into (for my taste gaudy and artificial) VGA mode and also provide it music in the form of MIDI files. The songs are accurate, but sadly the MIDI renditions sound really awful to my ears, it's such a far cry from the fidelity of the Apple II music that it's a deal breaker not to play the DOS version. The dungeon segments are also a putrid and ugly green instead of the Apple's clear and thoughtful clay-brown.

The NES and Master System verisions are quite weird. The NES game was retooled from the ground-up and while considerably easier, is not an accurate portrayal of the original game at all. The Master System version is quite faithful, and even tons easier/streamlined in a lot of areas(Selectable dialogue trees, overhead view in dungeons, diagonal shooting!!!), and is considered the best way to play by many, which I can't contend.

I don't know about the Atari ST or the Amiga versions. Allegedly they should be very good, and I sure hope they are.

(Glitchwave project #014)