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

From my experience, this is a secretly a game about failure and disappointment- not just to yourself, but failing others specifically. I never really managed to get over the initial difficulty curve and win more than a couple of races, and the ones I did win were probably, technically, part of the tutorial, so who knows. It's fun, I think! Imagine a Soulsian "tough love" approach to game design, but there's a tragically well-written cutscene after every death where all your friends and benefactors thinly mask their disappointment in you. I couldn't hack it. Gave up and switched back to pic-a-pix or something.