The old world has passed away with the death of Mondain, Minax, and Exodus (the villians from Ultimas I-III) and the world has seen great upheaval, literally transforming the very land mass of Sosaria.  The Age of Darkness is over.  In the wake of this geological event, Lord British has united and consolidated the surviving kingdoms, towns, and villages under his own rule, setting forth with a new vision for law, order, and morality.  Gone are the old ways of holding princesses captive and knighting random warriors for slaughtering guards.  A new system of governance would be created, utilizing eight virtues, but for it to be fully realized there needs to be a champion, an avatar who could learn and eight virtues to show his kingdom the way.



The first three games in the Ultima franchise laid the brick work for RPGs to come.  I was able to confirm that they were (for the most part) great games, even thirty-plus years later, despite the fact they were fabulously primitive in nearly all aspects.  However, big change was on the horizon for the Ultima series, as the focus of the next three games would change dramatically and introduce concepts and ideas that would would be copied hundreds of times over the next few decades.  But, as with the first trilogy, some ideas in the second trilogy would become evolutionary dead ends, though they were (and still) remain largely untapped ideas.  So I think it is fitting that the second trilogy of Utima titles would be called the Age of Enlightenment, with Ultima IV headlining the trio of what would be recognized as among the top three RPG games of all time.

Initially, I wasn't going to play Ultima IV again, but instead head for the unknown (to me) land of Ultima V with all haste, writing nothing more than a retrospective to mark the passing.  Heck, I already wrote the article, and since I had already finished the game quite early in my PC gaming career (between 1997 and 2000) I felt content with this decision...or so I thought.  A comment on my first Ultima article from our very own Crabmaster2000, about a particular word I used to refer to Ultima IV (slog) made me reconsider this and think - just what do I remember about the game outside of some memories and feelings?  I, like many gamers out there, consider Ultima IV a high tide mark in the genre.  But why?  How can one "slog" through a game when one considers it a high point in the genre?  Is it possible that I miss remembered the experience with the game all those long years ago? Something was up, and I felt I couldn't move on until I uncovered it.

With a little mind-plumbing, I came up with a bit of an answer:  I equate my personal experience with Ultima IV in much the same way as I do with System Shock 2, meaning my understanding of what the game represents is very strong, but my memory of actually playing the game and having fun with said representations maybe not so much.  This could be attributed to the fact that I was playing through (with a partial translation document), Final Fantasy III for the Famicom, as well as the first Grandia on Sega Saturn around the same time.  Now I'm not saying something strong about JRPGs vs CRPGs, but I really hadn't had a solid experience with DOS CRPG games at the time, and I was playing through a very solid RPG and a very polished RPG (respectively).  As wonderful as both those games are, they are very traditional in their execution (though not their mechanics), while Ultima IV is meant to be a cold splash of water in the face of such traditions.  Maybe Ultima just didn't mesh well with what I was expecting at the time, a game where one can freely walk into houses and search through NPC's belongings without fear of reprisal.  Where one can annihilate one's enemies without fear of loss of honor.

*sigh*  I should probably just play Ultima IV again.


The expected actual playtime is clocked in around forty hours according to HowLongToBeat.com, but I suspect its validity as there is only one sample.  I couldn't tell you how many hours I played it sixteen years ago, but I suspect around forty or fifty, and since I already know the main points on how to beat the game (as well as some of the more lucrative shortcuts), I doubt it will take that long.  I would like to note that as with the earlier games, there is a patch available which changes the graphics from EGA to VGA and adds MIDI music.  However, this time I have chosen to abstain, and will play the game sans additives.  I would also like to note that while I own the packaged game from GoG.com, I have decided to relocate the DOS folder from the GoG installer and use my frontend utility, DBGL, to play the game.  At some point, I really need to devote some blog space to talk about these programs, as they are often very cool to use.

One of the first things that is noticeable about Ultima IV is the story, which greets you right out of the gate.  Past games had you fully roll a character (stats and all) and once an entire party (Ultima III) before adventuring forth. Ultima IV has you enter a name, pick the sex of the character, and away the story goes.  It even suggests that you read the Book of History that is packaged with the game before playing, which I have to admit is very interesting, and not something I did on my first playthough.  Like adding paprika to chicken (which I did earlier this evening), it adds a subtle amount of flavor.  Actually, choosing a character class is done by a Gypsy woman who reads your fortune and asks you questions based on the eight virtues with a choice attached.  You pick one of two for each round (each corresponding to one of the eight virtues in the game), and after several rounds you will receive your character class.  It's interesting that this method is still used to this day in other games, though said games also allow you to just pick your class (a wise choice, in my opinion).

There are many familiar mechanics still in place in Ultima IV from earlier games in the series, which is both nice and a little annoying.  On one hand, I loved getting back to the EGA graphics, as well as the battle system, though I still wish it was a bit more tactical.  On the other hand, you still have to worry about food, though it is used much slower this time.  The keyboard commands are roughly the same except for some new additions for magic (more on that later).  Leveling is also the same as in Exodus, where you gain them with experience and talking to Lord British, though it is now a bit more difficult, as most enemies will try and run away.



Ultima IV introduces many new things to the series.  For the first time, you can now "talk" to NPCs, though in a limited way.  Simply approaching a NPC, pressing "T" ( to "t"alk, no longer "T"ransact), and entering in a word, such as "Hello," "name," or perhaps "Job.'  They will respond, and you can sometimes pick out key words in their speech that you can ask about, which yields even more conversation.  I personally think this is one of the strong points of Ultima IV that is often overlooked.  Many of the NPCs have interesting things to say (if not always relevant to anything), but only if you spend a little bit of time talking with them.  You start out alone in your journeys this time and have the opportunity to bring in up to seven other characters, which is kind of cool, though expensive when you learn how much food eight people can eat.  My pro-tip for the game would be to adventure alone for as long as you can.  Some of the NPCs are weird (there is a "spicy" bard and a ranger that talks about her home on the range, for example), but overall Ultima IV seems less silly than the earlier entries, even though there is little in the way of an overarching story.

Magic has also changed in a massive way; in Ultima IV a spell must be readied before casting.  First, the required reagents for a spell must be gathered (from shops, though two can only be found in the wild), then combined, and then it can be cast.  I remember this was (and still is) a part of the game that is annoying to me, though my opinion seems to be amongst the minority of CRPG gamers.  You can "pre-cast" a lot of spells before hand by just mixing reagents, so that all you need to do is cast.  This is great as you will need many heals and cures to survive in the wild.  But as cool as it seems to me now, it reminds me for some reason of the Draw system in Final Fantasy VIII, which I was not a fan of.  It is by no means a deal breaker, but I still find it annoying.  This is another time when I wish for drag-and-drop functionality, as spell mixing has to be done with the keyboard.  I always forget some spells and have to look over the documentation for reagent combinations (and which reagents are assigned to which key on the keyboard).  Luckily I keep a tablet (or sometimes my phone) with the game manuals on them and opened just in case, but this kind of solution isn't always convenient or possible for everyone.

There are a lot of firsts from Ultima IV, but arguably the most revolutionary is the path that you must walk to complete the game.  You basically create a character and try your best to not be a jerk; you must go about adventuring, not stepping on little people, murdering, backstabbing, or robbing.  A pretty big change, considering in the past games plundering and wholesale murdering were almost a requirement to advance.  Here you are asked to walk the narrow path, but without many of the more transparent moral choices that plague many games today.  Retreating enemies?  Don't kill them.  NPC houses filled with valuables?  Don't steal them.  Beggars calling for alms?  Maybe drop a couple of coins in the poor guy's hand to help him out.  Seems simple, but it really makes you think.  At first, I was sitting in one spot, giving a single beggar gold coins over and over to artificially raise my Compassion.  Later, I wandered through a "Poor House," talking to some of the inhabitants and hearing a lot of sad stories.  I tried to give money on all occasions, and was mystified when some would not accept it, perhaps out of some sense of pride.

There are specific goals in the Ultima IV (become the avatar, gain and master the eight virtues, collect the Codex of Wisdom), but for the most part, the game is a massive sandbox, filled with all sorts of characters and stories.  While it does have things that need to be accomplished to finish the game, they do not need to be tackled in any particular order.  Heck, unless you actually converse with people in the world you might not even know what needs to be done in order to accomplish the goals.  One could wander far and long, chatting up the characters in the game without ever doing anything.


Still, there are specific things to do, and if you don't talk to everyone and ask lots of questions, you will not beat the game.  At some point (not set in stone at all), you will have to visit the dungeons, many of which aren't about plowing through tons of enemies, but rather solving puzzles to gain items.  At the heart, this is what makes Ultima IV a long game.  It's not The Grind in the sense of what we normally think with regard to classic and modern RPG games, but rather a slow gathering of required information.  Unless you have played it extensively in the past, this is a game that pretty much requires you to take notes and has less map dungeons.  There are so many NPCs with things to say that will eventually pan out that I find it very difficult to sort it all out in my head.  You never know what bit of conversation is a clue that could lead to valuable information for the future, and you really have to talk to everyone if you want to progress even a little bit.  It makes me think about the forty-hour number up on HowLongToBeat.com, and how it might be exclusive to beginners.  A more familiar player, armed with notes and maps, could halve that number.  A player with a strategy guide could probably finish it in ten hours.

Well, I think I should go ahead and just say it:  I didn't finish Ultima IV this time around.  I have changed my opinion of it, but instead of referring to it as a slog, I'll go ahead and call it a little bit of a grind.  While the list of actual things to do is relatively short, it does take quite a while to accomplish.  In contrast to most other RPGs, the difficulty has almost nothing to do with combat, as you can (and should) keep the party small until near the end.  Since I already beat the game before and have since changed my tune about the overall experience that Ultima IV gave me (in a sense), I didn't feel any guilt at all when I quit shortly after entering the grindy dungeon, Hythloth.  I really think this is why my initial Freudian slip about the game occurred (calling it a "slog").  I had almost forgotten how slow this section of the game was, but after I spent two hours in it, the knowledge came rushing back into my head and I decided to call it a day...or maybe a game.

So finally opinion - what do I think?  I think that Ultima IV holds up very well, nonetheless it is still a relic from the past, not only for it's old school controls (still using nearly the whole keyboard again) and tile-based visuals, but for the change that Richard Garriott and Origin Systems dared to introduce.  It pretty much planted the seed for morality in games, though sadly almost none of its ideas are still in use.

There are a ton of choices to make if you want to play Ultima IV.  There are a number of computer ports, as well as a few on the console.  To be fair, any of the computer ports will do, though the patched DOS port, the Atari ST version or the Amiga version seem superior (due to better graphics and sound).  However, be prepared, since all of the computer ports (save the DOS) are pretty disk-swappy, especially the Apple II port.  All are versions are expensive to try and buy, but if you are curious, the DOS port is available for free (legally) on GoG; you only need an account to download and play.  On the console side, there is the NES and Master System (SMS) ports.  Between the two, I would go SMS every time, as from my limited experience with it (via YouTube) the game really looks great and still manages to have the same feel as ports on the various computers. Though it should be noted that the SMS port, appears to be rare and a little on the pricey side.  In contrast, the NES port is relatively cheap, but feels more like a NES RPG rather than an Ultima game.  Many aspects of the game are different, from the magic to the way enemies behave in battle, and some parts of the game were cut for content (according to my sources).  The game seems so different and at some point, I would like to do a direct contrast "VS" article between the it and another port (maybe the patched DOS game), just for funnsies.


Well, that is it, friends.  I haven't decided if I want to move on to Ultima V yet, or jump into my ever growing backlog.  Maybe I'll just faff about for a couple of weeks.  Regardless, thank you all for reading!

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