I seem to not be easily impressed with videogames like Mass Effect 2 or Oblivion/Skyrim while others sing it praises. But recently, I re-watched
Spoony's review of Ultima IV with Bitten, and after a bit, It all started to make sense.
So here's a lil of my backstory.As a lad, I got Ultima IV for the Sega Master System, and for the longest time, wasn't even able to play it seeing as a was a 10 year old french kid with very little knowledge of the English language.
Ultima IV came with 2 books, and a map. Those weren't for shits and giggles, you really needed them to play the game.
While being frustrated with my efforts to play the game, I would read the books (which thankfully for me were in french) and actually be really impressed with how much detail there was in the game. As a kid, I really like the spellbook in particular.
Almost every year I would pick up the game again and have this period of time where I would "fuck around with it" and try to play it, eventually learning about the game, the objective (which isn't all that clear) and in the process, learning English as well.
I think my first real attempt to play the game was when I was 13 or 14, and it took me ages, I got far, but didn't beat it.
Backstory of the game.Spoony covered most of this in his review, but I'll try to add to it.
Doing a lil reseach on Wikipedia, I see that the game is/was considered one of the best roleplaying games of all time. Although mostly by old faggots like myself.
Apparently, the Ultima series were around when people were coming down on D&D because of possible "hidden satanic messages", and videogame RPGs were starting to be targeted as well.
Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, was starting to get harassed about his games possibly having a hidden satanic meaning behind them, and that influenced him in the creation of Ultima 4.
Quoting from his biographer:
He decided that if people were going to look for hidden meaning in his work when they didn't even exist, he would introduce ideas and symbols with meaning and significance he deemed worthwhile, to give them something they could really think about.
The result, not your ordinary RPG.
I think it's a fun fact that Garriott was the only person to beat the game during the playtesting.
So what is this game actually like?I think this line of the Ultima IV Wikipedia page says it best:
Ultima IV differs from most RPGs in that the game's story does not center on asking a player to overcome a tangible ultimate evil.
After the first 3 games, there were drastic geographic changes in the land, "continent rose and sank"describes well what is meant by that. New cities arose and eventually the world was unified under Lord British's rule.
Here's where it gets sketchy for me: To give the people purpose in this relative age of peace, he proclaims the quest of the Avatar.
The Avatar shall be the spiritual example for all to follow, and shall embody all 8 virtues.
Basically, It's a Quest where someone has to become a fucking saint.
The game follows the protagonist's struggle to understand and exercise the Eight Virtues. After proving his or her understanding in each of the virtues, locating several artifacts and finally descending into the dungeon called the Stygian Abyss to gain access to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, the protagonist becomes an Avatar.
It's so much harder than it sounds. On my own, before I even had internet, I had managed to obtained Avatarhood, completed all dungeons except for the Stygian Abyss.
What I liked and how this influenced me.The conduct of the main character was strict. You are meant to be a virtuous hero, so you had to act like one.
We've all seen people act like asshats in RPGs and it really has little to no consequence, and to me, it doesn't feel like role playing. It's more about "how can i break this game the most" or "can I get away with this?" than playing a role
Although the goal is to become the avatar, but you have the freedom to do anything you want in Ultima IV if you so choose to.
You can kill NPCs, steal the royal treasury, scam merchants, steal horses, etc. Things like, "If you attack someone in a town all the guards will attack you" were already in that game.
You can make yourself extremely powerful right from the start of the game if you have no morals, the side effect being that you'll make your quest much harder and longer to complete.
For me, modern games have less or just about the same level of dept or freedom of action that Ultima IV introduced me so many years ago.
I've looked at the 3 other versions of Ultima IV and the Sega Master System one is so much more colorful and pleasant to look at. the sprite work is simple, but to me, it works and it feels nice to look at.
I really love this game, the fact that you don't have a "go kill the bad man" objective is so neat as well. I can't think of another RPG where your goal is pretty much build a religion based on the best ideals of mankind.
I sometimes spend hours listening to the main theme of the game. The mellow soothing theme that I like to imagine is being played by a bard without tentacles.
I may try again to beat this game in the near future, was wondering if it'd make a good Let's Play, but prolly not.
This is where I start rambling like an old man.When Oblivion was first introduced, people bragged about such features like they were amazing things, but to me, it's been done in fucking 1990. Maybe just shows I'm old compared to the majority of gamers.
Fact is, videogames haven't really evolved much when it comes to depth. One could argue they just got worse with time. But maybe I dislike how everything has to be 3D and look ugly.
Oblivion had a lot of elements that Ultima IV had, but it looks so fucking horrible I could not get into it all that much. After playing Oblivion for an hour, you start craving fucking color diversity.
And I know people will tell me it's the ambiance of the game, and I'll tell them to fuck your ambiance it looks boring at hell. Skyrim does not look interesting in the least to me either.
Any game that has to have no visual style and has to go with realism is fucking boring to look at. I see realism every day when I wake up and it doesn't give me a hard-on anymore. You can make 3d games and not make them look depressingly realistic, invest into a fucking art director.
Another thing is how 3D actually makes any task you have to perform much more complicated and a chore. Everything takes longer and requires more effort because it's all done in real time. They kinda get how traveling is fucking boring and implemented fast travel in Oblivion, but it's really everything that is too slow and boring.
Ultima IV can take a rather long time to beat, but it plays fast. If it played like Oblivion, it'd take a fucking month of continuous playing.
Ironically, Ultima IV doesn't have that problem. I don't get this modern need to waste everyone's time walking, dealing with NPCs and even cutscenes. These "problems" were actually added over time for some strange reason and serve no purpose other than to annoy.
Want an example? doesn't even have to be 3D, the pokecenters. Fucking why?
There is literally something like the pokecenter in Ultima IV, it's Lord British himself. He asks you if you're ok, you say no, and bang, healed. You have to navigate the menu but it still won't take half as long as a damn pokecenter.
Well, I'm done. Hope someone found this interesting.
