Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny

aka: Ultima V: Shukumei no Senshi
Moby ID: 808
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

The Avatar, the embodiment of the Eight Virtues and the hero of Britannia, is called back to deal with a grave threat. Lord British, the country's benevolent monarch, has disappeared, and a man named Blackthorn has usurped his throne. The tyrant rules the land by enforcing the virtues upon the will of the people, corrupting their meaning in the process. His fundamentalist visions led him to create a police state, where failure to adhere to the virtues is punishable by death. Behind Blackthorn are the three Shadowlords, anti-thesis to the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. The Avatar must understand their meaning and origins, find a way to defeat them, rescue Lord British, and restore the former ethical principles of Britannia.

Ultima V uses the basics of the Ultima IV engine, an overhead perspective for the map of Britannia and its towns, and a rosette-compass 3D view for the dungeons. The battle system also resembles that of the previous game, with separate battle screens and navigation of character icons in turn-based style. Many of the gameplay elements of the predecessor return, including the complex spell system (reagents must be bought in order to cast spells), recruitable party members, moongates that teleport the party between locations, various means of transportation (horses, ships, etc., with the notable addition of a magic carpet), and so on. Character creation based on morally ambiguous questions and basic leveling up system have been preserved as well. In comparison to the predecessor, the classes have been reduced to four.

Additional challenges include navigating characters through the Underworld, a vast underground area containing many hazards; random presence of Shadowlords in the cities, which influences the behavior of their inhabitants, making them run away, steal from, or attack the Avatar; inscriptions in a runic alphabet that must be deciphered by the player, and others.

The game has a noticeably more detailed world than any of its predecessors; the towns are much larger, with many unique buildings and objects represented graphically. Ultima V introduces physical interaction with the game world: many objects can be pushed or pulled, the main character can sit down on a chair (which is graphically shown), etc. It also incorporates a day/night cycle and schedules for non-playable characters: for example, it is impossible to shop at night because the shopkeepers are sleeping. Dialogues with NPCs have been enhanced, featuring more unique and detailed conversation topics.

Spellings

  • ウルティマV - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

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Credits (DOS version)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 17 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 120 ratings with 9 reviews)

Best of the Ultimas

The Good
This could very well be my all-time favorite RPG.

Warning, author is biased and probably nuts

Ultima IV was supposed to have been the last in the Ultima series (never fear, if it makes money, they'll keep doing it, that is, until they get so old that they can't walk and chew gum at the same time, let alone act--admittedly, they never could do that when young either--...what?!...oh, sorry, I was on a Star Trek trip).

Back to the normal programming

So after playing Ultima IV, which has a great plot, I thought, "This is it. This is the end of the world. It can't get any better than this. There is nothing better to look forward to in my generation anymore." Then, BAM!!! Lord British dishes out Ultima V like the good bro he his and we're off to la-la-land (i.e. Britannica) again.

As good as the Final Fantasy series is, I still like Ultima IV and V better. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the icon based combat system, which I like better than the Final Fantasy combat system. Maybe because Ultima was the first to weave an interesting plot into an RPG (IV's plot is better than V). Or maybe it was because Ultima was the first RPG where you recruited other characters in the world to join your adventuring team. Except for the combat system, a good RPG game today has all the elements that Ultima V had. So in that sense, Ultima V is probably past it's prime. But when it first came out, it was so far above every other game in its genre that Jack couldn't even get up there with his bean stalk.



The Bad
Now that I've pumped it up so much, you will hate it when you go play it yourself. Oh, well. No sense clinging on to the past when the future is beckoning. Time to do that Final Fantasy thing one last "final" time!

The Bottom Line
Ultima V was the climax of the whole series (now up to 9). Play Ultima IV first for the plot. Then play V and savor it. If you can't make yourself stop, go ahead and play VI. But from VI to VII is a huge cliff drop. Don't go there, and don't come crying to me if you do!

DOS · by Yeah Right (50) · 2000

This game is so good that I created an account for the sole purpose of reviewing the game

The Good
Ultima V was a Christmas present. Boy am I glad my parents saw me reading the box cover while at the Games and Gadgets.

What I liked best about Ultima V at the time that I was a 13/14 year old playing it, was just how compelling and immersive the plot and gameplay were. I can still remember the worry and fear that I had the first few times I walked into a town occupied by a Shadowlord, or first stepped into Blackthorn's castle. I lived this game. I even dreamt this game.

The second best thing I liked, though it dovetails into the first, is how smart the game was. As a 13/14 year old, I never before heard the words Avatar or Codex or Stygian or Mandrake Root, or mantra. Nor did I ever stop to think about the importance of virtue. This game challenged and enlightened me. I'm grateful for that.

Now, 10-11 years later, what do I like about it? I like the top-down point of view. I like the icon-based combat. An icon-based--wait-for-your-turn-to-attack gameplay has the advantage of building tension as you wait to see whether you will have enough time and luck to manuever your badly wounded party member out of the battle field. Tension/atmospherics--they are part of what made this game so great. The, um, "live action," swordplay of today's games just doesn't do it for me. I don't so much enjoy to fight as I do to think and manage. Ultima V understood that and took advantage of that.

Lastly, I'd like to say that I really wanted to help the people of Brittania. This game was compelling, immersive, smart and taut. But most of all, it was the greatest video game I have ever played.

The Bad
What didn't I like about Ultima V? Ultima VI, Ultima IX and any other RPG I have since played or tried to have played. This game spoiled me. It was my first real RPG experience, and by far it has been my best. Nothing compares.

Graphics? Well, I'd trade in my video cards etc for my C64. The graphics were clean and just fine, thank you. What's more, by not having today's wizardry, the player was allowed to actually imagine the world for himself, to fill in the world's missing pieces with his own imagination. In that regard, the game was allowed to be personal and the player interacted instead of just having all the cliffs and waterfalls etc. laid out for him to see.

Typing in responses? Again, this is not a knock, but a positive. Beyond routinely asking for a character's name and job, you were required to at least put some thought in picking out what were the key words in the conversation that would unlock more information. The game kept you active. It didn't just ask you to select one of three possible responses, then read the character's response, and then repeat the process for the other two original responses.

I loved this game. It's only fault was that it made every other game I have played a disappointment.

The Bottom Line
I would describe Ultima V as an involved RPG that pulls you in because the characters are interesting, the plot is smart and challenging, and the gameplay let's you think. Ultima V is my favorite game of all time. I CAN'T RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH.

DOS · by G P (3) · 2001

An air of greatness doth surround thee...

The Good
Ultima V has a less original premise than its predecessor, but it has much deeper and more varied gameplay. Ultima IV was a one of a kind game that was impossible to imitate; Ultima V is a model everyone have been imitating ever since.

With all its greatness, the game world of the previous game can't be compared to what was achieved in Ultima V. The enhancements are so noticeable that it is hard to believe the game was made pretty much at the same time period and with the same technique as its predecessor. Gone are the small towns - in Ultima V every town is a large place with many houses, some of which have several floors, plenty of doors, stairs, and alike. Gone are also the inhabitants of Ultima IV, who were interesting only because they had some valuable information to share with you. Here, the inhabitants start resembling real characters.

The conversations in Ultima V are much more complex and varied than in the previous game.The text parser understands more words, and the replies are much more detailed and personal than the short exchange of greetings and information you had in the previous game (you can even swear in Ultima V; in response, you'll hear: "With a language like that, how did you become an Avatar?").

Ultima V also finally has real objects - not only important, plot-related items like Lord British' artifacts, but all kind of stuff we see every day - chairs, tables, fireplaces, barrels, beds. You think it's not such a big deal to draw a couple of objects; but the point is not the mere presence of those objects, but the possibility to interact with them. And here is where the real revolution comes: everything in Ultima V can be interacted with. You can sit on chairs, push cannons, move barrels, or try taking everything you see.

Another great innovation is the concept of real-time gameplay. In Ultima IV, the world was static, like in most games: nothing happened unless you made something happen. In Ultima V, the world lives its own life regardless of your actions. You can just walk around aimlessly, but the world around you will change. There is a precise time clock in the game, and a real day/night cycle. And it is not just a decoration: it affects the gameplay. You can't buy stuff in stores if they are closed. People have their own schedules, move around the town, go shopping, sit in taverns, and then go to sleep. Sometimes you have to talk to, or follow a certain person at a certain time in order to obtain the information you need.

Just like its predecessor, Ultima V is a completely open, non-linear experience. From the moment you start the game, you can do whatever you like and go wherever you like. There are two worlds to explore in the game - the standard Britannia with its towns, villages, forests, mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, islands, and caves, and the sinister Underworld you have to visit in order to retrieve some valuable items and to access the final dungeon. There are new means of transportation - in addition to moongates, horses, and ships you can also sail through shallow waters in a skiff and fly around on a magic carpet that moves twice as quickly as the monsters, flies over rivers, and can take you through a swamp without getting poisoned.

You have to defeat the Shadowlords and bring Lord British back in order to complete the game, but you can decide whether to side with the members of Oppression, who sympathize with Blackthorn, or with the Resistance, who remain true to the rightful ruler of Britannia. There are many more choices to make in this game than in Ultima IV, where there were no real antagonists and where your only worry was your own progress towards avatarhood.

There are just so many things to do in the game and it becomes nearly overwhelming. Ultima V is an extremely challenging game, but it is also absorbing and engrossing like few others. The meticulously detailed world, the vast gameplay possibilities, the incredibly rich interaction, the clever, demanding quests are positively astounding.

The game's story is remarkably mature. Blackthorn's system of "virtues" makes him a much more interesting person than most other RPG villains. He is a philosopher, albeit an evil one. He has his own doctrine, which he imposes on people without hesitations. It is also very interesting how different people react to it; you'll witness some very realistic situations and scenes characteristic for society that exists under a tyrannical regime.

The Bad
This is truly the hardest RPG I have ever played. All the difficult and user-unfriendly stuff that its predecessor had, Ultima V has as well - multiplied by ten.

Once again, you have to visit every place in the huge game and talk to every one of its countless inhabitants in order to obtain vital information. But now the towns are much bigger, the inhabitants more numerous, and the conversations more complex. Finding hidden items is even more difficult here than in the previous game (although the items are visible now), especially because some of the most important and necessary items are located in the Underworld - a living hell on earth.

In addition to that, towns are randomly visited by the Shadowlords, who prevent you from having normal contact with people and can also engage you in a battle that is impossible to win. Very annoying are the guards who roam the towns - a meeting with them is a potential loss of money or imprisonment. The dungeons are even more tricky to navigate than in Ultima IV, and the final dungeon Doom is a veritable nightmare. As if all this weren't enough, some of the game's most important clues are written in runic alphabet, which you must decipher in order to make progress in the game.

Battles also became significantly harder. The battles in Ultima V are way more difficult than they were in the previous game. I don't quite understand the strange decision to reduce your party members' maximum hit points from 800 to measly 240 (you gain only 30 HP per level instead of 100) - it seems the monsters haven't undergone the same change: it takes a much longer time to kill them, and their attacks are much more efficient than they were in Ultima IV. The fight against two dragons, four daemons, and several sand traps in the dungeon Doom was one of the hardest ones in my gaming career. You have to rely a lot on your magic spells, the best of which you get only at high levels, and leveling up is extremely tiresome in Ultima V.

The PC version doesn't have any music! Luckily, there is a patch that adds the charming music from the Commodore version to it.

The Bottom Line
If you can accept the unbelievable difficulty level, you will be rewarded with an outstandingly rich and rewarding RPG experience that was way ahead of its time. Ultima V had a huge influence on RPG development; all later Ultimas were modeled after this one; all great Western fantasy RPGs of our time (like Baldur's Gate or Arcanum) are its descendants. Ultima V is an awe-inspiring timeless classic.

DOS · by Unicorn Lynx (181788) · 2014

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Was this game really released for the PC8801? Lifeinsteps (1) Nov 2, 2022
Another different Front Cover and a question Edwin Drost (9288) Dec 11, 2017

Trivia

Atari 8-bit version

An early prototype Atari 8-bit version of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was made, but never released. It can be found on the internet (there's even at least one video of it on YouTube), and offers nothing more than the game's main menu and credits screen.

Extras

Original boxes of Ultima V included a symbol stamped coin representing The Codex from within the plot and in some cases with a cloth map of the world.

FLIPFLOP

In the Apple II version of the game (and possibly others, though not the DOS version), yelling FLIPFLOP outdoors would cause each tile on the screen to invert itself, top to bottom. This is quite bizarre -- check the screenshots page to see it in action. Yelling it again will restore the tiles to their normal status.

Music

  • There is no music in PC version, but there exist a freeware patch that adds all the glorious music from C-128/Apple versions to play properly with the PC version as MIDI.
  • Contrary to popular belief, the Commodore 64 version did not have any music. The music was only available to those who had a Commodore 128 and started the game in Commodore 128 mode. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was one of very few games that gave particular attention to the Commodore 128.

References: Electronic Arts

  • ORIGIN founder Richard Garriott has always had a bit of a grudge against Trip Hawkins, co-founder of Electronic Arts, because he didn't like their treatment as an EA affiliated label. Not only did he name a mausoleum after him (Pirt Snikwah backwards) in his Britannia Manor (a house in Austin, Texas, designed and used for creepy real-life RPG's), but, more related, he also made him appear in Ultima V as shipwright Hawkins.
  • There has long been animosity between EA and Origin. Just dig through the Ultima V binaries. Ultima V had a list of swear words that, when used in conversation, would result in the response 'With language like that how didst thou become an Avatar?!'. In this swear word list in the binaries were the usual 4 letter words as well as 'Electronic Arts'.

References

  • Many of the people in Ultima 5 are constructed from other Origin employees or friends of Richard Garriot - one example is Christopher in West Britanny, modeled after Chris Roberts of Times of Lore and Wing Commander fame.
  • The name of captain Johne's ship is Ararat. According to the Bible, that is also the name of the mountain where Noah's ark landed after the flood. Quite an appropriate name for a ship that's run ashore.

Remake

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny has been remade by fans in 2005 using the Dungeon Siege engine. It is a highly ambitious attempt to reconstruct the original title, including an enhanced plot, and adds strategy elements and updates conversational mechanisms to resemble modern game dialog systems. It is free for download from the TeamLazarus homepage (See Links section).

Smith

In the stable near Iolo's Hut, you'll find Smith (a talking horse). If you talk with him, he'll give you a "very important clue" -- however, the clue is for Ultima IV. Apparently, the Ultima IV design team forgot to include the clue so they put it in Ultima V as a joke. This tradition has since carried on throughout subsequent Ultima games.

Awards

  • ACE
    • 1989/1 (issue #16): ACE Adventure Awards 1988 - "Game of the year" (editorial choice)
    • 1989/1 (issue #16): ACE Adventure Awards 1988 - "Best RPG-influenced game of the year" (editorial choice)
    • February 1991 (issue #41) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time, section Role-Playing Games (editorial staff choice)
  • Amiga Power
    • May 1991 (Issue #00) - #18 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"* Computer Gaming World
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #14 Most Memorable Game Villain (Pirt Snikwah)
  • GameSpy
    • 2001 – #42 Top Game of All Time
  • ST Format
    • January 1990 (issue #06) - Included in the list 50 Games of the Year

Information also contributed by Eisentel, jlebel, Mattias Kreku, Mirrorshades2k, rstevenson, Sciere, SimonG and Timo Takalo

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Related Sites +

  • Exodus Project
    Here you can find various upgrades to Ultima games, including an Ultima V patch that adds MIDI music to the DOS version.
  • TeamLazarus Homepage
    including the download links for Ultima V: Lazarus.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 808
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Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by George Shannon.

PC-88 added by Trypticon. Commodore 128 added by Rola. Apple II added by KnockStump. Sharp X68000, FM Towns added by Terok Nor. PC-98 added by Unicorn Lynx. Atari ST added by Belboz. Commodore 64, Amiga added by Jeanne. Windows added by eWarrior.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, SGruber, Patrick Bregger, Jo ST, RetroArchives.fr, Kayburt.

Game added January 28, 2000. Last modified February 13, 2024.