Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

I recently acquired a copy of this game complete in box for $5. I stand to make a bit of cash by selling it off. However, I'm considering keeping this game as it looks like it might be the Ultima that finally makes me understand why so many people love this series. Then again, I haven't played it yet, and it could be just as annoying, boring and frustrating as the other iterations I've had the displeasure of attempting to play (Exodus and False Prophet).

So what I want to know is: Why should I keep this game? Or should I sell it and be glad that I got rid of yet another lousy Ultima title?

Let me ask you the following questions:

1) Does the battle system make you want to punch the tv screen? Do I need to land on a certain foot in order to do an attack and if it's the wrong foot, well sorry I have to wait a round while I get pummeled?

2) Will I get lost trying to find my way out of the castle and will I tear my hair out not knowing how to lower the stupid drawbridge and throw the controller against the wall in a fit of frustration?

3) Will this game NOT SUCK in ways that the other two console versions of Ultima do?

Please tell me. I'm willing to give this series another chance, but only one more. So if the next Ultima game I play is pure pants, I'm giving up on this series entirely.

What? You played Ultima 6 SNES version? That's an atrocity. All console versions suck. The thing with console versions that they were made to suck intentionally, so people all console players could hate Ultima. Ultima 4 console versions adds a disgusting anime cutscene to the end.

I've been having heated discussions with people about Ultima 7, only to later discover that they played the SNES version.

You'll probably hate Ultima anyway, so just sell it.

ok well if it's a problem of it being a console version, then i'll probably have the same problem w/ this one. i was reading about all the changes made to the console versions, sounds like some of this stuff was really butchered. is it even possible to be ritualistically KIDNAPPED?!

Why don't you actually try the PC versions of Ultima first? Start with the seventh and if it won't suit your tastes then I guess you can forget about the franchise altogether.

i really mostly meant the console version of the series was what i was going to give up on. the problem is that i don't have the time to play games on the computer. i barely have time to play games at all and when i do my wife is usually using the computer (it's HER computer, after all). and the computer in question is a busted hunk a junk. (it's a dell laptop, tell you anything?) i was playing diablo 2 on it for awhile, but it's just too annoying when the computer wants to act up. i might give it a go if i ever end up w/ a copy of any of the ultima games (besides online, free wifi and online games don't mix), but it was just a coincidence that i happened to come by this nes game.

Don't worry, you still have the rest of your life to try some Ultima PC games (that is if the world doesn't end on 2012).

And as St.Martyne said, start with 7th. If you like it, you can go for the more story-oriented sequel Serpent Isle. And then try the fan-remake of Ultima 5 also. In my opinion that's the peak of Ultima design (if the faults of Dungeon Siege engine are to be forgotten): open-ended gameplay, branching plot (well there is a good and evil path which changes certain things), every random guy who in a normal RPG would say "Nice weather today." is an individual person with his/her own story, party members, tough moral situations, good portrayal of life under dictatorial regime, etc.

But if you dislike Black Gate, then it's probably better to leave it just like that. Black Gate has a horrible primitive real-time combat though... basically you just press C and then it's over. This is the only RPG I know that should have eliminated combat. It wouldn't have lost anything.

that might be a problem for me as i actually enjoy combat in rpgs, usually. even the repetitive kind (i liked the battles in dragon warrior, for instance). but i'll give it a try at some point.

i just started playing qota today and... wow, i'm actually having fun! not sure how long that will last what w/ all the different things i'm going to have to do and remember to do (like buying and keeping an on a supply of herbs for casting spells), but so far the combat system doesn't totally suck, the graphics are what i like in an rpg (deformed japanese anime sprites) and i'm not completely lost (tho understanding what the townsfolk are talking to isn't exactly easy). i might actually end up enjoying this one.

... we'll see. let's not get too carried away here.

Should I play it, if I already had enough of original Ultima V? Does it expand the original in some way?

Doesn't that description already tell you that it's entirely a new game. I mean it beats the living daylights out of Ultima 7, of course you should try it.

Hmm... so I tried that Ultima 4 NES version on the emulator to see what you were experiencing. Well, it is rather different from the Ultima 4 I played. The monologues of the townsfolk were pretty senseless in the original too, but a certain Ultima charm and mystique is missing, though I can see where those people who say that Ultima's influenced Japanese RPG's come from. This totally feels like one.

Also the monologues are changed, no "I feel fine... if I could just quit smoking!" in here.

I'd say if I have to compare this one to the original then it's like Richard Donner's Superman II vs. whatever hack was hired to direct the theatrical release of Superman II.

They are kinda like the same game and yet so different.

Original music

Nes music

i might actually have to try the PC version of this game to see what that's like. i think the one thing that is working for me is that it's not quite as confusing as the other ultimas i've tried. i have a pretty clear objective (or set of objectives, rather), i don't feel trapped, the graphics are not making me go blind (ultima false prophet on the snes looks horrid and plays about the same)... this actually seems like a fun game. partly, i just don't like open-ended gameplay. i want to know what it is i'm to be doing and then set out and do it. i enjoy branching storylines where the decisions i make affect what happens, but only inasmuch as i'm working towards something and then things go in different directions from there. so far this game is working out well for me. we'll see tho.