Ultima VI: The False Prophet
Description official descriptions
Several years after having restored Lord British to his rightful position as the monarch of Britannia, the Avatar is captured by demon-like creatures and placed on a sacrificial altar. His friends Iolo, Shamino and Dupre appear just in time to save him. In the Britannia castle, the Avatar learns that his abductors were gargoyles, a race of enigmatic creatures who have recently invaded Britannia and occupied the shrines of Virtue. As the Avatar embarks on a quest to liberate Britannia, he begins to gain insight into the gargoyles' true motives, and realizes that it is his duty to achieve peace and understanding between the two races.
Ultima VI is notable for having a fully continuous world. There is no "world map" in the game; all the locations are seamlessly connected to each other, turning the game world into an open environment. Compared to the previous installments in the series, the game focuses more on quests and exploration rather than on combat. The latter no longer involves separate screens; battles occur during exploration, without any transitions. The turn-based system from the previous games has been preserved.
The interface has been re-designed, the original key-bound commands co-existing with selectable command icons and mouse-based interaction. The game world is more detailed than in the previous games, with a large number of various objects that can be manipulated or added to the inventory. Conversations are more extended, with a wider selection of topics, including many personal ones unique to specific characters. The player is also able to conduct extensive conversations with the Avatar's companions, as well as split the party and control the characters separately. Some important topics may be highlighted during text display, to facilitate further dialogue, which requires the player to type the desired conversation topics.
Like in the predecessors, the player is free to explore the game world from the beginning of the game, and visit locations in any order. Following the main quest and obtaining specific items and information is necessary to complete the story; however, the player can also opt to bypass a large part of it by using previous knowledge of the game or outside help. The FM Towns version has full voice acting for all the conversations, in English and in Japanese.
Spellings
- ウルティマVI 偽りの予言者 - Japanese spelling
- 創世紀6 - Chinese spelling (traditional)
Groups +
- Animals: Mice / Rats
- Console Generation Exclusives: SNES
- Fantasy creatures: Dragons
- Fantasy creatures: Trolls
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Automatic leveling
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Training
- Gameplay feature: Day / night cycle
- Gameplay feature: Fishing
- Gameplay feature: Gambling
- Gameplay feature: Horse riding
- Gameplay feature: Hunger / Thirst
- Gameplay feature: Importable characters
- Gameplay feature: Karma meter
- Gameplay feature: Mining
- Games with manual lookup copy protection
- Physical Bonus Content: World Map
- Protagonist: Female (option)
- Sound engine: MED
- Ultima series
- Ultima universe
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
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[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 86% (based on 36 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 115 ratings with 7 reviews)
My first Ultima gaming experience, and I loved it!
The Good
First off, let me just say that any game where you can kill the annoying Jester and take his body into your inventory and dump him somewhere in the wilderness, is a cool game. Secondly, I loved the plot. It took me a while to get into it, because I was not only physically young when I first started playing this game, but I also was new to the concept of an RPG. After a while though, when I actually left Britannia and tried to do a bit of adventuring, I was engrossed into this game. The graphics were really good for the times, and so was the music. I still to this day find myself humming the tunes at times. I regret to say I haven't played much of this game for about 4 or 5 years, but I will always remember this game as being the one that got me hooked on RPGs. Oh, and by the way, I was sold when I found a gypsy camp, made whoopee with a gypsy woman there, and her concluding by saying "'Twas business doing pleasure with you." What a classic line!
The Bad
The combat and controls were a little tricky to master, but once I did, I found myself missing them in other games. Sometimes it was easy to wander and not accomplish anything, or step into a moongate and instantly be surrounded by daemons or worse. In any case, I can't say much badly about this title. I loved the game, and even now, I still remember it and love it.
The Bottom Line
If you can find it in a store, and you're into reliving gaming nostalgia, buy it. That's all I can say...buy it.
DOS · by Aaron Jones (14) · 2003
The best of the “new” Ultimas, no contest!
The Good
While the previous Ultimas may have been superior in one way or another, Ultima 6, the first to use a 256-color graphic interface, is easily the best of the “new” Ultimas. For its’ time, Ultima 6 was a breakthrough in combining gameplay and story. The really great thing about almost all of the Ultimas is the fact that while you are cast as a “good guy”, you don’t have to act that way. And you get to build and ride in a hot air balloon, which is quite possibly a first for any RPG game.
The Bad
Dated graphics, and the fact that this game zips along like a crack fiend on newer machines mars an otherwise excellent game. However, the speed issue can easily be fixed with a copy of MoSlo.
The Bottom Line
If you only play ONE Ultima game in your entire life, make it this one!
DOS · by Lothian (11) · 2001
The first one I ever played, and the one I remember most fondly
The Good
For starters, I liked the plot a great deal. The premise of "you messed this up, now you get to fix it" was one I had not seen before in a computer game, and not one I could easily provide another title for. The graphics were pretty decent for the time, and I liked the fact that you could pick your Avatar's face. I also noticed that it didn't matter whether or not you played as a man or woman, you'd have people hitting on you no matter what! At first, I was very annoyed with the fact that you seemed to be so poor for the first part of the game, and that you had to be so moral--you couldn't open other's possessions, take their gold, etc.--but I had no idea what Ultima or the Avatar was all about, so I didn't understand why it wasn't following the standard adventure game/RPG rule of "Take everything that's not nailed down!" After a while, though, since there are so many things that can be sold in this game--boots, armor, weapons--and the fact that you don't have to buy reagents because you can find them all somewhere in the game made the task of raising money so much easier! I stopped resenting the "enforced morality", and even enjoyed being able to act like a moral person and have my efforts rewarded. I also ended up feeling very sorry for the gargoyles. There are also some in-game cheats, but I took very little advantage of them--this game was a joy to play without them. I also liked the fact that everybody could feed themselves--as long as you had food. It seemed really idiotic to have people that couldn't feed themselves in Ultima 7, and it was even more annoying hearing them complain all the time. I loved the idea of being able to solo characters--you didn't have to have them leave, you could just leave them somewhere while your Avatar went off and did something dangerous. Being both mouse-driven and text-driven gave this Ultima more latitude in terms of what you asked people, but being simple and basic when needing to perform actions.
The Bad
Being new to the Ultima series, I didn't understand the rudeness of some of the characters. I remember specifically the leader in Yew. When I asked her for the word I needed for the shrine, her response was really rude--something along the lines of "You should remember this, you're the Avatar. What the heck is wrong with you?" and when she finally gave it to me, it seemed really begrudgingly. There were also some characters, like Julia, who got rude if you asked her to leave the party--so I stopped asking her to join! The interface was a bit hard to master, but once I got it, it was fine.
The Bottom Line
Somewhere between the older Ultimas and the newer ones, this game is both mouse-driven and text-driven. This one is not to be missed, for it has a complex plot and plenty of roaming area. I think this game showed off the Avatar's morality quite well. This game, which introduced me to the series, is the reason why I went back and played--or tried to play--some of the others. One of these days I'll get through the series, and this game is the reason why I'll be doing it!
DOS · by OceansDaughter (106) · 2002
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Happy 30th Anniversary! | The Fabulous King (1332) | Jun 2, 2020 |
Isometric perspective | SharkD (425) | Dec 29, 2007 |
Trivia
Dialogues
In dialogs, key words can be identified for as they were highlighted in the text. However, this was only possible for EGA (and later) graphics. In CGA graphics (or similar) key words were not highlighted, thus adding additional difficulty in guessing which the key words were.
Extras
The game came with a map of Britannia printed not on paper, but on cloth. The quality of this material enhanced the realism of the world you got into when playing this game. A "moonstone" also came with the package. It was a smooth, black stone.
FM-Towns version
The FM-Towns version of Ultima VI has full voice acting, both in English and in Japanese. The English voices were mostly provided by the designers, programmers and family members of Origin, including Richard Garriott in the role of Lord British.
Innovation music board
One of the only games to support the Innovation ("SID" chip) music board.
Intro
In the game's introduction, the time displayed on the VCR is taken from your computer's system clock - in other words, it displays the correct time in-game. Also, you can change the channels using your numeric keypad.
Pacifist walkthrough
Of the Ultima games, VI is the only one which allows you to win without a single fight, no cheating necessary. The Moonstone that you start off with transports you to different places in the game, so that all is required to finish are a few jumps to characters crucial to winning the game, and saying the right dialogue words to them. Learning the places and those words without outside-game knowledge(from a previous play or walkthrough), however, requires completing the rest of the game.
References
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 VI as pirate Hawkins. Captain Hawkins is portrayed as a cruel man who was eventually murdered by his crew and his tombstone says "Here lies Captain Hawkins. He died a hard death and he deserved it." A few members of his crew are also named after EA employees: Alastor Gordon (Bing Gordon), Bonn (Stewart Bonn) and Old Ybarra (Joe Ybarra).
Re-release
In 1992, Origin re-released this game and chose GT Interactive as the distributor. It came in a smaller box and contained a paper map and Compendium book.
Seggallion
One of Avatar's possible companions, a knight named Seggallion, is in fact an important character in Origin's earlier RPG, Knights of Legend. In that game, the player's main objective was to rescue the imprisoned Seggallion from the evil lord Pildar. Seggallion tells Avatar that he is from the parallel world Ashtalarea (which is the world in which the events of Knights of Legend take place). He further explains that he accidentally stepped into a moongate and was teleported to Britannia.
SNES version
There are a few changes in the SNES version: * The character creation was completely removed. * There are many changes in dialogues and text, mostly replacing or removing all black humour, vulgar language or just words Nintendo doesn't like. * All blood effects were removed. * Killed enemies disappear instantly, dropping their inventory on the ground. * Civilians can't be attacked. * The magic spells "Trap", "Summon", "Slime" and "Eclipse" were removed.
A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).
Special Edition
As Ultima VI was published in 1990, ten years after the original Ultima (on the Apple II), Origin sold a special edition of the game to players who pre-ordered it directly from them. The special edition box was autographed by Lord British and included an audiocassette interview with him. There was also a contest in which players whose box contained a metal rune instead of the usual moonstone could have their name appear in a future Ultima.
Ultima 6 Online
An unofficial MMORPG, Ultima 6 Online or U6O, has been developed and released permitting free party-based multiplayer realtime adventuring (with spells, quests and scripted NPCs) in Ultima 6's distinct flavour of the world of Britannia (from its geography down to the look and feel of the sprites). Check out http://ultimasixonline.thezogcabal.com/ to investigate the server status, download the latest version of the client and see which players are currently online!
The Ultima 6 Project
On July 5, 2010, a group of Ultima fans, Team Archon, released The Ultima 6 Project, a remake of the original Ultima VI: The False Prophet as a Dungeon Siege mod. Not only a graphical update, the project also adds an alternative plot, an in-game journal and compendium, and a dialog system similar to the ones of Ultima VII and VIII.
A link to the project's page can be found in the related links section.
Awards
- Commodore Format
- January 1992 (Issue 16) - Cf's all time Top Ten Essential Mega Games* Computer Gaming World
- April 1992 (Issue #93) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
- November 1996 (15th Anniversary issue) - #44 on the 150 Best Games of All Time list
- Power Play
- Issue 01/1991 - Best RPG in 1990 (DOS version)
Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Alaedrain, Indra was here, James Hofmann, Jeanne, Nathan Taylor, Olivier Masse, PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Rabbi Guru, Sciere and Ye Old Infocomme Shoppe
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Related Sites +
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Nuvie
If you have an original copy of "Ultima VI: The False Prophet", you can use Nuvie to run it on modern systems. -
The Ultima 6 Project
Homepage of the remake of Ultima VI with the Dungeon Siege engine. -
Ultima Dragons
An Ultima fan group; this is their main website
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Aaron Grier.
Atari ST added by ZZip. Sharp X68000, FM Towns added by Terok Nor. PC-98 added by Unicorn Lynx. Amiga, SNES, Commodore 64 added by Jeanne. Windows added by eWarrior.
Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, monkeyislandgirl, Pseudo_Intellectual, LepricahnsGold, mmasias, Paulus18950, Alaedrain, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.
Game added May 2, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.