Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Hmm

... are, I feel are, uh, um, uh, in, in this age where we see everything being RPG-ified, you know, like, uh, just dozens of games that need to have introducing, uh, RPG mechanics and things like that, it's very strange to me that one of those or- original success stories, uh, on PC, the, the Ultima games in particular, stuff like Ultima IV and forward, um, uh, those were, were really foundational games in a lot of ways for bringing that kind of, you know, the early approach to open world, uh, to role-playing games and, and that kind of thing.

That might be o- one I would highlight.

Uh, it is, I, I think it'd be pretty cool to see a return to that universe and, um, and see that done, done well.

Richard Garriott's Ultima series went through some major changes during the 1980s, not least of which being the fictional world itself.

While the original trilogy presented a series of evildoers to fight, Ultima IV began a new era, an enlightened age of peace and tranquility.

Lest players get too comfortable, Ultimas V and VI did introduce darker elements.

In the fifth entry, the famed Lord British goes missing, and now the kingdom of Britannia is ruled by Lord Blackthorn, a sinister figure who twists the intentions behind the sacred virtues of the Avatar.

[laughs]

Regardless, I made the call.

I said, "You know what? Ultima V, what it comes down to is I don't know that we are going to be able to put enough time into this game to really talk about it in a way that is much different from the way we already discussed Ultima IV.

Mm-hmm.

But as we were chatting, and I haven't seen him in person yet, I'm going to try to figure out a way to maybe go to lunch or something soon.

But just in the emails, we talked about all sorts of games, and it was so funny that once it sparked that memory, I just would remember one of the big ones was Ultima IV, because I got obsessed with that game for a while, and to the point where I was literally flunking out of school because I was playing it so much.

Luckily, I was able to steer away from that and get back on track at school.

But he, I remember, I mean, he mentioned that, well, we mentioned together that that was a game that we had played.

And I felt like a lot of the games on the top Atari list would also be on the Commodore 64 list.

And you'll find Ultima 4 and Mule and stuff like that.

And I felt like what might be better is if we find the top Atari 8-bit games that were not released on the Commodore 64.

Right.

And so I wanna go back to that.

But like Final Fantasy, uh, Ultima, Ultima, uh, Quest of the Avatar, the sequel to Ultima Exodus on the NES is fucking amazing.

That game, you just, you have to be a good person.

There's no bad guy.

One, they were the first time I experienced a video game story where they tried to do something where to win was not to defeat the bad guy.

That started with Ultima 4, where the point of the game was to become an avatar, to achieve a certain level of enlightenment.

And that's how you won.

Ultima 5, again, it wasn't about beating the bad guy.

...

Ul- Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar released 41 years ago in 1985.

The Ultima series was a big series back then.

Uh, Fatal Fury Special released in the arcade.