Introduction
In Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar you control a hero and a team of eight adventurers in a quest across the fantasy world of Britannia. During the game, the party members can progressively acquire several weapons and armors, but also many other items and a wide array of spells.
Ultima 4 is a role-playing video game. Specifically, it belongs to the sub-genre of American-style RPVGs.
Three aspects that can define the genre of RPGs are listed here, and they apply to Ultima 4 as well:
- Text is an essential part of the game, and the heroes have to talk and interact with non-evil characters to proceed in the adventure;
- There are permanent upgrades, in the form of enhancements of the various attributes of the characters (attack, strength, magic etc.);
- There is freedom of exploration, all the areas are connected by an "overworld", and areas that have been previously cleared can usually be re-visited; in other words, the game is non-linear.
Japanese-style RPVG focus more on the plot, while American-style RPVG like Ultima 4 focus more on exploration and "body-building" of the characters. Nevertheless, all three aspects are present in every RPG.
Remake differences
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for the NES is the remake of the original Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for home computers.
Main differences:
- General: full-screen field of view, similar commands were merged together.
- In town: less characters, shorter dialogues, many clues were moved to different towns; many equipment parts became more expensive.
- In the wild: random encounters (enemies are invisible until the battle starts); no wind: the ship moves at the same speed in any direction; no food.
- In the dungeons: the general layout was kept identical, but many rooms were modified; the total number of dungeon chests was reduced.
- During battle: party reduced to 4 members (others can stay at a hostel); can shoot diagonally.
Similar games
- Ultima 5 and Ultima 6, that together with Ultima 4 constitute the Age of Enlightment trilogy;
- Ultima 3, Ultima 7 and Ultima 7 Part 2, where the player still controls a team of heroes.