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See also: Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar/Gameplay

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 role-playing video games are listed here, and they apply to Ultima 4 as well:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. There are permanent upgrades, in the form of enhancements of the various attributes of the characters (attack, strength, magic etc.).

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 role-playing video game.

Remake differences[edit]

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[edit]