History VideoGame / UltimaIV

In the MagicalLand of Britannia...all of the {{Big Bad}}s are dead. The [[{{UltimaI}} evil Wizard Mondain]]. Dead. His [[UltimaII Apprentice Minax]]. Dead. Their [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot child/demon/computer]]... thing, [[UltimaIII Exodus]]... destroyed. While there's still [[LockedInTheDungeon dungeons]] and random monsters, there is [[PostModernism no goal anymore.]] Nothing for the people to hope for; no more heroes for them to emulate.

Can there be Good without an external Evil to fight? The magical ruler of Britannia, Lord British, summons the Stranger of old who defeated those evils with a very new, very different task. Become the Champion of Virtue for people to have a goal to achieve. Master the [[KarmaMeter 8 Virtues]] and find the Answer to this postmodern dilemma in [[GreatBigBookOfEverything The Codex of Wisdom]], located in [[{{The Very Definitely Final Dungeon}} The Great Stygian Abyss.]] Fulfill the [[TitleDrop Quest of The Avatar.]]

In the MagicalLand of Britannia...all of the {{Big Bad}}s are dead. The [[{{UltimaI}} evil Wizard Mondain]]. Dead. His [[UltimaII Apprentice Minax]]. Dead. Their [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot child/demon/computer]]... thing, [[UltimaIII Exodus]]... destroyed. While there's still [[{{Dungeon}} dungeons]] and random monsters, there is [[PostModernism no goal anymore.]] Nothing for the people to hope for; no more heroes for them to emulate.

* {{Dungeon}}: There ''is'' still fighting in this game; and 8 dungeons with various {{MacGuffin}}.

** The dialog file of a character that was supposed to give you a hint to the final riddle was mistakenly removed from the game, leading to a number of people struggling through the game only to find themselves stuck on the last puzzle. This gave rise to the AscendedGlitch character Smith the talking horse, who appeared in several later Ultima games, always giving you important hints about the *previous* game.

[[caption-width-right:256:Only 7 more to go...]]

* DialogueTree: One of the earliest examples of the concept, in PC versions of UltimaIV one could have limited conversations with everyone in the towns. Later games would make it easier to come up with topics; this one made you type each one out. "Name" and "Job" were the common opening lines; and then later ArcWords tended to be important. The only three words that all [=NPCs=] were guaranteed to respond to were "Name" "Job" and "Health". Occasionally a NPC in their dialog would let slip a subject that you could then bring up to another NPC - which would reveal that subject him once you asked. Since this could lead to SequenceBreaking; later games made the spell out the conversation topics depending on what information flags you encountered.

* CharacterTiers: The Paladin class gets access to the best armor, decent magic, and can use every weapon except the wand. The Shepherd... not so much.

* FridgeLogic: Why in the world did Lord British imprison a Reaper in his prison? How? A magical evil ''tree'' that cannot move?

* NintendoHard: Of all the playtesters, only Richard Garriott himself actually ''finished'' the game before it was released. If you can complete the game without using internet spoilers, you deserve a ''medal''.

A [[FreewareGames freeware]] version was distributed on the Internet in 1997. In 2011 Electronic Arts began issuing C&D orders to people distributing it after 14 years of salutary neglect. This has caused some concern in the community, but the game remains legally free on [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/ultima_4 Good Old Games]] and should be played by anyone with even a passing interest in RPGs.

** On the other hand, there is a MagikarpPower potential here. If you know what you're doing it's fairly easy to level up quickly. Once you ''do'' master the powers of the Avatar, you can equip anything and cast any spell; even if you're a Shepherd. Since you still need each of the other classes in your party to get to the bottom of the Abyss, you no longer have a useless party member. Having Humility as your highest virtue is also its own reward, to some extent- it's probably the toughest to raise.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was an 1985 video game. No one can deny that ''UltimaIV'' was a masterpiece. It catapulted several new concepts into the notion of playing; and the graphics and music was groundbreaking at the time; and frankly, still are.

In the MagicalLand of Britannia...all of the {{Big Bad}}s are dead. The [[{{UltimaI}} evil Wizard Mondain]]. Dead. His [[UltimaII Apprentice Minax]]. Dead. Their [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot child/demon/computer]]...thing; [[UltimaIII Exodus...defeated.]] While there's still [[{{Dungeon}} dungeons]] and random monsters; there is [[PostModernism no goal anymore.]] Nothing for the people to hope for; no more heroes for them to emulate.

A [[FreewareGames freeware]] version was distributed on the Internet in 1997. In 2011 Electronic Arts began issuing C&D orders to people distributing it after 14 years of salutary neglect. This has caused some concern in the community, but the game remains legally free on [[http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/ultima_4 Good Old Games]].

** On the other hand, there is a MagikarpPower potential here. If you know what you're doing it's fairly easy to level up quickly. Once you ''do'' master the powers of the Avatar, you can equip anything and cast any spell; even if you're a Shepherd. Since you still need each of the other classes in your party to get to the bottom of the Abyss, you no longer have a useless party member.

A [[FreewareGames freeware]] version was distributed on the Internet in 1997. In 2011 Electronic Arts began issuing C&D orders to people distributing it after 14 years of salutary neglect. This has caused some concern in the community, but the game remains free-to-download on [[http://www.ultimaforever.com/ EA's own website]].

* SoWhatDoWeDoNow: An ''entire'' game made of this trope. What do you do when evil has been defeated? Become a messiah!

* FissionMailed: Many players RageQuit and reloaded when their boat was sucked into the whirlpool, since the game went black and you got the same initial text that you got when you died. Except - it's actually a portal to another world under Britannia. D'oh!

* SoNowWhatDoWeDo: An ''entire'' game made of this trope. What do you do when evil has been defeated? Become a messiah!

** The dialog file of a character that was supposed to give you a hint to the final riddle was mistakenly removed from the game, leading to a number of people struggling through the game only to find themselves stuck on the last puzzle.

* ShoehornedFirstLetter: The games has both a command and a spell for each letter of the keyboard, leading to some oddities like [[XtremeKoolLetterz (x)-it, (k)limb and (z)tats]].

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was an 1985 video game. Despite what eventually happened with Origin and YourMileageMayVary regarding Richard Garriot; no one can deny that ''UltimaIV'' was a masterpiece. It catapulted several new concepts into the notion of playing; and the graphics and music was groundbreaking at the time; and frankly, still are.

* TheMoralSubstitute: According to ''The Official Book of Ultima''. The concept for the game came about when Garriott noted MoralGuardians' response to the first 3 games. This is one of the few examples of this trope where the series actually gained more depth and character because of it.

* TheMoralSubstitute: According to ''The Official Book of Ultima''. The concept for the game came about when Garriot noted MoralGuardian's response to the first 3 games.
* NintendoHard: Of all the playtesters, only Richard Garriot himself actually ''finished'' the game before it was released. If you can complete the game without using internet spoilers, you deserve a ''medal''.