A new age is upon Britannia. The great evil Lords are gone but our people lack direction and purpose in their lives. A champion of Virtue is called for. Thou may be this champion, but only time shall tell.
-Lord British
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was an 1985 video game. No one can deny that Ultima IV was a masterpiece (even if modern gamers are likely to wrestle, at best, with the interface), as it took the still-nascent concept of the "RPG" and turned it completely on its ear in a way that, over twenty-five years later, still hasn't really been replicated but informed virtually every western-made RPG which came after.In the Magical Land of Britannia...all of the Big Bads are dead. The evil Wizard Mondain. Dead. His Apprentice Minax. Dead. Their child/demon/computer... thing, Exodus... destroyed. While there are still dungeons and random monsters, there is 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 8 Virtues and find the Answer to this postmodern dilemma in The Codex of Wisdom, located in The Great Stygian Abyss. Fulfill the Quest of The Avatar.A 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 Good Old Games and should be played by anyone with even a passing interest in RPGs.
Always Chaotic Evil: Most (but not all) of the creatures you will encounter in the wilderness and dungeons are this. Feel free slaughtering the evil creatures, but let the non-evil ones flee.
Sadly, played straight in the NES version. No monster you encounter in the game will run from you, forcing you to kill any monster you randomly encounter
Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can have one party member for each level you gain (meaning that at level 1 you only have one slot—for yourself). And the level cap is eight.
Arc Number: 8. There are eight virtues with eight shrines dedicated to them, eight character classes, eight major towns in Britannia, and eight dungeons with eight levels each.
Artifact of Doom: Mondain's Skull (remember, the villain from Ultima I) Using it would instantly wipe out every living thing in the player's current location, except for Lord British (even Lord British in the NES version). It also drove your Karma Meter (all of them!) to 0. Since many players at the time didn't realize there was a Karma Meter...
Broad Strokes: Looking back at the first three games, the events of them weren't...quite as described by Ultima IV. Time Travel may explain some of it, but by this time the general rules and definitions have solidified.
Dialogue Tree: One of the earliest examples of the concept, in PC versions of Ultima IV 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 Arc Words 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 Sequence Breaking; later games made them spell out the conversation topics depending on what information flags you encountered.
Doing in the Wizard / Doing in the Scientist: The elves, dwarves, halflings, and Ewoks that were playable races in the previous three games have been retconned out of existence, as have the spaceships, time travel, and other anachronistic elements.
Dungeon: There is still fighting in this game; and 8 dungeons with various MacGuffin.
Dungeon Bypass The white stone is hidden up in the mountains north of Britain and to get to it you need to descend to the bottom level of a dungeon via a hidden entrance behind Lord British's castle, climb your way back up to an exit on the other side of the world, board a hot air balloon, and guide yourself to a landing space the size of a single tile with the wind-change spell. You can also just use the Blink spell (warp a distance on the world map) in the right spot and warp to it.
Egopolis: After uniting all of Sosaria, Lord British renames the world Britannia. A rare example when it's a good guy who does this.
Embodiment Of Vice: There are eight sins or vices that are the opposite of the eight Virtues. While the Virtues are represented by seven shrines throughout the land and the eighth in the Ethereal Void, the Vices are represented by seven dungeons and the eighth in the vast underworld.
Deceit is the dungeon opposing Honesty
Despise is the dungeon opposing Compassion
Destard is the dungeon opposing Valor
Wrong is the dungeon opposing Justice
Covetous is the dungeon opposing Sacrifice
Shame is the dungeon opposing Honor
Hythloth is the dungeon opposing Spirituality
The Great Stygian Abyss, the game's final dungeon, opposes Humility
Embodiment Of Virtue: The main protagonist's companions, each one representing one of the Sacred Virtues of Avatarhood:
Mariah the mage represents Honesty
Iolo the bard represents Compassion
Geoffrey the fighter represents Valor
Jaana the druid represents Justice
Julia the tinker represents Sacrifice
Dupré the paladin represents Honor
Shamino the ranger represents Spirituality
Katrina the shepherd represents Humility
Fighter, Mage, Thief: The first three character classes are called Mage, Bard, and Fighter, though the Bard class doesn't have any abilities related to music, and is actually a generic RPG "thief" character in all but name. According to the Word Of God, the class was called "Bard" because "Thief" implied dishonorable behavior, and therefore didn't fit the game's theme of becoming virtuous. The other classes are variants of the first three, except the Shepherd, which has the strengths of none of the other classes.
Fission Mailed: Many players Rage Quit 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 one of the only ways to get to a town with a Plot Coupon. D'oh!
Functional Magic: Like traditional games, required the correct Magic Points, skill levels, and such; but also required you to have the right combination of magic ingredients. You were expected to know and remember each recipe; whether by instruction guide or NPC.
Genre Shift: The NES port plays much more closely to an eastern RPG than a western one, streamlining much of the gameplay and introducing Random Encounters.
Guide Dang It: This game was very different at the time. There was no Gamefaqs.
The items required to complete the game can only be found through the "search" command. Their location can be hinted at by friendly characters, but otherwise the spot where the item is supposed to be appears perfectly normal and featureless (not always, though).
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 (although the answer is spelled out for you by praying at the eight shrines, which is required to complete the game). This gave rise to the Ascended Glitch character Smith the talking horse, who appeared in several later Ultima games, always giving you important hints about the *previous* game.
Joke Character: If after taking the intro quiz your highest virtue is humility then you get the shepherd class. Leather armor, a marginally better weapon selection then the mage, no magic, a poor trap disarming ability (though no worse then that of over half the other classes), and you start the game at a lower level than the other classes, stranded on an island infested by demons with no shops and no clear way out.
On the other hand, there is a Magikarp Power 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.
Karma Meter: The Trope Namer. "Karma" was how well the character acted in the 8 Virtues. Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Sacrifice, Justice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility. Each of the 8 were determined by actions you made. Run from a fight, and lose points in Valor. Unless you're running from a natural animal who is just hungry; such as a common serpent; and then you're adding Compassion. It gets complicated.
In fact, just see the Trivia section.
Monster Town: Magincia has become this since its location has become so uninhabitable that every human except for Katrina is either dead or has moved away. The monsters will only attack you if you attack them first, though. ...except for Nate the Snake.
The Moral Substitute: According to The Official Book of Ultima. The concept for the game came about when Garriott noted Moral Guardians' response to the first 3 games. Garriott realized that while they were wrong for the most part, the Strawman Has a Point, and so the concept for the fourth game was born. This is one of the few examples of this trope where the series actually gained more depth and character because of it, rather than the opposite.
Nintendo Hard: 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. Also, ironically, the version released on an actual Nintendo console (NES) is a lot easier than the original.
Not So Safe Harbor/Outlaw Town: Buccaneer's Den, which houses pirates, orcs, mages, and many other types of enemies.
The Paragon: The main reason you have to become the Avatar is so you can serve as an example for the rest of the world to follow by living virtuously.
Player Personality Quiz: Possible Trope Maker. Unlike the previous games where you specified your characters' class and stats directly, you now have to answer seven simple questions on how you would act in certain dilemmas. This determines your character class, starting location and your initial standing on the game's eight Karma Meters.
Read the Freaking Manual: The game directly tells you to read the included The History of Britannia in the intro (you should read The Book of Mystic Wisdom as well, despite your character not daring to open it).
Schrödinger's Player Character: Whichever class you choose; the same character of that class will still exist in their corresponding town; but will not join the party. Similar to Superhero Speciation.
and should be played by anyone with even a passing interest in RPGs.
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