Let's Play - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (2024)

First, A Note:
As you will probably be able to immediately tell, this account is brand goddamn new. I am originally an NMA (No Mutants Allowed) poster, and posted this still in-progress LP there. Though I love NMA, it has a terrible problem with inactivity. So, a poster that I'm irl friends with of both forums, told me to drop by and post my dumbass attempt at a Let's Play here, at the Codex. Understand that I've never once posted here, my only interactions with the Codex have been ghosting the forums since 2011-2012ish. The Let's Play is not that far along, only one post more exists thus far after this one. Hopefully my shitty, overly long wall of text Let's Play will entertain someone here though. So kids, here ya go:

Let's Play - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1)

☥ Introduction ☥

This is going to be a Let's Play, done in classic forum style, for one of my favorite games of one of my favorite series of all time, Ultima. Whenever people ask me "what Ultima should I start with?", I always, always tell them to start at Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. This is for a variety of reasons, and the reason that we are starting our Let's Play series (well, it may become a series depending on success/interest in the forums) here. One of these is most definitely: age and user accessibility. Now, anyone who knows me knows I am not shy to playing older computer games, I grew up with them in the 90's - an age where if you didn't read the manual you weren't going to have any idea what you were doing.

Ultima I through III aren't just dated though. In my opinion (please don't strike me down for blasphemy, Garriott), they are also very, very bland. It would be like if your friend told you he had this new badass old game he wanted to play, hyped it up to you, and then when the two of you finally got together he just pulled up an emulator and loaded in Space Invaders... not to knock on Space Invaders, but yeah, you catch my drift. Ultima I through III are incredibly bland games with bland gameplay - in the early 80's when they were released they were hotshit and at the forefront of computer role-playing games, but these days there is really no reason to play them besides being able to say that you've experienced them.

Not only is the gameplay of the first three rather bland (and very grindy), but so is the world and storytelling. Ultima I for example was a very, very simple "go save some princesses and kill the big bad evil guy" setting... y'know, Mario-level of story telling. Furthermore, the world, lore, and fluff of Ultima (arguably one of the things that make people love these games) had not yet been been created or fleshed out. Ultima I and III had entirely different maps and took place in a world named Sosaria, and Ultima II mainly took place on Earth (but also the other planets of the solar system) and had time travel fuckery. You might think that sounds fun, but the core of the gameplay is very simplistic, very bland constant grinding and the story is... well it might as well be non-existent.

That's another reason we are starting with IV, because IV was the first game to actually create the world of Britannia, and create fluff and lore for it, the first three games almost don't even matter. I think Richard Garriott realized this when creating Ultima IV and had a "oh shit" moment, asking himself if his new game could really be an Ultima game if it was all entirely new and had nothing to do with the last three - and so in response he made an attempt to first simplify the batshit crazy plots of I - III, and then weave them together into something that vaguely resembled a connected lore, if you were looking at it from 300 hundred yards away, squinting with the sun in that direction, after just having been pepper sprayed.

The point is, I-III don't matter really, there's only a few quick things to note that you need to know which we will go over in lore section, and there's only one name you really need to remember to follow along and that's Mondain.

☥ Let's Play Style ☥

Let's Play - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (2)

Ultima IV is an excellent game and I always whole heartedly recommend it to people asking, not just as a RPG in general but as a "where to start" in the series.

Despite it being fun to play, I had a thought while comprehending whether this Let's Play was doable or not... it's fun to play, but is an old late 80's cRPG really fun to watch someone play? So, I came to the conclusion that, doing a bland Let's Play where I simply just describe to you what is happening in the game would be incredibly boring, especially considering the visuals (even with the fan community upgraded sprites we'll be using) aren't much to look at.

So, we will be making a slight change to my original Let's Play process. We're going to be doing a lot of roleplaying, and I mean a lot of it. I want people to be able to experience this game as I did the first time, and so I won't just be providing gameplay, but will also be providing a narrated roleplay on what is happening. Just walking up to a guard and typing "job", "name", etc. isn't very fulfilling to watch, so I'll be narrating/roleplaying it as an actual conversation that happened. We're even going to be creating lore/moments to enrich the world and story (though I promise it won't go too far off track). I suppose the best way to describe this is, imagine a narrative interactive book written about Ultima IV.

As I would also come to find, it turns out that Richard Garriott himself whole heartedly encourages this. He's told several people that roleplaying is essential to playing Ultima, and back in the 90's he also had a type of "super guide" made for the games Ultima IV - VI (even Garriott himself started at IV lol), and the guide basically reads like a role-playing Let's Play for all the games, it's actually pretty fresh.

☥ Our Character ☥

Now, there is some debate in the Ultima community about whether the person from the first three Ultima games is the Avatar, the person from IV - onwards. A lot of the community like to say yes and that's sort of been accepted as the standard, but I personally believe no, and I further believe even Garriott himself originally held that notion when developing Ultima IV. Here's why;

In the beginning, your character has no idea what a moon gate is (a sort of portal in the Ultima universe), and he's extremely caught off guard when he's sent to Britannia, acting bewildered and as if he has no idea where he is. For someone who's been teleported here twice before, and would be considered a monster slaying badass by this point, that would be incredibly out of character for him. Did he get amnesia or suffer head trauma at the end or after Ultima III? Why would he not know what a moon gate is despite having used them multiple times beforehand? Answer: two entirely different people. It's not unusual for people from Earth to end up on Britannia either, as you will meet several people throughout the series who actually originally come from Earth just like the Avatar. Lord British actually being one of them.

That is exactly how we are going to be roleplaying it. Our character is just an ordinary guy, he's never embarked on any crazy adventures, or witnessed anything extraordinary or spectacular. Because many games in the Ultima series will be implementing a class system, we will be playing as a Paladin. Now, obviously John isn't a Paladin naturally, so there will be a explanation for this as part of the Let's Play.

* * * * *

The year is 1993.

Our character's name is John - Johnathan Gray. An unassuming name for an unassuming man. John is 21 years old and lives in New York City, having moved there at the age of 19 from his hometown of Reno, Nevada, wishing to get away from the rather terrible childhood he experienced there after his father died at the age of 14, and start again somewhere new. Today he works for a company named Intratech, a massive designer and manufacturer of computer chips that almost every home and business PC uses, with lucrative contracts from Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and many more.

John is one amongst an army of company data analysts. He works for the financial department, on the 51st floor of the Intratech building in New York, in the fifth cubicle grouping, in the 9th row, 4th cubicle. Inside his cramped cubicle, he works 8 hours a day with two fifteen minute breaks and a one hour lunch from 8am to 5pm, taking a 12 minute long subway ride followed by a 18 minute long walk to and from work, Monday through Friday and occasionally Saturday's as well when he among many others are asked to cover for call ins. In his cubicle, on his HP computer running Windows NT 3.1, he sorts through, analyzes, and catalogues thousands of financial documents in a similar and brain frying repeat of process, over and over for the entirety of his eight hour work day.

John is... disenfranchised. He thought escaping to the big apple would lead to a better life from the terrible one he escaped in Reno, and while yes - theoretically his life and living conditions have improved by much, he has endured the utter monotony of his current life in New York for two and a half straight years. He doesn't have any friends outside the office, and those he has at work, never actually get together to do anything. He works, he sleeps, and works some more, and on weekends he watches television, reads, or just stares at the ceiling as the entire apartment shakes yet again when the tram runs through his neighborhood. Finally, on a calm Saturday afternoon these thoughts creep up yet again and - suddenly, he can't breathe. He can't breathe, but he is antsy at the same time, feeling as if he can't stay still. A fear washes over him as he suddenly starts to feel like his heart is going to collapse. John gives in, in defeat, picking up the phone from the landline and dialing 911.

Turns out, he had a panic attack. The doctor in the ER, obviously tired and overworked, spends little time tending to John, prescribing him anti-anxiety medication, recommending taking some time off of work and giving him a doctor's order to do so, before sending him on his way and quickly moving to the next patient in the over crowded ER. Looking down on his note, John contemplates the advice of the doctor, wondering whether he should take time away from work, or simply crumble the doctor's order and throw it in the trash. While picking up his medication at a pharmacy, his mind can't help but turn how much he dreads having to return to work Monday. Getting home, there's one single, solitary message on his answering machine, and he knows exactly who it is. The only reason he ever gets a call from anyone. They want him to work tomorrow, on a Sunday. John removes the doctor's note from his pocket, seeing the doctor was generous enough to date it for a week. At this point, whether he should return to work isn't even a question in his mind anymore.

...

On his vacation, John decides to rent a car and take a drive throughout New York state, getting away and out of the city, away from everything, in order to truly spend some time by himself and collect his thoughts. While driving in the New York wilderness, he finds a peculiar looking woodland trail. He can't explain it, but something draws him to this trail, almost as if something is calling for him. A almost irresistible urge forces him the car over to the side of the road.

He steps out, and takes a deep breath, looking down the trail. The beauty and natural quality of the forest acts as a sharp contrast to the brickwork and concrete towers of New York City, which stretch so high into the sky as to blot out the sun. There are no sounds of traffic, no constant footfall, no smell of smog and exhaust in the air. Only the natural world itself in it's most primal form, and John can't help but notice the beauty of it all. The nature here, everything is peaceful, serene. But that's not quite all, there's something at the back of his mind he can't quite place his finger on. It's not just peaceful here... the sense of tranquility is also foreboding. He almost feels as if... he should be here, like pieces are falling into place. Like this isn't just a mere road for John in the physical sense, but also metaphorically as well.

The wind picks up slightly, the colorful autumn leaves dancing harmonically along it's drafts as if welcoming him home. Well... it couldn't hurt to stretch his legs and enjoy the beauty of nature while he's at it, right?

John picks up his feet, and embarks down the trail...

Let's Play - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (3)

*Ultima IV Let's Play Coming Soon to a message board near y-... actually, it's just this one.*

Let's Play - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (2024)

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