Dhruin
SasqWatch
Ultima fans often divide on whether IV or VII was better, with V and VI occasionally popping up. Scorpia writes that despite being her favourite RPG, Ultima IV wasn't perfect:
More information.
Ultima 4 - Wasn't Perfect @ Scorpia
- Thread starter Dhruin
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Hindukönig
Guest
Ultima IV not perfect?! Blasphemy!
... Really, most Ultimas aren't real RPGs but Adventures with RPG elements (IMHO). Doesn't make them bad. Ultima IV wants to teach a lesson, and I think it succeeds in this. Heck, it has more interesting NPCs, a better story/plot and more locations to explore than Ultima IX.
You can be evil in Ultima IV, but you can't win it this way. That's all to say.
... Really, most Ultimas aren't real RPGs but Adventures with RPG elements (IMHO). Doesn't make them bad. Ultima IV wants to teach a lesson, and I think it succeeds in this. Heck, it has more interesting NPCs, a better story/plot and more locations to explore than Ultima IX.
You can be evil in Ultima IV, but you can't win it this way. That's all to say.
EvilManagedCare
Sentinel
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While I can appreciate its uniqueness when it was released, Ultima 4 was probably one of my least favorite of the series. Can't really put my finger on why. I think maybe it's because I want my Foozle when I play an RPG.
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Atrachasis
Watchdog
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Ultima IV may not have given you a great deal of freedom in choosing which role you wanted to play - but it is the only game that I can think of that actually judged you on whether you were playing your role well (well, beyond the obvious, "you won't get far trying to fling fireballs at your enemies if you're playing an orc barbarian").
You could argue that this is what a role playing game should really evaluate its players by, and not whether they manage to kill the foozle or not - and that U IV is the only cRPG that ever pulled it off and thus deserves the name.
You could argue that this is what a role playing game should really evaluate its players by, and not whether they manage to kill the foozle or not - and that U IV is the only cRPG that ever pulled it off and thus deserves the name.
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D
DArtagnan
Guest
Another piece of worthless journalism.
No one in their right mind would consider Ultima IV - or anything else - perfect. The only thing that makes sense is to talk about the influence Ultima IV had on the people playing it, and the industry as a whole.
From that angle, I think most people will agree that Ultima IV is a very important title.
Conclusion = there's nothing to talk about and the article is hollow.
No one in their right mind would consider Ultima IV - or anything else - perfect. The only thing that makes sense is to talk about the influence Ultima IV had on the people playing it, and the industry as a whole.
From that angle, I think most people will agree that Ultima IV is a very important title.
Conclusion = there's nothing to talk about and the article is hollow.
txa1265
SasqWatch
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C;mon, can't we fight about whether or not it was the 'best evar' ... and perhaps about the definition of RPG in the first place?!?!
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Definitely not, we have to fight about whether or not LB is god and the Avatar is Christ come to bring salvation to all who truly believe!! Or is this the wrong forum!!!!
Or is this the wrong forum!!!!
txa1265
SasqWatch
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Definitely not, we have to fight about whether or not LB is god and the Avatar is Christ come to bring salvation to all who truly believe!!
Since when did we worry about taking these things cross-forum?
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blatantninja
Resident Redneck Facist
It wasn't until Baldur's Gate that I considered replayability to be factor in game quality. And to be fair, while BG was replayable, outside of using mods, each experience wasn't that much different than the prior (obviously different case for the sequel).
I can't think of a single 'old-school' RPG that gave you a significant difference experience playing in through a different way, not one that had a strong central story at least. Given the limitations of technology (especially disk space), having a large branching story seemed a bit out of reach for the majority of games.
That said, Ultima IV, while a great and influential game, was never my favorite in the series anyway. Ultima V always was. I thought it took everything Ultima IV did right and improved on it.
My brother decided to play U4 as a character named 'sexmerc.' He thought it would be fun to see exactly how awful he could get the seer to say he was. After robbing beggars, slaughtering children, and doing whatever other evil he could manage for a few weeks, he pretty much hit rock bottom (karma = 0). He decided to 'retire' sexmerc to Spiritwood and played the game the right way after that.
I can't think of a single 'old-school' RPG that gave you a significant difference experience playing in through a different way, not one that had a strong central story at least. Given the limitations of technology (especially disk space), having a large branching story seemed a bit out of reach for the majority of games.
That said, Ultima IV, while a great and influential game, was never my favorite in the series anyway. Ultima V always was. I thought it took everything Ultima IV did right and improved on it.
My brother decided to play U4 as a character named 'sexmerc.' He thought it would be fun to see exactly how awful he could get the seer to say he was. After robbing beggars, slaughtering children, and doing whatever other evil he could manage for a few weeks, he pretty much hit rock bottom (karma = 0). He decided to 'retire' sexmerc to Spiritwood and played the game the right way after that.
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Ergonpandilus
Guest
Warm memories
I have very warm and dear memories from playing Ultima IV with my friends Sega Mastersystem and nothing can compensate that, ever!
Yes it has it flaws, but it has things, like NPCs having daily cycles (sleeping, working, eating) , free huge world, intuitive character generation (tarot cards) and excellent graphics and music (at that time!) that none other game had at time. Especially listening the awesome music brings tears of happiness in my eyes...
And there WAS re-playability, like creating different class character and exploring the starting from the diffrent places. And even, if you would play the game through only once (without walkthrough), it still has dozens hours of gameplay.
It's easy to now say, that the game has flaws, since it's over 20(!) years since the game came up.
Ergonpandilus Dragon
-==( UDIC )==-
I have very warm and dear memories from playing Ultima IV with my friends Sega Mastersystem and nothing can compensate that, ever!
Yes it has it flaws, but it has things, like NPCs having daily cycles (sleeping, working, eating) , free huge world, intuitive character generation (tarot cards) and excellent graphics and music (at that time!) that none other game had at time. Especially listening the awesome music brings tears of happiness in my eyes...
And there WAS re-playability, like creating different class character and exploring the starting from the diffrent places. And even, if you would play the game through only once (without walkthrough), it still has dozens hours of gameplay.
It's easy to now say, that the game has flaws, since it's over 20(!) years since the game came up.
Ergonpandilus Dragon
-==( UDIC )==-