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Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Retrospective |
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Retrospective | Reimagining the RPG
#Ultima #Quest #Avatar #Retrospective
“Majuular”
After the release of Ultima III: Exodus, the members of Origin Systems would pack up and move across the country to the chilly town of North Andover, Massachusetts. Here, they would buckle down and create the follow-up to the much lauded Exodus. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar would represent a…
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you talking about Brainerd and babe the blue ox was a nice surprise as someone who grew up in MN and saw the statue myself
Would love for Lord British to reacquire Ultima from the death grip of EA.
Hope this isn't weird, but I've been putting your videos on at night lately before bed, i love long game essays and retrospectives so your videos have really been scratching the itch. Thank you and keep it up brother, you're doing a great job!
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"The vendor buys your garbage gear because he can melt it down and make new gear with it"
I think the only time I've seen a trading system that's had that much thought put into it was in Underrail where vendors only buy a small amount of the items they would realistically want.
It may not be the same mechanically, but the fact that they thought about everything, even the dumb "why do game have game things that not work in real life?" type questions is shocking.
Yes!!! I loved every minute of this video. I found your channel around the time you started doing the Ultima Retrospective and I've been a big fan of your content ever since. You've done tremendous work so far in your coverage of the series and I've learned a whole bunch of new information about what was going on behind the scenes at Origin around each game's release through this series.
I hope you don't burn yourself out with Ultima, as covering the series in such detail seems like a truly megalomaniacal undertaking. Put your own comfort first and don't be afraid to release things at a slower pace if necessary. If the quality of the videos is at this level, they are all certainly going to be worth the wait.
Looking forward to your Ultima V video as U5 and U7 were always my favorites of the bunch.
The vulture bit was brilliant.
Loving this retrospective so much. And dreading when he gets to 8 and 9
I loved this game. I remember an entire summer spent on it, where I would play it till forced to go to bed and then when I woke up, head back down to our study and get back to it.
Excellent reviews on all the Ultimas so far. Loving them! Also, the shout out to Red Letter Media was appreciated too! Haha I love Best of the Worst. But yeah, dude. Keep up the amazing work. I've seen all your videos and find them very informative and fun. I'm really looking forward to what you have to say about Ultima 8, haha!
"Your knowledge of the land shall be great."
"What's a paladin?"
Wait, ENTER CAN'T!? what you mean "enter can't"? what need me do enter to dungeon!?
I would just point out, since the video seemed to miss it. INFINITY as the answer to the final question in the abyss, doesn’t come quite as out of nowhere as this video suggests.
As you gain avatarhood in each virtue your shrine meditation shows you a vision of a rune which corresponds to a letter in the Britannic alphabet. If you have deduced the order of the virtues, it is spelled out for you. Otherwise it’s a not-too-difficult anagram
Honesty – I
Compassion – N
Valor – F
Justice – I
Sacrifice – N
Honor – I
Spirituality – T
Humility – Y
The revelation at the end of the game, where the '8' is a subtle clue for infinity and then the codex sign opens up to the infinity sign, was jaw dropping for me. I can only imagine how a teenager or college student, bareknuckling through the game by themself in the '80s, must have felt seeing that for the first time.
This was great
fun tip: if you let a monster drop a treasure chest on the Mandrake swamp spot. you can then stand there and never worry about getting poisoned
These videos are seriously incredible. The amount of research you do, focusing not just on the game or its quality or archaic nature, but on the people who created it, on their lives, on the history and the state of the industry when it came out… these are super professional, even with the occasional gag or meme thrown in. You’re one of the best media historians on this platform and I hope you keep at it!
very nice video
This has honestly made my whole day better. Thanks dude
Hearing Rich's laugh in a Majuular video is such a trip lmao
One of my favorite soundtrack in that one. Thanks for pointing it out. Great video (and series).
Awesome. Watched my dad play this when I was a kid.
oh hell yeah ive been looking forward to this
Heh I asked about this in your previous video, if you're tired of Ultima please by all means take a break, don't repeat the tragedy of the Spoony One.
Wait a second, so Ultima IV was an isekai all along!
Gas : .90 good times
These games are certainly not my jam but I have a massive respect for older media and those that love them. I myself know this feeling at my age now, yearning for low-poly PS2 HIGH SPEED ROBOT ACTION.
Your Ultima Retrospectives are my favorite way to get blasted and fall asleep to. Very calming and interesting
You're knocking it out of the park on this series. When I'm halfway through a long two hour video, but I immediately drop whatever I'm watching when a Majulaar vid comes out.
Amazing video! Loved every episode so far. Keep up the great work. <3
Amazing work, I loved QOTA, played it on NES, never knew how much harder the PC version was. Amazing coverage man. Subbed to you.
I assumed Yolo was a reference to Volo from the Forgotten Realms
thanks for making these videos, i've been going through a rough patch and watching your videos has really helped
Certified Majuular banger. Keep it up big guy, you're doing great!
Picking 8 Virtues (like the Eightfold Path and the 8 Ausipicious Virtues or Factors of Enlightenment in Buddhism, the latter in particular) and the 3 keys (The Triple Gem, along with many other threes like the Poisons/Antidotes etc) is interesting, especially because Buddhism itself is sometimes pointed to as "more a moral framework/way of life than a religion" (which is what a religion is really, and as a devout Buddhist id say it most certainly is a religion among other things) Even conquering Self, which is Eastern in many ways, tho central in Buddhism and Hinduism for sure, with not-self or Anatta or Anatma… Yeah, you touched on this stuff but I just wanted to point out a bit more lol. Great vid on a classic game!
1:20:40 awesome theology lesson
You've done a good job and I think your review fits in well with the recent glut of people who've taken time to review the Ultima series. I look forward to your future offerings in this series 🙂
God, I fucking love the Virtues. Probably the strongest fictional morality system ever.
9:55 wrong BGM
Just use stones
Bards Tale music is too noticable
The music at 57:00 sounds exactly like runescape
Good vid, really liked the behind the scenes development coverage
1:25:21 "Invoking the spirit of a once great vessel…" Yeah, the vessel is named Going Merry.
Nice 1:01:00 someone remembers Stair Trail <3
This was the big one! Thanks for covering this fantastic game and giving a new generation of people a look at it.
I was introduced to Ultima 4 back in high school (almost a decade ago!) when one of my teachers gave it to us as assigned reading. It was used to explore the Hero's Journey in narrative works beyond literature and film. It was a bit daunting, but I was one of two students in my year to actually finish the game.
Despite this, my strongest memory of the game is the time when I managed to delete my ship by exiting it in the middle of the ocean to fight some foes, which spawned a treasure chest under me, which deleted my ship, which left me softlocked in the middle of the seas of Brittania. I also suffered through the game as a shepherd on my first (and so far only) playthrough.
Ultima 3 & 4 are the rpgs that made me love all crpgs in general.
The next Ultima game will be about the return of Spoony…I have a right to dream…
When you first revealed Warren Spector I audibly said "Holy shit!" "the epitome of success" then goes on to create the best game of all time himself
Thanks for the video.
I revisited Ultima 4 recently, and it's really neat what they were trying to do with the game. Going back to it, the early game is still pretty neat, though it heavily bogs down in combat after a while, to the point where it's a chore to even get to the spots on the map containing the quest items, and there isn't enough depth to the gameplay to carry it. Maybe someone can make a XU4 module that rebalances the combat to reduce the encounter rate.