In this review, we seek the runes in the NES game Ultima: Quest of the Avatar. We find out how well this RPG game plays.
This game was released in 1990 and is the fourth game of this series.
We first played Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. We ended up finding that game to be a flop. After that, we tried Ultima II – The Revenge of the Enchantress. That game wound up being worse than the previous game. After that, we tried Ultima: Exodus. Despite our best efforts, that game still ended up being a flop.
Nevertheless, we also played Ultima Underworld – The Stygian Abyss. For us, that game was a great game to play. We also tried Ultima Underworld II – Labyrinth of Worlds. That game ended up being barely passable.
Nevertheless, we are pushing ahead to see if there are any other great games in the series by giving this game a try.
The story in the game has Lord British appoint the hero to be the next candidate to achieve avatarhood. From there, you embark on your quest.
When you start, you are asked a series of cryptic questions. Most of these questions are situational, but others simply have you choose between two values. When you are done, you get to play whatever class you get. This is a marked departure from previous games in the series where you simply got to pick and choose which class you (or even companions in one instance) are going to be.
After your introductory story, you get to leave the castle and go to the overworld. There are a number of locations you can visit. This includes villages, castles, dungeons, and shrines. Your first destination is likely going to be the nearby town.
Towns have a number of potential services they can offer. Two services are weapon and armour shops. The stock varies from town to town, but you are likely going to find equipment that is better than what you possess. One improvement that seems very trivial by today’s standards is the ability to sell equipment as well. It’s limited, but in previous games, you are simply stuck with whatever equipment you got.
In addition to this, there are healers and hotels. Healers remove status ailments while hotels allow you to recover HP and MP. Hotels also allow you to save your game.
A change in all of this is the possibility to get an herb shop. Herbs are a new feature in the game. In addition to costing MP to cast spells, spells also require a certain number of ingredients to cast. If you lack one herb/ingredient, then you are unable to cast the spell in spite of having sufficient MP. This is not too dissimilar to the system used by the later released Secret of Evermore.
Another noticeable change is the removal of the food system. For a number of players, this is likely a good change because food could really hinder gameplay in the previous games. After all, while food added a sense of realism, it also made gameplay more complex.
While the removal of one feature is certainly welcome, the removal of another feature is probably perplexing to some players. In this case, the ability to see enemies wandering around unsafe places (such as the overworld). Instead, this game settles for a much more stripped down random encounter system where the game just picks a moment to initiate a battle screen.
Battles with enemies have largely carried over from the previous game. For each turn, you can choose between moving, attacking, casting a spell, or other action. This battle system has actually been improved over the previous system. Previously, attacks are exclusively up, down, left, or right. This includes a ranged attack. In this game, range attacks can take place on an angle. You even get a target system to pick the enemy you wish to attack. Additionally, movements now have arrows to help indicate where you are moving your characters. Finally, going back a menu won’t cancel your turn. As a result, the battle system is actually manageable. The “auto” move can be a bit unpredictable, but this is a minor irritant for us.
As you defeat enemies, the character that defeats that enemy gets experience points. Additionally, when the whole battle is over, you get a chest in the overworld. Open it and get gold. We don’t know if there are traps or if it’s possible to get items in chests. Still, you do get gold at least.
Levelling up your character takes place while speaking to Lord British. In this game, however, you get to have an even simpler system. If you have enough experience points, you get to the next level. According to sources, the level cap of this game is the surprisingly low level of 8. Another reason to visit Lord British is the fact that all you need to do is tell him you are not in good health. If you say that, lord British will fully heal you for your next round of adventuring. Also, if you die, you’ll appear back at Lord British. We didn’t notice any significant penalties in the process, but this only happened once for us.
The thing about levelling up is the fact that the monsters will also increase in power. When you are in your earlier levels, you’ll likely only square off against skeleton warriors and a few other weak enemies. Level up a number of times and you’ll get to fact enemies like demons and other large beasts. Also note that more powerful enemies won’t necessarily yield more gold as well.
Another feature carried over from previous games is the ability to commandeer a ship. After a few levels, pirates will begin sailing the oceans. They will approach you and stop once they hit land. Simply walk up to a vessel and take on the small crew on board. Once you’ve defeated the pirates, the ship is yours. This allows you to travel on the oceans. Just beware that, ironically, you can’t get gold from pirates. Also, no sea monster will drop any gold. You just get experience points from the whole affair.
Your initial goal is to, apparently, collect the runes and take them to their respective shrines. The clues you get to find the runes and the subsequent shrines are, at best, cryptic. The runes are found in the various villages. Simply step on the right square and initiate a search to find the rune. Once the rune in question is found, you can take it over to the respective shrine and access whatever it is inside the shrine.
It’s worth pointing out that most dungeons are generally optional. They feature a first person perspective and contain various fountains that creates effects on character (good and bad). Certain squares are designated as a fixed battle scene. Uniquely, chests are located in the battle scene as well as the enemies. Dungeons feature multiple levels, doors, and false walls too.
On a final note, this game also utilizes the distance of sight. In a nutshell, you can see most areas. However, if you walk near dense forest or mountains, those areas will be visually blocked off by darkness. Go into the area and you’ll be treated to a secondary view. Typically, this view is much more narrow, but you’ll see whats inside this other area at least.
For me, this game does represent a marked improvement over the previous games. The most obvious place this game is an improvement is the overall balance. Previously, you were always on the verge of death regardless of what you did. In this game, you actually have a good fighting chance at surviving a multitude of encounters. As a result, this game ends up being playable.
Another noticeable improvement is the controls and menu systems. Gone is the loss of a turn in battle if you go back a menu item. The target system makes battling much more user friendly. Also, the angled attacks make this game much less archaic. There is a few areas that need improving such as needing to equip items in secondary menu options. Also, an indicator that there is a second menu would have been nice.
Unfortunately, this game still has huge hurdles. The biggest one is that it’s very difficult to tell what you need to do next. You are basically dropped in the middle of a very large world. The task is to find just the right square in just the right town to search before you can advance the plot. Some hints are more cryptic than others. As such, you can find yourself wandering aimlessly for considerable periods of time being unsure if you are doing something right or not. While we did find one rune, we really didn’t make it much further into the game then that.
Another negative is the fact that you can’t really choose your class any more. Instead, after answering cryptic questions in the beginning, you are stuck with whatever class the game spits out at you. I found this to be more annoying than anything else.
Also worth pointing out is the fact that other RPGs are surfacing at this point in time. This includes Castle of the Winds, Dragon Warrior, and Zelda II – The Adventure of Link. So, by this time, other developers were perfecting the RPG genre by quite a bit. So, there is plenty of competition to give this game a run for its money. I’m not entirely convinced this game steps things up in ways it needed to to keep up with others.
Generally speaking, this game represents a major improvement over the previous games. The balance of the game is a big factor here. Also, controls and menu systems are becoming much more user friendly which is badly needed for this series. Unfortunately, there are still irritants in the system that need to be worked on. The lack of being able to directly choose your class is also an irritant for me. The big drag for this game is the lack of much direction in the game. As such, you tend to wander aimlessly while not really solving much. Also, this game is a bit dated for what else is out there at this point.
Graphically speaking, this game is OK. The characters and general scenery are decent enough for a game of its time. Still, there are other games that really pushed the envelope at this point in time. These games include Mega Man 2, Super Hang-On, and Bad Dudes having been released just a year earlier to name a few examples. As such, it’s not an amazing effort, but not terrible at the same time.
As for audio, it’s quite basic. There are a few simple sound effects and a rather limited soundtrack. What is in there is half decent, but I wouldn’t call the whole experience anything to get excited over.
Overall, this is a fairly mediocre game. While I do applaud the fact that this is a definite improvement over previous games, I can’t help but feel that this game is also still very prototype-like. The balancing is finally very decent and the menus and controls have been improved. Still, there are plenty of ways this game can be improved. This includes a refinement of the menu system, a generally clear direction on where you need to go, and better control over your class. So, while this is an improvement, this game still has a long way to go to be impressive to me.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Made it to level 7 and obtained 1 rune.
General gameplay: 14/25
Replay value: 6/10
Graphics: 6/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 58%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
