/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.4277561]

What's the best way to play Ultima 4? I've heard it called the greatest RPG ever made, so I'd like to get into it and see what it's all about.

[Anonymous No.4277608]

>>4277561
You could probably go with "xu4"; it's the original game, plus a number of fixes and quality-of-play enhancements that help make it less tedious. Google it; it's worth your time.

[Anonymous No.4277719]

>>4277608
Looks really good. Thanks!

[Anonymous No.4277721]

>>4277719
np

[Anonymous No.4279561]

Why Not:

>[1988] Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny - Game Soundtrack [Ken Arnold]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGY6-BUVCsw

??
?

[Anonymous No.4279567]

>>4277561
>I've heard it called the greatest RPG ever made

No doubt by a very niche audience. I've literally never heard anyone make this claim.

I should forewarn you that Ultima IV absolutely requires a guide to beat. No one hints at the locations of some key items, which are just scattered around innocuous places (in and out of villages) and have to be searched for manually.


Regarding your request, though: Many of the ports do have their own charm. The SMS port has a very nice tileset, and is pretty accurate to the original game. The NES version is like a JRPG makeover in the same vein as the NES version of Exodus.

[Anonymous No.4280184]

>>4279567
>The NES version is like a JRPG makeover in the same vein as the NES version of Exodus.
3 wasn't dumbed down like 4.

[Anonymous No.4280641]

>>4279567
It's like an old Ford car, extremely influential for its time, but hardly the best automobile of all time.

[Anonymous No.4280701]

>>4280641
It's still kind of unique. It's a game about improving yourself instead of killing some big bad on an epic quest.

[Anonymous No.4280710]

>>4280701
I don't think the game holds up well and is rather hard to get into nowadays, but I admit it's a very novel thing and there's few games out there like it. I don't think I'll ever actually complete the game, but I'm glad I tried it and appreciate it for what it is.

[Anonymous No.4280736]

>>4280710
Every true retro gamer should play it. It's one of the most groundbreaking games in existence.
You don't actually have to finish the Abyss, just gain some insight on the virtues and the world.
Then you can export your avatar to 5 and 6 and appreciate them more than somebody who skipped 4.

[Anonymous No.4280737]

>>4279567
Not true, everything in the game can be done without a guide. I think you do need the manual, lore guide, etc. though.

[Anonymous No.4280749]

Take it slow, definitely not a game to try and rush through.

[Anonymous No.4281907]

>>4279567
I've beaten it without a guide.

[Anonymous No.4282796]

>>4279567
I beat it without a guide. Just take notes and read the books it comes with.

[Anonymous No.4282804]

>>4280710
I really liked it when I played through it about 2 years ago. I really liked the dialogue system and since im a youngun I had never actually had to take notes for a video game before and had a lot of fun with that.
I loved figuring out how to ascend to the state of Avatarhood. Really nothing else like it.

[Anonymous No.4282864]

>>4277561
>I've heard it called the greatest RPG ever made

By WHO? 6 and 7 are WAY better. Even 5 is better. Underworld 1 and 2 are both vastly superior.

[Anonymous No.4282868]

>>4282864
>Even 5 is better

Debatable.

Rest of the post is true though.

[Anonymous No.4282913]

Whats the general consensus of the Master system version over the others?
It was my first RPG
Played the one on GOG and it seems lacking

[Anonymous No.4282959]

I tried it, and I wish I could like it, but it's fucking boring. The virtues are an interesting idea, but it just comes down to grinding. And you have to talk to every person on the planet to get anywhere. Tedious.

>>4282864
It gets praised for its comparatively unique plot that doesn't rely on standard RPG cliches. Gameplay-wise it's nothing amazing.

[Anonymous No.4282969]

>>4282913
It is pretty much the same game, but with new dialogue system and final puzzle.

[Anonymous No.4282981]

>>4282959
>And you have to talk to every person on the planet to get anywhere.
What's wrong with that? You don't even have to speak to them multiple times in a specific order.

[Anonymous No.4282996]

>>4282981
Not him, but I found the SMS conversation system more comfortable than input parsers, it gets tedious typing the same words over and over again

[Anonymous No.4283030]

>>4282969
After trying the one on GOG, its considerably easier to talk to people in game

[Anonymous No.4283061]

So which Ultima games are recommended?

I tend to like RPGs which lean more towards having a good story than innovative gameplay. Which would I enjoy the most?

Looking at the first three games, they might be a bit dated for me, but it seems the later entries are all pretty well regarded.

[Anonymous No.4283074]

>>4283061
If you will only ever play one Ultima game, it should probably be Ultima 7 with Exult. It's generally widely regarded as the most "modern" precursor to games like Fallout and Arcanum. It has a pretty shit combat system, but it's also not particularly intrusive, allowing you to just focus on the adventure bits. Curmudgeons at RPG Codex generally love it, and if there's one thing those guys know it's their old RPGs. It's also the beginning of an entirely new "trilogy" of Ultima games, but U8 and U9 range from "acquired taste" to "utter and complete shit", so you can just pretend U7 along with Ultima Underworld 1/2 is a self-contained story for the most part.

Ultima Underworld 1/2 are great Ultima side-story games that are absolutely and completely standalone, but whose gameplay isn't particularly representative of the Ultima series. Those are very competently made first person dungeon crawlers. System Shock 1 is based off of their engine. If you're a fan of the Looking Glass Studios catalogue (Thief, System Shock) you should definitely check these games out.

Ultima 4-5-6 form an entire trilogy which is robust and a very unique experience, but it will take you quite a bit to chew through them. The payoff is generally worth it because the world-building in Ultima is impeccable. However, it does take quite a lot of build up to fully appreciate (U4 is a very unique experience and you generally need to play it to fully appreciate 5 and 6). Of course, the journey from U4 to U7 will also be extremely rewarding.

U1-2 can be safely ignored and U3 is kinda like a proto-U4 but I wouldn't say it's necessary to play it.

[Anonymous No.4283084]

>>4283061
You can skip 1-3 but only 2 is really bad.
4 is vital for the rest of the series so it's the last entry point if you want the full story.

[Anonymous No.4283094]

>>4283074
>>4283084
Great advice, thank you.

I think I'll give 4 a go then and work my way through that trilogy + 7. If I'm not a fan I'll probably skip ahead to 7 as it seems to be the most revered.

Not a huge fan of first-person dungeon crawlers I'm afraid, though I have been meaning to play through System Shock (I'm more attracted to scifi/cyberpunk than your more classical style fantasy aesthetic).

[Anonymous No.4283109]

>>4283094

Play Ultima 6 with Nuvie: http://nuvie.sourceforge.net/

[Anonymous No.4283141]

>>4283074
>It's generally widely regarded as the most "modern" precursor to games like Fallout and Arcanum.
What do they have in common? Ultima 7 has no alternative approaches, little value in builds or many sidequests. 7 didn't bring much new to the table anyway, mainly shitty item management, uncontrollable combat and general simplification.

[Anonymous No.4283220]

>>4283109
Thanks.

Out of interest, is there a reason why Ultima in particular has so many fan remake engines (xu4, Exult, Nuvie, etc)?

Also the base gameplay seems to carry over for a lot of the titles, is there a reason there's never been one singular engine project that covers all the games?

[Anonymous No.4283236]

>>4283220
I think it's because people wanted to play Ultima in a time when DOS support in Windows was getting phased out. Then they added extra features which inspired others to do the same.
You might be able to make a single engine for 1-5 but there's not even a working engine recreation to 5 to begin with.

[Anonymous No.4284541]

>>4279567
>Ultima IV absolutely requires a guide to beat

I didn't need a guide. Did use up a couple pads of paper. Is this where I'm supposed to say "git gud"?

[Anonymous No.4284576]

>>4284541
>I didn't need a guide.

Didn't need a guide to uncover virtue stones that are completely unmarked? Doubtful. You'd have to search every tile in the game until you stumbled upon them.

[Anonymous No.4284584]

>>4284576
Not the anon you were typing at, but the player is told by certain characters exactly where the white and black stones are. Now the other stones, yeah, you have to explore every inch of those dungeons, but that's half the funand much of the tedium, desu.

[Anonymous No.4284642]

>>4283141
it was more accessible and more people played it first. kind of like modern gaming today ie smartphones

[Anonymous No.4285345]

>>4282959
If you're playing Ultima for the "story" then you should play them all in order from the start. There is so much lore that it'll blow your mind.

[Anonymous No.4285352]

>>4285345
Ultima 1 has no lore at all and 2's is complete nonsense, a large part of it is an excuse on using orcs as townsfolk.
3 is the first game in the series with any sense of connectivity and even there the lore is mainly limited to the manual since NPC only say a single line.

[Anonymous No.4285358]

>>4283236
There's a really good Ultima 5 recreation in Dungeon Siege somehow.

There's one for Ultima 6 too but it's not good unless you have a thing for portraits that are 90% the developers' larping friends in bad wigs.

[Anonymous No.4285595]

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ultima/ultima.htm

Going to read through all of this. HCG101 is really nice to just sit and enjoy for a few hours sometimes.

[Anonymous No.4285604]

>>4285358
They added far too much fan fiction in Lazarus.

[Anonymous No.4285619]

>>4285595
Always found this to be a good read:
https://lparchive.org/author/Nakar