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Preamble: This isn't a review. It doesn't contain critical analysis, just the subjective opinions of one person. The intent is to remember the games I've come across in my life and share the nostalgia, nothing more. And some of those games I didn't play in great depth.
Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
Developer: Origin Systems Platform: Various Release Year: 1988 Stephen's Rating: n/a
Ultima V was the second game in the Age of Enlightenment series.
Basic Plot
Removing the codex from the Abyss released three evil entities into Britannia; The Shadowlords. The Shadowlords were formed by three of the shards of the Gem of Immortality (held by Mondain in Ultima I). They represented the anti-principles of Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice as opposed to the three guiding principles of Truth, Love, and Courage which combined define the eight virtues.
The Shadowlords kidnapped Lord British and tainted Lord Blackthorn, who took his place as ruler of Britannia. They terrorised the people of Britannia and outlawed the Avatar's companions.
The Avatar was summoned once again to save Britannia. He found a way to defeat The Shadowlords once and for all and quested to the bottom of the dungeon Doom to free Lord British using the orb of the moons.
Gameplay
Similar to Ultima IV. It featured more polished writing, and introduced the mechanic of day and night.
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Well that sums up the early Ultima series for now and we can return to our regular broadcast but Ultima VI: The False Prophet is coming up soon (I have a list to get through). If you're interested and want to check out any of my previous posts I've done quite a few Ultima games so far:
Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=348111 Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=349559 Ultima III: Exodus - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=349828 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=350115
Ultima VII: Black Gate - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=340999 Ultima VII: The Serpent Isle - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=343983
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=341188 Ultima Online - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=347650
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Ultima V was one of the most incredible RPG games ever made. *sigh* memories.
I loved sneaking into Lord British's chamber with a couple skull keys and taking all that loot from his chests, getting his magic carpet, and then committing many good deeds afterwards to make good on the bad karma that resulted from the theft.
Never could figure out if picking peoples' crops counted as stealing or not....
Exploring the underworld was always fun, but it was always so so so hard to get back out.
And can't forget sitting on bridges, holding spacebar to pass the time, so that I could fight trolls over and over to get enough money to buy magic axes for my whole party. . .
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So, what's the deal with that one? You have arrow-key control over your character, but it's got text commands as well, or am I totally misinterpreting that screenshot? Regardless, it's interesting to see how they evolved in each iteration, definitely interested to see the write ups you give to the ones you put more playtime into. Really enjoying these, thanks.
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On July 05 2012 15:08 Clemz wrote: So, what's the deal with that one? You have arrow-key control over your character, but it's got text commands as well, or am I totally misinterpreting that screenshot? Regardless, it's interesting to see how they evolved in each iteration, definitely interested to see the write ups you give to the ones you put more playtime into. Really enjoying these, thanks.
From memory there were a lot of keyboard commands to remember like "k" for climbing ladders etc which was a large part of the input and quite confusing (to me anyway). I'm not sure if you ever had to type in actual commands or text as dialogue or not, maybe someone who played Ultima V could answer that? I know in subsequent games you were given a list of options in dialogue and simply picked one, and completing quests sometimes opened up new options (like most modern RPG's).
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Ultima 4 and 5 were the best RPGs ever- such interesting stories and so many cool hidden things to discover.
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On July 05 2012 15:31 DRTnOOber wrote:Show nested quote +On July 05 2012 15:08 Clemz wrote: So, what's the deal with that one? You have arrow-key control over your character, but it's got text commands as well, or am I totally misinterpreting that screenshot? Regardless, it's interesting to see how they evolved in each iteration, definitely interested to see the write ups you give to the ones you put more playtime into. Really enjoying these, thanks. From memory there were a lot of keyboard commands to remember like "k" for climbing ladders etc which was a large part of the input and quite confusing (to me anyway). I'm not sure if you ever had to type in actual commands or text as dialogue or not, maybe someone who played Ultima V could answer that? I know in subsequent games you were given a list of options in dialogue and simply picked one, and completing quests sometimes opened up new options (like most modern RPG's).
for dialogue, it was kind of kings quest style, you had to type a word that the person knows something about and they'll respond to it if its the right word. I.e. if someone is interested in joining your party you could type 'join' when talking to them, and they'll join. If someone knows a mantra of a certain shrine that you need then you say 'mantra' and they'd tell it to you in dialogue. Often these key words had cues in the person's speech, but sometimes you need to know what to say to who from other clues in the game or what other people say.
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Oh I totally have to upload a photo from the awesome cloth map that was bundle ith the game.
I'll try to remember to do that when i'l back home.
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On July 05 2012 19:12 Kerm wrote: Oh I totally have to upload a photo from the awesome cloth map that was bundle ith the game.
I'll try to remember to do that when i'l back home.
Oh yes I have some maps that came with the "Ultima Collection" DVD, I think I have the Ultima IV map hanging up in my brother's old room back at my parents' place. They were really well made.
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I began a new ultima VII run because of your posts. Exult is a nice program.
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There you go, I've been owning this thing for like 20 years now (wow ...). Note it's probably magnitude more awesome that anything they put in collector version nowadays.
More close-up view :
Oh and shoutout to caradoc who went ahead and PM so that I do not forget to take those pictures (i would probably had forgotten if he did not do it ) ^_^
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