Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Ultima IV revolutionizes the role-playing genre by placing moral choices at the heart of its systems. Rather than focusing solely on combat prowess or loot accumulation, the game tracks your adherence to the Eight Virtues—Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility. Every action you take, from donating to a beggar to paying the correct price at a market stall, has a direct impact on your spiritual growth. This means that the path to victory is measured not in experience points alone, but in the consistency of your honorable deeds.

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Character creation itself reflects the game’s ethical core. By answering a series of philosophically charged questions, you uncover which Virtue resonates most strongly with you, determining both your starting town and character class. From there, exploration opens up. Whether you ride your horse across rolling plains, sail the seas in a sturdy vessel, or teleport via mystical moongates, Britannia feels alive and responsive. Hidden quests, shrines of each Virtue, and randomized dungeon puzzles reward players who seek out challenges rather than simply grind for levels.

Combat in Ultima IV blends traditional turn-based strategy with a top-down tactical screen. Enemy encounters on the overworld map transition seamlessly to an arena where positioning, spell selection, and party composition matter deeply. Unlike other RPGs of its era, Ultima IV encourages creative problem solving—sometimes sparing an enemy or negotiating through dialogue can yield greater spiritual gains than outright slaughter. Furthermore, your NPC companions, recruited from citizens you’ve helped along the way, add variety to your tactics and deepen your connection to Britannia’s people.

Graphics

For its time, Ultima IV’s color palette was a vast leap forward from the monochrome or limited-hue displays common in earlier titles. The world map employs a clean, top-down presentation with distinctive tiles marking forests, mountains, and towns. Each region feels unique, with custom icons for castles, shrines, and dungeons. Movement feels fluid, and the separation between exploration and battle screens helps ground you in a clear visual context.

Dungeon crawling shifts to a first-person pseudo-3D view, complete with textured walls, flickering torchlight, and secret doors. Maze-like corridors are not only atmospheric but also strategically designed—puzzle rooms demand that you observe clues on the walls, manage limited torch fuel, and map your progress carefully. This combination of overhead and first-person perspectives gives Ultima IV an immersive breadth that few contemporaries could match.

The FM Towns version takes graphical fidelity even further, introducing richer sprite detail, animated water effects, and a broader palette of background hues. While the core layouts and map designs remain faithful to the original, these enhancements create a more vibrant sense of place. Even on standard PC or Commodore 64 machines, the game’s crisp tile art and clear character portraits stand out, making exploration and dialogue feel inviting rather than tedious.

Story

Set in the newly formed realm of Britannia after the cataclysmic events of the first three Ultima games, Ultima IV casts you as the fledgling Avatar in search of spiritual mastery. Lord British tasks you with achieving true understanding of the Eight Virtues—Truth, Love, and Courage manifest through honesty, compassion, valor, and more. Your quest is not to slay an ultimate villain, but to become a living example of ethical ideals, serving as a moral beacon for all citizens.

The narrative unfolds organically through conversation and exploration. NPCs react to your reputation: heroic deeds unlock new dialogue options, while unethical choices may bar access to vital clues. Townsfolk share legends of hidden shrines, ancient codices, and the Stygian Abyss, where the ultimate test awaits. As you piece together the lore and gather four sacred artifacts, the world itself feels invested in your moral journey, yielding both rewards and challenges at every turn.

Ultima IV’s emphasis on ethical complexity makes its storytelling stand out. There are no simple black-and-white quests—helping a wounded outlaw may earn Compassion but tarnish your Honor in the eyes of the local guard. Each decision carries weight, compelling you to consider the long-term impact of your actions. This thoughtful approach to narrative laid the groundwork for modern choice-driven RPGs, and it remains deeply engaging even decades later.

Overall Experience

Playing Ultima IV feels like an odyssey in moral philosophy as much as a classic dungeon crawl. The game’s blend of ethical challenges, exploration, and traditional RPG mechanics creates a uniquely rewarding journey. There’s genuine satisfaction in seeing your Virtue meters rise, unlocking new spells, companions, and areas as you embody the ideals of Britannia.

While modern players may find the text-parser conversations and mapping requirements a bit archaic, these elements also encourage genuine engagement. You won’t breeze through every dungeon on autopilot; instead, you learn to read the environment, keep notes on puzzle solutions, and experiment with dialogue keywords. This slower, more deliberate pace fosters a deep connection to the world and its people.

Decades after its release, Ultima IV still resonates as a milestone in game design. Its moral core, innovative gameplay systems, and ambitious narrative continue to inspire developers and players alike. For anyone seeking an RPG that transcends mere hack-and-slash, offering instead a richly woven tapestry of ethical decision-making and exploration, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar remains an essential adventure.

Retro Replay Score

8/10