Ultima: Quest of the Avatar

"The NES Ultima games reached their peak here"

Ultima: Quest of the Avatar was the follow-up to the Ultima: Exodus game, an d if I remember right, is actually the fourth Ultima game. I'm a bit hazy on the plot; If I remember right, the goal was to become an Avatar by mastering the 8 Virtues. There was a reason for this, but I forget what it was, probably to save the world. But anyway, let's have a look at the ratings.

Graphics: 5/10- To be honest, the graphics haven't improved that much from Ultima: Exodus. Everything still looks like it did in U:E pretty much. The hotel rooms (Of which there are more of) do look better, though, and the towns as a whole seem noticably improved. Your characters continually go through their same 2 frames of animation, and so do enemies.

Sound: 8/10- This is pretty good. There's a happy little overworld theme, a relaxing town theme, and an urgent battle theme. Sound effects wise, it's pretty much the same as the first Ultima for the NES, with the "zing" as you spell or projectile files and the "thwack" as you hit an enemy up close. Thankfully, they did get rid of that annoying chop chop sound as you go through trees.

Control: 9/10- This has been greatly improved from the first Ultima. Your characters just move much quicker and more fluidly, althogh the battles are still awkward. You can no longer create characters, although who you start as is determined by your answers to the questions you're asked at the beginning of the game. It's the same quesitons each time, though, so you can more or less rig it once you know how to do it. All in all, though, very solid.

Story: N/A/10- As I don't know the exact story, I'm not gonna rate it. As far as I can tell, though, you're attempting to become an Avatar by mastering the 8 Virtues. The reason you want to do this is so you can save the world should the need arise.

Challenge: 10/10- Just as hard, if not harder than, the first NES Ultima. This time, it's more just non-linear play and the fact you have to search like EVERYWHERE in order to find what you need. Also, you can sometimes only find things at certain phases of the moons. Thankfully, you can save in more than two places this time, and you don't need to build levels as much. Still, it's an incredibly tough game. You also have to find ingredients for spells, instead of just being able to cast them, which makes the game even tougher.

Replay Value: 5/10- Because you don't need to worry about building levels, and because you can't create your own parties (Rather, you have to wander the earth in search of colleagues), the replay value suffers a bit. You'll probably play it though, until you either beat it or give up in frustration.

Overall: 10/10- Despite the game's unbelievable difficulty, you'll want to get this game if you're an RPG fan. This is definitely the best of the NES Ultimas, and one of the best RPGs ever. Buy it today.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99