Ultima: Quest of the Avatar

"An oldie but goodie"

Ah, one of the earliest and definitely the best Ultima. Crappy graphics, cliched to death story line, and a whole lot of leveling up. What's not to love? All you people who play games just for the satisfaction of beating it, this game is definitely for you.

Graphics: 5/10: This game has some pretty prehistoric graphics here. Don't expect some FFVIII type graphics. Or even FFV. Or even FFIII. But these prementioned graphics aren't as annoying as a lot of other games for the NES. *COUGH COUGH* Ultima: Warriors of Destiny *COUGH COUGH*

Sound: 7/10: These are your classic just-get-the-feeling-for-the-setting type of sound. The town theme's alright, but the battle theme is just plain annoying. The rest of the soundtrack follows the for-every-one-decent-track-there's-a-crappy-one pattern.

Gameplay: 8/10: This game has you spending a lot of time just sitting around. You do a lot of talking to people, and you do a ton of trying to do things to up your virtues(more on that later). The random battles come fast and plenty on the world map and dungeons, but you don't spend as much time in danger zones as in other games. Also, one neato thing is you have jobs. At the very beginning, you are asked questions about what you would in certain situations. Depending on what you answer, you get a main character that is just a generic person in one of the eight job classes that line up with the eight virtues. Then, you can go around getting 3 more characters from the other job classes. These characters even have sort of a background and history to them. Another good point is the battles. You have a battle field to move around in, ala Final Fantasy Tactics. While the strategy is pretty low, that provides for a breath of fresh air compared to other RPGs in that time.

Plot: 7/10: The reason this gets such a high rating is not because of the story line, but instead the lack there of. You have to become the ''Avatar'', or hero, in a world needing one. You then have to master the eight virtues by finding their runes and then doing certain things to up your rating in this department. For example, if you wanted to be worthy of Avatarhood in the virtue of Compassion, you would need to find the Compassion rune, then give money to every beggar you see, or maybe you would spare a wild animal. Honor would require the Honor rune, and you not allowing anything evil to escape, etc. Then, you must mast the three principles in similar fashion. Finaly you must go to all the 8 dungeons and get the 8 virtue stones. Then, the end awaits. But, the order you do this in is all up to you.

Replayibility: 3/10: This is a downspot because once you add this game to your resume of beaten games, there is really nothing more to accomplish. It is a pretty fun RPG for such an oldie, but compared with the Final Fantasies and the Dragon Warriors and the Breath of Fires of today, this is a light-weight.

My Final Thought: Well, first I should mention this game is made for a true-blooded RPGer. If Zelda 64 is your favorite RPG, you'll probably won't like this puppy. But if you are a fan of early Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy/Ultima(duh) you will probably love this game. All you old school fans will love this gem. All in all, give this game a shot if it seems halfway decent. After all, Ultima didn't become what it is for nothing.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/01, Updated 12/27/01