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Released In: 1990 Quest of the Avatar is the fourth game in the Ultima series and second of three Ultima games released for the NES. Unlike other RPGs (including the previous Ultima games) where your primary focus is defeating evil, your ultimate goal in Quest of the Avatar is to attain goodness. To do this, you must master eight key virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, honor, sacrifice, spirituality, and humility. Your quest will take you to every corner of the world of Britannia in search of runes, stones, and keys. If you are unwavering in your mission, you will obtain the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom and achieve total enlightenment. Don't worry, there's still plenty of fighting. Syd Lexia: I haven't played a whole lot of Ultima games, mainly because the series started on the Apple II in 1980, a full 12 years before my family would own its first computer. Aside from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, this is the only Ultima game that I ever beat. Valdronius: Ultima is the oldest RPG series and they did a lot of things right. Quest of the Avatar starts off by asking you questions to determine your character. Depending on how you answer various questions about honesty, humility, spirituality, etc, you may become a Paladin, Ranger or some other class. Your class also determines where on the world map you start your quest. The game always begins in Lord British's castle, but once you leave the castle, it mysteriously disappears, leaving outside a town filled with other people of your class. Another interesting thing about the game is that several shopkeepers are blind, so they tell you how you owe them, and then you get to decide how much you pay. So you can save a few gold coins by cheating the blind, but you may want to be wary of karma. |
