Ultima: Quest Of The Avatar (NES) speedrun

[@StiffAftermath]

You know for being a port, you can see the amount of depth a game can have even on the NES! Amazing stuff.

[@ratix98]

I like the battle system. It's just like madara but a little bit more slow pace

[@TheCheeseMovesSideways]

Just imagine an SNES port God what a dream

[@feasel]

The tree you talk to in the jail cell boosts Justice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility. There is also no cool-down period, unlike many of the other virtue-gains, so you can just talk to it repeatedly.

[@BujuArena]

This is a game I played a lot in my childhood. I watched the entire run. You have an impressive memory, among other things. Congratulations on this awesome sub-2-hour run!

[@feasel]

Honesty is raised by talking to the camp-fire in Yew. You can do it repeatedly. As for selling items, the shopkeepers offer half the purchase price like a typical RPG. If you ask for that amount or less, you get a bonus of 4 honesty, 4 justice, 2 honor, 1 humility. If you ask for more than that amount, you get a penalty of 2 honesty, 2 justice, 2 honor, 1 humility. The notes from the SDA publication discuss the virtues a bit. See link in comment.

[@evanhawkins6073]

I beat this game when I was in 6th grade. I wanted it so bad because my Dad had played the Ultima games on his Apple II and then Ultima III for the NES. I really struggled getting my shit together and being able to focus. Wanting this game made me straighten up and focus in school more. I had color coded tabs throughout the game manual and remember chipping away at this game day after day for weeks and weeks. Brings back so many memories. Thanks for replaying this true classic and personal favorite for me.

[@chrisdicken9478]

Wow nice run, I remember this game lasting a whole summer off of school like 20 years ago!

[@puddleofsick]

I loved this game and played it through many times in my childhood. Great run!

[@alexcub3213]

How nice to remember with this video part of my childhood. Thanks!

[@TwilightPrince123]

One of my favorite games growing up. I almost beat it when I was younger, but never found the entrance to the Abyss. Good times.~ ...and to anyone who says it should be played on an Apple II or anything like that, I say this: "Keep thine biased opinions to thyself." : )

[@michaelkeller530]

The fact that you know the dungeons by heart blows my mind I got lost and died sooooo many times in there. I do wish you could have inserted text to explain reasoning for certain things you do but you got me curious enough to try and find out for myself.

[@ServiceInstaller]

14:43 Metallica Jump in the Fire!!

[@StiffAftermath]

This game is so underrated, and it is way deeper than Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. Too bad people dont give this game any respect because it doesnt hold a candle to the dos game. It is really good!

[@feasel]

Definitely underrated. Excellent game that I strongly recommend.

[@TheCheeseMovesSideways]

It's probably the best console port of any pc games ever at the time. Even if it wasn't faithful like the SMS port what they did with the source material is still very impressive and creative. THIS is an example on how to create a port, not just a lazy attempt at copying the original but a carefully crafted, brand new, different and fresh experience that's on par with the original

[@SuperHarryace]

Best game ever a lot of time and effort put into its creation. Sickening how other games in same size cartridge had little effort in complete game. This was my favorite game of all time. "I have waited such a long, long time." iolo. Just learned something capital i and an l are the same. Makes iolo look like Iolo

[@b.v.9864]

I am so lost in this maze part. I can't believe you have it memorized.

[@feasel]

Fortunately I didn't need to memorize the whole thing. Just the parts that I needed to traverse in the speedrun. The dungeons in this game are massive.

[@RpgmaniacNo1]

So wonderull! It's my favourite Richard Garriot title. After so many years, I still play it on my C64. These role-playing-games had a soul! Today we have over 70% pure action adventures, merely called "RPG" not less, not more. Today, the younger generation doesn't realy know what a true RPG is.

[@aweawe5723]

Our Creator is in Ultima 4 north west. Thanks.

[@ronartest7748]

i loved and hated this game at the same time

[@PirateSasuke]

I remember when I got the skull of mondain somewhere on the ocean. I literally 1 shot any emeny I see XD

[@danieldorey3920]

I thought that was pretty sick too. Until I read that using it makes it impossible for you to win the game.

[@chuckelator]

Just thought about it...it probably boosts your courage virtue, correct?

[@chuckelator]

I LOVE THIS...

[@J20M]

Ah yes I remember the sprites looking like snails in this game lol

[@etejoy]

Un buen juego pero podía ser un dolor de cabeza;good game but is one headache

[@ProjectDevilEye]

How were you able to get the stone of Justice despite being denied access? Glitch in the programming? I'd never played the NES port of this.

[@maychen]

Where is the part with the tree in the jail cell on this video? I'm trying to get a screen shot of it.

[@feasel]

55:30

[@maychen]

feasel0 Thank you! I've been trying to get a pic of that for quite a while.

[@chuckelator]

Ok. Serious question Feasel...When you're in Castle Britannia, talking to the tree dude bout the Skull of Mondain, why do you keep doing it over and over again? What purpose does that serve???

[@chuckelator]

Cool man...thanks! Another question or two... your honesty virtue... I see in this speedrun you're saving a ton of money cheating to the blind shop keep...what are you doing that off-sets that? Also, when you resell things like weapons and armor.. is there a certian set amount per item that they're willing to pay for a specific item? Or, is it something else?

[@JasonsDigitalStuff]

Unlike Ultima V, this NES port modernized the original and made it an RPG mainstay right up there with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy! The best home console port of any Ultima game IMO. Why the heck didn't they follow suit with Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny for the NES? WoD, one of my favorite Ultima games of all time, stripped and completely botched for its NES port. If they did anything close to this Ultima IV port, or atleast made it true to the original with some tweaking (like Ultima IV on the Sega Master System), Warriors of Destiny could have been as good or better. Sadly, its a steaming turd pile.

[@Thrackhamator]

Loved Ultima IV but what the feck is this? its nothing on the original.

[@BrendanRobert]

Good grief the music is terrible compared to the PC versions!

[@RealParadoxBlues]

The Tarot music in this version is one of my favorite songs in video gaming. So good sir, I must take offense to your statement.

[@BrendanRobert]

And that covers the first 1% of the game when you first start off.. and then...? :-)

[@BrendanRobert]

Oh there were titles with better music than this... Zelda 2 and the games in the Castlevania series had fantastic soundtracks compared to this. Kraid's Lair theme from Metroid is my top fav.

[@Zeithri]

I have to disagree. I love the world map theme.

[@iseeicyicetea]

holy shit, were games terrible back then.

[@jaimemagnum]

iseeicyicetea These games look horrible if you are from younger generations, this one was released 24 years ago, but back in 1990 games like this were awesome and were all we had. But to be honest, the NES was my first console and I loved it but what really made me love video games was the SNES generation.

[@iseeicyicetea]

jaimemagnum it's not just about the way it looks, to be honest. the one-dimensional characters and the terrible storytelling are way worse.

[@feasel]

iseeicyicetea Narrative and character development were not really a thing until the SNES generation and beyond.

[@iseeicyicetea]

feasel0 well, then i am really thankful for the snes generation ;-) reminds me that i should replay chrono trigger some time.

[@jaimemagnum]

iseeicyicetea And I should play it for the first time. Never knew that cartridge when I had my SNES, I have a ROM now but I'm too lazy.

[@uccidere1939]

So how can you tell how much you have in a virtue stat?

[@feasel]

They are not shown in the game so you have to keep track of them in your head or on paper. There are guides on the internet that will tell you what actions are worth how much of each stat. If you use an emulator you can also find out which memory addresses to peek at to see the stats. But for this run I was not using an emulator so I just had to plan the route and do the math ahead of time and remember exactly how many times to do each thing.

[@uccidere1939]

So a lot of this run is very much memory based and being very specific with each action.

[@feasel]

@@uccidere1939 Everything in the run is planned in advance and executed in a specific order. The only improvisation is within some of the battles.