Spoony Plays Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, Part 1

We've definitely got a lot more on our plates this time.  Lord British is gone, the three Shadowlords are running amok and corrupting people (most notably Lord Blackthorn), Britannia's virtues have been twisted into an oppressive set of laws, our allies are all in hiding for fear of imprisonment or execution, and it's implied the shrines have been destroyed as well.  Not to mention that the game is considerably more stingy with funds this time and enemies are more vicious than ever.  Well, when in doubt, gather some information, right?

---

As you can see, this game is a lot more procedural than the previous Ultimas; you'll have to put a lot of work in to make progress in addition to the usual detective work to uncover clues and leads. However, you can save yourself at least a little bit of work if you made sure to write down all the Mantras from the previous game (otherwise you'll have to re-learn them here, and people may not be willing to give them up unless you have exceptionally good Karma to earn their trust).

The virtues also aren't as big of a concern this time, though you should still try to maintain positive Karma to get people to trust you (which also affects shop prices) and lessen the experience penalty when someone dies.  It's also worth your while to do the Shrine quests - not only do they boost your stats, but doing all eight will earn you a very important password for the end of the game.

Oh, and here's a handy way to spare yourself from hours of gold grinding:

In the basement of Castle Britannia you can unlock this door (via a Skull Key or a fifth-circle In Ex Por spell) and find three chests inside.

Each one contains a big stack of armor, weapons, items, food and gold, sometimes including Magic Axes.  They also regenerate each time you exit and re-enter the basement, so you can use this to your advantage to collect a mountain of goodies very quickly.

However, the game does consider this stealing, so you'll take a Karma hit for each chest you open.  Of course, you can always earn your Karma back later (by donating money at shrines, among other methods), but it's not wise to go around with low Karma for long periods.  Not only does it generally make your life more difficult as mentioned above, but you can hit an impasse when you need a Mantra or Word of Power and the person who has it doesn't trust you enough to give it out.

Spoony Plays Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, Part 0 (Introduction and character import)

Ultima steps into a new age of refined gameplay and Britannia falls into a new age of despair at the hands of the tyrannical Lord Blackthorn.



I'm playing with a mod that adds music.  You can get it here.

The character importing process is a bit tricky to get working on the Ultima Collection and GOG versions of the game, largely because the way the games are packaged prevents the files from being cross-compatible.  Fortunately, there is a patch available.  As for a step-by-step walkthrough of the conversion process:

1. Extract FIXPARTY.EXE from the above link to your Ultima 5 directory.
2. Copy the PARTY.SAV file from your Ultima 4 directory to your Ultima 5 directory.
3. Run FIXPARTY.EXE to patch the file.
4. Start the game, choose "Import a character" and choose drive letter C (or whatever drive letter you are running the game off of).

There you go.  Ultima 5 should now properly import your character and convert all of their stats to the new system.

As for the manuals:

Manual, Spellbook and quick reference guide
Lord British's journey log

Be sure you read both.   Not only do these contain some nice backstory (as per series norm), but they also provide you with two very important clues.  The song "Stones" and Lord British's journey log are key to locating two items that are absolutely necessary to complete the game.

Spoony Plays Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Part 6 (Final)

SEIZURE WARNING: This video contains flashing images.

Our quest is almost at an end.  But the journey is eternal...

A few of the things we'll need (collected off camera to spare you the tedium of a few zillion random battles):

The Black Virtue Stone, one of two absent from the dungeons (the other being the White Stone, which can only be retrieved via the hot air balloon).  To get it, search the place where the Moonglow moongate appears at double new moons.

The Book of Truth from the Lycaeum.  Search in the library (presumably under the letter "T").

The Candle of Love, which can be found in a hidden room in the temple in Cove.  You'll need to either have a ship pulled into a whirlpool or use a Blink spell to get there.

The Bell of Courage, which seems to be rather arbitrarily placed in a reef in the ocean..  Search at coordinates N'A" by L'A" to find it.

While not strictly necessary, the magic wheel at coordinates N'H" by G'A" will strengthen your ship, making it much easier to get past the pirate blockade on the Isle of the Avatar.

The Skull of Mondain is also not necessary, but we might as well be completionists by destroying the last remains of our nemesis.  It can be found at P'F" by M'F" on double new moons.

(You don't actually see me chuck the skull into the Abyss due to several failed attempts at getting past the ship blockade resulting in me dying early in the dungeon...)

And without further ado, the Stygian Abyss:

All the clues townspeople give out are listed in this walkthrough, if you don't mind spoilers. (Plus I skimmed over some of them for the sake of brevity) http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=1707

---

Computer platform version differences for Ultima IV are fairly minimal.  The only real thing of note is a bug in Hythloth in the DOS version that prevents you from passing through one room (necessitating the use of a Y-Up spell) and a bug that shows the same hint text at all of the shrines in the Apple, Commodore and Atari ST versions.  As usual, the DOS port also has no music.

The NES port has its gameplay and visual style reworked to resemble Dragon Quest.  For example, the maximum party size is four (rather than eight), encounters are invisible and random, the dialog system is greatly simplified, and combat turns now only take part after everyone on both sides has selected an action first.  The spell system was also somewhat simplified; you simply select a spell to cast and it depletes the necessary reagents.

The Sega Master System version is more faithful to the PC versions, albeit with a somewhat simplified dialog system (players can only ask about keywords they've learned) and the dungeons are viewed in an overhead 2D layout, making them easier to navigate.  Diagonal attacking is also possible as in Ultima 5 and later games in the series.

Spoony Plays Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, Part 5

Dungeon diving ahoy.



Before you venture in, you'll want to recruit all eight characters from the various towns.  You must be at level eight in order to recruit all seven of them; if you're low on experience, go some place where enemies respawn (like outside the Shrine of Humility or any given dungeon room) and fight until you have 6400 experience.

Equipping everyone with Mystic Robes and the best ranged weapon they can equip wouldn't be a bad idea either.  If you need cash, you can sell your Mystic Swords for a pretty hefty sum (and go back and get more from Empath Abbey when you have exactly zero in your inventory).

The best ranged weapons are as follows.

Magic Wand - Bard, Druid, Mage
Magic Bow - Ranger, Tinker, Paladin
Crossbow - Fighter
Sling - Shepherd

Getting some Mandrake Root and Nightshade would also be wise, as they enable casting of many of the most powerful spells in the game.  They can't be bought in any store, though; instead, you have to search at specific spots on the overworld map to find them.  Mandrake Root can be found at D'G" L'G" on two new moons (on a single tile of swamp south of Minoc), while Nightshade can be found at J'F" C'O" on two new moons.

Top 5 Virtual Boy games

The Virtual Boy stands as one of Nintendo's few outright failures, but it isn't hard to see why.  With its dark red LED graphics and being rushed to markets to capitalize on a trend over Gunpei Yokoi's protests, it was setting itself up for disappointment right away.  Not to mention the hardware was flimsy and unreliable (resulting in countless broken stands and eyepieces) and it had a library of games that largely failed to take advantage of its "virtual reality" selling point, resulting in most people viewing it as an incremental upgrade over the Game Boy at best and a weak gimmick at worst.  As a result of this and a high price tag ($180 - double the Game Boy's launch price and nearly the same cost of the soon-to-be-released Nintendo 64), the Virtual Boy sold well under a million units worldwide and was discontinued less than a year after its debut, amassing a total of 22 titles during its short existence; of these, eight were exclusive to Japan and three were exclusive to North America.

So why do a top list of a system that was virtually unplayable when it was new, let alone by today's standards?  Because like any system, there are a few interesting titles that are worth a look, even if you have to emulate them owing to the terrible original hardware (an alternative which allows you use more modern/less headache-inducing options for 3D effects).  So let's look at my five favorites.

5. Mario Clash (Nintendo, 1995)

The only Mario game on the system, and rather than being a sidescrolling platformer, Mario Clash is more or less a remake of the original Mario Bros arcade game.  It's a pretty loose adaptation, though, featuring reworked gameplay that takes advantage of a 3D layout - generally by having you throw Koopa shells to hit enemies from across the stage in order to defeat them, as well as a bonus level where you catch coins on a 3D layout.  Pretty basic stuff, but they stretched out for a whopping 99 levels, so you're going to be playing for quite a while if you want to see it all. Not a bad title for what it is, but disappointing for what it isn't.

4. Jack Bros. (Atlus, 1995)

The last game released on the Virtual Boy (in North America, at least) and, somewhat ironically, the first game in the Megami Tensei series to be released outside of Japan.  Rather than being a super-tough dungeon crawling RPG, however, it's a top-down action game where you navigate a series of mazes, defeat enemies, collect keys to open the door down to the next level, and battle stage bosses, all on a continually decreasing timer that doubles as a health bar (taking a hit costs anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds).  It's ultimately nothing that hasn't been done elsewhere, but Jack Bros. plays smoothly, has some charming monster designs and surprisingly good music, so that puts it in the upper echelon of Virtual Boy games.

3. Panic Bomber (Hudson Soft, 1995)

A solid head-to-head puzzle game in the vein of games like Puyo Puyo, based around matching up icons to fill your playfield with bombs, then detonating them when a lit one drops to bury your opponent in junk.  But like many other titles on the system, the nagging question is "why does this need to be in 3D"?  And the answer is... it doesn't, really.  This could have just as easily been an SNES or Game Boy game (in fact, it was) and would have been no worse off for it.  Well regardless, Panic Bomber a fun little title.  Just a pity they couldn't implement a two-player mode because the Virtual Boy was retired before a link cable was ever released...

2. Teleroboxer (Nintendo, 1995)

3D Punch-Out!  Well, maybe not quite; it has a futuristic theme and you're fighting robots from a first-person perspective, but the idea is definitely there (and several of the same developers worked on both games).  Regardless, it's a fun little title, having you block, dodge and attack, and even unleash some powerful haymaker hits with well-timed button presses that deal out major damage to your foes.  There was even a hidden eighth opponent if you managed to defeat all seven of the normal ones without losing a round.  Pretty cool, and it actually takes advantage of the system's gimmick rather well with its ring lit by overhead lights and having robotic fists flying right into your face.

1. Virtual Boy Wario Land (Nintendo, 1995)

As if there were any other choice.  Virtual Boy Wario Land is a well-crafted adventure where you fight enemies, traverse obstacles and explore creative stages by hopping between background and foreground layers, with the goal of collecting all the treasures and defeating an evil genie.  Hell, you almost forget this game's giving you a nail-behind-the-eyes level of headache because you're having so much fun plowing through everything in your path.  As the Angry Video Game Nerd once said, "It's actually a good game.  Damn good.  But, there's one problem: It's on Virtual Boy."

Just as a little bonus, let's talk about a few games that were announced but ultimately never released.

• Bound High! - An odd little title where you play as a bouncing ball and have to land on enemies to defeat them; hitting them at the right angle would send out sparks that could potentially destroy other enemies and set off a chain reaction, earning you tons of points if you did.  Also had a minigame that played a bit like golf crossed with pool.  Bound High was ultimately canceled after the platform proved to be a major failure, but a prototype made its way online, making it one of two surviving unreleased VB games.
• Nikochan Battle - A game in the Faceball series (which was originally released as "MIDI Maze" on the Atari ST), and a pretty decent one at that - it takes advantage of the 3D capabilities of the Virtual Boy surprisingly well and plays quite smoothly for the hardware, making it a fun, if simple, arena based first person shooter.  It was nearly completed before its cancellation, and a prototype has made its way online so you can try it out and see what could have been.
• Dragon Hopper - This one actually sounded really interesting; basically a top-down action adventure similar in concept to the Legend of Zelda, where you'd have to solve puzzles, earn new abilities to progress and battle bosses, even featuring battery backup.  Could have been the Virtual Boy's killer app, especially with Intelligent Systems at the helm, but alas, it never saw the light of day.  It's also never made it's way online and may not even exist anymore, so all that we have available are a box scan and a handful of screenshots.
• VB Mario Land aka Mario Adventure - Another one that's lost to time save for a handful of blurry screenshots and a couple of low-quality recordings from CES 1995.  But from what we know, it was going to play like a sidescrolling Mario game on the NES or SNES with a few top-down segments, as well as the ability to travel between foreground and background layers (an idea that would be reused in Virtual Boy Wario Land).  Apparently it also would have contained either a minigame or bonus stage based upon the Mario Bros. arcade game, which may ultimately have extrapolated into what we now call "Mario Clash".
• Mario Bros. VB - Shown off at some trade shows and then mysteriously never mentioned again, but judging from available footage and screenshots, it was a relatively faithful remake of the Mario Bros. arcade game.  It's been theorized (though never confirmed) that Nintendo expanded on the idea and eventually made what we now know as Mario Clash.  It could also be linked to VB Mario Land, as mentioned above.

And for those curious, a list of all the Virtual Boy's games by initial release date.  Blue indicates a Japan-exclusive title, while Red indicates a North America exclusive.

Later Releases

• Galactic Pinball - Jul 21 1995 (JP), Aug 14 95 (NA) - Launch Title
• Mario's Tennis - Jul 21 1995 (JP), Aug 14 95 (NA) - Launch Title, pack-in game in NA later on
• Red Alarm - Jul 21 1995 (JP) / Aug 14 95 (NA) - Launch Title
• Teleroboxer - Jul 21 1995 (JP) / Aug 14 95 (NA) - Launch Title
• Panic Bomber - Jul 21 1995 (JP), Dec 1 95 (NA) - Launch Title in Japan
• Virtual League Baseball - Aug 11 95 (JP) / Sep 11 95 (US)
• Vertical Force - Aug 12 95 (JP), Dec 1 95 (US)
• V-Tetris - Aug 25 95 (JP)
• Space Squash - Sep 28 95 (JP)
• Mario Clash - Sep 28 95 (JP) / Oct 1 95 (US)
• Jack Bros - Sep 29 95 (JP) / Oct 20 95 (US)
• Virtual Fishing - Oct 6 95 (JP)
• Innsmouth no Yataka - Oct 13 95 (JP)
• Golf - Nov 8 1995 (JP) / Nov 1 95 (US)
• Virtual Boy Wario Land - Dec 1 95 (JP) / Nov 27 95 (US)
• Space Invaders Virtual Collection - Dec 1 95 (JP)
• Virtual Lab - Dec 8 95 (JP)
• Waterworld - Dec 21 95 (US)
• SD Gundam Dimension War - Dec 22 95 (JP)
• Virtual Bowling - Dec 22 95 (JP)
• Nester's Funky Bowling - Feb 26 96 (US)
• 3D Tetris - Mar 22 96 (US)