Game 22: Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES) - Finished!

Have you ever stopped 10 feet before a finish line? Actually, scratch that, a better analogy... have you ever fallen asleep within the last few pages of a book? You know you didn't finish, but you can't quiet place where you left off. That's how I felt getting back to Quest of the Avatar after a long weekend. I meant to wrap it up on Saturday, but my power company had other ideas.

I like to bookend these posts with the title and very last screens, no matter how underwhelming

So, I knew that I needed to meditate (according to my notes) at the shrine of Valor, but every time I visited, I received the same message. I was too weary from my last meditation. Either I actually needed to walk around the world map to relieve my weariness, or the game hates me. I tried wandering the map in the safety of my balloon. I fought a couple battles. I spent many a night at the inn. All this to no avail.

At least someone acknowledged the passage of time

I had time to stop by Zircon's to pick up the fabled weapon. A completely useless Axe +2. It neither has value to sell, nor anyone in my party to wield it. (According to the manual only the fighter may do so.) I even visited Lord British for some final levels. With nothing else to do, I scouted out the entrance to the Abyss.

That looks likely (I should have said to myself)

In fact it was plainly one of these volcano structures. I thought maybe they were interconnected, and I needed to navigate them. Imagine then my sinking feeling as I walked over each one, taking damage, and not entering a single one. I searched, I used items, and failed to use the correct ones. I found that the bell had a certain affinity with the one pictured above, but nothing more happened.

This should have been a resounding "You are at the right spot!"

I tried to use the candle next and nothing happened. I tried the book, again nothing. I tried the bell again, and again it rang. Then I thought maybe I needed to use each one at a different volcano. You see, I think I missed a hint that told me the order I should use them in. In the end, after about 10 minutes of wandering around, I contemplated trying to meditate again at the shrine of Valor. Luckily, I gave the correct location one last chance.

Truth follows Courage

I figured this out by trying the bell twice in a row. First it rang solemnly. Second, nothing happened. I most definitely knew now I needed to use them in a certain order. Only one left to try.

And both are swallowed by Love

Strangely, the skull of Mondain crumbled to pieces as I entered the Abyss. I wonder if getting it was even necessary. As I entered the Abyss, all my companions simply vanished.

Begin end game *plop*

The Abyss is structured similarly to regular dungeons. To complicate this, the correct path down is lined with chalices where you must answer the correct virtue and place the correct stone into the cup. I'm not sure what happens when answered incorrectly. By the third or fourth level I realized the correct answers were in order.

Let's see, level two, Compassion

The stones are in the same order... really reinforces the order

And, that's it. That's the end of the game. One of the floors has a tricky little maze through the top-down rooms that litter the dungeons, but other than that it's fairly straightforward. Without the last set of gems I can imagine it being a wee bit more work, but really, who's going to play this game without using the gems?

I know there's a way down, the gem told me so

There is one last room of interest where I had to fight against clones of the companions (including my chosen class). Less interesting that it's a standard battle with no dialogue, so I wrote my own twist. I imagined a terrible discovery was made while I was adventuring; that reading from the codex would destroy Britannia. In a last ditch effort, the companions tried to stop me, but I knew this to be final test of my determination and slaughtered these doppelgangers.

Poor Ankh hasn't had anyone around to corrects it's grammar

At the Ankh, the three keys became one. I wonder if it's possible to arrive here without the keys, and what would happen. There's probably something preventing that. A stairway opened up after uniting the keys. Below this room was the Codex. Inside was the end of the game.

Some reference to Infinity

The game was pretty much on auto-pilot at this point. No further dialogue options. No access to the menus. And the game wrapped up in a ceremony above. It turns out this was a hidden area under that strange shrine, which was the very first location I plopped into when I started the game.

It begins and ends with Lord British...

Another game done. This one was a pleasant experience, though a mostly diluted one from what I hear of the PC. I plan to play through a bit of the PC and SMS versions to include some differences in my final rating. I also have a game to cut, which I may end up doing before I get the final rating post out for this game.

As for the next game, Double Dungeons, I'm going to do something a bit different. I've already completed the game in recent memory, so I'm going to dive in a bit more than usual. Into the inner workings of the game and route a speedrun for it. With my new schedule, I'll start later tonight even though I haven't quite finished posting for other games. Wish me luck.

Elapsed Time: 1h41m (Final Time: 19h03m)