Game #66: Ultima: Warriors of Destiny (NES) - Promised Destiny

Game 66

Title: Ultima: Warriors of Destiny
Released: January 1993
Platform: NES
Developer: Origin
Publisher: FCI/Pony Canyon
Genre: RPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Active battles (enemies take turns over time)
Series - Ultima

It's difficult to know where to start with a new post. I struggle how to approach condensing my time with a game into a limited amount of words. Knowing which details to put in, and which to leave out comes down to my personal experience and how much of an impact a part of the game had on me. I try to point out fun Easter eggs as well. In the end, I hope I do the games some justice with my summary. Even the bad ones.

Like Quest of the Avatar, this game begins with a series of moral questions to determine character stats

Once again the Avatar is transported to the world of Britania, but all is not well as he had left it. Lord British is missing, and someone named Lord Blackthorn has assumed leadership. Three shadowlords roam the world imposing their evil visage.

Shamino is attacked while bringing the avatar back

The shadowlords, sensing I was the avatar, fled before facing my wrath. The avatar dragged Shamino to Iolo's hut where we tended his wounds while Iolo filled me in on the story. Lord British disappeared while exploring the Underworld. Blackthorn was a kind ruler in his stead until the shadowlords appeared and corrupted him. Iolo pleads that I find Lord British and restore him to power.

*Plop*

Tackling an open world like Ultima is daunting at first. Lucky for me the map came with the game, and it's similar to Quest of the Avatar. The only notable changes are Yew moved to the south of Empath Abbey, and Blackthorn's Castle arose from the volcanoes where Mondain's skull was found. I set out to first visit every town and collect all the clues I could on a first pass. First though, I had to wrap my head around the new interface, and the day/night cycle for NPCs.

David the pirate shows up at night in Iolo's hut... got something to tell us, Iolo?

Before I even left Iolo's hut I gained the sextant from David, and learned of a couple people in Buccaneer's Den. The sextant gives the coordinates away from British's Castle at 0,0. So, I made my way south, passing a solitary house in Yew where a faithful inquisitor of Blackthorn lives. He wanted me to confess something, but I thought better of it.

Dialogue and shopping happen on a separate screen

I started in Empath Abbey and Yew, then down to Britain and Paws. I picked up lock picks in Paws. On the way back to Yew to open up a locked door I accidentally walked into a poison field, which is a slightly blue tile on the ground. Poison at the beginning of the game killed Iolo. I resurrected him at the chapel, but it raised him at 1 HP and still poisoned. The next game tick turned him back into a ghost. The game has an active system where the game ticks by for AI in combat and movement. This gives the game a bit of stuttering feel, especially when moving. Healing and resurrecting Iolo again took quite a chunk of my starting money.

Found a magic carpet in British's castle early on, which helped me reach all the towns

The controls are just as clunky as the movement since they're only detected at certain intervals. The developers seemed to have realized this as holding down a button for an action will queue it, effectively pausing the game, until the button is released. They got rid of the menu system completely. The A button access and uses items in hand, usually weapons. The B button is used to interact with the world, searching the ground for items or talking to NPCs. The start button accesses the party's inventory where potions and scrolls are used immediately, while other tools are equipped to a hand and used during the game.

Only four characters can join the party at one time, and I opted to have Jaana tag along as she seemed to know more about the resistance movement

Like the previous game, the Avatar's quest takes him to every town to learn mantras of the eight virtues. Each mantra is chanted at shrines hidden throughout the land. The dungeons that run counter to the virtues are now sealed though, and statues guard against any attempt to enter without finding the proper word of power. What makes this difficult is the small view window coupled with the day/night schedules of the NPCs. I've found NPCs in houses previously empty because I had searched at a time they weren't there.

Lord British revives the Avatar when he dies; I later found out that the cost for death is half the Avatar's experience, which can actually lower his level

Another issue I've had with the game is a lack of income. Enemies don't drop chests or gold. In fact, they don't drop anything. There's food that slowly depletes, and the lack of income makes me hope I don't run out of both. I've been staying afloat by picking up everything no matter where it lay. This includes a magic shield, sword, and axe in Boardermarch that made combat actually manageable. Strangely though, the Avatar is the only one that gains experience, and thus levels. Levels seem to improve the Avatar's HP, and determine which magic he's able to cast.

There are a couple places that have NPCs outside the towns, Sin'Vraal's hut is one where I learned a bit about the nature of the shadowlords

Every town corresponds to a virtue, and inside or near each one I've found the mantra and power word related to it or at least some clue for it, except for a couple power words. I've managed to chant all the mantras at the appropriate shrines, the easier of the tasks. I was then told to find the Codex of the Avatar, which I did, but it was mostly a bunch of gibberish about the virtues (noted for later in case it becomes important). The power words are guarded by a group called the great council. I found the first near Britain, but following the clues to Minoc I hit a roadblock. I can't find the man that guards the power word to Covetous.

I found her, but she says nothing of her father or the power word

I suspect there's some place to locate him that I just haven't tried at the correct time. Likewise, I've been told to seek out the owner of the Arms or Justice, but I've been unable to find such a place. I'm guessing he's the one that will reveal the power word for dungeon Wrong. I'm fairly close to the end now, at least the end of my clues. I've fully explored the dungeons of Despise and Deceit. Each dungeon leads to the Underworld, which appears similar to Britania. Under Despise was a man, Captain Johnne, that told me he had found the jewel of Mondain, but it shattered into three shards. The shadowlords were born from these shards. I would have taken him into my party, but I didn't find out until later that to make a party member leave they need to have nothing in their hands.

I bought a boat too

To banish the shadowlords, we needed to find the shards located somewhere in the Underworld, at the bottom of three different dungeons. Deceit led to the shard of Falsehood, and I banished the shadowlord Faulinei by learning his name, blowing the horn of honesty in front of the flame or truth, and chucking the shard into the flame as soon as he appeared. There wasn't any fanfare, so I hope I did it correctly. The next two are located at the bottom of Hythloth, which I just found the power word for inside Blackthorn's castle, and Wrong, which may be the roadblock that extends this game for far longer than needed. Aside for Covetous, I'm also missing the power word for Doom, which seems to be the final dungeon.

Inventory management became a concern at one point

A couple things of note, I did find a grappling hook that once belonged to a pirate, and lets me scale mountains very slowly. I had a clue that Lord British was in the Underworld trapped in a mirror, and I needed a box from his private room to release him. While fumbling about, I realized that one of the objects in his room was a harpsichord, and I just happened to have some sheet music to the magical piece called Stones. Using this on the instrument opened the portcullis, and allowed me entry.

Instead of including horses, this guy talks about meeting a special horse that asked him to pass along a message, and the word Infinity is just given to the Avatar

The moon gates are still present, but much less effective. They only appear at night now, although sometimes they're randomly open during the day. The phases of the moon are much slower, so the number of locations I could travel to is much more limited. I tend to travel over land for more convenience, or use the ankh talisman to transport to a random town until I arrive at a closer one to my destination. Due to the money situation reagents are in limited supply, so I don't rely on spells that often. I mainly use them for healing and curing poison. Before I found the skull key, I also used a spell to unlock magical doors. There are a lot of combat spells, but the magic sword kills all enemies so far in a single hit, and switching to the spell book seems like a waste of time. The only other spell I've used is disperse field that allows me to pass energy fields.

Finding some treasure in a dungeon; equipment can only be sold to shops that sell it--this is how I've been subsisting (and yes, that is the ghost of Iolo following the party)

I'm not sure what's at the bottom of Shame or Destard, but I have the power words for both. I suppose if I run out of leads, or get stuck, then I can explore them for fun. I've almost found a way into Blackthorn's inner circle, but I need to find a way to expose Fiona of Minoc as a member of the great council. There's a man in Serpent's Hold that wants to trade the resistance password for his fabled jeweled sword, which I can't imagine is much better than the magic sword. Rumors of glass weapons don't really interest me. I'm sure I couldn't afford them anyway. The Avatar arms are supposed to be at the bottom of Covetous. I wonder if the Underworld is actually connected, and if I could scale the mountains without going through all the dungeons.

In case that wasn't enough quest items, there's British's sceptre, crown, and amulet to find, although their use is shrouded in mystery

I can see why this game wasn't well received. I'm definitely liking the story and feel, but I think I'd like it better on the PC. This revision of combat and interface is clunky, and reduces the amount of strategy involved. Most of the puzzles have become simpler with a lock and key method of adventuring extending to dialogue. Not that it would help with my current situation, but key words like Infinity and the dungeon power words might have had more of a riddle to them. Overall, I'm enjoy it, but hope to finish soon.

It feels strange that the world doesn't wrap

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Below the Cut: Spiritual Warfare (NES, Genesis, Game Boy)

(Source: GameFAQs)

Spiritual Warfare - Rating(7 RPP)
1) 1 - Character Advancement: practice/experience based advancement, stat or level increases, multiple classes or characters, customize characters
2) 1 - Combat: character stats used for combat, additional combat options, turn based
3) 1 - Items and Equipment: store to buy and sell, equipment decisions, item decisions
4) 2 - Story: main story at the forefront; world full of hints and lore; descriptions for objects, people, and places
5) 2 - Exploration: open world from the beginning, visited locations remain open
6) 1 - Quests and Puzzles: side quests not related to the main quest, puzzles and riddles to solve

What better way to engage the video game era children in the bible than slap some bible references on to poorly ripped off Nintendo games? That seemed the train of thought for Wisdom Tree. Spiritual Warfare puts the player into the shoes of the only citizen in town not corrupted by the evils of the world. As a soldier in the lord's army, it's up to the main character to convert the heathens back to the way of the lord by... throwing fruit at them.

(Source: Games Database)

Like the Zelda games, there's a single character with no experience or levels. The only stat increase is health, and from new equipment. There's no real customization. Combat is action based, and since there are no character stats that improve, you're locked into actively aligning and shooting at enemies (with fruit that represent virtuous traits, mind you). There are no stores to sell at, and equipment is merely upgraded. I think there are a variety of items, but I didn't play very far.

I'll give it credit for the story, which is rather unique and includes biblical as well as historical and social references. The game is broken up into scenarios, so there's no way back once a level is completed. There are bible verses to fill in, so I gave it credit for riddles. The ultimate goal is to find the Armor of God, and defeat Satan. I think I've been more than fair with the score, but if anyone has suggestions for adjusting it as always please let me know what I missed in my cursory glance. If you want to read about this and other Wisdom Tree games, then Encyclopedia Obscura is a good source.

Game #62: Dragon Warrior IV (NES) - Chapters of the Chosen

Game 62

Title: Dragon Warrior IV
Released: Oct. 1992 (Feb. 1990 JP)
Platform: NES
Developer: Chunsoft
Publisher: Enix
Genre: RPG
Exploration - Top-down
Combat - Turn based
Series - Dragon Warrior

It's not often I run into a classic game on a system I grew with as a kid. We rented most of the well known games, and owned our fair share of RPGs. The only reason I can think for overlooking this one is we had already upgraded to a SNES. We only rented the third Dragon Warrior. I don't remember beating it at the time. This one I have no recollection of playing or seeing before now.

That's not the name I chose

The game started with naming the hero; however, as detailed in the manual, there are four chapters to play through before the hero's. The first chapter is Ragnar's. He's a soldier of Burland. Mothers from the nearby town of Izmit reported their children vanishing. All the soldiers are gathered before the king, told of the situation, and ordered to investigate.

*Plop*1

The familiar menu system of the Dragon Warrior series has started to feel a bit antiquated. Including everything in one menu does simplify the question of where to look for a command, but two button presses for talk, and more for door and search is cumbersome.

Especially when there's no wrap around for any menu

Ragnar is a straight-up fighter. He came with decent equipment and a small amount of gold to spend on healing items. I prepared for the journey, and left town. On my way out, a woman named Flora mentioned her husband Alex was missing.

No, I did not... this makes the door command slightly more annoying

Izmet was on the other side of the river north of Burland. The cave I crossed through wasn't difficult. In town, I learned about some shoes one of the kids was playing with before he disappeared. I had to return at night to learn from the school master that the other children may know something about the incidents. A child outside mentioned a man named Alex was in jail for stealing some bread. I'm not sure how they learned his name if he's supposedly suffering from amnesia.

Maybe he just wanted to get away from his wife for a while

Alex directed me to a hidden spot in the woods the kids were using as their new playground. I followed a friendly voice all the way to a pair of flying shoes. I'm not sure how the kids were able to come all the way down here, and make it back out without fighting any of the monsters.

It definitely wasn't with the shoes

The flying shoes took me to a tower to the west where I witnessed a kid dragged away. Before getting too far into that though, I geared up in town to fully explore the cave. I met Healie, a friendly healer monster that joined my party. Thank goodness for him. I don't think I could manage the tower without.

This sounds like one of those cursed swords

It took a few tries to get to and defeat Saro's Shadow. I perished the first time because I didn't risk equipping the Sword of Malice (well, mostly due to Healie dying). A fallen soldier before the boss mentioned the Ruler of Evil was about to be resurrected. A hero prophesied to vanquish him was growing up now. With no lead about which child, the evil forces started grabbing as many as they could. With the kids saved, everyone was happy in the kingdom of Burland once more. Ragnar returned to his king. He requested to go on a quest to find the hero of prophecy. The king agreed. Ragnar left.

Each chapter has an obvious beginning and end

Alena, the princess of Santeem, is an adventurous young lady. Her first task was to sneak out of the castle. After a harrowing assault on her newly boarded-up wall, she climbed down from her second story bedroom and out the back garden. Her tutors, Brey and Cristo, joined her outside to keep her safe. She arrived in Surene to rumors of problems in the mountain town to the northeast.

*Plop*2

Alena is a standard fighter, Cristo a cleric, and Brey a standard squishy wizard. This was my first time having a nearly full party, and it feels good. Unlike Healie, I have full control over everyone. I did have to be careful about venturing too far from town as we were ill equipped for the long journey north.

I sense a slight bias no matter how true

The quiet mountain village of Tempe was plagued by a monster that demanded the sacrifice of young women. Alena, being the hero type, offered herself next. Instead of taking things lying down, she laid out the monster in due course. The village celebrated. Still no free gear.

A new day dawns...

An adventuring hero's work is never done though, so we headed to the next town, Frenor. Someone was impersonating the princess for all the free stuff. Wait, why don't I get free stuff?

I'm the real princess!

The townsfolk spoke of a golden bracelet hidden in a nearby cave. By coincidence, this is exactly what the kidnappers asked the town to hand over after they took the fake princess. I ignored the request for a bit, and traveled past the cave to the south. A bazaar was setup with some hefty gear. I confess; I grinded. I've rarely needed to grind like this in games of the era; however, Dragon Warrior seems to thrive on grinding to make progress. Especially this one, starting the game effectively five times. Mainly, either my gear was ineffective, or a certain level granted a key spell.

I'm sorry... a what?

A soldier from Santeem found me at the bazaar. He told me of trouble back at the castle. I found the king had lost his voice, stolen by some magic. We learned of a similar fate that befell a bard in Surene. To find the solution, I needed to gain access to a man behind a locked door in the castle. Why can't we just knock?

It's 3 against 2, what're we waiting for?

Back in Frenor, we handed over the gold bracelet in exchange for Mia. She gave use the Thief's Key, and departed with her companions. The old man at the castle told us the bard Marone had a similar ailment. Marone said the Birdsong Nectar was key to healing voices. Back at the bazaar, I couldn't find any. At night the merchants discussed how they had run out long ago, but I could get more at the nearby tower inhabited by elves. I think that's the first time I've heard of elves in the Dragon Warrior lore.

Anyone ever wonder who built all these towers?

The tower was difficult, but became manageable once Brey obtained the spell Snowstorm (group damaging). On top I interrupted some elves that fled, dropping the birdsong nectar. The king, voice restored, commended Alena, and allowed her to continue her adventure to Endor where a battle tournament was held. I took a warping well to the other continent.

Ragnar, searching for heroes before it was cool

The town of Endor was abuzz with the excitement of the tournament. A man named Necrosaro was apparently the big shot so far, but they've yet to witness Alena go at it. The bridges surrounding Endor were destroyed recently, so the tournament was the only option. I picked up an Iron Claw and some medical herbs in case it was a solo affair. It was, and I had just enough to see me through to the final match against Necrosaro. He never showed. The princess' hand in marriage was at stake, but since Alena was a woman she was off the hook.

There are a couple of unique portraits for the tournament fighters

At the behest of yet another soldier Alena returned home. This message was delivered shortly before the soldier disappeared before our eyes. In fact, all of the people of Santeem seemed to have just vanished. This mystery is still unsolved. Alena's chapter ended. Taloons chapter was next, the best chapter of the game.

*Plop*3

Seriously, who knew running a virtual shop could be so much fun. I was buying and selling weapons while saving up my commission to one day have a shop to call my own. I saved up enough money to gear up and branch out into the world. Rumors of an Iron Safe sent me north to explore a cave. Taloon, during this chapter only, has an incredibly high chance to find a treasure chest after battle. Unlike other chests, these contain weapons and armor at higher levels than possible otherwise.

Taloon can also push this old man to the House of Healing for some extra gold

The iron safe protects gold in case of a party wipe. I never needed to confirm it, but it eventually became a vault overseen by Taloon's wife, Neta. We'll hear more about her once Taloon is able to afford the shop in Endor. The bridge still required repair. The kingdom of Bonmalmo was preparing for war with Endor, buying up armor at inflated prices. I made a bit of cash selling to them while I looked for an architect to repair the bridge.

The prince had things other than war on his mind

The architect da Gardi was trapped inside a group of foxes illusory town. Freeing him required a dog to chase them away. Tom's (the old man) son had a dog, but he'd been away from home for a long time. Turned out he was stuck in Bonmalmo's dungeon. Instead of an elaborate jailbreak, he only needed a wing of the wyvern to return home. In thanks, he handed over his dog, which dispelled the foxes, and finally allowed da Gardi to repair the bridges.

Taloon also meets random merchants in the field

In the letter to princess Mia, prince Reed expressed his love, and informed her of the impending war. The king of Endor proposed a marriage instead, and the king of Bonmalmo agreed this would suffice as the prince would be next in line. Having successfully brokered peace, the king of Endor gave Taloon permission to own a shop in the city. While one was serendipitously available, it was priced a bit beyond my current funds.

I suppose I should return Tov at some point

A rich old man claimed price was no object  for a valuable silver statue. Following rumors of a cave to the north, I delved in and collected all the treasure. The statue (plus the bit of coin I'd made getting it) paid for the shop . The shop was a stepping stone to greater things though. I returned to Neta to tell her the good news. Taloon moved his family down. Neta manned (womanned?) the shop during the day, and wouldn't you know it, she was even more successful a merchant than Taloon. She sold nearly everything every day, and at a mark-up of 50% compared to regular shops.

Best... wife...

So, each day I spent all her hard earned money buying up equipment for Neta to gouge whatever sorry saps happened into our shop. While this was fun, it didn't feel like I was making enough progress to pay for an expansion to the nearby tunnel. An old engineer had started building it, but ran out of money. He estimated the cost to finish at 60,000 gold. It so happened that the king had need to outfit his army, and commissioned Taloon for 7 broadswords and 7 pieces of half-plate. Providing these rewarded me enough to pay the engineer, and finish the tunnel to the eastern continent. Taloon continued his quest for his mercantile victory of world domination.

Ever

The next chapter followed the story of two sisters. Mara, a dancer, and Nara, a fortuneteller, are seeking revenge for their murdered father, Edgar. They left their promising professions behind in Monbaraba. Balzack, Edgar's killer, wasn't exactly hiding out. He'd taken over Keeleon Castle and started collecting a harem.

*Plop*4

Their hometown was on the way, so they stopped there first. In Kievs they learned that their father's apprentice, Orin, was still alive. Rumor was he was gravely injured in the battle that took Edgar's life, but he escaped.

How goes the years of recovery at the bottom of a monster infested cave?

The sphere of silence was said to seal away the evil magical power of Balzack. Before heading to Keeleon, I decided to scout out the rest of the continent. I wandered into Aktemto, where I picked up some gunpowder, and Haville, where I learned I needed a pass to gain passage on one of their ships.

There's a lot of flavor text like this that I'm not sure will become important later on

The gunpowder keg was used to spook the chancellor in Keeleon. Following him as he fled led us to the secret thrown room Balzack had holed himself up in. The fight was simple with the use of the sphere. However, the evil source of his power, the king of Keeleon, showed up to stop us himself. They gloated about discovering the Secret of Evolution, apparently the source of conflict that caused Balzack to kill Edgar. Keeleon was unstoppable, and easily trounced the party in just a couple turns. We awoke in the prison where a fellow prisoner gave us his boarding pass for the ship about to depart from Haville for Endor. Orin sacrificed himself by rushing the guards so that we could escape. The sisters' story was done as soon as they boarded the ship.

*Plop*final

The real game began on an average day in the life of the hero. She's lived her 17 years in peace inside a small remote village where no one ever left or visited. That day though, a stranger entered the town, a portent for change. The day started like any other. CelTank took her father's lunch to him by the pond. She greeted her friend Celia lying in a field of flowers, the guard by the entrance who let in the traveling poet lost in the mountains, and her mentor who promised to teach her the spell Zap after lunch: a carefree day like the last 17 years.

Then the fire nation attacked

It's not really explained why the monsters found the village that day. All other villages seem impervious to the rampant monster infestation in the fields. As soon as a wandering poet arrived, it was all over. The entire town banded together to protect the hero. The entire town was wiped out for its efforts. After Celia's sacrifice, Necrosaro was overheard gloating.

The last momento of Celia where she laid just moments before, daydreaming

In a daze, I wondered south. Coming across a grouchy old woodsman, I moved on to Branca castle after raiding his wardrobe. I passed by a group of adventurers off to save the world. I would have joined them, but they were already full. Hearing of a fortuneteller in Endor, I made my way there via the tunnel dug by Taloon. It was Nara. She recognized the hero immediately. We picked up her sister in the casino, apparently already blew all the money they had, and began the journey to collect the rest of the chosen heroes.

Sounds like our next companion to find

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