Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Retrospective | Reimagining the RPG 

Please never get rid of this intro. It makes me so happy.

I think this guy might be the 100% best retro “RPG” RU-vidr to ever do it.

My mom once said she had a client who said he loved video games, and when she asked him which ones he liked he said he mostly plays ultima 4 and that she should tell her children about it, so that they'll be happy playing it for months. This wasn't in the 90s or the 2000s this was last month. I don't know what he was thinking but I respect his swagger

Dude you dropped this at 10:30 PM EST on a Saturday like we ain't got responsibilities, now the kids gotta starve tonight cause Daddy's too busy learning about Ultima

You know someone's content is gold when you immediately click on a new video as soon as it drops

Ah yes. My favorite. A feature length film about a game that I have not played and have never thought of before.I can’t wait to watch it all.

For about 3 years my analysis of Ultima IV was the second most popular video about it on RU-vid. It hasn’t yet, but, in a short while, this video will surpass mine… And I couldn’t be happier. Ultima IV is a very special game. The experience of playing it 3 years ago is one that had a tremendous impact on me. If this excellent video brings greater attention to it - far greater than it had in decades - there will be more people giving this game a shot and… maybe at least one of those people will discover in this game the same treasure I had. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making this video. Thank you for keeping Ultima alive.

Never have I asked the question, "I wonder if Rich Evans has ever played Ultima?" but that's the magic of a Majuular video, boyos.

Just got off work, had a long shit ass grinder of a day, and this hits literally the minute I clock out. Thanks, king.

Yooo, just as I plopped my plate of supper upon my desk, this video dropped its way into my recommended!

I'm truly impressed by the amount of footage and background info you've managed to find and gather for this series for the developer history parts, you're like a one man documentary crew. Bits like the Roe R Adams nod are invaluable gaming history, and things like that are often in risk of being lost to time when chronicling the 70s - 80s, early to mid 90s game history. Maybe you and Matt Barton could team up one day

New Mangojuular on a Saturday night? Excellent indeed.

Thanks for giving me a glimpse into a world I knew nothing about. It’s interesting to see how some of the ideas in this game reappear in so many RPGs decades after.

I think the biggest appeal of these videos is the history lesson as well as gaming lore. The contemporary footage adds a lot of vibes, especially the nice blizzard footage. Anyway, learning about the developers and where they were at while making the game, adds to the game section of the video so much. So often ive played a game and found myself wondering "what were they thinking?!," sometimes happily, sometimes with bemusement and sometimes even anger. I've seen the making of DOOM and the guys at id, including transdimensional weigher of souls, John Carmack. This is a lot like those videos but about way nerdier guys making weird fantasy rpgs

Thanks for doing Ultima justice. My favorites are 4 for the lore, 5 for the perfection of Ultima mechanics, and 6 for nostalgia of my childhood. Ultima Online gets an honorable mention for introducing me to the existence of the series.

Just wow. Near the end I couldn't stop being teary eyed, both hearing how Ultima IV affected people and how it affected the industry, as well as remembering Akira Toriyama, may he rest in peace, both for his contributions to the arts, and for lending his creativity to video games. While I DEARLY want to hear about how you cover the less fortunate Ultima titles, this was truly a remarkable piece Maj. Thank you for making it.

Terrific video. I played this game an enormous amount when it was new, and it helped inspire me to write RPGs for a living. Two notes. 1. The Apple version I played had a cheat code which showed your levels in each virtue, a number from 1 to 100. 100 was full Avatar status. However, I found that if you were penalized in a way that dropped your level to exactly 0, it wrapped around to 100 and you got full Avatar status. I was speedrunning this game in 1986. 2. There WAS a clue to the final answer, infinity. When you got full avatar status at a circle, you briefly saw a single rune. If you wrote those runes down and translated them using the docs, you got letters that spelled "infinity."

Remember when we thought Spoony's retrospective was the gold standard for Ultima? Thank god for this seris.

I'll be honest and say I really like "Majuular story time" at the start of every video. I'm a brainlet that uses youtube to eat dinner, and the history recap at the beginning is pretty fun stuff.

Seeing one of the creators of Ultima with a T-shirt of Bank of Brazil is a crossover of universes I was not prepared for. Not even the writers of marvel could come with something so wild

New Majuular AND new Red Letter Media....some times good things do happen. Thank you for the awesome, high quality videos. So much history.

The revelation at the end of the game, where the '8' is a subtle clue for infinity and then the codex sign opens up to the infinity sign, was jaw dropping for me. I can only imagine how a teenager or college student, bareknuckling through the game by themself in the '80s, must have felt seeing that for the first time.

Just got home from my D&D night and this dropped. Thanks Majuular. This one is my favorite. I remember trying to explain balloon navigation using the wind change spell to my buddy when we were kids, ha ha.

You know it's good content when youtube's notification actually works and notify you of an upload

Sneaky Maj participating in a video game / video game essay trivia and dropping an Ultima vid on the same day! You’re spoiling us all!!! 🎉

I think the documentary of the development of the game and the process that went into making it may be my favourite part of these Ultima videos. A game I've only heard the name of and I have been captivated by it's creation and the way you tell it's story. The market of game creation was such a fascinating place in the early days of the pc, and I had no idea how magical it was. An incredible documentary of a legendary game that only now I know of.

This was my father’s favorite game ever. Love every minute. Thank you. He passed while on the last mission of Mass Effect Andromeda without finishing it. I’ve so many childhood memories of playing Ultima IX with him and so many others.

I came up playing Ultima 7 in the early 90's when I was like 9-10. RPG's were tied for my favorite genre, and Ultima 7 was the defining game of that genre for me. This stayed true for me until maybe Baldur's Gate. In 2005 I decided to go back and play all those old games I missed because they just weren't available. Games which were important historical context for the ones I loved, but games I didn't expect much from. I played Catacombs Abyss, Wasteland 2, Wizardry 1-5. Stuff like that. I did them all blind with no walkthroughs. I figured that people didn't have that stuff back then, and I'd judge these games based on how they held up playing them as close to intended as possible. Once again, I didn't expect much. A lot of these games held up better than I thought they would, or kind of matched my expectations. When I played Ultima 1 and 2, it was right in line with what I thought I was getting into. Ultima 3 was the first Ultima game I enjoyed. Then I played Ultima 4, and my mind was blown. I couldn't believe what I was experiencing. This wasn't just the best of these old dated games, this was a game that was actually better than the game I was trying to give context to. Ultima 4's graphics, dialogue, and combat are dated. But the gameplay loop of exploration, clue hunting, note taking, and experimentation was so rewarding I was delighted the entire time. This old crappy game I played just to see the DNA of the good stuff that came later has ended up being one of my favorite games of all time. Ultima 7 presents better, and has more doodads to mess around with. But it is in every other way either a sidegrade, or a downgrade on the gameplay Ultima 4 has to offer. Ultima 4 gives you a big checklist of objectives, and sends you out to follow a couple dozen small breadcrumb trails at your own leisure, with a few others to stumble across along the way. You get a steady drip of satisfaction as you find the things you're looking for, and find your objective getting closer and closer, the checklist smaller and smaller. If you get frustrated with one trail, you have the freedom to go do others for a while to ease the friction. The result of all this is so satisfying that it's hard to think of a more modern comparison. I don't think I really recaptured the feeling of playing Ultima 4 in 2005 again until Elden Ring in 2022. I don't think Ultima 4 is the best RPG ever. But I do think it's the best Ultima game. A lot of love clearly went into it. I'm glad they had the courage to see their vision through. It demonstrated the truth of games as art at a time where that wasn't clear. I can honestly say it was an honour to play a game they must have sacrificed so much to create. It wasn't a spiritual experience or anything, but I have the humility to admit their valorous effort resulted in a game which did justice to the medium. If you have enough compassion to overlook what is dated about it, I think you'll find some wisdom in it too.

"The raven sing, The raven saw, and in the corn he sayeth *'CAH'* " just beautiful

Boolean Dragon here and a lot of this was obscure and/or new to me. Great editing and understanding of specific times and the connectedness of the shown games. I've seen a lot and this is top quality. All my respect.

I think the most interesting thing about Ultima IV is that it represents a unique path RPGs never really embraced. You have some elements of being put into a living world like a life sim, but have more of a clear goal in mind than in the genre while also not having a clear objective or end goal in a more typical CRPG. You aren't fighting a present physical threat or swept up in events larger than yourself, you're simply someone who embarks on a quest to solve abstract problems and become a role model for others to follow. I'm sure there are a few art games out there where your quest is to solve abstract problems afflicting the world, but you'd be hard pressed to think of other games like it. Even other games in the Ultima series have you dealing with more concrete and material problems. The closest example I can think of is in Mount and Blade you could RP as someone who recognizes the horrors of war brought about by Calderia being divided and embark on a quest to unify the land however you see fit, which wouldn't be entirely out of place given the writing and openness of the game.

I don't want to dismiss the classics but I've watched the spoony retrospective a dozen times over the last 15 years and yet immediately this video was full of things I didn't know

Listening to this while doing laundry and I hear "statue of Babe the big blue ox in Brainerd" and as a Minnesotan I had to sprint back to my PC to make sure I hadn't misheard you. What an esoteric pull, I love it.

I've never actually thought much of the ultima games until now, but wow is it awe-inspiring seeing how much it paved the way for so many ideas used in thousands upon thousands of games since... and the morality of the game is wonderful too! I do love a simple game where I just beat people up, but games and stories in general that speak to the goodness inherent in people and the world always have such a soft spot in my heart....

I started following you just because I wanted someone to talk at me about ultima, and fell in love with your content generally, so imagine my hype at seeing the greatest ultima video pop up

Hoping the algorithm is picking up on this guy for everyone else like it is for me. This channel's ripe to explode, super high quality stuff with way less attention than it deserves

Started watching this, and quickly got that it was really high quality content. By the time the Avatar yelled "Serenity now!", I subscribed.

Loved this. Ultima IV videos are instant clicks for me. As are Ultima V videos. So excited to hear you talk about how the Avatar gets PTSD. But in all seriousness, Ultima is one of those series whose impact on video games is nearly impossible to overstate. Would you consider doing a Wizardry series retrospective in the future? Or at least for Wizardry 6, 7, and 8? Your videos are always excellent, and this level of research and discussion would enrich many viewers' knowledge about such monumental titles in RPG history.

Just when I finish every Majuular video another appears, life is good.

3:56 As a Brazilian fan of yours, that photo hit me like a steel chair in the back Wishing you a ton of luck, Majuular. Love your channel and hoping to see you cover other series like Might And Magic and Wizardry in the future

Yo dawg, you're producing feature length (and quality) documentaries at this point. Good job! edit- I have to admit, I'm really just watching and waiting for the RLM reference in each episode. You never let me down.

Thank you, John Madjoler. With this video, you have saved my life.

Your coverage of Ultima IV and Koudelka left me in tears.

You have NO idea how excited I've been waiting for this video. Your retrospective on Ultima has been VERY well researched and I know you'll keep the standard up for the video on one of the greatest and most influential CRPGs, if not most influential video game PERIOD, of *all* time.

Your description of the codex onward through the numerological and spiritual ties to 8 (roughly 1:31:34 onward) was really phenomenal. Your cadence, choice of imagery, build up of music genuinely gave me chills. Please, keep making your work!

"Ho eyo he hum!" indeed... There's a lot to unpack there. I also can't help hearing "YOLO the Bard" which fits with most Bard players I know.

Your coverage of the ultima series is incredible, thank you for giving this series the coverage it needs

WHOA a new ultima vid just dropped. Take THAT, random commenter in the other vid who said it was never gonna happen!

Was just thinking to myself how I can’t wait for the next ultima video and here we go

I've never played any of the ultima games, but between your and (back in the day) Spoonys own break down of the series, I feel like i know everything about the games, lore and dev cycle.

Mom My favorite yt series is back. Keep up the good work man

I find your retrospective's on the Ultima series is endlessly even infinitly fascinating and entertaining to me, I don't have the patience or research skills to focus on finding all this information and having it digestable in a video series through a well spoken, well researched voice. I can't help but see the influence on all FF and DQ games, or RPGd on the whole that Ultima inspired, it's so interesting to hear so many things I've known FF to pioneer, to be found in Ultima.

It's amazing to see and hear new things about a series i've played for so long, I really appreciate how in depth your research is. Keep it up man!

fun tip: if you let a monster drop a treasure chest on the Mandrake swamp spot. you can then stand there and never worry about getting poisoned

The first Ultima I ever played was VI. So I'm excited to go through the Avatar trilogy like this. Thanks you for your hard work!

Finally the Ultima IV,Ultima is one of my favorite series alongside the Wizardry series,good job on this one👍

Fantastic video Majuular. I've been watching through your catalogue recently and have to mention the degree of care and quality you put into your work. Excited for the next one!

You're knocking it out of the park on this series. When I'm halfway through a long two hour video, but I immediately drop whatever I'm watching when a Majulaar vid comes out.

I was thinking about when the next one of these would drop earlier today. Nice.

Great video Majuular, you always were a kidder

This is the perfect thing to watch on a very long and very boring 12-hour shift. Cheers for making my night much less boring!

The quality and consistency of these videos is incredible. Keep it up!

You've become my favorite channel, love your videos man. Great blend of humor, information, and love for the topic.

Behind the scenes on game development is always so interesting.

It's honestly pretty amazing how much detail you give to videogame history on this channel and how much depth with which you speak on game design. Looking forward to when we eventually get to Ultima Underworld 🙏

Haven't played a single one of these Ultima games. Completely obsessed with your coverage of them. Probably my favorite thing going on youtube right now.

Oh boy, another Majuular video about a game I've never played! My favorite!

The amount of detail you put into these videos is just awesome. Thank you.

Majuular, you did it again, you madlad. This video breathed pure quality. Thanks for being a real one yet again :)

Fantastic video sir ! The little node to King Crimson was the icing on the cake for me :) you research and great narration and images makes for quality content. I’ll totally be there for the next one :)

Your work is absolutely stellar. Do not let anyone else believe otherwise. I’m impatiently looking forward to the next episode!

thanks for making these videos, i've been going through a rough patch and watching your videos has really helped

This is the episode I was waiting for, absolutely worth the wait. Encountering Ultima IV for DOS as a kid was a powerful experience and it’s satisfying having this richness of context for it

Man, I cannot express how entertaining and well read this is. You've certainly done your homework on this series and I can't wait to see more.

I finish watching one video, go back to the homepage, and see this. Perfect timing! :u Really excited to hear your experiences/thoughts on IV. I played it, 5 and Underworld 1 almost a decade ago, but despite their age and clunkiness, the experiences are still stuck in my mind, all these years later.

Brother I'll say this, your content must be damn good to have me happily sit through multiple hours on a game or franchise I'm not really into. Your content is simply more than: This is my favorite game and this is why. I can't explain it, but it's engrossing, and a joy.

I have nothing to really add other than showing appreciation for these videos. They're so cozy.

Always great to see a new video from you. They are always very thoughtful.

Played through Ultima Underworld way back in the day, and never played any other Ultima game. I'm absolutely loving this series of videos you're making. 11/10 content!

Loving this retrospective so much. And dreading when he gets to 8 and 9

These videos are seriously incredible. The amount of research you do, focusing not just on the game or its quality or archaic nature, but on the people who created it, on their lives, on the history and the state of the industry when it came out… these are super professional, even with the occasional gag or meme thrown in. You’re one of the best media historians on this platform and I hope you keep at it!

I dropped what I was doing to come watch this as soon as I saw the title. This was my favorite Ultima game.

These Ultima videos are so well done. I've never even played Ultima but I'm loving learning about them and am looking forward to the next in the series!

Another incredible video, thank you for continuing to cover the Ultima games!

Just as i was one day before coming back to college after weeks worth of day off Majuular uploaded a masterpiece. I can't ask for a better end of my day off than this, thanks Maj

You once again warm my dusty old bones full of green dust. 1:48:08 long video! Such a treat, been looking forward to the next Ultima Retrospective. Love yer content Maj!

thanks so much for all of these man, its been wonderful having these games so readily accessible. this really feels like it captures the experience I'd have if I'd have the time. :)

you have some masterful upload timing, what a great day!!

Your Ultima Retrospectives are my favorite way to get blasted and fall asleep to. Very calming and interesting

I’ve never played an RPG, I’m in my 40s with three kids and I’m probably never going to play one. But, man, your writing is incredible and love listening to why an aficionado like yourself loves (or doesn’t) these games. Keep it up, sir.

They virtue breakdown near the end is just beautiful. I'm consistently amazed by your analysis.

Just wanted to let you know how appreciative I am of your videos. Even though I'm not big into most RPGs, I enjoy the history lessons and the way you try to look for any redeeming or interesting qualities in games most people would simply dismiss as bad. Being able to listen to content like yours has also made many 10 hour shifts much more tolerable, so thanks!

This has honestly made my whole day better. Thanks dude

It's criminal these videos aren't getting as many views as your other ones - they're so in-depth and engage with the deeper themes of these games so well!

This was a fantastic part of the retrospective. I eagerly await the next part so much each time. You are fantastic 😃

This was the big one! Thanks for covering this fantastic game and giving a new generation of people a look at it. I was introduced to Ultima 4 back in high school (almost a decade ago!) when one of my teachers gave it to us as assigned reading. It was used to explore the Hero's Journey in narrative works beyond literature and film. It was a bit daunting, but I was one of two students in my year to actually finish the game. Despite this, my strongest memory of the game is the time when I managed to delete my ship by exiting it in the middle of the ocean to fight some foes, which spawned a treasure chest under me, which deleted my ship, which left me softlocked in the middle of the seas of Brittania. I also suffered through the game as a shepherd on my first (and so far only) playthrough.

This was a deeper dive than expected, awesome.

I honestly don't know how you are doing it, Majuular. The idea of putting out a video like this, beating a game that takes dozens of hours to play, doing research on the background of the game itself, writing a script that must be tens of thousands of words long, recording nearly 2 hours of commentary, editing it all together, and doing it all at this level of thoughtfulness and rigor... Even doing this twice a year would be wild. Doing it once a *month* feels nearly mystical. All I can say is that I really love the work you're putting out and I hope that however you're doing it, that you can keep yourself healthy and sane (and wealthy too) doing it.

🫡thank you bro perfect end to my week of hospitalization and work

Thank you very much for covering these games. I've always been very interested in this series, but I never had the time to learn how to play it or how it was made. Your work is truly priceless to me. I'm very excited for the next videos.