Blow The Cartridge: Ultima IV
on July 15, 2011The whole intro sequence to Ultima IV was kind of creepy when you think about it. This woman just sitting there JUDGING ME on the spot for not knowing how to answer those damn cryptic questions. What did they do in the game, anyway? I could never figure it out, but then again Ultima was always a little bit complex for me. Actually, anything this side of Pong is a bit complex for me.
In most games they determined you starting stats. Each answer related to a virtue, each virtue related to stats. So you kind of had a virtue bracket, where the first four questions narrowed it down to four virtues, then those paired of for two more questions, and then the championship question to see which which virtue was most important. Each answer (usually) added to your stats (the humility answer never helped). For max stats, never choose the humility answer, always choose the spirituality answer, and…I don’t remember the rest. Also, in some of the games, your final answer determined our starting class and/or your starting city.
Whoa, that’s kind of awesome
thanks for the heads up, it kind of explains why my starting stats were always so crap!
I always answered truthfully and ended up being that party’s mage.
I knew that I could alter my stats by answering differently, but for some reason it just felt wrong to cheat on a test of virtues.
Cameron – you’re welcome.
Morghan – First play-through I always answered honestly (unless, just maybe, I wound up starting in New Magincia with poopy stats and a shepherd’s staff). Later play-throughs I’d game the system.
Ahh, the ol’ gypsy character creation scene
It was a neat way of deciding stats. I think it only determined actual class in Ultima 4, which is the only game it mattered at all (since if you ended up a Ranger, you wouldn’t need to recruit Shamino (the NPC Ranger) to win the game).
(Actually, it did class in U9: Ascension too, now that I think about it.)