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''Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny'' is the fifth entry in the
role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
series '' Ultima'' released in March 1988. It is the second in the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy. The game's story takes a darker turn from its predecessor ''
Ultima IV Ultima may refer to: Places * Ultima, Victoria, a town in Australia * Pangaea Ultima, a supercontinent to occur in the future * ''Ultima'', the larger lobe of the trans-Neptunian object 486958 Arrokoth, nicknamed ''Ultima Thule'' Companies and p ...
''. Britannia's king Lord British is missing, replaced by a tyrant named Lord Blackthorn. The player must navigate a totalitarian world bent on enforcing its virtues through draconian means. ''Ultima V'' sports numerous advances from ''Ultima IV''. The game world is larger, with more towns, further detailed dungeons, and an expansive Underworld to explore. Dialog with NPCs hosts more choices to make during conversation. World interactivity is further increased with new options to search, manipulate, and explore the player's surroundings. ''Ultima V'' was followed by '' Ultima VI: The False Prophet'' in 1990.


Plot

After having mastered the eight Virtues, attaining
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
hood, and retrieving the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in the previous game, the
Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
is summoned back to Britannia by his old comrades Iolo and
Shamino This is a list of significant or recurring characters in the ''Ultima'' series of computer games, indicating the games in which they appeared. The Avatar and Companions * Yes : The companion is in that game. * No : The companion is not in that ...
using a magic coin, which was included as a trinket in the game's box. Upon arrival he is greeted by Shamino, but they immediately come under attack from the three powerful beings known as the Shadowlords. After repelling them with the amulet (a feat that cannot be replicated later in the game), the Avatar brings the heavily wounded Shamino to Iolo's nearby hut where Iolo fills him in on recent developments:
Lord British Lord British, or Lord Cantabrigian British,Chuckles reveals Lord British's name as "Lord Cantabrigian British" in '' Ultima V'' when he welcomes the Avatar at the entrance of Castle Britannia. is the fictional ruler of Britannia, a kingdom in the ...
has been lost on an expedition into the Underworld, and a
tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to rep ...
known as
Lord Blackthorn This is a list of significant or recurring characters in the ''Ultima'' series of computer games, indicating the games in which they appeared. The Avatar and Companions * Yes : The companion is in that game. * No : The companion is not in that ...
now rules Britannia in his stead. Blackthorn enforces a strict, rigid version of the Virtues, which leads to results that are anything but virtuous (such as, "Thou shalt not lie, or thou shalt lose thy tongue", "Thou shalt donate half thy income to charity, or thou shalt have no income" or "Thou shalt enforce the laws of virtue, or thou shalt die as a heretic."), while the mysterious and terrifying Shadowlords terrorize the eight cities of Britannia. Over the course of the game the Avatar learns that the Shadowlords sprang from three shards of Mondain's Gem of Immortality (destroyed at the conclusion of ''
Ultima I ''Ultima'', later known as ''Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness'' or simply ''Ultima I'', is the first game in the ''Ultima (series), Ultima'' series of role-playing video games created by Richard Garriott, originally released for the Apple II se ...
''). Representing Falsehood, Hatred and Cowardice - the antithesis for Truth, Love and Courage, the three principles of the Avatar - they have corrupted Blackthorn and subverted his rule. With the help of his old companions and some new ones, the Avatar forms the Warriors of Destiny in order to eliminate the Shadowlords, undermine Blackthorn's rule, and rescue Lord British to restore him to his throne.


Gameplay

''Warriors of Destiny'' was the first ''Ultima'' to implement a time-of-day system in which the sun rises and sets, and
non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...
s follow daily routine schedules. As in ''Ultima IV'', the player can interact with non-player characters (NPCs) by typing a word or phrase that signifies the topic to discuss. The NPCs will say what they care to share about a subject when it is mentioned, and the player can repeat key words used in the NPC's response to ask for further details. Sometimes, an NPC will ask a question of the player, and the player must give an appropriate response to keep the conversation active. As in ''Ultima IV'' only the first four letters of player spoken text are read by the game i.e. for 'shrine' the player need only type 'shri'. The Shadowlords play an integral role in enforcing the oppressive atmosphere of Britannia in ''Ultima V''. They appear at various times in different towns, and affect the townspeople. If the Shadowlord of Cowardice is about, the people will run away from the player, afraid. If under the effect of the Shadowlord of Falsehood, they will try to steal from the player. If the Shadowlord of Hatred is affecting them, they will try to attack. Later in the game, the player learns to track the movement of the Shadowlords by observing planetary orbits via a specific telescope (spyglass). Each of the Shadowlords represents the antithesis of one of the three guiding principles: Faulinei, the Shadowlord of Falsehood opposes Truth; Astaroth, the Shadowlord of Hatred opposes Love; and Nosfentor, the Shadowlord of Cowardice opposes Courage. The Shadowlords must be defeated, but this cannot be accomplished through pure combat. First, the player must learn each Shadowlord's name by interviewing NPCs, Second, the three shards of the Gem of Immortality must be recovered from their scattered locations in the Underworld. Finally, the player must visit each of the sacred flames (the Flame of Truth at the Lycaeum, the Flame of Love at Empath Abbey, and the Flame of Courage at Serpent's Hold), summon the corresponding Shadowlord by shouting its name, lure the Shadowlord into the flame and finally destroy the shard by throwing it into the flame. In addition to traveling by foot, the player's party can ride horses, sail ships, and row skiffs. The player can also use the eight moongates, the magical doorways that appear each night in eight locations across Britannia. Stepping through one transports the player to another moongate, determined by the phases of the two moons. Although by default the moongates are located near each of the eight major towns, it is possible to relocate the gates to other areas by digging at their location to get the moonstones they appear over. Transplanting moongates proves to be a boon later in the game when exploring the Underworld. Two additional modes of transportation, the grapple and the
magic carpet A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its users to their destination. In literature One o ...
, are also available. The grapple can be used to scale small mountains (though the large mountains remain impassible throughout the game.) The magic carpet is a handy way of traversing the game world, as it can float over almost any terrain (not mountains), as well as increasing the party's speed to make it easier to escape monsters. The carpet can float easily over swamp, rivers and coastal waters, but flying over deep sea waters or lava will injure the party. Both items are located by piecing together conversations from multiple NPCs and completing side quests, though with prior knowledge an experienced player can acquire both items very easily and very early in the game.


Runic alphabet

''Ultima V'' used a modified form of the
Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...
runic alphabet Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...
for some game text, adding some letters to make a complete one-to-one correspondence with the English alphabet (plus a few runes to represent some common two-letter combinations). While all the earlier ''Ultima'' games since ''Ultima II'' had used runes on accompanying material such as maps and manuals and ''Ultima IV'' had shown single runes on the screen in specific situations, ''Ultima V'' was the first part of the series to incorporate multi-letter runic texts into the actual on-screen display.


Development

''Warriors of Destiny'' was the last ''Ultima'' developed on the
Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
; the limits of that system (excluding the 16-bit
Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari ST ...
) were increasingly becoming a hindrance to further technological advance, and thus all later games were developed on PC systems. This was also the last time in which ''Ultima'' creator
Richard Garriott Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux (''né'' Garriott; born July 4, 1961) is an American video game developer, entrepreneur and private astronaut. Although both his parents were American, he maintains dual British and American citizenship by birth. ...
did a major share of the actual coding; in the later parts he acted as a
game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
only. In his approach to Lord Blackthorn and his involvement in the overarching narrative, Garriott wanted to create a more insidious villain that wasn't just passively waiting for the heroes to arrive. The use of telescopes in the game was inspired by Garriott's experience as an amateur astronomer; Garriott programmed the game to accurately depict planetary orbits. Like the previous two games in the series, ''Ultima V'' was also
ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to the
NES The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...
by Origin and published through FCI/
Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...
; it was released as ''Ultima: Warriors of Destiny'' in
1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...
. Each of the NES games had significant differences from the originals; this NES version was, however, a less faithful rendition of the source material than its predecessors had been. Introductory parts were cropped; graphics and gameplay were relatively limited (a clear example is that the swamp terrain was represented by magical poison fields); and there were few music tracks. Character sprites were much less developed, movement was needlessly clunky and slow. The graphics and game engine were altogether inferior compared to what the NES did for the previous two games. The
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
port of ''Ultima V'' came on five 1541 disks (around 1.5MB total) and was criticized for the excessive amount of disk access and swapping required, although like ''Ultima IV'', the game can utilize two disk drives if present. When playing on a two drive system, the disk labeled "Outdoor" (also used to save/load games) is left in Drive 0 while the other game disks ("Underworld", "Towne", and "Dungeon") are placed in Drive 1 and swapped around. It also supports
Commodore 128 The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, C= 128,The "C=" represents the graphical part of the logo. is the last 8-bit home computer that was commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced in January 1985 at the ...
mode and if run on a C128, the extra system RAM is used for background music that is absent when the game is played on a C64. ''Ultima V'' also has a built-in
fast loader A fast loader is a software program for a home computer, such as the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum, that accelerates the speed of file loading from floppy disk or compact cassette. Floppy disks Fast loaders came about because of a discrep ...
, although as it is tied to the timing of NTSC machines, it will not work on PAL C64s, therefore European gamers without a C128 suffered from almost excruciating load times. If played in C128 mode and a 1571 drive is used, the game uses the computer's "burst mode" and does not require a fast loader. Amiga and Atari ST versions appeared in 1989. Their graphics were directly ported from the PC, thus not utilizing the capabilities of the machines. On the Amiga, the entire soundtrack was replaced with one new composition that only appeared on that platform—the same song repeated throughout all areas of the game. On the Atari ST, the songs were played in different places from on the Apple II and Commodore 128 versions; however, all songs from those versions were reused. All editions contained: the game media; a cloth map; a metal coin with the symbol of the Codex-as described in the game's introduction; The Book of Lore; Lord British's Odyssey; A quick reference card; a player reference card (version specific); a registration post card. The game box differs between editions only by screenshots on the back. The Atari ST version depicts (left to right): a giant mouse in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a headless; and battle screen with player casting 'In Flam Hur' on various skeletons. The first IBM version depicts (left to right): a fountain in a dungeon; Castle British area including the player, a ship and a horse; and the interior of an inn. The second release for IBM shows the same screenshots as the Atari ST version.


Reception

By 1990, the game had sold over 100,000 copies in the United States. ''
Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...
''s Scorpia described ''Ultima V'' as "well worth the wait," citing improved graphics and storyline. Minor criticisms were directed at flaws in the documentation and combat system. In 1993 she called the game "a worth follow-up ... not to be missed", although criticizing the Underworld as "a disappointment, being vast but essentially empty". ''
Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET c ...
'' called ''V'' "a tour de force in the realm of computer role-playing ... but it doesn't match the elegance of ''IV''". The game was reviewed in 1988 in ''
Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
'' #137 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. Garriott claimed in 1994 that ''V'' was his favorite ''Ultima''. In 1990 the game received the eighth-highest number of votes in a survey of ''Computer Gaming World'' readers' "All-Time Favorites". The game was ranked the 18th best game of all time by ''
Amiga Power ''Amiga Power'' (''AP'') was a monthly magazine about Amiga video games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future plc, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996. Philosophy ''Amiga Power'' had several principles which com ...
'' in 1991.


Ultima V: Lazarus

A
fan-made Fan labor, also called fan works, are the creative activities engaged in by fans, primarily those of various media properties or musical groups. These activities can include creation of written works (fiction, fan fiction and review literature), ...
recreation of ''Ultima V'' using the ''
Dungeon Siege ''Dungeon Siege'' is an action role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft in April 2002, for Microsoft Windows, and the following year by Destineer for Mac OS X. Set in the pseudo-medieval kingdom of Ehb, the hi ...
'' engine, ''Ultima V: Lazarus'', was released on December 22, 2005.


References


External links

*
''Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny''
at the Codex of Ultima Wisdom wiki

at C64Sets.com
''Ultima V – Warriors of Destiny''
at C64 Wiki {{Authority control 1988 video games Amiga games Apple II games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games Commodore 128 games DOS games FM Towns games Games commercially released with DOSBox NEC PC-8801 games NEC PC-9801 games Open-world video games Role-playing video games Sharp X68000 games Single-player video games Ultima (series) Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games scored by Barry Leitch Video games scored by Martin Galway Video games with tile-based graphics