Ultima V - Warriors of Destiny
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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The Avatar, the embodiment of the Eight Virtues and the hero of Britannia, is called back to deal with a grave threat. Lord British, the country's benevolent monarch, has disappeared, and a man named Blackthorn has usurped his throne. The tyrant rules the land by enforcing the virtues upon the will of the people, corrupting their meaning in the process. His fundamentalist visions led him to create a police state, where failure to adhere to the virtues is punishable by death. Behind Blackthorn are the three Shadowlords, anti-thesis to the three principles of Truth, Love, and Courage. The Avatar must understand their meaning and origins, find a way to defeat them, rescue Lord British, and restore the former ethical principles of Britannia.

Ultima V uses the basics of the Ultima IV engine, an overhead perspective for the map of Britannia and its towns, and a rosette-compass 3D view for the dungeons. The battle system also resembles that of the previous game, with separate battle screens and navigation of character icons in turn-based style. Many of the gameplay elements of the predecessor return, including the complex spell system (reagents must be bought in order to cast spells), recruitable party members, moongates that teleport the party between locations, various means of transportation (horses, ships, etc., with the notable addition of a magic carpet), and so on. Character creation based on morally ambiguous questions and basic leveling up system have been preserved as well.

Additional challenges include navigating characters through the Underworld, a vast underground area containing many hazards; random presence of Shadowlords in the cities, which influences the behavior of their inhabitants, making them run away, steal from, or attack the Avatar; inscriptions in a runic alphabet that must be deciphered by the player, and others.

The game has a noticeably more detailed world than any of its predecessors; the towns are much larger, with many unique buildings and objects represented graphically. Ultima V introduces physical interaction with the game world: many objects can be pushed or pulled, the main character can sit down on a chair (which is graphically shown), etc. It also incorporates a day/night cycle and schedules for non-playable characters: for example, it is impossible to shop at night because the shopkeepers are sleeping. Dialogues with NPCs have been enhanced, featuring more unique and detailed conversation topics. 

Trivia

Some original boxed versions of the game came with a cloth map of the world.

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny has been remade by fans in 2005 using the Dungeon Siege engine. It is a highly ambitious attempt to reconstruct the original title, including an enhanced plot, and adds strategy elements and updates conversational mechanisms to resemble modern game dialog systems.

It is free for download from the TeamLazarus homepage (See Links section). 

In the Apple II version of the game (and possibly others, though not the DOS version), yelling FLIPFLOP outdoors would cause each tile on the screen to invert itself, top to bottom. This is quite bizarre -- check the screenshots page to see it in action.

Yelling it again will restore the tiles to their normal status.

Contrary to popular belief, the Commodore 64 version did not have any music. The music was only available to those who had a Commodore 128 and started the game in Commodore 128 mode. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny was one of very few games that gave particular attention to the Commodore 128.

The name of captain Johne's ship is Ararat. According to the Bible, that is also the name of the mountain where Noah's ark landed after the flood. Quite an appropriate name for a ship that's run ashore.

There has long been animosity between EA and Origin. Just dig through the Ultima V binaries. Ultima V had a list of swear words that, when used in conversation, would result in the response 'With language like that how didst thou become an Avatar?!'. In this swear word list in the binaries were the usual 4 letter words as well as 'Electronic Arts'.

ORIGIN founder Richard Garriott has always had a bit of a grudge against Trip Hawkins, co-founder of Electronic Arts, because he didn't like their treatment as an EA affiliated label. Not only did he name a mausoleum after him (Pirt Snikwah backwards) in his Britannia Manor (a house in Austin, Texas, designed and used for creepy real-life RPG's), but, more related, he also made him appear in Ultima V as shipwright Hawkins.

Although the game is the sequel to Ultima 4, it doesn't have the a class identity system like Ultima 4 does. It only had four classes: Avatar (you), Warrior, Bard and Wizard. Ultima 4 had a more classic class system (ranger, magician, and so on).

There is no music in PC version, but there exist a freeware patch that adds all the glorious music from C-64/Apple versions to play properly with the PC version as MIDI. 

"To me, Ultima isn't just a collection of quests to solve, but an entire world in its own right, with new people, places, and experiences around every corner...I try to create a detailed, living environment where the game's story seems natural and involving, never artificially contrived or out of place."

--Richard Garriot, author of the Ultima series, Austin TX (from the Ultima V page in the 1988 Broderbund catalog) 


In the stable near Iolo's Hut, you'll find Smith (a talking horse). If you talk with him, he'll give you a "very important clue" -- however, the clue is for Ultima 4. Apparently, the Ultima 4 design team forgot to include the clue so they put it in Ultima 5 as a joke. This tradition has since carried on throughout subsequent Ultimas.

Original boxes of Ultima V included a symbol stamped coin representing The Codex from within the Warrior of Destiny' plot. 

Many of the people in Ultima 5 are constructed from other Origin employees or friends of Richard Garriot - one example is Christopher in West Britanny, modeled after Chris Roberts of Times of Lore and Wing Commander fame.

Alternate Titles
"Ultima: Warriors of Destiny" -- NES title
"Ultima V: Shukumei no Senshi" -- Japanese title

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Description from the packaging:

Setting the new standard for role-playing adventure.
Warriors of Destiny
Enter the realm of Britannia: a world rich in history, adventure, and intrigue. Lord British, the benevolent ruler of Britannia, has been lost on an expedition to explore the vast reaches of a newly discovered underworld. Panic erupts in Britannia when the sole survivor of the expedition returns with the dread tales of their fate.

To restore peace, the trusted but ambitious subject, Blackthorn seizes control of Britannia. His fanatical devotion to order ultimately transforms him into a self-righteous tyrant. Now, Britannia's destiny depends on your ability to discover the fate of Lord British and to unseat the merciless Blackthorn.

Highlights of Ultima V
Powerful new combat system.
Watch your axes fly and arrows soar, with detailed animated graphics.
Weave spells to conjure daemons, call forth rushing winds of flame, or become invisible to the enemy.
Employ more sophisticated combat strategies as your experience- and challenge- increases.
Unprecedented variety and detail.

Over twice the graphic detail, animation and sound effects of earlier games, with murmuring fountains, ticking clocks and lighthouses that cut swaths of light through the night.
Over 30 multi-level villages, towns, castles and keeps to explore, some with as many as five levels.
A vast new underworld, equal in size to Britannia and populated by a host of shadowy creatures never known before.

Realistic, living world.
Townsfolk and villagers go about their daily activities of working, eating and sleeping according to their own individual schedules.
The sun and twin moons rise and set while within the fortified towns and castles drawbridges raise and portcullises drop to protect the inhabitants at night.
Carry on sophisticated, life-like conversations, buy, sell or trade with hundreds of people throughout the realm.

One of three distinct dungeon styles.
Smoother, more realistic graphics.
Twice the detail of Ultima IV.
More than two years in the making, Warriors of Destiny sets the new standard for the role playing genre. No other game can offer you as beautifully detailed a world or exciting an adventure. Ultima V is the game for all role-playing gamers;
Warriors of Destiny will enchant the novice and challenge the expert.


http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/ultima-v-warriors-of-destiny/trivia
