There are going to be comparisons between Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar and Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. There is no avoiding this. But while Ultima Forever is inspired by Ultima IV, and shares many similarities in concept and story with Ultima IV, there are nevertheless quite a few differences between the two games.

Ultima Forever is not meant to be a remake of Ultima IV. Rather it is a re-imagining of the Ultima storyline, and a reboot of the Ultima franchise; consider the 2009, J.J. Abrams-produced Star Trek film for an example of what is being attempted. If it is successful, Mythic Entertainment plan to bring other Ultima games into the Ultima Forever series.

Relationship to Ultima IV

• Ultima Forever is set 21 years after Ultima IV
• Certain NPCs, settings or locations, and certain events are reminiscent of, or directly drawn from, Ultima IV
• There are new areas of Britannia, including new dungeons
• There are new NPCs
• The art style, rather than being an overhead 2D RPG, features 3D characters set against 2D hand-painted environments

Major Differences

• Multiplayer with up to 4 players in a group
• Lady British, daughter of Lord British, is the ruler of Britannia, due to Richard Garriott owning the rights to the “Lord British” name
• Real-time combat versus Ultima IV’s turn-based combat