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John Romero's Daikatana

Moby ID: 1678
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Description official descriptions

Hiro Miyamoto is a martial arts instructor and a member of an ancient clan of fighters. One day he learns that Kage Mishima, a sworn enemy of his clan, has gained possession of the Daikatana, a magical sword that allows its bearer to travel through time. As a result of Mishima's quest for power, a devastating disease is threatening humanity. Hiro and his friends must venture into different time periods, retrieve the sword, and defeat Mishima.

Daikatana is a first-person shooter using the Quake II engine. The game is divided into four episodes of several levels each, each episode taking place in a different time period: far-future Japan, ancient Greece, Dark Ages Norway, and near-future USA. The game uses cutscenes and text to tell the story. Two AI-controlled characters accompany Hiro throughout the quest, helping him in battles and also requiring protection. In addition to several different firearms, the Daikatana itself, which the player acquires in Episode 2, can gain experience and grow stronger as it is used. The game includes a multi-player deathmatch mode.

Spellings

  • 大刀 - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

165 People (140 developers, 25 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 57% (based on 49 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.6 out of 5 (based on 83 ratings with 12 reviews)

Are you broken?

The Good
One surprising thing about Daikatana is that it genuinely should have been really, really good. Just look at its premise: an immersive first-person action game centered around time travel where every chapter has a unique feel and playstyle to it. It's unique, visionary, unprecedented, and at the same time absolutely doable with technology available at the time.

And that overall concept is still the game's biggest strength. The varied locations, distinct aesthetics, and differently paced levels all add to Daikatana's feeling of freshness. It doesn't really matter how flimsy and clichéd its excuse of a story is with a general premise this good.

Another thing Daikatana gets mostly right that's really important for an action game is the combat. Thanks to the varied time periods and aesthetics, each chapter has a separate and distinct arsenal, not restrained by the somewhat basic futurism of Quake II or the realism of Half-Life. Not every weapon is all that useful or satisfying to use, but the variety is enough to allow for freedom when it comes to playstyle and adapting to the game's challenges. Another interesting addition is the titular daikatana, a melee weapon that gets stronger with every enemy you kill with it, as opposed to being bound to the XP system like the other weapons.

The Bad
With so many good things about Daikatana, why is it not a good game overall? One reason is the level design. While not more convoluted than that of Doom or Quake (let alone some maps in Unreal), it definitely feels far less intuitive and at some points simply annoying. On top of that, chapters 1 and 4 really like to put enemies with hitscan weapons or very fast projectiles in places where they will see you immediately as you enter a room, often not allowing any time to properly dodge. Combined with an abundance of segments where you actually have to take (mostly fall) damage to progress, Daikatana feels a bit like a throwback to the NES era of artificial difficulty. Except here it's used simply to spite the player and not to pad the game's length despite technical limitations.

But Daikatana's biggest sin lies somewhere else - the infamous AI ally system. During large portions of the game you'll have 1 or 2 NPCs following you, with them being by your side necessary to move on to the next part of a level. A combination of friendly fire, awkward hitboxes, and most of all absolutely abysmal pathfinding makes the allies a waking nightmare that will impede your progress on numerous occasions in the most frustrating ways possible.

Despite Daikatana's notoriously long development cycle, you can tell the quality assurance portion of it was rushed. The game is mostly a finished product and definitely playable, but it does have its fair share of minor hiccups and annoyances surrounding hitboxes and collisions.

The Bottom Line
In short, Daikatana is a both unique and highly frustrating experience that doesn't quite live down to its terrible reputation, but is even farther from living up to the promise of its premise. 4/10

Windows · by Pegarange (216) · 2023

A challenging FPS, and I'm having fun with it.

The Good
I believe the strongest point of this game is the fact that it almost appears to be 4 different games in one box. There are four different time periods which feature different foes, weapons, maps and design. If you don't like one, play on, because the next one will be completely different. The levels feature many hidden areas reminicent of Doom and Quake 1. I believe the graphics to be good and framerates to be good as well (p2-450, 128 ram, w/Voodoo 3000). Background music is good to very good in areas. Medusa level music really added to the atmosphere. Also there is actually a story that goes along with the game as it progresses, which many FPS lack, that adds to the experience.

The Bad
Savegem crystal system requires you to have picked up a crystal to save the game. Crystals can be accumulated, but it will force numerous replays on some areas that you would prefer to be done with. Some bugs in the sidekick A.I., as has been mentioned, being killed in closed doors, if you tell them to "get" something that is out of reach, they will continue the attempt even after being recalled. Manually configuring voodoo card support.

The Bottom Line
This is a game that was originally created and was supposed to be released sometime shortly after Quake 2 was. Many problems forced numerous delays This game has received a lot of publicity and many had very high expectations of it. It took a very long time to produce and anyone interested can read a good story about it on gamespot. Many have developed a personal dislike for some of the people involved due to some of the publicity practices (slogans) released through the years, as well as other reasons. If you are expecting Unreal or Quake 3 graphics, then you don't understand what all this game has been through and need to understand the delays involved. Graphics are better than Quake 2. If you like FPS and don't have any pre-concieved notions about the game, and have some patience, you probably will like the game. A patch is soon to be released that will address many of the (constructive) complaints made about the game.

Windows · by Mr. Natural (2) · 2000

It's not that bad!

The Good
1. Bang for your buck. For $30, we're looking at 16 GIGANTIC levels in four worlds with different styles for each group.

  1. The Discus of Dadelous. It is the coolest weapon since the BFG.

3.Level design. The design is quite good. The way the levels are laid out is excellent.

  1. Multiplayer. The multiplayer levels are some of the best I've ever seen. There unbelievably tight.

  2. Sidekicks. I liked them.

This is an addendum to address something I found a personal attack that made me sick. <<The bovine, mothlike fanboys forcing themselves to love Daikatana are entertaining...in a sad, pathetic sort of way.>> First thing, I am not forcing myself to like Daikatana. I am never affected by hype. My personal opinions are created solely from the game. Secondly, if you find me entertaining, good for you! Just don't share it with everyone, or you come off like a jerk. And also, I have an opinion. Last time I checked, an opinion can't turn you into a moth or a cow. Now, I have a sense of humor, and believe me, this isn't humor.

The Bad
1. The Swamp. So bad it is scary. The epitome of bad level design. They probably hired a second grader for this level.

2.Ultimate Gas Hands-'Nuff Said



The Bottom Line
OK, so it's not the second coming, but it's not as bad as some make it out to be.

Windows · by emerging_lurker (160) · 2000

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Should I try it? Unicorn Lynx (181801) Dec 30th, 2011
incite PC gaming's Daikatana preview / interview video Foxhack (32097) Aug 19th, 2007

Trivia

Advertisement

Long before Daikatana was released, an ad for it was run in several magazines stating "John Romero's Gonna Make You His Bitch." Needless to say this upset quite a few folks.

Daikatana Deathmatch

In April 2007, a fan team released Daikatana Deathmatch (DKDM), a multiplayer-only modification stripping the game from all the single player parts to reduce the file size for players who only want the multiplayer part. It still requires a full copy of the game to play. The link can be found in the related links section.

Development

Daikatana was in development for 3 years, exactly. The reason for the long development cycle was the switch to the Quake II engine. Romero decided to switch because of its colored lighting, among other graphical goodies, but when he finally received the source code, it was nothing like he pictured. Overall the story of the game's development and Ion Storm in general is as epic and profound as anything in the game. Check the related links for The Story of Daikatana.

Dialogue

The characters' sound files used in this game are not encrypted in any way. They're ordinary mp3 files which can be found in the data/sounds/voices folder of the Daikatana directory. There's quite a bit of unused dialogue in there which never made it into the full game. It seems the enemies and the player's two sidekicks were supposed to have more ambient dialogue (e.g. combat taunts, waiting sounds) than what was eventually used.

Dopefish

There are four Dopefish hidden in the game, one per time period.

German Windows version

In the German version enemy blood was colored grey, gore effects were removed and various human enemy modes changed, e.g. into robots or with an added mask to hide their face. A detailed list of changes can be found on schnittberichte.com (German).

Nintendo 64 version

The Nintendo 64 version misses violence in comparison to the original Windows version, e.g. purple instead of red blood. The PAL version was even cut further: the blood was replaced with sparks and civilians are immortal.

References

In the lobby of the Mishima Funeral Home/Crematorium, there's some solemn funeral-type music playing. This is really a slowed down version of the famous e1m1 music from DOOM.

Remix

As the sounds and dialog are not encrypted, one creative mixer was able to rearrange the dialog, add a little fake stuff here and there, add some bump-and-grind music, and came up with a long MP3 that sounds as if the two guys in the game were "engaging" the female sidekick. Computer Gaming World called it "the ONLY redeeming feature of Daikatana".

Sales

Daikatana sold 200,000 copies and had budget of over $10 million.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2001 (Issue #201) – Coaster of the Year
  • PC Powerplay (Germany)
    • Issue 03/2005 - #8 Biggest Disappointment
    • Issue 02/2006 - #7 Hype Disappointment

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, bkaradzic, Kalirion, Kasey Chang, Sciere, WildKard and Zack Green.

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  • MobyGames ID: 1678
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Matthew Bailey.

Additional contributors: Trixter, Andrew Hartnett, John Romero, Sciere, Ms. Tea, DreinIX, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Frank Sapone, aKro.

Game added June 18th, 2000. Last modified January 22nd, 2024.