I can't leave without my buddy, Superfly.
A misunderstood classic. Its bold choices in gamedesign shine through to this day, people just aren't willing to understand them
I've always seen John Romero as the Icarus of gaming, with his wax wings made from his ego, and the Sun being every single day after Daikatana was released.
se flipó un poco el romero
Made me wanna diekatana
An example of giving an artist too much freedom or an artist being unable to limit him/herself to make shit right.
Huge flop of that time.
Huge flop of that time.
1.3 makes the game playable but too many bad design choices keep it from being a good game. Episode 1 is bad, 2 and 3 are decent, and then it falls off again in episode 4.
QUE PERCA DE TEMPO. PELO AMOR DE DEUS JOHN ROMERO...
SÓ JOGUEI PORQUE VEIO NUM PACOTE DE JOGOS DA EIDOS QUE EU COMPREI. Não vale a pena. se quer jogar algo do estilo recomendo mil vezes mais Quake ou o proprio Doom.
Grafico ultrapassadissimo pra época, gameplay quebrada e nada funcional e uma história que até agora eu to tentando entender. Resumindo... não perca seu tempo.
SÓ JOGUEI PORQUE VEIO NUM PACOTE DE JOGOS DA EIDOS QUE EU COMPREI. Não vale a pena. se quer jogar algo do estilo recomendo mil vezes mais Quake ou o proprio Doom.
Grafico ultrapassadissimo pra época, gameplay quebrada e nada funcional e uma história que até agora eu to tentando entender. Resumindo... não perca seu tempo.
[THIS USER WAS MADE JOHN ROMERO'S BITCH]
Tremenda cagada se mando el John Romero, después de sacar juegos como el ya conocido Doom va y te saca esta bazofia llamada "Daikatana" un juego con pésima inteligencia artificial y controles demasiado lentos, sin duda alguna uno de los peores juegos que llegue a probar de la Ninntendo 64
This is a frustrating game to rate, so I'll be writing a review. Unpatched, this game is borderline unplayable, or at least you're not going to want to keep playing because of the buggy AI companions, constantly having to babysit them, and the limited saves. However playing with the community patch actually makes this game pretty decent, and since the patch is endorsed by Romero himself that's what I'll be basing my rating on.
It still suffers from having probably one of the worst first impressions to a video game I've ever experienced though. The first two levels are a swamp followed by a sewer, the enemies you fight are annoying, everything is green, and most of the weapons you get are garbage. The first episode is by far the worst part of the game, but the 2nd and 3rd episodes are genuinely pretty great and remind me a lot of Hexen II, which I like a lot. The weapon variety is sweet and besides most of the episode 1 guns, are satisfying and fun to use. I particularly like the ballista that you can "rocket jump" with and the demon summoning staff that uses gibs as ammo, which is such a Romero thing to design it made me lose my shit. Having unique weapons and enemies depending on which time period you're in works pretty well and is definitely a highlight of the game for me.
Another thing I personally feel works well enough is the rpg mechanic where you can put a point in a stat of your choosing. It allows flexibility in how you want to play and I like it. I focused on damage and health because I figured I'd probably have a hard time eventually but by the time I reached the 4th episode I was practically unkillable. I do feel like you already move quickly enough without points in the speed stat, and the acrobatics stat feels kinda useless besides for getting certain secrets, but they're there for people who want to run and jump around like crazy. Getting kills with the Daikatana will level up the sword instead of yourself so it gets more powerful, but I feel like it isn't really worth it. The story is nothing special and it has the habit of dumping you with exposition all the time. Personally I don't really care about story in an fps game but if you're expecting good writing then it isn't here. The music however is really good and fits the theme of each time period well. Check out the songs "Iced Passage I", "Gangland", and "Modern Mystery" if you want a taste, those are my highlights.
Would I recommend Daikatana? Well, if you can stomach the first episode of the game, then I think there's stuff to like here. I could only recommend playing it with the 1.3 patch though and to be honest, playing with AI companions disabled wouldn't be a bad idea since I feel like they don't add much to the game anyway and just serve as an annoyance. All you'd be missing out on are some comments they make on things during gameplay. Do I think Daikatana is overhated? No, not really. I think the hate for the unpatched game is 100% deserved and I can understand how it'd be hard to appreciate the good in this game when you're constantly dealing with the AI shenanigans. It's frustrating because this game is way too ambitious for it's own good and could have easily been so much better, but unfortunately that's not what we got.
It still suffers from having probably one of the worst first impressions to a video game I've ever experienced though. The first two levels are a swamp followed by a sewer, the enemies you fight are annoying, everything is green, and most of the weapons you get are garbage. The first episode is by far the worst part of the game, but the 2nd and 3rd episodes are genuinely pretty great and remind me a lot of Hexen II, which I like a lot. The weapon variety is sweet and besides most of the episode 1 guns, are satisfying and fun to use. I particularly like the ballista that you can "rocket jump" with and the demon summoning staff that uses gibs as ammo, which is such a Romero thing to design it made me lose my shit. Having unique weapons and enemies depending on which time period you're in works pretty well and is definitely a highlight of the game for me.
Another thing I personally feel works well enough is the rpg mechanic where you can put a point in a stat of your choosing. It allows flexibility in how you want to play and I like it. I focused on damage and health because I figured I'd probably have a hard time eventually but by the time I reached the 4th episode I was practically unkillable. I do feel like you already move quickly enough without points in the speed stat, and the acrobatics stat feels kinda useless besides for getting certain secrets, but they're there for people who want to run and jump around like crazy. Getting kills with the Daikatana will level up the sword instead of yourself so it gets more powerful, but I feel like it isn't really worth it. The story is nothing special and it has the habit of dumping you with exposition all the time. Personally I don't really care about story in an fps game but if you're expecting good writing then it isn't here. The music however is really good and fits the theme of each time period well. Check out the songs "Iced Passage I", "Gangland", and "Modern Mystery" if you want a taste, those are my highlights.
Would I recommend Daikatana? Well, if you can stomach the first episode of the game, then I think there's stuff to like here. I could only recommend playing it with the 1.3 patch though and to be honest, playing with AI companions disabled wouldn't be a bad idea since I feel like they don't add much to the game anyway and just serve as an annoyance. All you'd be missing out on are some comments they make on things during gameplay. Do I think Daikatana is overhated? No, not really. I think the hate for the unpatched game is 100% deserved and I can understand how it'd be hard to appreciate the good in this game when you're constantly dealing with the AI shenanigans. It's frustrating because this game is way too ambitious for it's own good and could have easily been so much better, but unfortunately that's not what we got.
Sure, Daikatana is an overhyped mess of a game, and I would not wish to play it without a community patch on my worst enemy. Still, beneath the rough surface of the game is something that can be polished - and certainly was - by community modders 17 years later, who saw potential in what might have been John Romero's vision for the game. John Romero admitted his mistakes and gave the 1.3 patch creators the source code so that you wouldn't have to deal with the mediocre base game. Enthusiast of the Ion Storm shooter gave the series a much-needed uplift.
Graphics are definitely dated for a 2000 game, after years in development you'd expect the game to be much more appealing, perhaps issues arose during the transition to id tech 2, still, Daikatana would have been a beautiful game in 1997, the transition to Quake 2 engine was unnecessary, but gave us colored lighting and 3d accelerated graphics that might have been needed to run the game in 1997. What's more, 2000 saw the release of id tech 3 titles which made the delay totally in vain. Still, Daikatana is not so dated, rather somewhat comparable to most Unreal engine games released in the 2000s, id tech 3 was certainly no viable comparison.
Daikatana is comprised of four episodes, each comprising a different time period, 25th century Japan, Ancient Greece, the Dark Age, and futuristic San Francisco. Each episode is comprised of four to six levels. While the game starts slowly on the first episode, picks up surprisingly fast past its two first levels. Each episode features its own arsenal of weapons and enemy variations. Daikatana was definitely one feature-heavy game, featuring elements of a role-playing game and a fast first-person shooter.
In its unpatched version, your followers take damage and the AI has the collective intelligence level of a lima bean - they will die a lot, forcing you to reload your save. But to save, you need to collect Save Gems allowing you to save in between levels. This was patched by the community, followers are now smarter, do not get stuck. There are checkers for unlimited saves and many quality of life improvements that should have been in the original. You can even turn off followers entirely, making the game more akin to Quake - and certainly alleviating some of the anxiety.
It's hard to hate on John Romero, he clearly loves his work, loves the community and to this day remains to most responsive to his fans. He's no Carmack, and despite his big head and rockstar persona, clearly loved his fans and wanted to give back to the community. Everyone has heard it by now, Daikatana was a flawed game, but what of today? While nobody has nostalgia for the original 2000 game and its N64 version devoid of voice acting, and sound effects; we wanted to focus on how the 1.3 community patch, as of today, rejuvenated John Romero's vision of Daikatana, which was still one of the most anticipated games of the 90s.
As of today, the community patch 1.3 does wonder to showcase what would have been Daikatana - John Romero's "magnum opus" - had its development been less chaotic. It's a surprisingly decent game. Mapping of its four areas is unique and in-depth, its weapon selection was unlike anything anyone had ever seen; Daikatana's content variety went far beyond what Quake 2 originally offered. Had John Romero not been intimidated by the release of Quake 2, Daikatana would have been released in 1997 as it originally intended and would have probably been a better game as the prototypal Milestone 2 demonstrated.
As far as the game goes, its now a star above Tom Hall's Rise of the Triad, the Unreal 98 singleplayer campaign, and on par with Acclaim's Turok games. Daikatana also has its excellent Gameboy Color release - check it out!
Graphics are definitely dated for a 2000 game, after years in development you'd expect the game to be much more appealing, perhaps issues arose during the transition to id tech 2, still, Daikatana would have been a beautiful game in 1997, the transition to Quake 2 engine was unnecessary, but gave us colored lighting and 3d accelerated graphics that might have been needed to run the game in 1997. What's more, 2000 saw the release of id tech 3 titles which made the delay totally in vain. Still, Daikatana is not so dated, rather somewhat comparable to most Unreal engine games released in the 2000s, id tech 3 was certainly no viable comparison.
Daikatana is comprised of four episodes, each comprising a different time period, 25th century Japan, Ancient Greece, the Dark Age, and futuristic San Francisco. Each episode is comprised of four to six levels. While the game starts slowly on the first episode, picks up surprisingly fast past its two first levels. Each episode features its own arsenal of weapons and enemy variations. Daikatana was definitely one feature-heavy game, featuring elements of a role-playing game and a fast first-person shooter.
In its unpatched version, your followers take damage and the AI has the collective intelligence level of a lima bean - they will die a lot, forcing you to reload your save. But to save, you need to collect Save Gems allowing you to save in between levels. This was patched by the community, followers are now smarter, do not get stuck. There are checkers for unlimited saves and many quality of life improvements that should have been in the original. You can even turn off followers entirely, making the game more akin to Quake - and certainly alleviating some of the anxiety.
It's hard to hate on John Romero, he clearly loves his work, loves the community and to this day remains to most responsive to his fans. He's no Carmack, and despite his big head and rockstar persona, clearly loved his fans and wanted to give back to the community. Everyone has heard it by now, Daikatana was a flawed game, but what of today? While nobody has nostalgia for the original 2000 game and its N64 version devoid of voice acting, and sound effects; we wanted to focus on how the 1.3 community patch, as of today, rejuvenated John Romero's vision of Daikatana, which was still one of the most anticipated games of the 90s.
As of today, the community patch 1.3 does wonder to showcase what would have been Daikatana - John Romero's "magnum opus" - had its development been less chaotic. It's a surprisingly decent game. Mapping of its four areas is unique and in-depth, its weapon selection was unlike anything anyone had ever seen; Daikatana's content variety went far beyond what Quake 2 originally offered. Had John Romero not been intimidated by the release of Quake 2, Daikatana would have been released in 1997 as it originally intended and would have probably been a better game as the prototypal Milestone 2 demonstrated.
As far as the game goes, its now a star above Tom Hall's Rise of the Triad, the Unreal 98 singleplayer campaign, and on par with Acclaim's Turok games. Daikatana also has its excellent Gameboy Color release - check it out!
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK vai toma no cu mateus
Holy f*cking shit, this has to be the worst game made by John Romero. It's hard to believe this is the bespoke game made by the same guy who made masterpieces such as Quake and Doom.
I can’t leave without my buddy Super Fly.
the start is absolutely atrocious, but it surprisingly gets better as the game goes on.
Esse daqui o Romero caprichou kkkkkkkkkk
You will never gaslight me into thinking this is a misundertood masterpiece. And this is coming from a Hexen fan
You know what, this game's got gumption and effort despite how unfinished and unpolished it is. There's genuinely something here that's interesting and I appreciate a lot of it. A shame its just such an unfocused mess and the AI's just....like that.
Thankfully patches and modifications exist to make it a more tolerable experience. Just skip the N64 port, it's miserable to actually play.
Thankfully patches and modifications exist to make it a more tolerable experience. Just skip the N64 port, it's miserable to actually play.
Do not play this without the fan patch that makes sidekicks invincible
Played it in 2018 or 19. Fairly middling game with episode 1 being one of the worst first impressions in any shooter I've played. 2 and 3 are fine, if not the best set of levels in the game, but 4 crashes and burns. I recommend playing with the 1.3 patch, but as a prior reviewer said, this one's still let down by terrible design choices.
No thanks
Alright John Romero, I’m ready
First off, thank you to the options menu and the kind people who developed the 1.3 patch for making this game playable so that the AI were functional and also I didn't have to play with the inane save gems mechanic. Anyway.
Kinda the inverse of Quake. Where Quake is very stripped back and minimal and purely focused on making its mechanics feel razor sharp, Daikatana is a very slow burn game where there's a whole mess of systems that all have to slowly come together before the game really clicked for me. It does not help that the game opens with it's two worst levels, and then for some reason follows it up with it's 3 hardest levels. But once you've started leveling up your abilities, and once you've actually had your team mates cover you in a fight successfully a couple times (assuming u installed the 1.3 patch lol), and once you start to get a feel for the weird non-standard obscenely bloated arsenal, every now and then it all just comes together and you can see the genuinely great video game hidden behind all the broken half finished parts. The shooting here is not at all as fast nor as perfected as Quake, in fact fights are often held in awkwardly shaped cramped rooms. But weirdly enough that flavor of combat gradually grew on me as an acquired taste. A lot of fights in Daikatana force you to think critically about and utilize the restrictive environments. The best parts of the game are in the 2nd and 3rd episodes, where they experiment most with the time travel premise as a way to play into different styles and gameplay approaches in a genuinely really cool way. The dramatic shifts in tone as well as the complete overhaul of your arsenal every episode make me think that John Romero and co. wanted to make a game that felt like 4 whole different games with each episode, and for those first 3 episodes I think they genuinely succeeded. That being said, the forth episode is hard to describe as anything other than halfhearted, with most of the more unique designs of the earlier levels being absent, and it just feeling like one corridor with easy enemies after another. Another big problem is that most of the puzzles in the game are basically "figure out which indistinct object the level designer decided you can interact with/shoot to interact with this time", which were never fun to get stuck on. But like, despite All That, I still found myself having a pretty dang good time playing Daikatana, somehow? I don't know there's something about the odd shape of the gameplay loop formed by the RPG elements combined with the constant shift in tone and jagged level design that I found oddly difficult to pull away from. It's not gonna be one of my but favorite games anytime soon, but I mean, I guess he made me his bitch after all.
Kinda the inverse of Quake. Where Quake is very stripped back and minimal and purely focused on making its mechanics feel razor sharp, Daikatana is a very slow burn game where there's a whole mess of systems that all have to slowly come together before the game really clicked for me. It does not help that the game opens with it's two worst levels, and then for some reason follows it up with it's 3 hardest levels. But once you've started leveling up your abilities, and once you've actually had your team mates cover you in a fight successfully a couple times (assuming u installed the 1.3 patch lol), and once you start to get a feel for the weird non-standard obscenely bloated arsenal, every now and then it all just comes together and you can see the genuinely great video game hidden behind all the broken half finished parts. The shooting here is not at all as fast nor as perfected as Quake, in fact fights are often held in awkwardly shaped cramped rooms. But weirdly enough that flavor of combat gradually grew on me as an acquired taste. A lot of fights in Daikatana force you to think critically about and utilize the restrictive environments. The best parts of the game are in the 2nd and 3rd episodes, where they experiment most with the time travel premise as a way to play into different styles and gameplay approaches in a genuinely really cool way. The dramatic shifts in tone as well as the complete overhaul of your arsenal every episode make me think that John Romero and co. wanted to make a game that felt like 4 whole different games with each episode, and for those first 3 episodes I think they genuinely succeeded. That being said, the forth episode is hard to describe as anything other than halfhearted, with most of the more unique designs of the earlier levels being absent, and it just feeling like one corridor with easy enemies after another. Another big problem is that most of the puzzles in the game are basically "figure out which indistinct object the level designer decided you can interact with/shoot to interact with this time", which were never fun to get stuck on. But like, despite All That, I still found myself having a pretty dang good time playing Daikatana, somehow? I don't know there's something about the odd shape of the gameplay loop formed by the RPG elements combined with the constant shift in tone and jagged level design that I found oddly difficult to pull away from. It's not gonna be one of my but favorite games anytime soon, but I mean, I guess he made me his bitch after all.
jonathan tronathan
While I could go on about what kind of a mess Daikatana is and that if you really want to play it do it with the fan made patch (which would crank the game's score up to 2.5 stars) I would actually much rather see a remake or sequel to it. Daikatana had so much potential. I love it's ideas and premise but the execution suffered due to time and hardware limitations. I'm convinced that if you'd try to tackle Daikatana again and actually give it the right amount time in the oven to really make the most out of the game's potential strengths and to really flesh out and perfect it's ideas and give the level design that amount of attention as well you'd honestly have a masterpiece in your hands.
[This is for the patched version of the game]
Over time, diving into Daikatana's development history and the gameplay itself became a guilty pleasure of mine. I wish I could give it a higher score, but even when patched it still has a ton of issues.
To say that I didn't have fun at any moment in Daikatana would be a blatant lie. Is it a bad game? No, not really. It's an ok, sometimes really engaging shooter when everything clicks into place. It ultimately suffers from crippling AI issues, erratic level design, awful first impression, and a shoddy reputation predominantly for its development drama.
It is a hard pass for anyone not interested in its history or without a thick skin for jank games.
[ Full review at https://bluedemonarchive.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-john-romeros-daikatana.html ]
Over time, diving into Daikatana's development history and the gameplay itself became a guilty pleasure of mine. I wish I could give it a higher score, but even when patched it still has a ton of issues.
To say that I didn't have fun at any moment in Daikatana would be a blatant lie. Is it a bad game? No, not really. It's an ok, sometimes really engaging shooter when everything clicks into place. It ultimately suffers from crippling AI issues, erratic level design, awful first impression, and a shoddy reputation predominantly for its development drama.
It is a hard pass for anyone not interested in its history or without a thick skin for jank games.
[ Full review at https://bluedemonarchive.blogspot.com/2021/07/review-john-romeros-daikatana.html ]
it broke my HDMI port when i tried to play it, somehow
i played my run of daikatana with the 1.3 patch, with unlimited quicksaves and sidekicks invincible on normal mode. playing without this patch and without a strategy guide of some sort is pretty much impossible, though i tried to make my experience as vanilla as possible with the 1.3 patch
story is some typical time traveller cliche stuff but it gets interesting near the end. nothing to write home about
the ai is absolutely the worst part of this game and will make your blood pressure go through the roof on some parts of the game. on one notable part, i was trying to get mikiko to follow me near the end of mashima labs, but she kept jumping and running around an underground part of the area i was in and she would not fucking stop. legit took me 15 minutes to get this bitch to follow me and man i was livid. the ai is also absolutely useless in trying to help you or shoot enemies and they will literally just stand there and watch you do all the work. they also tend to stand in front of you and block you, and they glitch out a hell of a lot, and the only way for them to stop glitching is if you attack them. the ai is absolutely useless, and if you aren't a purist about playing daikatana (or in my scenario a purist with a bit of stretch regarding daikatana) i highly suggest you play without the ai, it saves hours of your time
the level design in daikatana is so and so. on the first "world" or whatever you like to call it, the level design is absolutely atrocious and lazy, and it is so bad that it is literally the main reason why i started my playthrough of this game well over five years ago and only came back to play it two weeks ago. the first world is an absolute chore to go through and it feels like hell, especially when all you are doing in the process is shooting bugs. i would imagine that was a very shitty first look for a lot of players who bought daikatana back during its release. it's worth to play through it though, because the level design gets better and better as the levels progress
the weapons are extremely fun to use and are what i think makes this game a lot of fun sometimes. out of every game i have played, daikatana actually has some of the most creative and fun guns i have used in gaming
the graphics are nothing to write home about either. daikatana was released in 2000, but happens to run on the quake 2 engine, and im honestly surprised they didnt overhaul it beforehand, since the quake 3 engine was out a couple years prior. if you dont know anything about pc gaming in the 90s, well games aged pretty fast, and a 97 engine in mid 2000 definitely made the game look a whole lot worse compared to other games at the time
the game basically just controls like quake 2, so that's good
so if ur gonna play it i highly suggest the patch, otherwise it's unplayable. especially because some parts of the game can get difficult, and if you're playing without the patch, you have to collect save gems to save the game, which absolutely blows
story is some typical time traveller cliche stuff but it gets interesting near the end. nothing to write home about
the ai is absolutely the worst part of this game and will make your blood pressure go through the roof on some parts of the game. on one notable part, i was trying to get mikiko to follow me near the end of mashima labs, but she kept jumping and running around an underground part of the area i was in and she would not fucking stop. legit took me 15 minutes to get this bitch to follow me and man i was livid. the ai is also absolutely useless in trying to help you or shoot enemies and they will literally just stand there and watch you do all the work. they also tend to stand in front of you and block you, and they glitch out a hell of a lot, and the only way for them to stop glitching is if you attack them. the ai is absolutely useless, and if you aren't a purist about playing daikatana (or in my scenario a purist with a bit of stretch regarding daikatana) i highly suggest you play without the ai, it saves hours of your time
the level design in daikatana is so and so. on the first "world" or whatever you like to call it, the level design is absolutely atrocious and lazy, and it is so bad that it is literally the main reason why i started my playthrough of this game well over five years ago and only came back to play it two weeks ago. the first world is an absolute chore to go through and it feels like hell, especially when all you are doing in the process is shooting bugs. i would imagine that was a very shitty first look for a lot of players who bought daikatana back during its release. it's worth to play through it though, because the level design gets better and better as the levels progress
the weapons are extremely fun to use and are what i think makes this game a lot of fun sometimes. out of every game i have played, daikatana actually has some of the most creative and fun guns i have used in gaming
the graphics are nothing to write home about either. daikatana was released in 2000, but happens to run on the quake 2 engine, and im honestly surprised they didnt overhaul it beforehand, since the quake 3 engine was out a couple years prior. if you dont know anything about pc gaming in the 90s, well games aged pretty fast, and a 97 engine in mid 2000 definitely made the game look a whole lot worse compared to other games at the time
the game basically just controls like quake 2, so that's good
so if ur gonna play it i highly suggest the patch, otherwise it's unplayable. especially because some parts of the game can get difficult, and if you're playing without the patch, you have to collect save gems to save the game, which absolutely blows
I got this in a bundle with a bunch of other old Eidos games that Square Enix holds the rights to. I tried it out of morbid curiosity, I knew the game's reputation, but it's John Romero! How bad could it be?
Pretty much unplayable.
Pretty much unplayable.