Why was Daikatana so bad?

[mrthejoshmon]

Clonehunter said:

I still need to give my second steam key to a friend so we can do a lets play together.

Do it...

All you have to do now is persuade some unfortunate bastard real good friend into playing it with you.

[Da Werecat]

geo said:

Well I think that I will officially give up on this game now that I'm forced to use only the Daikatana with no upgrades.

Maybe you should do that after all. Well, unless the whole point of playing is to bash the game more. Is it really worth all the pain?

[geo]

Da Werecat said:

Maybe you should do that after all. Well, unless the whole point of playing is to bash the game more. Is it really worth all the pain?

Once I complete the game it will be all worth the pain. People that say Super Meat Boy is difficult haven't tried that level. I literally only play the game for the legacy that it is. I didn't always bash the game. There were like 8 levels where it was far too easy because I had a gun and no one else did. I can't imagine not having a gun after that one painful level I just went through. I did beat it. Sometimes after 4 hours you just get lucky.

Its a game every designer should play to see what not to do. Like being chained to an AI partner that can die and is needed to exit the level. When I was fighting the level boss I wasn't killing him fast enough so SuperFly rudely started snoring. That's another reason to bash the game. It just feels very disrespectful.

[Da Werecat]

It's just that warping mid-game with zeroed stats is obviously going to give you something horribly unbalanced and painful. You're not playing and criticizing Daikatana now, you're experiencing something horrible of your own making. It's hard to think of a reason to do something like that other than "to hilariously suffer on camera", so to speak.

The only lesson anyone can learn from what you're doing now is "don't make your game buggy so the players won't have to do stupid things (like warping mid-game with zeroed stats)". Something tells me that most of the people are aware of that already.

[geo]

Da Werecat said:

It's just that warping mid-game with zeroed stats is obviously going to give you something horribly unbalanced and painful. You're not playing and criticizing Daikatana now, you're experiencing something horrible of your own making. It's hard to think of a reason to do something like that other than "to hilariously suffer on camera", so to speak.

The only lesson anyone can learn from what you're doing now is "don't make your game buggy so the players won't have to do stupid things (like warping mid-game with zeroed stats)". Something tells me that most of the people are aware of that already.

If I wasn't experiencing something of my own making, that game breaking bug would have prevented me from even continuing. I have tried the all weapon cheat code and it didn't work.

As for zero stats, I was well into the game before I even figured out I had stats to spend. Well into the game as in almost done with the first episode :-) People now might complain about hand holding and games explaining things, but I welcomed someone telling me in a forum how to use stats :-)

Anyway, complaint over. I've completed that level. Still don't have any weapons, but the next level is shockingly easier. Even if there is platforming through rocks and more enemies that shoot at you. Its just still so much easier.

[neubejiita]

Now I can post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwGonH_sVY

AVGN Mondays play Daikatana.

[geo]

neubejiita said:

Now I can post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZwGonH_sVY

AVGN Mondays play Daikatana.

Yeah I was going to post that too. Its for N64, but its worse or so I hear. For reasons not demonstrated.

edit: Well just played more Daikatana and I really enjoyed the Alcatraz level. If the game wasn't Half Life 1 enough for people you really had to crawl through some air ducts in this one. You even get a special suit at the end. It was really fun and clever.

[geo]

I'm up to E4:M4 and this episode is a lot more fun. There are still errors. I think with E4:M2, there was a lift and the door was on the opening was on the wrong side of the door. So I needed to start the lift then jump on the back of it. That was fun.

In E4:M4 I lost Mikiko. She just disappeared a few times. I had to load a save a few times. Then finally I just decided to look for her. By chance I saw her glitched through a wall with a run animation. Without the run animation her standing makes her invisible.

I called her and she ran through a death trap. Currently she's now stuck at a middle floor and I need her on the top floor. To get there, she needs to go to the bottom floor then the top floor. After 30 minutes of messing around, fuck it. I have a feeling she was supposed to be on a floor with me that collapsed.

There are also 3 green keycards. I was confused. I thought the second one was supposed to be yellow since that was the only key required. Nope.

The cool gimmick to this level is cybernetic test gorillas or apes. There are so many lifts. Each of the 6 lifts take their sweet time. Mikiko won't get into a lift with me unless I call her. Its just an annoyance, so I end up leaving her.

edit: In the next level pulling a switch down got me caught in the switch.

[SuperflyJohnson]

Daikatana thread lives... again.

geo said:

Not just that, but the undying werewolf that normally dies with claws, but won't with a Daikatana.

The Lycanthir (because calling it a generic name like werewolf is soooo lame) can only be killed with the Silver Bitchclaw. You can knock it down with any weapon but they get back up if you don't claw it on the ground.

geo said:

SuperFly is even more useless because he has to carry that sack of an NPC on his shoulder so he doesn't have guns.

Hey, at least you've actually got a good justification (besides the usual ones) to park your sidekicks at the start of the level for most of E3. Listening to Sup scream because a lil' bat frightened him gets pretty old.

geo said:

Holy shit this game.

It's so bad it's beautiful.

geo said:

Its a game every designer should play to see what not to do.

So much this, the whole Daikatana story is like a master class in how not to make games. The catastrophe that was its protracted development and the actual finished product serves to inform the rest of the development community at large, and I completely believe that video games are better for Daikatana having been a thing.

Daikatana was the hero vidya deserved, but not the one it needed. Or is it the other way around. Whatevs, suck it down.

geo said:

Currently she's now stuck at a middle floor and I need her on the top floor.

That part was even worse in 1.0 if you can believe it. They at least had the decency to add in a climbable ceiling vent in one of the surrounding monkey cages after 1.0 so you could get Mikiko up to the top after she fails to make it onto the elevator with you (which happens pretty much every time).

side note: E4 has some of the best music in the game IMO, particularly Mishima's Lab and Hideout levels.

[Cupboard]

I just want to say this has been a pretty epic thread due to the back and forth repartee and consistency of style. I'm bookmarking this and other archivists will scrawl a similar story.

[geo]

Thank you all for allowing me to take you through this journey through 4 eras of time. My journey is finally at an end. Now here's a spoiler free recap.

The story in Episode 4 was a good one, but maybe that's because I spent 20 hours in the game and I was hypnotized. The climax was unforgettable and I was legitimately captivated. The entire fourth episode was enjoyable even through any small bugs or things that forced me to reload saves.

The final level was was completely different than any other level. I really enjoyed how the game suddenly changed from what it was. It even let me be alone! The level before that was pretty unique too. Searching for tiny switches that blend into their surroundings. As bad as that sounds, it wasn't bad. The game let me know there were switches. Episode 4 is 75% good to 25% sub par level design. Unlike the first episode.

I now completely understand how it took them so long to make the team. No one man could bridal Daikatana, let alone a 15 person team.

side note: There is no music except for the pause screen.

btw I'm pretty sure that Episode 4 takes place in the same timeline as Duke 3D. The submarine proves it.

Now that my journey is at an end, I think that I will print out each of the pages recounting my journey. Then I will bind them together and give them to friends and family to give them out as Christmas gifts. Thank you John Romero, you've saved Christmas!