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IF THE SHAME IS TOO MUCH TO BEAR...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game failed in so many ways it has become a legend!
Where should one start? The (mid 90's) gaming-industry prima-donna John Romero with his touch of midas and fleet of Ferraris spearheading the development; the announcement of the greatest game-ever-experienced; the impossible schedule to be in stores before Christmas of 1997 with less than 7 months in production; the in-your-face advertisements that over-hyped this game like no other..
Then came the delays...and the postponements...and Christmas of 2000 - and then QUAKE III came along and everything felt so yesterday...

To be fair, this is NOT as bad a game as its reputation.
True, I hated the sidekicks so much (total lack of ANY intelligence - with the exception of finding ways to getting themselves killed and ending the game!) I had to let it steep for a whole summer before finishing it off. True, it was not fast enough or graphically impressive enough to compete by 2000.

On the other hand, most of the weapons were imaginative, the gameplay was innovative at times (incorporating some puzzles in an FPS game above the level of finding the...blue and red cards), the settings well designed (having to travel in different eras is not common in a futuristic games). What I really enjoyed, though, was its constant Japanese undercurrents, from weapons and sceneries to characters' dialog.

No game collection is complete without it I am afraid...

a non gamer's perspective

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: October 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

if you are a gamer, stay away from this product at all cost, if you have brain cells...buy at once. this is an amazing interactive film that has time travel, fantastic weapons and atmosphere that beats crap life and halotosis into a bloody pulp. diverse environments, jaw dropping level design and amazing monsters provide you with a challenging adventure with sidekicks that actually work if you understand how to use the interface. this game delivers on all levels, so, think for yourself and have a great time with this film.

It's not really as bad as everyone makes it out to be

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: October 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is my first games review, let alone my first Amazon review, so I'll try and cover this game as concisely and as accurately as I can.

I'm not very picky about the games that I play, it gives me a chance to give any game a chance, but I will not play a game that bores me, and I will know quite early on if it bores me. I'm almost at the end of the second of the game's four chapters, and that shows that this game hasn't bored me.

A lot of people gave this game flak, and I can understand where it comes from. The concept of collecting "save gems" in order to save your game, while a novel one, was impractical and led to a lot of people's frustrations. The other major concern was over the AI, which I will agree needed work. That's why the Daikatana 1.2 patch was released, and upon its release it fixed all the problems that the game had, making it not only very playable, but had the game been released in its patched state it would have been much better received.

I rate this game 4 stars instead of 5 because even though I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, there are a couple of things that keep me from giving this a full five stars. The sidekick AI, while massively improved (and I did a before patch and after patch comparison), still has a few bugs, especially negotiating ladders, but it's not a huge deterrant from fun, you just have to backtrack a bit when they're left behind and "remind" them to tag along. The weapons as well, while diverse, aren't as effective as they look. The Daikatana itself is very difficult to use, as it comes into contact with the enemy only about half the time, and I found myself using only two or three weapons throughout the game so far, since the others just aren't effective.

Those issues aside, the story is good, the sidekicks are animated, the Quake 2 engine works well for the game (and I'm a huge gameplay > graphics player, so I don't let graphics determine whether a game's good or not, Anachronox uses the Quake 2 engine and it's one of the best games I've ever played) and I'm enjoying the Daikatana experience. In its patched state, Daikatana is the game that Romero intended it to be. :)

PEARL inside a SHELL !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: July 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I understand the vast diversity of comments and judgements regarding this game. It may not be the right choice for everyone. If you're into state of the art graphics and gameplay you will probably not like it.
If ,however, you consider yourself an old school gamer, who still loves Quake 2, HERETIC 2 and the like you will most definitely be mesmerized by this game. Also if you are into great storytelling and fantastic voice acting and sound-effects you are in the right place!
Daikatana is like a pearl in a shell. You need to get past its rough edges to experience its glory!
The game has better, more and less cliched sound effects than most recent playstation and x-box games. It also sports some neat visuals (just crank up the resolution and it still shines). The story is nothing short of incredible and would make an excellent movie. Not to mention the awesome variety of 4 different time periods (and unique weapon sets in each)! Daikatana NEVER gets repetitive! As soon as you think you're getting the idea you move on to a totally different time-period with unique surroundings, sounds, enemies, music, weapons, mission design/quests. Even recent shooters on PC, PS2 and XBOX lack THAT variety! (Trust me, I'm a hardcore player and have experienced games for the last 30 years).
Daikatana also has a unique style: something between sci-fi, martial arts, cartoon and MANGA - everyone who loves Ghost in the Shell and the like must crave!
Personally I love both state-of-the-art games as well as old school games. And, boy, let me tell you: Doom3, Half-Life2 and the like can learn a whole lot in terms of story-telling and sound-design from good old Daikatana!
Give this a shot if you need a break from the state-of-the-art 100 page manual games and what some decent fraggin' and a gaming-world to get lost in for many, many, many hours !
Don't listen to the critics - they are not always right. You may really miss out on something cool: the PEARL inside the SHELL.

the box lies

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

its made out to be a kung fu,meets super space intelligence meets d and d type stuff kinda vid.its just dark and not nearly exiting as all that.theres zero martial arts.the enemies are monsters not space age.its very hard to see what youre fighting.its extremely easy to beat.me and the ol lady took it out in a weekend.

Tluh?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 26
Date: June 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ha ha ha, oh, Mr Romero, you are so big and strong, it is just such a pity that you are SO VERY STUPID. Also, you're not that big, you are SHORT and with DUMB HAIR. To hell with you, Mr Romero! I hope that your platinum-plated Ferarri does melt! There is only one place for you Mr Romero: in the corner with a DUNCES HAT on your stupid head.

Excellent Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I am currently replaying Daikatana and I decided to go write a second review. I still stand by my 5 star rating, despite the ignorance abundant in some of the reviews of this game. While Daikatana is no Halflife by any means, it is still one of the of the best games ever made. But I do have some critisms to add since my last review. Two major problems in Daikatana, although the patch eliminates one and greatly reduces the other. The first thing is as some have stated, the crashes. I have only noticed them in the Norway levels especially around or in the scene with the sorceror in Wynthrax Tower. There has to be a bug in the game at that point because it is a pain getting past the sorceror when the game keeps freezing right after I have beaten him. The other critism is the A.I. I think the characters and voices are excellent, even if Superfly Johnson is a cheesy name. But the problem lies in not the performance of the A.I. Now one review said the A.I was horrible which simply isn't true. The A.I is excellent compared to most games, and I didn't notice any enemies standing around, they were all coming straight at me. But the problem with the A.I though is that the game is too dependent on the sidekicks to progress, it gets to be very cumbersome to keep up with them at times and they have the tendency to dissappear and not come back at times. There is a cheat code that allows you to respawn them but it's useless since it always says they are still somewhere in the level when you use it. But in defense of Mikiko and Superfly they really kick...when they are fighting alongside you and saved me...quite a few times. Overall Daikatana is an excellent game with excellent graphics and a fresh, original, and totally engrossing storyline. I really really hope there is a sequal.

Its well worth buying

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well when i first got the demo i thought it was sort of cheesy but that was because i couldnt beat it. when i did beat it it was great so i bought the game and its a blast!!! I bet half of the people here who rated this game have not even played it they are just going be what magazines say! Even though the magazines say it isnt that good i believe everyone has a different view to games and different tastes! In otherwords you should at least try a game instead of going by what someone else said. The people that made this game put alot of hard work in it and i respect that. It was supposed to come out in 1997, so they worked on it for 4 years!!! so it is not an up to date game but it is still awsome! so buy it if you like FPS's!!!!!

MAKING THIS GAME WAS A CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: July 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME SUCKS! THE GAMEPLAY IS HORRILBLE!!!!!!!!IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A HIT IN 1990!!!!!!! THE GRAPHICS ARE HORRIBLE, IN FACT THEY SHOULDN'T EVEN CALL THESE GRAPHICS!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T BUY EVER BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOUR DESPERATE AND YOU NEED SOMETHING TO FEED THE FIRE WITH!

The real truth about DAIKATANA

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I decided to re-evaluate DAIKATANA and I found I very ambitious game with a lot of features and some crazy AI. Yes, this was a much over-hyped game when it was released and it did have a lot of bugs in it, but what PC games released nowadys don't have any bugs that require a patch?

There is plenty of action in DAIKATANA and a variety a weapons. Some nice levels, but it all could have been better.

Ok, the good things about DAIKATANA. If you can make it to the Greek levels and the Norway levels, you'll be treated to some of the most stunning level designs ever in a game. The Greek levels in particular are quite stunning, almost beautiful. Plus the weapons in these levels are definately different from your standard FPS fare. In fact the Daikatana itself becomes the most powerful weapon in the game if you get it up in levels. DAIKATANA really tried to be different. There are a number of RPG elements in the game and this was a welcome change in the FPS realm. John Romero really had a great idea in mind for this game and I'll give him credit there.

Now the bad things about DAIKATANA. The much talked about sidekick AI. Yes, even I ran into this problem right away. There is a patch available that does make a difference. I suggest to download it after you install DAIKATANA. The first episode is just frustratingly bad. There is some truly garish level designs here as well in the final episode 4 in San Francisco. Also, I set this game on normal mode and it is SO HARD! Even in Easy mode, I died almost immediatly in the beginning of the game! This a bad thing in FPS games. The first few levels should be a cakewalk to build up your confidence to continue on. But not DAIKATANA. It is tough from the get go even on easy mode! This game took 4 years to make and it was over-hyped.

Even after the fact, this game should have been better. If you are curious enough to buy DAIKATANA, get the Prima games Strategy book. You'll need it.

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