Daikatana

Oct 6, 1999

I just got back from the ION Storm studios in Dallas, TX and got a chance to see the latest build of Romero's next big shooter: Daikatana. As you undoubtedly know from our earlier preview (if you haven't read it yet, check it out below), the backstory behind Daikatana revolves around changing the course of history, a stolen antidote, and a time travelling sword named Sharpie the Wonder Blade ... uh, I mean Daikatana.

The game is split into four distinct time periods, with each period containing approximately 6 different levels of unabashed action. Because the levels are so large, each is divided into 3 sub-levels. All of you gamers out there who must absolutely positively uncover every single inch of the gameworld will be happy to know that there will be running stats throughout each level so you'll know exactly how many baddies you've fragged and how many secret areas are left to discover. The game will also ship with a fully supported map editor, so level designers can go crazy creating worlds of their own. But let's not forget about the levels the folks at ION Storm were nice enough to build for you. The four time periods in the game are as follows:

Futuristic Japan

Ancient Greece
Hiro awakens in ancient Greece alone, with Mikiko and Superfly no where in sight. Like futuristic Japan, Hiro will have to go the first part of this area alone, taking out griffons, skeletons, harpies, and giant spiders with such legendary weapons as the Discus of Daedalus (if you've ever seen the movie Krull, you'll have a good idea what this weapon is all about. It's a discus that returns to your hand after seeking out its intended target), the Hades Hammer (a slow, heavy hammer that causes earthquakes that hurt enemies in a wide area), and the Eye of Zeus (an extremely powerful rod that shoots chain lighting through up to three adversaries). In an odd twist of events, the AI controlled Mikiko will actually save Hiro while in Greece, but Superfly won't appear until the end of the level. Unfortunately for him he appeared in Medusa's lair after Mishima banished the party, and he's nothing more than a statue of stone cold badassity when you find him. You'll have to slay Medusa in order to release Superfly from his granite tomb. However, once you exterminate Medusa, all of the creatures she has solidified over the years will come to life hell-bent on butchering whatever is around them. Fortunately for you, Medusa's life force will power the Daikatana and allow you to travel through time to return the antidote to its rightful lineage. It's a damn shame that Dr. Mishima can still feel your presence, meets you in the time hole, and diverts you to ...

Dark Ages Norway
Dark Ages Norway is no place to take a vacation. Not only is it cold and blustery, but a sizeable portion of the population has contracted the bubonic plague – so be careful who you drink after, and don't sit on strange toilet seats. Like the other areas, the weapons and creatures fit the time period. Your group will trudge through the snowy landscape with crossbows and other medieval-inspired weapons in hand, going up against plague rats, doombats, buboids (plague-infested villagers), and werewolves. Several of the creatures in Norway will have to be sufficiently gibbed or their bodies will re-form and rise against you. And some, like the werewolves, must be slain with a special silver claw. Your main goal in this level -- besides finding a source to power the Daikatana -- is to locate the antidote to the plague and cure the stricken villagers. Your travels will take you to a number of wizard castles, most notably that of the evil necromancer Nar who holds the panacea which will end the pestilence. After you restore the villagers to their former selves, the kind priest will call upon the powers of the gods to energize the Daikatana, allowing you to once again attempt to travel to San Francisco. By this time your bond to the Daikatana has become so strong that, although Dr. Mishima tries to divert you once again, you stay on course and make your way to ...

San Francisco, 2030 C.E.
So you've finally reached your initial destination, but Dr. Michi Mishima did throw you off course a bit. Instead of appearing in Dr. Tatsuo Ebihara's laboratory, you wind up on Alcatraz Island, which has been reinstated as a federal prison. Only this time there are no guards to keep the inmates in line. Instead the crazed convicts are left on their own, and they aren't a very well behaved bunch. In addition to buff prisoners, you'll also come across pipe rats, snipers, smugglers, and a variety of gang members as you make your way across the city by the bay. Your arsenal will include an assortment of more traditional weapons, including everything from a simple pistol to a sawed-off shotgun (the Slugger) to the ever-satisfying chaingun (the Ripper). San Francisco is the final chapter and will see the ultimate showdown between the party and Dr. Mishima, hopefully with you coming out ahead and restoring the Ebihara family name in the future.

Given the fact that the main designer of Daikatana is none other than John Romero himself, Daikatana doesn't fall too far from the traditional FPS tree -- it's still a key/door based shooter, but there are a few twists. As I mentioned before, you have a couple of sidekicks (Mikiko Ebihara and Superfly Johnson) who will help you shoot, slice, and blast your way through each level. But you'll also have to keep a close eye on your companions to make sure they don't take a lethal hit, because of they die, your game is over, finis, kaput. So how exactly do you go about this? Unlike Half-Life's simple "follow me" NPC interface, gamers will be able to issue seven commands to their accomplices in destruction: get, stay, attack, come, back off, yes, no (the last two are used when Mikiko or Superfly ask you a question). So, given these commands, you can instruct them to pick up health packs, grab certain weapons (John says they will be able to use approximately 3 or the 6 weapons in each level -- all but the most powerful area effect weapons), and stay out of hot spots.

While the addition of a party offers up some neat role-playing elements to the shooter world, Daikatana is going to go one step further and actually allow players to gain experience which can be used to develop skills over time. As players progress further and further in the game, they'll be able to increase their power (damage), attack (accuracy), speed, acro (jumping ability), and vitality. Sure, it's not skill advancement on the level of hardcore RPGs, but it is something that allows players to customize their characters to their style of play.

In addition to the controllable NPCs, there is also a huge assortment of moving targets to blow the crap out of. The game sports a huge bestiary, the largest in any shooter to date, with 64 different creatures in the game. And we're not just talking about red, green, blue, and yellow versions of the same model. There are 64 unique bad guys in the game, so expect to see a lot of smoldering corpses at the end of the day.

The mantra "it's never a bad time to save you game" certainly applies to Daikatana, but to make the game more of a challenge, you'll have to collect save game gems in order to mark your progress. You will be able to save anywhere you wish, but only if you have a save game gem.

Graphically Daikatana is looking a bit blocky and dated. Everything looks pretty good, but the engine is showing its age and, what would have been revolutionary a year ago may be overshadowed by the likes of next-generation shooters like Unreal Tournament and Halo. But Daikatana still has sports some really nice touches like realistic lighting effects, particle explosions, and double-layered sky textures. One of the most impressive graphical tricks that John showed off were the individually drawn snowflakes in the Norway levels (no, they weren't just big white spots, but rather made up of lots of tiny spokes so you can see through them to the landscapes behind. It was hinted at that they may even carry the artist's initials in the final shipped product, so that's one easter egg you might want to look for when the game is released in a couple of months.

Multiplay in Daikatana will support up to 32 players in deathmatch, deathtag, co-op, and capture the flag games. Right now John promises at least eight deathmatch maps (two from each time period), and a smattering of others from the three other game types. In addition, there will be rooms that will expand or shrink to fit the number of players on each map, a very cool feature for those of you who know how boring it can be trying to hunt down two people in an immense deathmatch arena. ION Storm's emphasis with Daikatana is on action, and it looks like they're going to deliver with a smile.

John and the rest of the design team are about 85% done with the Daikatana. All of the maps, creatures, weapons, and features are in the game, now it's just a matter of finalizing the art and animations, finishing all of the AI paths, sending the product through QA, and fixing the bugs. Unless something goes horrible awry with the project (and we'll keep our fingers crossed knowing the shaky history of Daikatana up until now), expect to see Daikatana on store shelves this holiday season. It may have been a long time in development, but from what we've seen, Daikatana looks like it's going to grab the attention of a lot of action fans this holiday season as it revolutionizes the way shooters are played.

-- Tal Blevins

E³ Update 05/14/99

Our preview has been updated with new screen shots -- plus the news that Daikatana is probably now a fourth quarter release.

--IGN Staff

11/19/98

John Romero (who??? you say . . . yeah, right)-- the name is synonymous with 3D action gaming. He's helped design some of the most popular and groundbreaking first-person shooters ever: Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, and Quake. Some call him the 'Father of 3D Action Games,' others the 'Tarrantino of Computer Gaming,' but we prefer simply to call him John. We got a chance to talk to John about ION Storm's soon-to-be-released Daikatana, his next foray into first person PC entertainment.

In Daikatana you'll be cast in the role of Hiro Miyamoto, whose ultimate goal is to set the normal course of time right again. In Japan in 2455 CE (Common Era), Dr. Toshiro Ebihara and his assistant Dr. Michi Mishima have uncovered the mystical Samurai sword Daikatana, a magical artifact that gives its wielder the ability to travel in time. A distant relative of Toshiro's, Dr. Tatsuo Ebihara, had discovered the cure for AIDS in 2030 CE, thereby making the family incredibly wealthy and giving Toshiro the capital and free-time to dedicate his life to finding the Daikatana. Well, it seems that Dr. Mishima got a bit jealous because his family wasn't rich and he was only Toshiro's assistant and he didn't get as many babes as Toshiro, so he decides to decapitate Toshiro, steal the Daikatana, and travel back in time to steal the cure for AIDS from Tatsuo . . . what a baby. Anyway, he succeeds and re-writes the passage of time. His family gets all the credit for the AIDS cure and, subsequently, all of the wealth. In the present (which, remember, is 2455 CE), Mishima has built a fortress to protect the Daikatana and filled it with defensive lasers and robots and so on so no one can go back in time and change his version of history. Our hero, Hiro (ha ha ha . . . whew, that's funny), begins the game in Mishima's fortress attempting to recover the Daikatana in order to set history straight. Shaaaa!!! Even I've done that before.

Using an enhanced version of the Quake 2 engine, John promises that Daikatana will improve on the engine like no other first-person shooter has. For example, the enemy AI has been greatly updated and augmented. Since they are from the area you are exploring, the monsters will actually have prior knowledge of the map layout, giving them an advantage over you in unexplored areas. Daikatana will also include an impressive number of monsters (64+) and weapons (32). You'll also have two AI-controlled companions, Mikiko Ibihara and Superfly Johnson (wait . . . is this Interstate 82?), who will help you in battles and even attempt to resurrect you if you die . . . why don't I have any friends like that?

The gameworlds in Daikatana will be huge and varied. In addition to the futuristic Japanese setting, there will be an episode set in mythical Greece, a fantasy world set in the Dark Ages, and a slightly-futuristic 2030 San Francisco setting (where Tatsuo originally discovered the cure for AIDS). Each episode will include at least seven levels, with hidden levels in each. Each setting will also contain a unique set of creatures and weapons. For example, Hiro will be fighting plague victims and dragons in the fantasy world, robots in Japan, satyrs and minotaurs in Greece, and mainly humans in San Francisco -- just like me on Highway 101.

Although primarily a first-person shooter, Daikatana will also combine some elements of role-playing games, such as an experience point system. If Hiro kills a creature with a standard weapon, his ability scores (such as attack power, speed, and health) will slightly increase. However, if Hiro uses the Daikatana, it will actually gain the experience, and grow more powerful with every use. As John put it, "Even though the Daikatana will start off as a fairly weak weapon, if you use it enough, it can eventually become the most powerful weapon in the game."

Although plagued by several missed release dates in the past (maybe John can go back in time and get Daikatana out before Christmas 1997), John assured us that Daikatana should be on store shelves soon, so look for it sometime early next year.

-- Tal Blevins