Daikatana Review | Octavius King

[@brianoconnell6459]

Nobody expects the Spammish Exposition!

[@hackerx7329]

To be fair, most games from this era or older had very poor voice acting if they had any at all. The ones that had actual good voice acting were the exception rather than the rule. Budgets for games were in general much lower at the time and professional voice actors were rarely used early on. That goes hand in hand with characters mouths not moving while talking. It was a fairly big deal when the first few games hit that actually did any lip sync at all. And for awhile when they did it was only in pre rendered cutscenes.

[@stephenpointon]

you just made my day, great to see you back and sounding so well.

[@kingedwin]

It's even worse if you remember that Ion Storm's other studio released Deus Ex around the same time.

[@mariosskordos9177]

Different branch of the company, but it's funny to remember that Daikatana was the big name at the time.

[@Boogie_the_cat]

​@@mariosskordos9177well, just the fact that it's the same damn company blows my mind. I had no idea. Deus Ex was a masterpiece. Daikatana was....this garbo. That's akin to learning that Carrot Top is a cousin of Christopher Walken. Sure their parents aren't the same, but they don't belong in any family tree together. It's like if Sony, the kings of the video game industry, were to release a $3,000 robot dog. Sorry, that one did happen. That's the kinda gubbins you end up with when your company is so huge that you run out of ideas, and have to start copying nature. Yeah, I realize that *some* mutants are interested in those dogs, but there's also people who dress their sex dolls up and take them out with them in public. I wish I was joking. That's the nice thing about humanity, though. Every time I assume that I'm the loneliest, most desperate weirdo in the world... the internet will prove me wrong. There's always one more rung on the ladder. So (for 24 hours or so) I can wake up in the morning and be happy I'm not that guy taking his sex doll to Denny's. I don't own a sex doll, they're expensive. Come to think of it, Denny's is a little too pricey for me. And there are people at Denny's. People who probably brought their dolls. I think I'll stick with Lyons.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

I hadn't heard of Deus Ex until relatively recently (within the time I saw Penguinz0 make a gag video on Human Revolutiom to now, that long) I feel like even if I more than likely didn't have a computer that could run it at the time, if Daikatana weren't in the way, Deus Ex could probably have made its way from abused cult classic, to legitimately good series.

[@plasticflower]

@@Boogie_the_catCarrot Top and Christopher Walken, buhaha, good one! There was a joke, right?

[@rossvegas7]

Just watching you on digi last night and thought I haven't seen you in a while! Keep up the good work mate!

[@Larry]

You should check out the GameBoy port of Daikatana, its surprisingly good!

[@jsc315]

Easily the best version as it's not utter crap

[@TWiTCH757]

Hello you!

[@ZombiWorkshop]

True dat. A totally different take on a port, and a really good playthrough.

[@Larry]

@@octaviusking That's a shame, but possible follow up in the future? :)

[@AFriendRemembers]

Really? I saw that for sale a few days ago and thought that's a disaster I want to steer clear of. But now you've got me curious

[@j.combes1230]

HOORAAAAAY NEW OCTAVIUS VID,,, needed my fix, I thank you your majesty

[@TheSegadroid]

I remember buying this game after being mislead by the hype and previews. I swore to myself to never fall for it again. Annnnd.... here I am 20 years later with Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4. 🤷

[@trickyrat483]

CP2077 is fine on PCMasterRace. Not perfect, but kept me entertained for 75 hours.

[@The_Original_Cujo]

Surely the frogs should eat the mosquitoes and then the crocs eat the frogs?? Never mind the virus time travel plot, what kind of future hellscape has animals plotting to overcome the food chain.

[@Megaspartan23]

"I'm gonna do what any season gamer does in this situation - Cheat" No complaints here. It's better than microtransations

[@ddjsoyenby]

we all cheat...........in fact only cheaters win in my cheating book.

[@SianaGearz]

I really hate Daikatana for one reason only: they kept stealing devs and resources from a much better game developed at the same place at the same time: Anachronox. So the latter came out late, looked dated on release, and came out unfinished, and was never finished, could never be finished. As a fan of Anachronox, this feels me with grief.

[@xenaretos]

I don't think it did that exactly. Anachronox (along with Deus Ex) was developed in the Austin branch (the successful one, I guess), while Daikatana was made in Dallas. The branches did share voice actors though. You get those fake Asians in Deus Ex, including the Ebihara actor voicing Tracer Tong.

[@SianaGearz]

@@xenaretos Anachronox and Daikatana were both developed at the Dallas office and shared parts of engine and tooling, derived from a Quake 2 source code drop. Ion Storm Austin was a successor studio of Looking Glass Austin and was only working on Deus Ex at the time, in Unreal Engine.

[@d2factotum]

The thing I hate this game for...and Ion Storm as a whole, really...is that they effectively killed Looking Glass Studios. LGS were looking for Eidos to rescue them from a knotty financial situation, but Eidos poured so much money into Ion Storm that there was none left in the pot for poor old Looking Glass...

[@ClamBake7525]

Octav1us is back in town!

[@ThePoxun]

I suddenly noticed that the Death collectors when they were standing on the bridge ( 07:31 ) look like a down and out Mario and Luigi...

[@BarbarianGod]

It's weird that Samurai Jack was a cool take on a similar "time travel and also magic sword" trope/idea only a year later

[@TheTomimt]

It helped that Samurai Jack was a stylish and visually pleasing animation. It also didn't begin by proclaiming Gennedy Tartakovsky's intentions making the animation viewing public as his bitches.

[@RetroDawn]

And Heroes did quite decently with a story with those attributes, as well.

[@BarbarianGod]

@@RetroDawn I'm still upset about them randomly taking Adam Monroe out of the show tho, lol

[@tangodelta]

I watched this as the Patreon preview and I like the addition of those early assets. I wasn't aware how they looked. The conclusion about developing as a person is great and heartwarming ❤️.

[@Capsulecorp1]

She's back an I am super happy to watch this video! I dig your sense of humor. Great game topic, I hope to see you make more videos.

[@waynewatts5650]

Keep up the good work Octavious! love your uploads!

[@fullauto86]

I’m having a terrible day, then I saw a new upload and I’ve been binging all day. Thanks, these calm me down for some reason.

[@Kingsly9802]

All I really ever knew about Daikatana is that it was bad. It's neat to see a breakdown of the issues and the background leading into it.

[@starsiegeplayer]

Yessss! You finally did it! As someone who actually liked this game and played it through several times (even have a couple videos on my youtube channel), I say this is a good review 🙂. I didn't know there were open source patches. I may want to get them and try it again.

[@Tarantulah]

'Veluptuous level designer" Cheers, I want to die now

[@dykodesigns]

The texture of the rat looks more like an ancient fossile that some archeologist dug up. Maybe the intent was to create an paleontologic rat.

[@nelsoncabrera6464]

The hype for Daikatana got near Cyberpunk2077 level back in the day. I couldn't get it to run on my K6-2 450mhz with a Riva TNT.

[@blindio466]

well that reminded me of playing the accursed thing(and with no net access back then not knowing how to cheat so being stuck in the starting level), was a good video on the game(and you're amazing octy for being able to make video on it enjoyable)

[@billywild1867]

Great review! Glad to see you back and doing ok ♡

[@ianeborn6823]

A few assorted thoughts: Regarding the frogs, having played Jill of the Jungle--I can understand the idea of small, cute, deadly frogs. I have seen fear in frog form. ;P Regarding the armoured torture of Superfly, I like to believe that his captors left his armour on so that they could pour itching powder into it. The monsters. :P And finally, if I may say it, I rather like those finger-claws that you have! Very cool! ^_^ PS: A very good video, this was, and thank you for it! ^_^

[@jamiemorgan5930]

A pleasure to watch, thank you for taking the time to make the video kitten

[@masael255]

I was so excited for this game as a kid. Alas, after playing the N64 game, I learned that advertising was full of LIES. Glad to see you back! I hope you're doing well and can keep putting out great content like this. :) Also, we could all use a Cheeky Nando's! I'm an American but I had the pleasure of trying it in 2019. Super delicious!

[@fromwithinuk]

Loved this. I've given it a go a few times since its release and couldn't stomach more than 20 minutes. I'm so glad you played it for me so that I can now ignore it forevermore.

[@flip-flop9155]

Yay. Nice to see you back!

[@kryan]

Loving the additional splash screens over the Patreon cut. They're a nice pop and work really well. Even more excellent second time round.

[@teckyify]

Daikatana is really a curiosity of history, reflecting all the weirdness of the 90s, but it's certainly not as bad, considering all the terrible games we had back then.

[@SianaGearz]

Daikatana release date: May 2000. Half-Life release date: Nov 1998. TimeSplitters: Oct 2000. 007 Golden Eye: Aug 1997. Perfect Dark: May 2000. Unreal: May 98. Metal Gear Solid: Sep. 98. Soul Reaver: Aug 99. Deus Ex: June 2000. Daikatana would have been considered terrible if it released two years prior.

[@Infamousuk]

Also I wonder if namco were aware of the Mishima company in this game when they made the Mishima company in their game (Tekken)

[@jessop-]

That frog looked a bit of a unit to be fair.

[@JB.zero.zero.1]

Boring fact - I used to work for the publisher of this game. We knew before release that it had potential, but was also a bit of a stinker. We only minimally QA - ed the release in Europe. Quake et al > than Romero's wet dream. I remember seeing piles of these boxes at work. We probably took a fair few to the local CEX. As we could "staff purchase" a limited amount of stock.

[@JasonStevens]

Lol the code base is so incredibly twisted and messed up. So many people doing mods on a pre-release engine.. it’s no wonder that it never could sync back to mainline. A perfect example of no unit testing and no way to dump and inspect state of “known good”. It should be taught as an example of how not to fork.

[@JB.zero.zero.1]

@@JasonStevens To be honest, many games we released were rushed out. With notable exceptions - Deus Ex being one. You can blame upper management for that, of course. This we know :)

[@Wizborg]

Yay, you're back. :)

[@judgevenom8686]

Always love your content

[@thebalalaikaremains2321]

Oh ye gawds I hate that I am old enough to remember this and the ad campaign especially. I had a friend that swore that Romero would indeed make me suck it when this glorious gem was released and he’d be there to watch it! Ummm, uncomfortable in retrospect. Course I was fortunate that I didn’t have to suck it or have my friend cackle with glee and watch. Glad you’re back Octavius, you make the world a better place.

[@jsc315]

I would see the cover of this and The Forsaken at just about every toy store as a kid for years

[@fusionspace175]

Forsaken 64 killed itself with that cover. It's a great game with a fantastic 3D flight system, it should have had a flying machine shooting on the cover instead of that temporary tattoo waiting to happen.

[@BrassicGamer]

This was just incredible. The amount of effort that has gone in is just mental and makes me realise that the best thing about reviewing old stuff is that it's never out of date, so my anxiety can hold up a project all it wants haha!! Joke's on you, trauma! But honestly, this was entertaining from start to finish and you most certainly made Daikatana your bitch. I remember reading the press not long after Quake and really looking forward to it. I have no desire to play this game. Zero. You deserve a segment on the new Gamesmaster show.

[@dexocube]

How has it taken me all these years to realise John Romero is the spitting image of the bad guy from The Crow film?

[@waynewatts5650]

Love you Octavius...keep up the great work!

[@Xator]

First video of Octavius that I get into my feeds. What the hell, YT? I thought that Octavius King wasn't doing videos anymore, and it turns out it was YT messing with me... :-(

[@Soopytwist]

23:30 he sounds like Tracer Tong in Deus Ex.

[@AstraVex]

Hang on.... 17:23 That screaming is from the 90's adult cartoon "Duckman"! ....What a specific scream to use! 🤣

[@NobesBLO13]

I loved that cartoon. I was way too young to watch it looking back.

[@seany84uk]

Nice to see you putting up a new video thanks! :)

[@jaysonl]

This video showed up randomly on my "Recommended" feed. I saw the thumbnail, read "What's so bad about Daikatana?", and said to myself, "This is gonna be worth a laugh"! Five minutes in, you'd already earned my subscription. Maybe it's because I have a soft spot for anyone with a British accent who's willing to say the words "massive cock" on camera. Maybe it's because I have sympathy for anyone of (presumably) sound mind and body that's actually willing to knowingly play through Daikatana at any time after release day. Come to think of it, it was Civvie 11's Daikatana video that got me to subscribe to him, too. It's the least I can do for you poor, poor bastards. Some other random notes: Didn't Stevie Case pose for Playboy or something like that back in the day? Maybe that's why narrator dude called her "voluptuous"? Or maybe it's just a product of the time. After all, if memory serves correctly, the name of the default female model for either Quake 3 Arena or Unreal Tournament was called "CrackWhore". Ugh. It wasn't just the contents of the exploding barrels that was toxic back then. Also, you've done yourself a great injustice. From everything I've heard, the Gameboy Color version of Daikatana is by far the best one of them all! Anyways, I'm going to go binge watch the rest of your content now. :D

[@cupofcustard]

Ah yes Daikatana, the one game from the late 90s which introduced the gaming community to the concept of a famous games developer promising waaay more than he/they could deliver. Definitely a sign of things to come.

[@mikedrop4421]

Todd Howard has entered the chat

[@cupofcustard]

@@mikedrop4421 I was thinking Peter Molyneux who would eventually start to ruin his godlike reputation a few years on from Daikatana's flop and then continue to trash it all the way to 22 cans.

[@mikedrop4421]

@@cupofcustard oh yeah absolutely. I didn't know how old you were. My brother is in the 20s and has no idea who PM even is lol

[@cupofcustard]

@@mikedrop4421 haha no worries. Was a 90s kid and a pc gamer so bullfrog was a big part of my childhood. I had no idea until recently what Moly had done to himself and others. Such a shame.

[@mikedrop4421]

@@cupofcustard I spawned in the mid 80s so I know exactly what you're talking about. Kim Justice covers ol' Pete's triumphs and tragedies in excruciating detail if you ever feel like you need even more of him in your head lol.

[@electricdreams1616]

So many sexual references, sounds like lockdown is having an effect lol. I'm all for angles hence my fondness for Blade Runner but them chunky polygons could cut somebody to shreds. But that's what makes them memorable for being so God damn crap, it's cringe but it's memorable cringe. So it works.

[@spwolftech]

Decided to do a 5 year Anniversary channel marathon so here is my HI to try and make the algorithm be nice. Thank you.

[@KohighMathy]

Brilliant Video! I love your Writing Style. I remember when Daikatana Came out. there was a lot of talk about it not being as good as the hype was making out, just before it was released. I remember being disappointed with the Game, but I persevered & finished it. I don't regret playing it. but I'm not sure I had that much fun ether

[@mattelder1971]

Trust me, when you live in an area with a high population of mosquitos, you'll understand how dangerous they can be.

[@ArneZiegfeld]

Haha, the picture at 19:59 shows the "Altstadtmarkt" (something like "historic centre marketplace") of my hometown Braunschweig, Germany! What a weird sensation! 😄

[@AstraVex]

I KNEW You'd get around to this one eventually 😅

[@frozenotter8380]

Great content as usual 👍 morsels like this make the wait worth it. Keep up the good work👌

[@andresbravo2003]

I expected that you haven't make more videos so long... thanks Octavius.

[@sogero2]

I've been intrigued by this game since those tacky advertisements, but I never saw it in action. This video was the best coverage of it I could have hoped for! THANKS! :D

[@petrolhead0387]

So glad to see you cover this game. I had it for N64, me and my mates used to get stoned and play it. Such a laugh, we knew how bad this game was, but it was so bad it was funny.

[@AndySmallbone]

Good to see you back 👍 how you played through that game though just watching you go through was hard work 🤨🤣

[@1984Brandon]

Octavius King video? I am happy to see a new video. Daikatana PC playing... ...Oh my, please don't, it's not worth the risk on mental health. Read the Necronomicon it's safer!

[@darrenporter1850]

Back then, one person took credit for a whole game with massive egos, then they separated to make another game, and you can see the talent was with the rest of the office doing the work originally...not them. Same happened with 'the guy who invented Tomb Raider'

[@doublemonkey4833]

I guess the game could be summed up by having that shot of SuperFly stuck and running on the spot side by side with the part of the advert that says "Superior artificial intelligence." XD Great video though. :)

[@tahustvedt]

15:00 - HER ARMS! What's going on there? Needs more polygons.

[@MrDaveduff]

I just recently subscribed to your channel, I've gotta say love your content, keep the videos coming

[@gigteevee6118]

Thank you for playing so we don't have to.... horrific hilarious stuff! Welcome back 😊

[@Chyronn]

Yay! She's back! We've missed you!

[@EricK-gm4ge]

Awesome video! Can't wait for the next one!

[@sandrinowitschM]

That one German gaming magazine seriously gave that mess of a game an 83/100 score. 20 years later and I'm still mad.

[@Crazy_Borg]

And got a cut version on top of that, too!

[@jacemachine]

I fscking love your content. Thank you for another great video!

[@Chavhunterofcalne]

Ah, this was just the thing to cheer me up after a shite day at work. Thanks Octy! Don't put yourself down about knob jokes, they're awesome. :P

[@JasonStevens]

If anyone ever feels like playing this thing be sure to get the “fan update 1.3”.. so many issues “fixed”. Story about it is here: www.pcgamer.com/meet-the-superfans-who-spent-a-decade-bringing-daikatana-back-to-life/ It was interesting bringing DK back to life from a Sun server port. Getting it running on the PC was magical. But my day to day didn’t let me have time to tear into it.

[@CJJC]

“Ah, Exposition-San!”

[@BuzzaB77]

oooooh wait right there I'm getting some popcorn. (good to see ya back chuck x)

[@georgehilty3561]

YAY!! new Octavius video!! :D

[@magicknight8412]

The darkness and drab miserable dark greeny brown environments were so depressing. Bloody mosquitos were so annoying. I don't think I made it past the first area before giving up.

Great film, Superfly. Music by the late, great Curtis Mayfield.

[@Wolfie_D]

Yay, a new Octav1us vid! And you sure picked a special one! All this time later, and I still haven't gotten over "Hero Crotch-Shot" and that Boar Tank thing. Romero made me his bitch alright. 😭 (Great vid btw!)

[@Jackalblade9]

Awesome video Octavius, thanks!

[@SEGAClownboss]

Another fine video Octavius, thank you!

[@crumf81]

Yay! Imma watch this when I get home from work 😁

[@sonixthatsme]

Octav1us and Daikatana. Hell yes.

Can we have hoarse/sexy Satan saying the meat chunks line, please?

[@CyberSpider35]

But... I also remember Samurai Jack and Onimusha 3 exist, so maybe "time traveling samurai" is just really popular trope, but than again - Daikatana isn't the BEST example of it.

[@frankowalker4662]

Brilliant review. Thanks for the lafs, Octavius.

[@chessoc7799]

Welcome back Octavius :) I don't think I heard of this at the time. I would have got it as it is a Romero game. Guessing it was not so famous as doom or quake.

[@richardcastro-parker3704]

Octavius is going to make us her.........😉😂 Keep up the stellar videos. 😊

[@Omicron9999]

That pic of Romero at 0:43 makes him look as if he has Big Head Mode turned on.

[@cubeflinger]

Nice to see you back pickle. Missed your jokes. I'm sorry you had to endure daikatana for it tho..

[@georgekostaras]

It’s been a while since I watched your videos but it’s good to be back

[@WandererEris]

It's almost like people never learn. Diakatana, Watch_Dogs, No Man's Sky, Cyberpunk 2020... It keeps happening. People get fooled by the advertising into paying for bad to mediocre games, some of which are seriously downgraded from previews or outright unfinished.

[@maxheadroom4659]

except No man's sky is now good, after they kept working on it. Cyberpunk will be the same way. I am getting sick of studios releasing unfinished games.

[@WandererEris]

@@maxheadroom4659 I'm not saying the games won't eventually be good, it's just the state they're released in that's the problem.

[@Pellerinen]

New upload from Octy? Yes please! And I can't seem to remember anything about this game, even though the name sounds so familiar...

[@transtechgirl8786]

Woo, so glad to have you back.

[@BenColc]

This game's plot has more holes than a pervert's wet dream.

[@auto1nfanticid3]

are you suggesting that non perverts dream about rods and not holes?

[@RetroBytesUK]

Its really hard todo a time travel based plots and not mess it up, and boy and how did they fail todo a good job with this one. Still maybe you don't notice the bad plot, as it's over shadowed by the impressively bad voice acting used to tell us the story in overly long very dialogue heavy scenes.

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

@@octaviusking You should try the Legacy of Kain series then. Time travel a-go-go!

[@KasumiRINA]

Oh, this game... the Cyberpunk 2077 of Gen-X! Overpromise & underdeliver... :3 Nice to see you back, I love reviews of bad games and consoles.

[@willcail]

Great video! As an American I take NO OFFENSE on the current pandemic vaccine access in my country dig. Glad that their is a new video!

[@Channel9001]

13:34 "Super fly" just meant "really cool" in 70s slang. But it's still kind of tone-deaf to name a character that.

[@nickosinit]

I loved this video- absolutely hilarious!

[@SallyMangos]

Wish I had an invisible watch....🙂

[@Oculas2003]

Daikatana = "A big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff"