Players control a swordsmaster who travels through various time periods using the eponymous Daikatana, a powerful sword tied to the fate of the world.

Daikatana was directed by Ion Storm co-founder John Romero, a co-developer of the influential first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Doom (1993), and Quake (1996).

Announced in 1997 as Romero's first game after leaving id Software, it underwent a troubled development that saw a change in its engine, release date delays, and the departure of several staff members.

The protracted development, combined with promotion that focused on Romero's involvement over the game itself, resulted in negative publicity for Daikatana prior to its release.

Released in May 2000, Daikatana received generally negative reviews for its outdated graphics, gameplay, repetitive sound effects, and poor artificial intelligence.

One element that Daikatana stressed was the important role of Hiro Miyamoto's two sidekicks, Mikiko Ebihara (Bread) and Superfly Johnson.

In 2455 AD, swordmaster Hiro Miyamoto is visited by a man named Dr. Toshiro Ebihara, a descendant of Inshiro who is suffering from a plague and about to die.

Toshiro tells Hiro that Kage Mishima, the ruler of the planet, took over the world by stealing the Daikatana and using it to alter history.

The group finds a sorcerer named Musilde who offers to recharge the Daikatana if Hiro, Superfly, and Mikiko can save his village from the black plague.

Daikatana was created by John Romero, an influential developer whose résumé included founding titles in the first-person shooter genre (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake) when he worked at id Software.

The game was developed by Ion Storm,[8] a company founded by Romero, Tom Hall, Bob Wright, Mike Wilson, Todd Porter, and Jerry O'Flaherty.

[9][10] The aim was for the company to create games that catered to their creative tastes without excessive publisher interference, which had constrained both Romero and Hall too much in the past.

He was originally of French descent with "his name taken from the few cultural documents left in the apocalyptic future" and his "character arc would be finding out his real identity at the end".

[26] A version of Daikatana on the Quake engine was shown at that year's E3 alongside Tomb Raider II "to a muted reception" according to Edge.

[12] Romero stated prior to release that he would have chosen the Quake II engine to develop the game from the start if given the chance.

[30] Romero later ascribed some problems triggered in using the technology as being due to the rivalry manufactured by the company's marketing between them and id Software.

[12] Due to the delays, development of the game ran parallel to Anachronox, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3, and eventually Deus Ex.

[32] Something that further impacted production was the departure of around twenty staff members from the team, who either left Ion Storm or transferred to the Austin studio.

[12][22] The departures led to the hiring of Stevie Case as level designer and Chris Perna to polish and add to character models.

[37] In a later interview, Romero admitted there were many faults with the game at release, blaming the development culture and management clashes at Ion Storm, in addition to staff departures causing much of the work to be scrapped and begun over again.

[12][21] Divine attributed the problems to a combination of overly carefree atmosphere, and corporate struggles about company ownership interfering with game production.

[22] In a 1999 interview, Romero attributed the slowing of development during that period to the staff departures, but said that most of the level design and the entire score had been completed before that.

[11] In subsequent years, the press material focused almost entirely on pushing the company name and its lead developers, something later regretted by several of its staff.

[22][31] The situation was worsened when the Dallas Observer printed a story about the internal struggles of the Austin office, which cited both undercover interviews and leaked emails.

[31] Later, Romero felt that their marketing's attempts to push the game only made Ion Storm and its core members come off as egotistical.

[12][22] According to Mike Wilson, the advert was created by the same artist who designed the game's box art, under order of their chosen advertising agency.

[50] Following the release of Daikatana and Anachronox, Ion Storm Austin decided to close the Dallas branch office in July 2001.

[12][22] In the absence of any further official support after this closure, Romero gave the source code to community members, allowing them to develop additional platform ports (most notably Linux, macOS and other Unix-like systems) and bug fixes.

[10] Before Daikatana's release, reports indicated that Ion Storm forecast sales of 2.5 million units, a number that GameDaily called necessary for the game "to become profitable".

[91] In 2010, Romero said that despite its shaky development and being considered one of the worst games of all time, Daikatana was "more fun to make than Quake" due to the lack of creative interference.