Is the janitor really that bad?

[the2ndSign]

I keep seeing these threads about how the janitor is "ruining the game". I've only played a little bit to get a feel for this remake before I dive in for real, but is the janitor really as awful as people are saying?

In the original White Day, you could avoid him pretty easily as long as you were patient and didn't stomp around like a maniac. I get the impression that a lot of these people didn't play the original and just aren't used to him, but maybe I'm wrong.

So, for those of you like me, who are coming to this from the original game, is the janitor really as horrendously unbalanced as he's made out to be?

[Avalanche_Rick]

He's not, people are just impatient and don't pay attention to what the game tells you 10 minutes in and try to make an effort to study them. One person had a problem then ended up being interested in their movements and patters.

[the2ndSign]

Kinda what I thought. Thanks.

[BC]

I guess I am one of those people. And I guess it's just the game—which I'll say up front that I really enjoy.

But I can tell you I was not impatient. I've sat in rooms waiting for him to leave for minutes at a time. Several times I snuck to the to the end of the hall after I thought he left, only to have him standing on the other side of the door and I can't get back into a room before he beats me to death.

Here's the big difference I noticed between the two versions...

In the earlier version, I could actually see the janitor's head walk past and the hall door open and close—all from inside a classroom I was hiding.

In this version, they've raised the windows or lowered the camera, but now I can't see him move through the hallway so I have no idea which way he is headed. It all has to be done by audible cues.

And that's where I get confused.

Several times I thought he left, but he was just further down the hallway enough to where the music and keys jingling had stopped. And that's when I get caught.

It's really my only complaint with the game. And it's not huge. I just need to be a better gamer.

But it's a great game.

[Sirlion]

No. Young players nowadays simply expect the games they play to hold their hands and play themselves.

[the2ndSign]

In the earlier version, I could actually see the janitor's head walk past and the hall door open and close—all from inside a classroom I was hiding.

In this version, they've raised the windows or lowered the camera, but now I can't see him move through the hallway so I have no idea which way he is headed. It all has to be done by audible cues.

Lol, I remember opening a hallway door from inside a classroom through the window.

I see, though. I relied on audio cues most of the time in the original, as I'd be crouching in a corner like a coward, so I guess that's not a big deal to me. Is it true you can only really hide in toilets? In the original, you could hide behind a desk or in a corner of a dark room and there would be a chance that he'd catch you, but you could often get away with it.

And no, you aren't really one of the people I was talking about. Some people seemed to be getting really upset, so I wondered if there was some huge difficulty spike or if they just weren't used to White Day.

[BC]

You can still hide like that, but if he has a clue you're in there, he finds you. It's really doesn't play the same. I think the stealth aspect of the first was a better.

Maybe, it's a Unity limitation?

[Debrel]

Used to be a pain in the arse, then I learned his patterns and ways to trick him, then I loved the way his AI worked.

[Avalanche_Rick]

Originally posted by Sirlion:

No. Young players nowadays simply expect the games they play to hold their hands and play themselves.

Exactly this. A lot of people these days just rather watch let's plays and let's face it a lot of them would quit before getting to Main Building 2. If they do then god help them with the chalkboard puzzle.

[the2ndSign]

On that note, I find it somewhat disappointing that the devs felt the need to include pop-up tutorial screens for the most trivial of actions, like opening a door. I appreciate the option to turn them off, but if someone actually needs written instruction for such basic actions, this probably isn't the game for them. :p

I'd hate to see a franchise like this suffer the same fate as Fatal Frame.

[Qruis]

I got stuck in a deadloop in my first five minutes after encountering him for the first time. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ just keeps apearing on the only door I have to open in order to progress. Don't hear him leaving any time soon. Decide to walk (read crawl at the speed of a mountain) away and see if he would de spawn. I get inside another room, wait a couple minutes, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OPENS THE DOOR AND BEATS ME TO DEATH.
Reload save file.
Decided to yolo it, get inside and surprizingly enough, he is not there. I wait a couple seconds in complete silence. Nothing is heard in the room nor outside of it, no footsteps, no keychain, nothing. I walk (crawl at the speed of a tectonic plate) and get what I want from there before going back to the door. I wait and listen. Again, nothing is heard. I assume he is nowhere around. I open the door. He was right in front of it. Room was a dead end. Only exit was blocked by crazy old man with a bat.
Loading time!
I spawn. Keychain is immediatly heard. I sigh with a perfect pokerface as I turn around and see bat coming to my face.
Similar things repeated each time I reloaded my save file. I ragequited.
I seriously wish I could just kick him in the nuts, grab his bat and beat him up like the piece of ♥♥♥♥ that he is.
Difficulty? Normal, the most balanced one according to the game. Yeah, right...

[Avalanche_Rick]

Originally posted by Qruis:

I got stuck in a deadloop in my first five minutes after encountering him for the first time. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ just keeps apearing on the only door I have to open in order to progress. Don't hear him leaving any time soon. Decide to walk (read crawl at the speed of a mountain) away and see if he would de spawn. I get inside another room, wait a couple minutes, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OPENS THE DOOR AND BEATS ME TO DEATH.
Reload save file.
Decided to yolo it, get inside and surprizingly enough, he is not there. I wait a couple seconds in complete silence. Nothing is heard in the room nor outside of it, no footsteps, no keychain, nothing. I walk (crawl at the speed of a tectonic plate) and get what I want from there before going back to the door. I wait and listen. Again, nothing is heard. I assume he is nowhere around. I open the door. He was right in front of it. Room was a dead end. Only exit was blocked by crazy old man with a bat.
Loading time!
I spawn. Keychain is immediatly heard. I sigh with a perfect pokerface as I turn around and see bat coming to my face.
Similar things repeated each time I reloaded my save file. I ragequited.
I seriously wish I could just kick him in the nuts, grab his bat and beat him up like the piece of ♥♥♥♥ that he is.
Difficulty? Normal, the most balanced one according to the game. Yeah, right...

If I remember right, you can trip him in the original making him fall down with things in the way like chairs or fold out wet floor signs and set them back up. I wonder why this was removed? It sounds like fun!

[Sirlion]

In the original you cannot do anything, the only thing you could do was use the gloves in the biology lab with the moving mannequin and stun him there.

Originally posted by Qruis:

I got stuck in a deadloop in my first five minutes after encountering him for the first time. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ just keeps apearing on the only door I have to open in order to progress. Don't hear him leaving any time soon. Decide to walk (read crawl at the speed of a mountain) away and see if he would de spawn. I get inside another room, wait a couple minutes, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OPENS THE DOOR AND BEATS ME TO DEATH.
Reload save file.
Decided to yolo it, get inside and surprizingly enough, he is not there. I wait a couple seconds in complete silence. Nothing is heard in the room nor outside of it, no footsteps, no keychain, nothing. I walk (crawl at the speed of a tectonic plate) and get what I want from there before going back to the door. I wait and listen. Again, nothing is heard. I assume he is nowhere around. I open the door. He was right in front of it. Room was a dead end. Only exit was blocked by crazy old man with a bat.
Loading time!
I spawn. Keychain is immediatly heard. I sigh with a perfect pokerface as I turn around and see bat coming to my face.
Similar things repeated each time I reloaded my save file. I ragequited.
I seriously wish I could just kick him in the nuts, grab his bat and beat him up like the piece of ♥♥♥♥ that he is.
Difficulty? Normal, the most balanced one according to the game. Yeah, right...

Honestly this sounds a lot like a glitch to me. Never happened something like this in Normal before. I suggest you try to restart entirely because it really looks like a bug more than a feature.

[archita]

I think that new ( mobile and PC steam ) editions must recover the old great "janitor radar" of old windows edition. The old radar was more effective to understand the direction and distance of janitor.

[Qruis]

Originally posted by Sirlion:

In the original you cannot do anything, the only thing you could do was use the gloves in the biology lab with the moving mannequin and stun him there.

Originally posted by Qruis:

I got stuck in a deadloop in my first five minutes after encountering him for the first time. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ just keeps apearing on the only door I have to open in order to progress. Don't hear him leaving any time soon. Decide to walk (read crawl at the speed of a mountain) away and see if he would de spawn. I get inside another room, wait a couple minutes, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OPENS THE DOOR AND BEATS ME TO DEATH.
Reload save file.
Decided to yolo it, get inside and surprizingly enough, he is not there. I wait a couple seconds in complete silence. Nothing is heard in the room nor outside of it, no footsteps, no keychain, nothing. I walk (crawl at the speed of a tectonic plate) and get what I want from there before going back to the door. I wait and listen. Again, nothing is heard. I assume he is nowhere around. I open the door. He was right in front of it. Room was a dead end. Only exit was blocked by crazy old man with a bat.
Loading time!
I spawn. Keychain is immediatly heard. I sigh with a perfect pokerface as I turn around and see bat coming to my face.
Similar things repeated each time I reloaded my save file. I ragequited.
I seriously wish I could just kick him in the nuts, grab his bat and beat him up like the piece of ♥♥♥♥ that he is.
Difficulty? Normal, the most balanced one according to the game. Yeah, right...

Honestly this sounds a lot like a glitch to me. Never happened something like this in Normal before. I suggest you try to restart entirely because it really looks like a bug more than a feature.

Yeah... already restarted on very easy because ♥♥♥♥ him.
Now stuck on second floor, first room to the left right after the first emblem. Guy just wont leave.

I like the haunted school aspect of the game but sadly I cant see it because this old limping man is a robot sent from the future to kill jonh connor.

Now investigating if theres any way to disable the janitor and play on hard so that I can see all ghosts.
And no. I don't want to watch gameplay of this if all I want is to just want to see the ghosts, its not the same.

[the2ndSign]

Sounds like you might want to verify cache or reinstall. Very easy is basically supposed to play itself.