Death Stranding Director's Cut - Kojima's post-apocalyptic deliveryman simulator

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

It feels very Japanese sci-fi to me. It's got bikes (Akira, FFVII, Advent's Children), this depopulated, post-apocalyptic world (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Advent's Children again, a lot of more obscure anime), Angel-like monsters, bunker bases, secret science experiments on embryos (again Akira), a bit of Japanese ghost horror, etc... Even Fragile is an evolution of the moe Rei/ Tifa-type that Japanese fiction prefers to Western femme fatales, complete with a kawaii umbrella motif

Anyway, I enjoyed the setting, as well as its technology, quite a lot. Plot and dialogue could have been better.

The big influences on Death Stranding are most likely these.







It’s been so long since I’ve seen that 12 Monkeys trailer I forgot it used music from Bram Stoker's Dracula. That’s a good trailer.

12 Monkeys is most definitely an influence. And I’d wage a lot of Death Stranding is reworked ideas from Silent Hills. I’d guess that’s the same with Metal Gear Survive too. My guess would be Silent Hills was going to be a Silent Hill game that leaned into The Mist, the big influence of the first Silent Hill game, more than any other and would’ve had giant monsters roaming around.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Kijima is a good writer

disagree
he has interesting ideas, but they are way too clunkily executed
i am more willing to give credit to his co-writer (Tomokazu Fukushima), seeing as right after his departure we got MGS4

while simultaneously forming a cult of his personality

I think this is more detrimental than him hanging out with other pretentious hollywood directors
Reminder that for years many a Kojimbo fangirls denied that Snake was indeed inspired by Plissken
Yet, some time after MGS5 we did get Kurt Russell revealing in an interview that he was approached to voice Big Boss in MGS3

 

[Harthwain]

he has interesting ideas, but they are way too clunkily executed

I don't know about the other games, but in the case of Death Stranding having an interesting idea beats the execution (if only because this is something new to explore). It also doesn't suffer from cognitive dissonance that's so common in games, which further helps to treat all these weird ideas as excuses for gameplay mechanics, whereas in other games you have the divide between the narrative and the gameplay.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Kijima is a good writer

disagree
he has interesting ideas, but they are way too clunkily executed
i am more willing to give credit to his co-writer (Tomokazu Fukushima), seeing as right after his departure we got MGS4

Kojima needs to be looked at more broadly, through the prism of his earlier games. From Metal Gear in 1987 to Policenauts in 1994, that he wrote on his own, we can see Kojima's harmonious development as a writer/designer. His most popular game, Metal Gear Solid, the one he wrote with Fukushima for first time, is not his best at all and sets a certain trend for the future - pushing the boundaries of the medium at all costs. That's why, despite Fukushima, MGS2 was so repulsive to many people, it was a triumph of form over substance.

Personally, I like style over substance, but only up to a point, which is why I generally like Kojima's games, even the ones after MGS, but I don't take them seriously either. That's why I couldn't stand Death Stranding - it's a stupid, over-complicated game that forces me to take it very seriously.

while simultaneously forming a cult of his personality

I think this is more detrimental than him hanging out with other pretentious hollywood directors
Reminder that for years many a Kojimbo fangirls denied that Snake was indeed inspired by Plissken
Yet, some time after MGS5 we did get Kurt Russell revealing in an interview that he was approached to voice Big Boss in MGS3

Having cultists is one thing. Believing in your own cult - second. Interestingly, even the most cynical cult founders eventually succumb to the faith they created. I think nothing shows this more clearly than the history of his cameos in MGSs.

 

[gooseman]

Got it for free on EGS. Originally, I also thought it was a joke. I liked the game, and that sort of changed my perspective on games. It has the truck simulator appeal, but with more gameplay. It's probably the best among those games. Cutscenes and plot are mostly nonsense, but characters were alright. The "connecting people" theme works, with the multiplayer features and quest rewards and spiels the characters give you about how much you've helped them. The setting is moderately interesting, and it's something fresh. Works well with gameplay.
Traversal and plotting routes is fun. I want a bigger map with more routes and interesting locales. The ambushes suck, they get very repetitive and always in the same places and respawn very quickly and aren't that threatening, more annoying. Throwing boxes at people is fun.
It's a good game.

 

[911 Jumper]

Death Stranding has been out for five years and is available on multiple platforms, but instead of revealing the number of copies sold, Kojima announces that the game has attracted 19 million players.



Hideo Kojima Announces Death Stranding has had 19 Million Players

 

[Harthwain]

Death Stranding has been out for five years and is available on multiple platforms, but instead of revealing the number of copies sold, Kojima announces that the game has attracted 19 million players.

Does it really matter? Besides, he said "porters", not "players". So this could be simply his way of saying "in-universe" that they sold 19 million copies.

 

[Cheesedragon117]

I think he's also trying to point out that 19 million players interacted with the asynchronous multiplayer systems and were able to help eachother out at various points throughout the game, as one of its main themes is the idea of "connections". That's why he said "many of you continue to play the game."

He tried some light asynchronous multiplayer stuff in The Phantom Pain, but people barely interacted with it. He's just happy the systems in Death Stranding stuck a chord with his fanbase this time around. Although, to be fair, you don't really have much choice in interacting with other Porters, a lot of the multiplayer features just happen automatically (like other player's deployables appearing in your world) without your direct involvement.

 

[911 Jumper]

There's nothing wrong with revealing player numbers in regard to your game, but number of players isn't number of copies sold. Death Stranding has been out for five years and is available across several platforms [PS4, PS5, PC, Mac, and iPhone] (Xbox and Amazon Luna were added after Kojima's latest announcement).

Death Stranding is by definition a multi-platform game that has been available to many people beyond the PlayStation install base for some time now.

So why is Kojima still choosing to only talk about player numbers on the game's fifth anniversary? That 19 million figure isn't that impressive when you consider the following:
1) Death Stranding has been out for five years.
2) DS is available on multiple platforms including iPhone.
3) The 19 million likely includes people who dropped the game after a few hours and never went back (not uncommon with this game), and those who have done multiple playthroughs.
4) DS was given away for free via the Epic Game Store and was available via PC Game Pass.

Kojima also did the “porters” thang on the game's third anniversary back in November 2022 when he revealed that there were “10 million Porters”.


Again, “porters”, which is the term Kojima uses to describe Death Stranding's player-controlled character, isn't copies sold. So why, after five years, is Kojima still being coy in regard to the sales figure of his first post-MGS game? When Xbox started talking about Game Pass sub numbers instead of Xbox hardware units sold, people rightly suspected it was because the figures related to hardware sales were unimpressive. I suspect the same thing has happened here, which is why even after five years, Kojima prefers to talk about “porters” instead of copies sold.

 

[cvv]

3) The 19 million likely includes people who dropped the game after a few hours and never went back (not uncommon with this game)

Starting yesterday that includes me.

I've been shitting on the game for years, despite never playing it, but yesterday I was overcome by a mix of boredom and burnout, not feeling like playing anything I usually play. To my shock and horror I realized I actually feel like playing Death Stranding that I got for free from Epic god knows when, probably because it's so different and weird and completely outside my wheelhouse. One of those days you know.

I gave it an honest spin, three or four hours. And to get the pros out of the way - the art design is absolutely divine. It's the only aspect of the game that actually matches and even exceeds Kojima comically inflated reputation of genius, even tho someone else is responsible for it according to the credits. I've already uninstalled the game but I'll watch it some more on Youtube, just to see more of the arresting images. Not sure if the art director got his TGA but if not that just shows you how completely useless and clueless game journalists are.

What remains is the gameplay and writing and oh boy. To my surprise the gameplay wasn't as insufferable as I thought but I still kept asking myself what the fuck am I even doing playing this, swaying from side to side, stumbling like drunken Kamala coming home from a fundraiser. It was almost comical at times. I've read the gameplay expands and deepens in later chapters but the core stays the same and it just feels like a giant elaborate troll act. Like Kojima did all that just to watch streams after the release and laugh at all the idiots taking this seriously.

The writing was just as expected tho. Over the years I've said many times Kojima is probably the worst writer in the industry and even though that lessened somewhat with the influx of comically incompetent diversity hires in the last five years it still holds true. In a game like this I HAVE to be invested in the world and characters to keep playing and that's just impossible in DS, with character names like Sam Porter Bridges (seems innocuous at first), Deadman or Die-Hardman. And the story is such a giant heap of esoteric Dunning-Kruger feelgood mumbo jumbo it was actually insufferable.

Surprisingly my feelings after uninstalling this turd is not hatred or mockery. It's actually sadness. A feeling or an immense wasted opportunity. Imagine this art and acting being in service of an actual competent script and actually believable SF setting. Even a played-out one like an alien invasion. Anything but this incoherent claptrap about glorified poltergeists. What a shame.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

the writing is okay when you remember that this is anime

 

[DJOGamer PT]

So why, after five years, is Kojima still being coy ... Kojima prefers to talk about “porters” instead of copies sold.

Maybe he is being coy, or maybe the number of people that have experienced the game makes him more happy and proud than the number of sales
He's under no obligation to publicly declare sales figures and if Sony's currently bankrolling 2 of his games, I think that means they're satisfied

 

[Verylittlefishes]

The 19 million likely includes people who dropped the game

- Kojima don't talk about sales!!!!!!!!! he is a fraud
- No, he is talking, here is the link and numbers
- THESE NUMBERS ARE NOT RIGHT BECAUSE I SAY SO
- ...
- Kojima don't talk about sales!!!!!!!!!

rinse and repeat

 

[cvv]

So why, after five years, is Kojima still being coy ... Kojima prefers to talk about “porters” instead of copies sold.

Maybe he is being coy, or maybe the number of people that have experienced the game makes him more happy and proud than the number of sales

Or maybe he's doing that because that's what ALL devs and publishers do when the actual sold copies count isn't very impressive. "Players engaged" and "Players reached" is what we got from games like Veilguard or Avowed.

For instance Warhorse has always been reporting sold copies exclusively and Vavra only recently mentioned as an off-hand comment that for KCD1 their internal estimate of "players reached" through Epic, Game Pass or people who bought and refunded the game is over 20 million.

Don't forget DS has been free on Epic and Game Pass, it's not hard at all to "reach" 20 million people that way, even for way more niche games with a fraction of DS' marketing budget.

 

[cvv]

the writing is okay when you remember that this is anime

And since when it's okay to have embarrassingly low standards for anime? I got into anime in early 2000s with Spirited Away and was completely charmed by all Ghibli production, Akira or Ghost in the Shell. I still consider the writing in Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, GitS 1 and GitS: Innocence some of the best in the history of cinema.

Why are people suddenly accepting brainless imbecility in anime? I can't watch that retarded garbage anymore, save for a few exceptions like the Vinland Saga.

 

[Silverfish]

Why are people suddenly accepting brainless imbecility in anime?

Probably when YuGiOh named a character Mai Valentine.

 

[Yosharian]

the writing is okay when you remember that this is anime

And since when it's okay to have embarrassingly low standards for anime? I got into anime in early 2000s with Spirited Away and was completely charmed by all Ghibli production, Akira or Ghost in the Shell. I still consider the writing in Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, GitS 1 and GitS: Innocence some of the best in the history of cinema.

Why are people suddenly accepting brainless imbecility in anime? I can't watch that retarded garbage anymore, save for a few exceptions like the Vinland Saga.

I watched a series the other day that is highly rated all over the place, tons of videos on YT saying how amazing it is. Re:Zero it's called, I couldn't believe how fucking bad it was. All the characters are retarded, the main character is king of the retards, the plot is written by a 6 year old, the fight scenes are boring, it's just fucking terrible.

I've noticed the same thing with JRPGs, there are tons of highly rated series that are utterly moronic in every aspect.

 

[cvv]

I've noticed the same thing with JRPGs, there are tons of highly rated series that are utterly moronic in every aspect.

People live in grey boxes for houses, eat literal garbage for food, listen to computerized screeching for music and consume gaudy, shallow pap for entertainment. And you wonder the world is a clown show.

 

[Terenty]

At least Kojima tries to balance his anime cringe with some creative ideas and world building.

In Death Stranding scientists finding out that the world of the dead can be used as a sort of ultra fast internet provider and using it to connect scattered parts of the country and printing all kinds of tools to facilitate human survival at the cost of inhuman experimentation is both creative and ridiculous at the same time in my book.

 

[Yosharian]

It's creative but I just don't enjoy the actual experience of playing the game

It's neat to look at the game and go 'that's pretty creative' though

 

[Harthwain]

What remains is the gameplay and writing and oh boy. To my surprise the gameplay wasn't as insufferable as I thought but I still kept asking myself what the fuck am I even doing playing this [...]

The writing was just as expected tho. Over the years I've said many times Kojima is probably the worst writer in the industry and even though that lessened somewhat with the influx of comically incompetent diversity hires in the last five years it still holds true. In a game like this I HAVE to be invested in the world and characters to keep playing and that's just impossible in DS, with character names like Sam Porter Bridges (seems innocuous at first), Deadman or Die-Hardman. And the story is such a giant heap of esoteric Dunning-Kruger feelgood mumbo jumbo it was actually insufferable.

I like the writing insofar as it's tied directly to the gameplay. It's less about being invested in the story* and more about the gameplay itself, where cutscenes are only an excuse to explain the game's actual mechanics and propel you towards your next objective. How you are going to reach that objective is the actual game.

* That said, I do find a fresh setting with novel ideas to be more interesting that something sterile and boring. So points for that, even if I have to admit the whole thing is very over the top. Also, the title of the worst writer in the industry goes to whoever wrote Tash. It's not even close.

 

[cvv]

Also, the title of the worst writer in the industry goes to whoever wrote Tash. It's not even close.

That was Patrick Weekes. Yes, Taash was an instant meme.

You have to remember tho Weekes was at Bioware since ME1 and he wrote some of the fan favourites like Mordin Solus, Tali and Jack. He is a case of a professional, competent writer who was simply infected by the woke mind virus and lost his marbles.

Unlike Kojima who lacks any writing talent or skill whatsoever. Fortunately for him nobody reads anymore, let alone great literature, so nobody has any idea what great writing actually looks like, including most gaming journalists. So he can pass for a genius.

 

[Venser]

We're getting close to photo-realism.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I got into anime in early 2000s with Spirited Away and was completely charmed by all Ghibli production, Akira or Ghost in the Shell. I still consider the writing in Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, GitS 1 and GitS: Innocence some of the best in the history of cinema.

you should watch some real anime, not these mainstream Western-targeted titles.

also lol GitS: Innocence has some of the most pretentious and nonsensical dialogues I've ever heard

*long abstract phrase*...*30 second theatrical pause* *Renu Dekartu...* this is a fucking meme

 

[Verylittlefishes]

At least Kojima tries to balance his anime cringe with some creative ideas and world building.

In Death Stranding scientists finding out that the world of the dead can be used as a sort of ultra fast internet provider and using it to connect scattered parts of the country and printing all kinds of tools to facilitate human survival at the cost of inhuman experimentation is both creative and ridiculous at the same time in my book.

Yes, and the whole extinction lore was kinda cool