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

[Egosphere]

Kojima really is a genius' genius

 

[Sentinel]

Listed as Director, and also listed as being responsible for concept, planning, game design and story. Not sure if you're being serious with that statement. MGS4 was the same as the first 3 but with his particular brand of cringe dialled up to 11. He's pulled the same stunt in every title.

MGS4, PW and 5 are the only games in the series where Kojima brought in other writers to do main events & had the team influence how the story went. For example, originally MGS4 was going to end with a double execution of Snake & Otacon, not with big boss showing up out of nowhere, but the staff thought it was too depressing and had Kojima change it.
MGS1-3 had him solo write & design all the mandatory content. Whatever writer was on the team would only do optional content such as the random codec calls.

 

[Egosphere]

Listed as Director, and also listed as being responsible for concept, planning, game design and story. Not sure if you're being serious with that statement. MGS4 was the same as the first 3 but with his particular brand of cringe dialled up to 11. He's pulled the same stunt in every title.

MGS4, PW and 5 are the only games in the series where Kojima brought in other writers to do main events & had the team influence how the story went. For example, originally MGS4 was going to end with a double execution of Snake & Otacon, not with big boss showing up out of nowhere, but the staff thought it was too depressing and had Kojima change it.
MGS1-3 had him solo write & design all the mandatory content. Whatever writer was on the team would only do optional content such as the random codec calls.

Iirc, he wanted to end MGS2 with Raiden and Snake being executed for treason. If that's the case, it wasn't the first time he was strong armed into doing something more sane by others on the team.

 

[911 Jumper]

I'm surprised that Death Stranding's story didn't take a bigger bashing from reviewers. It's easily Kojima's worst. Loading so much nonsense into the first entry of a new franchise is just bad judgment, to say nothing of the moments, like the “Mario and Princess Beach” scene, which undermine the supposedly serious tone of the game.

Btw, sorry can't react/upvote posts as I'm a new member.

 

[cvv]

It's easily Kojima's worst.

Didn't play DS but hard to believe. Played MGSV and the writing was beyond cringe.

Clearly if you wanna be critically adored you either have to be genuinely great or so unnaturally, uncannily bad you scramble people's brain so much they start talking about you in terms like "surreal", "postmodern" or "magical realism".

 

[Tyrr]

MGSV at least had a nice pair of tits to look at.

 

[cvv]

MGSV at least had a nice pair of tits to look at.

The broads in DS are prettier, Silence's body was glorious but the face was a turn-off for me.

 

[Egosphere]

I'm surprised that Death Stranding's story didn't take a bigger bashing from reviewers. It's easily Kojima's worst. Loading so much nonsense into the first entry of a new franchise is just bad judgment, to say nothing of the moments, like the “Mario and Princess Beach” scene, which undermine the supposedly serious tone of the game.

The expectation for the game was great, and a lot of people got swept up in it. My opinion of the game was highest when I just beat it, but has degraded severely since then. Despite the cringe, we were coming off a strong finishing performance from Reedus and Mikkelsen. But then you let it sit for a while and start recalling all of the horrendous parts in it and .. yeah. The worst part of the game is that it didn't do anything with the gameplay. I figured this barren, post apocalyptic world could have been made engrossing if the landscapes were made surreal and challenging, the environments more dynamic and the pacing sped up. Instead it's really just a hiking sim through countryside inspired by Iceland and Scotland. The environments are cool but they should be just a backdrop to something greater.

It's easily Kojima's worst.

Didn't play DS but hard to believe. Played MGSV and the writing was beyond cringe.

Clearly if you wanna be critically adored you either have to be genuinely great or so unnaturally, uncannily bad you scramble people's brain so much they start talking about you in terms like "surreal", "postmodern" or "magical realism".

That's what he was before DS released. Postmodern, eccentric, lots of comparisons to Hitchcock (which Kojima seemed to play up on social media) for whatever reason. The fans had a running meme of calling him god-emperor. DS put a stop to all of that. Now he has to perform. The worst part (for him) is that PT really was a good demo, so the fall was so much worse.

Also, yeah, 911 is right, it is his worst by far. MGSV has nothing on DS.

 

[Falksi]

Another "this is going to be bollocks, but at that price let's try it for giggles" pickup I made the other week...

 

[Egosphere]

Another "this is going to be bollocks, but at that price let's try it for giggles" pickup I made the other week...

For £6 it's probably worth it tbh. Unique enough for one playthrough.

 

[Sentinel]

Another "this is going to be bollocks, but at that price let's try it for giggles" pickup I made the other week...

Be aware that the game is very cutscene heavy for the first 3 chapters, but it opens up completely after that.

 

[janior]

man I love kojima what a great guy

 

[Harthwain]

I'm surprised that Death Stranding's story didn't take a bigger bashing from reviewers. It's easily Kojima's worst. Loading so much nonsense into the first entry of a new franchise is just bad judgment, to say nothing of the moments, like the “Mario and Princess Beach” scene, which undermine the supposedly serious tone of the game.

It's because it is fresh. I got more interested in Death Stranding's bizzare universe, because it was something original. Granted, it can be ridiculous, but I would rather have that over some boring mundane shit that was done over and over again (or was even boring the first time around). The story is an excuse for setting up the game world's mechanics anyway, and I liked the gameplay mechanics themselves.

The expectation for the game was great, and a lot of people got swept up in it.

Not necessarily. I had no expectations for this game and I enjoyed it immensely.

Instead it's really just a hiking sim through countryside inspired by Iceland and Scotland. The environments are cool but they should be just a backdrop to something greater.

You call it "a hiking sim through countryside" like it's something bad, but the fact this game is so dedicated to traversing the terrain was one of its best elements for me. In the world where most of games have a fast travel option, here you have one where you need to plan how to get from point A to point B, and there are a plenty of toys for this exact purpose. There is also enough extra stuff in it besides hiking to make it more varied when playing.

 

[Fedora Master]

Japs and Weeaboos are not philosophical people so they're easily impressed by wordy nonsense.

 

[Maxie]

Japs and Weeaboos are not philosophical people so they're easily impressed by wordy nonsense.

im both a jap and a weaboo and was let down by the talky aspect of death stranding whereas the hiking sim part was p good most of the time
i assume im not alone in my sentiment and your sweeping statement sickens me

 

[911 Jumper]

Japs and Weeaboos are not philosophical people so they're easily impressed by wordy nonsense.

This kind of reminds me of something Jeremy Blaustein (MGS1's translator) said about Kojima on a podcast episode. He said [paraphrasing] that Kojima will see something that is considered mediocre or even stupid (IRC he uses the film The Cell as an example) in the West and he [Kojima] will think it is really cool because it comes from the West.

This is the episode for anyone interested:


Edited

 

[Morgoth]

That Blaustein dude sounds like he's full of himself.

 

[Fedora Master]

whereas the hiking sim part was p good most of the time

It's your Mongolian heritage calling to you

 

[911 Jumper]

That Blaustein dude sounds like he's full of himself.

There's also this from MGS2's localiser, Agness Kaku:
KOJIMA IS NOT A WRITER

IRC HardcoreGaming101 which originally hosted the interview was asked by Konami to take the interview down

 

[cvv]

Just goes to show how hilaaaariously bad gaymers are at judging writing quality. They're p. much completely clueless.

Considering the only book most of them have ever cracked open is a notebook not that surprising I guess.

 

[janior]

I never thought about kojimbo games in terms of good writing or bad, just amusing.

 

[Tyranicon]

I always wondered if somehow the japanese version is much better, because his games translated into english are cringe incarnate.

And the ego on this dude. For fuck's sake, we know who you are, you don't need 5 different intro screens of "By the Genius known as Kojima."

 

[911 Jumper]

I think media overconsumption can lead to a situation where a person has so many influences it actually ends up having a detrimental effect on their creative output. I think that's what's happened to Kojima – the nonsense, or “Kojima's genius” as his fans would call it, is a symptom of consuming too much.

 

[luj1]

"By the Genius known as Kojima."

Ironically this game has one of the worst gameplay loops ever

 

[Egosphere]

That Blaustein dude sounds like he's full of himself.

He really is. Iirc he took a lot of liberties with the translations as well, 'improving' them wherever he could.