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

[Luka-boy]

Looks like indeed you can spend a ton of time walking without anything else happening and that you have to endure tons of cutscenes for even returning to base and selecting a new mission. Potential spoiler in the last few seconds if you haven't watched the launch trailer.

Spoiler

 

[True Ukrainian]

Konami had begun to tire of Kojima for a long time thanks to what third party contractors referred to as his "salaryman" attitude. What they meant was that Kojima spent Konami's money freely without consideration since after all, its not his money anyway.

Kojima would apparently commission mountains of assets and use only a fraction that suited his taste. And as the project continued, his vision of the game would start to change and the assets that he retained would no longer be suitable for the new vision. Kojima would start the process all over again, commissioning new assets with Konami's money.

Kojima could get away with this because he was really senior and had a reputation as a good earner. Unfortunately, when Konami decided to focus on their gambling business, Kojima stopped looking like such a good earner after all and the new management had no patience for his tantrums.

 

[Falksi]

I don't even get the hard on folk have for MGS3. Was OK, but often a slog at times and shite compared to MGS1.

MGS1 is the only game of his I've ever played which I've thrived on. MGS2 was playable, but largely unsatisfying.

It's a wonder anyone gives a fuck about him anymore tbh.

 

[cvv]

Are the older MGSs also full of goofy pretentious insufferable writing like Phantom Pain? I mean a villain with an eye mask and a fedora riding huge goofy robots, mwhahahahing and twisting his moustache, while somberly narrating his troubled childhood? I mean you couldn't create more brain-melting peak cringe in a lab. Has Kojima always been like this or did he lose his marbles only recently, due to all those fans blowing smoke up his ass 24/7?

 

[Wunderbar]

Unpopular opinion here: game about delivery guy, who transfer useful shit between cities in post-apoc setting isn't a bad idea on itself

Right.

Spoiler

 

[DJOGamer PT]

I don't even get the hard on folk have for MGS3. Was OK, but often a slog at times and shite compared to MGS1.

Much better gameplay than MGS1.
Better AI.
Much better levels.
Better bosses.
Cool OST.
Campier story with more memorable and entertaining moments.
And not a slog at all due to amazing pacing.

All and all, the most replayable MGS with the best level design of the series, and gameplay that in some instances even surpasses MGS5.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Are the older MGSs also full of goofy pretentious insufferable writing like Phantom Pain? I mean a villain with an eye mask and a fedora riding huge goofy robots, mwhahahahing and twisting his moustache, while somberly narrating his troubled childhood? I mean you couldn't create more brain-melting peak cringe in a lab. Has Kojima always been like this or did he lose his marbles only recently, due to all those fans blowing smoke up his ass 24/7?

I wouldn't call it pretensious, it's just that like MGS4, 5 has no self awareness and everyone is deadly serious all the time.
The older ones are the same but are much more campy and have that self awreness (specially 3).

 

[bertram_tung]

Are the older MGSs also full of goofy pretentious insufferable writing like Phantom Pain? I mean a villain with an eye mask and a fedora riding huge goofy robots, mwhahahahing and twisting his moustache, while somberly narrating his troubled childhood? I mean you couldn't create more brain-melting peak cringe in a lab. Has Kojima always been like this or did he lose his marbles only recently, due to all those fans blowing smoke up his ass 24/7?

a lot of it has to do with translation and interpretation

if you want more insight into it please read my earlier post and listen to the interview.

Some missions were fun, and generally speaking the gameplay was good. But it was full to the brim of boring filler missions. Hell, the entire "open world" stuff was just a giant filler made just to increase the hours counter.

The 'open world' of MGS5 is Ubisoft level garbage tier, funny to see another game ruined by devs chasing trends eg. Witcher 3. As many people have already said there should have been individually designed large maps for missions, that could be replayed with different enemies and objectives.

Kojima has a knack for setting a good direction for design, art etc. in a project, but always ruins it when he starts writing the damn thing. MGS 1-3 would have been superb if they had a talented writer/director whilst retaining the other game elements.

If you are willing to do some research, and not jump onto the fanboy "Kojima is GOD" train, you will find that MGS 1 - 3 he used other peoples talents to create the games. For example Tomokazu Fukushima was co-writer for those games, interesting correlation that it all goes to shit by MGS4 when he left. Kojima reminds me alot of Chris Roberts actually, they both seem to be obsessed with throwing together lots of 'cool' and 'flashy' ideas and hoping someone else can make it into a playable game. And of course both are obsessed with Hollywood.

the interview with jeremy blaustein was highly informative about why the script got so goofy after MGS1

a lot of it had to do with kojima's control freak nature, which can be a blessing, or in the case of this particular case, a curse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sx7yttJm0I&list=PLW_kLI30Nv-H7iNdN6GFgAvtICz8kZkKG

warning: the playlist is 12 videos long i cant remember which part he talks about it in detail, but the whole thing is worth listening to if you are interested in the making of MGS games or hearing dirt on Kojima/Konami employees

 

[Falksi]

I don't even get the hard on folk have for MGS3. Was OK, but often a slog at times and shite compared to MGS1.

Much better gameplay than MGS1.
Better AI.
Much better levels.
Better bosses.
Cool OST.
Campier story with more memorable and entertaining moments.
And not a slog at all due to amazing pacing.

All and all, the most replayable MGS with the best level design of the series, and gameplay that in some instances even surpasses MGS5.

Couldn't disagree more. MGS1 was simpler, but better for it.

Better bosses than Psycho "you have to switch controllers" Mantis? Z'impossible. Walking through that fucking swamp for 9 hours after that ghost dud in MGS3 didn't do anything for me either.

And throughout the whole thing player is the bitch of the ultimate Feminazi.

It's a game which embodies modern decline.

 

[Egosphere]

Are the older MGSs also full of goofy pretentious insufferable writing like Phantom Pain? I mean a villain with an eye mask and a fedora riding huge goofy robots, mwhahahahing and twisting his moustache, while somberly narrating his troubled childhood? I mean you couldn't create more brain-melting peak cringe in a lab. Has Kojima always been like this or did he lose his marbles only recently, due to all those fans blowing smoke up his ass 24/7?

MGS1 had probably the least amount of cringe, though he did include some i-cri-everi-tim bait.
2 had a lot of cringe. Some of Otacon's dialogues can dethrone your example in the brain-melting peak cringe department.
3 toned it down a bit, though it still had the occasional wtf moment thrown in. The ending is also over the top in its sentimentality (though it could have been very good if Kojima reigned it in)

 

[DJOGamer PT]

MGS1 was simpler, but better for it.

MSG3 has no feature bloat. And the new mechanics greatly enchance the experience.
And the levels are just much better designed.

etter bosses than Psycho "you have to switch controllers" Mantis? Z'impossible

Dumb gimmick.
Nothing can top The End or The Boss.

Walking through that fucking swamp for 9 hours after that ghost dud in MGS3 didn't do anything for me either.

Don't exagerate you can beat 3 under 9 hours and by the time you get to The Sorrow you're already in the last act of the game.
Also The Sorrow is only hard if you killed many soldiers during the campgain, otherwise it's a breeze.
And the swamp has better level design than the second half Shadow Moses.

And throughout the whole thing player is the bitch of the ultimate Feminazi.

What the hell?
You must not remember the game very well, Eva is not a feminist. She's just a hot spy that's trying to gain Snake's confidence to than steal the Philosophers Legacy from him.

3 toned it down a bit, though it still had the occasional wtf moment thrown in. The ending is also over the top in its sentimentality (though it could have been very good if Kojima reigned it in)

3 has the less cringe of the series. Aside from that sentimentality at the end, that game is almost just over the top camp.

EDIT: Although that sentimentally is kinda justified since the game's protagonist is Big Boss, some who the player's know is a major series villain. And up until that point in the game Snake has been a pretty likable character so Kojima uses the ending to "destroy" him.

 

[Falksi]

MGS1 was simpler, but better for it.

MSG3 has no feature bloat. And the new mechanics greatly enchance the experience.

etter bosses than Psycho "you have to switch controllers" Mantis? Z'impossible

Dumb gimmick.
Nothing can top The End or The Boss.

Walking through that fucking swamp for 9 hours after that ghost dud in MGS3 didn't do anything for me either.

Don't exagerate you can beat 3 under 9 hours and by the time you get to The Sorrow you're already in the last act of the game.
Also The Sorrow is only hard if you killed many soldiers during the campgain, otherwise it's a breeze.
And the swamp has better level design than the second half Shadow Moses.

And throughout the whole thing player is the bitch of the ultimate Feminazi.

What the hell?
You must not remember the game very well, Eva is not a feminist. She's just a hot spy that's trying to gain Snake's confidence to than steal the Philosophers Legacy.

3 toned it down a bit, though it still had the occasional wtf moment thrown in. The ending is also over the top in its sentimentality (though it could have been very good if Kojima reigned it in)

3 has the less cring of the series. Aside from the ending, that game is almost just over the top camp.

Each section is bloated, because there's very little good in it.

Dumb gimmick? Genius 4th wall breaking IMO

The Sorrow was just dull. Incredibly dull. Nothing exciting at all.

You still play 2nd fiddle to a dominant woman. It's a game based around cuckery.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Each section is bloated, because there's very little good in it.

Completely false.
Each section is filled with secret and multiple ways of achieving the objective without the game telling you how.
While in 1 for the most part, things are pretty linear in how you can finish them.

Dumb gimmick? Genius 4th wall breaking IMO

Migth be, but the battle itself is pretty boring.

The Sorrow was just dull. Incredibly dull. Nothing exciting at all.

Kinda like Mantis and the chopper figth. But in the Sorrow his difficulty is based on your previous actions in the game (how many soldiers you killed) - so you haven't killed a single souls you just breeze through it, and in the flipside it can prove a difficult encounter.

You still play 2nd fiddle to a dominant woman. It's a game based around cuckery.

le fuq?
What 2nd fiddle?
She's the one that always relies on him to do shit and she's the one that always comes on to him druing the entirety of the game.

 

[Falksi]

Each section is bloated, because there's very little good in it.

Completely false.
Each section is filled with secret and multiple ways of achieving the objective without the game telling you how.
While in 1 for the most part, things are pretty linear in how you can finish them.

Dumb gimmick? Genius 4th wall breaking IMO

Migth be, but the battle itself is pretty boring.

The Sorrow was just dull. Incredibly dull. Nothing exciting at all.

Kinda like Mantis and the chopper figth. But in the Sorrow his difficulty is based on your previous actions in the game (how many soldiers you killed) - so you haven't killed a single souls you just breeze through it, and in the flipside it can prove a difficult encounter.

You still play 2nd fiddle to a dominant woman. It's a game based around cuckery.

le fuq?
What 2nd fiddle?
She's the one that always relies on him to do shit and she's the one that always comes on to him druing the entirety of the game.

Linear works better.

No more borring than The Sorrow's.

I like killing bad guys. Making a game more boring for doing something I like is fucktarded.

He's like a lost puppy with her.

 

[†††]

3 is a nice and unique stealth game to this day, it may be a bit clunky compared to current games but frankly kill yourself if not having cowaduddy controls bother you, you don't even belong here. Most balanced game Kojima has made

1 and 2 are too arcadey for their own good, don't look at them as serious stealth games. 1 works as a competent action movie of sorts. Most of the gimmicks needed to be experienced at the time of release.

4 has nice gameplay, all 5 minutes of it. Too many dumb cutscenes and only the first 2 chapters are worth a damn.

as for V/GZ, I've enjoyed them contrary to common opinion. Level design is a weak aspect but it's one of the most fun games ever when it comes to mechanics.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Linear works better.

If that were true Deus Ex would a shit game and Skyrim the best ARPG ever made.

No more borring than The Sorrow's.

But while the Sorrow is one of worse bosses of MGS3, Mantis is one of the best of MGS1.

I like killing bad guys. Making a game more boring for doing something I like is fucktarded.

A no kills run has been a tradition of the series since MGS1.
MGS3 simply decides to reward it more than the other games. And it should since a no kills run is the most difficult way to complete these games. Another testament of how much better 3 gameplay is over it's predecessors is the fact that a no kill run in 3 can be done without the tranq gun (the most broken item of every MGS game).

He's like a lost puppy with her.

Not that much. He gets more excited for the guns she gives him than the her cockteasing.
And by the second half of the game, she becomes completely attracted to him.

as for V/GZ, I've enjoyed them contrary to common opinion. Level design is a weak aspect but it's one of the most fun games ever when it comes to mechanics.

Camp Omega does have some great level design (although it lacks interior spaces). If the TPP missions were all as equality well designed (and with more interior areas), that game would've been near perfect.

 

[Falksi]

Linear works better.

If that were true Deus Ex would a shit game and Skyrim the best ARPG ever made.

No more borring than The Sorrow's.

But while the Sorrow is one of worse bosses of MGS3, Mantis is one of the best of MGS1.

I like killing bad guys. Making a game more boring for doing something I like is fucktarded.

A no kills run has been a tradition of the series since MGS1.
MGS3 simply decides to reward it more than the other games. And it should since a no kills run is the most difficult way to complete these games. Another testament of how much better 3 gameplay is over it's predecessors is the fact that a no kill run in 3 can be done without the tranq gun (the most broken item of every MGS game).

He's like a lost puppy with her.

Not that much. He gets more excited for the guns she gives him than the her cockteasing.
And by the second half of the game, she becomes completely attracted to him.

as for V/GZ, I've enjoyed them contrary to common opinion. Level design is a weak aspect but it's one of the most fun games ever when it comes to mechanics.

Camp Omega does have some great level design (although it lacks interior spaces). If the TPP missions were all as equality well designed (and with more interior areas), that game would've been near perfect.

Nope, because Deus Ex isn't an interactive cinematic piece like MGS1 is.

The Mantis fight just displays something interesting & exciting. The Sorrow fight dull.

Doesn't matter what tradition dictates, punishing a player for playing their chosen way with dullness is a gaming flaw, and bad gaming design choice. Dullness is NEVER an acceptable punishment.

It's still a love of cuckness to me chap. I felt like I was running round for this chick who should have just been back in the kitchen cooking dinner, & lubing her ass up for my Solid Snake to come home. She had no place out in the field, especially in that era, through the simple fact she had a vagina.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Nope, because Deus Ex isn't an interactive cinematic piece like MGS1 is.

But just because MGS is a more cinematic game, doesn't mean it's levels can't have more meat to it.
Kojima in 4 decided to double down the cinematic aspect, and that game turned out the piece of shit it is.

I felt like I was running round for this chick who should have just been back in the kitchen cooking dinner, & lubing her ass up for my Solid Snake to come home.

The game's story draws obvious inspiration from Bond movies. What the fuck would a Bond movie be if there wasn't some hot spy bitch that tries to fuck Bond but rather an everyday woman.

 

[Viata]

Nope, 4 is exactly like 1-2-3 but with smooth controls and good camera for the first time in the series

3 is not even exactly like 1 and 2.

 

[Lutte]

Unpopular opinion here: game about delivery guy, who transfer useful shit between cities in post-apoc setting isn't a bad idea on itself, but setting that Kozdima chosen for such game is shit and world completely barren and empty in terms of npc (majority of them holograms wtf), lack side quests and interesting ruins. At least according to some reviews. Not to mention that marketing campaign can be considered as fraud, so pretentious and lacking information about product.

For a game solely about its story, it sure also seems to rely on a billion contrivances that ruin suspension of disbelief and a lack of imagination about technology in general. They have built exoskeleton suits that can carry a ton of cargo that have enough power to travel through considerable distances (power delivery is the main thing limiting the potential uses of such thing IRL, lithium batteries just don't last that long) but they can't make it autonomous or at least have balancing assist?

We have this in the real world, today :



And we're adding that sort of tech to assist things like maintaining motorcycle balance against driver mistakes :



So we're supposed to feel immersed in a scifi world in which scientists could invent so many things we can't and there's fantastical elements but they were ALSO too dumb to do what we do today and they have the main character trip over every single stone on the ground? who were the software engineers designing the exosuits, they should have been fired.

 

[†††]

So we're supposed to feel immersed in a scifi world in which scientists could invent so many things we can't and there's fantastical elements but they were ALSO too dumb to do what we do today and they have the main character trip over every single stone on the ground? who were the software engineers designing the exosuits, they should have been fired.

Dude it's okay to ditch realism for better gameplay...wait, where's the gameplay?

 

[†††]

Kojima says it will take people 5 to 10 years to understand Death Stranding

https://www.metalgearinformer.com/?p=34431


"I think simplicity is good, but it gets consumed very quickly. It’s like food: anything that’s really digestible, it just goes out. […] And it doesn’t remain in the body. But something that’s awkward, that is not really digestible, it remains in your body. And you don’t know what it is. And human has this intellectual feeling that kind of lingers: what is this? Like for instance a movie, if that lingers in you, you watch it again over and over, or you talk with your friends about them, what was that about? Or maybe take time to rewatch again, or rethink of it again. And you kind of start to understand the real meaning. And it begins to be a real body, your blood and meat. And it remains in your body fluid, and not just comes out. And I want to create that kind of thing.”

“I grew up watching movies or things like that, so I just do that in games. Everyone says it’s complicated, but I think everyone should just keep it and maybe nourish it for five or ten years, and maybe they will start to understand. And I really want to create those kind of things.”

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Yep, this was basically another MGS2. It's what he likes to do, and would have kept doing if Konami didn't force him to continue making MGS.

 

[†††]

Yep, this was basically another MGS2. It's what he likes to do, and would have kept doing if Konami didn't force him to continue making MGS.

He already said in an interview that a creator should betray his audience. He's vidya's Rian Johnson

 

[True Ukrainian]

Kojima is really starting to ree about his magnum opus not getting the praise it supposedly deserves.