Death Stranding - A Hideo Kojima Game

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Kojima and Reedus are back. He's back. Details on his new game is vague, but rest assured, we're in for a ride.

[DaN]

No doubts it will be a gorgeous game. 

With Yu Suzuki and Kojima Sony won 

[Hyp3hat]

YEAAAAH, my body is ready

Got an interview here with... little to no detail, but still. There's no relation to PT, Del Toro and Ludens, the company mascot. The explanation of the title seems to nod towards a strong Sci-FI/Supernatural element, which after the MGS V opening I am ridiculously ready for.

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What does the name Death Stranding mean? “So you call it ‘mass stranding’ when you have a lot of whales or dolphins stranded to the beach.” Kojima explained. “When they’re alive, it’s called a ‘life stranding’, and when they’re dead and they’re stranded they call it ‘death stranding’. So this means that something from some world comes and is stranded, that’s what it means.”

Gonna rob a bank and buy a PS4 for this.

[Mogtaki]

So this image surfaced on Twitter:

Norman Reedus cradling his Norman Fetus in real life.

[Hyp3hat]

Yes, that is real 

[TheOcelot]

So yeah, Kojima presented a new trailer at the game awards. This time featuring Guillermo Del Toro and Mads Mikkelsen.

The trailer includes more weird stuff.

 

 

 

 

[Patticus]

Kojima, Del Toro, Reedus and Mikkelsen. <3 I'm not sure about the weird Resident Evil War setting, but with those guys and maybe other big names yet to be announced, it's sure to be a great scenery chew-a-thon. Interest level is high, hype is growing.
 

On Kojima and Konami:

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"I haven't talked much about that, but it was such a difficult time because he was going through a lot last year," Keighley says. He was shocked when he found out – just days before the show – that Konami wasn't going to allow Kojima to attend, and he felt he had to say something, despite the company being a sponsor. "The fact that he finished that game (MGSV) under those circumstances is just amazing. He was locked in a separate room on a different floor than his development team for the final six months of development. He couldn't even talk to them – he had to talk through someone else. That's how that game was finished."

http://www.glixel.com/news/inside-geoff-keighleys-game-awards-empire-w453290

Ever so much that. Ever so much.

[MadmanRB]

I would love to see this make loads of money to spit in Konami's face.

I may take the piss at Sega now and then but Konami has sunk so low

[TheOcelot]

5 hours ago, MadmanRB said:

I would love to see this make loads of money to spit in Konami's face.

I don't think there's any doubt Death Stranding will sell well and receive high praise. Hideo Kojima games always do!

The thing is I'm a tad skeptical. Why? Well because last-gens MGS4 was underwhelming (no where near the standard set by MGS1, 2 & 3) and MGSV: TPP was an unfinished mess with some really bad design. Regardless of Konami's interference on the development and budget of TPP, Kojima really dropped the ball.

I guess that's why it can only be a good thing Kojima is now far away from Konami and working with a publisher he's comfortable with and making a brand-new IP.

[Jango]

What is this game? What exactly is this? That trailer got me nervous and anxious o_O

Fetus in a capsule? A supernatural general and an army of skeletons? This is soooo weird. WANT.

[TheOcelot]

So yeah, we have another weird-ass trailer:

 

[Teoskaven]

Some theories i have made placing together what we've seen so far:

*time/space/dimensional travel is heavily involved, no questions asked. The hints of stuff like the veichle's door and the Del Toro trailer suggest the origin point being an alternate reality where North America has discovered this mechanic
*the above point is ttreated like a NASA program, with its members having the space suit of the Kojima Productions logo; in the most recent trailer you can see Reedus' character being stripped on the more heavy stuff and part of the backpack, yet the basic structure of it still remains
*the invisible creatures seem to transform their victims into them once they're dead; Reedus' team (wich is dedicated to corpse recovering or something, it's written on his uniform in some shots) know this and wanted to prevent that but something went wrong
*the explosion that happens when Reedus' comrade gets incorporated into the titanic figure seems to be time-based, sending Reedus either in the past or in the future (the zone he's standing was a dried lake/sea, then it was the bottom of it, and then a shore of it; imho Reedus hasn't moved at all after the explosion
*babies seem to be some sort of symbiotes for the people attached to them, giving them some kind of resistance of anti-aging factor: we see Del Toro connecting to one before deciding to go in the tunnel wich is patrolled by Mikklesen and his goons, and Reedus' companion ages extremely rapidly due to his baby being crushed by the veichle. Reedus seems to be special because he doesn't seem to have one to support him, denoted by the lack of a belly button
*reguardless, the theme of the game seems to be connection, as the titanic entity has several cordes propagating all over the place, Mikklesen uses one per soldier to keep them in control or power them up, plus the babies i've mentioned. In turn, this makes Reedus more special than ever.
*no clue on the handprints on Reedus everytime someone dies nor why he has a baby stuck in him, it's probably connected to him being special, but no idea how or why
*the five figures seen in the trailers are probably agents of the entities like the titanic one; the hooded figure of the third trailer and Mikklesen seems to be two of them (unless the hooded is Mikklesen in disguise, he does the same identical gesture of the second trailer)

My basic two cents, but it's clear we still know relatively little about this game's story. I really don't know where Kojima is going with this, but considering it's partially horror/eldritch due to being what PT was supposed to be, it's not a pleasant destination.

[Patticus]

Well that was a bizarre trailer, but it was an extremely fascinating watch, with original or shocking things going on every few seconds, in a wholly cohesive way that really worked. It totally hooked me - I'm way more interested now than I was before.

[TheOcelot]

IGN video:

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We talked to Hideo Kojima about what happens when your character dies, "Timefall," and that ubiquitous baby.

 

 

[The Tenth Doctor]

Well we got a new clip... all I can sum it up as is Troy Baker is in it.

 

Honestly, this is beginning to wear thin to me. Kojima is a genius, no question but he is being way too coy and mysterious with this. Nothing makes sense, how does it play? Who are these people? Why should we care? I wanted to follow Kojima but he just wants us to give blind faith to him.

[TheOcelot]

Oh look it's Stefanie Joosten at 0:07. Quiet and Ocelot from MGSV reunited. 

...and yes this game looks really boring.

Edited September 24, 2018 by TheOcelot

[JaidynReiman]

In all honesty I've never even played any Kojima games anyway so I was never invested in Kojima at all. And he hasn't given me a reason to be interested either.

[TheOcelot]

*bump*

New trailer showcasing bits of the story. Basically America has gone to shit and needs saving. Also we finally have some gameplay. Yeah this game still looks weird:

 

[Jango]

I don't understand, but I like it. 

[Teoskaven]

I remember how Kojima said that Del Toro's character would have had to be played by someone else and Guillelmo was basically a placeholder, glad to see he managed to have him stick around.
As for everything else, it looks solid enough, though there seem to be one or two things that are clearly scripted but are presented as "look, you can do this everywhere", like the ladder part. The release date for November is surprising, though i wonder why this close to the Medievil remake; i'm not expecting delays, but i aknowledge they may happen.
We'll see.

[TheOcelot]

They've also released a trailer with Jp voice acting and this time the music has (English) vocals whereas the NA/Europe trailer doesn't have any vocals:

https://twitter.com/PlayStation_jp/status/1133855540419878912

 

[TheOcelot]

Gameplay footage from Gamescom:

Guys, we all gotta pee in the same spot...so that magic mushrooms will grow 

 

 

 

 

 

[Plasme]

I'm a big fan of Kojima, but he can be very self-indulgent when not reigned in, so I'm being a bit cautious about this one. It looks fucking weird, which could be a good thing, but I do find the whole thing baffling.

[Badnik Zero]

I quit the Metal Gear series because MGS4 was twelve hours of cheesy cinema and six hours of gameplay. I’m going to buy this, I just hope it’s enjoyable for me.

I see in the trailer that Del Toro moves with that kind of Japanese pantomime motion capture style that really is not immersive for me. Like when Ocelot starts making Super Sentai gestures it really takes me out of the story. I don’t know if this is a regular gripe about Kojima games.

This is a good genre for him to stretch his sci-fi skills though. The setting reminds me of movies like Sphere or Annihilation, where the researchers are set up at the edge of some world consuming phenomenon.

Kojima was influenced by Western action films for Metal Gear. I wanna say I see some Stranger Things influence in the mirror worlds type of concept, but this is more likely an idea from his Silent Hill game.

Im not even going to get into gameplay, because I have full confidence in Kojima to make new styles and have them be fun as shit. We will see in November.

[TheOcelot]

Launch trailer:

This game looks so weird.