Kojima Says You'll Feel Lost in Death Stranding, With No Explanation and Slow Story

Hideo Kojima suggested Death Stranding won't be the most accessible game. You'll feel lost, with no explanation at first and a slow progressing story.

[Silly gameAr]

, "but don’t worry – you will naturally fit in. The system is explained."

Forgot to add that part, but whatever.

[Alexious]

He seems to contradict himself in the same statement.

[I_am_Batman]

I don't see any contradictions. He's saying that you won't get a world building introduction like the Star Wars opening crawl. You'll start out without any knowledge of what's going on. As you progress through the story you'll slowly uncover the mysteries of the game's world.

[_SilverHawk_]

Day one buy for me. I dont want to watch any spoilers. I'm so interested in this game

[AirJohnston]

no explanation *at first*

[WelkinCole]

I take it he means the system is explained by playing the game

[gamer7804]

Headlines are written to be provacative and get you to read, it wasn't done on accident and it worked.

[UltraNova]

Fortunately I've read his entire interview with Game informer so I did not give them a click.

[Nitrowolf2]

@shaggy

What? How is that hard to understand? That ain’t no contradiction it’s clearly outlined what he is saying. Game throws you in without explaining what’s going on or how the world got there, but as you play that mystery begins to peel away. This is literally what the Soul games do

How is he contradicting himself? Again no explanation is given when you start but you can piece things together as you progress.

[trooper_]

@shaggy: You need reading comprehension skills. He said that things won’t be clear in the beginning until you start playing.

[frostypants]

Seems a bit like a Souls game in that respect. "You're this person doing a thing...you'll figure it out."

[CobraKai]

Thank you for adding context to the headline

[SyntheticForm]

I think a lot of people should wait for reviews and see what others think before buying this one. Personally, I'm buying it, but this game sure ain't for everyone.

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

Anyone who's a fan of Kojima should jump in head first, anyone who's a fan of yearly rehashes - 100% should wait for reviews.

[ShadowWolf712]

Yes, that's the sole dichotomy.

Lord...

[RosweeSon]

No if they want that dribble they shouldn’t bother like normal they’ll only be disappointed

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

ShadowWolf712 - Strange how those same people feel the need to tell everyone. It isn't made for that crowd.

They can watch Fast & The Furious infinity - I'll watch DRIVE.

[yomfweeee]

It is almost like you're trying to insult anyone who doesn't like Kojima games saying they should stick to yearly rehashes. Pretty odd logic. Especially considering even though "Metal Gear Solid" isn't a yearly release, that franchise has more games than pretty much any other game excluding sports titles. That series was run into the ground.

[SyntheticForm]

Well Kojima fans are a given; if you've liked his previous works you should have no hesitation with this one. This may not be tolerable for more casual gamers though.

Before anyone gets worked up over my usage of 'casual' - it's not a put down. There's nothing wrong with hopping on CoD after work, slapping on a headset and doin' a little shooty-shooty with friends.

[ZombieGamerMan]

Right cause go forbid people look at this empty bland open world game with a plot that seems increasingly incoherent, by an egomaniac who seems to be so far up his own ass he might as well move to San Francisco, with each gameplay demo that gets released he's more interested in showing ff his little quirky gameplay moments then any genuinely interesting game mechanics, and not just jump in head first throwing cation to the wind cause it's Kojima and if you don't it means you like yearly rehashes.

I own all of his MGS games but let's call a spade what it is here, this game looks boring, it looks bland, and Kojima is being such a narcissistic prick about a game that isn't even out yet that he actively makes me not even want to play this game. I'm just waiting for him to throw out an add that says he's going to make us his bodypillow

[DaDrunkenJester]

I'm a big fan of MGS (except MGSV) and I'm having a hard time finding what I'll like about the game besides the story. You can not like what you see with DS, but still like other Kojima games. It's not so black and white as "if you dont like this game you just be a CoD and madden yearly release type gamer".

[xX-oldboy-Xx]

yomfweeee - MGS is over 20yrs old, you were saying?

@The rest-

New ip, give it a chance ffs - don't like what you see, don't play it. Don't follow it, save yourself the time.

Nope, nope - I'm going to shout from the rooftops on every article how I'm not impressed, the world is empty, it's a walking sim, it's a pissing sim.

Most of the people I know with a PS4 I wouldn't recommend Death Stranding to. They wouldn't like it. That's just reality.

[RosweeSon]

I’m going in cold

[CobraKai]

That seems to be Kojima’s intention and I like it. No expectations whatsoever makes for an exciting game.

[mogwaii]

Code for: it's convoluted shit.

[RosweeSon]

Stick to simple yearly churn shit then simple.

[SegaGamer]

Nobody should wait for reviews before making a decision on anything.......well, unless you like people telling you how to think.

[SyntheticForm]

I should have put more emphasis on "see what others think."

I'm not just talking about high profile review sites, I'm talking about people from various discussion forums and comment sections. Whether they be YouTube, Reddit, IGN, GameSpot, N4G, etc.

Getting feedback from plenty of people who have actually played the game is one of the best ways to see if a game is for you without getting your feet wet. Look at what the masses are saying and then make an informed decision.

[goldwyncq]

So should we just blindly jump on everything then? Reviews are there to inform, not to dictate what people should do.

[THC CELL]

Reviews lie way too much these days and paid off

[Kran]

Okay, does NO ONE ELSE at all seem sceptical about this game now?

It's almost like he's trying to justify it might not be as good as people hope by saying things like this and "you won't understand it", "not even I understand it", "its a very complicated game".

Why do I feel like the only person not hyped up about this game at all?

[I_am_Batman]

Probably because you haven't been paying attention. There is a lot of scepticism directed towards the game. A lot of articles I've seen recently have been prematurely dismissing the game.

It doesn't help that the quotes you've cited get taken out of context or the meaning of them gets lost in translation.

If you're unsure about the game, by all means wait for reviews, or try it out before buying it. I for one will get it asap because everything I've seen about Death Stranding has me hyped.

[yomfweeee]

Yes, some people take some things out of context, but Kojima has said a few things that are kind of odd. Even in this article, the big one to me is it maybe gets fun 50% of the way through? Really?

[I_am_Batman]

@yomfweeee: We should be careful with taking a single sentence too literally when reading a translated text. The quote is mentioned in the context of the unfolding of the story. To me it sounds more like he is trying to say, that you start out without any understanding of what the game really is. As you move through the world you'll discover the story and game mechanics piece by piece and at some point it all falls into place and you start to get an understanding of what is happening and how the game works.

Also that 50% point seems like he just chose an arbitrary number. It's pretty obvious that he is talking in general terms to avoid spoiling the game. Of course I'm trying to read between the lines and interpret what is being said here, but as someone who speaks multiple languages, I know how quickly the meaning can get lost through translation if done improperly.

Even if I'm misinterpreting what he tried to say, I'm confident that Kojima is not actually trying to suggest, that the entire first half of his game won't be fun to play.

[SamPao]

When you enter the cinema and might feel lost in the first 5 minutes of a movie...THATS HOW ITS SUPPOSED TO BE, to make you feel intrested in something...

But yeah whatever you can read a summary of everything then go into it so you understand everything from the beginning. but maybe you will feel lost at the first sentence of the summary, maybe thats also not that great of an idea...............

[ShadowWolf712]

You're not. Hell, a couple of my closest friends are longtime Kojima fans who are probably more vocally septical than I am about this game and the mentality he appears to be approaching it with.

[nucky64]

he's not trying to "justify" it - he's giving an interview and talking about the game. maybe it's you who's trying to find fault with anything he says? did you read the full interview?

[Kran]

Its not just the interviews. I've seen gameplay and it looks shoddy at best. It just looks like it's trying to be weird for the sake of being weird and not actually give you anything proper to do!

[telekineticmantis]

Not in gaming experience...
I hated Shadow of the Colossus, I was "lost", the commerials didn't really explain it.

Later I played with the mechanics of the game, found an experience I've never had and now it's one of my favorite games of all time.

[Flewid638]

"Everyone's crazy but me!" lol.

Obviously there are people who have expressed the same.

[IRetrouk]

heres the full quote of that little bit of the interview that was misquoted.

“Death Stranding… even now, I don’t understand the game,” he pretends to confide, still giving nothing away. “Its world view, gameplay, they are all new. My mission is to create a genre that does not currently exist, and which takes everyone by surprise. There is, naturally, a risk in that…”

[Nerdmaster]

It's because Kojima fans are much more vocal than the rest.

Since I never cared about Metal Gear or any of the other games he made, I almost never comment on these articles, so maybe more sceptical people are like me. I just like to lurk to see if my thoughts of "people getting overhyped for a game they don't know anything about will always lead to disappointment" will also hold true for this case.

[knickstr]

Just beat control so I feel like in prepared now.

[GamingSinceForever]

Ok I get all of that, but what does he mean by saying that even he doesn’t fully understand the game? Didn’t he write it?

Sounds like he is doing his best to dissuade from buying it.

[IRetrouk]

that was a misquote, heres the full thing...

“Death Stranding… even now, I don’t understand the game,” he pretends to confide, still giving nothing away. “Its world view, gameplay, they are all new. My mission is to create a genre that does not currently exist, and which takes everyone by surprise. There is, naturally, a risk in that…”

[GamingSinceForever]

I can believe that because what I read made no sense.

[Eamon]

To be honest, I salute Kojima here.

Since the reveal of this game, I'd been very confused about what exactly you do. After all, Kojima was just releasing cutscene trailers with very little gameplay. Up till recently, I was slightly worried because, yes the game looks pretty, yes the story looks freaky, yes the little snippets of gameplay have weird interesting gimmicks, but what IS the gameplay? What do you do? What is the hook? What is it?

This was a similar situation to No Man's Sky where the entire world was hyped to galactic levels because of the supposed infinite number of unique planets (due to random generation) and being able to travel between them in real time etc. But all we saw in gameplay was some average gunplay, mining and some weird looking animals. The game HAD NO HOOK. It was just a huge bunch of gimmicks put together.

However, the gameplay demonstration at TGS recently has now shown me what is Death Stranding's hook. Kojima appears to be trying to create a new genre here. The gameplay combines open-world survival with futuristic delivery-simulator and strange combat that can involve using your delivery boxes to grenades filled with blood. The gameplay just oozes creativity and originality. And it seems a lot of involves inventory management and exploration. With all this, you would need to figure your own plan to deliver something from Point A to Point B without dying or getting stranded.

Of course, a lot of takes inspiration from MGS5. MGS5 drops you into the map and you need to use the resources you have on hand or find later to aid you to get to the objective. But while MGS5 focuses on stealth, infiltration and gunplay, Death Stranding focuses on survival, environmental platforming, inventory management.

[Gunstar75]

This is deffo a marmite game. Reviews are gonna be all over the place methinks

[Imalwaysright]

It's an open world action adventure game. I don't see anything about it that says "new genre"

[Veneno]

Eamon.

Ok, I actually feel like I'm starting to understand the concept of the gameplay now after your summary. It's survival evolved. Survival in every sense of the word. From world traversal. Managing resources. Bodily health. The environment. Warring factions. The demons. Interpersonal relationships. All while attempting to accomplish an end goal.

I think of it like The Last of Us if that game were to encompass more survival aspects. Tlou focuses on narrative and combat in the post apocalypse but nothing further. It seems Death Stranding will attempt to do that plus more. It's a post apocalyptic survival gaming experience down to the most nitty-gritty of detail vs. Tlou which has action combat but every other aspect is experienced through it's narrative. Example being that in the world of Tlou people face the constant threat of hunger but it is not an aspect that you experience through gameplay, only through cutscenes of people talking about it and expressing it.

It's intriguing to think about but I don't know how well that is going to emerge in Death Strandings gameplay. Kojima will really need to make us as the players feel like we are fighting to survive somehow. Otherwise there's already tons of games that do the same but don't really make us feel anything. It's all just stats that don't bring any emotion out of us. Where as Tlou keeps it uncomplicated and compels feeling from the player through rich narrative and sympathy and empathy with the characters.

Kojima may claim this is a new genre but it will feel more like an evolution of games like Deus Ex. Bioshock. And MGS. Just more fleshed out.

Have to wait and see I guess.

[jwillj2k4]

The gameplay oozes boredom and the genre he’s going for appears to be walking simulator until proven otherwise.

Only the first wave of people will grind a game to 50% in order to get to the “fun”. After that it will lay next to “no mans grind” for $0.50 in the dollar store.

[trooper_]

Wow, and the people literally downvoting. They really want the game to fail, lol.

You definitely have a point there.

[bluefox755]

Seems really interesting. Glad that someone is willing to break from the standard conventions and try something new and fresh.

[gold_drake]

i mean, we are pretty lost already haha.

[KeenBean345]

This definitely isn't my type of game but I hope it's true to what the fans want, I feel the story will be something special regardless of the gameplay

[Donnie81]

This doesn’t sound appealing at all

[Silly gameAr]

Like you were going to play it anyway lmao.

[MetalGearAlex]

Play the game. Decide for yourself. Kojima has given us Snatcher, SD Snatcher (msx - a gem in its own and accurately fan translated), Policenauts (accurately fan translated), Zone of the Enders 1 & 2, the whole 8 installments in the Metal Gear series, and dont forget his first quality game Penguin Adventure (msx). Kojima has a good track record in regards to story, gameplay, and attention to detail.

[AnubisG]

🤔 seeing the borring gameplay that was shown off and reading this, my excitement is going down the drain. I will still buy it regardless but something tells me that this will not be a good game. We will see...

[Inzo]

It seems like Kojima is trying to trow people off from getting too much info before launch. "I dont even understand it"? Come on. We haven't even seen anything from Troy Baker's, Mads Mikkelsen's or Lea Seydoux's characters. I'll say this again, whatever we think we know from DS, we know nothing.

[mogwaii]

Convoluted Stinker is going to bomb harder than no man's sky.

[Inzo]

Bomb harder than No Man's Sky? You know NMS is one of the highest selling indie games in PS history right? Maybe want to rethink your comment.

[xxShadow-Shockxx]

I think in a world where companies seem to basically show off the whole story before it even releases that's what intrigues me most about this game and the way Kojima promotes it, I feel like I can go into this game not knowing what Im going to run into and actually fully experience it for myself

[Kumakai]

Really selling me after all the boring footage and now that headline....

[PressPlayBros]

That full quote makes me want to play it more lol

[DaniMacYo]

Looks like I’m Googling tutorials and walkthroughs 🤣
Me gone be here for a long time figuring this game out. 😁

[demonic36]

God the more this guys talk the more the game sounds worse and worse. At this point he just should shut up and let the game do it's thing. If it's exciting to play it'll be a gem, if not it'll flop ... simple.

[demonic36]

Why is it that most gamers suck up to this guy? ... he's sooo over rated and his games are dull. Name me one of his games that is GREAT! .... don't say MGS as they've not been great since the 1st.

[AK91]

That’s fine with me I don’t need everything explained to me in the beginning I’m okay learning things as I go along.

[ShinRon]

wish there was a way to keep track of the doubters when this game drops and its at worst a goty contender

[trooper_]

I’ll just bookmark the articles where people are trashing it.

[Soulrakk]

The game isn't exactly lighting my world on fire but the title is misleading & out of context. Here's what Kojima said.

"Yes, it’s a special world game system itself. There is so much information, you have new terminology, you may be puzzled about what it is about? But don’t worry, when you play the game, you are driven in very slowly at the start. It’s not like Terminator or Star Wars. There is no explanation or anything. It’s very easy to do it that way and I can do it, but the story progresses slowly. Especially at the beginning. You will feel lost, but don’t worry – you will naturally fit in. The system is explained"

[SaveFerris]

Sounds like real life.

[nucky64]

if you read the kojima interview - he is not saying this - the article title is taken out of context.

[trooper_]

Like every Kojima article posted here because “journalists” are full of crap.

[Tross]

Sounds like just the thing games journalists and individuals with ADHD will hate, while those with patience will enjoy a rewarding experience. Sign me up.

[Scatpants]

The Breath of the Wild formula.

[jznrpg]

Lol . People are trying to take Some of his words literally . Funny . Obviously this is just for clicks .

[WorldGamer]

I appreciate Kojima's honesty. Hopefully, when the game drops, we all remember that Kojima told us Death Stranding is about exploration and provides very little hand-holding.

To further break it down, if you want instant action all the time and a big red arrow pointing you in the correct direction, this is NOT the game for you. Doesn't sound fun to you, then move along.

[beanplant]

I'm still kinda cautious about this game but also highly intrigued.

[GOULDYBOBS]

BoTW clones everywhere

[GameBoyColor]

Im gunna quote someone's comment on cod about leveling guns up before it gets fun. "If you have to wait till the game gets good, then it's not good".

[Tedakin]

"Maybe it becomes fun when you've completed 50% of the game." Sign me up!

[RosweeSon]

People read things to literally and for a game that no one knows anything about they seem to know an awful lot about this game. How?, mad theories there’s nothing to say the entire game isn’t immensely enjoyable for the entire playthrough but that the second half it finds its groove and kicks things up a notch. He didn’t come out and say I’ve made a really boring game that first half of the game good luck fools I made that really boring.

[savedsynner]

Sounds more like a Souls game.

[jwillj2k4]

Shovel-ware until proven otherwise.

[Rekkr]

Definitely not buying Death Stranding! Redbox rental to see if it’s good or not! 🖕🖕

[l33t_haxx0r]

Sounds like how dark souls tell there stories

[BenRC01]

I'm out. This is 100% not for me. Bring on modern warfare.

This will get 9s and 10s from some reviewers wanting to be in the kojima gang but guarantee less than 5% of people will actually finish it.

[windblowsagain]

I feel lost watching the trailer,lol.

It's not for me, but good luck.

[gangsta_red]

"Some people say it’s almost like the movie Alien, where you are gradually finding out what the whole world is about, what you can do and not do. Maybe it gets really fun when you have completed 50 percent of the game."

You don't need to watch 50% of the movie Alien to be entertained or understand that world. Lol, the ego on this guy.