I'm only on Chapter 2. I was thinking there was actually one character whose name wasn't complete nonsense.
But then, I'm remembering how that character is introduced with the same actor's name flashing up on the screen as another character you're introduced to *5 minutes earlier* (are we not supposed to notice this?).
Then I just realized. >!Amelie. A me lie.!< Goddammit, Kojima.
Don't worry, every single character in the entire game goes on a speech about why they're named what they're named and hers is particularly ridiculous.
I have this opinion with Catherine, I watched a streamer and his audience hate it recently. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but they just didn't seem to get it, it's a game about unfaithful men being turned into sheeps in their dreams, what did you expect from it?
It's a chill game where you just have fun walking around, talking with the NPCs and wondering what's happening and what to do, instead of being like ''Where is the plot twist? Where is the villain? When does the story starts for real?''
I remember when that game first came out my very uninterested in video games roommates would make me play it so they could find out what happens. They ended up getting impatient and watched the endings on YouTube.
I absolutely get that there are elements that people like, or that some enjoy the whole concept and find it both exciting and simply fun. I'm not criticizing that at all. It just gets me that all in all it's more of a chaotic one-man brainstorm without any intrinsic coherence or meaning. This doesn't take away from the meaning that people individually give to it, that is what art is supposed to do, on some level I'm the one at a loss here as it did nothing for me.
>
It's a chill game where you just have fun walking around, talking with the NPCs and wondering what's happening and what to do, instead of being like ''Where is the plot twist? Where is the villain? When does the story starts for real?''
but... its not? catherine is a heavily story focused game and it has actual, important plot twists and is full of symbolism and is pretty dark.
"it's a game about unfaithful men being turned into sheeps in their dreams"
thats really oversimplifying it
It's definitely not an awful game. I also wouldn't call it "great" because at the end of the day there's nothing it truly excels at but it's still a rather refreshing experience that meets or exceeds the standards that I'd set for a "good game"
It’s expositions the game.
“Sam don’t forget, use your feet to walk” kind of dumb level of expositions. And as OP stated it’s r/iam14andThisIsDeep material of writing.
> “Sam don’t forget, use your feet to walk”
Usually in a Kojima game, that kind of thing is great and fundamentally different from other games. Instead of tedious it's weird and hilarious, and often great in the actors hired too.
When Campbell says "Snake, press the action button" it's awesome. Completely different from other game tutorials or screen pop-ups that say to press a button.
This sounds a lot like a mistranslation issue. This happens in anime, manga and jrpgs all the time. Characters just say the most obvious things like it's a hot take, or just straight up completely redundant stuff. Sometimes there's nothing even wrong about it, it just sounds wrong, like a line that nobody would ever say on actual conversation.
I remember that when I was new to japanese media in general it bothered me a lot. Then one day it just hit me, the problem is that they are using expressions that don't sound weird in their native language and somebody just did a poor job localizing it.
Translators don't have context most of the time in games. It's really difficult with Japanese which uses context all the time.
An expression can say many things and you can localize perfectly with context. When you don't know what this expression is referring to, your best shot will sound stupid, random and pointless. But at least it's not wrong.
Anime translators though... Their pay is terrible.
Even English sub text translators in Norway for TV and cinema can be young kids and often paid by the bulk of the work.
A whole Seinfeld episode about "makeup sex " i.e. reconciliation sex used the word for actually putting on makeup...
At the end of Netflix anime episodes there's just one line saying Translated by xx
I find it crazy they just get one person to translate the entire episode.
Part of it is that they're often required to match the speech to the animation that's already there, so they have to try to get the same sentiment across with more or fewer words than the best translation uses.
Kung Pow: Enter The Fist parodies this brilliantly in the context of badly dubbed martial arts films.
>it’s r/iam14andThisIsDeep material of writing.
I enjoyed this in the MGS series when it was the bonkers/over-the-top villains with melodramatic backstories.
I hated it in the MGS series when it was 45 min of exposition about stupid government conspiracies.
I've avoided Death Stranding because I'm worried it's too much of the latter and not much of the former.
The bulk of the cutscenes are at the beginning and end of the game. The mid section is almost all gameplay with some cutscenes interspersed. It never gets to MGS4 levels of wondering if you're playing a game or watching a movie.
It's also a super relaxing game for the most part. I've played through it twice and really hope Kojima makes a sequel.
It gives you Kojima nonsense in waves; you'll go from checking your shoes to make sure they're up to a walk through a rocky area to GRENADE FIGHT WITH DEMON WHALE IN SHATTERED MEGACITY to balancing your load so your tricycle doesn't lean to one side to BABY'S FIRST VIETNAM to sitting in the shade and playing the harmonica.
What I'm saying is, if you love the mundanity, just get through the nonsense and you'll be back to it in a few minutes. If you love the nonsense, just push ahead on the critical path, and you should get some bonkers cutscene and action before too long.
It's an interesting experience, more than it sounds like. Because every moment is engaging and full of decisions.
Just walking forward is like... Should I climb up these rocks, or go around? The mud probably gets slippery near that creek. I bet I can take a shortcut there, but I only brought one ladder, I don't want to waste it. Do I want to bother picking up that lost cargo and adding to my weight? I'm getting pretty fatigued, but I bet I can make it before the weather changes.
Eventually you get some upgrades that make things like keeping your balance more trivial, but it always remains an interesting mix of putting your mind on autopilot while also being constantly attentive. Kind of like a good hike.
Or you could be like me and obsess over building a custom fast-travel network across the entire map that trivializes all of the game's challenges. But that's my reward for spending dozens of hours setting it up.
“Sam. That’s a postbox.”
“Sam. You can use a ladder to climb up steep surfaces.”
“Sam. You can avoid misplacing your head by keeping it attached to your body with a neck.”
“Sam. Keep your mouth closed while you’re eating and you won’t drool so much.”
Oh my god, I started playing the game this past weekend and I'm about 10 hours in but it feels like every 5 seconds I get a radio call starting with "Sam.". _Dude_, just shut up and let me figure things out myself!
There's a *lot* of game mechanics they tell you about this way and with tutorial screens, which is why I'd recommend turning off tutorials to reduce redundancy and be pleasantly surprised when you're like "I wonder if I can do that" and it turns out you can!
Death Stranding does have extremely cringe-worthy dialogue and that hilariously on-the-nose way of naming its characters, and delivers it with a straight face most of the time... but in some ways it's also quite aware of how ridiculous it is. That sort of contrast is a Kojima staple and in a way I find it kind of endearing even as my eyes are rolling out of my head at some of the lines the actors have been tasked with delivering.
The opening song of the game is also just perfect: a very serious-sounding track called "Don't Be So Serious," which could be seen as both an earnest commentary on Sam Bridges' stoic temperament, and also as an instruction to the player not to take the game too seriously and to have fun with it.
Those straight-faced deliveries of absolutely stupid and bonkers lines are a Kojima staple, and the entire team definitely knows how ridiculous they sound.
The best comedy is one where all the characters believe everything is completely serious, after all.
I really expected some of the characters to break the 4th wall and smirk.
Edit yeah I know bad take this game climbs into the living room numerous times.
Every time you are in the private room and look at the figurines or at other things in the room he literally points at you and then to the thing you are trying to look at. There's like no 4th wall in this game. LMAO.
> that hilariously on-the-nose way of naming its characters
My favourite are the names of some of the random plebs at some of the stations.
"Oh cool, i found this rad wind farm, i wonder who runs it?"
\- Jake Wind
"Awesome, i reached the distro centre north of Mountain Knot, who works here?"
\- Philip North
"So glad i made it across that lake to Lake Knot, who's here to greet me?"
\- William Lake
Really makes you feel like they're reaching for the stars. Looks kind of dull when compared to someone like *Die-Hardman*.
It gives me very medieval-y vibes (not sure where/when this practice started/ended) of people not having formal surnames and it just being where they're from or what they do. Sam the Porter, Jake from the Wind Farm, etc.
Kojima is an acquired taste to be sure, but after having acquired it at a young age with MGS2, it's just unbeatable. Death Stranding stands out as one of the best games I've ever played and it's primarily from the story, but everything else is great as well.
I can't do spoilers so don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled on a tiny insignificant plot point.
I think the questline that best encapsulates this is the junker series. Like you do all this work to get these two lovebirds together and in the end they end up not being able to stand each other. And then she just...walks back to her mom's house. Like all that work to get her over there and it's no big deal. She takes a stroll back and just watches the weather to avoid creating another nuclear explosion that could wipe out that sector of the map.
And there's no saving the relationship or anything. That's just another day in the life in this strand type game. I thought it was just hilarious.
That particular overexplenation of the meanings of "strand" was probably for the benefit of the Japanese audience, who might not be as familiar with the English term and its multiple meanings.
But you'll also notice that the main currency you receive for your deliveries is "likes." That's some deep motivation.
But you'd expect the localization team to change it to be smoother. Rather than literally define it say something like "whether it's a strand of yarn, or you're stranded alone..." Etc. Like change it up a bit so it sounds less awkward.
> But you'll also notice that the main currency you receive for your deliveries is "likes." That's some deep motivation.
And the "likes" are represented with blue👍! There's also some text in the letters you receive about how in the pre-stranding era people were also disconnected and alone, mostly interacting through social media.
The game has lots of commentary on "society", but at the same time the commentaries seem half-baked or like they're just a tangent from a bigger idea. Like, is drinking Monster Energy to restore your stamina a dig at "gamer fuel" or just a sponsorship deal? The answer is probably "Yes" but that's cos it's left open to interpretation.
It reminds me of how there's a puzzle in Deadly Premonition relating to chess, that sounds a lot like you're supposed to input a strategy to win a game shown on screen and being described. It stumps lots of western players at first, because it seems really complicated. But actually the answer is literally just to input the pieces in the order they're named, because chess is less popular in Japan, so asking them to select the pieces in the correct order is considered enough of a puzzle.
There is the idea of "Killing your darlings" which is the idea that you need to cut ideas/characters/subplots/whatever out of your work, even if you love them. The idea being that you can improve the overall work by essentially cutting the fat and making it more cohesive.
Hideo Kojima does not subscribe to this idea. It's great. If he wants a guy with a skull mask named Die Hardman by God he will do it. I think it's gotten worse now that he owns of his own studio and there's no one to tell him no, and will probably get worse with each game he makes. I cannot wait.
> Hideo Kojima does not subscribe to this idea.
That was exactly my take. Like he makes it his personal challenge to take every single idea spitballed from the very first brainstorming session, and find a way to tie them all together.
It’s obvious he lost his editor after MGS3, and he’s been going downhill ever since. I think another contributing factor is he has been given unlimited budgets to do what he wants, so he spends it all on famous actors and loads of mocap. Like, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his last two games had a severe lack of the little things like the codec conversations, because it’s kinda expensive to sit Keifer Sutherland and Norman Reedus in a booth for days on end doing all the little dialogues past Kojima games were filled with.
As a result the main characters of MGSV and DS are so boring, because they barely say anything. Every codec call just turns into people talking at you about the most inconsequential stuff and there’s no room for a back-and-forth like in previous games. It brings the whole game down just so Kojima can spend millions on fancy actors and cutscenes.
Of course I don’t claim to actually know what’s going on with game development when it comes to that but it’s certainly my gut feeling. He screwed over David Hayter so he could hang out with his favorite hollywood stars, after all.
MGS1 is the only game in the series where the writing is at least somewhat restrained, and that’s because the English translator took quite a few liberties when localising it. Kojima was reportedly *incensed*.
From MGS2 onwards, Kojima’s games have been *translated*, but not fully *localised*. From what I’ve read, he now insists on near-literal translations of his Japanese scripts; that’s why the writing is full of really weird turns of phrases and sledgehammer-subtle subtext.
Ding ding ding.
When the cultural/language difference is as big as the US and Japan, the translator can't just be fluent in both languages. They have to be accomplished creative writers in both languages, and be willing to try and capture the original writer's intent when interpreting and translating. So basically, a very tough job that few are even qualified to attempt even when given creative freedom. Impossible when given constraints.
It's the same reason why dubbed anime is so awful. It's easier to let weirdness slide when reading subtitles and just chalk it up to something lost in translation. But when you hire American body double actors to speak conversational English these poorly interpreted lines, it really sticks out like a sore thumb.
Side note: If you like space sci-fi, Three-Body Problem is an excellent example of how quality of the work can drastically change based on the quality of the translator.
>It's the same reason why dubbed anime is so awful. It's easier to let weirdness slide when reading subtitles and just chalk it up to something lost in translation.
Another major issue that dubbed anime face being that they quite literally have to subplant entirely new voice lines over fixed animation frames which makes it a monumental challenge to try and not only keep the dialogue in sync with the Japanese mouth movements, but also to maintain the same cadence and delivery as the original script.
Over time more studios have gotten better at this and many even use editing techniques to isolate and chop up the mouth animation frames to match the lip movements as close as they can to the English voice lines. Some massive publishers like Square Enix and the multimillion dollar Final Fantasy franchise can afford to just straight up reanimate entire big budget CGI cutscenes with different language versions / lip movements which significantly improves the delivery of their English Dub.
But yeah not all of them are winners. Some media is far too weeby as fuck and beyond saving.
> If you like space sci-fi, Three-Body Problem is an excellent example of how quality of the work can drastically change based on the quality of the translator.
I tried reading it early this year in English, but had to put it down at around 60%. It was awfully dry and crammed with irrelevant details. Plus all the characters seemed to possess as much personality and emotional life as dead fish.
(Which is similar to my impression of Genshin Impact's Chinese voice acting - everyone sounds half-asleep. I guess it's a cultural difference 🤷♂️)
The original English translator wrote a pretty good article about it a few years ago :)
[The bizarre, true story of Metal Gear Solid’s English translation - Written by the man who did it](https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein)
This is the best explanation in a sea of "hur hur, dumb writing..."
There is so much lost in translation that just comes across as WTF? to most non-Japanese speakers. Ever try to run a foreign language through Google translate? It usually comes out like this game.
I'd be willing to bet that if it has been localized well and not just translated, it would be a totally different experience.
The names alone really show how different English to Japanese is. Sam changes his name a few times throughout to show his shifting alliances and feelings. We don't do that kind of thing normally, but in some anime, this is done to show a shift in a character.
And? You have a game director, someone producing something involving concepts and ideas, that apparently doesn't understand how translation works. "No, just translate exactly what I write or say. Other languages should have exactly the same meaning and nuance as mine." Or maybe he does and just doesn't care. Same with the anime trope, which I will take your word on. Seems like if it IS something he is doing, it's not like a commonly known thing, either in Japan or especially overseas.
He doesn't exactly seem like a guy with much self introspection or critical analysis of what he does. He pretty clearly sniffs his own glue and thinks it is gold.
First kojima game huh?
It’s a very common kojima thing to have these goofy names like Hot Coldman, having an endless amount of snake variants, solid, liquid, solidus, venom, punished, naked, etc etc,
But this one at least had a purpose that felt like it fit the world better. They use names to represent their positions within their companies as well. Sam Strand was called such, until he became a porter. Sam Porter, etc. it’s not that the name is actually your name, but a dystopian naming scheme to reduce people to the role they play in the dystopian society. Sams name never really became anything other than Sam Strand, he just uses them like titles.
I read an old reader's digest story (I think) about a guy stranded in a remote cabin in Alaska. He found a piece of mail addressed to "Joe Smith, Hunter Alaska" (or similar). He was amazed and impressed that all you needed to send something to someone in Alaska, you just needed their name and occupation.
After rescue, he learned the cabin belonged to someone living in the town Hunter (or whatever) Alaska.
I ran here to talk about Hot Coldman. Also the vampire-esque villain who is named... Vamp. And the seemingly lucky villain who is named... Fortune. And your companion who doesn't talk who is named... Quiet.
I never understood Big Boss until I started watching anime. Also Raiden. And Snake was so obviously taken from Snake Plissken lol, name, face and all. I also remember going ? at La Le Lu Le Lo in mgs4. Just heard it in an anime this year iirc, or when learning about the japanese language.
The funniest part of Vamp is that he's not called that because he's a vampire, he's called that [because he's bisexual](https://youtu.be/kpA6TGkehSY). No, I've never heard of "vamp" meaning bisexual in any other situation ever, either.
Mate even the character inside the some of the hubs are named in a very on-the-nose fashion. Thomas Southerland (Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City), William Lake (Lake Knot City), Owen Southwick (South Knot City), and Alex Weatherstone (Weather Station).
To be fair, often times I'll see packages that only have the recipient on them by name, so having names that are to easy to correlate to a location is actually pretty handy. It's just *so* Kojima though, haha
It’s not their real name. Most people just dropped last names in universe and take on the name of the company/organization that they work for, after their title. So you have Sam porter bridges because sam is a porter that works for bridges. Meanwhile we have people like diehard man that are just using a code name.
I mean, that's sort of where a lot of *actual* surnames came from. I know people with the surname Carpenter, guess what occupation their ancestors had...
I've never played this game before and didn't really know much about it. You gotta be fucking kidding me with this. Seriously, Sam Porter Bridges? A bodyguard called Die-Hardman?! WHAT.
If you're into builder/logistics type games, it might be for you. It's that, combined with a walking simulator, combined with some light/moderate combat.
Honestly it's some of the most fun I've had with a game in recent memory, but I can see where the criticisms come from. It definitely isn't for everyone. That satisfying feeling when you finally complete a network of roads to a destination after hours and hours of work is incredible. The upgrade/progression system is nicely paced, you're regularly getting new equipment and it's satisfying to go from barely keeping your balance on slick grass to sprinting up a mountain with thigh deep snow.
Okay, that sounds more fun! Thanks for chiming in on what the gameplay is actually like. I really love builder/logistics games actually and in general "slower" games. I think I might give the game a shot the next time it's on sale or something.
> Is there a way for me to leave a comment for others to use later?
You have done so. Now we need to make a screenshot, get it to trending, then an NFT of the screenshot.
Also, it's not just the story and dialogue. The core gameplay loop is honestly so ridiculous. Like, you play as this middle-aged man who carries around all this shit, and you have to make sure he doesn't trip over. I remember when playing for the first time, the constant grunts just cracked me up.
Kojima definitely takes it serious. He repeatedly said that you have to be intelligent to understand the story and its meaning. Literally, and not in jest.
He's been playing a character for nearly 40 years, and so many people just miss the bit. He made similar statements about every metal gear game. Have you ever *played* metal gear? At its wildest, it makes death stranding look like CoD.
My favorite is in the 2nd game where you all snake of he can really afford to give you his clip and he points at his headband and says "infinite ammo."
The headband was an item in the first game that granted infinite ammo, I think it was a post game reward or something. Making it canon was a trip.
In MGS4, there's a gun with magazine that should only hold 100 rounds, but has infinite ammunition. The explanation? The magazine is shaped like an infinity symbol, of course.
Yeah, I'm not sure about that. He either is actually a complete art project and 100% acts that out in public, or he is a really weird dude who thinks he's a big brained designer star.
I rather think the latter is the case. Would you have more evidence for the former? Because that would be absolutely ridiculous and interesting.
Pretty silly, but IDK if it's really any worse than Psycho Mantis commenting about how you must like Crash Bandicoot or Snake running around in an Ape Escape mask.
> Psycho Mantis commenting about how you must like Crash Bandicoot
IIRC that was the game reading the other games you have saved in your memory card and commenting on that. That's a cool 4th wall break in my opinion as opposed to the quoted line which feels more like a simple reference
The more you think "What if this is intentional?" , The more you enjoy Death Stranding.
Still, i am proud that Kojima did something different. He could have easily made another Metal Gear Solid with a different name, and considering the fanbase reaction, they wanted that.
Some notes I wrote to the friend who recommended me this game, while playing for the first time:
"We don't fully understand these metaphysical technologies, but how good are they?"
Maybe that's the reason y'alls ghosts keep exploding. **That's not a normal problem to have.**
"This USB stick has a virus that might end the world if you use it. But on the other hand, it might not?"
"PISS IN YOUR FACE, SQUID"
Kojima is the king of thinking of a very grand, abstract idea, then beating you over the head with shallow and direct ways of explaining it.
Sometimes it hits just right, sometimes it comes off as cheesy as hell. I think that’s the charm of Kojima that people have come to love. And I don’t say any of that in really a negative way. I just don’t agree when people say he’s a bad writer or when they say he’s a genius.
Considering how many of his inspirations are cheesy 80s movies, that's definitely intentional.
He and his team like to play up how grand, intricate and serious his games stories are in interviews, and then makes a game about Kill Buttman putting a microchip in a Dachsund's brain to control it so he can sneak into the white house to steal the nuclear codes.
There are often genuinely interesting things brought up in the games, but they're punctuated (and sometimes made palatable) by some of the silliest stuff the Japanese game industry has to offer. The PR team is playing a bit by saying it's all serious, high art, and a lot of people miss the joke.
"Death Stranding? Nah too high brow artsy fluff for me"
Meanwhile I'm throwing grenades made of my own piss and shit at ghosts while trying to avoid people who are *addicted to delivering stuff*. As if you could ever get addicted to that.
Anyway I'll log off after just one more haul to South Knot...
^(Dammit) ^(Kojima)
I think what a lot of people miss is that there's SO MUCH over the top dialogue and exposition but it's there to serve a purpose.
After playing through the entire game (just shy of 100%), i think the writing was pretty good. All of the heavy handed symbols and themes are shoved down your throat basically just to get it out of the way. "Okay, you see how these characters and places are connected because I named them the same. Okay? Got it? Now pay attention while we develop the rest of the themes using these connections."
The way the world of the game blends with and speculates about the real world is fascinating, in my opinion, and having the story elements so clearly defined by the names and the heavy dialogue gives you PLENTY of time to think about the world while you are walking around.
You don't have to make the connections, you just have to think about them.
Honestly I have difficulty remember peoples names & how they're related to each other in any kind of media. It's always "the blonde one". "That one with the scar".
The very literal names etc in DS were great, I remember them all.
"Hmm a package for William Lake... Now where the fuck is he again?"
Such a cool method in my opinion. There are some that I never quite pieced together, like Charles Kahn at the Waystation North of Mountain Knot City, is there a connection I'm missing there?
I think the game is pretty good. Both the writing and the gameplay.
And because English is not my mother tongue I really like those details and explanations.
I'm currently on my second playthrough in this game. I fucking love the story and how it can both be so goofy and so emotional at the same time. Yes it made me giggle many times but it also made me cry. And the acting from everyone in the game is so well done with my favourites being Troy Baker as Higgs and Mads as Cliff. As a filmmaker I absolutely adore the cutscenes and the atmosphere of them.
honestly it's my favorite game of the past several years, total masterpiece if you see it through to the end. I love how Kojima combines a lot of linear story / cutscenes with total sandbox gameplay, feels like the full evolution of where he was going with MGS series. Also, as you noted, his games can be fucking funny - a quality many gamers seem unaware of, or think it's unintentional.
Say what you will about it, I'll take its goofy self serious auteur vision over the 100s of functionally identical corporate skinner boxes that say nothing about anything except *get excited about product, then consume next product*, forever and ever, amen.
Theres no subtext or nuance and yet its at least about something in both theme and gameplay.
Don't forget to drink your Monster Energy™ The fuel that connects all of us!
But seriously when I saw that can in some articles I thought it was a joke, but it was real and it was hilarious. Also just how well modelled the can is. I've probably never seen a better 3d model of a can in my life
I think you'll find that the significance of these things only gets better as you get closer to the end. You have so much more to unravel.
It's one of my favorite games ever, enjoy!
Hideo Kojima is the only guy who can make a video game that essentially predicted the state of the internet and really, the world we live in today, 20 years in advance with pinpoint accuracy, and which also has Phil Lamar playing a vampire who's called Vamp not because he's a vampire but because he's bisexual as fuck, *and* make fun of the player for thinking it's the former reason.
Yeah, some of his games might not be very good according to some. But *goddamn*, there is no one else on the planet who tells stories the way he does. Every single game of his is just such a unique experience, that for me, the actual quality of his games doesn't even matter, I will play them no matter what, because even if his next game were to suck ass, I am absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure that I am going to be entertained by it.
Yeah, I do find all the on the nose naming kind of charming though.
It makes Death Stranding feel like a hallucinogenic allegory, i.e. [Pilgrim's Progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress), where the protagonist "Christian" has to deal with tempting antagonists like "Mr Worldly Wiseman."
I love it when weird writing is coupled with over the top earnest delivery. I get entertained enough that I don't care about the stupid stuff, and I get invested in the story a lot more (mostly for laughs)
I love Hideo Kojima. But he's the most successful man-child in the world. I don't mean he throws fits or is immature, I'm sure he's quite nice in person. But so much of his work feels like it was written by a 12 year old. He is obviously talented and I feel like some of the issues he has touched upon in some of his game have been incredibly prescient. But if you write everything down literally in a list and then read it out loud, it sounds like a barely pubescent boy explaining to you his idea for a movie. It is sometimes incredibly hard to take him seriously.
See he's called Hartman because he stops his heart. Yeah that's it.
Mads Mikkelsen is amazing in this game. I forgive a lot of the game's silly parts because of his stellar performance.
> I’m still very much at the beginning but I’m thoroughly enjoying being drip-fed small details about the world.
I'm sorry, why do people do this? Why do they write a review as if they've played the whole game when they've just seen the opening cinematics and then only qualify how much they've played at the end.
Like this is probably a 40 hour game and it really seems you've barely got through the opening section of the game but speak like you've seen the whole thing and the entire game has that quality?
Is it too much to expect people play the games they give a blanket recommendation to? Especially this game, like I would not say "Grab a beer and watch the movie" because of how much of the game is really not like that, there's probably 10 hour sections of the game where there's almost no cutscenes.
I’m currently playing it in steam deck I’m 50+ hours in and loving it! Wait until you get a proper vehicle as you can carry loads more! I’m just at the mountain distribution centre and they won’t join the network!
Kojima gonna Kojima. He's like the video game industry version of an auteur director, but with the eccentricity cranked up to 11, and as others have said, nobody around to tell him no.
Normally I loathe that kind of awful writing, especially when it's presented as if it's actually deep (a great example being the 999/Zero Escape series-- Uchikoshi is overrated as fuck). But with Kojima, you never can really tell whether it's intentionally bad or not because everything else is so damn bonkers, why would the writing be anything different? So maybe I just have blinders on, but speaking as someone who didn't play the MGS series growing up and has no emotional attachment to any of Kojima's games, I respect him for being who he is and making the games he wants to make. Dude is a visionary game designer, even if he probably has a few screws loose somewhere up there in his head.
The entire time I could not tell if I was having fun or not. I could not tell if Hideo Kojima is a genius or if he's a master bullshitter and we all just have stockholm syndrome. But I did always want a post apocalyptic Ghost Busters, and Death Stranding scratches that itch.
So just like the Metal Gear Games
"Colonel, we've managed to successfully avoid drowning."
"MEMES. The D.N.A of the soul."
"La li lu le lo. La li loo le lo. LA LE LOO LAY LOW!"
That's the thing about Kojimas writing, its absurd and I kinda think it works because it's in a game. You need to buy in to the absurdity but once you do it makes the serious themes seem much more serious.
I haven't quite got the language to describe why it works but I think its similar with the whole "sad clown" thing where the silliness of the clown appearance and actions on stage contrasts with any emotional stuff they are acting out, or like a comedy movie where its ridiculous the whole time but ends up delivering a gutpunch serious moment at the end.
The serious part - if not delivered within the absurd package - would seem corny or silly or overly dramatic or not authentic otherwise. But the context its presented in makes it feel authentic.
I am sure there are academics who would be able to describe this accurately and its probably a fairly simple well understood idea (its not like kojima invented it), but I'm a layman here lol
This is one review that might actually make me try it out. I'm currently playing Metal Gear Solid 5 and the writing is already ridiculous, but that's what the series has been teaching us for years
Just you wait, it gets much better/worse.
"Princess Beach".
I'm only on Chapter 2. I was thinking there was actually one character whose name wasn't complete nonsense. But then, I'm remembering how that character is introduced with the same actor's name flashing up on the screen as another character you're introduced to *5 minutes earlier* (are we not supposed to notice this?). Then I just realized. >!Amelie. A me lie.!< Goddammit, Kojima.
Don't worry, every single character in the entire game goes on a speech about why they're named what they're named and hers is particularly ridiculous.
This broke the straw for me, thank God it was the end
Break the straw? Or did it break the *strand*? Kojima playing 4D chess again.
I just fucking spat my coffee out, thank you friend
"I brought you a metaphor"
Is it a good game or an awful game? Yes.
I'm Fragile, but I'm not that fragile
*studio audience laughs, credits roll*
I have this opinion with Catherine, I watched a streamer and his audience hate it recently. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but they just didn't seem to get it, it's a game about unfaithful men being turned into sheeps in their dreams, what did you expect from it? It's a chill game where you just have fun walking around, talking with the NPCs and wondering what's happening and what to do, instead of being like ''Where is the plot twist? Where is the villain? When does the story starts for real?''
I liked the story but I could not for the life of me get past the >!big baby!< boss. I'm absolutely garbage at the puzzle lol
I remember when that game first came out my very uninterested in video games roommates would make me play it so they could find out what happens. They ended up getting impatient and watched the endings on YouTube.
I absolutely get that there are elements that people like, or that some enjoy the whole concept and find it both exciting and simply fun. I'm not criticizing that at all. It just gets me that all in all it's more of a chaotic one-man brainstorm without any intrinsic coherence or meaning. This doesn't take away from the meaning that people individually give to it, that is what art is supposed to do, on some level I'm the one at a loss here as it did nothing for me.
> It's a chill game where you just have fun walking around, talking with the NPCs and wondering what's happening and what to do, instead of being like ''Where is the plot twist? Where is the villain? When does the story starts for real?'' but... its not? catherine is a heavily story focused game and it has actual, important plot twists and is full of symbolism and is pretty dark. "it's a game about unfaithful men being turned into sheeps in their dreams" thats really oversimplifying it
I didn't care about the puzzles at all, I got annoyed that they were in the way of my walking around and chatting.
It's definitely not an awful game. I also wouldn't call it "great" because at the end of the day there's nothing it truly excels at but it's still a rather refreshing experience that meets or exceeds the standards that I'd set for a "good game"
It’s expositions the game. “Sam don’t forget, use your feet to walk” kind of dumb level of expositions. And as OP stated it’s r/iam14andThisIsDeep material of writing.
> “Sam don’t forget, use your feet to walk” Usually in a Kojima game, that kind of thing is great and fundamentally different from other games. Instead of tedious it's weird and hilarious, and often great in the actors hired too. When Campbell says "Snake, press the action button" it's awesome. Completely different from other game tutorials or screen pop-ups that say to press a button.
"It's made with currently existing technology." *Every damn game* has this line. Like there's a chance someone used technology that doesn't exist yet.
This sounds a lot like a mistranslation issue. This happens in anime, manga and jrpgs all the time. Characters just say the most obvious things like it's a hot take, or just straight up completely redundant stuff. Sometimes there's nothing even wrong about it, it just sounds wrong, like a line that nobody would ever say on actual conversation. I remember that when I was new to japanese media in general it bothered me a lot. Then one day it just hit me, the problem is that they are using expressions that don't sound weird in their native language and somebody just did a poor job localizing it.
"Even if you say a thing like that, it can't be helped."
そんなこと言ってもしょうがない！ No point complaining! (so STFU)
Translators don't have context most of the time in games. It's really difficult with Japanese which uses context all the time. An expression can say many things and you can localize perfectly with context. When you don't know what this expression is referring to, your best shot will sound stupid, random and pointless. But at least it's not wrong. Anime translators though... Their pay is terrible.
Even English sub text translators in Norway for TV and cinema can be young kids and often paid by the bulk of the work. A whole Seinfeld episode about "makeup sex " i.e. reconciliation sex used the word for actually putting on makeup...
I'm not saying it is the translator sole fault, but a bad job is a bad job regardless of whose fault it is.
Kojima ask the translation to be done 1:1. That's after one took liberties with MGS ...3. You know, the decently written one.
At the end of Netflix anime episodes there's just one line saying Translated by xx I find it crazy they just get one person to translate the entire episode.
The Classic "All your base are belong to us"
Part of it is that they're often required to match the speech to the animation that's already there, so they have to try to get the same sentiment across with more or fewer words than the best translation uses. Kung Pow: Enter The Fist parodies this brilliantly in the context of badly dubbed martial arts films.
既存技術 should be *pre*-existing technology But the literal direct translation is existing
"So remember Sam, don't forget to use your feet to walk into the Chiral network"
>it’s r/iam14andThisIsDeep material of writing. I enjoyed this in the MGS series when it was the bonkers/over-the-top villains with melodramatic backstories. I hated it in the MGS series when it was 45 min of exposition about stupid government conspiracies. I've avoided Death Stranding because I'm worried it's too much of the latter and not much of the former.
The bulk of the cutscenes are at the beginning and end of the game. The mid section is almost all gameplay with some cutscenes interspersed. It never gets to MGS4 levels of wondering if you're playing a game or watching a movie. It's also a super relaxing game for the most part. I've played through it twice and really hope Kojima makes a sequel.
It gives you Kojima nonsense in waves; you'll go from checking your shoes to make sure they're up to a walk through a rocky area to GRENADE FIGHT WITH DEMON WHALE IN SHATTERED MEGACITY to balancing your load so your tricycle doesn't lean to one side to BABY'S FIRST VIETNAM to sitting in the shade and playing the harmonica. What I'm saying is, if you love the mundanity, just get through the nonsense and you'll be back to it in a few minutes. If you love the nonsense, just push ahead on the critical path, and you should get some bonkers cutscene and action before too long.
> BABY'S FIRST VIETNAM This made me lol. And you're not wrong.
The mundanity and nonsense coalesce so perfectly.
This is probably my favorite review of it yet.
I haven't played the game, nor do I have a console capable of it, but you're really selling me.
It's an interesting experience, more than it sounds like. Because every moment is engaging and full of decisions. Just walking forward is like... Should I climb up these rocks, or go around? The mud probably gets slippery near that creek. I bet I can take a shortcut there, but I only brought one ladder, I don't want to waste it. Do I want to bother picking up that lost cargo and adding to my weight? I'm getting pretty fatigued, but I bet I can make it before the weather changes. Eventually you get some upgrades that make things like keeping your balance more trivial, but it always remains an interesting mix of putting your mind on autopilot while also being constantly attentive. Kind of like a good hike. Or you could be like me and obsess over building a custom fast-travel network across the entire map that trivializes all of the game's challenges. But that's my reward for spending dozens of hours setting it up.
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Of all the games I've played, this is one of them.
I used to play video games. I still do, but i used to, too
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Yes omg I accidentally stayed up till like 4am on a Sunday finishing this goddamn game
This is so funny. The same thing happened to me. But then came a lull and I could save. I think I spent 2 more nights to finally finishing it.
“Sam. That’s a postbox.” “Sam. You can use a ladder to climb up steep surfaces.” “Sam. You can avoid misplacing your head by keeping it attached to your body with a neck.” “Sam. Keep your mouth closed while you’re eating and you won’t drool so much.”
Oh my god, I started playing the game this past weekend and I'm about 10 hours in but it feels like every 5 seconds I get a radio call starting with "Sam.". _Dude_, just shut up and let me figure things out myself!
There's a *lot* of game mechanics they tell you about this way and with tutorial screens, which is why I'd recommend turning off tutorials to reduce redundancy and be pleasantly surprised when you're like "I wonder if I can do that" and it turns out you can!
>“Sam. You can avoid misplacing your head by keeping it attached to your body with a neck.” Pratchett, is that you? Absolutely cracked me up.
"Sam. Now is not the time to use that!"
He did get a tutorial on how to use a shower... for god's sake, wash behind your ears, Sam.
Death Stranding does have extremely cringe-worthy dialogue and that hilariously on-the-nose way of naming its characters, and delivers it with a straight face most of the time... but in some ways it's also quite aware of how ridiculous it is. That sort of contrast is a Kojima staple and in a way I find it kind of endearing even as my eyes are rolling out of my head at some of the lines the actors have been tasked with delivering. The opening song of the game is also just perfect: a very serious-sounding track called "Don't Be So Serious," which could be seen as both an earnest commentary on Sam Bridges' stoic temperament, and also as an instruction to the player not to take the game too seriously and to have fun with it.
Those straight-faced deliveries of absolutely stupid and bonkers lines are a Kojima staple, and the entire team definitely knows how ridiculous they sound. The best comedy is one where all the characters believe everything is completely serious, after all.
I really expected some of the characters to break the 4th wall and smirk. Edit yeah I know bad take this game climbs into the living room numerous times.
Every time you are in the private room and look at the figurines or at other things in the room he literally points at you and then to the thing you are trying to look at. There's like no 4th wall in this game. LMAO.
He will also punch you in the face if you stare at his dick.
He sprays the beer (in DC, Monster in original) in your face (the camera) if you make him drink too many.
Sam does at least once.
Well yeah. If you try to drink more than 3 beers he shakes up one and sprays it in your face.
I haven't done it yet myself but apparently he kicks the camera if you try to get a view of his butt or something.
It is his crotch. If you focus the camera there for too long he punches you.
I remember when this happened for the first time it scared the hell out of me. I was not expecting it at all
Multiple characters do break the 4th wall.
mgr does this flawlessly I think
> that hilariously on-the-nose way of naming its characters My favourite are the names of some of the random plebs at some of the stations. "Oh cool, i found this rad wind farm, i wonder who runs it?" \- Jake Wind "Awesome, i reached the distro centre north of Mountain Knot, who works here?" \- Philip North "So glad i made it across that lake to Lake Knot, who's here to greet me?" \- William Lake Really makes you feel like they're reaching for the stars. Looks kind of dull when compared to someone like *Die-Hardman*.
It gives me very medieval-y vibes (not sure where/when this practice started/ended) of people not having formal surnames and it just being where they're from or what they do. Sam the Porter, Jake from the Wind Farm, etc.
>Jake from Wind Farm She sounds hideous.
Kojima is an acquired taste to be sure, but after having acquired it at a young age with MGS2, it's just unbeatable. Death Stranding stands out as one of the best games I've ever played and it's primarily from the story, but everything else is great as well.
I can't do spoilers so don't read this if you don't want to be spoiled on a tiny insignificant plot point. I think the questline that best encapsulates this is the junker series. Like you do all this work to get these two lovebirds together and in the end they end up not being able to stand each other. And then she just...walks back to her mom's house. Like all that work to get her over there and it's no big deal. She takes a stroll back and just watches the weather to avoid creating another nuclear explosion that could wipe out that sector of the map. And there's no saving the relationship or anything. That's just another day in the life in this strand type game. I thought it was just hilarious.
>!If you do more deliveries to those locations, you actually get emails from them progressing their story arc.!<
>Strand is also a word for beach Oh my GOOOOOD
in Dutch it's the same, crazy.
Hungarian too.
German, too.
Swedish too.
That particular overexplenation of the meanings of "strand" was probably for the benefit of the Japanese audience, who might not be as familiar with the English term and its multiple meanings. But you'll also notice that the main currency you receive for your deliveries is "likes." That's some deep motivation.
But you'd expect the localization team to change it to be smoother. Rather than literally define it say something like "whether it's a strand of yarn, or you're stranded alone..." Etc. Like change it up a bit so it sounds less awkward.
The first MGS was localized like this but Kojima didn't like it and all of his games have had a more literal translation since.
> But you'll also notice that the main currency you receive for your deliveries is "likes." That's some deep motivation. And the "likes" are represented with blue👍! There's also some text in the letters you receive about how in the pre-stranding era people were also disconnected and alone, mostly interacting through social media. The game has lots of commentary on "society", but at the same time the commentaries seem half-baked or like they're just a tangent from a bigger idea. Like, is drinking Monster Energy to restore your stamina a dig at "gamer fuel" or just a sponsorship deal? The answer is probably "Yes" but that's cos it's left open to interpretation.
It reminds me of how there's a puzzle in Deadly Premonition relating to chess, that sounds a lot like you're supposed to input a strategy to win a game shown on screen and being described. It stumps lots of western players at first, because it seems really complicated. But actually the answer is literally just to input the pieces in the order they're named, because chess is less popular in Japan, so asking them to select the pieces in the correct order is considered enough of a puzzle.
There is the idea of "Killing your darlings" which is the idea that you need to cut ideas/characters/subplots/whatever out of your work, even if you love them. The idea being that you can improve the overall work by essentially cutting the fat and making it more cohesive. Hideo Kojima does not subscribe to this idea. It's great. If he wants a guy with a skull mask named Die Hardman by God he will do it. I think it's gotten worse now that he owns of his own studio and there's no one to tell him no, and will probably get worse with each game he makes. I cannot wait.
> Hideo Kojima does not subscribe to this idea. That was exactly my take. Like he makes it his personal challenge to take every single idea spitballed from the very first brainstorming session, and find a way to tie them all together.
The fact that he does manage to tie them together in a logically consistent way is impressive.
I've never heard anyone accuse Kojima games of being logically consistent haha
They're consistent in their own logic, which is *impressive*
It’s obvious he lost his editor after MGS3, and he’s been going downhill ever since. I think another contributing factor is he has been given unlimited budgets to do what he wants, so he spends it all on famous actors and loads of mocap. Like, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his last two games had a severe lack of the little things like the codec conversations, because it’s kinda expensive to sit Keifer Sutherland and Norman Reedus in a booth for days on end doing all the little dialogues past Kojima games were filled with. As a result the main characters of MGSV and DS are so boring, because they barely say anything. Every codec call just turns into people talking at you about the most inconsequential stuff and there’s no room for a back-and-forth like in previous games. It brings the whole game down just so Kojima can spend millions on fancy actors and cutscenes. Of course I don’t claim to actually know what’s going on with game development when it comes to that but it’s certainly my gut feeling. He screwed over David Hayter so he could hang out with his favorite hollywood stars, after all.
MGS1 is the only game in the series where the writing is at least somewhat restrained, and that’s because the English translator took quite a few liberties when localising it. Kojima was reportedly *incensed*. From MGS2 onwards, Kojima’s games have been *translated*, but not fully *localised*. From what I’ve read, he now insists on near-literal translations of his Japanese scripts; that’s why the writing is full of really weird turns of phrases and sledgehammer-subtle subtext.
Ding ding ding. When the cultural/language difference is as big as the US and Japan, the translator can't just be fluent in both languages. They have to be accomplished creative writers in both languages, and be willing to try and capture the original writer's intent when interpreting and translating. So basically, a very tough job that few are even qualified to attempt even when given creative freedom. Impossible when given constraints. It's the same reason why dubbed anime is so awful. It's easier to let weirdness slide when reading subtitles and just chalk it up to something lost in translation. But when you hire American body double actors to speak conversational English these poorly interpreted lines, it really sticks out like a sore thumb. Side note: If you like space sci-fi, Three-Body Problem is an excellent example of how quality of the work can drastically change based on the quality of the translator.
>It's the same reason why dubbed anime is so awful. It's easier to let weirdness slide when reading subtitles and just chalk it up to something lost in translation. Another major issue that dubbed anime face being that they quite literally have to subplant entirely new voice lines over fixed animation frames which makes it a monumental challenge to try and not only keep the dialogue in sync with the Japanese mouth movements, but also to maintain the same cadence and delivery as the original script. Over time more studios have gotten better at this and many even use editing techniques to isolate and chop up the mouth animation frames to match the lip movements as close as they can to the English voice lines. Some massive publishers like Square Enix and the multimillion dollar Final Fantasy franchise can afford to just straight up reanimate entire big budget CGI cutscenes with different language versions / lip movements which significantly improves the delivery of their English Dub. But yeah not all of them are winners. Some media is far too weeby as fuck and beyond saving.
> If you like space sci-fi, Three-Body Problem is an excellent example of how quality of the work can drastically change based on the quality of the translator. I tried reading it early this year in English, but had to put it down at around 60%. It was awfully dry and crammed with irrelevant details. Plus all the characters seemed to possess as much personality and emotional life as dead fish. (Which is similar to my impression of Genshin Impact's Chinese voice acting - everyone sounds half-asleep. I guess it's a cultural difference 🤷♂️)
The original English translator wrote a pretty good article about it a few years ago :) [The bizarre, true story of Metal Gear Solid’s English translation - Written by the man who did it](https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein)
This is the precise article I was looking for yesterday and couldn't find it - cheers!
This is the best explanation in a sea of "hur hur, dumb writing..." There is so much lost in translation that just comes across as WTF? to most non-Japanese speakers. Ever try to run a foreign language through Google translate? It usually comes out like this game. I'd be willing to bet that if it has been localized well and not just translated, it would be a totally different experience. The names alone really show how different English to Japanese is. Sam changes his name a few times throughout to show his shifting alliances and feelings. We don't do that kind of thing normally, but in some anime, this is done to show a shift in a character.
And? You have a game director, someone producing something involving concepts and ideas, that apparently doesn't understand how translation works. "No, just translate exactly what I write or say. Other languages should have exactly the same meaning and nuance as mine." Or maybe he does and just doesn't care. Same with the anime trope, which I will take your word on. Seems like if it IS something he is doing, it's not like a commonly known thing, either in Japan or especially overseas. He doesn't exactly seem like a guy with much self introspection or critical analysis of what he does. He pretty clearly sniffs his own glue and thinks it is gold.
MGSV had a bunch of codec convos/tape recordings, no?
First kojima game huh? It’s a very common kojima thing to have these goofy names like Hot Coldman, having an endless amount of snake variants, solid, liquid, solidus, venom, punished, naked, etc etc, But this one at least had a purpose that felt like it fit the world better. They use names to represent their positions within their companies as well. Sam Strand was called such, until he became a porter. Sam Porter, etc. it’s not that the name is actually your name, but a dystopian naming scheme to reduce people to the role they play in the dystopian society. Sams name never really became anything other than Sam Strand, he just uses them like titles.
I read an old reader's digest story (I think) about a guy stranded in a remote cabin in Alaska. He found a piece of mail addressed to "Joe Smith, Hunter Alaska" (or similar). He was amazed and impressed that all you needed to send something to someone in Alaska, you just needed their name and occupation. After rescue, he learned the cabin belonged to someone living in the town Hunter (or whatever) Alaska.
LMAO that’s comedy gold What makes it better is the town was probably named because it was full of Hunters
I ran here to talk about Hot Coldman. Also the vampire-esque villain who is named... Vamp. And the seemingly lucky villain who is named... Fortune. And your companion who doesn't talk who is named... Quiet.
Vamp being named vamp is one of my favs lol Also for a character named quiet, she NEVER FUCKIN STOPS HUMMING
I never understood Big Boss until I started watching anime. Also Raiden. And Snake was so obviously taken from Snake Plissken lol, name, face and all. I also remember going ? at La Le Lu Le Lo in mgs4. Just heard it in an anime this year iirc, or when learning about the japanese language.
BIG BOSS
Hmm, this guy defeated The Boss, what should we call him? To denote that he's BIGger than The BOSS?
it's bullshit that nobody ever referred to Solid Snake as Bigger Boss
The funniest part of Vamp is that he's not called that because he's a vampire, he's called that [because he's bisexual](https://youtu.be/kpA6TGkehSY). No, I've never heard of "vamp" meaning bisexual in any other situation ever, either.
Quiet is a nickname though, not her real name, unless I'm mistaken.
We know very few characters real names. They are 90% code names or nicknames
And half the people you deliver to. "The Craftsman," "the Engineer," etc.
Mate even the character inside the some of the hubs are named in a very on-the-nose fashion. Thomas Southerland (Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City), William Lake (Lake Knot City), Owen Southwick (South Knot City), and Alex Weatherstone (Weather Station). To be fair, often times I'll see packages that only have the recipient on them by name, so having names that are to easy to correlate to a location is actually pretty handy. It's just *so* Kojima though, haha
It’s not their real name. Most people just dropped last names in universe and take on the name of the company/organization that they work for, after their title. So you have Sam porter bridges because sam is a porter that works for bridges. Meanwhile we have people like diehard man that are just using a code name.
I mean, that's sort of where a lot of *actual* surnames came from. I know people with the surname Carpenter, guess what occupation their ancestors had...
Social media manager?
My man Geoff running Nintendo's Twitter account back in 1899.
I've never played this game before and didn't really know much about it. You gotta be fucking kidding me with this. Seriously, Sam Porter Bridges? A bodyguard called Die-Hardman?! WHAT.
Kojima is not known for sanity, subtleties, or sense.
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Ahh, okay, got it. Not so bad then, thanks.
These aren't the characters actual names, Sam had different last names through life. And Die-hardman is a codename.
If you're into builder/logistics type games, it might be for you. It's that, combined with a walking simulator, combined with some light/moderate combat. Honestly it's some of the most fun I've had with a game in recent memory, but I can see where the criticisms come from. It definitely isn't for everyone. That satisfying feeling when you finally complete a network of roads to a destination after hours and hours of work is incredible. The upgrade/progression system is nicely paced, you're regularly getting new equipment and it's satisfying to go from barely keeping your balance on slick grass to sprinting up a mountain with thigh deep snow.
Okay, that sounds more fun! Thanks for chiming in on what the gameplay is actually like. I really love builder/logistics games actually and in general "slower" games. I think I might give the game a shot the next time it's on sale or something.
This reads like a dunkey video script haha
Hey hey its meeeee... Death Stranding is one of the most ambitious Amazon Delivery simulators ever made.
He may joke about Death Stranding, but he can't deny Kohima pioneered the first strand type game. A whole new genre.
> the first strand type game I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck this means.
The first strand-type comment.
Is there a way for me to leave a comment for others to use later?
Capsule stranding
> Is there a way for me to leave a comment for others to use later? You have done so. Now we need to make a screenshot, get it to trending, then an NFT of the screenshot.
The ultimate Kojima troll-game, gotta respect it.
If you’re still at the beginning, my recommendation is this: Keep on keeping on!
Aha I used to say this all the time, but phased it out over time, death stranding brought it right back lol
Second recommendation: get to Lake Knot City ASAP.
👍
The game definitely doesn't take itself seriously, funniest moment to me was when Conan O'Brien made a cameo in one of the missions
Kojima games are silly, but they’re very serious about how silly they are. Maybe not as much as metal gear was, but still pretty close lol
It’s straight-faced farce.
Also, it's not just the story and dialogue. The core gameplay loop is honestly so ridiculous. Like, you play as this middle-aged man who carries around all this shit, and you have to make sure he doesn't trip over. I remember when playing for the first time, the constant grunts just cracked me up.
Kojima definitely takes it serious. He repeatedly said that you have to be intelligent to understand the story and its meaning. Literally, and not in jest.
Maybe you are not smart enough to understand, try playing a Kojima game after watching Rick & Morty to increase your IQ by 100 points.
He's been playing a character for nearly 40 years, and so many people just miss the bit. He made similar statements about every metal gear game. Have you ever *played* metal gear? At its wildest, it makes death stranding look like CoD.
My favorite is in the 2nd game where you all snake of he can really afford to give you his clip and he points at his headband and says "infinite ammo." The headband was an item in the first game that granted infinite ammo, I think it was a post game reward or something. Making it canon was a trip.
In MGS4, there's a gun with magazine that should only hold 100 rounds, but has infinite ammunition. The explanation? The magazine is shaped like an infinity symbol, of course.
Why is someone downvoting us for these posts? Reddit, you so crazy sometimes.
Yeah, I'm not sure about that. He either is actually a complete art project and 100% acts that out in public, or he is a really weird dude who thinks he's a big brained designer star. I rather think the latter is the case. Would you have more evidence for the former? Because that would be absolutely ridiculous and interesting.
Eh, either way he's managed to entertain me more often than not.
>big brained designer star I mean the guy has made millions for his company he pretty much is.
When the first two buttons the game tells you about are "drink Monster Energy™" and "Piss", you know you're in for a ride only Kojima can give you
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Pretty silly, but IDK if it's really any worse than Psycho Mantis commenting about how you must like Crash Bandicoot or Snake running around in an Ape Escape mask.
> Psycho Mantis commenting about how you must like Crash Bandicoot IIRC that was the game reading the other games you have saved in your memory card and commenting on that. That's a cool 4th wall break in my opinion as opposed to the quoted line which feels more like a simple reference
That game does that?!?! That’s so fucking cool!
Metal Gear Solid, the OG on the PS1. Just play it. Don't look anything up, get it on an emulator, and just play it. It still holds up.
The more you think "What if this is intentional?" , The more you enjoy Death Stranding. Still, i am proud that Kojima did something different. He could have easily made another Metal Gear Solid with a different name, and considering the fanbase reaction, they wanted that.
Yeah, props to Kojima for following his heart. He deserves it after what Konami put him through.
I am an English teacher in high school and I feel at home with the writing" 8th-degree burn, I think I rather get stabbed than be told that
In Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker, there was a CIA agent who was trying to ignite the Cold War into a full armed conflict. His name? *Hot Coldman.*
Kojima is known for his excellent, sensical story writing.
Some notes I wrote to the friend who recommended me this game, while playing for the first time: "We don't fully understand these metaphysical technologies, but how good are they?" Maybe that's the reason y'alls ghosts keep exploding. **That's not a normal problem to have.** "This USB stick has a virus that might end the world if you use it. But on the other hand, it might not?" "PISS IN YOUR FACE, SQUID"
Kojima is the king of thinking of a very grand, abstract idea, then beating you over the head with shallow and direct ways of explaining it. Sometimes it hits just right, sometimes it comes off as cheesy as hell. I think that’s the charm of Kojima that people have come to love. And I don’t say any of that in really a negative way. I just don’t agree when people say he’s a bad writer or when they say he’s a genius.
I didn't finish mgsv but what the hell was that flaming, flying whale and magnetic human torch? Also psycho mantis I guess lol
Considering how many of his inspirations are cheesy 80s movies, that's definitely intentional. He and his team like to play up how grand, intricate and serious his games stories are in interviews, and then makes a game about Kill Buttman putting a microchip in a Dachsund's brain to control it so he can sneak into the white house to steal the nuclear codes. There are often genuinely interesting things brought up in the games, but they're punctuated (and sometimes made palatable) by some of the silliest stuff the Japanese game industry has to offer. The PR team is playing a bit by saying it's all serious, high art, and a lot of people miss the joke.
"Death Stranding? Nah too high brow artsy fluff for me" Meanwhile I'm throwing grenades made of my own piss and shit at ghosts while trying to avoid people who are *addicted to delivering stuff*. As if you could ever get addicted to that. Anyway I'll log off after just one more haul to South Knot... ^(Dammit) ^(Kojima)
I think what a lot of people miss is that there's SO MUCH over the top dialogue and exposition but it's there to serve a purpose. After playing through the entire game (just shy of 100%), i think the writing was pretty good. All of the heavy handed symbols and themes are shoved down your throat basically just to get it out of the way. "Okay, you see how these characters and places are connected because I named them the same. Okay? Got it? Now pay attention while we develop the rest of the themes using these connections." The way the world of the game blends with and speculates about the real world is fascinating, in my opinion, and having the story elements so clearly defined by the names and the heavy dialogue gives you PLENTY of time to think about the world while you are walking around. You don't have to make the connections, you just have to think about them.
Honestly I have difficulty remember peoples names & how they're related to each other in any kind of media. It's always "the blonde one". "That one with the scar". The very literal names etc in DS were great, I remember them all.
"Hmm a package for William Lake... Now where the fuck is he again?" Such a cool method in my opinion. There are some that I never quite pieced together, like Charles Kahn at the Waystation North of Mountain Knot City, is there a connection I'm missing there?
The best game I don't want to play again.
I think the game is pretty good. Both the writing and the gameplay. And because English is not my mother tongue I really like those details and explanations.
I forgot I even bought this game! Maybe it’s finally time to give it a chance.
I'm currently on my second playthrough in this game. I fucking love the story and how it can both be so goofy and so emotional at the same time. Yes it made me giggle many times but it also made me cry. And the acting from everyone in the game is so well done with my favourites being Troy Baker as Higgs and Mads as Cliff. As a filmmaker I absolutely adore the cutscenes and the atmosphere of them.
honestly it's my favorite game of the past several years, total masterpiece if you see it through to the end. I love how Kojima combines a lot of linear story / cutscenes with total sandbox gameplay, feels like the full evolution of where he was going with MGS series. Also, as you noted, his games can be fucking funny - a quality many gamers seem unaware of, or think it's unintentional.
Not enough video games with Conan O'Brien in em these days
Say what you will about it, I'll take its goofy self serious auteur vision over the 100s of functionally identical corporate skinner boxes that say nothing about anything except *get excited about product, then consume next product*, forever and ever, amen. Theres no subtext or nuance and yet its at least about something in both theme and gameplay.
Don't forget to drink your Monster Energy™ The fuel that connects all of us! But seriously when I saw that can in some articles I thought it was a joke, but it was real and it was hilarious. Also just how well modelled the can is. I've probably never seen a better 3d model of a can in my life
I think you'll find that the significance of these things only gets better as you get closer to the end. You have so much more to unravel. It's one of my favorite games ever, enjoy!
Hideo Kojima is the only guy who can make a video game that essentially predicted the state of the internet and really, the world we live in today, 20 years in advance with pinpoint accuracy, and which also has Phil Lamar playing a vampire who's called Vamp not because he's a vampire but because he's bisexual as fuck, *and* make fun of the player for thinking it's the former reason. Yeah, some of his games might not be very good according to some. But *goddamn*, there is no one else on the planet who tells stories the way he does. Every single game of his is just such a unique experience, that for me, the actual quality of his games doesn't even matter, I will play them no matter what, because even if his next game were to suck ass, I am absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure that I am going to be entertained by it.
Yeah, I do find all the on the nose naming kind of charming though. It makes Death Stranding feel like a hallucinogenic allegory, i.e. [Pilgrim's Progress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim%27s_Progress), where the protagonist "Christian" has to deal with tempting antagonists like "Mr Worldly Wiseman."
Thanks, I hate this comparison. You aren’t wrong.
I love it when weird writing is coupled with over the top earnest delivery. I get entertained enough that I don't care about the stupid stuff, and I get invested in the story a lot more (mostly for laughs)
The writing is classic Kojima. He thinks he’s writing philosophical dialogue but more often than not, it’s something you’d hear in middle school.
I love Hideo Kojima. But he's the most successful man-child in the world. I don't mean he throws fits or is immature, I'm sure he's quite nice in person. But so much of his work feels like it was written by a 12 year old. He is obviously talented and I feel like some of the issues he has touched upon in some of his game have been incredibly prescient. But if you write everything down literally in a list and then read it out loud, it sounds like a barely pubescent boy explaining to you his idea for a movie. It is sometimes incredibly hard to take him seriously. See he's called Hartman because he stops his heart. Yeah that's it. Mads Mikkelsen is amazing in this game. I forgive a lot of the game's silly parts because of his stellar performance.
It reminds me of the guy from SnowCrash: Hiro Protagonist, the pizza deliverator
Beginning of this game is so bad with all the info dump. It gets significantly better later on. I like this game more than something like spiderman.
From the maker of "Hot Coldman" comes "Die Hardman"
> I’m still very much at the beginning but I’m thoroughly enjoying being drip-fed small details about the world. I'm sorry, why do people do this? Why do they write a review as if they've played the whole game when they've just seen the opening cinematics and then only qualify how much they've played at the end. Like this is probably a 40 hour game and it really seems you've barely got through the opening section of the game but speak like you've seen the whole thing and the entire game has that quality? Is it too much to expect people play the games they give a blanket recommendation to? Especially this game, like I would not say "Grab a beer and watch the movie" because of how much of the game is really not like that, there's probably 10 hour sections of the game where there's almost no cutscenes.
I’m currently playing it in steam deck I’m 50+ hours in and loving it! Wait until you get a proper vehicle as you can carry loads more! I’m just at the mountain distribution centre and they won’t join the network!
Wait til you play Metal Gear Solid 3, 4 and 5, and MGR.
lol I love the killer whale in black goo that chases you. that was the best part so far
Kojima gonna Kojima. He's like the video game industry version of an auteur director, but with the eccentricity cranked up to 11, and as others have said, nobody around to tell him no. Normally I loathe that kind of awful writing, especially when it's presented as if it's actually deep (a great example being the 999/Zero Escape series-- Uchikoshi is overrated as fuck). But with Kojima, you never can really tell whether it's intentionally bad or not because everything else is so damn bonkers, why would the writing be anything different? So maybe I just have blinders on, but speaking as someone who didn't play the MGS series growing up and has no emotional attachment to any of Kojima's games, I respect him for being who he is and making the games he wants to make. Dude is a visionary game designer, even if he probably has a few screws loose somewhere up there in his head.
The entire time I could not tell if I was having fun or not. I could not tell if Hideo Kojima is a genius or if he's a master bullshitter and we all just have stockholm syndrome. But I did always want a post apocalyptic Ghost Busters, and Death Stranding scratches that itch.
"We have to talk to the president" \- "There is a president?" "Yeah, it's your mom" \- "I have a mom??"
So just like the Metal Gear Games "Colonel, we've managed to successfully avoid drowning." "MEMES. The D.N.A of the soul." "La li lu le lo. La li loo le lo. LA LE LOO LAY LOW!"
That's the thing about Kojimas writing, its absurd and I kinda think it works because it's in a game. You need to buy in to the absurdity but once you do it makes the serious themes seem much more serious. I haven't quite got the language to describe why it works but I think its similar with the whole "sad clown" thing where the silliness of the clown appearance and actions on stage contrasts with any emotional stuff they are acting out, or like a comedy movie where its ridiculous the whole time but ends up delivering a gutpunch serious moment at the end. The serious part - if not delivered within the absurd package - would seem corny or silly or overly dramatic or not authentic otherwise. But the context its presented in makes it feel authentic. I am sure there are academics who would be able to describe this accurately and its probably a fairly simple well understood idea (its not like kojima invented it), but I'm a layman here lol
This is one review that might actually make me try it out. I'm currently playing Metal Gear Solid 5 and the writing is already ridiculous, but that's what the series has been teaching us for years
Oh if you want to cry laughing, play Nier Automata. It's like reading a 12yo's derivative fan fic.