Name In Intro Credits
If you’ve ever played a game created by Hideo Kojima, then you know that he loves to drop his name all over the intros of his games. Death Stranding is no different as you see the first Kojima on screen less than one minute in.
Kojima always seems to act fairly humble in public appearances and interviews, but you wouldn’t know it by how much he plasters his name throughout the intros of his productions.
Kojima does great work and he deserves the accolades he gets, but it’s almost comical how often you see his name pop up during the intro credits of his games.
BBs and BTs
No Kojima production is complete without some bizarre and outlandish concept. The mere idea of BBs and BTs in Death Stranding are perfect examples of the wild mind of Hideo Kojima.
BBs are fetuses ripped from the wombs of braindead women (Stillmothers) who are kept alive to help calibrate the BB pods that hold the BBs. The Stillmother’s connection to the land of the dead helps BBs detect BTs.
The BTs are very aggressive and violent ghosts that look like they’re dangling from the sky by umbilical cords. As I said, these concepts are bizarre and outlandish.
On the Nose Character Names
From the brilliant mind that brought you Hot Coldman, Machinegun Kid, and Quiet comes Heartman, Die Hardman, and Sam Porter Bridges. You can probably guess what most of those characters do based upon their names.
It’s safe to say that Kojima has a penchant for less than subtle character names (I’m looking at you Skull Face). Sure, Kojima’s naming scheme has always been a bit odd, but Death Stranding takes it to a new level.
Even the main character isn’t safe. Sam Porter Bridges’ middle and last names tell you everything you need to know about him. He is a transporter who is reconnecting or bridging America.
Music Player
The music player became a staple of Hideo Kojima games starting in MGS4 when Old Snake was oddly equipped with an iPod. I couldn’t imagine Snake running to the Apple store to buy one, but it was there nonetheless.
Then, in MGSV, your character was equipped with a cassette player that could play the tapes you found throughout the world. You could even set a song for your helicopter to play as it approached the landing zone.
While it’s not a huge thing to have in Death Stranding, it’s nice to have this practical item that fits within the world and lets you enjoy whatever song you want to listen to while playing instead of just what’s set for that scene.
Unorthodox Control Scheme
Using the analog face buttons on the PS2 controller always felt a bit wonky in Kojima’s games. MGS 2 and 3 were great titles, but their control schemes were wildly imprecise and unintuitive.
The lack of a moveable camera always hurt those games too, but luckily that was fixed in a later release. Fortunately, Death Stranding has a fully controllable camera from the start, but sadly with trademark Kojima controls.
Balancing with L2/R2 is weird at first, but it’s surprisingly intuitive. However, they definitely missed on soothing BB since you need to press three buttons to detach the BB Pod when it should be a single input.
Sophomoric Humor
Whether it’s fart jokes, strategically placed objects over the crotch, or literally getting caught with your pants down, even someone as revered as Hideo Kojima isn’t above any of this childish humor.
This time around if you stare at Sam’s crotch for too long he’ll cover it up with his hands and be clearly uncomfortable with the situation. Continue staring and he’ll give the camera a nice right hook.
Then you have urinating as an actual game mechanic and doing it outside can even produce a mushroom. I may be missing some cultural reference here, but from the outside, it just seems like a childish joke.
Cinematic Feel
As much as it might sound like I’m ragging on Kojima, I love his games and this cinematic feel that runs throughout them is a big part of what makes these titles so special.
People often rip Kojima for long cutscenes, but it’s an important part of piecing together the story. Death Stranding isn’t perfect, but it has the best balance of cinematics and gameplay in any of his creations.
The writing can be a bit odd at times, but the cutscenes always deliver that feeling of watching a Hollywood film. The shots, editing, and music come together to form truly awe-inspiring scenes.
Published: Nov 11, 2019 03:13 pm