Death Stranding 2 boss says he is ‘just really happy’ he could get it made

Hideo Kojima is “just really happy” that he could get ‘Death Stranding 2’ made.

Hideo Kojima is “just really happy” that he could get ‘Death Stranding 2’ made.

The games designer was at the helm of the initial action title that was released in 2019 and after struggling for a couple of years creatively, he is now thrilled that a sequel is getting off the ground.

He told IGN: ” I wrote the proposal for this game while isolated during the pandemic and worked on it with people whose faces I couldn’t see for the most part, only really meeting Yoji Shinkawa once a week. I imagine the same went for any studio. If we can’t all gather and we can’t shoot, what should we do? But even under those circumstances, I was fortunate to have everyone’s help as we made progress on the

game.

“I’d say it was around 2021 when we seriously began performance capture work. But I wasn’t allowed to go to the Los Angeles studio at the time and had to connect there remotely from Tokyo to direct the actors there. I used my smartphone, my iPad, and all kinds of cameras, but directing remotely really did drive me mad.

“Just when I didn’t know what to do, someone from Sony HQ let me borrow two window-like monitors that make two-way voice communication possible, which allowed me to find a way to record. It still wasn’t easy, though. When someone’s working right next to you, you’re able to make discoveries and realizations about what to do. But if you’re working fully remote, there are a lot of times when the timing

or details of a report get delayed.

“Even if someone makes a mistake, it isn’t noticed right away. Still, I think we’ll find a way to make it safely over the finish line. At the time, I really thought that it wouldn’t be possible to complete the game. So what has been the most rewarding? I think I’m just really happy that we can finish making the game.”

He added that when looking back at some of his previous efforts, there were weapons involved and when he decided to omit them, the response was not very positive and that he has had to he “aware of strealth games” since.

He said: “I’d like to ask you to think back to the beginning of Metal Gear Solid. No weapons appear at first, and you only acquire them after going up the elevator. Placing weapons at the very start will cause players to pick them up and start killing enemies, so we consciously decided to not do that. But that part turned out to be unpopular, with some people saying they couldn’t get up the elevator. Still, we had to design Metal Gear Solid so that players learned how stealth works. For Metal Gear Solid 2, we made it a little easier to use weapons and aim at specific parts using a POV angle, as many players were already aware of stealth games.”