Hideo Kojima Shuts Down Rumors: Death Stranding 2 Isn’t Weirder — It’s More Playable and Fun

In classic Kojima fashion, a simple story got weird. Remember when co-composer Woodkid said Hideo Kojima made Death Stranding 2 weirder after early feedback was too positive? Kojima just shot that down. He says the sequel got more playable after focus testing, not more bizarre just to be cute.

So what actually happened

Talking to The Washington Post, the Metal Gear Solid creator said Woodkid's comment missed the nuance. Kojima didn't sit there dialing up the oddness because people liked it. The weirdness is just baked into a Kojima game by default. What he did do is take focus test reactions and adjust things to make the sequel easier to engage with.

"The nuance of what Woodkid said didn't really go through."

"I didn't really deliberately make [Death Stranding 2] weird or anything."

"It can't be a game that is digestible... something that is not digestible stays in that person for a long time. So that's what I meant by, I want to do things differently."

"[After focus tests] I changed the game accordingly to make it more playable and fun to the users."

If that sounds like a contradiction, it isn't. He wants a game that lingers in your brain, not something you chew and forget, but he also trimmed and tuned after playtests so it, you know, plays better. The art-kid impulse and the usability pass can coexist. Color me surprised he admits to sanding any edges at all.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Kojima Land

• Kojima is hyping next week's 10th anniversary event for Kojima Productions. He calls it a get-together for the 'connections' they have built with all the 'Sam-ones' and everyone involved. Very on brand.
• He also revealed that a secret Death Stranding 2 cutscene fans saw was only half of the motion capture session. The shoot actually wrapped with Kojima surprising Elle Fanning with a cake on her real birthday.

Bottom line: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach didn't get stranger because testers liked it too much; it got friendlier to play because testers helped steer it. The rest of the weird is just Kojima being Kojima.