Gaming auteur Hideo Kojima has spoken about having to do a ground-up rewrite of the planned sequel to his 2019 game “Death Stranding” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kojima first revealed the project in a trailer shown at The Game Awards late last year. At the time, he appeared on stage and said he had the game’s story written before the pandemic.
However, in the wake of what happened, he indicated he “rewrote the whole story from scratch”. Cut to over half a year later, Kojima has given a new interview to Japanese entertainment news site Natalie.Mu (translated by Sephazon).
In it, Kojima explains more about the impact the pandemic had on his story:
“Before the pandemic, I’d actually already conceived the narrative for Death Stranding 2… when the pandemic did strike, it led us to restructure the entire script.
In Death Stranding we championed the act of connection. But, as the pandemic took hold, digital connections like remote work gained prominence. I also realized that digital connections alone couldn’t satisfy human needs. We are inherently explorers.
Right now, we’re dealing with seclusion and division, and the world is undergoing significant transformations. We can’t rewind to our pre-pandemic reality, so we’ve had to reassess the concept of ‘connection’.
In Death Stranding 2, the interpretation of ‘strand’ evolves. You’ll notice, at the end of the teaser trailer, a message that says ‘Should We Have Connected?’ That’s the crux of what we’re trying to articulate in the sequel.”
The project is separate from the “Death Stranding” movie, which is currently in development and expected to follow new characters in the same world. Kojima recently confirmed he’s heavily involved in its production but won’t direct it.
