Death Stranding 2 isn't a 'regular' sequel, says Hideo Kojima

Death Stranding 2, which is at the moment a working title for the game, will not follow the traditional structure for a sequel. This is kind of obvious when we remember that it's Hideo Kojima at the helm of this series and honestly, after reading theories for the sequel, I'm still struggling to understand.

Surely, this will mean something to someone, so I'll rattle a few of Reddit user Barmy_Deer's off. This game going to be set one year after the events of the first one as baby Louise is about two and a half feet tall. In the trailer from The Game Awards, we see Fragile escape their bunker with Louise but she is shot by assailants, reappearing amongst fire with Fragile sporting tar tears down her face. Barmy_Deer also points out that Death Stranding's title saw cords fall from the letters whereas "DS2" has cords that reach upwards, potentially signifying an "anti-apocalypse" where there is an influx of living people into the Beach.

Check out the full trailer here:

I promise I will play it one day - just in the interim, please explain Death Stranding to me like I'm five years old. While the original game was a success, it was a bit Marmite-y, so the sequel wasn't necessarily a done deal. Then, actor Norman Reedus let slip that the story wasn't over for Sam and since then, Kojima Productions has had its nose to the grindstone with the next chapter of the series. Details are appreciably light on the ground, however, the auteur was happy to share some reveals about the sequel in his own podcast.

#Spotify Original podcast 📻.
"Hideo Kojima presents Brain Structure"

🆕#16 "Hideo Kojima x Norman Reedus"

👇👇👇https://t.co/krhPbnjKfP@SpotifyJP
#HideoKojima #BrainStructure pic.twitter.com/UJ3rIb388G

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 16, 2022

If you haven't played Death Stranding but are intrigued by the zany visuals in that trailer, then the new game won't be too daunting, he explained in a question about Sam's journey. "In order to appeal to people who didn't play the first one, I've made the game nostalgic, but also new," said Kojima. He heaped praise on the leaps and bounds that hardware has made since the release of Death Stranding, and ideas that were previously "impossible" are now achievable. As a result, Death Stranding 2 is "not just a regular sequel in that sense."

Right now, we aren't sure what sort of timeline Death Stranding 2 is on and so its release is unknown. But, this tidbit is interesting as it seems to suggest that the capabilities of technology today has allowed more of Kojima's vision to become a reality. We'll let you know once we learn more.