In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, Kojima spoke of what political events inspired the themes of Death Stranding. Specifically, he named the election of President Donald Trump and Brexit as being highly influential on the design of Death Stranding.
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“Trump is building a wall and the UK is leaving the EU,” Kojima said in the interview. “In the game, we use bridges to connect things. But destroying those bridges can instantly turn them into walls. So bridges and walls are almost synonymous.” Kojima stated this theme is something he would like players to keep in mind during their playthrough.
Furthermore, Kojima stated that individualism and loneliness are major themes of Death Stranding. Calling individualism “the era of today,” Kojima stated, “The attacks and violence seen online these days is out of control. So I designed this for people to take a step back and by connecting, relearn how to be kind to others.”
Kojima also indicated that a major inspiration and theme of Death Stranding is loneliness, which he said he’s prone to himself. He said that he perceives there to be a sense of loneliness among the gaming community and a feeling of being unable to fit in, so he concludes that Death Stranding will put these gamers at ease and make them “realize people like them exist all over the world.”
One thing that can be said of Hideo Kojima is that he is candid about his inspirations and intentions. In another recent interview, Kojima said that he would still like to make horror games if possible. Considering the potential seen in the canceled Kojima-developed Silent Hills title, it would be very interesting to see Kojima’s other takes on the horror game genre.
Furthermore, Kojima said in the same interview with BBC Newsbeat that Kojima Productions may be venturing into film at some point. Not only is this due to his great appreciation for cinema but also because he believes the advent of streaming will have the mediums of film, TV, and video games competing with one another. Regardless of what his reason is, it will be interesting to see what Kojima can develop in the realm of film.
Death Stranding will be released on November 8, 2019, on PlayStation 4, with a summer 2020 release for PC.
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Source(s): BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat (via GameSpot)
