In order to jumpstart the Death Stranding canon then and provide Kojima Productions with a new avenue to explore, prefacing the sequel with a prequel or even a spin-off could help flesh out the details that Death Stranding 2 might come to rely on. Whether this would be to make sure certain returning characters are in the right places at the right times, address the Last Stranding and chiral network, or update the current state of the world outside the UCA, a prequel or spin-off could provide enough leverage for a sequel to work with and lead players back into Death Stranding’s post-apocalypse.
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A Death Stranding Prequel
Though a Death Stranding prequel could expand on some characters, it wouldn’t be able to directly influence the game’s overall story or ending. But at the very least a prequel could sow the seeds of potential new stories a sequel could explore. For example, Higgs was believed to be Death Stranding’s main antagonist until it was revealed that Amelie was behind everything. Exploring Higgs’ turn against humanity, going from porter to Amelie’s agent of extinction would be an interesting prequel, but ultimately it could introduce new context to his motivation for turning, such as suggesting he was aware of a greater threat that would factor into Death Stranding 2.
Alternatively, a prequel could introduce new settings, organizations, or other lore tidbits that would then shape a Death Stranding sequel. Given that she is the closest parallel to Sam, Fragile would be the ideal candidate to explore the world beyond the UCA. For instance, some suggest that a sequel should expand from America to Canada or even Mexico so that Death Stranding 2 has new settings to explore, something that could be achieved through Fragile. With her own courier company and DOOMS abilities, she could be an ideal starting point to introduce players to the rest of the world outside the UCA.
A Death Stranding Spin-Off
Justifying a spin-off ordinarily requires either a popular character to take lead or a game mechanic that can be further explored. As Death Stranding was a walking simulator at its core, with its sequel also likely to be the same, creating a spin-off would be a challenge. However, it’s still doable, but it would need to ensure it achieves its goal of setting up Death Stranding 2. Therefore, instead of a prequel for Fragile, a spin-off continuation to her story that still has the prequel’s same goals saves Kojima Productions from risking continuity but gives it the ideal opportunity to expand the game’s mechanics, lore, and settings.
However, a spin-off could introduce completely new story elements and gameplay features that a prequel couldn’t. As the chiral network was expanded throughout Death Stranding, it served Amelie’s goals of the Last Stranding by converging all the Beaches. This is something the sequel should need to address, but a spin-off could preemptively do this instead. Taking advantage of a character like Heartman could help explore this new world of merged Beaches since he visits them so frequently. His fictional heart condition causing him to routinely switch between life and death could also be the foundation of the spin-off’s unique gameplay mechanics.
Death Stranding is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
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