Regardless of what one thought of Death Stranding, there’s no denying it’s a unique experience. From the gameplay loop, to the setting, to well, just about everything honestly. It’s one of those things that, for better or worse, is uniquely itself. That includes the music, too. While the licensed music gets a lot of the attention, Ludvig Forssell’s score also adds its own flavor to the one of a kind experience. And it drew some inspiration from a place you probably wouldn’t expect.
Speaking to Gamereactor, Forssell talked about the game’s music and sound design and when asked about inspiration he said Hideo Kojima handed him a copy of the soundtrack for 2014’s It Follows. If you’re unfamiliar with the film and its soundtrack, it’s much like Death Stranding in that it can hard to describe. Forssell says it’s “a very synth-based horror story,” which I guess is as good as any other way to describe it. The film is about, for lack of a better description, a haunted STD. I’ll leave it at that for those who haven’t seen it. Kojima has always been a big film buff, something pretty obvious from his games, and it seems he has something for the smaller arthouse films too.
Death Stranding is available now for PlayStation 4 and is slated to come to PC on June 2nd with some bonus features. The soundtrack is also available at all major streaming and digital services.
