Death Stranding 2 Changes the Meaning of “Strand”, May Use Music in New Ways – Kojima

For all its ups and downs, Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding remains a unique experience, especially with fans discovering new things almost four years after its release. It makes the wait for Death Stranding 2 much more palpable, but we still lack much information.

While he didn’t outline what to expect with the story, director Hideo Kojima continues to provide bits of new information. Speaking to Japanese entertainment site Natalie (translation via DeepL), Kojima spoke about how music flowed in the first game. “Music was played after checking for story flags and play status, so even if you’ve walked down the street once, you can feel a different atmosphere. It is the same as in movies where music is played during cutscenes, but during game operation, the music suddenly starts playing, and the camera pulls back quickly.

“If the camera is pulled back too far, the perspective changes and it becomes difficult to play the game, so we don’t usually do this, but we were able to achieve this while maintaining a balance with the cinematic effect. I wanted to incorporate something that had never been done in a game or movie before.” He then revealed that the team came up “with something even more interesting” and is thinking of “doing something newer in the sequel.”

Kojima reaffirmed the story was rewritten because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In Death Stranding, connection was justice, but with the Corona disaster, remote and other pseudo connections came to be emphasized. On the other hand, I felt that such pseudo-connectedness alone would not bring fulfilment in human-like living. I felt that human beings need to get out and move in the outside world.”

To that end, the meaning of “Strand” itself is changing in the sequel. “Isolation and fragmentation are ongoing, and the world is changing drastically. And with the inability to return to the original world, I have been thinking again about ‘connection’ and the meaning of ‘strand’ is changing in Death Stranding 2. At the end of the teaser, there is a message, ‘Should We Have Connected?’ and that is what I want to convey in 2.”

Death Stranding 2 is in development for PlayStation 5, with a release date yet to be officially announced. However, the ArtStation profile for Frank Aliberti, a PlayStation Studios Visual Arts senior artist, indicates it’s coming in 2024. Stay tuned for more details, and in the meantime, learn why it isn’t “just a regular sequel” here.