thankfully the gameplay and story are largely kept separate

Album Rating: 5.0

"bad story"



Says the guy who skipped cutscenes and exposition because it bored him.



Maybe you just have the mental patience of a toddler.

There's no amount of patience that can prepare someone for such a poorly told story
look, i know you like to huff Kojima's farts, but you can admit story is not his strong suit
It never has been

I admit I did like the final scene between Sam and Lou though, and that was mainly just because Lou was the only character I liked after 80 hours of actually playing the game with them.

Album Rating: 5.0

"i know you like to huff Kojima's farts"



Like I said: The mental fabric of a toddler.

Do you actually believe Death Stranding is a complex and smartly-told story? Do you actually think you have stronger mental faculties than those who criticise it?

I mean, were you surprised and shocked by the """"twist"""" that "oh haha we wanted you to do this aLL along Sam, it was our plan as terrorists to actively try to kill you the whole time but really we wanted you to succeed in your fake mission devised by ME the HEAd of the Teorrirsts HaHa I am your Sister and Betrayer and you Walked Right IntO My TraP"

It's not like Kojima has done that exact twist, let's count...60 billion times.
Or was it the super shock post-credits-post-credits scene where Lou was actually a GIRL baby omg
let's not forget the fact that WOW Clifford was SaM'S daD the WhoLe TiMe? WhErE HaVe We SeEn ThAt TwiST BeOFre

Sam is actually one of le infantes terribles

Hideo "I like to romanticise men and exploit all women" Kojima is a genius of epic proportions when it turns out that 11 hours of exposition relayed the singular plot: the world's ending, but this time We wanna end it ForeVer

I bet you were touched when she said the line about Mario and Princess Beach and then they slo-mo ran along the beach like a fucking Rocky 3 training montage

Album Rating: 5.0

"Do you actually think you have stronger mental faculties than those who criticise it?"



I do when the person I'm debating has already conceded to skipping exposition and storytelling strictly on the principle it didn't appeal to them.



Don't like something because it doesn't pique your interest? Fine.



Objectively discrediting the story on the notion of what your palette is, however, naw.



Do I think Death Stranding is a complex story? No. Not remotely. It's Kojima's most straightforward and digestible narrative--but it only comes off convoluted to anyone that has to follow the vast amount of definitions and terminologies that exist within this world he's created. This is called "World Building." I guess when it comes to the current state of Western pop-culture, the general audiences idea of "world building" should consist of four-quadrant, simplistic superhero or Star Wars simplicity, which would actually explain the commercial flops behind recent great works like Blade Runner 2049 and Annihilation.



Where Kojima succeeds in storytelling with Death Stranding, is the fact he goes full on Evangelion. What might not work for one person, might be artistically profound to another. The idea of this nihilistic approach to "the end of the world" being told through a blockbuster medium, on a massive budget, is rather ballsy, and not something you'd normally see out of a mainstream studio anymore; Be it in film or gaming.

they call him Die-Hardman because he has never once in fact died hard



also his real name is John McClane

ah yes World Building
when a man who dies every 21 minutes explains to me everything I could ever hope to remain curious about for a second, yet doesn't actually advance the plot AT all

Or let's talk about the world building where every single detail of this complex new world Kojima has created is doled out like dry cardboard through dozens of wikipedia entries I get at random intervals

i am so invested in this rich world, it is built all around me

Album Rating: 5.0

>"I mean, were you surprised and shocked by the """"twist"""" that "oh haha we wanted you to do this aLL along Sam, it was our plan as terrorists to actively try to kill you the whole time but really we wanted you to succeed in your fake mission devised by ME the HEAd of the Teorrirsts HaHa I am your Sister and Betrayer and you Walked Right IntO My TraP""



...



...



...



You... you can't actually believe that was the point there, right?



Jesus... it's dafter than I thought. I mean, Amalie lays it out in about as straightforward an explanation you get on the beach, and you still couldn't interpret it correctly.

lol @ comparing Death Stranding to something like Blade Runner 2049 or Annihilation

do you really believe this ham-fisted shit heap is even close to being as well-written as them? (well Annihilation kinda sucks compared to the book but 2049 at least I can agree is a masterpiece)

"Jesus... it's dafter than I thought. I mean, Amalie lays it out in about as straightforward an explanation you get on the beach, and you still couldn't interpret it correctly."

She does, yes, she explained the same thing 2000 times, it was hard to miss it, but the twist was in fact Higgs saying "haha you did exactly what we wanted" after attempting to kill Sam multiple times, which again, is the exact same twist Kojima has done a hundred times and still doesn't work

Album Rating: 5.0

Also, the "Princess Beach" sequence was full-on self-aware Kojima.



If you think that sequence was to be interpreted in a literal sense of intimacy between those two characters, you're even dumber than I originally thought.



Anyway, not gonna argue this anymore. I can tell a dumb person when I see them--and at the end of the day, it's not worth exuding the energy to point out their mental deficiencies anymore. Not to mention, when people have their mind made up about something, they're not going to change their mind.



So... adios.

"Also, the "Princess Beach" sequence was full-on self-aware Kojima."

Oh, it was. There's a problem with that though. That type of self-aware writing only works when the characters are in on the joke. Amelie is not in on the joke.

"The whole "this game is not for everyone", or that the game has been met with a divisive reaction, is just a lazy way to bubblewrap the reality that (Western) people just want simple consumption."

Oh stfu you pretentious snob

Dude listens to nothing but prog metal, thinks Death Stranding is a smart and deep story, and thinks Blade Runner and Annihilation aren't critically acclaimed. I guarantee you he's read no books, especially no books that influenced Death Stranding, and his weird intellectual superiority stems from the fact that he probably sat through all of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Imagine saying western audiences are too stupid to understand this, blatantly disregarding all criticism laid out, and then going on to call Annihilation a masterpiece lmao. We're into world building very much; you're talking about people who are very into fromsoft games here. I'm a big fan of lore and subtle details told through environments and such.

I agree with Dunkey's interpretation of this and likening it to Kingdom Hearts - the characters are talking all the fucking time and still there doesn't seem to be much context for anything happening, and the dialogue is so incredibly weak. It isn't a complex story, it's just a frustrating one. I agree kojima is a master in the gameplay dept of his games but his stories have never wowed me