
Hideo Kojima’s Video-Game Worlds - tintinnabula
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/magazine/hideo-kojima-death-stranding-video-game.html
======
WilTimSon
I feel like Kojima is one of those game creators who had some game ideas in
his childhood, something he imagined would be cool: epic cutscenes,
destructibility, boss battles that don't just require shooting, interactable
world. But, unlike some others, when he brings these ideas to life, he does so
with that same childlike glee and lack of restraint, for better or for worse.

I'm firmly in the camp of people who get bored by the punishingly long
cutscenes in his games but I also can't deny that gameplay-wise they are some
of the most fun, fresh, and unexpected titles out there. My mind was blown the
first time I found out about the way you can cheese The End fight.

~~~
spike021
>I'm firmly in the camp of people who get bored by the punishingly long
cutscenes in his games but I also can't deny that gameplay-wise they are some
of the most fun, fresh, and unexpected titles out there. My mind was blown the
first time I found out about the way you can cheese The End fight.

I can totally understand when people say this about the long cutscenes.
However, that's partially why I love his Metal Gear games. They're like
playing one "movie" (or a series) and it enhances the player feeling. I always
felt like I was living through a (rather long) interactive movie. It was
glorious. A little long-winded at times but otherwise entertaining.

It's a great juxtaposition with other games that have great storytelling and
gameplay but sometimes feel more disconnected and "on rails." If that makes
sense.

~~~
karatestomp
The real trouble's the repetition. He has some fifteen minute cutscenes that
seem to be the same couple minutes of dialog repeated over and over in
slightly different ways. MGS4 was the worst for that, but it's in all of them.
I've seen enough other Japanese media that I think a little of that is
cultural, but not anywhere near the degree that he does it. It's just Kojima.
That's why I get bored by his cutscenes.

~~~
ekianjo
Agree MGS4 was by far the worst offender. And had really bad writing too.

------
AceJohnny2
I'm halfway (?) through playing Death Stranding right now, and I'm enjoying
it. It is, to me, a really compelling game.

It is really interesting the new gameplay loops and player interactions that
Kojima has found. Death Stranding is a _connected_ single-player game. You
never see other players, but your world is quickly populated by everything
they've built to help themselves -- and you.

And fascinatingly, once I had the resources to spare, I started contributing
to structures or building my own, just in the hope that some other anonymous
player, that I would never meet or interact with, could benefit just like I
did.

In a gaming landscape filled with aggressively competitive (Battle Royale!) or
at least "tit-for-tat" interactions, I've never seen another game implement so
brilliantly "pay it forward."

~~~
wildrhythms
One aspect of Death Stranding I'm still fascinated by is its punishment of
fast travel. It's like the antithesis of any other modern open world game
(like Ghost Recon Wildlands, Far Cry 5, Horizon Zero Dawn...) where traversing
the open world is largely negated by the ability to simply warp to the
objective area. In Death Stranding, however, I'm forced to give up all of my
inventory to fast travel; the game is centered around the travel itself. I've
never experienced a similar game, where I'm plotting a course and deciding how
many ladders and ropes I might need, and how heavy of a load I can safely
bring with me. Absolutely fascinating, I still haven't finished the game
because I'm obsessed with the side objectives and feeling like I'm helping
other players by constructing roads.

------
on_and_off
wow, good timing, I have just finished Death Stranding.

I LOVED that game ! It is perfect for the covid era : you play as a courier
bringing packages to people hiding in bunkers after an apocalyptic event. With
a big emphasis on bringing people together and non violence.

It also has as many original mechanics that an AAA game can have : you get the
basic move and shoot AAA formula, but on top of it you have some great ideas
about movement and they work very well at the kinetic level. Having to hold
the grips of your controler to do not slip down a slope or to hold a package
tight works very well to immerse you, especially coupled with great sound
design and haptic feedback.

[somewhat spoilery comment below]

However, while I loved some of Kojima's gimmicks, this is a game where many of
them were not needed. Characters with masks, hidden identities, double
crossing galore, all of that works in the spy world of metal gear but feels
very out of place in this story of survival.

If they had cut on all of that and focused on the core ideas, I think it would
have been a more interesting experience.

Ironically, while I really appreciate that it is possible to have both AAA
budget and a personal directorial touch; I feel that this game would have
needed a director or such above Kojima to bring some more focus.

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
Kojima always adds some political plot on his games. MGS2 was basically a
prediction of the era of fake news and private military. The fact that in
Death Stranding your job is to "reconnect America" is probably no accident,
knowing Kojima, it's probably some kind of critique on the polarised political
climate as of late.

------
fareesh
MGS5 was a fantastic game. I am not sure how I feel about what happened
between him and Konami. On the one hand, it's a shame that they released
something that was unfinished. From the bits and pieces that remain of the
unfinished parts, it seems as if it would have been even better. Poetically,
the ending left many fans with the "Phantom Pain" of having lost a part of
their beloved franchise. Personally it was a really strange but beautiful
experience to go through.

In terms of the business side of things, if it's true that he and his team
were behind schedule and their productivity was apparently low with no
foreseeable end in sight, I could probably see why Konami would make the
decision to force him to market with whatever he could finish.

As for the details, I hear things got very ugly between them, which is a
shame. I read in places that Kojima himself was not really too interested in
making more MGS games, so regardless of what happened maybe it was for the
best. I hope he's able to build a similarly interesting universe again. I will
probably try Death Stranding when it comes to PC.

~~~
deergomoo
I’ve always that MGS V is a stellar action game but a disappointing entry in
the Metal Gear franchise, particularly if you’re into that particular Kojima
brand of weird.

It was just so barren in terms of narrative, and what was there was
forgettable and ultimately unimportant to the overall story. I wonder what
could have been if the second half of the game was what it was originally
intended to be, instead of just repeating some earlier missions on a harder
difficulty. Ground Zeroes really set things up for the full game to be
something amazing, but it didn’t pay off.

That, and I think it was a very low blow to not ask David Hayter back. Given
how few lines Kiefer Sutherland has in the whole game I guess his rates were a
little higher.

~~~
root_axis
Agreed on the overall narrative and lack of David Hayter. However, the core
game mechanics in MGS5 were beautifully refined and IMO are the most fun of
the series. The open-world approach really paid off in terms of giving the
player a lot of creative freedom in devising successful strategies for
infiltrating a particular compound. Also, the fight with Quiet was classic
Kojima epic. MGS3 is still the GOAT but, MGS5 is absolutely worth playing for
any fan of the series.

------
MaximumMadness
To me, Kojima is one of the clearest examples of how games are different than
every other visual medium.

The man is a mix of Steve Jobs, David Lynch, and Jackson Pollock all in one.

~~~
crimsonalucard
No way man. He makes great games but he adds a lot of cinematics with cringey
dialogue and an overt the top story to all of his games.

The man isn't perfect. I feel a game like red dead redemption 2 is more closer
to that perfect game we're looking for. It hits all the the marks in terms of
story and systems based gameplay.

~~~
MaximumMadness
You're not wrong - Kojima games are just as much film as they are video game.

But as someone who is inherently drawn to over the top narrative-based games
(see Persona 5, FF7, Detroit: Become Human etc.) I can't help but feel like
his style of gaming is the future of narrative single-player experiences.

------
jfkebwjsbx
Kojima makes (or wants to make) movies that are interactive, rather than
actual games.

Which is good, cinema would be way less popular if more talented people worked
in the videogame industry and would likely be regarded as _the_ medium for all
kinds of art. Specially now with VR.

Death Stranding in particular is very lackluster gameplay wise.

------
emsy
I loved MGS and ZoE growing up. But revisiting them, I found the stories to be
cringy teen crap. The kind of stuff that makes one think “how could I have
liked that?”. Death Stranding is in the same league. There’s nothing wrong
with that. But it’s marketed towards sophisticated adult gamers when it’s not
really deep or meaningful. I love that his games exist, but in my opinion, if
we really want to see gaming as something adults can do as a form of
entertainment that communicates meaningfully, we shouldn’t look towards
Kojima.

------
jokoon
I love MGS, but apparently death stranding doesn't seem to be as good as
people say it is.

He is indeed an exceptional writer. I'm still curious if he would be able to
make a movie or a TV show.

~~~
ekianjo
> He is indeed an exceptional writer.

I almost choked on that one. He is exceptional good at coming up with ideas
but writing wise he is absolutely terrible and gets worse over time. Way too
verbose where it does not have to be.

~~~
scollet
Isn't the heavy-handed approach part of the charm? I can appreciate the
bluntness without having to compare it to other media, although I agree with
you.

~~~
ekianjo
Its part of the charm if you accept that every Kojima game will be flawed in
the same way forever from now on. Its like the George Lucas syndrome, the more
Kojima gets his way the less focused his productions are. Creators benefit
also when listening a little to their critics.

I also think tone matters a lot in games. MGS1 lives in this kind of comic
book, science fiction tone and is perfect in that regard. But something like
mgs5 feels like a caricature in every way as it tries to be like a comics and
realistic at the same time. It just does not work.

~~~
scollet
I see what you mean. I was a late adopter so it's a bit out of my scope. I
would hope that they can tackle a horror game again and bring us the modern
Silent Hill.

------
skuthus
If anyone is interested in checking out a compelling Kojima Title from the
Gameboy Advance Era, look no further than Boktai
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boktai:_The_Sun_Is_in_Your_Han...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boktai:_The_Sun_Is_in_Your_Hand)

The game uses a solar senor on the cartridge to charge your weapons and
abilities. Very innovative

------
olodus
If nothing else he is interesting and makes more interesting games than most
AAA. I'm glad he is a part of the industry.

------
nikofeyn
hideo kojima's ego and level of marketing allows him to thrust himself into
the limelight more than is deserved, in my opinion. he is simply outclassed by
the likes of fumito ueda and hidetaka miyazaki in terms of gameplay, and ueda
and miyazaki are no slouches in world building either. it's just that they go
about it in vastly different and less dramatic fashion than kojima. kojima is
that guy that thinks he's clever and people don't get it, meanwhile everyone
gets it and doesn't think it's clever. he's also mentioned multiple times that
he wanted to make movies, and that much is clear in his games. he makes
terrible movies in the form of video games.

------
HugoDaniel
Is it possible to play any of his games without owning a Sony PlayStation ?

~~~
karatestomp
The first MGS was re-released on the Gamecube (as "Twin Snakes"). So you could
play that with a Gamecube or Wii.

The first Metal Gear is available in English on the Nintendo Entertainment
System. Not sure about the MSX2 version. It's also included in the Gamecube
release of MGS.

No official English release for Metal Gear 2 on the MSX2. Fan translations
available.

Many of the Metal Gear Solid games have had re-releases on the Xbox 360, and
Windows ports in some cases.

Snatcher is on the Sega CD and Sega Saturn.

Policenauts, Saturn and 3DO.

He's had less-involved roles in a lot of games on other platforms, like the
Gameboy Advance (e.g. Boktai, for which he served in producer and designer
roles)

~~~
deviantfero
the first two metal gears are available in English in the HD collection
version of MGS3 (PS3, XBox360 or PS Vita).

The first metal gear available on the NES has not much to do with the real
first metal gear game, Hideo Kojima was not really involved in that adaptation
for the NES, so it isn't considered canon or anything.

If I had to pick a platform for the full experience, that'd be the PS3 and the
Legacy Collection bundle, which also includes MGS4 (physical BDD) and MGS1 as
a digital download, I'm not sure if it's still available, but when it was, it
was a great bundle.

~~~
lokedhs
If you are going to play the early MGS, play the MSX version instead. It's
really good, and what I've seen from the NES version, it's quite bad.

