Hideo Kojima Changed Death Stranding 2 Because People ‘Like it Too Much'

Geek Feed

18-06-2025

Death Stranding was already polarizing when it came out, and with the second game incoming, it's been revealed that 'polarizing' is exactly what Hideo Kojima wants out of his games.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Death Stranding 2 composer Woodkid reveals that Kojima opened up to him about a problem early in production where play testers 'liked it too much.' Woodkid explained:
'There's a key moment where we had a discussion, probably halfway [through] when we were doing the game, where he came to me and he said, 'We have a problem.' Then he said, 'I'm going to be very honest, we have been testing the game with players and the results are too good. They like it too much. That means something is wrong; we have to change something.'
According to Woodkid, Kojima thought that if the game was being generally well-received, that means that it's 'not triggering enough emotions.' Woodkid continued to explain:
'And he said, 'If everyone likes it, it means it's mainstream. It means it's conventional. It means it's already pre-digested for people to like it. And I don't want that. I want people to end up liking things they didn't like when they first encountered it, because that's where you really end up loving something. And that was really a lesson for me; not doing stuff to please people, but to make them shift a little bit and move them.''
If you've followed Hideo Kojima, you'll know that he's considered to be a modern auteur, and even though he's admittedly not for everyone, he does have a loyal fanbase who are always in for the ride that Kojima is promising them.
We don't know if DS2 will end up polarizing enough, but maybe Kojima is aiming for The Last of Us Part II levels of backlash. I wonder how it will change the movie adaptation.
Watch out for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach when it comes to PS5 on June 24.