Death Stranding is one of the most eagerly anticipated games to be released this year. Developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4, the game’s launch was accompanied by a world tour, where game creator Hideo Kojima visited Paris, London, Berlin, NY, SF, Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Seoul, and Singapore!

The sold-out Death Stranding World Tour in Singapore was held at the Victoria Theatre last 17th November 2019, with Kojima as well as designer Yoji Shinkawa and head of Marketing & Communications Aki Saito in attendance. SO JAPAN was able to sit in and catch snippets from their hugely popular stage appearance.

Kojima: About the Game’s Mechanics

“Death Stranding encourages a lot of different play styles. Some people would like to experience the story, some people would just like to build roads, and some people would just like to deliver items — and I adjusted the game to be able to cater to all these people,” the famed director explained.

“But the more important thing in the game is that you have a ladder or a rope, and you are using it for yourself. People all over the world see that same ladder and use it for their benefit — as seen by their “Likes”, it changes how you go about the world. You learn to think about yourself and others,” Kojima emphasized.

Kojima: Regarding Casting

“We all have our favourite artists, and I contacted them, and met them, and gained their mutual trust — we agreed to work together in the future. And once we settled on a schedule, I brought them on. At the time I was doing another project “P.T.” — but as you know, “P.T.” was cancelled. But then the opportunity came to make a new game, and I decided I would make them the lead characters,” noted Kojima.

“Norman (Reedus) was really worried about me when all sorts of things started to happen. Even (Guillermo) Del Toro was a little sad. And then Nicolas (Winding Refn) was a little sad too — so it was all about this connection, and it was Nicolas who had a connection to Mads (Mikkelsen),” he said cheekily.

Shinkawa: Regarding Character Design

“(Working with the actors’ likenesses) was difficult and not difficult at the same time. First of all, we didn’t understand how the world was set at first — just like you guys. So we used that to create a world, and then fill in the details– which was the difficult part. I spoke with Director Kojima, going back and forth, and then made the design — and this process was repeated several times,” said Shinkawa.

“But the good thing about working with the actors was that they used their own acting abilities to inform the character, and that was really helpful in a good way,” the renowned designer concluded.

The rest of the afternoon wrapped up with the Kojima Productions team receiving fan letters and souvenirs from the enthusiastic Singapore crowd. There were also souvenir photos and autograph sessions for several lucky winners of Playstation Asia’s contests.

Overall, it was an amazing chance for Kojima Productions superfans to get a chance to see the rockstar director up close, and with more projects in the pipeline for the DS universe, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Kojima will be back in Singapore soon.