Death Stranding's Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa establish new strands in Singapore visit

When IGN came out with a 6.8/10 score for Death Stranding, I was kind of expecting it, honestly. 

This was supposed to be the return to form by video game auteur Hideo Kojima, years after he was pushed out of his former home ground Konami — the very company that put out the man’s globally beloved Metal Gear Solid series. But after years of gorgeous-yet-puzzling game trailers and a star-studded cast that spouted dialogue that didn’t make sense, the pre-launch reviews that dropped made it clear that Kojima’s new magnum opus had been bogged down by towering suitcases of hype. 

But then I actually played Death Stranding for myself. And I’ve loved every minute of it. 

Contrary to the general criticism of the game being boring and over-bloated, I found it refreshing mainly because it’s like nothing I’ve ever played before. In lieu of becoming an increasingly god-tier killer as in every other power fantasy games, Death Stranding actively reminds you that you are a powerless pacifist, whose noble job is to connect people together in an America plagued by mysterious phantoms and abominable separatists. 

Sure, the typical Kojima hallmarks — unnecessarily lengthy cutscenes, super-corny plots, confusing terminology, exposition for days — were plenty and plenty tiresome, but the game itself proved to be fun. Even if half your time is spent managing inventory. 

The motif of Death Stranding is about connections, and Kojima definitely delivered that message in mint condition during his visit to Singapore on Sunday (Nov 18). Victoria Theatre played host to his appearance on our shores as part of his World Strand Tour, an expedition that involves visits across various major cities worldwide to meet fans. 

Sunday saw the typically quiet venue along Empress Place abuzz with Kojima otakus who were, like me, surprised by how much they actually like Death Stranding. It proved to be a big enough phenomenon for fans to queue up in droves to get their hands on exclusive (and expensive) Kojima Productions merch and even dress up as some of the game’s characters. 

Inside the theatre itself, the atmosphere was electric — even after everyone had to watch a few Death Stranding cutscenes from the game that we already had to sit through during gameplay. But when Kojima appeared on stage, it was extra and less-than-subtle, which is totally on-brand for the 56-year-old video game maker. 

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That BDE entrance was followed by a rather standard Q&A session alongside Kojima’s longtime collaborator Yoji Shinkawa, the art director responsible for so many memorable characters and mecha designs in past Metal Gear Solid games. 987FM radio DJ Joakim Gomez lobbed (pre-approved) questions at the duo while Kojima Productions’ head of marketing and communications Aki Saito did the dutiful job of translating everything. 

The conversation provided some further insights into casting (basically, his circle of famous friends guilt-tripped him into including them in his video game) to the soundtrack (his fave is Bring Me The Horizon's 'Ludens' and he's a big fan of CHVRCHES). The panel concluded with Death Stranding delivery cases being passed down from the crowd to team Kojima, where they opened it up to reveal hundreds of thank-you notes from local fans and dozens of Singaporean souvenirs. 

Then came the time when they assured that everyone in the hall would walk away with pictures taken together with Kojima and Shinkawa. And boy, was it a well-oiled machine. To make things run efficiently, no autograph requests were allowed, and each attendee only had a few seconds to say hello, take a photo, and bugger off. A minder mentioned that Kojima doesn’t like handshakes, but I heard a conflicting account from a friend who interviewed him that he actually offered his hand out to her. 

It sure is hard to form connections when you can’t shake hands. Eh, it’s probably to quicken the process and reduce the chances of any germ transference. 

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Handshake or none, it’s still pretty major for one of the world’s iconic game makers to drop by Singapore to meet fans. Take a gander at some choice pictures below to see what happened. 

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ilyas@asiaone.com