Despite word that Hideo Kojima made Death Stranding 2: On the Beach a weirder game in response to early player feedback that was apparently "too good," a lead dev actually says he aimed to make the game in a way that it would be more likely for players to see the game through to the end.
The comments arose from the game's co-composer Woodkid, however, Kojima clarified what actually happened after focus tests, saying that he actually made the game "more playable," and rather, he didn't want the game to be something that is "digestible." Kojima explained, "Something that is not digestible stays in that person for a long time. So that's what I meant by, 'I want to do things differently.'"
Now, speaking to PC Gamer, Death Stranding 2 lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike further clarifies the story, saying, "Kojima wanted more people to enjoy the game all the way to the end. This was an order he provided." Yoshiike explains that because the first game was forced to be "very elaborate" as they "introduced all the new concepts and what the world is like," player feedback was that the game "might've been a little bit slow."
He continues, "In the second game, we didn't need to provide too many worldbuilding elements; we could make it less elaborate. For completionists, they can enjoy it, but at the same time, people who don't necessarily care about it that much, we made sure they can follow the story through other supplemental elements within the game. That was one of the design choices that we made."
"We've gotten a lot of feedback that it's much easier to recommend DS2 to people." Yoshiike explains, adding, "We're able to see the metrics, and we saw that people progress much further than they previously had. So that was just as we designed, I think."
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