Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - We Played Death Stranding 2 For 30 Hours - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Wishlist Now!Empyreal Steam Page - https://nwzo.io/click/dzexr/ Empyreal PlayStation Store page - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10012299 Empyreal Xbox Store Page - https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/empyreal/9nv4j14zzqqn Go to http://auraframes.com and use code KINDAFUNNY to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/kindafunny to get 10% off your first month. Blessing went to Tokyo and played Death Stranding 2: On The Beach - He came back and gave Andy his thoughts AND recorded a conversation with Dan Ryckert and Skill Up. Follow Skill Up: https://bsky.app/profile/skillup.bsky.social Follow Dan Ryckert: https://bsky.app/profile/danryckert.com Thank you for the support! Run of Show - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey gamers, welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast for Thursday, May 8th, 2025. I am Andy Cortez, and I'm joined by the Koji Pro Blessing Adioje Jr. Good day, Andy. Good day, blessing. Feels like yesterday. It feels like yesterday. It feels like yesterday. Because we're recording this yesterday.

Yeah, absolutely. This is the Kind of Funny Gamescast each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest previews, reviews, and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad-free, watch us record them live, and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions and Super Chats as we go. I mean, you could still do that here, but this one has a big pre-recorded element to it, so we won't be able to read them live. I'm sorry.

Apologies there. But you can also maybe send in Super Chats for the following day. I'll let them know. Let them know. Well, here's the deal. It was a real obscure message. I hope the thing you get it's about. The following day, I believe, is also

also pre-reported. Damn. But here's the thing. On Monday, the plan is to do a death straining to all of your questions answered. Wow. Podcasts.

That's massive. So, like, if you have any big questions coming out of this preview, write them in on Monday, and we will talk all about them. Massive. Housekeeping, remember, Greg is rocking Pax East Thursday.

And you need to be a part of it. That's today. That's today. Yeah, that is today. At 11 a.m. Eastern Time, Greg's the keynote speaker kicking off Pax East and we'll be doing a fireside chat with Final Fantasy and Expedition 33's Benjamin Star. At 2 p.m. Eastern Time, he is hosting the Mafia, the old country panel with the devs. And both of those things, by the time this comes out, have already happened. You can go back and watch the Vods. Go back and watch them, everybody.

You're about to win his history this Friday tomorrow. Snowbike Mike, the most athletic man in his own mind, is embarking on the most daring quest yet, going step for step with Stam Porter Bridges in a literal marathon stream on a treadmill. Join Roger and Mike this Friday as they attempt to do a full play-through of death-stranding one through the weekend, but they can only do it with your support. Will Mike and Roger break this treadmill and have to drive to Andy's home at 1 a.m. to borrow his, find out Friday on Twitch. I also got a random text from Roger saying, hey, that four or five-year-old box of beanless chili, can you bring it to the studio?

I might bring a couple of cans or so, but I'm not. going to blow my beanless chili load on a stream. Like, I'm sorry, these things are their artifacts at this point, blessing. But they've just been sitting there the whole time, right? Yeah, but I mean, like, they're collecting legacy. They're collecting legacy. They're collecting dust and legacy, you know? We, remember, we're an 11-versed business all about live talk shows. Today, you already got games daily, and that was about something cool. I don't know what it was, but maybe they delayed GTA6 again. Oh, no. After Games cast,

is a sponsored stream where I'm going to be sitting here and we're playing that old Imperial game I'm playing with Snowbike Mike and Nick Scarpino we're going to be playing through that for quite a while so that'll be a nice little sponsored stream

hope you all tune in for that thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs Omega Buster and Delaney Twining Today we're brought to you by Imperial and ORAFraims and Better Help but we'll tell you about that later

for now let's start with what is the topic of the show Dots, dots. Bless, you're a galavanton out there in Japan. You got to visit Kojima Productions and got to play a decent chunk of Death Stranding 2. I got to play up to 40% of Death Stranding 2. So I was in Tokyo for a week at Kojima Productions

for about four days, essentially full-time playing Death Stranding 2. They allowed us to play up to 30 hours of the game. I actually don't know where my final hour count is. I think technically on my demo station, it must have hit at least 30 hours. But like, we were getting lunches, right? Can I go pee? No. You sit there and you play the fucking game.

No, but like obviously, like, you know, there's times where I'm taking breaks. There's times. Or like at a certain point, me, Dan Rackere, and Skillup went off to record a little preview conversation that you're going to hear later in the show because that is the second half to this episode, right? So this is going to be chopped up into two chunks. This first chunk is going to be me. setting the stage for my own personal preview

of Destraining to you and giving context for what you're going to get later, which is yeah, me, Skillup and Dan Riker talking all about our experiences with the game because for this kind of preview, which is unlike any other preview that I've experienced and unlike most other previews that I've ever heard of, right?

Like, playing up to 30 hours of a video game this early in a preview fashion is fucking bizarre. And I figured it'd be really cool to have a conversation with other people who got that experience as well so that like we can break down we can get into the meat of it because between the three of us that's about 70 to 90 hours of gameplay depending on where we land as far as how far we made it into the game and if this is your first time listening to a gaming podcast or if you're just kind of interested in kojima video games as a whole the way previews usually work is

you either play something at home locally or you fly out somewhere and you'll play something for anywhere from two to five hours yep my dragon age veil guard preview was I believe a five to six hourish preview as well. But what they do is they say, let's shop you in the beginning, where you kind of like, you know, getting your feet wet and then feet wet. Yeah, you're getting your feet wet, yeah.

Oh, good. That's correct. Good. Get them feet wet. You know, I don't know where that comes from. Yeah, I don't know. It's like a pool. Test out the waters.

Yeah, test out the waters. Yeah, test out the water, so you get your feet wet. And then we'll fast forward you to a different section in the game where you're a bit more geared up, and then we'll show you what it feels like to be level 50 in the game with all this other gear. you can get a kind of total representation

of what your experience could be when the final product comes out and this time they said what have you just played 30 something hours which is incredible and again I agree with these super odd really really odd this was one of the

coolest slash weirdest preview events I got to take a part of so like I mentioned up to 30 hours right there also there isn't that many restrictions around what we can talk about like we can talk about story stuff we can talk about like all of the items, tools, upgrade systems.

Like the only restrictions they gave us were like three story moments. We can't talk about licensed music and we can't talk about like the preppers in the game that deliver missions and like who appears and stuff like that. Outside of that, they're pretty open as far as like, you know, talk about whatever you want, which there's a deeper conversation there as far as like, huh, you guys are very forthcoming with allowing us to talk about the game, which makes me wonder what's in the second half of the game because so much of what we play. appeared in the trailers that we've seen for Death Training 2 as well. So I'm very fascinated about the back half of this game, but obviously this conversation isn't about the back half. We're talking about that first 40% of the game that I got to play. And you know what a lot of the conversation is that you had with Dan Reichert and Skillup

that you'll be seeing after when we get to our ads or whatever. You know what a good chunk of that conversation is because you were there and you're in the video. But you mentioned that there's a lot of other stuff that maybe you weren't able to get to in your Descheny experience that you'd like to. kind of, you know, speak about now. Exactly. So that's what I want to spend this first about 20 minutes talking about, right? It's the stuff I didn't get to get to in that conversation with me, Skullup, and Dan Riker. Tell us all about it, bless.

Well, one more thing I want to mention, too, is that they didn't allow either, they didn't allow phones or laptops or anything electronic at the, at the PlayStation's. No shoes. Only socks. No shoes, no sock. And so they handed out physical notebooks. And I have about 22 pages of notes. That's awesome.

That I took handwritten while playing this game. The place I want to start off with is one of the final notes I took during my last day of playing, which reads like this. I think this is going to be really hard to beat for game of the year. Everything is on point. The story, performances, depth and gameplay, music, fidelity, detail, fun, combat, spirit. This game has it all. One of the things you're going to hear the most in the preview cycle for this game are the words Metal Gear Solid 5. No.

Oh, God, don't do it to me. Legitimately, that's one of the things you're going to hear the most. I think a lot of people are going to make those comparisons. And I think the important thing is to, I guess, angle those comparisons in the correct way. And of course, me and Skelup and Dan talk about it as well, where, um, desk draining too. It's very much destraining. It's not a different game. It's you are delivering.

You are doing all of those systems. But it's filtered through, I think, a lot of the quality, a lot of the depth, a lot of the fun of Melliger Solid 5. And I think one of the bigger changes that you see in this game is the combat where you play Destraining One. Of course, yeah. I was part of the OG review crew. No way. We were on the, in the old studio with Fran Mirabella. No way.

It was a very different time. Well, in Deserating One, you remember encountering those enemy camps that are like the human enemy camps, not the BTs. And that shit sucked. Like, you were, you would get there. And it is the thing of, okay, I'm running away from these guys that are chasing me. Yeah, you're a bowl of them. In Deserating, two, they made a big chance. change where every bullet is a rubber bullet. And so, like, you are just knocking people out for the

most part. Right. And they've turned these camps from the frustrating thing of Destrating One that nobody really wanted to do into essentially like middle of your solid five, like you're infiltrating, you're sneaking through, you're taking people out with guns. You're basically solid snake in these camps now. And so it went from me kind of being like, ah, kind of dreading it a bit to now, I'm excited to encounter a human enemy camp because they've provided you with so many tools. They've provided you with different kinds of weapons. One of the first things I do as I'm approaching a camp is

I will either create a tower with my PCC, which is like the thing you used to build things in Destraining, or usually somebody else on the network has already built one for me. And so I'll hop into that and mark every enemy. Oh, so it's the same device that you use to make a bridge or a

whatever. Yeah. Anything in the game. Yeah, anything in the game. Any of the big structures in the game. You can use to make a watchtower and then yeah, if you use it, it'll, like, give you this tower view over an enemy camp. It automatically marks people. You don't even have to mark people yourself if you're using that tower. You can, if you're, like, on a high ledge or something and you're, like, you're just scoping in. And if you want to, like, tag people one at a time, you have that option. But what I did was, yeah, I went to a watch tower, tagged everybody, went down, snuck in, and I would either, well, I'm mainly sniping them.

I'm mainly going in because, like, at a certain mission, I found a sniper that was a non-lethal sniper and I'm like let's fucking go. I can pick people off one by one and then as soon as somebody sees me, it is machine gun them down with my rubber bullets and then get whatever package or objective that I was trying to do. And why can't you kill them? Because

that'll cause a void out if you remember Death Stranding 1. Killing people is very dangerous because the whole area will explode. It's basically a big ass nuclear bomb that just kind of goes off. Creates a giant ass crater. Exactly. So the combat feels very improved from Death Raining 1, but even beyond that, right?

in talking about the MGS 5 of it all. The sandbox gameplay feels expanded. You know, there's more tools. There's more weather systems that are really cool. This game has a day-night cycle, which I forgot that Descrating One didn't have. There are sandstorms. When it rains, the tide will rise in the rivers or lower a rise. One of the first things that happened in my playthrough, as I'm like making my way walking toward the first destination, is there was a gatequake, which are essentially like what they call earthquakes in the game.

and the earth shook and then a piece of like the mountain that I was on crumbles down in front of me in real time and that shit looked fucking cool whoa yeah that shit looked really cool it's similar to seeing how in though that most recent long-ass trailer

the Kojima 10 minute one where we saw the avalanche and the water breaking through the you know like that it seems like they're going real deep with details like that exactly and so much of it feels I think finely tuned based off of what Destraining one is a game, right?

One is as a game, which is walking around these beautiful environments, delivering packages, right? Like, everything about Destraining, too, feels tuned towards making that experience more engaging and more fun and more interesting. So you have those weather effects. Real quick, just to get back to the infiltration portion of it,

were you ever at odds with having too much shit on your back and carrying too many things? And did you ever wrestle with, man, I want to I want to like infiltrate to see what's up with this little enemy encampment, but I have 12 fucking

box, Amazon boxes on my back. How do, like, were you ever at odds of like, ah, maybe I should go deliver things first before I come back here? A lot of the missions that I ended up having, I wouldn't necessarily need to go, oftentimes, if I'm infiltrating,

it's because I need to get something out of there. So it's usually, like, I'll take people out and then grab what I need and then get out of there. Or, yeah, if I have a bunch of shit that I'm carrying, I either go around, or like, sometimes I'll just drop them off. Like the vehicles aren't hard to come by once you want to get far enough into the game. And so quite a few times I would just like stack everything in the vehicle and then go take out everybody in the camp and they come back and get my vehicle and then, you know, do my thing.

And so there's strategies around it. We got to do like a group interview with Kojima as well. And that was one of the questions that he tackled was around like the camps and stuff. And he mentioned that like you would watch people play and he would be surprised that more people just don't drop their shit and then do the camps. Like a lot of people apparently while play testing would just straight up take their shit into the camps and Coojee was like, oh, that's not what I anticipated, but all right, cool, like play how you want to kind of thing. Were you using a lot of different vehicles and what, because we've seen a lot of different variety with

that little paddle boat that he's got. We've seen the motorcycle and little trikes or whatever. What sort of things were you using in the game? A lot of trikes, a lot of larger vehicles. The game has a lot more pass through, paths through upgrading like yourself. and upgrading, like, vehicles and stuff. So there was one vehicle. You know how when you go into, like, one of the structures and you can, like, look at what other people have in the garage

and kind of, like, take their vehicle because everything is shared socially in the game. I was surprised when I found certain vehicles where I'm driving through and it has, like, a little auto turret in the thing. And then also, like, a little thing to automatically grab packages. And so I'm driving in this big truck, and I'm seeing packages on the ground, which, of course, you can pick up to then finish whoever

delivery who dropped the package. And I'm just automatically picking that shit up and it made life real easy for me. Hell yeah. But keeping it top level, because one of the things I want to mention too is the fact that this is one of the rare Kojima direct sequels, if you know what I mean? So like to explain that further, when I talk about Metal Gear Solid, for example, Meliger Solid 1 and Metal Gear Solid 2 is obviously the same franchise, same series, but very like different as far as the jump of you are now playing as,

write in you are you know like kind of have a different feel of what very different story for meliger solid one you hop into meliger solid three and it is you are um you know playing as naked snake you're playing as big boss um in a jungle sort of environment different feel melancher solid four feels very different from mjs three meliger solid five feels way different from all the ms games death training two in the first uh 30 hours or so of playing feels very much like a direct sequel to Death Raining 1 in a way that I think has allowed Kojima Productions to really go very iterative as far as how you're making this game better.

And I think it's way to its benefit. Again, that's not to say that something crazy doesn't happen in the second half because I don't know and I'm still kind of expecting that. But all the things that I'm talking about here as far as what they've added into Dest Raining 2, they feel like direct answers and reactions to what people might have wanted post-Dest Rating 1. So like, I made like a list and I read this list. on the conversation with

Skillup and Dan, so I'm going to repeat this, right? But, like, you know, when you're talking about the ways that this game feels reactive to all the criticisms of Destrating One, right? The combat is fun and engaging this time around. It gets you into the game quicker. Like, there wasn't, like, long-ass cutscenes to start this thing, right? Like, immediately, they're

like, all right, here's a few shots of the environment to, like, set the tone, and now, like, you are walking to your first mission. There's more dynamic weather and obstacles going on, like I talked about. There's more tools and upgrade systems. the story feels easier to follow in more interesting. And I think that's the balance of shit is still weird.

They're still working off of all the rules and everything set up and death's rating one. However, one of the things they've added here is a glossary system that works kind of like active time war from Final Fane's 16. Where as soon as they mention anything weird, there's a button prompt that's like, do you want to read? What are Dooms? Yeah, yeah. No, legitimately. That's awesome. What is Dooms?

What is the chiral network? you know like what are bt's what's a what's a bb like a lot of these things are from Destrating 1 but in case you've forgotten anything here is a glossary that is letting you know in real time as they're mentioned in the cutscenes the game is more beautiful that was the first thing I noticed as I started the game up is like the it starts off like I mentioned with shots of the environment and for a split second I thought it was I thought it was like real raising your hand mr. Coochoo is just real I legitimately thought I was like are these live action

like is this footage of actual like just shots of America so like the game looks fucking fantastic and we're playing on base PS5s we're not playing on PlayStation 5 pros a couple days ago we did our reaction to the GTA 6 trailer

and one of the things that we talked about was like at the end of the trailer to mention like captured on on PS5 from like base PS5 and I think either Roger or Mike were like no way this is capture on base vs 5 and for me in my mind I'm like based on what I saw off of death draining 2 I believe it because the game looks fantastic the Desma engine is on full display here the motion capture for the characters looks beautiful the environments and like seeing the ridges of the mountains from far away and seeing the amount of definition um the amount of crazy lighting shit that I've seen in cut scenes in this game this game is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen in my life from a visuals perspective um it is absolutely insane. The game is bigger. The soundtrack is better. There's more

variety in the BTs and ways to deal with them. This game, I feel like, is the potential fulfillment of everything they wanted to set up in death rating one? That's kind of where I left that list of things in my notes. We saw like the 1.5 version where the director is cut. Yeah. And I thought was a really

awesome move by them to kind of show that, yeah, we kind of recognize that maybe doing a lot of this stuff isn't as fun. as it can be. We'll come out with the director's cut, introduce a lot new ability, or not abilities, but new machines and ways of traversing the world, ways with dealing, ways of dealing with enemies and things like that. And this sounds like the next logical step in Death Stranding. Yes. One of the things that Barrett was just showing was the monorail system where there are now like these

like mines that you can open up these mine structures that are similar to like the big structures that you'll happen upon to like deliver packages and shit. The mine allows you to like mine materials and stuff so you can and you can then deliver those materials and yourself and your vehicles or whatever you want to using the monorail system to like the different cities and different locations and stuff. One thing I want to ask real quick. When I was reviewing this before it came out, obviously a lot of death stranding is the strand game, the social game.

You're being helped and you're helping a lot of other people. and you're seeing it was all i've said it a million times it's always it was always danio doire's shit that i was using because i would always see his stuff pop into the game i don't know if that was just a location server-based thing i have no idea but i was that was such a massive part of it obviously with this preview it's you and a bunch of other people in the games industry yeah how did they tackle that where you're not having a library full of the internet putting up all sorts of bullshit to help you out with the game if it's you and just a bunch of other people, journalists.

They had us playing on base PS5s, like I mentioned. We're all in like a cafeteria. It's 30 different press people that are here for this event. And like the accounts that we're playing off of are like these like accounts made for the preview. Like they're just a random smattering of letters and numbers or whatever. Sadly, I couldn't play off of my own account and I couldn't keep my save. Which sucks because like it felt like the final build,

even though they did say that like this isn't the final build. We're going to update more before we ship the game. But if they didn't say that, I would have been like, oh, this is the final game. Like, it felt very finished. When I first started playing, it felt like they were like pre-canned, like, just random names or random, like,

default, I guess, like, characters or accounts that would fill in those social, like, here's a bridge, here's a, you know, a line to drop down, or here's whatever. As I kept playing, I started seeing those random smattering of numbers,

and letters that looked similar to the account that I was using so I'm pretty sure those were the other press people. Okay, cool. Yeah, so like it was a slow build at first but yeah. I think it started populating more and more. Things started populating more and more that I was like oh, this is clearly other people that are here for this event which is pretty cool. Did they give off anything that

like revealed in any way why we shouldn't have connected was a big theme in the trailer? Because like the connection portion that may be getting too spoiler but the connection portion of Destraining was we connect, we help each other, this game is very much about, you know, helping out your fellow neighbor or whatever.

Was there any sort of reveals that showed you, oh, this is what they're taking away from us this time around or something? So this is to shift into the story portion of this, right? Which is the thing that I, we didn't really get to set it up well during the conversation that we have later in the episode. Regarding the should we have connected thing, one of the things that Kojima talked about during the his group interview that we did with him

was about like how much the game sort of changed during the pandemic and like how some of his ideas even changed during the pandemic as far as like connection and how important it is to be in person and have those like he called them like in real life coincidences

of when you hang out with somebody in person versus online where even though you had that connection it still feels segmented. There's something and this is he also he kind of talked about this being the reason why he wanted to have this like in-person physical event where people fly out for four days is like he wanted people to be in person with each other he wanted people to like hang out

and meet each other and have these coincidences and all this stuff right i say all that to say that like i could see there being the i guess um either i guess the leaning in of oh yeah should we have connected because of that right as far as what it means to be in person with each other there are things that happen in the game that i could see being that but i'd I feel like for me in the time that I had with the story, I didn't really get the, oh, this is like the exact, like, this is a big mistake. Yeah, there's a big mistake. I could see us getting there, though. Like, there are things that are built where I'm like, okay, I could see how this could possibly ramp up.

Keeping on the story. So you start off, right? Of course, you're playing a San Porter Bridges. One of the first missions has you just like going home after a hike, right? And you would get home and you meet up with fragile. You know fragile. She's like the leader of the fragile express. But I'm not fragile.

You have a conversation with her. And in that conversation, she says, Sam, I want you to go to Mexico. Huh. And then you go to Mexico. Oh. That's where the game starts. The game starts with sending you down to Mexico.

Oh, shit. Yeah. And you start off the game by reconnecting Mexico to the Cairo Network. Because the... So, of course, in the first game, you connect the UCA via the Cairo Network. It was the whole big thing that you did. Because the Cairo network is online,

there are now these essentially like AI delivery services. There's a name for it. I wrote it down. You have the APEC, the automated public assistance company, and they produce the A-PAS 4,000, which is the automated porter assistance system. They're taking our jobs. They're taking our jobs.

Fragile Express, no more. Yeah, Fragile Express went out of business because you have all these automated delivery systems. now in the USA. Guess what, though? You don't have that in other countries. And so you go to Mexico, reconnect Mexico,

things happen, and then I'm jumping around because I don't want to spoil actually cool shit. Things happen that lead you to Australia. Just a quick hop and skip to jump away.

A quick hop and skip to Australia because there are these things called plate gates that have opened up, which are essentially these ways that you can transport to different continents. the bulk of this game, at least what I played, takes place in Australia.

Mexico kind of works as the prologue, or like a beefy prolog, really. I was there for about five hours of game time. And then you then get led to Australia, and Australia is where most of this game takes place. Wow. I would not have expected that. Yeah. I don't want to get more into story. I'm sure a lot of other people are going to cover story bits because they do not hold us back in terms of what we can talk about. but like story shit is cool. What I do want to talk about

or I'm just looking at the characters you're writing down. I'm not going to say them, but this is, well, that's the thing is that now I want to get into characters because I think the characters are more fascinating thing here

where you have doll man. Dawn man, of course, who's seen Doll man in the trailers. He's the puppet. 10 frames per second. That goes at 10 frames per second. Dalman is fucking awesome. He has a great personality.

He functions sort of like Mamir from God of War where he's just on your waist. He's just hanging out with you the whole time. there's a backstory that that explains his existence that's like two sentences and when they said it I was like oh that makes sense and that's awesome I was like okay no you explained it say no more yeah say no more that's all he needs to say but he's fucking awesome one of the things that Dan Riker told me during his gameplay because sometimes like he'll talk to you dog man will like be on your waist and like give you suggestions or like say little things um apparently

while Dan Rackert was playing. Dan was like about to cross a river and Dalman was like, are you sure you want to? And like, as his waist went into the water, Dalman starts, like, starts drowning in the water. And Dan was like, it was really fucking cool. That is such a Gojima detail, you know? Yeah, exactly.

There's Tarman. Tarman is the pilot of the DHV Magellan, which is a drawbridge ship. Drawbridge is essentially the new Fragile Express. It's Fragile's new company that she started. the D.HV. Magellan basically looks like a head of a metal gear. Yeah, that's what we saw on the trailer.

Yeah, but it's a ship. The psilandthropus, it looks like. Exactly. And there's cutscene shit that happens with Tar Man. That's fucking awesome. I love the character work this time around. It feels like they put in a lot more work into like making these characters. One, feel a bit more like a family because it has more of a, I'm putting together

a team vibe. Okay. And Death Training 2 and then Death Rating 1. Des Rating 1 felt like you're kind of like traveling and meeting these people, but then after the chapter's over, you meet the next person. Here, you're building the team of Drawbridge, essentially. You start off meeting them, but then you bring people in as you go. I mean, I was already sold, you know?

You have Rainey, who is played by Shioly Kutsuna. She has one of my favorite performances in the game. I won't say much about her story, but her back story's fucking cool as well. You have Tomorrow, who's played by Elle Fanning. She also has one of my favorite missions in the game, and she's fucking cool as shit. there's Neil who is the solid snake looking character that we've seen in the trailers he also had one of the coolest moments in the preview and it was one of the ones that everybody talked about by day three of the preview

where everybody's like you get to the Neil stuff you get to the Neil stuff it starts off essentially like you are in you know how with Mads-Mickleson in the first game you have those pocket dimension things that you'd go into you kind of had that with Neil in this game where you enter and there are just fireworks going off and like crazy lighting effects happening everywhere and then Neil shows up and it does the thing where like his face flashes like skull type shit right here like bear's showing it here this happens and then you get into a boss fight with him and it's the most MGS 4 coded boss fight of all time that's awesome yeah um you then have Charlie who's a mannequin man and I won't see much

about Charlie yeah yeah so I'm in the trailer too uh but we're like the way that the character animated the mouth like it was drawn on almost yes kind of yeah that's right that's charlie um those are some of the major new characters thank you bear this is charlie um won't say much about him because i don't want to i just don't want to say much about of course you know but charlie's fucking cool other things so that's just story and characters there other things real quick before i pass off the conversation to me skill up and dan there's a music player in this game i love this music player. I can't talk about what the license tracks are, but I will say overall

soundtrack, fucking phenomenal. I love the license songs. There are some songs that I kept playing back. You can make your own playlist within the game, and there are certain songs where I was like, I'm having this on repeat, man. I remember calling in Piquad and getting to Melanchocod. It has that feel where it's like, oh man, they really nailed it with the soundtrack.

And like the soundtrack only plays if you're within the Cairo network, which is some Cojima bullshit. Yeah, yeah, but I like it though. there was a mission where I had to deliver a kangaroo to an animal shelter and fiery comets started raining from the sky and the fire effects in this game look insane again I can't say Sir, is this real?

I can't say enough good shit about the Desma engine how well this shit runs. I think the BTs are creepier this time around there are big floating ones called watchers that creep me the fuck out but you have a lot more tools to deal with them there's this blood boomerang that I unlocked Oh shit. Yeah, partway through the game

where basically like you inject this boomerang with your blood and you can throw it and then catch it. And I was like, that became my primary way of dealing with the BTs. Oh, speaking of, sir, is this real? There was a random delivery I was making, right? Where an airship

flies over me that I've never seen before and drops a bunch of like men made of tar essentially and they attacked me. they like they like ran at me and blew up on me and I don't know what that was Was it like the hands that grab your feet? Yes

Was it like those dudes like that kind of material? Yeah that kind of material yeah But they dropped out of an airship And it happened and it wasn't a mission It wasn't like it wasn't a main mission It was like random suborder So you're saying almost like the Gannon arms And tears of the kingdom

Where it's kind of like you're just randomly in the world And they just come at you But it only happened once And I didn't The people who I talked to didn't experience Like I asked Dan I'm not crazy Literally I look at Dan

And I was like I was like hey Dan There was an airship They just flew over me And it dropped a bunch of like Tarmin and they attacked me Did you see this? And Dan's like no

What the fuck are you talking about? I'm like all right cool All right cool There was a mission where I delivered a pizza But I had to deliver at night To keep it cool Oh sorry Roger Pizza ingredients I should say

Oh okay Because then the next mission I delivered the pizza Any license food snacks, drinks, Monster Energy drink? I don't think I can talk about that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much all the stuff that I wanted to get out

before the conversation with me, Skillup and Dan. This is crazy for you to be like, it's going to be really hard to beat this for Game of the Year. If it continues on the pace. If it continues on this, I had such a good time. I recorded for Gregway today an hour long about daily diary that I did. made, right? So like after every day of playing the game, I'll come back to my hotel and record

about 10 to 15 minutes. Let me just talk about my day in Desraining 2 and I stitched it together into a video. And that is up right now. As a Gregway, people want to check it out. But one of the things I talked about during that is how therapeutic this game was where, you know, say what you want about like the action's better, right? It's more engaging, it's more fun, yada, yada. One of the special things I think this game does, and Destrating 2 just enhances on is the therapeutic feeling of just being in a world that is kind of serene and just being about walking from place to place, right? Like, it reminds me of playing

fallout and just like being in those in between points of I'm just walking to Diamond City or I'm playing Skyrim and I'm just like trying to get over this mountain or whatever. It's a game that is totally built around that experience and legitimately like I felt rejuvenated. Like I'm 25 hours into this game and I'm like I don't want to stop playing this. I just want to play this game and relax, right?

Like, I was kind of dreading this at first because I knew I wasn't going to get to take my save home and I was like, I don't want to play 30 hours and then have to replay the 30 hours for the review. I am looking forward now to replaying those 30 hours and just living in death training too. Like, I don't know how it kind of like opened up my heart in this way, but it legitimately was a transformative.

That's the highest phrase I think you'd give is that you put 30 hours into a game and you're like, yeah, I'll do that all over. I'll do it so easily. Yeah, like, I can't wait to get back to it. And before we get to skill up in Dan Reichert and you, right after the word from our sponsors, I wanted to ask,

how many times were there where you were talking to other journalists or other people at this event, other press, and you all had not experienced what the other had experienced? Oh, that's a really good question. I think quite a bit. This open world feels a bit more, like, refined and inspired. than Death Stranding 1's open world, right? Like, it feels like things could happen a bit more in the moment.

Like I mentioned the Tarman, Tarmine dropping down from the drop ship thing, right? Like, there are quite a few, it feels a bit more, I don't want to say fuller, because it's still an empty, big world, right? But like it feels like things can happen a bit more in the moment. It feels like gameplay can be a bit more emergent this time around than in previous Destanings.

And yeah, it's not like there are events happening left and right necessarily, but in talking to Dan and like hearing about how he played versus hearing about what Skillup did in his time, we all sort of had our different stories about how we tackled certain things and the ways in which we're playing and the tools that we're using. I think that's one of the bigger things

is like the amount of different tools they give you. I don't even talk about the stat system. They have like a stat leveling up system that reminds me of Skyrim in the way that the more you do something, the more that shit gets leveled up, right? Like there's like a backpack patch system where you know how the Resident Evil

has this inventory system where you have to arrange things based off like their shape or whatever. your backpack you can now put on these patches onto your backpack that'll upgrade

your actual skill or like I guess upgrade backpack shit right like those one patch I put on there that made my backpack lighter because it was like a weight patch or whatever

talismans or whatever yeah like talismans yeah that's a really good way to put it there's that there's like a skill tree sort of system here as well

there's a lot of shit in here that will change the way each player tackles the game and so in transitioning to the second half of this conversation.

Like I mentioned, talk to Dan and Skillup. Between us, we probably have around 70 to 90 hours of playtime in this game. It was a really good conversation. We recorded this conversation early on the final day. So we didn't even finish our time with the game yet. It is early on the final day.

Shout out to PlayStation for giving us a place to record because we weren't allowed to record anywhere in Kojima Productions. And so in wanting to do this, like we asked somebody from PlayStation, they're like, oh yeah, the Sony offices are around the corner. So you're going to see like a PlayStation logo on the wall. That's because we're recording in like a meeting room in PlayStation,

this conversation. And yeah, I even kicked out the PR person. Because I was like, hey, we want to make this like a private conversation between the three of us. And yeah, it was a really good conversation that I think you guys are really going to enjoy. That's really darn cool. Well, I can't wait to hear all about you, Dan Reichert and Skillups, experience with a whole bunch of hours of death chatting to, and we'll get to that right after a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Imperial.

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Visit betterhelp.com slash kind of funny to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, help.com slash kind of funny. Betterhelp.com slash kind of funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Tokyo, Japan. I'm one of your host blessing Adi L.A. Jr. I'm joined by the one and only, Dan Reichert. Hello.

Hey, man. Dude, it's going awesome. We're in Tokyo for a week. It's been a week. It's been a week. Yes. Yeah. We, of course, also have Ralph, aka Skill up Ralph.

How's it going? I wonder if this is actually my first time appearing on kind of time. I know we were talking about that. I could not remember any other times. Yeah, I hope it's not the first time. I feel like I wish it wasn't. I think it is. Yeah, but I'm glad.

I mean, it's definitely not going to be the last time, of course. Like, it's been such a fun Tokyo trip, right? We've been here for a week for probably the most unique preview opportunity that I've gotten to be a part of. Oh, in terms of just sheer gameplay quantity? I mean, they told us we're going to play like 30 hours the game. And we're on the last day right now. And yeah, we're coming on like 24 hours in game timer right now.

Yep, Sam. Same. Yeah. So there's so much to talk about, right, to set the stage a little bit, of course. We are here in Tokyo at Kojima Productions to play Death Stranding 2. We're not recording from Kojima Productions. We're recording from a remote location. But yeah, we played Death Stranding 2 for up to 30 hours is essentially the pitch to it.

I think, yeah, I'm somewhere where Dan's at as far as over 20 hours at this point. Ralph, I don't know how long you've been playing. I've been playing. I've been going to say. I deliberately slowed myself down because I was like, I got to a point where I'm like, this is really good. I love it. I don't want to spoil any more of the film itself. Because I have to play through the whole thing, do the full review. And I wanted to keep the rest of the surprises in store for myself, if you know what I mean?

So I have stopped at before you guys. Well, I don't think they talk to you then because today I came in. I had the same idea. Or it's like, okay, today I'm just going to mess around with systems. I'm going to build it. I'm going to fabricate every item, do a bunch of side stuff. and see what that unlocks. And I was doing that.

And somebody from Doom Productions came up to me. And they're like, oh, you know, this is the last day. So if you just went to focus on the story. And I told him, I was like, well, I was just going to run around and check out some combat stuff and everything. It's like, well, no, there is a specific story beat that we want you to get to. Really? So it's like, oh, okay. So I just went back.

And now I'm just going to be lying out. We have several hours left to play. So I don't know what that story beat is because we've seen a lot. All right. There's a lot of story beats that happened. So the reason why I wanted to have you guys. here to record a conversation about death training too is it's the fact that yeah this is a unique preview opportunity we're here in Tokyo we played up to 30 hours of the game right for us i think 20 something

hours and then ralph said a little bit under and this is one where there's so much to chew on and so much to talk about and i figure one of the best ways to talk about it would be with other people that have actually played the game uh because that's going to allow for the deepest dive possible for kind of funny at the very least right and it's a very fun one to discuss with people as these days have ended and we like go back to the hotel and stuff we're talking about it like and it keeps surprising me today blessing you just kind of like take your headphones off you're like hey dan have you seen uh like this spaceship that just flies by and a bunch of like the tar animals fall out of it from this kind of like what i yeah is this a story be no it just happened it's like oh okay sure exactly so the plan for

kf content is i want to do like a traditional preview with the crew we're going to do your your question's answered thing i also have a great way project that i hope comes together in the way that i'm editing it, right? But this is what I want to kind of lead with, right? It's a conversation with these guys. So getting into it, death training two, let's start with Ralph.

Ralph, how has your time been with the game so far? I mean, I think for me personally, I come into Death Stranding 2 with a perspective that like, death training one was perfect, right? I fundamentally believe that.

And I believe that from the very start. And I think there's been a huge kind of revision of that game the way it's talked about over the years where like got a very mixed reception at launch. And then I think after that people sat with a little bit. And I think now everyone realizes that yeah, actually that was a really fucking good beer. There was a director's cut where it's like myself pre-included. That's when we kind of came back and reevaluate it. Okay. Like removed from all the hype, removed from all the mystery of like what is this game going to be? Come back and on its own terms played. And I think a lot of people came around. Yeah. That's all worked for me as well.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, yeah. So coming into Descrainning, with that kind of love for the original, I was very much like, okay, so how are you going to change this up? I hope it doesn't change too much, but then at the same time, obviously,

there are a bunch of people who do want this to evolve in some way and whatever else. So my kind of like high little takeaway after like 20 plus hours of play is that like, I think Death Stranding 1 was always perfect, but it took people a while to realize that.

And I think Death Stranding 2 is the same, but it helps people realize why it's going much faster. Oh, it gets into it. The first one he took, so you have to establish so many things in that first game. Like, why are we eating these little bugs? Why are people crying?

What is? Kyrolyum and all this stuff. And like, the first one established all that. Yeah. So when this one starts, it is such a strong opening. I think everyone I've talked to, the reason, like, you're just, you know, getting to Sam's shelter where he's living with Lou. And it's playing this incredible Wood Kid song. And it's just an incredible start to the game.

Like, there's not like some long, you know, 20-minute buildup or anything like a lot of continuing games do. Yep. You're just kind of going right away, true. And it's less kind of, like, pain in the ass with the, like, leaning and falling down and stuff like that. Which is more forgiving on that front, for sure. Yeah, it's more immediately accessible than the first one. Definitely very great.

I think some people would have not enjoyed the pacing of the first game, thinking it's too slow or frustrating, whatever else. They definitely responded to that part of it in that this feels much more grab. I would say, yeah, just a smoother onboarding, and the overall pacing of the game is definitely better, for sure. Yes. If you wanted a game that was moving at a steadier clip and giving you better feedback more often, more castings, whatever else, this is definitely

to the frame on that spot. And I think that that's definitely a thing that I know. Yeah, it's funny because it's almost very non-cogem-like in that way of how quickly they get you into the game and how quickly they kind of onboard you. And I think for me, if I'm talking about my top level takeaway of death training two, it feels like death training one, except with

all the feedback taken into consideration of what people might not have enjoyed as much in death training one. I think it's taking that feedback into account and also what people did enjoy about like with phantom pain. Yes. There's a lot of phantom thing going on now. That's interesting quite because I've heard a lot of people say that. Like that's definitely been a big discussion point. And I wonder what has said, how do you come to that

good group? So the main thing that makes me think that is in the first game, I was very much, uh, I, I tailored my gameplay to avoiding combat encounters, not even combat encounters, just enemy camps and stuff because you were so discouraged from what you'd get guns and stuff. It's like, well, if you kill that guy, you got to, what was taking his body to a lake or something? Like, for an incinerator and, like, avoid out. And it's just like, so I, it very much, frustrated me that like, okay, there's these enemy camps and stuff, but like I'm not great at stealth and, you know, I'm not going to kill these guys. So I guess I'll try to bowl a gun or something. This one, it took a while for me to realize that like kind of all the weapons you get,

without exception so far that I've seen are non-lethal. It's like rubber bullets. But I mean, you're using them like assault rates called assault rifle. You get a trank grenade launcher. So you're like shooting grenades. They're like, they'll make vehicles to explode and everything. But like, you can play it like an action game. So like now if I see a band of camp, I am looking forward It's like, okay, I'm going to build a watchtower here. I'm going to spot everyone or use dollman, which we'll get to that. Dollman's my guy. Dalman's awesome. I'll tag all these dudes and everything and I'll try the stealth thing. It's kind of like how I would play the Lastima. So try stealth. I'd maybe get one or two kills and then things would go to shit. And then it's like, all right,

guns blazing. And you can do that in this one. And I don't feel like you could do that in the first one. And like the combat's really good and a phantom pain kind of way. And like all the the feedback. I'm like, yeah. Headshot in the slow-mo stuff. I think that's the, for me, the easy comparison when you want to talk about how Phantom Pain might influence this game is the combat feels like Phantom Pain light almost right like I don't think it's as to the level of stealth and combat to Phantom Pain

but there is the feel of all right there's an enemy encampment which in this Destrating One you would avoid right it was way more about the enemy camps being an obstruction to what you're doing right as opposed to in Destrating 2 the enemy camps it feels like a all right cool we're gonna go in and take everybody out it almost feels like a FARC right

almost feels like a phantom pain in that way and actually that leads to one of the more and interesting things I've seen here is that an early on part of the game has a bandit camp that has a missable important cutscene that it seems like most people saw it and I did not see and it sounds like you go into this band of camp and there's a bunch of these like red like ninja guys including everyone's describing to me I haven't even seen this yet it just sounds like gray fox killing people basically gray folks killing and I would like that's like one of my favorite scenes of all time in the first one when you walk in you see the bloody hallway and all that stuff and I missed it because I was so accustomed to

the first game was like, oh, it's a man at camp. I'm going to like step my markers around this and then go across the river. So I didn't see it. And I was asking a continuum of production to people and you're like, oh, no, if you got fast up and you didn't see it. Like you can't. So this awesome like ninja guy, I've never, I'm 30 hours in almost. I haven't seen this guy yet, you know?

Ralph, what's their take on the? I mean, I think, yeah, because I know a lot of people are talking about this. And I know a lot of people will talk about this in the coverage. And I think that I would, I would hate for anyone to kind of walk away from a preview and be like, oh, so Dysrain 2 is basically. basically like Phantom Pain 2. And it's like, it's definitely not. Like I think that fundamentally, this is still a game about delivering packages, right?

It's still a game about you and the open expanse and it's quiet and pensive. And that's the vibe of it. But I think in addition to that, there's now this very optional combat layer. Most of the time it's optional. And even when you are forced to engage in that combat, it's very surface level combat. You know, like we did this boss encounter at one point, which again, won't spoil. Incredible visuals. Holy fucking shit

And he's like basically impossible This thing runs this well on a PS5 The Decima engine is like straight out black magic Yeah, oh It should be a little... That's the thing to know is we play this on base PS5s And I've seen some of the best looking shit I've ever seen In this sequence you're talking about

The amount of stuff going on And when you play it folks You'll know exactly what we're talking about It's just like oh how is this possible I totally agree But the point I was making is that like It looks incredible From a gameplay perspective super simple

It's just like Just pop up about a color, but that's the whole thing, right? And I think that is still the core of this experience where, as in, as in exploring, moving from place to place, delivering parcel, still, this is still death stranding, right? But now you just have this other stuff where you can do a little bit of lightweight, very flashy, very, like, impressive looking combat. Definitely not about that, I think. And that's kind of where I'm, that's what I want to. That's where you diverge from the metal gets all the five there. So I think those comparisons, I think you're going to lead people

a strike. Because they can hear so much about middle gear. And they think, oh, cool, this is metal gear. It's like, it's like, in Phantom Pain, you would get stuff like, oh, the rocket fisting. It's like, all right, I'm going to go check this thing up. And now it's like, oh, Sam, here's the blood boomerang. And you put your own blood into a boomerang that can kill BTs. And that's the thing with like, BTs is in the first one. There are so many elements of the first one that were like almost intentionally a pan on the

ass from like BTs and having to like, you know, hold your breath and the baby and stuff like that. And you can still do that if you want to sneak through. But also you can just go in there. blood boomerang or a blood grenade and just fuck them up and it doesn't, you can play like that. And I think that's where, because I understand both Ralph and Dan and like everybody comes from as far as where they land on the fan and pain thing,

I think I swing towards Ralph when you're talking about like the level of combat versus how much of the game is still about walking and still about delivering. But then I think there is a sandbox nature of death training too that is expanded upon. That does, once again, remind me of like the sandbox nature of the fan and pain. And my hot take coming out of this,

and I wrote this right before we left Kojima Productions to come do this, right? It's like, I think there are parts of this open world that are just way better than Phanim Payne's open world as far as what they're doing, as far as like the emergent nature of it. So again, we're here for four days of playing this game. Day one and two, for me and my gameplay,

I think for our gameplay as well, right? I spent so much of that time just doing like story stuff and seeing like, all right, where's the story going to take me? How far can I get in this thing? All day yesterday, right? All day on day three of playing this. I just spent my time in the sandbox, like just delivering, doing the sub-orders, doing like side quests, hanging out in the world. And I don't want people to think that I'm saying that this is Breath of the Wild or Ellen Ring.

But like to Dane's thing of what you mentioned earlier, of I take off my headphones at one point today. And I look at you and I'm like, you know, have you seen this? And you're like, and I explained it to you and you're like, is that tied to a story from story mission? I'm like, no. It's just a thing that happened. There's, you killed me. We were in dinner last night and you told me this anecdote. that I'm still thinking about.

And it's that a good chunk of his name. Most of what we play is said in Australia. And there's so much to set the stage of what's going on this right. Which we should do in a second. But yeah, go for it. So you're in Australia and there's an animal shelter. And there is like, you know, nice animals around this world and everything that you can like, Sam can go up to them and like button prompt, put them in a little thing and like

take them the animal shelter and they can live their lives peacefully. And the way I think most people have been doing it is sneaking up and go, hey, buddy, get in this little box. I'll take you home. you didn't know that was... I didn't know you could do it like that because I think I... Maybe I just thought I was close enough

and I wasn't close enough to get the button prompt but I was like, all right, I know I'm supposed to be rescuing to the animals. How am I... There's a kangaroo right there. Exactly what this story. There's a kangaroo right there. How do I save this kangaroo?

And so I bust out my assault rifle. And I'd save an animal. Yeah, and I've got... Here's the thing, right? It's not cruelty because these aren't real bullets. As a reminder. It probably hurts. It's all rubber bullets in this game.

that knock people out. So in my mind, I'm like, oh, I'm going to knock out the kangaroo with my rubber bullets and save it. And that's exactly what happened. That kangaroo is saved. I have, I don't know if this is true,

but I had someone tell me that the kangaroo can punch you. Oh, awesome. Really? Awesome. Someone else. So don't, I'm not sure I'm having a joke with me. Like, ah, let's tell the Australian this thing.

But I, they seem serious. That's fucking awesome. It's funny. And telling all these stories, like, I ran into something I don't, I haven't heard anyone else to see. Like, doll man. You saw him in the trailer.

He's a pub. it and he's my guy. Every time I go back to my private room, I'm talking to the dollman. There's dance sequences. There's all sorts of stuff going on with him. But at one point, you know, he stays on your belt like, uh, Mimir and you got to work. And I'm approaching a river. And he is like mid-sentence explaining to me that like, oh, hey, Sam, you know, there's rain. Sometimes these rivers will flood. But like mid-sentence, you know, I'm walking into the river. And I'm like, oh, it's not too deep. I can go across here. But he's waist level. And as soon as the water got to that point, Dahlman's voice was like, yeah, Sam, if you do it.

I got out of the room as Carlcom. It's why they thought, like, this is the Kajima of magic, right? Yeah. Thinking of these very specific things. So, like, you know, I, in preparing for this conversation, right, like, I was taking notes about, like, okay, what, how do I ultimately feel about coming out of this game, right?

And I think I'd come back to the MGS 5 thing a little bit of, like, I think this is more death training, filtered through some of that quality, depth, and fun, that you got from pain and pain, but even more so, right? Like, it comes back to directly answering the criticisms, and then also the things people love about, Death Stranding 1. And so when I go through my notes, right, the combat is fun and engaging. The game

gets you into the gameplay quicker. There's more dynamic weather and obstacles, which we got to talk about, right? There's more tools and upgrade systems. The story feels easier to follow and more interesting, in my opinion. The game is more beautiful. It's like a PS5 thing, right? Like, the Decima engine is on another level, and we've got to talk about that as well. The game feels bigger. The soundtrack, better. There's more variety in the BTs and the ways to deal with them. There's a glossary system that is akin to active time war from Final Fantasy 16. Yeah, like a vowed had that recently. Yeah, a vowed had that as well.

And for me, this game ultimately feels like the potential fulfillment of the promise of Death Stranding 1. Yeah, it took me, you know, a year or so to come around on Destrani 1. If this had been what the first game had been like, I would have been like all in the way I am like Metal Gear. Yes. Because like this one is just so improved in every way. And Ralph, like, do you feel the same way as somebody who's super into Death Stranding? Yeah, I don't know. it's a really interesting point because I think

I again I think that's kind of I get maybe that comes back to what I said at the start I think I felt like the promise of death's journey one was achieved in death journey one yeah and so I think to sort of frame it as like odd two finally delivers on that I wouldn't agree with in that in that way for me personally it's just like I think it enlarges the sandbox it creates more potential more opportunities

more choice for sure but I still think the core of that promise is the same. Like I think there's just something quiet and beautiful about this kind of experience that remains unchanged despite how much more stuff is around it. And I guess that's what I said at the start. Like I think that there was a brilliance to the core formula

and this just helped people get to that point where they can connect with it. Yes. You either get it with the first game or you didn't. You connected with fast or slow, whatever. But yeah, I think you're right. Absolutely. Two gives so many more people the chance

to sort of just like create a real connection to this type of experience. There's a note I took in here, and of course, I did physical notes because they wouldn't allow us to have phones or laptops at the game station. Yeah, if we go to the relaxation area, then we can get our phones out. But I have just pages and pages of physical notes, but one of my notes is about the buying of Destraining One. Like, you can tell in playing this game how much this crew does believe in Destraining One.

Because everything is based, one of the things, because one of the notes I had here is that the story is easier to get into, right? And I think that's not because this game is less weird. It's because it plays by the rules they set in the first game. And there is such a belief in that world. There is such a belief in, like, the ethos and the timefall in BTs, and the UCA and the Cairo network and all those principles that are introduced. That to us at the time were so bizarre.

This game treats it as so normal that I, as a player who's played Destrating One, the way that I jump into this row now and get introduced to these story beats, I'm like, early on, Dan, the one of the things you keep bringing up is the chiral printer.

Yeah, yeah. Like, when you first get to your little shelter and you meet with Fragile and you know, you got Lou running around and Fragile's like, oh, I brought you the best chiral printed diapers. And like, I feel like in the first one

would be like, what is this crazy? This one's like, oh yeah, okay, you know what I? Yeah, let's think that someone who hasn't played Death Stranding 1 is going to struggle to get into two, given how much assumed knowledge It's hard because there is a like Death Training Recap on the main menu.

But it's like 17 slides of like it won't be yeah. It's not good at that. Because I did I watch that and I because it talks about the plot of death stranding rather than talking about the world of death training. And the plot almost doesn't really matter as much as all this weird stuff. And yeah, you can't get that across in a recap video. Yeah. Well, you know, I did go back after the first night and I watched like a 20 minute recap video. It was like if you want to, if the like delivery stuff and the things of the first one that,

drove some people away, bother you, I'd say, you know, try a recap video and jump in because like the gameplay itself is just so good here. Yeah.

Yeah, I personally do think that people will struggle to really get, to slip into this if they haven't played the first one, you know? Because I think there is a lot of assume knowledge

and characters and mechanics and just, yeah, that world, world design stuff, world building. It's just, it really does assume

that you know what it is. Like you do the Kodex? Sure. And there is that recap video, but I'm going to guess that people haven't played the first one are going to find this quite. I think people who haven't played the first one, they're going to feel the way that the people who did play the first one felt upon playing that

because I do think that one of the, I think, good things about Kujima's writing and the bad things about Kujima's writing is that him and his writing team have this tendency to over-explain things. And like, they still do that in this game where it is like, you know, any concept you can think of, right? They're going to find ways to repeat themselves. And I think for us coming into this world, It's like, cool, we know what this is. I already know what the caro network is, right? Like, in Destring 1, I think we had that anyway, right? I think we had those feelings of like, what the fuck are you guys talking about?

Yeah, with this world. Ralph, we're in Australia in this game. We're connecting. I was having lunch with like the British contingent here, okay? And so one of them was like, oh, you know, it would be really funny if we did, if they had like, Death Journey 3, Australia edition, you know, like, because we're like, yeah, the Australian landscape actually would be perfect for a Death Stranding game.

It's big, expansive and whatever, not much out there in the middle of Australia. And that was just a joke that one of the British guys made. It was Andy from VJC. Yeah. And then literally an hour later, we're sitting there and they're like, oh, yeah, we're headed to Australia. And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me right now? Yes. But yeah, it is.

The game is set in large part in Australia. So you start in New Mexico. Mexico. Yeah, excuse me, excuse me, she started Mexico. And then we won't spoil how you get to Australia, but you somehow get to Australia. And from what I can tell, it seems like the rest of the game seems to be there. It's unclear if there are other locations off of that. So I today went to that Codex thing.

And there's a guy, the story so far. Yeah. You know, it's our last day here. I just want to make sure I understand all the beats of the story. Yeah. And where I'm at now is like, okay, you're working away across Australia. And once you get to the end, there's another plate gate that will take you to another continent. Interesting.

But I haven't heard that. But then I wasn't sure if they actually are going to... Like, is that going to be another big map like Australia? Or is that just a story? thing. Yeah, I don't know. It would be cool to a Matt because one of the big themes here, I think, you know, the first game was Connect America.

Yeah. This second game is Connect the World, but so far it just seems to be Connect Australia. And I'm not sure if there's a broader goal that this is a trilogy or something. And then, you know, Part 3 takes us to, I don't know, the rest of the world or whatever. I don't know. But right now it does seem like you're going to be spending a good chunk of the game in Australia because now we're like, what, 20, 25 hours. Yeah.

I feel like we've done about a quarter of the Australian map, maybe third. I'm kidding, about a third thing. I mean, like, the Mexico part is, like, I've heard some people say, like, oh, Mexico's like the tutorial, but like, yeah, it didn't, I mean, it feels like you are playing the game. It doesn't feel like it's like five, six hours of like, you know, yours have you used this. Yeah, so like, I would say five or six hours in Mexico and then a big chunk. Big chunk of, yeah. So, yeah, no, it's a very surprising location.

It makes sense from a George Miller perspective. Oh, yeah. This is a way for Kajuma to get closer to George Miller, I guess. Yeah. George Miller obviously stars in this game as a character, but he's not voiced by George Miller. these boys by a different voice. It's like a year we're in El Toro. Exactly. Yeah. And it's an interesting thing because, you know, they're not trying to deliver a realistic representation of the Australian environment. You know, there are certain parts of the

landscape that I look at. I'm like, oh yeah, that's Australia for sure. Like the terrain, color of it, the trees, absolutely. But then there's parts that are not at all. And that's fine. Because again, like America did not look like Iceland. You know what I mean? Like they just went for a thing. So it is a comment. They actually described it in an interview as they said they were looking to portray primordial Australia. That was like their vibe. That was what they were going for. And I think they're trying to distill it down to its essence.

And then they're trying to put like their own death-straining spit on. Because it is Australia in the post-apocalypse. Yeah. There is actually a big fucking ice cap mountain in the center of Australia, which is literally the opposite of Watson. I was going to say, yeah, I was looking at the map. I was like, does Australia really look like this? I haven't been there, but I used to meet the level designer.

Because we were like, it was all awesome. of myself, they knew I was from Australia. During the interview, they caused it at one point and they said, I'm sorry for putting an ice cap in the middle of Australia. That's so funny. That I'm like, apology accepted. It's fine. No, I feel like, it's like the first game.

Yeah, going through the Midwest. It's like, yeah, it didn't look like that. But it is interesting. Yeah, and they do have, oh, I don't know how much, I'm conscious of time, but I do want to say, as I was playing through it, I was listening to the dialogue. First of all, it is voiced by Australians. You can tell, right?

secondly, I could tell it was written by an Australian because there were very subtle words that you just don't know exist unless you're Australian. There's one word that's like Buckley's and you'd say, oh, he's got Buckley's chance of doing that. Now, that's an old phrase that my friend parents used. Do you know what I mean? But when I heard them use that phrase in this,

I'm like, okay, an Australian 100% wrote this dialogue. Sure enough, we later on met someone an Australian bloke. And I'm like, yeah, he works at your human production. What do you do here? He's like, oh, I'm the lead localizer for this game. So the lead localizer was with Kajima in all the recording sessions and helping and like basically wrote a lot of the dialogue in terms of like making sure it sounds authentic or whatever else.

He's an Australian blow. 34 years old or whatever else. And he's just done such fantastic work here. It's so authentic and subtle. It doesn't sound like it's playing up to Australian stereotypes. It's not like fucking, what's his name? Junk rap from over water or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. Authentic kind of voice. and tone. And yeah, it's great so far. I really like the world. Yeah. Let's talk about story. Of course, we don't want to spoil things.

We don't want to get too deep into it. But I will say this time around. And I mean, last time I liked the characters as well. But this time, there's something about the cast of characters that's really working with me. It reminds me of, like, vintage Kojima almost where, like, in metal gear, oftentimes you had, you had such a strong cast. Everybody had their own story. Everybody had their own in-depth, like, oh, this is this person's thing.

And it's really cool. And Destrating One had that, but there's something about how they're tackling it. And Death Training, too, that's working for me. I think a lot of it for me is, in the first one, it all kind of felt siloed, like the character interactions. We're like, okay, in the bedroom, I'm talking fragile. I'll go to Hartman's place. I'm talking to Hartman.

And here you're on board this, the DMB Magellan. Yes. It's a thing that looks like that. You're part of this organization called Drawbridge, which is Fragile's new organization. Yeah, and you're kind of assembling a team. It's like, Tarman's the pilot and Fragile's there. And you meet, you know, other characters and stuff. Yeah.

It's a weird comparison. But it makes me. think of like, remember Arrest of Development had that fourth season where they couldn't get anyone in the same room before? And it's like, okay, well, here's just Joe talking to Michael and here's just, that's what the first one feels like to me. Yeah. This one feels like oh, when the whole cast was together, you know, and so there's actual

interactions between them on the bridge and stuff. I agree. I do agree with that. I also think that a by-part of that is that the main character, Sam, forget, what's his, that does name? Norman Reus. He feels much more distant in this game, kind of absent. You know,

in a way, like, it really feels like he's not saying. He's like half a step up from a silent protagonist. And I kind of like, Keeper a snake. Say again? Yeah, sure. Yeah. I, so I kind of wish he was a little bit more present in what was going on. But maybe that's because we're at a phase where they're introducing new characters.

And they're setting up those characters. There's some of, like, fun vignettes. I just saw one today where others and some of these things are a little song and stuff like that. Like some of the like that. Yeah. Stuff like that. And the new characters are really, like I said, doll man is just. Yeah.

Dalman is so bizarre. He's almost kind of like a Mimir from God of War in the sense that like he's kind of hanging out with you the whole time. And he's not like ruining puzzles and stuff like Mimir. No, yeah. That's thing is he's not as talkative as Mimir, which might be a good thing. But like, you know, he does talk if you want to talk, right? Like, you go to the private room and always have the estimation when like, oh, he's got something new to say. And I talk to me every time my favorite thing with him was he's like, oh, Sam, your problem. Okay, let me back up. There's another character named Rady. And she is a woman that part of her deal is when she's outside.

rain all of a sudden starts falling and it's time fall rain so it makes everything aches. But for a 1.5 meter radius around your body it makes it core fall which makes things younger. And so one time I'm just talking to Dalman in the private room and said, Sam, you're probably wondering why I maintain my youthful appearance. Well, sometimes rainy takes me in the shower with her and you know the core fall makes you think, oh my god, there's puppets taking showers with this Japanese model and it keeps me young. It's like, this is a good video game. one of one of one of the notes unless you kujima change one of the

during day one of playing this game right like a lot of my notes were like oh man I feel like you know this game is a bit more tame compared to what I feel like I was expecting and then toward the end of the day I wrote down kujima's on his bullshit like I finally the most yeah like I reached the point where I was like

oh kajima's on this bullshit like there's another point where our character says the sentence someone doesn't like shoes and I'm going to leave it at that I'm not going to explain it more I'm not going to dive deeper into that I was, oh, dude, yeah. It was one of those things where I was like,

Kojima, like, you're such a genius, but also you're such a sickle sometimes. But yeah, like, I really like this cast of characters. And yeah, you're right. I think having them, for the most part, be a part of drawbridge and be this thing of, like, I'm assembling a team sort of thing. Yeah. I think really works in its favor to get those dynamics between characters. But then also, like, the characters that, you know, and love are in their bag.

Like, Troy Baker is still killing it as Higgs, his character. One next scene that we all saw, and that was really good. And we both have seen, like, heises of other. characters in the trailer like at Neil and I'm very intrigued by whatever's going out with Neil. Yes. That's a highlight for me so far. Oh my gosh. But like I think that's like the highlight for everybody of like there's a scene where you where they introduced Neil right and it's like kind of sequence uh yes side of that boss by we had and everybody united is like oh this is the coolest part of the game. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen the video game. Yeah it's up there for

real yeah that's pretty impressive. Uh and one more thing I want to mention too is like the real time weather stuff um I think that's something was really cool and really impressive and it adds like such an interesting layer to the game where as you're going like there's these things there's these earthquakes they have a special name for the gatequakes thank you um they're just like these earthquakes that happen all the time right but like that um well i was going to say shake things up but literally shake things up yeah uh but like the first time it happened i think this is just like a set sequence i don't know if this happens more or maybe you guys will fill me in the first time you get a gatequake it the world shook and then i saw geometry in the world like fall away on a mountain yeah

Yeah. So, oh, I think we have to also say the opening of this game, maybe one of the best openings I've ever played. Really, really, really good. And that's when I saw the gatequake. That, after that, I didn't see it mess with geometry as much. It just kind of feels like the world shakes a bit. And if you've got lots of packages on your back, you're probably going to topple over.

Exactly. So, like, there's that. There is, of course, the time fall makes return with the rain and stuff. But with that, there's also rising tides and rivers. Yeah. And so you have, like, this real time, like, oh, man, the world is going to kind of form and shape around the weather stuff. going on. You have sandstorms that happen. And like, well, that was the one of the questions I

asked the production team was about the real time weather. And they kind of just talked about it as a way to like have this additional sort of obstacle as they're delivering packages, right? But like, one of the things they mentioned was kind of how these things converge together when you are delivering a package and you're going up a hill and there's an earthquake, right? Or you're, you know, trying to plan a route. But then you see a sandstorm looming in the distance and like having to plan around that kind of stuff. It's really interesting. weather forecast. There's a skill tree.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. A couple of things here. There's a skill tree or you're, and it's very easy to like, I'm going to turn this off and I'm going to turn on a bunch of combat ones where a combat encounter and like respect on the fly very easily. But there's also like an oblivion style like Sam's skills part on the menu where it's like as

you do stuff. It's like, oh, your carrying capacity has gone up. You know, your resistance to this has gone up. Your endurance. Your mastery of shotguns. Like just as you're doing stuff.

Yeah. I mean, this is one of them, if not maybe the most, I guess detailed Kojima game maybe detail or in depth

right like there's so much going on in terms of the systems is what I'm trying to say there's a part where it's like every time to go back

to your private room in you like shower and stuff it gives you little things like Sam's sunburn has healed yeah and it's like

at no point they don't say anything about that outside of that and you just know they have something some little new thing it's like

oh your stamina recharge is 05 percent slower if you're sunburn you know you're talking to me about the whole this is a sequel thing

yes that was yeah Yeah, that was really good. I mean, well, yeah, I think one of the things that for me stands out is the fact that you look at Kojima's gamography and most of his main titles, the Metal Gear games, right, but have been big innovations between titles. MGS 1 to MGS2 is a big jump. You have a new main character.

It feels different right. MGS 2 to MGS 3. You're in a completely different setting, different character again, right? To MGS 4, different game. MGS5, completely different game. This is really the first time, at least on this scale, that Kojima's made a direct sequel that is very much like, no, it's just a sequel. Like, it is building off of

the world and systems of the previous game in a way that's not redefining things. And I think seeing Kojima have the opportunity to do that has allowed for a lot with this game, right? Like, it goes back to the kind of the points we're making in the beginning as far as this feeling

like, this feeling reverent in what Destranging 1 did, but also expanding it out, right? How do we make this deeper? How do we make the world bigger? How do we make the world more interesting to navigate and all that stuff? And it's very fascinating to see them operate in this way because for a while there, I was waiting on a big twist. I was waiting on the, all right, where's right? And like, you know, like, when are you going to, you know, kill off Norma Redis in the first hour or whatever?

Yeah, like, oh, we're, yeah, we're connecting space now, right? And it's not, it's a sequel. I still open, like, because they said, even if we played the full, like, 30 hours and there's B-line story that we'd see, like, 30 to 40% of the game. That's what they said. Yes. So I'm holding off because, like, they're, I'm still curious about, like, this neal character and stuff. And, like, there's just a lot of time I saw that. That's true.

We haven't even touched on some of the stuff yet, and we're deep into the game. I think it would be highly unusual for Kajima to not throw us some of the massive fucking cook. Yeah. And I think right now we've got a really brilliant expansion of the original premise that I think is just like fantastic. But yeah, you're right. There has to be that little thing where Kajima's like, I got you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I lose for that.

I don't want to take too much of your guys at time because I know there's more to go. There's more to play. We can go back and play more to the game right now. And of course, I still have so much this. I don't have pages of notes I haven't touched here, and we're going to make more content about this training too. But before we get out of here, is there anything else you guys want to mention is like last week?

I was just thinking about how like, you know, we're talking about like the sunburn and all the little like systems on systems and stuff. It really reminds me of a thing that blew me away back in the day of Metal Gear Solid 2 is there's just a part where there's a bar on the tanker and like there's an ice bucket thing. If you shoot the ice bucket, it scatters everywhere and ice falls all over the bar. And I remember reading that and watching this that the ice that is by itself will melt faster than ice cubes that are closer to each other because of, you know,

there's a bottle and potten in ice science. But, you know, I feel like this has a million versions of that. Whereas it's like, I can't believe they thought of this. I can't believe they thought of that. Like everything is considered things like, you know, the doll man voice when he goes underwater. Just like, it seems I, there's no other team doing things to that level, that much minute detail. Uh, it's a delight. Yeah, I, I agree. I think you can just tell the, the amount of work because obviously they had a foundation in one they one i think what another thing that we kind of forget is they built their studio at the same time as they were building one yeah and they did it in like four years which is this like unbelievable that they managed to pull that off now they have a studio

they got a nice new office they've got a larger team and they've got a foundation and so that allows them to just like build on that and the work that they've done here to sort of deepen that the attention to detail they bring the quality bar like it's wait till you see how this game's looks. Oh my God. Legitimately. It's just... Base PS5. It's just...

It's... Yeah, we're playing on base PS5. There's something about... There's something I don't understand about how good this game works where you will see mountains in the background and they look so fucking detailed.

You can see all the ridges. You can see all... And the facial capture in this game is insane too. Like, there's still so much to talk about, of course, you guys are going to talk about it on your channels. We're going to talk about it here kind of funny.

I think for me, like, one of the last things I want to mention is I'm with Ralph, right, of like, I think Death Training One is a phenomenal game. There's something about just the ease of being in the world of Death Training 2. And I would almost have to go back to Des Training 1 to compare and contrast. Maybe it's the fact that I'm already used to being in this world. Maybe it's the fact that I already know the rules of it or whatever. But like, I, like, I, you know, we're 20-something hours into the preview here at this preview event. I know I'm not going to be able to keep my save.

No. I know I'm not going to be able to. Yeah. Yeah, I know I'm not going to be able to keep that progress. But I don't want to stop playing. No, I will do this all again. Yes, like, I want to keep being in this world. There's something special about my game time yesterday

where I said, fuck it on doing any more story stuff. And I just existed in the world and delivered packages. And it's such an easy world to be in. I spent eight hours building roads. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? That was incredible. I loved it.

I was in combat stuff. And even then I was finding stuff that it doesn't teach you. I don't know if it's like you get a skeleton thing, you know, that helps you carry stuff. I think it's tied to this, but like I jumped and I noticed a quick prompt. It's like, X to double jump. I'm like, what? I can just double jump in this?

I didn't even know. Not that. I did one where I jumped and I left up. So now I can do a straight up drop cake. Great. I can do two different wrestling moves. I can do a cross body block or a Kenny Omega V-trigger. So I'm just running out of beach?

You're going to start V-triggering kangaroos, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. I got to save them, though. I got to do what I got to do to save this kangaroos. Guys, thank you so much to join me and talking about that training, too. It's been such a wonderful conversation talking to you guys who played the preview alongside me. I know what I'm explaining it to Andy and Greg and everybody at KF.

It's going to be, I'm going to look like a madman. We've been in the trenches together with this. We've been through some place right. Again, such a bizarre preview event, but also very cool. Yeah. Like one of the coolest opportunities to play up to 30 hours at Kojima Productions. But we're going to head back, we're going to play more. And also we're going to interview Kojima himself.

And so look forward to more content from Skillup on the Skillup YouTube channel on Dan. And Dan, where can people find you? Where can people follow you? Fire Escape cast, you know, Twitch, Blue Sky, all the usual. Wrestling events. Yeah, you'll find me there. Yeah, you'll find out there. Exactly. Of course, you can keep it locked right here to kind of funny.

For more content about this, training, too, and all your favorite video games. I don't know where we're putting this. It might be half a games cast. It might be a full games cast. Either way, Patreon.com slash kind of funny to keep supporting the brand. And until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.