Was Death Stranding 2 reworked because playtesters liked it too much? Composer Woodkid speaks out

Yoann“Woodkid” Lemonine is a French composer who’s worn many hats throughout hiscareer. From being a CGI artist in video games to directing the music videosfor Taylor Swift’s Back To December and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream, the manalready had a meaty Resume before being hired by Kojima Productions to work onthe upcoming Death Stranding 2.

Wheninterviewed by the Rolling Stone magazine, Woodkid was promoting the soundtrackhe’d produced for the game, titled Woodkid for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.He then proceeded to reveal many eye-catching details about the game’sproduction, notably how director Hideo Kojima actually reworked the gamebecause playtesters were too uniform in their praise.

Kojima wanted the game tobe more divisive

When askedwhether he had any insights to share about Death Stranding 2’s development,Woodkid revealed that Kojima believed the uniform approval playtesters gave intheir feedback was a problem. As Woodkid put it, Kojima had said:

“I’m going to be very honest, we havebeen testing the game with players and the results are too good. They like ittoo much. That means something is wrong; we have to change something.”?

According to Woodkid, Kojima was very concerned about thefinished game having too much mainstream appeal. Worried that these positivereactions were actually indicators of an underlying blandness to the narrative,Kojima actively worked to make the game more polarizing in response. Hebelieved that if players grew to appreciate the story over a prolonged periodinstead of immediately liking what they saw, the game would end up far moreimpactful.

Woodkid considers Death Stranding 2 a balancing act

Woodkid calls Death Stranding 2 both mainstream and radical. | Credit: X

Woodkid has called Death Stranding 2 both mainstream andradical at the same time, and he believes that is a tricky balance to achieve. AsWoodkid put it, artists frequently compromise their creative vision to appealto the masses, but Kojima’s an exception. Woodkid admired his singulardedication to his creative vision, but he also considered Kojima to bereceptive to feedback, and considered his collaboration with the game directorto be a “dialogue” rather than a one-sided relationship where he just did as hewas told.

Hideo Kojima has often worn his Hollywood influences on hissleeve, but Woodkid ended his interview by claiming that just like the MetalGear franchise, Death Stranding would also prove to be massively impactful,both in gaming and in Hollywood.

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