Death Stranding is inspired by Kobo Abe

17 June 2016

Hideo Kojima has revealed his new game 'Death Stranding' is inspired by Japanese author Kobo Abe's work.

Death Stranding

The 52-year-old video game designer sent gamers into a frenzy when he unveiled a mysterious trailer for the title at Sony's E3 press conference in Los Angeles earlier this week.

The surreal three-minute clip showed 'The Walking Dead' actor Norman Reedus as the main protagonist stranded on a beach cradling a baby that disappears, while surrounded by marine animals and dead fish.

Although the trailer is very intriguing it gives no clue as to how the game will play, and the 'Metal Gear Solid' creator insists that was his intention to get his fans thinking just like the late Abe did with his stories.

In an interview with Digital Spy, Kojima - who is the director of Kojima Productions - said: "A strand in psychology is often used to refer to ties or chains. So how all the crabs [in the trailer] have this weird umbilical chord and how the baby is tied to Norman is a representation of this.

"There's a Japanese author I am a huge fan of called Kobo Abe. He has a short novel called 'Rope' in which he makes a definition, a statement: the first tool mankind made was a stick. It was made to keep away bad things. It's a weapon. The next tool created by mankind was rope. The rope is not to keep away bad things. On the contrary, it's a tool used to keep good things close to you, to tie good things close to you. Sticks and ropes are some of the tools most used by mankind even these days. In most games you see that are online multiplayer or co-op - or even single player - the communication is through sticks. In this game you will be able to use what will be the equivalent of sticks. But I also want people to use what will be the equivalent of ropes."

Although the title is shrouded in secrecy, Kojima insists 'Death Stranding' will, in essence, be an action game.

The Japanese designer insists his adventure is going to be a completely new video game experience and people are just going to have to wait to play it to see why.

He said: "The player will be controlling Norman Reedus' character and it will be an action game if you really want to put a genre on it. For example, when I made 'Metal Gear', it was an action game but it was different because the main thing was about hiding. People eventually ended up calling that 'stealth action'. In this game the player will be controlling Norman but by playing it they will find something different, something that won't fit in established terms.

"One thing I want to tell people is the teaser is running in real-time ... but that's all I can say. It would be like telling you who's the killer in a mystery novel. But we made this teaser ourselves, so people can trust us."