Death Stranding: Hideo Kojima Has A Theory About Why American Critics Didn't Like It
Death Stranding finally released on PlayStation 4 last Friday, and it's safe to say the game dominated the discussion this past weekend. Some critics loved the latest title from Kojima Productions. Others didn't care for it. And interestingly, those opinions appeared to differ based on the region the critics were based in. Why is that?
In an interview with Italian website TGCOM24, Hideo Kojima shared his theory as to why there was such a disparity between reviews from the United States and reviews from other places.
"I must say, the game received rave reviews, especially in Europe and Japan," Kojima said. "In the United States, however, we have had stronger criticisms. Perhaps it is a difficult game to understand for a certain type of critic and audience. Americans are great fans of first-person shooters and Death Stranding isn't one. It flies higher."
Kojima went on to credit the French and the Italians for what he called "a different artistic sensibility that allows them to appreciate this kind of very original product." And that, in essence, lumps gamers in America into the one large group that enjoys the latest Call of Duty but can't understand the vision behind Death Stranding. It's probably not an accurate assessment, as not every critic that reviewed the title was a die-hard FPS fan. But there may be a tiny bit of truth to the idea that different cultures enjoyed the game in different ways. IGN, after all, gave it a 6.8 out of 10. And Famitsu — a Japanese publication that assigns four critics to each review — awarded Death Stranding a perfect score (only its 26th ever).
Before you get your pitchforks out, it's worth noting that Kojima's remarks were made in Japanese to an Italian website, so things could definitely have gotten lost in translation along the way. But the base ideas are likely on point. So if you have any interest at all in Death Stranding, you might want to ask yourself which critics you most often find common ground with. Are you more apt to trust an IGN review? Do you make all your purchasing decisions based on Famitsu's scores? Or you rely on another outlet; one that might have landed somewhere in the middle?
That is for you to decide. In any case, Death Stranding is out on PS4 right now.