Death Stranding Is Weird About Women

We finally return to where it all began, Death Stranding. A quite polarizing game that managed to elicit both wonder and apathy in its players. Luckily Death Stranding does strive away from the more overtly questionable portrayal of women we have gotten used to from Kojima Productions, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. If we are being perfectly honest it is kind of weird about women.
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Twitter: / transparencyboo
#DeathStranding #HideoKojima #PrincessBeach

[@nsalegit9482]

Kojipro and the game industry in general needs to literally just talk to people who have been through some of the things they wish to portray. As you deftly pointed out this feels like the k man spitballing heavier ideas than he actually wants to explore. Which, yeah, is kind of his thing, but I can't say there is a femme or n.b. equivalent to the kind of auteur respect that he gets, when ya boy blojima consistently demonstrates the subtlety of Michael bay in his work. Thanks for this. For how much I respect and enjoy this dudes work, I am happy for the reminder that he's still a 5 year old playing with legos.

[@Transparencyboo]

Luckily this one got a bit more mixed reception, but that seem to mostly have been about gameplay - ironically the part we liked the most.

[@theMoporter]

I remember my partner explaining the "still mother" concept and being like "well, that's awful, I wonder if they're going to do anything with that idea". And they didn't.

[@Transparencyboo]

We thought there was something we must have missed in the messy presentation, because surely it could not be that bad. But it was.

[@TheMarioman121]

I remember a lot of people raising their eyebrows when two of the three main women that were shown off pre-release had some pretty sexist names (though you could make the argument Mama is an explanation of who she is). Looking back, it should've been a clear warning sign of the care Kojima was going to take with the women in his game.

[@Transparencyboo]

But she is Fragile, but not that fragile, remember?

[@pimscrypt]

Kojima has always been better (not necessarily good, but better) at writing concepts than people. I don’t remember who made the video, but I remember watching something about Metal Gear Solid 4 where it was pointed out that the person behind the codec calls in the previous games were no longer involved with the series. After that a lot started to make sense. Like, Metal Gear Solid 3 has some of the most charismatic characters in any game I’ve played - and those codec calls helped a lot in fleshing out those characters. Compare that to Metal Gear Solid 4, 5 and Death Stranding, where codec calls are almost always exposition dumps. I really liked Death Stranding, but it’s kind of jarring to play a game about human connections when none of the characters are actual people - but a lot of times poorly executed concepts and metaphors.

[@Transparencyboo]

Kojima most likely needs someone to take care of dialogue and plan all that out. Death Stranding has very few genuinly great character moments, and that is quite sad, because they could be interesting to explore. We are still quite baffled by how the emotional scene with Diehardman was offloaded at the very end. It is honestly a quite good performance, which makes it really sad that he has to be in a mask all the time. Like I get it, he keeps it on to hide his true emotions, and then when he takes it off he (much like Sam) can he true to those things. But man...

[@nehcooahnait7827]

Ah Sam’s deceased wife and child, are just like Heartman’s wife and child, or Clifford’s wife and child. It is like in every anime ever, the suffering or death of a woman as the plot device for male heroes/protagonist’s heroic yet tragic backgrounds.

[@athiettereid1782]

It’s disappointing that in the grand epic that is notorious for talking in endless depths about things they chose not to address these things in enough depth to make it not weird. That said, it’s far from the first game to treat trauma as background flavour for female characters :-/

[@Transparencyboo]

I forgot to add it in, but we wanted to call it the worlds widest puddle.

[@athiettereid1782]

@@Transparencyboo From all the things I've heard about it that sounds like a great description

[@Transparencyboo]

@A1 They do, too bad they did not really explore that trauma very deeply then. Not to mention how buried it is in other stuff that makes it harder to read. Also, stop assuming people are being "victims" for critically engaging with games. It is really quite silly.

[@ShutItKyle]

"Who wouldnt want that??" "I know right???" 😂😂😂

[@Transparencyboo]

Funny thing is that was actually not even planned in the script. Kiki just listened in on the recording and shouted from the other side of the room. Glad you liked it, haha.

[@ShutItKyle]

@@Transparencyboo I loved it. I love spontaneous things like that in videos. Honestly, more of it please XD

[@crashkamio5819]

The more distance I get from Death Stranding the more I realize I got so much out of the gameplay, but the story is an absolute mess. And so much of these things you discussed I didn't even realize or have time to digest because I could barely comprehend what was going on. When a lot gets thrown at me I get overwhelmed. When I look back on this game I think back on when I first played it beginning of the pandemic. Feeling lost, disconnected and isolated in real life and having a game that reflected back at me was powerful and a huge catharsis. That's what I got out of it and I look back on that gameplay fondly. But wow, the themes, imagery and aspects of the story are problematic. My jaw kept dropping as I was listening to this. Intentional or not, Kojima and staff needed to think things through. Been trying to look at media differently lately since beginning a journey of discovering my identity/gender and this really made me aware of a lot. Thank-you for this video! Very enlightening and thought provoking.

[@Transparencyboo]

And thank YOU for watching and enjoying! Always fun to hear people finding things to think about through our videos :)

[@Zyfiels]

I think its a funny coincidence how this game deals with subject matters such as social isolation and only communicating via digital means now that is has become most peoples everyday life since quarantine started.

[@Transparencyboo]

There were some news article out there talking about delivery services using these exo skelleton legs to make it possible for the couriers to carry more. Kojima is not a prophet or anything of course. He just gets really lucky some times.

[@reed1645]

I got a recommendation to this channel by another channel called cannot be tamed :). This was a very well put together video. I think death stranding is one of my favorite games on ps4 but having recently re completed it I can safely say that it's not for the story. I actually love a lot of the characters. Deadman and fragile were great and I think there are some stand out performances including Margaret Qualley's. The actual plot is quite a mess of sci fi terminology and overly complicated ideas. They reference egyptian concepts like the ha and the ka, bridget wears an ancient incan necklace used for recording information, they never really seem to explain what the death stranding is exactly... it's all a bit of a mess. I mean it hadn't even occurred to me that Sam disengaging himself from the network symbolized his decision to really reconnect with humanity. I think I was too distracted by the ghost babies. Plus I was happy Lou survived :). What I love about it though is levelling up the waystations. Doing this expands the network and grants me access to new weapons, vehicles and structures created by other players. Suddenly the journey across a mountain isn't so arduous because there are abandoned motorcycles and generators littered around. It feels like a fitting game for 2020. Delivering packages to people isolating themselves and relying heavily on a network. I think you made some really excellent points about how women are portrayed in the game. I suspect the reason women are inventory items carried in bags might be more to do with it being simpler than creating walking animations and so on. But it's still pretty messed up and the idea of a stillmother... gross is the right word. Hopefully Kojima productions learns can improve on its female representation :).

[@Transparencyboo]

Hell yeah, the multiplayer aspects are neat as hell and we liked them a lot. Probably the best part of the game connected to the themes of whatever it actually wanted to say, haha. Also yes, we of course realize the real reason they are inventory items like that. It is just kind of ironic in a way, haha.

[@nehcooahnait7827]

Fragile’s story was alarming as how stereotypically disgusting Higgs did to her like many pieces of Japanese entertainment or the attempted rape of Quiet in MGS V, another “master piece” from Kojima Hideo. It was later on Mama’s suffering and eventual death that made me realize how women’s sufferings, physical or emotional/mental in Kojima’s works are specifically linked with a woman’s assumed femininity and maternity. Kojima apparently believes that a woman’s essence precedes existence.

[@chriscartright5641]

Love your channel! Please keep at it. Your analysis is great 👍🏾

[@Transparencyboo]

Thanks! We are currently keeping at it, haha! :)

[@DavidWoods255]

Great video Transparency! You deserve more views and subs. Wish you every success

[@Transparencyboo]

Thanks! We'll do our best!

[@sinfulhealer2110]

Patriarchy never changes, it's just symbols rotating

[@Transparencyboo]

Sometimes you just gotta be a postman with women in your inventory, you know.

[@sinfulhealer2110]

@@Transparencyboo sure that sounds like an impetus

[@vonpotatostein]

At last someone is calling Kojima´s long story of objectification, mysoginy and sexism in his games. Metal Gear Solid series are plagued with it., His anti war messages are muddied with constant scenes of physical (every MGS) and mental (MGS IV) torture to women that he mixes with objectification and sexualization. Torturing women is a constant and it isn't to make a point of women being mistreated: Meryl used as bait and being physically punished by Sniper Wolf, Sniper Wolf converted into a sexual antagonist (and the only one in the Foxhound unit who has her physically attributes being described when mentioning her in the game's intro as "Deadly and beautiful Sniper "l Eva being constantly tortured by Volgin, the most egregious is Quiet's torture scene in which the framing of the shots was planed to be "fan service" The Beauty and the Beast unit in MGS IV was dealed poorly in how women suffering PTSD were presented by sexualizing them. As for the stories in the game, Kojima suffers from a bit of grandiloquence He has good story ideas but he is actually terrible at converting them into scripts, if he allowed a professional writer to shape 'em properly we wouldn't have such a heavy handed exposition dump every second into his games via cinematics or forced codec calls. He confuses a deep story telling with overly complex stories for the sake of being overly complex (a story can be complex without drifting into a million topics being touched superficially that disperse them instead of consolidating them into a proper logical structure) His ideas of human connection, anti war, anti nuclear, etc. are marred and over shadowed by his inability to refrain from introducing heavy chauvinistic tropes into his characters. I really like MGS games but the sexism was cringe inducing back then and it is still cringe inducing today, I just hope Konami gets rid of it for Metal Gear Solid Delta (I don't have high hopes though)

[@Transparencyboo]

Its so bad in fact that we made two videos essentially about it, haha. Our first video was basically a precursor to this one.

[@RuYevon]

Excellent video! So glad to finally see someone else talking about these issues. I felt a bit deceived reading a very passionate review stating DS was much better in this subject and when I got through it I just wonder did the reviewers get the same game?

[@Transparencyboo]

I think a lot of reviewers and writers simply saw how it was 'better' in a superficial manner. Felt like the closest comparison they went to was Quiet from MGS5, and yeah, on a service level the characters are dressed up, don't come off as eye candy to that degree and so on. But these issues are a bit deeper than that. But it is not that hard to spot I think, very strange to me that not more people talked about it.

[@Singformefriend]

I really liked Death Stranding, even though it's very problematic and bloated. Hopefully, the studios next game will be more focused.

[@Transparencyboo]

It has some good moments, but saddly it just feels strangely paced and bloated like we said. Kojima most likely needs someone to slap his hands with a newspaper when he starts to go off the rails. Then again I wonder how many people actually have the guts to tell that man "no" at this point.

[@Jarmi777]

@@Transparencyboo Unfortunately, it seems like Death Stranding 2 is the next game from Kojima productions and I highly doubt they will flesh out the aspects involving woman...

[@Noobmaster-ic7kh]

It's not much but I personally think the Chiral Artist was portrayed much stronger than the Junk Dealer. She smashed the hourglass, proposed to the guy and walked back to her studio on her own (not shown on screen).

[@Transparencyboo]

Oh man, the junk dealer is such an asshole too isn't he? The messages you recieve afterwards from him are just the absolute worst. The fact that she walks home on her own to leave him is quite a power move, lol. Carrying her in a body bag too him first is still very unintentionally funny though.

[@Noobmaster-ic7kh]

@@Transparencyboo They were the only preppers that appeared more than just holograms. I do wish to see more story development on some preppers other than just through reading their mails, for example, the twins sisters Cosplayer and Spiritualist. They seem like interesting characters.

[@Transparencyboo]

@@Noobmaster-ic7kh It would be nice, yeah. It is just very easy to skip the mail you get and miss out on a lot. I understand if they simply could not fit it all in as optional missions, but sure would have been nice.

[@parusastringent7073]

I remember having read an article form Kotaku I think saying how much Death Stranding was sexist because it was portraying the man in a way that women weren’t even necessary anymore in society. People interpreted the game as finally a media that showed how men could also have emotions and even have a « motherhood » side, while in fact all this was just a more or less conscious way saying women weren’t needed anymore (in a context where trans identity aren’t even taken into account…). But, while reading this, I remember finding the take interesting, putting word in my mouth of how the way women were portrayed in the game felt weird. They were « well » written characters in the sens that they had time on the screen…. Like you said, this gives a façade giving the illusion those characters got their due respect from the game. And in fact, I think at the release of the game there weren’t that much articles about how the game portrays women like shit other than “well, they are defined by their womanhood, but at least its better than nothing. The characters are still good”. But worse, the mindless women meant to only give child, is so unimportant as you mentioned that I didn’t even remembered it while reading the article. And this is maybe the most important thing from the game that shows how on-point this article was. Showing more facade to men is a good thing. But showing this at the cost of erasing women, is frankly fuckin weird. It’s too sexist to just be « sexist ». Weird as you said. And probably clueless as hell from the studio. And the game being Japanese isn’t even an excuse. There is plenty of feminism there. Still. I just read something about how yaoi is used as a culprit toward an gender anxiety in Japan. Yaoi, giving space to women to questioned their role as a « women », are seen by some as one of the reason behind the descending natality rate in Japan. By those saying, too much women are now questioning the stereotype of what their gender should be compared to what they want it to be. Bad yaoi…. Nice video. Thx for that. I hope for the sequel there will be more women at the writing this game. It needs it. But, if the studio simply become better at hiding how sexist it is through this…. I don’t know what to think about that.

[@alicelufenia3648]

Like would literally anything have changed if the BBs were just test tube babies unable to survive outside their artificial amniotic fluid? Why even come up with such a grisly piece of world building if you're not going to do anything with it, and just make every single character seem unintentionally monstrous for not even addressing it?

[@Transparencyboo]

We suppose Kojima simply did not think about it enough, and probably doesn't have anyone to give him that kind of feedback. He just thought it was a cool disturbing sci-fi concept and left it at that and then got distracted by his other toys basically. But who knows.

[@technopoptart]

​@@Transparencyboo the problem is though that this is _EVERY_ _SINGLE_ _CONCEPT_ he has with women is this way. no matter what it is something really shitty and gross and inhumane happens to all of the women who are given time on screen and over and over again for years now it is just a thing that people remark on how kojima is too stupid or too forgetful to ever learn to be better to do better or to care. at what point is this just making excuses for someone who has a very clear disregard for billions of humans' very existence and puts that disregard in every public-facing thing he creates?

[@Transparencyboo]

@@technopoptart Do you get the impression we are defending or making excuses for him here or in the video? Because I don't think we are at all. I mean we have made two of them critiquing this very thing across his career. I suppose the first reply was a bit too vague, so to be completely clear; what we are saying here is that we think he is an unreasonably priviliged man who is surrounded by yes-men and not enough people who hold his ass to the fire, which are all aspects that genuinely contribute to him not having to 'think' of any deeper implications than things being dramatic. That is probably the sad reality here. We don't think people are actually going hard enough on these aspects when talking about his games, especially not Death Stranding. The reason this was made is in particular because we thought not enough people in the games press brought this absolute shit up. So no, we don't think he is too stupid or forgetful to make these changes. He is Kojima the auteur, priviliged and loved through out the video game industry - a rockstar who can apparently do nothing wrong and who has no one to tell him what to do. Especially not slap him on the wrist for his shit. So he just trucks along and makes the most superficial 'improvements' because that's all he has to do to satisfy the crowd. Hope that made more sense :)

[@technopoptart]

@@Transparencyboo not defending, no but it does feel like excuses are being made and hands are gesturing vaguely(and not just here but everywhere. unfortunately you two got not just my frustrations from the comment and the video but also the years and years of frustrations from others doing the same way like an hourglass filled with sand that was added one grain at a time, this video only had a few grains but it got put in with a greater thing) for sure though, i am only focusing in on one small fragment. for the majority i am very much in agreement with what is said and the video is well thought out and expressed. it just happens to be about a guy who elicits some very, uh /strong/ emotions from people

[@FrokenKeke]

Please appreciate Sam's strand dance!

[@RacingGameArchive]

Please be excited!

[@Solinaru]

The Sam Strand Dance > Lance Vance Dance

[@Transparencyboo]

[@VCheesey]

Tbh I was all aboard the Mama train for a bit until any potential real character arc for her was just completely tossed in the trash as soon as her baby was severed from her and her role as a mother (and therefore entire use as a character I guess? 🙄) ended. Idk if I wasn't paying close enough attention or something during the 10 minute cutscenes, but when she died shortly after severing her BT baby I was like "Why the fuck did that kill her? That came out of nowhere." That plus my favorite character in the game, Fragile, being done dirty having to run practically naked through the rain was just dumb as hell. It just felt gross in a way that was boring and more evocative of the hand of the author rather than any sort of "deep" theme Kojima may or may not have been going for there. It's like, you don't have have us all ogle our autistic and fun and goofy gal pal like that, Hideo. And if you do, at the very least give us some parity in the amount of man-ogling too.

[@Transparencyboo]

I am sort of cautiouslly optimistic about the sequel, at least. I probably shouldn't, but it looks like Fragile has more of a role, would be neat if she was playable and got some good stuff going there.

[@Furore2323]

"... and Conan O'Brien!" might be the one excusable use of the Plinkett Reference across all video essaydom.

[@Transparencyboo]

I am not even sure it was a Plinkett reference to begin with at all. Hard to remember the intention, haha.

[@tap5263]

I think I don't mind the only focus on cliff then his wife is because I only had a father, mother died when I was a kid. Dunno if Kojima had a similar experience but it feels like it.

[@Transparencyboo]

It's totally possible, and I think it could have worked if the concept surrounding her was handled a bit better. It's not necessarily that we NEED to know things about her, at least not a lot. I think it is mostly about the fact that this really important sci-fi thing doesn't get the time it deserves, even when Sam's own mother is involved. And it's a bit weird to me, haha.

[@tap5263]

@@Transparencyboo totally agree!! It needed more of a serious focus

[@missmystery1705]

Comment for the algorithm!

[@Transparencyboo]

Praise be to the KZbin gods.

[@madnessarcade7447]

3:24 seems like a random reference Are they even allowed to reference Nintendo. Why didn’t Nintendo go after them lol

[@ace.of.space.]

what a thoughtful analysis ! and some great funny moments

[@Transparencyboo]

Thank you, glad you liked it :)

[@molly0000000s]

Base reductive portrayals of women is obviously a worse sin, but I think it goes hand in hand with shit storytelling. And Kojima is making Z movies with a budget. When you think to give women agency and personalities beyond a history of trauma, maybe you start thinking DIEHARDMAN is probably a shit name for someone. Thanks for the video.

[@8DX]

Um. thanks for the vid. wow and geeze. guess we need more feminism in videosgame or maybe celeb auteurs could get some actual insights from the people they are trying to portray. Thx! =8)-DX

[@Transparencyboo]

It would be great if they just at least consult some actual people before going there. Like the asexuality thing is very small, but man, maybe at least do the effort to let someone who is ace read it first. Easy.

[@michelottens6083]

I feel, at least with the shame-driven heavy crunch culture that Kojima Productions folk endured at Konami, that Kojima's developers don't (want to) interact with people that much, let alone getting to maybe learn about cis-womz or non-"normal" folk, or about complex life events. In every Kojima game, there's this weirdly cute/gross teenage view of people, projected painfully sincerely onto very adult and generally nuanced worldbuilding/events. Mostly, Kojima's people expertly skirt this chosen messy/maximalist line between camp and vulgarity and high art, but his studio always botches the characters in that way.

[@bowi1332]

I'm here because the Death Stranding 2 teaser was the last straw for me. (I own every MGS games and DS.)

[@Transparencyboo]

It looks like Fragile will have more of a role in DS2, which is very neat to us. Not sure if we can hope for her being playable, but that would make me very happy.

[@bowi1332]

@@Transparencyboo I was very happy when I saw Fragile, but things escalated quickly for her in the teaser. 😬

[@Transparencyboo]

@@bowi1332 I don't want to hope for too much, but we'll see where it takes us. Felt like DS1 ended pretty conclusively, so it'll be interesting to see where they take it this time.

[@bowi1332]

@@Transparencyboo You are right. I guess we'll see! :)

[@jellyg0d]

Great video! I’m not looking forward to playing Death Stranding after watching this so it’ll remain in the back of my backlog LOL

[@Transparencyboo]

It is very divisive, but worth playing we think. At least if nothing else it is very different and fun to talk about a lot. We did like the gameplay a lot more than the story for example, so it is not completely terrible. People should pretty much play it themselves to form an opinion, because heck are they all over the place for this one and that is really interesting.

[@Alkimodon]

Thank you for this video. And a YIKES to this game and how it treats women. I pfffted when the character delivered a metaphor.

[@VCheesey]

I didn't even realize it at the time, but you have a good point about how the only live people you transport (in body bags, as cargo) are women. However, this isn't entirely true. You also transport some nameless, faceless (entirely covered except for their eyes) porter men that you rescue in few side quests, which arguably makes this a bit worse. It's like, the only way you could possibly lug around men in the same way you do women is if they're virtually devoid of any sort of characterization besides giving a single thumbs up and passing out, and if they'd literally die otherwise.

[@Transparencyboo]

We did know about the side quests, but we were talking about our experience from the main story. Either way, I think you make a fine point here too :)

[@plumune1705]

excellent video

[@lopenash]

RE: Passing over the ethics of stillmothers Does a work need to explicitly state when a bad thing is bad, or can a creator have faith that the audience can reach that conclusion themselves? As a whole, I'm having difficulty agreeing with this analysis but I can't remember the game well enough to give specific critique. All I have is a vague feeling that you're missing something. Time to spend another 70 hours, I guess

[@Transparencyboo]

The point is not that they have to explicitly state that a bad thing is bad. The game gestures in that direction, but mainly does it through Mads' character. It would have been nice if they took such a harrowing concept anywhere, but they don't. There is so little emphasis put on it that it easily gets lost in those 70 hours of game that the player has in front of them. If you make this into a concept in your game world I'd expect you to at least explore it a little bit and not just keep it the length of a writing on a napkin. It is underexplored and I would not be surprised if it just passes by players because of how little importance it seems to be given. Which considering not a lot of people are talking about it might be correct. And you know what; If I missed something that would upend my own personal interpretation of these events to the point where it did not make any sense anymore I would be surprised. I doubt it though, because it would take quite a bit more than just a few sentences to convince me of that. I think the structure of my interpretations as a connected whole would need a bit more to be completely toppled over. And even then I might just blame the game for misleading me, lol.

[@i_cedi9861]

Does Kojima know what women are?

[@Transparencyboo]

He knows something. I am not entirely sure what.

[@308NAL]

lmao Portgas D. Ace

[@Transparencyboo]

Ace is ace, simple, really.

[@Mystro256]

I love his games, but the stories are always a hot mess, let's be honest.

[@Transparencyboo]

I still think MGS 1-3 have really good stories with some great messages, 3 especially is pretty neat. Although I guess he had a co-writer at that point that could rail him in if needed, haha

[@nehcooahnait7827]

I feel a bit guilty about focusing too much on the problematic portray of major female characters such as Mama and Fragile and didn’t think that much about those “brain-dead mothers”…

[@nehcooahnait7827]

Yeah sometimes I skip conversations and didn’t read all the emails 😕 I remember dead man mentioning BB tech and I thought there just happened to be a single brain dead woman somehow making the BB tech work like a Queen bee of a Hive mind

[@Transparencyboo]

It's subtle, so not really any need to feel guilty about it. I don't think anyone should.

[@sMerina]

algorithm and love

[@Transparencyboo]

[@dicegameuchiha]

banger vid

[@Transparencyboo]

Thank you! :)

[@bemindful924]

All I know is that Death Stranding saved people from depression during the hard lockdowns, a feat arguably no other game could have achieved: It was a game before the pandemic, about the pandemic (sharing several covid similarities) and offered a remedy for the pandemic (with it's mundane gameplay much like animalcrossing, altruistic worldbuilding and puzzle solving. I do have problems with the game like the pacing, the dialogue needing an editor, convoluted UI and exposition not stretched more evenly, but I've no problems whatsoever with any of the women in Death Stranding. When you grow up with strange movies like The Matrix where humans are harvested to function as batteries the story doesnt seem to be that strange, especially since it's being sold as a post-apocalyptic science fiction game. The used themes in the game mimic reality, much like the MGS games - which included strong women of authority while some were overexposed as sexy for the sake of the boys. But I think you're tunnelvisioning here and want to believe the women to be objects so badly that you lose objectivity despite giving some credit on the character improvements made. Sometimes weakness is blind to gender and circumstance. As for Kojipro, I dont think they are 'lucky'in predicting futures since Kojima himself is a man of culture/ideas and reflects this into his games through social commentary. Hence the cultural anthroplogy, pseudo-science and (past and future) world events being integral in his games. Make no mistake. Im not a fanboy as you can tell. However Im grateful to have developed a keen mind(fulness), strong moral compass and understand people far better thanks to his games. There is even a CNN interview with a boy who's family are maga supporters and his dad a Capitol rioter. Among the MAGA madness in his family, he kept his mind sane, thanks to Metal Gear Solid. He stated this on twitter and he has MGS posters behind him during the interview. To me, Kojipro will never get the respect that he deserves due to how the masses are more into instant gratification, easy-to-digest content and usually dont have the capacity to bridge mindsets due to western values / environmental upbringing. Again, Kojima is far from flawless, but he brings a lot more to the table than any other developer. (attention to detail, pushing hardware to its limit, cinematography, social commentary that most developers shy away from to reach more gamers, respecting our intelligence, etc). I am aware that most people who play regard games as just entertainment. I like to think a game can be more than just a form of timesink.

[@CabezasDePescado]

Kojima is weird about women.

[@Lamirox]

The mental gymnastics in this video is insane.

[@Transparencyboo]

It's quite straight forward and simple, but okay. If you somehow think 'mental gymnastics' are needed to make this analysis then sorry, but that probably says more about you than the video - if we are being completely honest. Good luck with that, mate.

[@Lamirox]

@@Transparencyboo Im not the one reaching for straws just so i can get triggered.

[@Transparencyboo]

@@Lamirox It took you an entire week to come up with this.

[@souplife1]

@@Lamirox I'll be waiting on your video about how Death Stranding is the peak of feminism.

[@nellfallcard1043]

I don't understand your logic fully. First, you complain that there is way too much to cover on Death Stranding that ends up being half baked, then proceed to rant about not enough background on the braindead women who produce the BBs, which more than a valid criticism comes across as "this game does not fit the way I would personally do the game". Also, this review is conveniently ignoring Lou and Amelie's roles, being Lou the MVP who keeps saving Sam every time (he says so himself in an exchange with Deadman when he encourages him to see Lou as equipment), and the encounter with Higgs in Edge Knot City lets us know Lou does it actively and consciously. On the other hand, Amelie is the proverbial überpowerful Extinction Entity that can blow up the planet, and without her, nothing on Death Stranding plot would have ever happened. Now, Mama's story is not in there "just for shock value", the umbilical cord of her baby and her body not necrotizing provide info regarding the origin of the Death Stranding and the Extinction Entities for Heartman to decode, and this was the basis for Mama to engineer the umbilical cord handcuff knife she gives Sam, which is an important gameplay milestone that enriches the experience. By the way, carrying her, President Strand and the Chiral Artist are part of the main story, but outside the main plot you can kill the mules and, if you do, you have to carry them to the incinerator in the same fashion, so is not technically "women are cargo" as much as it is "you can carry humans from point A to point B". I do have criticism on how they handle women, tho: Amelie running on high heels at the Beach. There is no way we wear high heels in sand without walking like a cramping newborn bambi, and I speak as a gal who tool a masterclass with Yanis Marshall.

[@Transparencyboo]

The problem is that the game is bloated, it is basically filled to the brim with so much stuff that it manages to not expand on things that probably should have been. It is muddled and a lot get lost somewhere in the middle. We do not think that this is really contradictory and would rather argue that these problems flow into each other. The game is bloated to the point where it misses to talk about rather heavy subjects that needed more development or explanation to be justified. Also, just to be clear, this is not a review of the game at all. Sure, yet Amelie is more or less just a glorified damsel in distress for the entire story and only serve as a motivation for Sam, she literally refers to herself as Princess Peach. Agree to disagree about Mama, the scene we were talking about we think is completely done for shock value rather than anything else, and her story is not really that important in the grand scheme of things. I think it is also very convinient that she has to die so a guy can figure out the big important things, kind of just strengthens our argument I think. She gives us a power up though, that is very true. You can absolutely carry the mules too, however we were talking about mandatory things you do throughout the story - those are very much only women. Just to clarify too - we do not actually think that the lore justifies a lot of our criticism of how the female characters are portrayed.

[@nellfallcard1043]

@@Transparencyboo I can agree that the game put in there quite more that it could chew in terms of heavy topics, and even going into the emails where it kinda ties everything together, is hard to digest for the average player. This been said, the argument of expanding on the unborn children beyond "they are links to the Beach given their mothers died but they didn't but also were never born so they are kinda inbetween" (which is enough for the plot to unfold), falls into the category of personal preference, given the social commentary is not really needed for storytelling purposes. Now, Amelie is not "just a glorified damsel in distress for the entire story and only serve as a motivation for Sam", that's the role she played the first chunk of the story before the plot twist where it is revealed she is actually the cause of the Death Stranding and therefore the bad guy from the start. She used the trope as a manipulative resource, it comes in the very scene sequence of the admittedly cringeworthy "princess Beach" part. About Mama, I said Heartman decoded the origin of the Death Stranding to save time, but it actually was a team effort, the Spiritualist and the Evo-Devo Biologists chimed in with pieces to complete the puzzle, both of them women.

[@Transparencyboo]

@A1 Absolutely nothing.

[@PunCala]

Brilliant video, but please refine your narration. You emphasize almost every word and it becomes very jarring very quickly.

[@Transparencyboo]

Thanks. Don't take this the wrong way, but this is a bit personal to me so I'd just like to add some things to clarify some stuff that bothers me. It's not really against you for being constructive and wanting to be helpful, it is rather just me forcing out some feelings about myself. This video is over a year old at this point, and I am well aware of my weird mannerisims that might grade on people, and to be quite honest I don't look back at these vids because I hate how I talk in them- altough I think I have gotten better at it since we released this video in particular. More importantly I don't really like to hone in much on how other people talk, because it is very hard to know 'why' they do that, and from personal experience it can be really hurtful even when just presented as constructive ciriticism. For me, as a trans woman, anything relating to how I talk and how I sound just hit me different, you know? Because if anyone is aware of how I talk and sound it is me, I hyper focus on it so much to the point where it is probably unhealthy. I am pretty sure creating this very video fucked me up hard precisely for the reasons you brought up, and then some. I actually talked to Kiki about this yesterday, that if I could I would go back and redo all the voice lines of these videos from scratch, and that is not reasonable at all - but it gnaws on my mind so much. So I dunno, this is just why I personally try to not comment on these things about other people, because they might feel just like me. And gosh, I wouldn't wish this torment on anyone else. Sorry for the rant, it just makes me feel better to put it out there

[@Mariooo57]

​@@Transparencyboo As a trans woman undergoing voice therapy and currently feeling constant self-doubt about how I sound, this comment speaks to me on such a personal level. You don't need to apologize, the video was actually fine in that sense. It didn't feel jarring to me, but the idea that it does to someone else is interesting. The tone didn't deter my enjoyment or prevented me from understanding the content... I don't know, we all react differently but OP's comment rubs me the wrong way, to be honest. It might be the lack of tact or a missed context, but it just doesn't feel like a constructive criticism to make, unless you go into more details about it, which OP didn't here. To go back to the video, the narration was clearly more intense at certain points, and it was shown in your voice, but it all makes sense in the context it is presented ie. the various ways you've showcased the failures of Death Stranding's makers at tackling serious issues in relation to their women characters, for example. To me, it felt like a cumulation of many frustrations we can have about how Kojima or the videogame industry in general misses the mark when including women in their narrative, and however these frustrations are expressed, it's all valid.

[@Transparencyboo]

@@Mariooo57 Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the thoughtful comment! I am really glad that you shared your take on it too

[@etwregh6676]

Hm... As far as I know Death Stranding is a game that fights to say what it wants to say. I liked it, but sadly you did not really talk about the game.. But the only one being weird about women is clearly you. Kojima definitely lost many threads to tie on some Story and Drama, making it eben better and with more feels. Yes, the characters are some kind of stereotype and greasy, but maybe he is on the right way. He just has to make the characters more interesting and lively and work more on the dialogues. In the end it still is an ambitious video game and no monument of human history.

[@Transparencyboo]

"But what about the gaaaaaameplaaaay"

[@etwregh6676]

@@Transparencyboo The gameplay is really stressful, because Kojima loves his metaphors. WE HAVE TO FEEL SAM AND HIS BURDEN! :D I guess you know what I mean.... It is no fun, but somehow a part of the 'game'.

[@Transparencyboo]

@@etwregh6676 We thought the act of playing the game was easily the most fun part. Too bad it is so outrageously long though.

[@etwregh6676]

@@Transparencyboo I really loved the story and the message it wanted to deliver. But the execution felt kinda rushed or unpolished. As if Kojima wanted a PS5 game and because he is Kojima Sony wanted it to also sell on the PS4 so Kojima was forced to finish what he got until then. But the gameplay was...proper and necessary to get the feeling of Sam. It really was a burden. Fun it is, but it is literally getting the player exhausted and that is what Kojima wants. I felt every delivery nearly as if I was Sam and therefore the gameplay was good. But after a while I was really tired. I play it for the third time now. Just because I like the story so much and I only got 86% by now. Trying to get Platinum and more quality time with Lou :)

[@souplife1]

@@etwregh6676 I hope you gained some media literacy since then because wow you can't real the video or comments at all