Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Spoilercast - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Death Stranding 2 – On The Beach Spoilercast Summary

Release Date: July 9, 2025

In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, hosts Greg Miller, Blessing Adeoye, Roger Pokorny, and guest Jerika engage in an in-depth discussion about "Death Stranding 2: On The Beach." The conversation spans personal experiences, thematic explorations, character analyses, and gameplay mechanics, providing listeners with a comprehensive spoiler cast of the highly anticipated sequel.

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1. Personal Experiences with Death Stranding 2

Roger Pokorny shares his marathon 83-hour live stream of the game, highlighting the dedication required to navigate its expansive world. He admits, “[00:08]...so I’m deep in the death straining and I feel excited to talk to you guys about it.”

Blessing Adeoye reflects on her limited gameplay post-review, stating, “[09:47]...I played 0 hours more of Death Stranding 2 since the review. It’s a tough thing.”

Jerika discusses her extensive 20-hour second playthrough, focusing on revisiting missions and exploring additional storylines. “[08:08]...I went back like the middle of the game save...I’m still high on it.”

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2. Themes and Story Analysis

The hosts delve into the central themes of grief and loss within the game. Blessing Adeoye emphasizes the unique portrayal of grief, particularly the loss of a child, noting, “[12:36]...it’s about losing a child and how Sam processes his grief.”

Roger Pokorny highlights an "aha moment" where the absence of a central motivating figure in Sam’s journey becomes a narrative strength. “[18:05]...Sam is going through this horrible moment of grief and doesn’t have that central thing to connect him, but this is the only thing that actually gets him out of bed.”

Greg Miller contrasts the storytelling approaches of the first and second installments, appreciating the sequel’s more streamlined narrative. “[26:11]...Death Stranding 2 stuck with me longer than Death Stranding 1 narratively.”

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3. Character Discussions

Fragile and her team receive extensive analysis. Jerika praises the female characters, stating, “[22:15]...Fragile sort of bring in, like, how she was recruiting her team...more human connection with these characters.”

Roger Pokorny shares his evolving perspective on Fragile, initially suspecting her motives but ultimately appreciating her role in the narrative. “[49:20]...Fragile sort of bring in, like, how she was recruiting her team...”

Dollman becomes a focal point as Greg Miller and Blessing Adeoye express both admiration and critique. “[34:56]...Doll man...the entire five minutes of this song...”

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4. Boss Fights and Gameplay Mechanics

The discussion turns to the boss fights, particularly the showdown with Higgs. Greg Miller describes the battle as "mechanically uninteresting" but narratively satisfying, “[50:00]...he looks so much like Jesus... such a standout role for him.”

Blessing Adeoye critiques the one-note nature of the fights, comparing them unfavorably to the puzzle-oriented encounters in the original game. “[64:20]...mechanically the boss fights can be very one note...”

Roger Pokorny reminisces about the meditative quality of navigating Death Stranding 1’s landscapes, contrasting it with the more action-focused gameplay of the sequel. “[24:29]...something meditative there... memorable experience.”

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5. Soundtrack and Music

The soundtrack receives enthusiastic praise, with specific mention of Caroline Polachek’s "Horizon Dreamer." Blessing Adeoye shares her fascination with integrating music into gameplay, “[69:13]...the choreography to the song Horizon Dreamer...”

Jerika appreciates the diverse musical contributions, highlighting artists like Woodkid and the seamless blending of tracks to enhance the gaming experience. “[74:29]...Wood Kid… how much of him is involved with the game's engineering of the sound.”

Roger Pokorny points out the availability of alternate versions of songs, enhancing the overall musical landscape of the game. “[73:59]...another version on Spotify... stripped back version I prefer.”

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6. Future of the Death Stranding Franchise

The conversation speculates on the potential for a Death Stranding 3, considering Hideo Kojima’s future projects and creative directions. Blessing Adeoye expresses hope for new IPs, “[81:50]...seeing Kojima create more new worlds.”

Roger Pokorny envisions a future where new teams continue the legacy, possibly introducing new protagonists to expand the universe. “[82:37]...next generation of Death Stranding... new team and new stories.”

Greg Miller hopes for continued innovation within the series while contemplating Kojima’s creative evolution, “[87:27]...a great game that I can’t wait to keep playing more of.”

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Notable Quotes

• Roger Pokorny [04:14]: “I would just be alone in my house, right, playing the game. But I have processed enough of that story.”

• Blessing Adeoye [12:36]: “It’s about losing a child and how Sam processes his grief.”

• Greg Miller [24:30]: “The first one, I was like, I get it. I understand. He is very quiet.”

• Roger Pokorny [55:07]: “If you listen to that, I think you might come around.”

• Jerika [74:29]: “I need more of his stuff and video games. Really cool.”

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Conclusion

The Kinda Funny Gamescast episode offers a comprehensive spoiler cast of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, blending personal anecdotes with critical analysis. The hosts commend the sequel’s enhanced storytelling, character development, and soundtrack, while offering constructive critiques on gameplay mechanics and boss fight designs. As they speculate on the franchise’s future, the conversation underscores the enduring impact and intricate narrative Kojima continues to weave in the Death Stranding universe.

For fans seeking an exhaustive exploration of Death Stranding 2, this episode serves as an invaluable resource, capturing the essence of the game’s evolution and its emotional depth.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kinda Funny Games cast for Wednesday, July 9, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30 aka New York Game Awards. Nominated aka fighting game Poppy Blessing Addy. Oh yay, Junior.

[Blessing Addy]

Good day, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

How is the rematch obsession?

[Blessing Addy]

Oh, it's going great. It's nonstop. It's one of those things where as I'm playing it, I've hit the point now where I know I'm doing something unhealthy. I'm like, oh man, I've been doing so much of this that now it kind of feels gross. But I'm not going to stop.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, good. I like that. Of course you know him as the taste maker. It's Roger Pokorny. Hello, Roger.

[Roger Pokorny]

Hi, Greg. You own this owalla train?

[Greg Miller]

No. I hear about you and Joey talking and now we're gonna do. We're already breaking the fourth wall just looking at each other.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna look at each other.

[Greg Miller]

So is it Odd Walla, like the juices I get at the grocery store?

[Roger Pokorny]

Excuse me?

[Blessing Addy]

Said Odd walla.

[Greg Miller]

Is it Odd Walla like he's fucking with us.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Now this might be a bit oddawalla.

[Greg Miller]

O D Walla. Odd walla.

[Roger Pokorny]

What type of juice is it? Is it like an animal juice?

[Greg Miller]

Juices.

[Roger Pokorny]

I thought maybe an animal is named Ottawa.

[Greg Miller]

They're a very popular juice in protein shake brand over there. Jerry, you know what I'm talking about. You ever seen Odd Walla?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, this is fake.

[Blessing Addy]

No, see, you're like the react.

[Greg Miller]

I've seen the water bottle.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I see.

[Greg Miller]

It feels odd walla right there.

[Blessing Addy]

I love, I love that the reaction Roger's having.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, I. I watched a podcast about Odd Walla literally yesterday.

[Greg Miller]

Oh my God. What do you mean?

[Roger Pokorny]

I watch a podcast about food, everybody. And like, yeah, just.

[Greg Miller]

How did you not know immediately what I'm talking about?

[Roger Pokorny]

It's old, dude. It's an old brand that came back is what they're saying. Odd Walla.

[Greg Miller]

When did it go away?

[Roger Pokorny]

A while ago. Oh, Walla is the ones drink too.

[Greg Miller]

Many and I poop myself.

[Blessing Addy]

What?

[Roger Pokorny]

It's a water bottle brand and I have one. And then Blessing, I was telling Blessing about it because everyone at the office kind of has one. Joey, everybody at the office, me, everyone that matters.

[Blessing Addy]

Three people at the office have a walla.

[Roger Pokorny]

And then Blessing looked at me and he was like, that's a fake thing you're making. You're making a joke. Like no one has this thing. And then I said, turn around.

[Blessing Addy]

Like, three people had a wall, like, bears holding it. Joey's.

[Roger Pokorny]

I.

[Greg Miller]

And I was confused because again, I was thinking it was the juice. And then I heard there being something where you're saying the cool kids switch lids and you can switch, but Joey was like, oh, you can't. They're switching lids at the store. But that violates the warranty. And I was like, what are you talking about?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I mean, it's exactly what you.

[Greg Miller]

What are the two modes, Roger?

[Roger Pokorny]

It has the little lip right there. The lip right there. If you open it up, it has a straw, and it also has the chug jug right there. So you can sip and you can chug, and it's patented.

[Greg Miller]

This strikes me a lot like the Stanley.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, but it's better than the Stanley.

[Greg Miller]

It's just like, this is like a fad. I'm not part of this fad. I'm not gonna be part of this fad. Jerrica, are you part of this fad?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Jerika]

No. But I did look at water bottles recently. I saw those online, but I just like a more. I need more of a spout for my straw. Like, I need. I need to be able to reach it better, and I feel like that's harder to drink out of.

[Roger Pokorny]

You got.

[Jerika]

I could be wrong.

[Roger Pokorny]

You go to your local Dick Sporting goods, start sipping out of a bunch of Wallace.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, you'll never know. You'll never. Jerika, of course, is from JK Games, the podcast, and is joining us because, of course, Jerika joined us on the one, the only, the Death Stranding 2 on the beach review. Welcome back, Jerika.

[Jerika]

Yeah, I'm so glad to finally talk about what's going on in the beach.

[Greg Miller]

That's right, everybody.

[Jerika]

I can't wait to do that.

[Greg Miller]

If you didn't see what you clicked on, this is Our Death Stranding 2 on the beach spoiler cast. All of us have beaten it. Even Roger, who claimed he wasn't going to for the spoiler cast.

[Roger Pokorny]

I was trying not to.

[Greg Miller]

You freaked it.

[Roger Pokorny]

I freaked it.

[Greg Miller]

So if people don't know, which is impossible, if they don't know. How long did you stream? Death stream.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, boy. I think it's 83 hours. We were live, technically. Yeah. So 83 hours we were live. A lot of that was eating. A lot of that was sleeping. But Mike and I got through a good portion of the game. I think we had four hours left. Four to five hours left. By the time we finished that big marathon stream, where, of course, Mike was on A treadmill. The entire time.

[Greg Miller]

The entire time.

[Roger Pokorny]

Most of the time as, as I was walking as sand. Porter Bridges walked. Of course, Mike walked as well. And then we did two extra streams after that and we beat the game. So yeah, I've finally beaten the game.

[Greg Miller]

Do you feel like you beat it in the way you wanted to beat it? Because again there was this conversation where you weren't, you guys weren't in the production meeting or were. And I said, I'm putting them on the spoiler cast. And then during the stream you kept saying, I'm sorry, Greg, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I don't want to rush this.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I know. I definitely have not beaten the game in the way that I want to. I mean, ideally I would just be alone in my house, right, playing the game. But I have processed enough of that story. I have opinions, I have thoughts. I need to talk about this game. So somewhere. And also I've restarted the game by myself on my PS5 so I'm gonna replay that game as well. So I'm about like 8 hours already on my PS5 save at home. So yeah, I'm deep in the death straining and I feel excited to talk to you guys about it.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I'm excited to talk to all three of you about it because this is the Kinda Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we come together to talk about the biggest topics in video games. Whether they be reviews, previews, spoiler casts or just conversations we need to have, we have them all right here on Twitch TV kindafunnygames, YouTube.com kinda funnygames and podcast around the globe, of course. Special shout out to the one and the only Big Kevdog Kevin Coelho Games Daily. Cursed with multiple blue screens in the main studio, the main brain of the studio, Kevin immediately got us here into the emergency lifeboat. We are in the LEM. It's an Apollo 13 reference. Everybody for you over here in the lab doing kinda funny gamescast to make sure you get your content. Good job, Kevin. Throw up your gold stars everybody in the Twitch chat. Of course, if you're watching live, you have a special job. Head over to YouTube.com kindafunnygames there you can super chat your questions, your thoughts, your opinions, your reviews of Death Stranding 2 on the beach so we can spoil the shit out of them on this very episode. If you want to go even further, of course, pick up that kinda funny membership. $10 a month gets you 80 episodes of content, all ad free. And it gets you the exclusive series known as Greg Way, a 15 to 20 minute podcast from my car to you each and every weekday, adding up to four hours of exclusive podcast. You can get your membership over on YouTube.com kindafunnygames on podcast services like Apple and Spotify, and of course patreon.com kindafunny reminder for some housekeeping. We're an 11 person business that's all about live talk shows. Kinda Funny Games Daily was plagued by gremlins. But it was also a great conversation about Elden Ring Night Rain dominating the sales chart. After this, Blessing and Joey are streaming some games. If you're a Kinda Funny member. Today's Greg Way is 19 minutes on my second viewing of Superman. This one was for me, all right. First one was for work. Tomorrow's date night. And then of course Friday is me and Tim's date day. Last night was just about me. I tell you about the date I took myself on and shout out to all the kind of funny best friends who stopped me. I believe it was Kevin. Not Kevin who works here. Kevin last night who put his photo up on the subreddit. I think his name was Kevin. But I met a lot of kind of funny best friends last night. Who would have thought? Fish in a barrel at a Superman show. Lot of kind of fun.

[Roger Pokorny]

You get popcorn this time?

[Greg Miller]

Got so much popcorn.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I fucked you on that one.

[Greg Miller]

Well, not you. The Kabuki did. My anger is directed at the Kabuki in the first one. Okay. But it was a work event. It's different.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney the Psalm Twining, Carl Jacobs and Omega Buster. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays. But we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the topic of the show.

[Blessing Addy]

Tots Tots.

[Greg Miller]

Tots. Tots.

[Blessing Addy]

Tots. Tots. Tots. Tots.

[Greg Miller]

Dots. Death Stranding 2 on the beach came out June 26, 2025. Has a 90 on Metacritic. Outrageous. I mean, congratulations to Kajim and the team, obviously, but like, I never would have predicted that, you know, based on Death Stranding 1. And how did you like it? Did you not like it? It's a walking simulator. It's this. That's the other. Damn, that's a nice thing. I want to start with the folks who are on the review. So, Roger, you stay silent for a second. Finally, Jerika, how much Death Stranding 2 have you played since you were last there?

[Jerika]

Definitely 20 more hours. I did something you 20 more hours. Yeah, I finally paused to get to something else. But yeah, I went back like the middle of the game save. I went back to an old save. So just so I can like start like doing more missions for other preppers and build all the roads so it's easier to get around. Towards the end of the story, I was sort of struggling because I quit building and there was the network went down, you know, the week before launch. So like I was very lacking in things to help me get to my destination. So went back a save so I.

[Greg Miller]

Can enjoy two weeks later, 20 hours later. Where are you now? When people ask you how did you like Death Stranding 2?

[Jerika]

I'm still super high on it. If anything, I've come across more storylines with different preppers. Finish out the pizza guys mission and you know, that's. That's definitely a highlight of the the story was that side quest. There's a thing else we might get to later that I wonder how the payoff is for that. It involves a huge BT in the middle of a lake, some fishermen. Okay, I'm excited to get to that, but still high on it. I'm still finding a lot of different upgrades that I haven't used.

[Roger Pokorny]

Like the ramp.

[Jerika]

Being able to run and jump off of that thing is amazing. I didn't get to really utilize that before doing the review. So yeah, there's a lot more in this game and I can't wait to see if there's something I've missed.

[Greg Miller]

Blessing. Talk to me two weeks later. Where are you when you've been marinating on Death Stranding 2? On the beach.

[Blessing Addy]

I played 0 hours more of Death Stranding 2 since the review. It's a tough thing. And this is kind of the potion pole for me when I review games is that once I finish a game, it's really, really tough for me to go back just to clean up. Right. Like that's like open world type stuff or like, you know, finishing off like the quests and dangling stuff that I have to finish off. As far as side activities, I'm so in for the story. I'm so in for the main content and like I'll do side stuff when I'm in it, but as soon as I roll credits, I. I'm on to the next thing. And so I've been playing other games. I've been like, I reviewed Donkey Kong and Tony Hawk and other stuff. Yeah, since we reviewed Death rating too. But like I'm still in the same place as far as when, like, how I feel when I think back to it and when I, like, you know, marinate in my emotions, marinate in my feelings. Like, I'm still super high on my game as far as where it took us, where it ended, what it does with its characters, how I think it does really well by its various character arcs and also how it just uplifts everything that it established in the first Death Stranding. Like, I'm still very high. What about you, Greg?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no, no. You're not off the hook that quickly because my question would be this. Do you find yourself coming back to it when your mind wanders, when you think about stuff you've played recently? It's an interesting one of sometimes, you know, we miss that zeitgeist because we're the tip of the sword on it, where you play the game, you review the game, then it's unleashed on the world kind of thing. Have you found yourself, your mind wandering back to moments from Death Stranding 2, or have you just been straight on the other one? You kind of forgot all about it till I said there's a spoiler cast today.

[Blessing Addy]

I think so, yeah. I think it's one of those interesting ones where I look at death training 2 as, you know, one of the, I guess, like, headline games of the year when we think about the big games that come out every year and it is like, all right, we're looking forward to Ghost or we're looking forward to Starfield. We're looking for, like, what are the big names of games. Death rating 2 for me in this first half of the year, I'd say is probably the biggest one that I've. I was most looking forward to. And it's funny because I look at my Game of the Year list so far for 2025, and I'm so happy with how bizarre, like, my Game of the Year list is as far as on there. Yes. Oh, 1,000%. It's like my number two or three. Right. Like, I forget what order I have them in, but blueprints, Clear, Obscure and Death Reading two are my top three for the year so far. And for me, it's indicative of this being a year of just like, weird and fresh and weird and fresh ideas and how much that's kind of spearheaded what I been gravitating, gravitating towards this year. And so, like, I, I, for me, I, when I think back to Destiny 2, I kind of think of it as like the triple A version of what I've been flocking to for games this year. But when I'm thinking about specific moments. Right. Like, I'm thinking a lot about the. To get into the spoiler cast.

[Greg Miller]

We're there.

[Blessing Addy]

I'm going to say, everybody, yeah, you.

[Greg Miller]

Should have beaten the game by now if you're.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah. The various Neil moments and Neil cutscenes in the game are ones that I think back to often. Just as far as, like, how interesting and well produced and high, like, you know, choreographed they are and how much I love just, like, those boss fights compared to the ones that we had in, like, the. For the Mads Mikkelsen segments in the first Death Stranding. I think back to the Tomorrow cutscene where, like, you first kind of meet her and then you're searching for her and, like, you had, like, kind of this mellow piano music playing as they're following her footsteps and looking for her. And that was my favorite mission during the preview that I did back at when we went to Kojima Productions. And, like, the cutscene that follows that mission of her just whooping ass to the fucking sickest EDM music. I'm like, man, that's fucking sick. Right?

[Greg Miller]

But I can jump in because this is something I wouldn't want to say on the actual review. Yeah, that was the first time where I paused it and I said, tim, come over here. And I just put the headset on him and let him. The music was awesome. But I was like, you got it. I know this is Tim shit. I know he won't get here back.

[Blessing Addy]

Exactly. But I think one of the things I think about the most when it comes to Death Raining two are just how thematically like it is. It's about grief. And there's been a lot of media that we've had, especially video games, about grief in the last year, especially when I referenced Clear Obscure before. But it being about losing a child and, like, the whole game kind of marinating in Sam's feelings and Sam kind of having this connection and having, like, the BT version of Lou existing but also kind of as an illusion. And, like, how much of the game kind of comes back to that. And, like, I. Like, it's been one that I think that theme I've been kind of sitting with and thinking back to just as far as something that I don't see as often in video games. Often we obviously we see grief, but it being about a lost child, I don't know. I feel like this game found an interesting way to go about it in, like, a way that is unexpected. Like, one of the conversations I found really interesting. Thinking back to the preview event that we went to was after day one, you know, we all experienced that moment in. I think it was chapter three, right? Or maybe end of chapter two, where, you know, Lou gets quote unquote taken out by the bad guys. And I was at the bar with like, I think it was Dan Riker, it was Marcus from Gamespot. And we were having the conversation of like, yo, what happened? I was like, did they shoot the baby? Like, what the fuck happened to the baby? And nobody wanted to just admit that they took out a baby. That they straight up, just like, you know, like, like had this moment of, oh, shit. All right, cool. This is a. This is a story about you've lost a baby. What do you do with that? And I don't know, I feel like it was just a very bold, very like, non typical choice that you have in a video game story to kind of set, set off the events here. And so I'm, I'm excited to talk to you all more about that. And like, what the fuck are they. What the fuck are they talking about? The core of this video game.

[Greg Miller]

Roger, what the fuck are they talking about? The core of this video.

[Roger Pokorny]

Ah, man. Dead Wife themes. Dead Baby themes.

[Blessing Addy]

Themes of Dead Wife.

[Roger Pokorny]

No.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, themes of dead babies.

[Roger Pokorny]

I'm right with there with you. Bless. I think I'm in the middle of kind of still digesting a lot of the themes and a lot of the things that Kojima has. Has had to say throughout this game. And I actually had a big moment today of kind of coming to terms with what I thought was a criticism of the game. And now it's become kind of a huge positive of it. And that was in the first game. You are so focused. You have this central motivation to get to the end of the United States, to connect the east coast and the west coast, and that is to find your sister. Right. You don't necessarily have that here in this game. Right. At least in the middle of the whole story. Right. It's just kind of like, oh, you have to do it because, you know, we have to kind of get the Chiral Network together and, you know, we have to stop this looming threat of, I guess, violence and guns from Higgs. Right. It's less focused as it is in Death Stranding 1, or at least it is less tangible. And then I started to realize that that's kind of the point here, right, Is that Sam is going through this, this horrible moment of grief and he doesn't have that central thing to connect him, but this is the only thing that actually gets him out of bed in the morning. This is the only thing that actually gets him to not be drinking all day and thinking about Lou is to just keep his. Keep on going and put one foot in front of the other. And that was a big. Literally, I woke up this morning, I went, I'm driving to the gym and I was thinking about that criticism and then I was like, holy shit, that's a positive right there. That's actually like a conscious decision that I think the Kojima has built into this game is having this game very front loaded and then having all the reveals and the twists happen at the very ending and kind of having that middle part very sparse. So yeah, I'm very much there of like, I'm learning a lot of things, I'm thinking about a lot of things. I'm trying to connect all the dots in my second playthrough. But yeah, I. I very much am enjoying my second playthrough and I think that this is. If I were to talk about, generally speaking, I know we're talking about spoilers, but like, if I like this one comparatively to Death Straining one or two, which one do I like more? I think I liked one More just because it was such a unique experience and it was something that I had never experienced before in a video game. Two is derivative on purpose, right? It's a sequel and it does a lot of stuff better in terms of gameplay. But I do like the story, I think as a whole in One More. But that can also change, I think, as I go through my second playthrough. But yeah, that was a big aha moment for me today.

[Greg Miller]

I think it's interesting. You said a lot of stuff there. I want to double back to get on. But I like this Death Stranding one versus Death Stranding two conversation because I think when I reviewed Death Stranding for Kind of Funny and we talked about it and it was at the time leading into that it was, what is Death Stranding? What is this game going to be? Xyz, blah, blah, blah. Like over the years, Death Stranding has just become Norman Reedus climbing the mountain with Lou on his chest, right? And that connection between them and of course getting to the end and him saying her full name and da, da, da, da. Like that's what I remember Death Stranding being. And so for Death Stranding 2, I like Death Stranding 2 more than I like Death Stranding 1. I think Death Stranding 2 will stick with me longer than Death Stranding 1. Did narratively, because I was very much jumped into Death Stranding 2 and totally had forgotten anything about it. This speaks, I think, to some of my criticisms in the review, right. Of like Norman Reedus and the way he's used in Death Stranding 1 and 2. I can never get over the fact that that's just Norman Reedus. Like, I'm looking at Darryl from the Walking Dead. That's just Norman Reedus being Norman Reedus. Norman Reedus. Norman. Like he's not Sam Porter Bridges. Like, I will say one out of ten times other. Everywhere else is going to be Norman Reedus, right? And so when it's like, oh, he had a wife, I'm like, I don't even fucking remember that from that I'm reading the summary in the beginning, it's like, and his sister. I was like, is that the woman on the beach? The narrative of what Death Stranding was fell completely away over the years to me. Whereas getting to Death Stranding 2 and having it be this story that I think is springboarding off what worked from the Death Stranding one story for me works so well. All right, it's him and Lou. Lou's been taken away. What's going on? We get to the end here. And of course El Fanning is Louis. What does that set them up for in the future? How bad ass it is to see her in the Porter gear at the end of this fucking game. Like, you know what I mean? Like that a simpler story maybe, or a different, you know, a more, I guess, A to B story. In some ways that works for me better than Death Stranding One's did. Where, you know, I think back and I'm like, you're Mario and I'm Princess Beat. It's like, I was like, sure. Like, I don't. I remember Lindsey Wagner again. I know that's Lindsey Wagner because Kojima talks about Lindsey Wagner all the time. But I don't remember. I didn't remember this or that or who is she? Is this a hologram at the end of. Whereas for some reason this worked for me. But Jericho, what do you think when you Compare Death Training 1 to Death Training 2?

[Jerika]

I love the focus. Like, as far as, like, you know, Sam's a quiet character. I think that was some of the criticism that some people have seen. Like, it's still. It's just Norman Reedus and he doesn't have a lot of speaking moments even in Death Raining to. But I do like what they did with. With the sequel having. I feel like I got more from additional characters in this game, I feel like they are also on their personal journey, like, with grief and, like, finding purpose. So not just Sam going along for the ride. And I do. I do feel that it's almost like I almost hoped they would have more of moments, like, on this ship so I can learn more about these characters and talk to them more. I really wanted to have, like, a Mass Effect moment on the Magellan at some point, but we never do. I'm sure there's some limitations with that, but all of the characters that join you on the Magellan are just so interesting and pretty cool to see Kojima, like, really dedicate some good storylines to female characters and Fragile save the day. So comparatively to the first game, they tie in some loose, loose threads. But I felt like that was definitely more purposeful telling the stories with the additional cast.

[Greg Miller]

Agreed. I think so, too. And I'm glad to see you double back and bring up the female characters thing, because that's still something I'm seeing scuttlebutt around the Internet and the think pieces, as there should be, of people dissecting and having issues in that. I know. On the review, we asked you, Jerika, if anything stood out to you. Again, I thought it was done well, but I've seen blowback from that. Or not blowback. That's even. Again, I've seen op EDS about it. Has that surprised you, Jerrica?

[Jerika]

Yeah, because, like, just from my opinion, like, I thought it was handled really well. I loved seeing, like, Fragile sort of bring in, like, how she was recruiting her team and just hearing the story, like, the background behind Rainey and, like, what she experienced and just sort of the girls have their own club, like, the gals on the ship. And, like, you constantly see, like, Sam wanting to participate and, like, wanting to chime in and see and play the games that they're playing. He wants to hang out with them, which I was like, oh, let him hang out with y'. All. But ultimately, like, I. I did enjoy that sort of community that they built between Fragile Radian Tomorrow. I thought that was pretty cool. And there was a line that, like, stuck out to me because, like, Sam's like. Or they're about to head out and, like, do a mission. I forget exactly. Go get supplies or something. And they're leaving, and he's like, well, are y' all gonna be careful? Like, are you gonna be okay? And, like, Tomorrow goes and says, like, we're stronger than you. And I thought that was a pretty cool line. Just after seeing Tomorrow's like powers and abilities. And that amazing cutscene that we had first with the BTS was pre rad. But yeah, I, I enjoy like, compared to the first game, like you just have so much more. It's more than just Sam and Bibi and Lou, like on this mission and yeah, Amelie or whoever that is from the first game in the red dress. Like you have more, I don't know, like more human connection with these characters versus like top level weird science sci fi stuff happening that's connecting them. It's like human, like more grounded in reality for their, I guess, what has happened to them and how they're connected.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I agree with that. In terms of like, if I were to compare the stories, right. I think two is probably a better story overall. But for me, the pacing of one is so solid, especially with the way that they do the Mads Mikkelsen stuff, which I think they. I wouldn't say they. I like the Neil Vanna stuff by the ending of it, but I don't. I don't love the pacing of it all. I think it was kind of like we could have sprayed those out a little bit better throughout the entire game. But also just the pure gameplay of one. I prefer more than two.

[Greg Miller]

Why?

[Roger Pokorny]

That's not the shooting of it. All right. Of course I wish I had. You know, I can shoot people like normal in one like I did in two, but I like how they space out the driving of it. All right. It is so walking focused in one by two, within like three hours, you get a car, right? And you're just driving around and you're building roads. I. I think that there's something meditative there. It also, you control a lot of the. The needle drops in the game a lot better when you are walking and you're going across a mountain. You're able to design that better. And it made that experience a lot more unforgettable for me. Where in two I was just driving pretty much immediately and I'm just, you know, running up entire mountains and it just became kind of like a thing. At least, of course, I was playing in the worst scenario possible, right. With Snow Bike Mike right next to me. And you know, it's. It's not a way that you should ever play a video game, but it is something that I look back on one and I like that meditative quality. Walking up a mountain and then building the zip line and doing. It's still there, but you know, you still want to.

[Greg Miller]

That I feel you on that was what I think. But I think what's interesting of like Death Stranding one is that for me, and I've said it so many times, being in Quebec City all alone in a couch playing it with snow falling outside and on a snowy mountain just walking up. And it was that every one of those long journeys, long walks, felt like it could go wrong at any second. I could tumble down the hill and ruin the package, blah, blah. Whereas this again, was frictionless, where, yeah, I had the Tricruiser right away and then got my big van and I was also machine gun going around and doing. But I guess that's the Power isn't the right word, but the grading on a curve of a sequel where it's like, I wouldn't. It works sometimes, like in a God of War game, to have all your abilities stripped away. But I like that we jumped back in and it wasn't like Sam had lost everything and it was to some degree to the fun faster. I do like having the big cruiser and just filling it up with stuff and like Santa and going around and doing that stuff like that. But you're not alone here. Charlie is in the chat right now and says, I think one has stronger needle drops too, making it atop a hill. And the music kicks in as you see a new landscape. Second, I drove almost everywhere and the music felt random. With a few noticeable exceptions. A thousand percent where it'd be like, I'm listening to stuff on my music player, right? But then it would get the actual, like, cinematic one of the drop. Like, okay, cool.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, for sure.

[Greg Miller]

Blessing, you've been quiet. Where are you? When you think about Death Stranding versus.

[Blessing Addy]

Death Stranding 2, I definitely like Death Training 2 more. I think I was more invested in the story of Death Training two. But I think the conversation is interesting because I also. I think I view them as two parts of a whole. Right. Like, I don't think Death Training two obviously couldn't exist without Death Training one, but I think the through line that you get through both games complement each other very well. Where I like both for different reasons. And I think, you know, I think the. Greg, you mentioned the, like, you know, it being more frictionless and dest raining too. And I think that's the apt way to put it as far as even the corpus and how that's implemented into cutscenes and how I think the game does a way better job of kind of like, you know, easing you into the world is a. Is not the phrase. Because I think the game already expects you to know the rules of the world. And so they don't. They don't have to spend a lot of time explaining shit that is batshit insane to you. They can just, like, go through the go through, you know, being like, oh, we got a Chiral printer. And it's like, oh, I know what that is because I got it ready to go. Yeah, yeah. Because he spent the first game telling us what the Chirals are and the Chiral Network and how you know all this shit. And so, like, when I'm in those first few cutscenes hanging out with Fragile and, you know, she's talking about how, you know, because of the Chiral Network, you now have a pass and like, you have these autonomous machines that deliver packages immediately. I'm like, okay, no, that makes sense. And that is also an interesting implication for what that means for the world when you have these AI. AI bots delivering things. But you want to expand out into different locations. And, like, I'm. I'm thinking about again, like, the threads. It's fun watching Roger in the beginning of the game be like, I don't trust these. I don't trust the expansion mention of, like, these things. When you have the United Cities of America being the ones that are responsible like that. I don't know about that. And it's like, dude, the fact that you're having those thoughts about a game that is this batshit as far as what the. Like, what the properties of this world are, right? Like, I think Death Raining 2 does a great job of just, like, trusting you to understand and also giving you the tools to understand what's going on without the friction of being in Death Training one and having to be like, wait, it's a beach. It's a. It's a bt. What the fuck is a beach? Yeah, all right, it's a beach. It's a beach thing. These are beach babies. Like, what the fuck is happening? Like, every new term, every new Property introduced in DeskTraining1 is like a brand new concept to you. And I think that makes it inherently way different experience than in Death training too. But I also feel what Roger's talked about, because I think that it's almost like a conversation of friction versus non friction when it comes to death training 1 and 2. Because I was playing Destiny to, like, a truck simulator for most of the game where I go to the garage. I'm like, all right, who on my network has a truck that automatically picks things up and, like, has a. Has a turret on it? And, like, I get that truck and I drive To a long way to the next destination. And it is really like I am just in my vehicle listening to my music player, just having a good time. But I remember playing Death Stranding 1 and being on foot and being like, all right, shit, how am I going to do this? Like, how am I going to get across these snow mountains? Like, how am I going to get all the way over here? Like, you know, they would. They would place certain objectives in front of me in desktraining1, and literally I would have the me the feeling of like, I just don't know how I'm gonna make that Happen. Whereas in Desktop 2, they're like, all right, go across the map. And I'm like, all right, bet. Cool. Like, I'll let me get in my car. Let me, Let me load up on things. I'll pick, pick on the way up. And I'm having way more of a lack relaxed kind of experience with it. I think overall, I lean toward death training too, just because the overall story and I think the characters and how that stuff I think invokes more of what Kojima is talented in when it comes to his writing, which I think is, you know, making every character shine, giving them their own unique backstories and having like a wacky cast and crew. I think that's where Kojima's bread and butter is. And that stuff shines way more Industrial two than in death rating one for me. And yeah, I just really like the open world of death. Training two, I think that's. Training two is way more dynamic. You know, you have the fire going on, you have the gate quakes, you have rising, lowering water levels, you have the sandstorms. You have so many systemic things going on in death training too. And you have like the animal shelter that you're delivering things to. There's just a lot going on in.

[Roger Pokorny]

Destiny 2 that I run by churches.

[Blessing Addy]

Which is run by churches. There's just so much going on.

[Greg Miller]

You gotta have them in there.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, I definitely lean towards two, but I definitely give one a lot of props for being a thing that I think is a bit more like confronting and a bit more like more obstacle filled as far as like how it wants you to experience. Right. It's not as easy of experience and I think there's value to that.

[Greg Miller]

Of course, you were talking about Kojima's bread and butter writing these weird characters, getting into his weird bag. Gooseberry has a take here. He admits, or they admit hot take. Kojima is not good at writing characters, dialogue or plot. He's not good or he chooses to be bad. Haha. Roger, agree or disagree?

[Roger Pokorny]

I disagree. I mean, I. He is very blunt and he shows more than he tells a lot of the time. But I don't. Saying he's bad is such an insane general generalization to that because he makes me, at least for me, he makes me feel, you know, I mean, he can have a guy, a guy named Die Hard man, and he was also a robot and dancing and I'm fucking crying, like. But then also you have the other side of it where literally during that sequence, not to get ahead of ourselves, but the dance sequence, Mike is right next to me and he literally says a word that I've never heard him say. Cringe. He said. He's like, that's cringe. And I don't like that. And the people in the chat are split completely. Right.

[Blessing Addy]

Like, interesting.

[Roger Pokorny]

He is. He's a very divisive writer. He's a very divisive creative, and I appreciate that. But specifically that sequence in the entire game, speaking generally, it works for me. So yeah, I think calling him bad as a generalization kind of. Kind of is a little bit.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. I mean, as somebody who's loved Kojima, basically my entire video game playing career, which I guess is totally not true, but you know what I mean? My adult video game playing career, starting with Metal gear solid on PS1. Right. Like, I think he's so particular. Like, I think he writes characters, dialogue and plot, unlike most people, most video game creators. And so that gives it a style of its own that I can understand. Could be jarring. You know, maybe it isn't the most western presentation of stuff, but for me it works. And it is that idea of like, yeah, all right, Sam Porter Bridges isn't my dude, he isn't my character. Right. But like, I was intrigued. I wanted to know what was going on. And I think to what we've been talking about and even what Charlie said in a chat, I didn't get to yet, but I think they kept too much for the last third, which is something we talked about, of it being back end heavy in terms of exposition, characters, plot. That is true and I agree with that. But I think it works for the journey we were on where I was, they were giving us enough breadcrumbs early on that kept it going. And I think that's what Kojima does that work so well for me. Jerika is introducing interesting ideas, keeping me on the path, and then giving me a big reveal. But does it work for you?

[Jerika]

Yeah, I think that's why like, I. It helped me want to continue, like, made me eager to explore the next area because, like, I just wanted to, you know, I'm not going to do a little bragging right now. I knew tomorrow was going.

[Roger Pokorny]

I mean, yeah, I knew.

[Jerika]

And we all thought I was just so curious about like, how they would get there. And never in a million years would I be able to predict that's how we got here. You know, I didn't, I didn't really see what was happening with Fragile and like trying to predict that scenario. Like, I had no idea. But yeah, like, I love how much they kept from us. But yeah, to your point, like, they gave us just enough to where it just made me want to keep playing. And I think that that was the goal with the story. Like I said. I just wish it would have been more with like interacting on the ship. Yeah, God, I wanted to be able to talk to more of these characters. I wanted to hear Tar man talk about the Tar more every time he says. I really enjoy it. So that was a, that was a little bit of a letdown on like for me from the story is like, man, I really want to talk to these characters more. And then there's Dollman. You know, I'm sort of word vomiting now.

[Blessing Addy]

All the things I loved about this game.

[Jerika]

How did y' all feel about Doll Man? What'd y' all think about the old puppet?

[Greg Miller]

Here's the thing. I like the idea of Dollman. I like Doll man and his interactions in cutscenes. I think he's really good. You know, after beating the game and coming back to play it, right. One of the first things I did, you know, I'm on the bed and I turn and had just the usual, you want to talk to Dollman. And I don't know if this could have happened earlier. Cause I didn often talk to Dollman, but I was talking to Doll man and he said something and I was like, alright, keep talking. And he was me like, do you want to know how I became a doll? And I got this whole cutscene about it.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I totally missed that.

[Greg Miller]

And his Ha and Ka being separated and his daughter being killed. And they were trying to see their mom who got. And I was like, this is fucking awesome. All of that shit about Doll Man. I love when I'm getting my ass whooped by a boss. And he's like, sam, have you thought about. He. I'm like, shut the fuck up.

[Roger Pokorny]

You dropped something.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I know. Dalman.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I, I, yeah, I was really.

[Jerika]

I was hoping for more. Agreed. Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. I wanted him to tell me stories, you know, I mean, I want him to tell him about life. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. He just like. I forgot he was on my hip most of the time until. Yeah. The BT interactions and he would get mad at me for dropping. I'm like, bro, shut up. Calm down. How about you?

[Blessing Addy]

Bless I. With Doll Man. Yeah, I mean I agree with everything you guys are saying though, right? Like I would have liked him to. Yeah. Have like maybe the. I think maybe some of those needle drops. Because there's so many needle drops in death training 2 compared to death rating 1. Maybe could have replaced some of those needle drops with. God, I was going to call him with Doll Man. Storytelling moments and pieces of dialogue that felt more geared toward more narrative purposes as opposed to like mechanical purposes. Which is something that I think comes back to the conversation we're having about like Kojima's writing, right? Where I think Kojima writes for video games in a way that's like very interesting and in a way that I really like. But also I wouldn't want everybody to do where he over explains things to work within the world of this video game that you're playing in ways that like for me really immerse me and like really turned the really I think alter the experience. Because it isn't just, hey, Sam, go from. Go over here and then you check your map and then see all the hazards. The characters will tell you every single fucking hazard. Right? The characters will be like, you'll see.

[Greg Miller]

Them on the map and then they'll tell you again.

[Blessing Addy]

Right? It's like that kind of thing. They're like, like they'll keep like they'll. They. They turn everything. Every mechanic is like a narrative thing. You know, every like element, every system is like there is a story implication for it which leads to a lot of over explanation in the dialogue that we get. But also I like it. Like I. For me, it really immerses me in the world and it's like kind of a. It's definitely like a Kojima, like a unique Kojima thing, right. It's a thing that I like seeing. But in the conversation about the overall narrative of the game, like I totally understand somebody being like this shit is either bad or doesn't make sense. And I think it comes back to what Greg was talking about, which is like, like your taste and like Kojima's particular and all that stuff, right? Because like yeah, Mike saying the dance scene is cringe. It's funny because like, for me, I'm like, I. It's Kojima, I think, has that balance, right, of sugar and spice that he has to make where, like, the dance scene is totally out of nowhere. And it's bizarre and it's fucking weird. And I fucking love it because it's bizarre and weird and out of nowhere. For me, that's the way it started.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, this is what I've been waiting for.

[Roger Pokorny]

Literally go off.

[Blessing Addy]

Exactly. And like, that's what I look for. But also, I totally understand anybody that's like, no, that's not like, what the fuck am I watching right now? But I. For me, that's the emotion that it wants to elicit. And like, I like how that makes me feel. I like when I get to the reveal of like, oh, and tomorrow is actually the baby and all that. This crazy shit's going on. All this crazy shit's going on, you know?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. So specifically with the dancing, I adore that because it is like true Hope Core. Right? Like, the whole idea is that it is against the president Hive mind alien thing that is trying to be like, hey, we're gonna use the connection of the Chiral network, the Internet, to then take everybody and also ruin their lives and to make sure no one evolves as an entire species. And then he's like, fuck that. I'm gonna dance. I'm gonna show you how good the Internet can be. And like that to me, like, that's nice, that's nice. And like, Kojima talked about how he rewrote a lot of Death Stranding 2 after the pandemic or during the pandemic to kind of make it a little bit happier and more of a hopeful tale and not just so depressing as Death Stranding 1 and the sequel to that one could have been. So I like that. I appreciate that a lot. Talking about, like the twists of it all, I am very split because I just. I think there's one too many twists, right? Like, there's too many things that happen in that ending sequence that just does not need to be either twists, reveals, or just doesn't even need to be a thing.

[Greg Miller]

Like, I want to hear you break it down, Roger. But first I'll remind you, of course, that this is the kind of funny gamescast. Each and every weekday we come together to talk about the biggest topics in gaming. If you like that, pick up a Kinda Funny membership to support our 11 person small business with a dream. You can grab it on patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kinda funnygames apple or Spotify. You can get every episode of our show and all our shows ad free, as well as your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Wayne. But right now, you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company offering a world class product rated five.

[Blessing Addy]

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[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, let me just read off some of the twists here and then I'll break down the ones that I think that are not great. I mean, Die Hard managed Charlie. Right? Cool. We have. We have the. We have.

[Blessing Addy]

I love that one.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, I love it. Oh, I love it. It's so dumb because he literally is a Die Hard man the entire game.

[Blessing Addy]

Like, they don't. They don't let you choose, like, yeah, the choice of, like, who you want.

[Greg Miller]

And they're like, I literally went through all three of the other options. And then it was like, Die Hard man. You're like, oh, yeah, we'll be done. I'm like, all right, well, what are we doing here?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, the president is evil, duh. But also he's like a hive mind of 4,000 people. That's not. I first it was like, because it was, it was so funny when they kept doing the thing of like, the president would show up and he'd be talking to you and then he would turn black and white. He'd be like, oh, by the Way I'm. See, I'm on a secure line right now.

[Blessing Addy]

It's so funny because you got to the point late in the game where it's like, I think it was fragile. It was somebody who's part of the drawbridge. Right. Who's like, I don't trust that guy.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

And then the president's like, I don't trust them. Like, something's weird is going on. Right. And it's like, oh, who do you trust? And I thought that was going to be a story decision of you side with drawbridge or do you side with the president? And, oh, this is like, oh, no, the president's a hive mind. Oh, okay, cool.

[Roger Pokorny]

He's got one earring. We know. So he. That was that. And then also, Higgs is the secret, secret bad guy. He's like, I've been playing you guys. I knew this entire thing the entire time. And I'm also the secret bad guy. Then we have. The BB is actually dead. That happened a little earlier. Before that.

[Greg Miller]

Can we stop real quick?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because that is one of mine. I was. Did you. Did that surprise you?

[Roger Pokorny]

The BB's? That actually did. No, not at all. Because they say it pretty much.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Literally, Doll man says it.

[Greg Miller]

When they get to the thing where, like, there's the big reveal, one of the big reveals, and sa puts it all together, I was like, is this a real reveal? Because, like, I feel like I've known this the entire time.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. Yeah. I remember being, like, frustrated the entire game. I was like, I still have to take care of the baby dead. I know.

[Blessing Addy]

The game tries. Yeah, the game tries so much to paint that as a twist that I started to believe it, where I was like, wait, maybe the baby's not. Because, like, I started having a conversation, I think, with Barrett and also people at the preview event where I was like, well, you know, Dooms is what allows you to see bts. So maybe. Maybe what's his name? Doll man doesn't have dudes the same way. But then I'm like, well, he's in a doll, so he probably has. But yeah, I, I. That one. That was a weird one for sure.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. And then going through them really quickly, oh, they have the whole Neil Vanna stuff, which I'm sure that's gonna be a whole section of this podcast. The one that I think is egregious, that I think is like, we gotta talk about is the Red Samurai. That sucked. We got it like that. You can't have. You can't have two reveals of Dead man. You can't be like, dead man is also inside of heart man. Also his dead body is. It's like, was the most nothing reveal possible with the coolest character.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Like, it should just been anything. If we. If we didn't have any other dead man, I would be like, okay, cool, that's a fine reveal. But, like, we can't have two dead man reveals.

[Blessing Addy]

No, no, no, I agree with that. Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, it was lame.

[Greg Miller]

Agreed.

[Roger Pokorny]

But yeah, I guess maybe we talk about Neil Vanna now.

[Blessing Addy]

Well. Well, yeah, I guess I was going to talk about the tomorrow thing about that because I was surprised. Yeah. How was that? How did that twist sit with you?

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, that Goo Goo Gaga that she maybe. Yeah, I mean, I knew that immediately. Yeah, it was. It was a thing in the chat where we're playing the game and then someone in the chat, like. Like, who was not a. Like, they were just like playing along with us and they were like, is that she kind of looks like Lou maybe? Like, maybe that's a thing. And I was like, okay, here's the thing. If the next scene we see her, she's suckered her thumb and saying, Goo Goo Gaga, that's the baby. And the next scene, she's eating the fucking thing. She's throwing the blocks of like, this is so obvious. And they like, wrap up her arms. So, like, that's exactly where, like the. Throughout the entire game, that's where the birthmark is. It is so obvious. And parents. But I thought it was fine. Like, I wasn't like, it didn't blow my mind. But I think that's on purpose. Right? He laid it on thick there.

[Greg Miller]

I was very much oblivious to it.

[Roger Pokorny]

Whoa.

[Greg Miller]

Not to the end because at some point Barret walked by to go have his fucking cigarette. And he looked at me and he's like. I told Blissimo Theory, he's like, the baby on the main screen looks a lot like El Fanning. And I was like, ah, fuck. Yeah, you're right. You're right. I hadn't even thought about it. I hadn't even worried about it at this point. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

Do you guys remember this is years ago before. I think they even announced, like, officially announced death Straining two where Kojima started teasing, I think. I think he might have just been teasing, like DS2 or whatever it was, but he wouldn't announce the game. And there was a whole thing where he. He put up a silhouette of Elle Fanning.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

And it was. Who is she?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yes.

[Blessing Addy]

And this was like. This led to a controversial kfg where I was like, oh, she's gonna play the baby in Death Training two. And everybody got on my ass.

[Roger Pokorny]

Controversial kfg. It was.

[Blessing Addy]

Dude, it was so, like, heated because I was like, guys, no. Elle Fanning, she's. She played a baby in this other.

[Greg Miller]

I'm telling you right now, go break that out. Go break that out.

[Blessing Addy]

I need to find it because people were so mad at me, And I was 1,000% right. I was 1,000% right. And, like, I might go back and try to find it.

[Roger Pokorny]

I know we gotta do that.

[Blessing Addy]

I'll definitely, like, have kind of cringe because, like, I was so heated. I was so heatedly trying to make the argument that she was the baby.

[Roger Pokorny]

Craig's desk.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, but I set the desk up, but I can't bring it down.

[Roger Pokorny]

Stalk it out.

[Greg Miller]

It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it. Yeah, that was Jerrica. Were you. Did you have. The entire way. Did you know?

[Jerika]

I mean, I knew, like, we were. I knew we were gonna get to that point, but yeah, it was. I was just wondering, like, is. Is this another scenario? Yeah, just like the. The sci fi of this story that. Am I not spot on? Is. Is Lou actually there? But Sam is, like, the only one that can see Lou? Like, I. I knew something has happened, but I knew the baby's not dead. Like, something has happened. So the reveal of actually how it came to be was a surprise for me. I can never predict, unfortunately. I knew, though it was going to be.

[Blessing Addy]

I still don't kind of get it.

[Jerika]

I agree with you. From the poster, I was like, I don't.

[Blessing Addy]

Well, I don't understand how. Because Lou is the baby. That Norman Reedus biological baby. So how did she. How did the baby end up being a baby, like, 11 years later when.

[Roger Pokorny]

It's a great question.

[Blessing Addy]

You know what I mean?

[Roger Pokorny]

Like, now that I'm thinking about it too.

[Greg Miller]

Well, no, because it was put into the BB holder.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yes.

[Blessing Addy]

Oh, so they don't.

[Greg Miller]

So, okay, correct me if I'm wrong. The. The BBs that are inside of their little containers are very similar to the baby that would be inside of Rainey. Right. Where time. Time is frozen.

[Jerika]

Seven months.

[Blessing Addy]

Okay, that makes sense. It makes sense. It makes sense in a death training way.

[Roger Pokorny]

And they start my biggest humongous.

[Blessing Addy]

I mean, it was a big baby.

[Roger Pokorny]

There was a big baby in that game. I think my biggest confusion was just always, always, like, then how. How did that baby end up on the carrier that then Norman Reedus was on? Was that Just luck. Was that his sister. Mother pulling the strings? You know what I mean? Like, that. Like, I don't understand how that happened, but, like, it's whatever. I guess that's by chance, Pontan saying in chat. I guess. All right.

[Greg Miller]

Really?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. I guess that's just like.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, somebody's pulling the string.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. I guess it's like, interstellar. I don't know. Love connects us all.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, wow.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But, yeah, I didn't understand. I didn't know how they were gonna explain the time difference either or whatever. But then this whole frat. And maybe this is back to your. Maybe one too many twists of, like, Fragile bringing Lou into the beach space and leaving it there. I was like, that's cool. She's like, also, I've been dead this whole time.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

And that's where I thought that Fragile was bad. Okay, let's talk about that for a second. I was so sus. This entire game of, like, I knew something was up because it just felt off. And I was like, man, fragile is bad. And, like, maybe it was the beret. Maybe it was the fact that she was bringing on everybody. And, like, it kind of felt like she was Magneto. Like she was bringing on all these people at their lowest, like, that are super powerful. And also, like, she wasn't, like, particularly nice to. To Sam during his whole situation. Like, she was like, you got to get up and just go. Just keep. Just get up, bro. Just keep on just walking. Connect Australia on it. Yeah, just rub some dirt on it. Don't worry about it, homie. But she was fine, I guess. I guess she was good at the ending. It's just like, she's not a really good friend.

[Blessing Addy]

Like you believed to the president. When the president was like, oh, no answer.

[Roger Pokorny]

I kind of. Yeah, I thought this was going to lead to, like, death Training three, where Fragile was the bad guy. And if you kind of replay that game, do you think about it from my point of view?

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

You get it.

[Blessing Addy]

Honest. Honestly, though, that would be kind of sick. Like, if Fragile was actually a bad. A bad character the whole time.

[Greg Miller]

Well, it's such a fishy thing, right? Of like, hey, go off on this mission. And of course, while you're on that mission, something happens. Lou's dead.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Lou's gone.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. The first time I see you in 11 months. And then also, I have this secret organization that's working with the government, but not working with the government.

[Greg Miller]

I'm no longer old.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Underneath my outfit, she's fragile, but she's not fragile.

[Blessing Addy]

She's not that fragile.

[Roger Pokorny]

Not that fragile. Agile.

[Greg Miller]

Now we're at a point. You guys keep tiptoeing around Neil, but I want to talk about Higgs so badly. Okay, yeah, we can go either way. We can do Neil and get to.

[Roger Pokorny]

Higgs, But I want Higgs.

[Greg Miller]

Fucking Troy Baker.

[Blessing Addy]

He's locked in.

[Greg Miller]

What a fucking performance. What a standout role for him. What a goddamn boss fight at the end, you know what I mean? On the review, I talked about it. I was an hour and a half from finishing it and I was like, does Kojima still have it for a boss fight? I still think it's a worthwhile conversation because I do think the BT fights, mooring, the fighting, Higgs's octopus. Boring. These aren't engaging, but this finally getting up there and just. You know what? Let's just do Liquid vs Snake again. Shirtless for the third time, but this time with guitar. It's like fucking. This is amazing.

[Roger Pokorny]

Hell yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

I can't believe how. Yeah, strongly they invoked Metal Gear Solid four. Yeah, a lot of Metal Gear Solid references in this game. Like a lot of MGS 5 and MGS 4 kept you waiting. Waiting. Yeah, it kept you waiting. And then, yeah, like doing the boss fight and like having the boss or having like the almost like the fighting game health bars that they also did in Metal Gear Solid four on top of the thing that they're fighting on. Like, so strongly invoked to the point where I was like, this is a bit much, but I'm not gonna come in.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

I was like, is Konami gonna see this? Be like, yo, what the car, man?

[Roger Pokorny]

Pretty much looks at the camera and says phantom pain and winks. Like, you know, he literally does.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, he like pauses. He is like, it's sort of a phantom, phantom, some pain. I was like, wait, hold on. Can you say that?

[Jerika]

So funny.

[Greg Miller]

Jerika, what did you think of Higgs and his fight?

[Jerika]

You know, I think this whole game too, and even thinking about the first one, just obviously the story can be emotional and it's just wacky and in your face, over the top. And that's just what's so beautiful about a Kojima game. But man, that whole scene, like, even the point where they're like. Or Sam's like running on the beach. You got Magellan, man. I was like, oh, this is about to be our Avengers moment. Like, it's just so much going on and to end up like having a full blown conversation with Higgs while, you know, trying to get, I guess the last place we're gonna Fight was just visually just a part of the story too. Like, just such a work of art and something that makes me feel things just for being how it works. Epically cool. It looks. And yeah, just seeing the dude shirtless doing their thing with their guitars was very entertaining. I took a lot of pictures because that was pretty. It definitely could be a great wallpaper for my computer. It was so cool.

[Greg Miller]

See, for me, it's more. I wanna. I got a lot of photos of Higgs shirtless Troy Baker there because I want to make sure I use them come Christmas and do the. Remember, he's the reason. Reason for the season because he looks so much like Jesus, I thought. And some of the outfits he was doing there and some of the things that was happening with his shirtless nature there. But that guitar fight, like, when they gave you the guitar and they're like, oh, but there's also so much chirillium in the air, you can just use it indefinitely.

[Roger Pokorny]

I was like, that's fucking awesome.

[Greg Miller]

Let's go. And like, the thought you have to shred at points. That was the other thing. I did all that. And then, like, yeah, I pulled Tim aside and I made him watch. Blessing was there. I made him watch, like, 20 minutes of the battle just to get all of it in there. Whatever. So good. Such a fun fight, you know? And again, as somebody who is craving more and more weird Kojima to have it be that. Like, we have the entire fight and then Lou comes out of the space vagina and stands there and then eats Troy. It's like, yeah, that's what I wanted.

[Roger Pokorny]

The. The scene that I think about a lot is the boss fight or not boss fight. The. The fight against. It's not even a fight when you just burn Sam alive and he just keeps on reincarnating and re going through that. That, to me is like, it's biggest standout. What a dope moment.

[Blessing Addy]

I love that Kojima has his staples because for me, that is the moment of, like, Ryden being tortured and festering too. Or like Snake being tortured in Metal Gear.

[Greg Miller]

Like, for me, it was so reminiscent of Snake crawling through the microwave at Metal Gear.

[Blessing Addy]

Oh, yeah. I would put that as another one of those. Right. Like, I feel like Kojima oftentimes. Yeah. Has these things of like, all right, this is toward the end of the game. This is where the main character gets tortured and you have to tap a button. And then after that, you know, here's the big fight on the of top of the thing. Right. But, yeah, it kind of felt cool. That felt like another Harken back to. Yeah. Like, what Kojima typically does in, like, a Metal Gear Solid.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Anything else for Higgs, or do you want to move on to Neil Vana?

[Blessing Addy]

I mean, just all the choreography. I'm shout out to fight choreography in Kojima games. Like, I don't know who on the team or, like, how they just consistently always have, like, really good cut scenes and really good fight choreo. But, yeah, I just love watching the, you know, death man baby robot fight Higgs.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

In the warehouse.

[Roger Pokorny]

I will. I'm gonna throw out here a little hot take. Not even. Not even too hot of a take. I'm not mad at it or anything, but I was. I'm happy. I'm happy with Higgs and his performance and especially that. That final boss fight. But I was kind of looking forward to something with the President. I actually liked where they were going with that. I like that reveal. And so to be had that kind of moment where it's like, oh, by the way, it's actually secretly Higgs again. It's like, okay, we're. We did this. Been there, done that a little bit. Like, I wanted something new. I wanted something a little bit. I mean, it is interesting. It is cool.

[Greg Miller]

But I saved. Is when the President's talking and Norman Reedus just goes, you're not even real, are you? And this crab crawls around his shoulder.

[Roger Pokorny]

But, yeah, I mean, it's not like the President was like, the most compelling character, but it was like what they were pushing towards was more compelling to me than, oh, Higgs is on the beach and he was secretly pulling the string. So to have that kind of, like, you know, sideline so fast was just kind of a little bit disappointing because, again, goes back to, like, the. The twists. For having twists sakes of like, he's just like, hey, we're gonna have this thing. And then this thing. This thing. Oh, no, it's actually Higgs. I just wanted them to stick with one of those.

[Greg Miller]

So, yeah, I like higgs being there. 4,000 souls and higgs in their weird Data Beach. But again, one of my things about the Kojima in boss fights was that guitar fight at the end there. Shirtless, Amazing. Right before it, I was so like, oh, where? I'm just shooting him around these giant stone slash, whatever computer pillars.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Where it would be. He would just teleport, and I would hit the pulse button and see he was over there. And then aim and slowly come around and shoot him with our. I Was like, this sucks. Like this isn't a fun fight. But then it was super fun. Yeah, it's sweet and sour. Pays off. But I think it solidifies what I'm talking about.

[Blessing Addy]

I found a tweet from a while ago, by the way. This is from September 15, 2022. And this is me like again, on my rant. This is me on my like, what's his name? Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny Philadelphia, connecting the dots. And this is like me posting the. The KHD where I was angry on talking about. I'm expecting apologies from everyone in chat when this is revealed to be a death straining thing. And this is like Kojima just tweeting out like the who am I? Thing with like the silhouette of El Fanning. I then reply to it saying, quote, who am I? Elle Fanning played a character named Lucy who was the daughter of a single father named Sam in. In I Am Sam. Spoilers for destrehaning. Sam Porter Bridges is literally the single father of a baby named Lou after his. After his wife Lucy. Right, so this is me connecting and again connecting the dots that this is Sam's daughter here from September 15, 2022.

[Greg Miller]

Before the game was announced. Look at Sam. Look at that.

[Blessing Addy]

Come on, come on.

[Greg Miller]

You did it. Bless. Neovanna. Solid snake.

[Roger Pokorny]

He's your solid snake, my guy.

[Greg Miller]

Go off on him. Bless.

[Blessing Addy]

I mean, like, here's the thing. I loved everything about him. The Nirvana. Nirvana thing was so fucking corny.

[Greg Miller]

Enforced.

[Roger Pokorny]

That's the thing that you're putting.

[Blessing Addy]

That's the part where I draw the line. He's like, oh, it's not Nirvana, it's Nilvana. I'm like, shut the fuck up, doll man. Fucking doll man.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, open your ears.

[Blessing Addy]

But I fucking loved the Nirvana segments. I thought they got better with also.

[Greg Miller]

Really? Were you fighting him and the dudes? Yeah, I just found him so boring to shoot those dudes and then shoot him and run around and shoot.

[Roger Pokorny]

But it goes off the vibe. It goes by faster than the last one, but with the.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I know. For sure. I'll give you that. Yeah, faster.

[Blessing Addy]

But I just. And I just loved him. Like for the second one to be. You're in this underwater thing and you're jumping high and like anti gravity shit. That was cool. But then you get to the third one, it is them like, you know, walking on the ceiling and like, you know, fucking the world's collapsing on itself. And then you're like the air multiverse of madness shit. Yeah, like all that shit for Me, I was like, I don't care that these are shooting galleries. Like, the way that you're setting them up and framing them. And then also yet this, the setting that you're putting all these in, I thought went so fucking hard.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, I. I think I prefer. If we were to do the 1 versus 2, the Mads Mikkelsen stuff versus the Nilvana stuff. I prefer the Mads Mikkelsen stuff. I think that's really just for the pure story of it. Right? Like the. The Nirvana stuff. Like, by the ending of it, I was like, okay, like, I understand what you're going for, but having Mads Mikkelsen one, you think that he's the. He's the father of the BB on your chest, but it's like, oh, no, he's your father. It's like, oh, what a crazy reveal. And then also having those really, like, nice cutscenes, like, every single time that you come from the private room upwards. And then you can see Mad Mickelson be like, baby, I'm gonna take you to the moon, baby. And it's like. But, like, it ranges. Yeah, it ranges from silly to, like, very serious. And you get that every single time you're coming up from the private room. And to not really have that, you get these weird flashes, and then they just kind of give it all to you at the ending. And it's like, I wish that those were spaced out a lot more. And if you were to. If you're just copying the same thing, which you are, you're doing the same thing from Death Stranding 1. That was a winning formula, in my opinion. Just do it again. You could have taken those. Those segments, those cutscenes, and drop them in at key moments throughout the story. I don't think you needed to have that all in the ending. The ending reveal could have been that he was the one that caused the void out, which I think was good enough. Yeah, you could have had all those things spaced out a little bit better. So that's my big criticism. But I liked actually playing the Nilvana stuff more than I. I did the Mads Mikkelsen stuff.

[Blessing Addy]

Greg, how do you feel about it?

[Greg Miller]

I liked all the cutscene stuff with him. I thought, again, the reveals were interesting, bottled up there at the end of, like, it's not your baby. It is your baby. I was protecting your baby. Like, what is going on? I don't like what's up with. But his wife still cheated on him. But it's not his baby. I'M like that complicates it as well. I feel like with their weird ass connection right to the thing seared in their hands that they touched when it was nuclear hot or whatever. I feel like that was enough of a connection for them to have a. I get it that they have a bond that is strong, but I didn't think it needed to be romantic. I was waiting for them to take back that she cheated on Sam with him as well. And when they didn't do that, I was like, that's a weird one to do. I feel like we just didn't need that because it's still complicated then with Lou's involvement or whatever. But I understand relationships are complicated. But yeah, the. You know, I bitched on the review about the. The fights and now that we just talk about them, you know, baby dawn x7 chats and go, Greg, what are you looking for? When I was talking about these fights, like, I just find those fights to be mechanically uninteresting. I just. When I'm. When I want a Kojima fight or a video game fight, I want to feel. I guess the biggest thing about it is I didn't feel challenged. I felt like they were brain dead and it was, go hide behind something. Pulse. All right, my guns loaded up, come around, I'm just gonna run. When I finally got the, you know, even further into them, I was like, I'm just gonna run up on Neil every time, get him to shoot. So he pops and goes to the next. And then I'd be chasing him to the next thing and something like, how do I get up there? What am I doing? I was never mechanically interested in the fight. I was always narratively interested in what was going to be the cutscene I got and where we were going, what the connection here was. But mechanically, I never had a feeling. And this goes back to my boss battle thing of I never had a Revolver Ocelot, Metal Gear Solid one, a Vulcan Raven like, you know what I mean? A Sniper Wolf like they. I was just hiding behind shit and shooting people. It's almost what this is a deep cut. Stick with me. If you're with me, it's almost comparing Metal Gear Solid PlayStation 1's Revolver Ocelot fight to Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes GameCube fight where when they added in first person, well then, now the game's broken. Now I can just stand there and go, bam, there he is. Bam, there he is. Okay. And this is the same thing of I'm way overpowered. I pulse. I can see where they are. I come around, I shoot. There's thousands of guns on the ground. So if I'm ever out of it, I don't have to be prepped for it to go into this. This game overall, right. Is such a. Oh man. What I love about death stranding. Oh man. I am going across the map. Alright, well what missions could I bring with me on the side? I'm probably gonna run into a bt, so let's bring some. Oh, but maybe if I hit up this mule camp, I'll need more wet. Like there's so much planning that goes into just leaving a base. And then you get into these fights and it's just like it's fucking rain, Sam. It's raining grenade launchers for no reason. Like you should use the. You just got the quad rocket. Why are you not using that over. Here they are. Here they are. And it's like, this just isn't what fun. Go ahead.

[Blessing Addy]

I think for me it's sort of. Cause I agree with you as far as like mechanically the boss fights can be very one note and it is alright, just shoot down these things or shoot the weak points on the thing and then go on to the next thing. Right. And I think for me with Kojima and like oftentimes gameplay, but I think more so with boss fights in particular. Kojima's at his best when he's being a magician and when he's like finding ways for you to engage in boss fights that aren't actually like straight up action. Here's the strict mechanics of the game. Like a lot of the games, it's like a lot of video games you play. It is. All right, here's an amped up version of what you've been doing the whole game and that's going to be the boss fight and the boss is going to have different phases. But like for the most part, if I'm playing Elden Ring, I'm going to dodge and hit. I'm going to dodge and like read the enemy's animations. It's about how well can I play the game for Kojima. When I think about a Sniper Wolf, when I think about a. Even like a Vulcan Raven or Psycho Mantis or the end or like so many of the Kojima things is less about how well can you play this game and more so what's the trick that Kojima's pulling on you? Yeah, like what is the magic trick that like he's trying to pull and like the different like the puzzle he wants you to solve within the boss Fights, but oftentimes when he wants you to just engage in the boss, that is strictly like the. Metal gear solid 4. Did this a lot. Hey, like, just, you know, we gave you guns. Just use the guns to shoot down this thing. It's oftentimes just less interesting because the games aren't necessarily. I don't think. I don't know if he necessarily knows how to do straightforward boss fights as much.

[Greg Miller]

That's a great way to put it in the puzzle element, like the magic trick element of the old games. Yes. And I think that's completely lacking here.

[Blessing Addy]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

Fights.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah. 1,000%.

[Jerika]

Yeah, it was way too easy. And I honestly, like, I respect the storyline, but, yeah, if they could have nailed down, like, why these two guys are fighting maybe a little bit sooner, that would have added to some of the. I don't know how I feel with my putting myself in his shoes, trying to understand, like, why are we even fighting this guy? Why does he keep bringing Sam back into this, into the land of the dead? Why is this happening? And they sprinkle a little bit that throughout. But, yeah, I agree with you guys. I. The. The spectacle of those levels is really cool, but the gameplay itself wasn't nothing revolutionary.

[Greg Miller]

What else do you guys want to touch on? There's a lot going. Oh, God. Here. What's going on? What's Andy doing? Oh, Andy's getting his head.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, he's just getting his headphones.

[Greg Miller]

Andy, how deep into Death Training two are you, dude?

[Blessing Addy]

I haven't gone back. He hasn't gone back.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah. Wants to.

[Blessing Addy]

Can't do.

[Greg Miller]

You gotta go back.

[Blessing Addy]

He's waiting for the right time.

[Greg Miller]

Waiting for the right time.

[Blessing Addy]

Meanwhile, he's playing rematch.

[Greg Miller]

I was gonna say too much rematch to play.

[Blessing Addy]

I'll let you know.

[Jerika]

Know.

[Roger Pokorny]

I want to talk about the most underutilized character, in my opinion, which was Deborah Wilson's character, Dr. I thought that everything that they showed there was so compelling to me. Like, more than Rainy, more than tomorrow, more than anybody in that entire new crew. Like, I was so, like, emotionally up by everything that Deborah Wilson was putting down and everything she was saying and in that whole faction of. Of women that are pregnant but that can't give birth to their babies and, like, this kind of curse that she has where she's able to help these women, but it's like, not really it's helping. It's more of just showing, hey, your baby's still alive. Now it goes right back, and you have to just kind of hope and pray that something's gonna happen one day and you're gonna be able to give birth. And it's. It was really depressing, but it was also, like, just very interesting, and I wanted to kind of see more of it. I have not done a lot of the side stuff, so I don't know how much is there in terms of that, but I was expecting that to be, like, a core part of the story and her to maybe become part of the group or something like that. But we just kind of move past it as kind of, like a way to show, like, how deep the. The. The weapons have come. Kind of come into the Australian outback right there of how they have guns and they're really willing to fight. So it was just a little bit. It was a little bit weird. It was like kind of like a start and stop right there.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I really loved that character. I really love that performance. I think Deborah Wilson's awesome at it. So it's like, I want to get back to it. That's, you know, one of the things of I. I intend to keep playing this game, and every time I've turned it back on and gone off and done something, I'm shocked at how much I still enjoy it and how much I still get out of it. In the chat Couch, Ebo said, Death Stranding 2 is the perfect podcast game. Don't tell Kojima.

[Jerika]

LOL.

[Greg Miller]

I don't agree with that because I'm engaged with the story, but it is a. I like listening to music on my Cupid, and I'm wandering around doing the thing, and then you get that story element. You get to check in on what's going on here. I said it yesterday when I was streaming it here on Kind of Funny. I was just like, man, this is the perfect streaming game for me. I enjoy playing it, but chatting away while I'm driving and navigating and doing the thing, and we all stop and watch the cutscene or whatever. I like that so much in terms of how it fills out. But, yeah, the Debra Wilson stuff's great, and I do intend to get back to it. Did she stand out for you, Jerrica?

[Jerika]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. Like, I'd love to, and there might be more there. That's just why I'm going back and play. I normally don't revisit a game after I roll credits. I'm like, I got what I need, but there's just so much here. And especially with the motherhood, I'm curious, like, if does that open up in any Other ways. So, yeah. God, I'm. I'm. Oh. Based on some of the scenes you get at the end, like, it seems like Rainey has her child. Like, was the doctor her character part of making that happen? Or was what happened at the end? What. What allowed the baby to be born? I don't know. Like, so maybe just some extra bits would have been great. But, yeah. Loved her performance. She plays Sabathoon Industrial or in Destiny too. So I always love to see Deborah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Wilson, Mad TV as well.

[Jerika]

Great voice.

[Greg Miller]

Suicide Squad. Never forget.

[Jerika]

Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh. Oh, yes. I was like, there's so many suicide squads. I was like, where are we at?

[Greg Miller]

Of course, my favorite side character, Pizza Man. I'm happy to see him be so successful out there. That was the clip I showed blessing on. The review was Sam facing off against Pizza man at the end of his quest line. Love that. I love that. I've seen so many people do exactly what I did. Take the screenshot of, like, those who disrespect pizza do not deserve to live. Like, I'm ready to use it whenever I need to. Love that guy.

[Blessing Addy]

It's funny because when you're talking about, like, oh, man, there's this scene. So many other seasons came to mind, and I hadn't seen that one. Right? But. And. But, like, the fact that there's so much in this game that is, like, really quality that you could show somebody that might, like, make their brain explode. Did you guys ever play the song Horizon Dreamer for Dollman?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, yeah, we did that on stream. That was sick.

[Jerika]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

So good. I mean, do you want to do it or do you want to tell me?

[Greg Miller]

I like spoiling this part.

[Blessing Addy]

Well, when you talk to Doll man, right? Like, obviously he has, like, his list of dialogues that he'll say. And one of the things he says is, like, and I really like the song Horizon Dreamer by this artist. And then if you go into your music player and play it and then talk to him again, he's like, sam, do you have a moment? And then if you say yes, it'll then cut to him and then, like, five more of him doing choreography to the song Horizon Dreamer. And then, like, it'll have. I guess the artist will pop in also and will, like, lead the choreography. And it goes for, like, the full fucking five minutes of this song. Like, very excellently mocapped. Like J Pop, I assume, like, like, you know, dance choreography. And it's cool. It's just like, yeah, him and a bunch of puppets dancing.

[Greg Miller]

That's awesome.

[Roger Pokorny]

It's sick.

[Jerika]

And. And Sam's like, just sitting in the back, like.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Jerika]

And like doing some of the dances with them. And it was.

[Blessing Addy]

And I got that song just stuck in my head now. Like, ever since I found that, that scene, it's incredible. It's been stuck in my head.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. That's the interesting thing with so many. I feel like every time I play, like I said, I do the side op or whatever, I find something new happens. That way it'll be interesting, see how long before it's all spoiled or if that ever ends. You know, as I continue to tinker with this game, you know, I don't plan on. I would have every intention of platinuming it. I don't think that'll ever happen. I think it'll just be that I tinker with it here and there and do stuff with it. But before we get too far off of music, Caroline Polachek.

[Roger Pokorny]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

On the Beach. Of course. The song you made happen, Roger, it's well documented around here. For reals. Even Geoff Keighley giving you the shout out by name at the London event. Pretty cool.

[Roger Pokorny]

Wild stuff. Yeah, wild stuff. Shout out to that. That was really cool to happen live on the stream.

[Greg Miller]

Rog, what is your review? Take whatever. You stayed away from the song. Caroline, when you were recording the podcast, offered to let you listen to it. You said no. Wanna hear it in game?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, no, I loved it. I think it's a song that's definitely grown on me as I listen to it outside of the game and also go back to it a second time in the context of the game outside of the stream. But yeah, I really enjoy it. It's funny because when I talked to her, she was like, oh, it's like such a different song than I've ever made. And like, I. I don't necessarily agree with that. I think it is very much in the vein of the era that she made it in, which is her paying era, her first album, her first solo album. And yeah, it feels like it could definitely live on that album. And that's a. That's really refreshing and really cool. So, yeah, we meet Lian's a re listen to her first album and we're trying to find like, kind of like there's a lot of motifs there that are inside of the on the beach song and like connections to it, which is funny. There's a lot of connections to the. The first song on that album, which is called the Gate, which, you know, of course it's a plate gate. And that's connection there. So I. I wouldn't be surprised if. If those were kind of like branch branching songs right where she made the gate and then she also made this song as well. So that's kind of funny there. But, yeah, really cool stuff. And it was. It was definitely an honor to play that on stream and react to that live. For sure.

[Greg Miller]

Ponton says don't hate me, but I didn't really like on the beach song as much as the others in the game.

[Roger Pokorny]

Game. I hate you.

[Blessing Addy]

That's how it works, though, Raj.

[Greg Miller]

I gotta agree with Ponton.

[Blessing Addy]

Ah, you know, song's whack, bro.

[Greg Miller]

Bless you. Did you like this song?

[Blessing Addy]

No. Really? Oh, no. I. And like, here's the thing, right? I like. I. When I got there, it was one of those things where I was like. I was so shocked by, like, the Carolyn politic pop up that I was like, oh, let's go. And I came back and I did the music player thing right where I was like, okay, I can make playlists now. And I put the song on there. And then after a while I was like, I'm gonna take this long off.

[Roger Pokorny]

Damn. Okay.

[Blessing Addy]

So I got.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, it didn't work for me either. And you know, I'm the least musically educated probably person in the office. I like my pop stuff and I like that. But it was like to compare it to death stranding with churches, like, that opened the door to me of like, I love churches because finding them there. Whereas Caroline, you opened the door with the album and I've listened to her stuff and I love Caroline Polachek. I think her stuff's great. The most recent album that Nate.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, Desire wants turn into.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I was so into. And so I was expecting a lot from this. And I got there, I like, was like, oh, this is very experimental. This isn't, you know, this I was. I described it to bless is like, this sounds like you published the wrong song. Where it's like, these are all. You're editing it in this, like, timeline and you had all this stuff over here.

[Roger Pokorny]

You know what's funny is that there's two versions of the song. If you go onto Spotify, she has the regular version that's in the game and she has the timefall version, which is more of a stripped back version. I actually prefer that version of the song. And I think that if that song was played either at the ending or just replaced in it, I think it would be a way better experience because it removes a lot of the weird synths going on there and it's more of just like a late, like a strip back experience. It is a better version in my opinion. So, yeah, if you listen to that, I think you might come around.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, it's not in the game.

[Blessing Addy]

Okay.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah, it's not. It's weird that both versions aren't in the game, but yeah, if you go on Spotify, you should listen to it for sure.

[Greg Miller]

I'm looking at my, like, songs because I added so much other music from this game because I thought the soundtrack is so well done. I want to give a special shout out to Jen Hoshino, Star is in the game and then Create. I liked it so much I went and listened to the entire album.

[Roger Pokorny]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Creates has a whole bunch of GameCube and like Nintendo sounds in it and stuff. Fucking love it. Great stuff over there.

[Blessing Addy]

I will say Wood Kid grew on kid, right? Showed up to the situation.

[Roger Pokorny]

That is an insane way to say that.

[Blessing Addy]

Showed up to the occasion, whatever situation. He showed up to the situation. But yeah, I would say there was a lot of good, like, Wood Kid shit in here. I was like, yo, Woodkin's got a cooking on. On the soundtrack. So that was my guy. Wood Kid.

[Greg Miller]

Jer, what did you think of the Caroline song or the soundtrack in general?

[Jerika]

Yeah, I mean, I was all up in like, Wood kids, I guess, contributions to this game. And I think the journey is so cool. Like, I obviously started listening to Wood Kid like, through watching Arcade, the songs that he did for that show. And I just like, man, how did that. How does that guy's voice get so deep? And then he can like, softly sing too. And like, what the heck is that? It's wild. And like. Like, just him, like, going through the motions, working on Arcade and Death Stranding. Just like, how much of him is involved with the. I'm not musically trained either, but, like the engineering of the sound and like learning how to slow down certain songs, like if that matches the movement of when you're playing, like, and act more act scenes with action, it's faster. And like, just hearing him talk about is really cool. And just how much he had hands on. Like, I need more of his stuff and video games. Really cool.

[Blessing Addy]

I love the rainy theme. When we first got to that big rainy cut scene, I was like, yo, this is. This is a track right here. And then also the Tomorrow. Not even just the tomorrow fight scene, but the song that plays when you're on your way to find Tomorrow I thought was beautiful as well. Like, I actually really do love this soundtrack overall. I Think overall, there are a lot of good choices. I can't remember exactly which theme it is, but there's a theme that plays a lot toward the end of the song. In fact, I think it's a song they sing. Actually. I forget who sings it.

[Roger Pokorny]

Oh, it's Al Fanning.

[Blessing Addy]

Is it Al Fanning?

[Roger Pokorny]

Al Fanning is singing with wood kid, I believe.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That goes hard too.

[Jerika]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And also shout out to doll man singing rain drops keep falling on my head.

[Roger Pokorny]

I didn't know that that was an.

[Greg Miller]

Old fun of him. You didn't know that was an old.

[Roger Pokorny]

No, I thought that was made for the singing.

[Blessing Addy]

Really? You're joking.

[Greg Miller]

Did you not watch Spider Man?

[Roger Pokorny]

I don't remember. I. I love those movies.

[Greg Miller]

I don't remember Spider Man 2.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah. I don't remember. I thought it was just made for the song. I was like, I don't know.

[Blessing Addy]

Wow.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

You knew that song? Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Come on. Usually on my side.

[Blessing Addy]

Come on. No, this song is like. It's a very popular song.

[Greg Miller]

We've been getting a lot of the super chats and chats in here, but I got two super chats we haven't done. Joel Osman, Super Chat has said preventing Terminal Fort from falling victim to a void out was one of my favorite moments. The Tar Lake boss is awesome. And now in post game, it's become a Pokemon game for me. Gotta capture them BTs.

[Roger Pokorny]

I love that.

[Greg Miller]

Did you capture a lot of BTs, Jerrika?

[Jerika]

I only got one and I keep forgetting to mention that moment, but I was just like, oh, God, now it's Pokemon. What the heck? No, just got one.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah.

[Jerika]

I want to catch some more, though.

[Greg Miller]

You might probably talk. Actually, you know what? I think I might have been watching the stream when you guys were killing them and they're like, this is the tutorial to catch them. What do you do?

[Roger Pokorny]

You just throw like a ball out there?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, they give you a special.

[Blessing Addy]

You get them weak and then you have to use them.

[Greg Miller]

But I. I did it for the tutorial thing and I never.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah. Oh, it's like you can have an attack for you.

[Roger Pokorny]

God, I love this game.

[Blessing Addy]

I never figured it out.

[Jerika]

They're like out for like 2 minutes, like massive BT like Pokemon for you to like throw out and use in like bigger battles. Like, it's neat. I need to try see what. What else is there?

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, the boss fight that they. They, yeah. Use for as the tutorial. I think I just ran out. Like, I tried my hardest to try and capture one of those BTs and it just didn't work. And so it was just me versus, like, four gigantic BT lions. And I was like, all right, cool. Because I'm fighting these.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

Struggled through.

[Roger Pokorny]

It's crazy that the chat never told me about baby.

[Greg Miller]

Don x7 says that in all caps. The Chat was screaming at Roger to pay attention.

[Roger Pokorny]

No, they didn't tell me anything.

[Greg Miller]

You were tired, you were hungry, probably so hungry. Ate Chili's and Outback Killian C. Super chat. And said I really liked the secret horror cutscenes on the Magellan. It shows Kojima can do horror, and I hope OD does happen. Let Kojima do horror.

[Roger Pokorny]

Fuck, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I'm sure you will. I don't. I don't know if I didn't get him or if I just didn't count them as horror. What are we thinking?

[Roger Pokorny]

Well, I don't know about secret. I'm just thinking about the one where Deadman or Heart man is looking through the window. And then you go out and you talk to him and it's Dead Man. And he's like, oh, I used to be. You know.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

But I don't know if there's more. I'm sure there's more secret ones as they're saying.

[Jerika]

But yeah, I mean, there was something with Charlie, like the mannequin, right? Like in one of the cut scenes, I guess. Coming. Coming Otter off from a mission, like. And that just runs at you through it.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I do remember that.

[Roger Pokorny]

But also, I don't remember Core Principles.

[Jerika]

That's weird.

[Roger Pokorny]

I got the themes, though.

[Greg Miller]

Me the entire way. Like, wait, a baby? The wife was pregnant. Didn't even know. I like, this is our final super chat here. Evermore. Dellen says, I was wondering if this was Kojima's way of processing grief from his franchise baby. And I like that line of thinking of, like, letting go of Metal Gear because I think this evermore one came in when we were talking about all the Metal Gear references. References here and the boss fight and this and Phantom Pain that and blah, blah.

[Blessing Addy]

It's like, huh, Interesting.

[Greg Miller]

Interesting little look at that one.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, I. It's funny because, yeah, my read was that, like, Kojima had gone through. I don't know. Like, obviously we don't know Kojima as a person as much. Right? But, like, I was very much playing this. Like, man, Kojima's gone through some. I'm never gonna know. But, like, I feel like he's processing some personal stuff through this game. And not even when we were there. We. There we did our interviews and I think somebody did ask like, like, you know, what did you pull from personally in like your experience of writing. Writing the story for this game? And it was like the shortest answer that he gave out of the whole interview where. Which is. I forget exactly what it was, but it was kind of like, hey, we don't want to get deep into it kind of thing. So I was like, all right, cool. He's like doing a lot of like personal processing.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I like that angle on it because I think it's such a night and day Kojima reaction in relationship to Metal Gear From Death Stranding 1 to Death Stranding 2. Death Stranding 1. Right before. Not right before, but before it came out. I did that two hour long interview with him at RTX Sydney. And it was when we got up there and I asked question number two and he was like, well, I don't want to talk about Metal Gear or about Konami. And I was like, well, you have to. We have two hours and one cut scene from this video game. I can't ask you everything about death stranding. We got to talk about that. But he had been when he left and it was such a hard breakup. He was so quiet for so long about Metal Gear. And now you do see him celebrating anniversaries and talking about Metal Gear and showing Metal Gear stuff. So I think that's an interesting take on it here of the grieving his franchise baby. But I digress. It's time for our final thoughts for this spoiler cast blessing. Is there anything we haven't touched on you want to talk about?

[Blessing Addy]

That's a good question. No, I think we got. Oh, one more thing. Did you guys do the race? Not the race, but like the motorcycle chase.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Blessing Addy]

Thing on like the road.

[Greg Miller]

The headless ghosts.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yes.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, that was fucking sick as hell.

[Greg Miller]

I did that last yesterday on stream. Do this normal mission. They're gonna be bts. And then it was like, now you got a race. I'm like, I only brought one gun. But then it was the normal thing. Like, this is awesome. I need a gun. I stopped my car.

[Roger Pokorny]

I got off guns yelling and they throwing.

[Blessing Addy]

Well, you can hit them with your car. You don't need the. You don't need a gun.

[Greg Miller]

I was gonna shoot these to death and I did.

[Roger Pokorny]

Okay, good for you.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, you can play like burnout. I'm pretty sure.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, well, I didn't do that. So.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, I like that moment. That's my last.

[Greg Miller]

And again, that's my thing of like as Somebody who's still playing and still doing these little missions. I'm hoping to keep finding stuff like that. Jericho, Anything we didn't touch on, you want to talk about?

[Jerika]

You think there. There will be another game?

[Roger Pokorny]

Yeah.

[Jerika]

Based on what we see, you think there. There will be something. Anything else with tomorrow? Here's being a porter. I hope so.

[Blessing Addy]

I don't know. In the interview, he implied that he would pass on Death Strange three to somebody else.

[Roger Pokorny]

Well, I think that that's what this is. I hope that this would be the perfect moment for him as a creative, as somebody that is getting older and has so many franchises to look over at. You have a next generation of Death Stranding. You have a new protagonist. You have to give it to somebody else at Kojima Productions. You have to actually give it to a new team and say, hey, I'm producing on this. I oversee maybe the story details, and I'm out. And this is. This is their own thing. I mean, that would be perfect. That is literally the symbolic move that he can make. But I also have a feeling where he's not gonna do. Because he loves do. He loves. He loves saying, I'm out for every single Metal Gear game, every single Death Stranded game now and then.

[Greg Miller]

He's right back there.

[Blessing Addy]

I also think Death Stranding is such a bad franchise to do that with. It's so like, it's such a Kojima thing. If you're gonna do that, do that with a more straightforward action game.

[Roger Pokorny]

I disagree. I think he can.

[Jerika]

It could be something. It could be different, though. Like, I mean, I'm not the one to sort of go through it, but, like, you're already sort of separating yourself, like, with a brand new character and, you know, we don't know what's through that gate that she's looking at. So it can be something else entirely. And I would be.

[Roger Pokorny]

My pitch on it is that it is similar, right? You are. You are connecting strands. You are the chiral network. But it is more of like, you're getting people out outside. You're getting people outside. You're building communities. You're actually like, you're not just going to like these terminals where people come up, up in holograms. You're actually trying to build them towns and stuff.

[Blessing Addy]

Like, dude, a town builder. Community builder. Destroy the game would be so superseded.

[Greg Miller]

I could see it either way. But I feel like you stop here.

[Roger Pokorny]

You can't, bro.

[Greg Miller]

I think it's.

[Roger Pokorny]

They're gonna make a movie. They're gonna make an animated movie as well. Exactly.

[Greg Miller]

That stuff's happening. You don't need to keep coming back to the game. Right? Like, you could let it live there. I mean, don't be wrong. I would love a game where I'm playing as elf as this porter and doing. Yeah. Going through that gate and seeing what's up. I thought that was such a cool ending for it. But I think that's the thing. It's such a cool ending. You could just leave it there.

[Blessing Addy]

Do you think Kojima has sort of written this studio into a corner a bit with, like, how he makes games and like, the nature of his games? Because, like, not only is death stranding, like, such a particular thing in like, such a specific world that is of Kojima's brain, but also it's filled with so many celebrities and cameos and like. Like so many people who are doing this because they love Kojima. Right? Because Kojima himself has built these connections. Like, of course you can get. You can get El Fanning to star in a game if you throw a lot of money at her, I imagine. Right. But, like, can Death Training three, if it's not a Kojima game, I think just ends up being such a different experience.

[Roger Pokorny]

Yes and no. I mean, I don't know. Like, I don't think he has to be fully removed from the project. Right? Like, as long as it is just like, hey, here's my limit here is that I'm creating, I'm doing the producer, overall production, and then I'm doing the story buy. Right? Like, that's my contributions to this. And then I could be the face of when a celebrity comes to town. I take a photo with them and then that's pretty much it.

[Blessing Addy]

I'll get Timothy Chalamet up in here.

[Roger Pokorny]

Exactly. Yeah. I don't think he needs to be fully removed. And I'm sure that they can still. Even without. Let's say Kojima doesn't want anything to do with celebrities anymore. I'm sure they can still, just with the name recognition and how much money they have, still get people in there. But I get. I get what you're saying though, Roger. The only thing is connected here is I am very excited for the sequel, if there is one. So then we don't have to have Norman Reedus as the lead anymore. I think that. That this was my breaking point with him is that the first one, I was like, I get it. I understand. He is very quiet. That is a different. That is what they're trying to. That's why everyone is so out there and over the top is to kind of contrast his very flat performance. But, man, I am so. I was like, actually angry at the moment of like, tomorrow is Lou and it's your second. It's your baby, your actual biological baby and also the baby you lost and you lost so much time with. You lost 20 years. Oh, my gosh. But she's standing right in front of you. Thought she was dead. Holy. Here's the moment. Elle Fanning is looking at you. She's tearing up. He just looks at her and just like.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, just blank face.

[Roger Pokorny]

And then they hug. Yeah. So you are my Lou. And it's like, what the was that? Like? Like he wasn't crying. There was no emotion there. I need. I need somebody to be the lead of this franchise that is. Is not Norman Reeves at this point, honestly. And I think El Fanning is going to do an amazing job.

[Blessing Addy]

Do you think. Do you think that's the actor or do you think it's Kojima? Because I feel like Kojima.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, he's not letting him ad lib this scene right. Like.

[Blessing Addy]

Yeah, because his characters tend to be a bit more like, emotionless. Yeah.

[Roger Pokorny]

Well, I'm saying. I'm saying Norman Reedus in general, just because El Fanning clearly is like, is working for me more. Right. I mean, of course it's probably the direction of Norman Reedus, but yeah, I don't know what. What the deal is behind the scenes, but L. Fanning is. Is definitely more alive, it feels like, in the universe than Norman Reedus is.

[Greg Miller]

Agreed.

[Roger Pokorny]

So I'm looking forward to that.

[Greg Miller]

How about you, Greg, to close out this spoiler cast? Yes, Greg, A great game that I can't wait to keep playing more of. I hope it'd be nice to platinum it one day. I'm sure I won't, but I'm looking forward to more missions with it and more. And I'm excited to see inevitably, when this comes to PC, what they include in that ultimate edition, what are they adding to it there? What are they doing with it? But yeah, part of me is hopeful that this is the end of death stranding, because I'd rather see Kojima make new ideas and new IPs. I know we already talk about OD. I know we're talking about Fizent, but I think beyond those, even this whole thing of like, he's like, I'm getting old, so I have a notebook, I've given my aids that if I ever die, like, you know what I mean? I want to see him create more new worlds. I was surprised even to get a Death Stranding 2 in many ways where I thought thought death stranding was going to be that our first game under our belt as a studio. Let's go. We're small, we're nimble, we can do this. And now that they've done it again and done it so much better, I'd rather see them start new things and go from there. We'll have to wait and see.

[Roger Pokorny]

Hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Because when those games come, ladies, gentlemen and enbies, we'll talk about them here on the Kinda Funny Gamescast each and every weekday on YouTube.com kindafunnygames, Twitch TV, Kinda FunnyGames podcast services around the globe. If you love conversations like this, we need you to support our 11 person small business. Get your Kinda Funny membership over on patreon.com kinda funny, YouTube.com kinda funnygames, Apple and Spotify to get all of our episodes of the Gamescast, the Kinda Funny Podcast, Kinda Funny Games, Daily Screencast, etc etc etc ad free. And of course get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a podcast in a car called Greg Way. Of course our day is far from done here at Kinda Funny. We are about to stream more video games with Blessing and Joey for now. Jerika from JK Games, thank you once again for hanging out with us. Where can people keep up with you?

[Jerika]

You can find me pretty much everywhere. JK Games podcast JK Games podcast are for me and Kayla, she's my co host and we are currently playing through Tears of the Kingdom. Right now we're doing like a video game book club situation so revisiting a lot of titles so. So it's been a fun transition from Dust Running to Tears of the Kingdom. I keep trying to scan things and you can't do that in that game.

[Greg Miller]

Well I love that. Everybody go follow Jerika Blessing. Roger, thank you for your time. Kevin, thanks for making this work. Until next time everybody. It's been our pleasure to see you.