Death Stranding 2 developer says his wife had a rather strong reaction to its first big plot twist: 'Kojima Productions are psychopaths'

Warning: Narrative spoilers below for the first act of Death Stranding 2.

Death Stranding 2 is as bizarre as any of Hideo Kojima's games. Maybe even weirder? It trades Metal Gear's cloning and nanomachines for aging rainfall, interdimensional beaches, magical tar, and all sorts of other stuff you might kinda understand by the time you reach the end. It's tragic, goofy, tragic again, and then goes so deep into mystifying sci-fi territory that you better be referencing the in-game encyclopedia if you want to keep track of all the proper nouns.

One key plot element—mercifully pretty straightforward—is that protagonist Sam Porter Bridges is a "repatriate," someone who will come back to life even after dying. Death Stranding 2 twists this blessing into a curse more than once throughout the story.

The first time is in the opening hours of the game, when Sam's adopted child Lou is seemingly killed—a tragedy that he tries to forget by committing suicide more than once, to no avail.

I liked the twist as a dramatic setup for a new story, considering Sam spent all of Death Stranding becoming attached to Lou.

But do you know who didn't care for it? Akio Sakamoto's wife.

Sakamoto, who I interviewed alongside two other Kojima Productions developers for Death Stranding 2's PC launch, is the studio's technical director and chief technical officer. When I asked the trio about their most memorable moments from working on the game, Sakamoto shared that his wife had an even stronger reaction than he did to that shocking twist.

"My opinion was, oh my god, this is terrible," Sakamoto said. "After the PS5 release my wife was actually playing the game as well, and once she got to that point she messaged me and said 'Kojima Productions are psychopaths.'

Everyone in the room got a good laugh from the anecdote, so I have to assume they took the reaction—and her clear investment in Death Stranding's characters—as a compliment. While this story came at the very end of our interview, I had to follow up and ask what Mrs. Sakamoto thought of the rest of the game. I won't spoil the ending, but she did apparently get there, and have a take on that, too.

"She said it was complicated," Sakamoto replied.

Mrs. Sakamato wasn't wrong. You can read an explanation of Death Stranding 2's ending if you, too, have finished the game but struggled to make sense of it all.

Death Stranding 2 stats: Level up each one
Death Stranding 2 APAS Enhancements: Porter Grades
Death Stranding 2 vehicles: All rides
Death Stranding 2 repair vehicles: Charged and ready
Death Stranding 2 fast travel: Skip the scenery
Death Stranding 2 Magellen evaluation: Short-changed