Hideo Kojima is one of those video game developers that follows the beat of his own drum. As the person most famous for working on the Metal Gear Solid series he’s well known for being someone that is willing to push the envelope in his games to the point that he does occasionally have to be pulled back in a little, to keep his ideas outside the realm of the extreme.
That was most noticeable than when he went off to form his own studio, Kojima Productions, and released Death Stranding. The game was certainly unique but met a lot of criticism for being a game that wasn’t exciting to play and sometimes called a “walking simulator.”
In an effort to address those complaints, Kojima Productions is releasing a follow up to Death Stranding called Death Stranding: Director’s Cut and it will feature more combat and an expanded story. Of course, when everyone saw the title, our first reaction was to ask what in the world would Kojima ever cut from one of his games? Well, he answered that question recently on Twitter on Monday. Sort of.
According to Kojima, these weren’t really cuts, but more additions that he wanted to make that he finally has time to add. He doesn’t even want to call it a Director’s Cut, but instead a “Director’s Plus.”
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A director's cut in a movie is an additional edit to a shortened version that was either released reluctantly because the director did not have the right to edit it, or because the running time had to be shortened. pic.twitter.com/nqih9BQ6wm— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) July 12, 2021
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In the game, it is not what was cut, but what was additionally produced that was included. Delector's Plus? So, in my opinion, I don't like to call "director's cut".— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) July 12, 2021
At first Kojima’s comments don’t really make a lot of sense. If it’s content they wanted to put in the game, but couldn’t, then it’s a cut right? However, Kojima is someone that has always been infatuated with movies and filmmaking. Some critics of Metal Gear argue that the games are more like movies and less like video games because of the extremely long cutscenes in a handful of the titles. He’s always looking at video games from a film perspective so it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to call his game a Director’s Cut if it technically isn’t that.
All of this leads to the question of why didn’t they just call it a Definitive Edition or one of the many other titles that video games use for when content is added to an already-existing game. The short answer is because that’s not what they wanted to call their game. Does that make sense? No, but this is Kojima and if he wants to call his game a Director’s Cut, Plus, or Death Stranding: Ultra 4K HD Definitive Cut Mega Edition then who are we to stop him?