Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Hideo Kojima confirms Very Easy Mode in Death Stranding for non-gamers

Aaron Mamiit
By

Hideo Kojima’s cryptic Death Stranding will offer a Very Easy Mode to allow anybody to finish the game and its story.

Some video games, such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne, intentionally ramp up the difficulty as their core experience, resulting in frustrating play sessions and, in extreme cases, smashed controllers. Kojima, however, will apparently head towards the other direction for Death Stranding.

Related Videos

Normally there’s only Easy Mode, but we added Very Easy Mode for movie fans since we have real actors like Norman, Mads, Lea starred in. Even Yano-san who never completed the 1st stage of PAC-MAN, was able to complete the game on Very Easy Mode ???????????????? https://t.co/fMZmuZltZw

— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 6, 2019

The Very Easy Mode was first mentioned by the personal assistant of Kojima, who said that the difficulty level was for non-gamers, movie fans, and RPG fans, while Normal and Hard Mode are for action game fans. It is unclear why RPG fans are in the mix for Very Easy Mode, though it is probably because of the slower nature of RPGs compared to action games.

Kojima confirmed Very Easy Mode, which will be great for movie fans who will be playing the game for the story. Death Stranding features a star-studded cast that includes Norman Reedus from The Walking Dead, Mads Mikkelsen from Casino Royale, and Lea Seydoux from Spectre in the lead roles. Director Guillermo del Toro, a good friend of Kojima, is also attached to the project.

With names like that on board, it is easy to confuse Death Stranding with a Hollywood film. But then again, it is easy to confuse Death Stranding with anything, as despite the release of several trailers, the game’s story and mechanics remain mostly mysterious.

Death Stranding made its debut at E3 2016, and it has since piled up eccentric trailers that have masked the story while showing off its cast. Kojima previously said that the theme of the game is “connections,” and that it will take place in the near future when the extinction of humanity looms as a very real threat.

The Tokyo Game Show, which will run from September 12 to September 15, will reportedly show more Death Stranding footage in preparation for the game’s November 8 release date as a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Very Easy Mode will be readily available for non-gamers, as well as gamers who just want to find out what the story is all about, and at this point, that includes everyone.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Everything we know about Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake Looking Grizzly In Alan Wake 2.

The original Alan Wake is a game that went through quite a troubled development before it was finally released. After many iterations and changes in scope and direction, the final product was initially a cult hit, but didn't hit the mass market it needed -- at least not initially. After two DLC episodes, a sequel was in the works to build upon the first game and revive some of the elements that had to be cut from the first in order for it to ship, but this was ultimately not meant to be. The sequel was canceled and a smaller downloadable game, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, was released instead.

Since then, we hadn't heard from our intrepid writer until he showed up in a very unlikely place. Featured in the AWE expansion for a completely different game, Control, Alan was back in the picture. With a remaster of the initial game catching everyone up on his first appearance, now was the perfect time to announce that the long-awaited sequel was back in development. We haven't found all the manuscript pages yet, but here is everything we know about Alan Wake 2.

Read more
Atlas Fallen unexpectedly gives Forspoken some real competition
Two Atlas Fallen characters stand together in key art.

Atlas Fallen has the potential to surprise a lot of people. Although it's launching in just two months, we haven't seen much about this new game from The Surge developer Deck13 and publisher Focus Entertainment since its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022. That's a shame because after going hands-on with an early build of it, I've found that Atlas Fallen has the potential to appeal to people who didn't like one of the year's most divisive titles: Forspoken. 
Atlas Fallen - World Premiere Reveal Trailer | Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022
Square Enix's open-world action RPG featured some neat ideas with its fast-paced magical combat and freeing traversal abilities, but many people couldn't get into it. While more focused on melee combat than magic, Atlas Fallen is a similarly ambitious open-world game that delivers satisfying movement and action that's different from the norm. That makes it a game that might scratch some itches that Forspoken didn't fully reach due to its heavily criticized writing. If it's not on your radar yet, you might want to know what Atlas Fallen has to offer.
Encouraged exploration
Based on my demo, I'm not fully sure what to expect from Atlas Fallen's mysterious story yet. The basic premise is that player was a person from the lowest caste in this world's society who was bonded with an ancient gauntlet. That gauntlet has an amnesic spirit named Nyaal living inside it and is now trying to save the world from gods that have left it in desert-filled ruins. The narrative wasn't a big focus in my preview build, though, and the script is full of jargon that probably will only make sense once I play more of the game.
A talking companion bonded to the player's arm and hand is already an unexpected narrative coincidence between Forspoken and Atlas Fallen. But neither game's story is the appeal of either to me: It's their fun traversal and combat that interest me. The few seconds of Atlas Fallen's sand-surfing and fighting in its Gamescom trailer caught my eye last year, and both lived up to the hype.
 
As I worked my way out of a cave at the start of the demo, I learned how to raise large structures out of the ground, surf across large patches of sand, and dash through the air with the help of my gauntlet. After I entered the game's open world, I could play around with all my movement options and found them to be a treat. Open-ended games with large worlds like Atlas Fallen can live or die on how satisfying they are to explore, and making movement fun is a crucial way developers can make traversal enjoyable.
Forspoken was able to capture some of that magic despite its problems, and it looks like Atlas Fallen has too. Of course, that's only one part of the game, as players will run into many enemy Wraiths and need to fight them. That's where Atlas Fallen's engaging combat system comes into play.
Satisfying combat
Deck13 and Focus Entertainment had yet to go into much detail about Atlas Fallen's combat before now, so I was shocked by how unique it was. The core combat revolves around attacking, dodging, and parrying, with weapons shapeshifting as you use them in different ways. It's faster-paced than I expected from a developer who previously made Souslikes, but it's the Ascension system that really caught my attention.
In between fights, players can equip their character with Essence Stones that buff or add abilities, assigning them to one of three tiers in the process. Once they are in a fight, attacking and defeating enemies causes players to gain momentum, which fills a bar at the bottom left of the screen. As this bar fills, or "ascends," players gradually gain those Essence Stone abilities, getting more powerful the more aggressive they are.
Ascending does come with a catch: The more momentum you build, the more damage you take. Players can counteract this by equipping defensive or health-related Essence Stones or using "Shatter" once an Ascension tier is filled to deal lots of damage and crystalize enemies for a short while. To succeed in Atlas Fallen, I needed to fight aggressively, but fights would quickly turn in the enemy's favor if I missed a crucial parry or dodge when I had lots of momentum.

This system gives each fight a push-and-pull feeling not common in action games. Most of the time, games like to make players feel significantly more powerful or weaker than everything around them; Atlas Fallen does both. This unique system hasn't gotten more attention and promotion, but it ultimately is what makes Atlas Fallen stand out the most at the moment.
There's something exciting about how mysterious this game still is to me, as that means there could be lots of surprises when players finally get to try the whole thing in a couple of months. It's shaping up to be an unexpected, almost accidental alternative to Forspoken. If you're still looking for an action-heavy RPG with innovative movement and combat gameplay ideas, Atlas Fallen should be on your radar.
Atlas Fallen will launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 16.

Read more
Haunted Chocolatier: news, trailer, gameplay, and more
Character running past a chocolate factory in Haunted Chocolatier.

In latte 2021, indie developer Eric Barone (commonly known as ConcernedApe online), famed for single-handedly creating the magical Stardew Valley, officially announced that he was developing an all-new game. That game is called Haunted Chocolatier, and it looks like a whole other world of fun, casual simulation, and finding out the secret desires of every single member of your community.

Details are still limited: “I just like working in secret,” ConcernedApe reported in his last official progress update -- but don’t worry, plenty of info has already dropped, and we’ll keep you updated about every detail so you know what’s going on.
Release date

Read more