The creator of the Super Smash Bros franchise, Masahiro Sakurai, has offered his opinion on Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding in his latest article for Famitsu magazine, with one of his biggest complaints being the size of the game’s font. To say anything negative about the title is somewhat unexpected given that Sakurai and Kojima are actually quite close friends. The pair have long known each other and that same friendship is what led to Metal Gear Solid‘s Snake being added to Smash Bros Brawl on the Wii.
Eventually, this led to Snake returning for Super Smash Bros Ultimate so, in a way, Sakurai and Kojima are kind of intertwined – with Sakurai continuing to work with Kojima’s character despite his departure from Konami. Death Stranding is also nominated for Game of the Year at 2019’s The Game Awards, which puts it up against Sakurai’s own Smash Bros Ultimate which has also been given the GotY nod.
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In his monthly colum for japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (translated via PushDustIn), the creator of Super Smash Bros praised Death Stranding for its unique narrative and setting. While Sakurai pointed out that the missions themselves may be divisive, he loves the overall design of the game and thinks it’s something truly unique.
“I think that Death Stranding is a remarkable product. I’ve been playing feverishly until the very end. The game has a lot of originality, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s truly one of a kind!
Some people may not enjoy the missions, but I love them…” pic.twitter.com/YHnbCi8jYy
— PushDustIn (@PushDustIn) December 4, 2019
Of course, it wasn’t all positive feedback from Sakurai, as he also clarified that the prompts for inputs and text are too small at times (translate via Kody). Thankfully, a patch is in the works for this issue, so the contructive criticism is being put to use. Not neccessarily Sakurai’s lone criticism, but a collective one from gamers that experienced similiar issues with Death Stranding.
“It’d be better without some things. The prompts for things like button inputs and text are too small and difficult to see. There are also a lot of long button presses in the UI and too many small, protruding cliffs in the terrain. I think these are all trivial issues, though.” pic.twitter.com/m1ursqEkZQ
— Kody “NOKOLO” (@nokoloc) December 4, 2019
It’s really interesting to see a fellow prolific game creator review the works of a peer in this way. Although it was always unlikely that anything truly negative would be said, Sakurai is a very well respected game developer that is better spot out issues within a title he plays. Given that Sakurai is known to play almost everything and anything as a form of studing game development for his own titles, it’s cool to see this peer review approach to games.
In truth, it would be great to see more of these evalutations from developers. Of course, Smash fans will likely wonder if this means Death Stranding‘s Sam Bridges is bound for Smash Bros Ultimate, but it’s likely this sort of review would have been saved for after that reveal. If and when it ever were to happen, that is.
Sources: Twitter – PushDustIn, Twitter – Kody
