Kojima Productions has shared several new snippets of footage for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, including a look at the upcoming game’s very realistic photo mode and Sam Bridges’ stop motion puppet companion, Dollman.
The footage was shared as part of a Death Stranding 2 panel, which was held at Tokyo Game Show this weekend. In the time since, Kojima Productions has steadily uploaded the English footage for the game to social media.
The first clip is titled ‘Dollman & Tarman Member Introductions’, and here we are formally introduced to Death Stranding 2’s stop motion puppet. It all takes place on board that submarine we also got a peak at during January’s State of Play
Anyway, this puppet is Dollman and he is also rather partial to a song or two, as shown in a subsequent clip introducing us to Elle Fanning’s Tomorrow and Shioli Kutsuna’s Rainy.
When these two characters are discussing babies being born, they begin singing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head, and Dollman joins in. Sam, being a good sport, removes the puppet from his waist (where he was clipped on to, I assume, a belt loop like a charm) and starts to shake him along to the rhythm. It is actually quite endearing.
The next clip is all about Heartman, who proudly tells Sam and Dollman he can “flatline any time, anywhere without worrying”. He can also sleep standing up so has no need for beds, which does sound super useful.
Back to Dollman, this bit of Death Stranding 2 footage shows the puppet taking part in an in-game event video, dancing to a song called Horizon Dreamer by Daichi Miura. It is quite a bop, actually, and Dollman has moves!
The music for this is due to come out later today, I will keep my eyes out for it.
Last, but not least, Kojima Productions also gave us a look at Death Stranding 2’s photo shoot event, which you can have with Rainy, Fragile (played by Léa Seydoux) and Tomorrow.
The three can be seen doing all kinds of poses for the camera, as well as throwing some stuffed Cryptobiotes about in a playful way. It looks really quite realistic, and I did a double take the first time this clip showed up on my feed.
Over the weekend, Hideo Kojima said he knew Death Stranding 2’s release date already, but he refrained from sharing that news with the public. The developer said while he and his team were working “in preparation” for the release date, he could not confirm it until “some point next year”.
Death Stranding 2 appears to still be on course for a 2025 release, however. How do you think it is looking so far?