A connection has been the key ingredient for Death Stranding ever since it was announced
back in 2016.
Umbilical cords attach to organisms, living beings securing what they have left and key
objects, like handcuffs or a dog tag necklace, that represent that nobody is alone.
There is something that associates everything with everyone.
All that is left in this universe is hanging on by a thread and that connection is all
one can depend on.
After watching the 3rd trailer, we are one step closer to grasping Death Stranding’s
true meaning and it is becoming more apparent now, more than ever.
With a mere 16 minutes of cinematic footage from the game’s trailers, with 3 minutes
in the 1st trailer and 5 in the 2nd, the 3rd trailer doubles the amount of footage we had
prior to it and every minute of these trailers means everything.
But the question is how do these trailers connect and what makes each of them so important.
Let’s dive into it.
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Let’s start by discussing why each trailer is substantial to further uncovering Death
Stranding’s value.
Even though they all connect, they all have their own differences that make them unique,
which challenges the viewer to unearth its secrets.
There is something that is presented in each individual trailer that contrasts against
it’s neighboring siblings, a singular theme.
The initial trailer, which came out at E3 2016, depicts ‘Life/New Beginning’.
The second trailer, releasing at the Game Awards of 2016, depicts ‘Mass Destruction
and a Demolished Society’.
The third, released at the Game Awards of 2017, depicts a much darker and profound theme,
‘Death/Horror’.
After watching the first two trailers, we couldn’t grasp a great portion of what type
of game we would see and what it truly means.
But after viewing the third and latest trailer, we can materialize a greater meaning to Death
Stranding.
Kojima introduces a conflict in this trailer that says so much through character interaction
and survival instincts, which before we had very little, if none at all.
As a matter of fact, it is here where we first visualize someone who dies.
Not only that, every human character finds their fate, even Norman’s character, Sam.
With a game like, “Death Stranding”, we never questioned where “DEATH” actually
comes into play, which should tell you how important this trailer actually is.
Although the third trailer explores the Death Stranding universe thoroughly, the previous
trailers are the stepping stones to better interpret why this trailer is so important.
Even though each trailer has it’s differences, they depend on one another to clarify Death
Stranding’s concept.
Now I have discussed parallel dimensions in the past and by now it won’t be news that
most of us are theorizing that each trailer runs alongside one another.
Although, if they all were to play simultaneously, there doesn’t seem to be any noticeable
relations if they all were synchronized from beginning to end.
Of course, there is the theory that one baby disappears from one trailer to another and
Mads gestures in the second is precisely the same as the one we see in the third, but connecting
all this together would mean arranging all the trailers to start at different times.
Lining up all these trailers is simple enough and is actually quite interesting to examine,
but I think there is much more than comparing the characters actions rippling into another
trailer.
So let’s talk about technical details, such as: camera migration, environment setting,
and other hidden details.
Ever since the third trailer has come out, I have been looking closely at what each trailer
might prove to demonstrate; there are some technical details I found that are so significant
that it’s bizarre.
Each trailer has something extraordinary to declare to the audience; in a way, the viewer’s
approach changes orbit for each trailer.
We transition between each of them as if we were to be turned around and asked to flip
everything upside down; we have the same course, but everything is shaped asymmetrically.
We have the same cinematic camera panning, as if we are being directed in the same manner,
such as a slow pan revealing the environment or a stationary panning out that marks the
conclusion.
Which brings me to the placement of each trailer, which actually should be examined closer.
Kojima and his team are teasing a game that slowly becomes more grim the further we get
into it.
Something that has been cleverly hidden in plain sight is how the brightness has changed
throughout the teasers.
From the first to the third trailer, the lighting becomes more dark and murky.
The colors become more dense from beginning to end, even the conclusion of the third trailer,
which is the brightest part of it, the sky is much dimmer than those in the earlier trailers.
Even the audio for the game has calmly become more dynamic since the game’s birth.
In the first trailer, the only audio we hear is Low Roar’s “I’ll Keep Coming”,
until the final minute when Sam stands and stares at the floating figures.
At this time, you can hear Sam’s dogtags and the beach, as well as a distorted pitch
to match the tone of the song’s outro.
In the second, we hear sound effects throughout the entire trailer: environmental sounds,
Del Toro’s body movements, and even the skeleton army static.
It is also in this trailer that we hear the first music score for the game, which plays
in the second half of the trailer.
And it’s in the third trailer when we hear the first dialog for the game.
The game is at this time in full stereo: complete with a musical score, voice acting and sound
effects It’s almost as if we are seeing the game
mature before our very eyes, much like a baby, thankfully, not as slowly.
But what does the brightness and the audio change have to do with Death Stranding?
With one major element in these trailers declining, another is flourishing.
Just like we see in the game, society is diminishing, but life still grows as we see with the billion
babies so far.
Perhaps we are experiencing what it means to travel between these separate dimensions/trailers.
Someone who travels through time and space to another reality could be affected in a
positive or negative way, I’m guessing mostly negative.
We have already seen rain manipulate time, so it wouldn’t be too far off to say that
traversing in this universe, if possible, could affect how one perceives their environment.
The audience are the ones experiencing these trailers after all and if we are indeed observing
different timelines that run parallel, we are the ones being affected.
If the change simply symbolizes the growth of the game, it could possible hint that what
we see next for the game might be the next step in the promotion process, a gameplay
trailer.
Perhaps the audio and brightness resemble a timer, since it would be difficult to make
the next trailer even darker and you can’t add any more elements to the audio, gameplay
could be the next step.
What do you guys make out of these changing components?
As usual, we are still missing some key ingredients in these trailers, which we can only hope
to bring to light in the upcoming trailer.
Either way, there is still much to discover that is still at arms length.
Kojima has put out the bait, we just need to catch it.
I have no doubt that I’ll further my discussion on the trailer connection in a future video,
but for now let’s look outside of the box and imagine what is going on behind the camera.
I still want to talk about the handprints, the monster and many other topics, so stay
tuned.
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