Hideo Kojima, the eccentric game designer and mind behind the Metal Gear Solid franchise and Death Stranding, has shared a couple of ideas for games that incorporate the passage of time in real life in their gameplay systems, and they are unsurprisingly wild.
Speaking on episode 17 of his Japanese radio podcast KOJI10, Kojima spoke on how he used such time-related mechanics in past games, also revealing some intriguing unused concepts, including one scrapped from his upcoming sequel, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.
Reflecting on his past experiences, Kojima brought up two examples seen in 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Firstly, food acquired in the game would start to go bad after a player leaves it in their inventory for a few real-world days, making the protagonist Snake sick if eaten. The second, notably more iconic example would be the boss fight with The End, an elderly sniper. This battle was made infamous when the game launched, as players soon figured out that they could use the system clock to easily beat the otherwise difficult boss, and that by waiting a full week and then loading their mid-battle save, a cutscene would play showing The End dying of old age.
For Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, Kojima revealed that he wanted to use a similar time system, albeit in a smaller scale, although plans were eventually scrapped during development. “I’ve thought about having characters’ hair grow in games. Originally in Death Stranding 2, I was going to have Sam’s beard gradually grow out over time, and the player would have to shave it. If they didn’t, Sam would end up looking unkempt,” he explained. “However, as Norman Reedus is a big star, I didn’t want to make him look uncool!”
Still, the director has bold plans in store for potential projects, outlining a few game concepts which incorporate the passage of time as a major mechanic. First up, he mentions an idea of a game with a character that ages as time goes on. “It starts out with the player being born, you’re a child, and then gradually over time you become an adult. In the game, you fight various enemies. If you keep playing the game, you will become a 70 or 80-year-old man. However, at this age, you will be weaker, and your eyesight will worsen. When you are a teenager, you’ll be able to run faster, but by the time you reach 60, you’ll slow down a bit.” he described, outlining a game that sounds similar to 2021’s Sifu but with real-time ageing, although he joked that no one would buy such a game.
His second idea, on the other hand, sounds much more intriguing as it flips the script, with Kojima proposing a “forgetting game”. In this concept, the game’s playable character will slowly start to forget important information or lose skills if players take too long a break in between play sessions, gradually forgetting “how to fire their gun or what their job is”. This system would also eventually build up until a player is completely unable to move, essentially forcing a player to get through it as quickly as possible, or take extended time off to play it. As wild as this sounds, the concept would make for an interesting change of pace in today’s age of bloated maps and copy-pasted ideas, and definitely falls in line with the director’s wacky repertoire.
And who knows? Maybe Kojima would actually follow through and experiment with such mechanics in his future games, but in the meantime, Kojima fans can look forward to his next mind-bending adventure when Death Stranding 2: On The Beach releases on 26 June for the PS5.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Joey Leong
