Death Stranding 2 lets players skip boss fights

Speaking on his weekly KOJI10 radio show, Hideo Kojima detailed a Death Stranding 2: On the Beach feature that will allow players to clear boss battles after an unidentified number of game overs rather than continue to struggle with a frustrating fight.

A “continue” option on the Death Stranding 2 game over screen, according to translations by X user Genki_JPN, will skip boss battles entirely. Players who take advantage of this feature will instead watch the fight play out through a series of images with novel-like text descriptions. Kojima reportedly said this is meant to help folks who aren’t as skilled at action games as the average player.

The first Death Stranding wasn’t as chock full of boss battles as Kojima’s other work, but the few it included are often considered the weakest parts of the game. Death Stranding 2 giving players an easy out jibes with what some see as a potential increase in the amount of action sequences from the sequel’s pre-release marketing.

Kojima estimated Death Stranding 2 is around 95% complete, likening its progress to reaching 10 PM in a 24-hour day. A movie based on the series and directed by Michael Sarnoski (Pig, A Quiet Place: Day One) is also in production at A24.

As for Kojima Productions as a whole, Kojima said the company plans to enter “phase two” after the release of Death Stranding 2 and OD, the mysterious horror game it’s developing in association with film director Jordan Peele and Xbox Game Studios. Unlike phase one, which was about finding its footing with new properties, phase two of Kojima Productions will focus on Physint, the studio’s return to Metal Gear Solid-like action-espionage gameplay, and an anime series.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches on PlayStation 5 on June 26.