Hideo Kojima confirms Death Stranding 2 features the traditional Japanese couriers that inspired the original's fiddly movement

Death Stranding 2 will properly feature bokka, the traditional mountain porters that inspired the first game's fiddly gameplay, according to director Hideo Kojima.

Some fans were shocked to learn that Death Stranding was actually inspired by a traditional Japanese occupation called bokka, who make deliveries to mountainous areas that are unreachable on wheels, and use long wooden ladder frames that reach above their heads to carry cargo on day-long trips.

And if you thought hiking without tripping up and dropping all your toys was tough in the game, well, it's an actual job.

Speaking on his radio show, translated by Genki, Hideo Kojima has now confirmed that the job which inspired his off-the-wall open world is properly showing up in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, alongside a special pre-order bonus called the 'Bokka Skeleton,' which looks like a golden railing strapped onto the side of the protagonist's leg.

Of course, the original Death Stranding already (kind of) had bokka in the game: it was you. Sam Porter Bridges' name was not-so-secretly a reference to the real world heroes who scale mountains carrying up to 100kg at a time, but the players' role was basically a 1:1 match if you take away some of the shootouts and babysitting. This time, though, it sounds like there'll be actual, regular mountain porters who aren't also involved in the kinds of supernatural escapades that Sam is.

Kojima has been dropping tidbits about the upcoming game in the lead up to its June 24 release date, recently revealing that it'll let you skip boss fights and read about them instead.

Death Stranding 2's title screen has been updated since Hideo Kojima showed off his "very much temporary" version, but there's still an option to catch up on the first game's story.