Despite how wildly good the character models look in Death Stranding 2, Hideo Kojima still isn't 100% happy with them yet.
Death Stranding 2 is an incredible looking game, especially when it comes to the character models which somehow managed to look significantly better than the already stellar-looking original. The Death Stranding series uses the likenesses of the lead actors who play them (barring a few cases where the likenesses of film directors are used with actors performing the role). And because these look like real people it's easy to compare just how well done they are, getting even the small details on their faces right.
Speaking at the New Global Sport Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (via Rolling Stone) Kojima, alongside Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn – whose likeness is used for Heartman in both games (with a performance by Darren Jacobs) – spoke about the process of scanning his celebrity friends for roles in Death Stranding.
Kojima said that he "really wanted them to make them look very natural in my game, and I did my best in [Death Stranding], but I didn’t really think it was quite there to the level that I wanted it to be," Kojima added that for Death Stranding 2 "I really wanted to focus on how real I could make them come to life."
"We scanned and we made a rig, an AI machine learning rig." Kojima said, adding, "We took so much time and made sure that we scanned them into digital but made sure that they move analog in a way. And it took so much time." And despite the game receiving acclaim due to how incredible it looks Kojima is seemingly never satisfied, saying, “Looking back [to Death Stranding 2], I think it’s okay. But [for] my next project, I think I want to make it more realistic."
