Death Stranding has not left my thoughts ever since finishing it in early 2020, and oh man, what a perfect game indeed to start off that cursed year. Directorial legend Hideo Kojima once again flexes his eerie powers of prescience in his first post-Konami independent project, creating a fictional world that would, only a few months after release, reach unforeseen levels of resonance with a global audience suddenly thrust into the grim reality of having to deal with a historic pandemic under late stage capitalism. True, Death Stranding's base writing is an undeniably self-indulgent mess, but all the repetitive, on-the-nose dialogue in the world cannot distract from this game's downright therapeutic impact and exceptional effectiveness in communicating its central themes of isolation and connection through its singular world and mechanics. It also helps that the game is on so many levels tailored exactly to my emotional and aesthetic sensibilities—hell, this game even knows my specific interests in politics and science. Traversing gorgeous, lonely, desolate landscapes as a central gameplay mechanic? Post-capitalist economy based on solidarity and mutual aid? Particle physics references and metaphors permeating the entire game? CHVRCHES in the end credits? It's almost ridiculous how much this game panders specifically to me. But regardless of my personal biases, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to call this one of the most bold and forward-thinking gameplay experiences the modern AAA space has to offer.

I've been meaning to write a proper review for this for years (and I'm still planning to), but I think Hattori's review is pretty much spot-on, especially as a rebuttal to some of the more low-hanging criticisms I've seen floating around. It is pretty clear that Automata is the kind of game where you either vibe with the (categorically uncool, decidedly no-good) idiosyncrasies of its director Yoko Taro—world-renowned scoundrel and self-professed creator of "weird games for weird people"—or you don't. As for me, I'm not ashamed to admit that the tonal, thematic, and emotional registers explored in both of the mainline NieR games have pretty much conquered my soul. All-encompassing sadness interlaced with the grotesque and the absurd, but also full of heart and empathy where it counts—that's my shit right there. Incidentally, ⁠I was originally drawn to the world of NieR after spontaneously giving the Automata soundtrack a spin and just instantly clicking with it on a fundamental level—in fact, I'd say the music is such an integral and representative part of the experience that you can likely skip this game if listening to a track like "City Ruins" doesn't immediately make you want to fuck off to some forlorn corner of the world and weep for the soul of humanity. And trust me, weep I shall, seeing to what extent lewd fanart of the ostensible protagonist is stealing the public spotlight away from the actual, real star of the game: the Small Stubby Machine.