The End of long journeyFinal Achievements today result
Total time for completion : 120 hours (50 for whole story mode, + few hours extra for AFK & writing anime review).
The late grind stuff I would know that my journey for 100% achievement in Death Stranding in will be something that long, tedious, and yet it is perfect candidate to play while i was watching anime (hence why you saw many rapid new anime reviews in last couple of days). However none preparation for what deeper understanding i got from the game until today, when I finally watch from Death Stranding interpretation & analysis. But first, I need to mention some of the core acitivity.
Late game grind for Death stranding involving 1 key important part, delivering stuff efficiently & quickly. In order to do that, the first I did is to complete all of the road network exist in the game. This is key important as it allow for smoother ride with bigger haul. 2nd is I need to explore & find all other optional NPC, usually very tricky to be convinced to join the network. Thus, the challenges around delivering stuff & doing some side quest of hunting stuff for them, usually laying on the floor (the item is randomly drop into the world by some world reason.
One extra mechanic that I have fun with is called "Zip-line". It is basically a building that you allow to move from 1 building to another building quickly, useful for climbing tall mountain. And you can setup very vast network of this zip-line to allow move from one end of the map to another end, in merely minute. I spent most of the times setup a perfect route while balancing the amount of buildings which limited by your reputation level. In the end, it paid off for some of the tough delivery job.
However, as I much as I love death stranding, I cant be that ridiculous to spend until I perfected all deliveries request (800 of them), a simple mistake, a second too late, or not setting up proper zipline, will cost you whole ranking. Thus Im just happy with just 100% achievement (i got 160 perfect delivery at the end). The game also became much harder in late game with building are getting deteriorate overtime, making it harder to maintain hundreds of buildings in end game. In fact, i just barely have enough resource when i was sprinting last achievement as couple of my zipline stopped working.
The usual collectibles stuffIf you read many of my other games review, you will know that Im type of person who collect stuff as long I enjoyed the games & able to track them. Death Stranding is no exception, except it can only be done in late game because it have some requirement like reaching level 5 ranking with certain NPC to obtain email regarding collectibles location. Despite I unlocked all other technology in the games, I make an effort to just focus on walking and enjoy the view while I planning the route to pickup each collectibles (only fast travel to change map).
The end of to journey is something sweet especially there many nook & cranny of places that dont even explore since it wasnt part of main roads. Even foes also not safe from me as I packed my weapons like crazy to beat the hell up of each enemy camps. All those enemy was complete nightmare in the beginning of the games is now just a punching bag despite I played on very hard difficulty. But alas, there isnt much rewards from beating of them endless though (no experience).
What I learned from Death StrandingI cant say much other what I said from earlier review, but after watching 7 hours analysis of Death Stranding, it made able to understand and enjoy more the theme of the game. The commentary of our vile social network toxicity, to losing human touch from automation, to lead life in isolation because fear of other people. The each character theme & exploration of their concept in the game kinda remind me to have hope in humanity (especially with our current pandemic). The concept of doing mundane stuff in order to help other people. And best part, how Death Stranding represent Hideo Kojima journey in making a new game after his departure from Konami.
I might dont enjoy much of other Hideo Kojima games or maybe some of his quirk, but I found that death stranding are truly remarkable from gameplay perspective & cinematic experience. Not many game that make my jaw dropped in awe and retained in memory for long time, and I probably have maybe less than 10 games that give that kind of feeling to me (final fantasy viii was one of it, dont ask why)
Im probably will take slower time with gaming for next couple of days. I just want to get back to my normal routine as I have been burning & grinding to death stranding (120 hours in like 10 days?) but i didnt regret unlike many other games.
In mean while, I will share several youtube video that I feel related to what my experience with death stranding.
► Show Spoiler
7 hours analysis video
Another death stranding analysis
Geowizard Journey across Norway series (he done couple of journey)