u/eulersidentity1

Ok so HUGE spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't played DS1 fair warning. The story in the game is purposefully complex and convoluted so I want to make sure I understand what of it I actually do and ask questions for parts I'm not sure about. I have also NOT played DS2 so please no spoilers for that game if some of this is answered there and important for that game. Just tell me it's answered there.

>!So my understanding after having played the game is that Clifford Unger is actually Sam's father. His search across all the battlefields and time for "his BB" is then not understood by the player till near the end to be kind of bittersweet and metaphorical in a way. He doesn't necessarily seem to be aware that Sam is his child and is searching for the BB Sam is carrying, Lou, thinking that is his child... but we learn in a late cut scene that his BB was actually taken and raised by Amanda / Amelie as their child. Amelie actually bringing Sam back to life from death on the beach when Die Hardman shoots and kills both Unger AND baby Sam. What I'm not as clear about is the origins of Lou, Sam's BB. From material in logs you read it seems that Sam and his late wife were going to call their child Lou. So I am guessing that Sam has just taken to calling BB Lou as he connects with and feels BB is his own child. But I'm assuming this is NOT his biological child? I also feel like I may have forgotten how Sam's wife died. She died in a voidout i think i remeber reading, she was pregnant with Lou at the time?!<

Just happened in game. I'm so so so sorry but you understands I have a timed delivery to make... besides why were you walking IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DIRVEWAY ENTRANCE!

Watching the credits now which is unique as everything else lol.

I'll be honest this is the 1st Kojima game I've played.

Wow. You know I've played "better" games but few games that have had the courage to be as expansively and indulgently weird as this. And I really commend it for that. The best art for me often goes all in. Does ALL of it work? No not quite for me, its kind of B movie corny at times. And I know that is part of its charm too. And yet it works on a deep level far more often than it has any right to for something this ambitious, not subtle, over the top, and strange!

It's a startlingly wholesome and hopeful game too, while at the same time being deeply bleak. I don't think I've played a game with such oddly diametrically opposed themes running through it all.

The game does such a wonderful job of creating that sense of disconnected limnal space that represents much of the modern world we live in. Its dystopian and lonely and yet peaceful all at the same time. The connections with other players and NPCs are just enough to remind you that you are alone and forever disconnected and yet also does just enough to make this world seem connected and like others have your back and you have theirs. It's kind of a masterclass in design.

I think I'm now going to work on platinuming it.

Edit: ok when 1st made this post I had not finished it lol. Now that I actually have. My opinion holds but actually even more so, I still feel it's flawed in ways but a flawed masterpiece really. That last chapter Lou really hits hard 😢 ❤️.

The a UI system in this game is so rich in information that it's easy to overlook stuff and miss things. There are a number of things I didn't realize till late in my play through and I'm wondering if others might benefit from this.

Please add your own things you learned you wish you knew earlier.

1. The little icons next to the orders (next to number of likes) that look like hands and boxes represent the categories of orders you can take on. Time, Quantity, Condition, Misc. This becomes very important when going for completion because there are trophies for completing 10 or 20 of each at S rank on normal and hard.

2. You can see a breakdown of the number of each type of premium order you have S ranked and double SS ranked under Bridge Links in your cufflinks menu under "orders". There is a LOT of useful information in this whole menu system I largely ignored for a long time.

3. You can see if you have manufactured an item or not by a little tick mark in the bottom left corner of the item description box when you pull up more details on it. Also important for trophies.

4. It's possible to gave blood bags in your pouch but have them NOT equipped. For almost the entire game I didn't know this was possible, probably just got lucky they were always equipped. But if you find your pouch is full and they are not showing up you have to hold down left on D-pad and select one and equip it. Only after that will they automatically transfer to the next one.

5. As you increase the chiral network and get more and more bandwidth more and more other player structures will appear. It's not JUST the 1st time you connect a region to the network. As you improve the connection more stuff will pop in. This means your zip line network will likely start to have other shortcuts and stuff later.

6. In the description the game makes it sound like the big delivery vans HAVE to be driven on roads and that they are useless on rough terrain. This is not at all true. Yes they struggle on rough terrain and tip over more easily but with some feather touch and even some jumping you can get them over very rough terrain and through water. They are extremely useful even driving out into the back lands and even in snow for delivering extreme loads and in fact for the biggest orders probably are the only way really.

7. Level 2 ziplines are a fairly big improvement they add another 50m of connection distance. A level 2 zipline can connect to ANY other zipline within 350m including level 1 ones. This means you don't have to upgrade all of yours only some nodes.

8. You can control where a zip line lets you down by positioning the camera in the direction you want it to let you down before disengaging the zip line. This can be important cause often the best place to build a zip line is right at the peak of a mountain where you have good views. But that also means you can let yourself off a cliff if you are not careful, say if you want to repair or upgrade the zip line.

If you don't over plan things and challenge yourself a bit with going a bit light on materials you can get into some really tens encounters. The fact that you can't kill anyone really makes it even more so. I just has an encounter at a terrorist encampment in DS1 where I was like I'll just go in with a single non lethal assault rifle. Had my ass handed to me at 1st but ended up finishing the camp by going hand to hand and punching out the few remaining guys. Had to scrounge up and use their own blood bags as well. Now if I had armed myself properly the encounter would have been a joke of course.

This feels like an even more arduous task than completing most of the rest of the stuff lol. I haven’t finished everything else so I don’t know if it’s required for platinum or 100%. A part of me wants to though 😆

Btw can I finish the game and come back and platinum it after?

On stunning days like today

Down by the pacific 

With cloud dappled mountains looking on.

Shore birds seeking treasure.

And the sea gently lapping against the shore.

5 billion years.

It gives me comfort.

And I wonder if I just waded into the sea.

Not suicidally you understand,

Not exactly anyway. 

Take me out to sea.

And fold me back.

Among the things.

Would she take me?

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I'm concerned maybe something else is wrong, although I don’t seem to have an other symptoms. I also take Prozac so it could be the 2 together. I know this medication can be hard and I don't want to be on it long term if I can avoid it. Looking maybe at carbamazapine instead if the genetic tests come back that I can take it, but anyway I feel like the longer I am on it the more exhausted I get. I’ve been on it probably about a month and 1/2 now, or 2.

300mg isn't that high of a dose even. But I feel like in the middle pf the day I'm just wading through a sea of exhaustion.

I have energy, I have been able to even do 30km walks which I know is extremely but I'm trying to stay in shape. I'm not exhausted from the walk though as this is constant.

It feels like I'm underwater some of the time. Barely feel like I have the energy to get through the day. And the pain while reduced a fair bit is FAR from gone and is actually still fairly bad especially at night. Ironically as I take my dose at night.

Going through the game and I notice that story trophies you get along the way are only achieved by like 27 some odd percent of players. I suppose it's a divisive type of game cause of the mechanics. You either love it or hate it?

One of features you wonder why it's even there till you really need it. Just got ||zip lines level 1|| and I though I'll build a whole network across the landscape... without realizing i was eating up all my chiral bandwidth. Need to wait a bit. But if you couldn't go back and disassemble remotely that might almost be a... I'm done with this kind of frustration.

1st time playing Death Stranding. I'm pretty hooked! I'm curious if anyone knows anything about the under the hood mechanics. How does the game choose which player structures appear in your world? I assume it can't be all players? Otherwise the game would be so full of completed stuff that there would be no challenge or interest at all right? The game seems wonderfully balanced such that I see just enough of other player's structures that I'm greatful for them and yet the world feels lonely and challenging still and I need to add to it all. Is it just a random sampling you think that they tweak? It has to be other players at the same level or place in the game you are at too right?

So I’ve been on 300mg of GABA for some months now and it definitely has helped the pain but it’s still at a fairly bad level off and on. Thankfully I don’t think my pain level is close to what some have though. But if anything it has gotten worse in the last few days but it goes up and down. For a while I’d say the gaba reduced the pain by about 40% or more. To a manable level honestly. But the thing is even at 300mg it’s making me exhausted all the time! I talked to a neurologist about this and she suggested I could try to go down in dose to 200 or even 100 and see what happens to the pain.

I don’t know right now that is a tradeoff I want to make or not I have to think hard about it. On the other hand I could also look at switching to Carbamazepine but I’m fairly scared of the rare Steven Johnson’s Syndrome side effect. I’m 1/2 Asian and know it’s more common in people of Asian ancestry. Said neurologist gave me a requisition for a blood test to check if I have the genetic predisposition for it.

I also just saw a video earlier saying that GABA is one of those medications they do not recommend people stay on long term. I am also scared of going off it as I struggle to go off any and all medications as my body seems particularly sensitive to withdrawal. I was worried specifically about that going on it but the pain eventually convinced me. When I asked my neurologist about surgery options she said we should exhaust the medication options 1st because of risks due to surgery and the fact that my TN is kind of manageable. I feel really conflicted on what to do though. I know there may be no good answers and I may just be venting, apologies. It feels draining and scary to think I could be stuck at this pain level forever, and with the exhaustion from this medication ontop of it all.

Being cis gender male myaelf i just feel like we don't get a lot of healthy male roll models. Verso is not perfect of course but the entire painter family is... >!mildly problematic in how godlike and selfish their lives kind of are in relation to the characters they have painted but that is a side issue!<. I love him as a male representation of compassion, protective, vulnerability with both his male and female friends while still showcasing how he is allowed to struggle with this side without being perfect. >!He has this beautiful romantic relationship with Sciel and yet when she decides later that she doesn't want to continue because she can have her husband back, he respects that while of course acknowledging it hurts.!< You can of course see his final decision >!you can of course see his final decision as selfish but it is so in the same way as Maelle's choice but in different ways in that they both suffer so greatly from grief!<.

Edit: upon reading feedback yeah seeing him as pretty toxically masculine is also a very valid take.

Things they don’t tell you as a kid

That good people hurt one another
That life is long when you are sad
and short when you are happy

5 years old
Discovering grass
And ants making their long journey
And you at the start of yours.
Running in the rain falling so hard it hurts
Eating sweet buns in the dying heat of the day.
Picking fruit in the forests with this girl you just met.
Laughing
Crying when you skinned your knee badly rollerblading
The first sight of the sea
Infinite and blue, mother of all,
The salt in the air

That these first fleeting moments.
Verdant, and vibrant, and
holy,
never return.

That you never will reach the stars.
That as an adult you will still be crying,
still be scared of the dark,
still be running, running, running
even as they lower you into the grave,

still longing for the womb.

Things they don’t tell you as a kid.

That good people hurt one another
That life is long when you are sad
and short when you are happy

5 years old
Discovering grass
And ants making their long journey
And you at the start of yours.
Running in the rain falling so hard it hurts
Eating sweet buns in the dying heat of the day.
Picking fruit in the forests with this girl you just met.
Laughing
Crying when you skinned your knee badly rollerblading
The first sight of the sea
Infinite and blue, mother of all,
The salt in the air

That these first fleeting moments.
Verdant, and vibrant, and
holy,
never return.

That you never will reach the stars.
That as an adult you will still be crying,
still be scared of the dark,
still be running, running, running
even as they lower you into the grave,

still longing for the womb.

Things they don’t tell you as a kid.

That good people hurt one another.
That life is long when you are sad.
and short when you are happy.

5 years old.
Discovering grass.
And ants making their long journey.
And you at the start of yours.
Running in the rain falling so hard it hurts.
Eating sweet buns in the dying heat of the day.
Picking fruit in the forests with this girl you just met.
Laughing
Crying when you skinned your knee badly rollerblading.
The first sight of the sea
Infinite and blue, mother of all,
The salt in the air.

That these first fleeting moments.
Verdant, and vibrant, and
holy,
never return.

That you never will reach the stars.
That as an adult you will still be crying,
still be scared of the dark,
still be running, running, running
even as they lower you into the grave,

still longing for the womb.

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Things they don’t tell you as a kid.

That good people hurt one another.
That life is long when you are sad.
and short when you are happy.

5 years old.
Discovering grass.
And ants making their long journey.
And you at the start of yours.
Running in the rain falling so hard it hurts.
Eating sweet buns in the dying heat of the day.
Picking fruit in the forests with this girl you just met.
Laughing
Crying when you skinned your knee badly rollerblading
The first sight of the sea
Infinite and blue, mother of all,
The salt in the air

That these first fleeting moments.
Verdant, and vibrant, and
holy,
never return.

That you never will reach the stars.
That as an adult you will still be crying,
still be scared of the dark,
still be running, running, running
even as they lower you into the grave,

still longing for the womb.

It feels like there are dozens and dozens of ways to play this game just curious what some of your favourite synergies? Right now one of mine is >!jackhammer, root cellar, kennel. Though I will be honest I’ve only made it work once or twice but once you get going especially of you also have a way of increasing luck ooo boy keys and gems galore. I’ve actually taken to storing the jackhammer in the coat check most of the time!<