It seems a horror game from veteran game director Hideo Kojima won't see the light of day once again. Fans were pretty disappointed with the cancellation of the next Silent Hill game, especially after getting a glimpse of the journey that awaited in 2014's P.T. Now new rumors have surfaced suggesting that Kojima was working on an episodic horror game for Google Stadia, which, unfortunately, also got canceled.
Last summer, Kojima revealed that a big project he was working on fell apart. Though there wasn't any concrete information on what this rumored project was, a recent report suggested that the project could have been an episodic horror game for Stadia. Earlier this year, Google announced that it's closing its first-party game development studios, which had over 150 employees. Google's sudden change of heart to not bring exclusive titles to its streaming platform might have affected Kojima's project as well. It should be noted that Google has since denied these rumors, but regardless, an episodic game under Kojima's banner could have been exactly the game horror genre needed.
Playing By His Strength
An absolutely terrifying horror game is an accumulation of a variety of things, though there are few attributes that definitely stand out. Smart cinematography and an intense score are two such attributes. To nobody's surprise, those are both Kojima's biggest strengths. Kojima hasn't shied away from stating numerous times that 70% of his body is made of movies, and it's clearly evident to anyone who has played his games that Kojima loves good cinematography. Very few games have managed to capture the cinematic feel of artistic movies in video games, and Kojima is one of those very few.
Additionally, Kojima's games have featured some exceptional music, both licensed and originals. Music has played an enormous role in Kojima's previous works, both in setting the scene and giving an appropriate context to the story. While Death Stranding may not have been everybody's cup of tea, it's hard to ignore the impact of the game's powerful post-rock soundtrack. While songs are one thing, it's the score that matters the most in horror games and could make a low-key jump scare into an absolutely terrifying one. Thankfully, Kojima Productions's Ludwig Forssell is one of the industry's finest.
Some of the most recent successful episodic games have been the narrative-focused ones, with titles such as The Walking Dead and Life is Strange being prime examples of this. It is because, unlike open-world games where freedom of gameplay is prioritized, narration and story are the driving force of episodic games. Like TV shows, episodic games tend to end on a cliffhanger, alongside a precap of what's to come.
Cliffhangers in horror games or TV shows are even more crucial as an episode may end right before revealing the fate of a particular character. Kojima is widely renowned for producing ambiguous trailers and an overly-complex plot that would have fans scratching their heads. As such, cliffhangers, crpytic stories, precaps, and an intriguing storyline are everything that screams Hideo Kojima.
Inspirations and Connections
Hideo Kojima's obsession with movies can be clearly seen in his video games. Death Stranding's theme of loneliness could be traced back to Kojima's love for Martin Scorsese’s classic, Taxi Driver. 1966's Django gave birth to Ocelot's character in Metal Gear Solid games, whereas the Thai horror movie The Eye had a crucial role in P.T.'s development. Given the fact that he was willing to watch the scariest movies to "reawaken his horror soul," one could only imagine what spine-chilling gameplay, story, and character inspirations he could get for an episodic horror title.
Kojima has been in working in the games industry for quite some time now and, in that time period, his love for movies and literature has introduced him to other like-minded people. In other words, he has friends in high places. Notable filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is one such person who was also going to be a part of Kojima's Silent Hill. Although that didn't work out, Del Toro ended up having a presence in Death Stranding, even if it wasn't in a directorial kind of way. Aside from Del Toro, Kojima is also friends with Japanese horror manga artist Junji Ito. While the latter debunked the rumors that he's working on a horror game with Kojima, there are endless terrifying possibilities of what these two geniuses could do together.
Kojima Productions does have any confirmed projects, so this game could still exist in some shape or form among them. At the same time, a recent rumor has also suggested that one of them is an extended edition for Death Stranding. Fans just have to wait and see what Kojima has up his sleeves.