Hideo Kojima, still operating from whatever alternate dimension he storyboards from, recently ventured into the realm of dermatological critique. In a statement that somehow manages to sound both vaguely scientific and potentially well... you know. He explained that rendering young Asian faces in video games is uniquely difficult—because their skin is, and I quote, "too smooth".
Apparently, the motion capture apparatus recoils in terror when confronted with unblemished skin. No pores, no realism. It’s the equivalent of trying to paint fog with a ballpoint pen. Kojima assured us it’s not a matter of preference, of course. Just cold, hard technical limitation. Hyperrealism, it seems, demands imperfection—freckles, crags, battle scars from a long war with acne—anything, really, to give the algorithms something to cling to.
Fortunately, Kojima believes the machines are catching up. Death Stranding 2 reportedly overcomes this epidermal obstacle with actress Shioli Kutsuna, who managed to possess both the requisite skin and, presumably, a face. He even suggested future games might feature more Japanese actors—or get this—be set in Japan. A startling revelation, given his long-standing aversion to making games not featuring American landscapes populated by philosophical postmen.
In the end, Kojima's comments offer an unexpected detour into what might charitably be called accidental ethnographic theory—or less charitably, the kind of thing you’d say right before the PR team dives across the table to cut the mic.
Phil Fogg
