I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the first Death Stranding is a confusing game. Between the strange lore surrounding BTs and the world of the dead, as well as bizarre terms like DOOMS, Chiralium, and Timefall thrown about, it’s a lot to remember, let alone understand. With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Kojima Productions wisely takes a page from Final Fantasy XVI’s storytelling playbook (one of the game’s best features) by introducing Corpus, a new interactive in-game encyclopedia.
Functionally, Corpus works the same as FFXIV’s Active Time Lore. This narrative database contains fleshed-out lore entries for every character and story event and a supremely helpful glossary. During cutscenes, when something noteworthy is referenced for the first time, its Corpus entry appears in the upper right-hand corner; pressing the Options button opens that lore page, pausing the scene and letting you absorb crucial context mid-cinematic.
I found Death Stranding 2’s story generally easier to follow from the outset than its predecessor, but Corpus kept me on track throughout my nearly 30 hours with the game. And whenever I did tilt my head in befuddlement after a cutscene, a Corpus tab called The Story So Far provides a straightforward summary of the scene you just watched, and it regularly updates its entries as new events occur.
Furthermore, for those needing a refresher of the first game, Death Stranding 2 features a recap accessible in the main menu. This takes the form of a 17-page static slideshow narrated by Deadman, providing a general overview of Death Stranding 1’s primary story beats and summaries of the major players. While nice to have, I think it will be most helpful to those who have finished DS1 (or have at least read up on it), but have forgotten a few things. The recap doesn’t provide enough details or context for why this world operates the way it does for someone coming into Death Stranding 2 completely fresh, so those players may still be better off looking up a good YouTube explainer.
Regardless, Kojima Productions is going out of its way to ensure players better grasp Death Stranding’s lore in the sequel, and I’m grateful for that. I can confirm that the story moments I witnessed are even more off-the-wall than the first game, and we’ll need all the help we can get to make sense of everything.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach launches on June 26 for PlayStation 5.
