Summary
Hideo Kojima is a game creator that has always dabbled in the realm of horror, and it looks likeODcould be the culmination of his years of affinity for the genre. Revealed at this year’s Game Awards, thestar-studdedOD, which is being developed in collaboration with horror-comedy filmmaker Jordan Peele, is sure to set the internet ablaze with rumors and speculation ahead of its eventual launch. This may seem like a bold new direction for Kojima, but in truth, it was only a matter of time before Kojima made a game likeOD.
ODwas revealed in typical Kojima fashion. The trailer centers on the three lead actors, Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier, as they recite the phrase “the hungry purple dinosaur ate the kind, zingy fox, the jabbering crab, and the mad whale and started vending and quacking.” At the end, Lillis’s character screams fearfully, then the title card drops. After the trailer was shown at The Game Awards, Kojima emerged from a door on-stage and began his interview with Keighley before being interrupted by Peele, revealing his involvement in the project. Virtually no other information about the game was revealed at TGA, althougha leak aboutODfrom last year contains additional information; naturally, this leak should be taken with a grain of salt.
The phrase spoken by the actors in theODtrailer is a pangram, a sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet. Pangrams are most commonly used to display typefaces.
Kojima’s History with the Horror Genre
OD Is Extremely Reminiscent of P.T. & Silent Hills
Released back in 2014,P.T.was a playable trailer forSilent Hills, a soft reboot of the famous Konami franchise that was set to be developed by both Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, starring Norman Reedus.P.T.succeeded in generating massive amounts of hype forSilent Hills, and it is generally considered to be not only a brilliant marketing tactic, but a disturbing, thought-provoking game in its own right. Sadly,Silent Hillswould be canceled when Konami cut ties with Kojima, leaving players to wonder what might have been. Still,P.T.lives on in gaming culture, inspiring newhorror games likeSupernormal.
There seem to be a number of clear parallels betweenP.T.andOD. Aside from similarities of tone and style,ODis a collaboration between Kojima and auteur filmmaker Jordan Peele, echoing the would-be collaboration between Kojima and del Toro. Additionally, the motif of an opening door, which can be heard in the trailer and seen in Kojima’s flamboyant entrance to the TGA stage, could be considered a callback to the door that players would open dozens of times inP.T.Less consequential details, like the fact thatODis releasing as an Xbox exclusivewhileSilent Hillswas set to be a PlayStation exclusive, may also be viewed as similarities.
Hideo Kojima and Horror: Beyond Just Silent Hills
AlthoughSilent HillsandODare the only Kojima projects explicitly labeled as horror games, elements of horror can be found in nearly all of Kojima’s work. WhenKojima Productionssplit from Konami and began working onDeath Stranding, it seemed to adapt several ideas from the canceledSilent Hills, with certain sections of the game, like those where the player has to sneak past BTs, alongside many of its cutscenes, feeling closely connected to the horror genre. Even beforeDeath Stranding, Kojima mixed horror with suspense, comedy, and melodrama in theMetal Gear Solidgames, with early examples being found in the Psycho Mantis fight inMG1and the famous ending twist ofMG2.
It may not beDeath Stranding 2, butODis sure to excite any fans of Hideo Kojima, especially those who feel burned by the cancelation ofSilent Hills. With his vast experience in the gaming industry, alongside help from star filmmaker Jordan Peele,ODhas a solid chance of being the horror game that Kojima Productions was meant to make all along.
