Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has recently gone gold meaning that it’s all ready for its big release on June 26, 2025. And as we get closer to launch, more details begin to drop about the game, be that from press previews, director Hideo Kojima’s Twitter posting, and the game’s extremely long trailers. However, some new details have emerged that have potentially spoiled some little details (and a really cool one), thanks to its ESRB rating.
Light spoilers for Death Stranding 2 to follow
The ESRB has hit Death Stranding 2 with an M rating, with the description on its website giving details of what led to that decision. “Players can engage in combat against human soldiers, battle androids, and ghostly apparitions,” it begins. “Players use melee weapons (e.g., battle guitar) and firearms (e.g., machine guns, sniper rifles) to kill enemies… Battles are sometimes frenetic, accompanied by realistic gunfire, blood-splatter, and slow-motion effects.”
Right away, there’s a big spoiler that you can use the big stupid guitar that Higgs is seen using in the trailers, and that the sequel will definitely have more killing than the previous game (which we kind of knew already).
But then the description gets into more plot details, rather, the grisly ways in which some characters die in the game. “Some sequences depict additional acts of violence and/or gore: a man’s hands and legs sliced off by a robotic samurai; a man set on fire in a fantastical manner; a man cut in half by a giant machine,” the rating reveals.
Given the robot samurai has appeared prominently in trailers, and knowing Kojima, I imagine this will be some random NPC in a scene introducing the character to make him look cool.
And finally, the biggest spoiler of them all, and the most shocking thing to take place in this game was revealed. The ESRB notes, “The word ‘f**k’ is heard in the game.” I know Hideo Kojima likes to push boundaries, but it sounds like things may go a little too far in Death Stranding 2.
Hideo Kojima had to start rejecting Death Stranding 2 cameos after featuring everyone from Conan O’Brien to Junji Ito in the first game.
