Following the game’s release, social media lit up as players shared their discoveries with one another. However, players are interacting with it as if it is one. When you see a sprawling highway across America, you’ll know it’s there because players spent their resources to build it, just so the world would be easier to travel for strangers they’d never interact with.Ĭonsidering that Tears of the Kingdom has no social features whatsoever, it’s hard to say it’s a true strand game (whatever that means). It’s an excellent system that can feel oddly emotional. That creates the feeling that all players are working together to navigate the challenges of Death Stranding’s open world, even though they never see one another. Death Stranding features a unique single-player experience in which structures that players place in their game world will appear in that of other players’. Or at least that’s what fans seem to agree on now. It’s a social experience that links players together and makes them feel like part of one network. Kojima says the term speaks to the “concept of connection” in the game. It’s become a little bit of a running gag since then, as its meaning can be a little … unclear. So, what the heck is a strand game anyways? That genre term was invented by Kojima as a way to describe the unique gameplay of Death Stranding.

If the Zelda series is going to continue exploring Tears of the Kingdom’s format, it needs to go full Death Stranding. The only thing that’s missing – and it’s crucial – is a social system that links players together.

Zelda goes one step further by introducing an ingenious crafting system, but the experience isn’t too far off. Tears of the Kingdom and Death Stranding have some similar DNA in terms of how players can get creative to conquer an open world.

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