It pretty much goes without saying that Death Stranding is bizarre, and that’s actually a bit of an understatement. There’s really nothing quite like the world Hideo Kojima has created here, and while that’s a great sentiment for him as an artist, it simultaneously means there are many aspects of it that are difficult to grasp. Of course, that’s not really so much of a problem in this digital age, where the internet is quite literally in the hands of almost everyone and Google is just a few taps away. However, it’s still not the most seamless way to understand games like Death Stranding, but Death Stranding 2: On the Beach now offers a solution to that with its Corpus.
Simply looking at Death Stranding will tell anyone how weird it is, but it gets even weirder the deeper things get with its lore and terminology. Unfortunately, despite how strange it is, the first game never really gave players an accessible way to understand it. As such, they had no choice but to Google terminology and rely on the thoroughness of other players and the Death Stranding subreddit to help teach them the ins and outs of its world. In Death Stranding 2, on the other hand, players can simply access the Corpus, which effectively replaces the need for players to look away from their screen and break immersion just to learn more about something.
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Death Stranding 2’s Corpus Keeps Everything Players Need in One Place
The Corpus Explains Death Stranding 2 in Real Time
Hideo Kojima is an artist and a storyteller first and foremost, so he has always had a penchant for birthing weird concepts from his creative mind. Nevertheless, this hasn’t prevented him from recognizing how out there his ideas can be, and Death Stranding 2‘s Corpus is proof of that. The Corpus essentially functions as a built-in glossary for terminology and even an index for story events, orders, tips, and controls. Over time, the Corpus becomes filled to the brim with useful information the most curious players might need when wanting to make sense of Death Stranding 2‘s story.
What really makes the Corpus stand out, however, is that it updates in real time. Much like Final Fantasy 16‘s Active Time Lore (which has now inspired dozens of iterations in other games), Death Stranding 2‘s Corpus adds new information to the “Story So Far” section of the game and the Databank as well. The “Story So Far” section, as its name suggests, allows players to stay caught up on the story of Death Stranding 2 in real time, whereas the Databank includes regularly-updated explanations, not just for the game’s terminology, but also for its many characters.
A notification will appear on the screen when something new is added to the Corpus, prompting players to check it out right then.
Players Can Stay Fully Immersed Without Leaving the Game
The Corpus isn’t just a tool to help players understand the game better, though, as they could have simply used Google just as they did in the first game. Instead, it offers a way for players to stay immersed in Death Stranding 2, especially since it updates in real time alongside the story and various lore reveals. Additionally, whereas Google largely relies on the expertise of other players contributing necessary information, Death Stranding 2‘s Corpus offers information straight from the horse’s mouth, so anything that might have otherwise been in question will have no doubts or gaps attached to it at all.
It’s largely justifiable to say that Final Fantasy 16‘s Active Time Lore continues to show its influence on the industry as more games with complex lore and terminology adopt its approach to accessibility. Nevertheless, perhaps Kojima will include features like this in his games from here on out, since they are generally known for existing on the outside of every box imaginable.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Released
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June 26, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Violence, Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Strong Language
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Engine
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Decima
- Franchise
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Death Stranding
- Number of Players
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Single-player
