VTuber Usada Pekora Is in Death Stranding 2, and While Some Japanese Fans Hate It, Others Note Hideo Kojima Games Always Have Unexpected Crossovers

Kojima Productions precocious announced that VTuber Usada Pekora volition beryllium making a impermanent quality successful Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. However, this astonishment cameo seems to person ruffled the feathers of immoderate alternatively vocal Japanese Death Stranding fans connected societal media, immoderate of whom are present proclaiming that they won’t bargain the crippled anymore.

Usada Pekora is simply a Hololive VTuber whose carrot-loving avatar is an anime miss with rabbit ears. As good arsenic singing, she often streams games and has precocious been playing Elden Ring: Nightreign. Fitting with her hungry, mischievous rabbit miss avatar, she is known for often adding the made-up connection “peko” into her sentences (which astir apt comes from the casual Japanese look “pekopeko,” which means “very hungry”).

As seen successful Kojima Productions’ video below, Pekora volition look arsenic a hologram successful Death Stranding 2, calling retired greetings to Sam and thanking him for his hard enactment (she says “otsupeko deshita” alternatively of the existent Japanese operation “otsukaresama deshita”).

新たな繋がりを確認🐰#DeathStranding2 #デススト2 pic.twitter.com/Xy5lsFS2FK

Some Japanese fans reacted powerfully to the announcement of Usada Pekora’s cameo, with immoderate commenters connected X saying “I won’t bargain Death Stranding 2 now.” Others elaborated connected their reasons. “Death Stranding 2 is done for. When a crippled I planned to bargain gets treated similar this, I decidedly won’t bargain it,” said 1 user. “Stop pandering to VTubers. I won’t bargain it now,” added another. It could beryllium that these users find the VTuber and her affected code annoying, oregon consciousness that Pekora doesn’t lucifer Death Stranding’s much superior tone. In response, defenders person been giving arsenic terse replies specified as, “Then don’t bargain it then!” and, “If you are not going to bargain DS2 conscionable due to the fact that Pekora is successful it, past don’t!”

This is not the archetypal clip that Usada Pekora and Hideo Kojima person crossed paths. As reported by Denfaminicogamer, Pekora visited Kojima Productions backmost successful August past year, posing with Kojima for the obligatory drawback successful beforehand of Ludens.

兎田ぺこらさんと🐇 pic.twitter.com/S0JuGcBqVe

Players acquainted with Kojima’s enactment volition cognize that his past games diagnostic galore unexpected crossovers, Easter eggs and bizarre elements. These see 4th wall-breaking mentions of different games, arsenic good arsenic the inclusion of real-life products and radical (creepy developer “ghosts” successful MGS2, anyone?). Metal Gear Solid 3 introduced the Kerotan frog quality and featured the real-life Japanese snack Calorie Mate, some things that technically don’t lucifer its 60s jungle mounting — not to notation the Ape Escape monkeys that popular up successful Snake Vs. Monkey.

Even the archetypal Death Stranding got Horizon: Zero Dawn-themed holograms, with the PC mentation getting adjacent much crossover references to different games (Half Life, Portal, and Cyberpunk 2077) successful the signifier of items. With Kojima’s penchant for putting each kinds of references and crossovers into his games, it seems apt that Usada Pekora volition beryllium 1 of galore that players tin observe successful Death Stranding 2 erstwhile it releases connected June 26.

Earlier this week, we reported connected Death Stranding 2: On the Beach's ESRB rating, which suggests players volition beryllium capable to usage an unconventional melee weapon. Hideo Kojima is besides moving connected a live-action Death Stranding movie with A24, and we precocious learned that a Death Stranding anime is besides successful the works. He's besides moving connected a PlayStation exclusive enactment espionage task called Physint, and called the upcoming Xbox-published OD "a crippled I person ever wanted to make."

Verity Townsend is simply a Japan-based freelance writer who antecedently served arsenic editor, contributor and translator for the crippled quality tract Automaton West. She has besides written astir Japanese civilization and movies for assorted publications.