So Norman (Sam Porter Bridges) delivers. And we clearly see he delivers when faced with all sorts of natural conditions. Including rain that makes you age and "abuctors" that are invisible to you, if you do not bring a baby that is. All story aside, what do you do in this game?

I think something like this might be close: You deliver packages, that rope (through spacetime) to other online players upon delivery. The more you bring, the more danger you will face (surviving, natural threats or otherwise) but an unknown other player will bear the fruits of your labor. Goal is to plan and survive the trip, and not die in the process, as it leaves a crater in the world. Maybe for another player, maybe for your own gameworld. Viceversa, you may gain items from ropes created by others in your own game world. Thus depending on each other, and non linear multiplayer being important in the game.

Imagine starting with the devs only having acces to motorcycles, guns, drones, different enviromental suits, (all of these can be seen to be used in the game during the trailer) etc. Then through the online component and people packmuling across the most dangerous terrain, any player may obtain these through the skyropes. Maybe what you bring will shape the world. Choose to deliver a gun to another player? Maybe there will be more invisible abductors in your gameworld by making those choices.

Do you have any thoughts on Death Stranding's gameplay mechanics after the E3 trailer?

I'd be very interested if the gameplay loop were something like this. I think in general it will have some kind of asynchronous cooperative online element. What some people (myself included) are apprehensive about is how cerebral the moment-to-moment gameplay will be, especially if the emphasis is directed away from any substantial combat, and what kind of enemies or obstacles one will have to deal with in what ways including and in addition to those ghost-things.

(Edit: Also I don't remember there being any drones in the trailer. But it was interesting seeing the bike, only to have it fall off of the cliff).

Aging and wear and tear on your body most likely to be a major component of the gameplay. The interviewer on Playstation's thing when talking to Kojima was under the impression that you would be playing as people other than Sam (Norman Reedus) but Kojima said that wasn't the case. I think the interviewer was noticing some shots of the player model looking different than how Norman Reedus has been portrayed overall for the game. Given that they did a really good job of de-aging Jamie Sommers' model, I think a younger Norman Reedus or two isn't out of the question. As for wear and tear on the body, I don't think that impromptu toenail removal was just for the sake of visceral-ness for the trailer. Pushing yourself too hard is likely going to have some gameplay effect.

Them's my thoughts. I hope they advance the real tactile movement feel of MGSV, given that this game looks like it's going to have a lot of traversal.

Called the hoovering transport/carrier machines drones, excuse me if that caused confusion.

Basically what I mean by "cerebral" is that there are enough game mechanics to think about and situations to consider at a pace that keeps the player engaged; which is pretty much what your speculations for gameplay are describing. It can be meditative as well, but if it's slow to the degree that most people will get bored, it won't be very popular.

I don't think a big budget Journey (with the same number and depth of game mechanics) will do well for the new Kojima Productions. The first game that they release needs to be enticing to a large enough audience that publishers will be willing to support them further on. I'm not saying it needs to have shooting or big action sequences, but it needs to be fun and interesting, or else a lot of people will get off the KojiPro-wagon. Don't get me wrong, I still find it interesting myself and it's my most anticipated game, but I definitely see a lot of people saying "this looks boring" after the trailer was shown.

I hope it retains and builds on the ethos of open-world systematic elements, like some of the stuff you're describing. And if a lot of it is traversal, I hope it ends up being rewarding rather than troublesome (one of the mechanics I think will be keeping your balance as you carry on body on your back, and I can picture gameplay like that turning off a lot of people).

We know it won't be power fantasy like MGSV, but it's still unique enough to keep a lot of people's interests (so far).