With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Hideo Kojima seems more dedicated than ever to referencing his previous work. The DHV Magellan ship that appears to serve as the game's home base looks a whole lot like the head of Metal Gear Rex. The latest trailer revealed Luca Marinelli's role as Neil, who's the "splitting image of Solid Snake." On top of all that, the newly revealed cover art bears a striking resemblance to Metal Gear Solid 2's bizarre, Japan-only box art.

Death Stranding 2's cover features Norman Reedus's Sam in profile on the right side of the image, holding baby Lou who is on the left in front of a white background. As was pretty much immediately noted on places like Bluesky and Reddit, this is very similar to the image on a promotional slipcover for Metal Gear Solid 2's Japanese release, featuring a man in profile on the right holding a baby on a pure white background.

The man in the Metal Gear Solid 2 image is Japanese pop superstar Gackt, who weebs of a certain age will likely recall for his involvement in Final Fantasy 7 spin-offs Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. Gackt was also all over the Japanese marketing for MGS2, appearing in numerous commercials for the game, including one featuring the same imagery as that slipcover.