Kojima has dug himself a rabbit hole, one I'm afraid he will not be able to escape. This story is highly ambitious and requires the player to endure every moment of this ~40h journey to even get a hunch of what the hell is going on. How on earth will he be able to make a game with a different story when this is what people have come to expect of him? He has to commit to Death Stranding. There is no other way. That's why I think that Death Stranding is Hideo Kojima's life project going forward.