During Summer Game Fest 2025, Like a Dragon developer RGG fully lifted the lid on its mysterious Project Century game, revealing its official title to be Stranger Than Heaven.
I'm proudly among the contingent of RGG fans that would gladly take another Judgment game over Like a Dragon. Don't get me wrong, I love Nancy the Crawfish as much as the next guy and the mainline Yakuza series' antics are endlessly amusing, but I find them just a little bit bloated – particularly 2024's Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I also prefer the darker, grittier nature of the Judgment games' worlds and storytelling.
Maybe that's why I'm so attracted to Stranger Than Heaven, aside from the fact that it's literally about a detective, although I'd still prefer to see what Takayuki Yagami has been up to since 2021's Lost Judgment.
Anyway, I digress. The new Stranger Than Heaven trailer doesn't actually reveal a whole lot about the game other than its title, but we once again get to see protagonist Mako Daito roam around a bustling Japanese city busting bad guys in a fashion much more violent than you'd expect from an RGG game.
Whereas the first trailer took us back to 1915 Japan, this new one takes place in 1943, suggesting the Project Century codename was more than just a throwaway title.
I'm really into the game's jazzy vibe throughout the trailer. A brassy quintet opens the scene with a sultry number that intensifies with the action scenes, and it really sets the tone for an LA Noire type detective story that I could see myself becoming very, very invested in.
Anyway, this is all to say: Stranger Than Heaven is no Judgment, and maybe that's OK, because what it looks like is a game wearing vaguely similar clothes but with completely different mechanics, physics, and world design that could be an exciting new direction for RGG.
In the meantime, here are the best Yakuza games to play right now.
