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The vibes in Stranger Than Heaven are immaculate. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is known for building worlds with an exceptional sense of time and place, with the Like a Dragon, Lost Judgment, and Yakuza franchises being as beloved for the virtual tourism they enable as much as the kinetic combat and wild distractions that they present. So what then of Stranger Than Heaven, as it attempts to walk this fine line between being a new IP or sorts and an origin story for the founding of the Tojo Clan?
Stranger Than Heaven is certainly the sort of world you'll want to spend time in, that much is certain after I spend an hour bouncing between combat encounters in a work-in-progress demonstration. The action-adventure separates itself from prior RGG Studio titles by splitting its action across five distinct eras: Kokura, Fukuoka in 1915; Kure, Hiroshima in 1929; Minami, Osaka in 1943; Atami, Shizuoka in 1951; and Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1965. The way Stranger than Heaven lets you see Japan shift and evolve over time is astounding, each era with its own distinct visual design and soundscape.
The creative decision to let you follow a single character, Tojo Clan founder Makoto Daito, across a period of 50 years is exceptionally ambitious, and undoubtedly a key reason to dive into this adventure – regardless of whether you're familiar with the deep lore which binds the studio's other franchises, or coming in fresh because of the slickly produced trailers or all-star cast. Either way, there's a growing sense of scale to the world you inhabit as you progress across the years, and I'm certainly impressed by the fidelity and attention to detail RGG is pushing for here.
Stranger Than Heaven is the first new game from the studio (so, excluding Director's Cuts like Yakuza 0 or remakes like Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties) to take a new-gen console focus, and the decision to leave the PS4 and Xbox One behind is clearly paying off. The game isn't set to launch until January 15, 2027, but early signs point to Stranger Than Heaven being the most immersive, lived-in world that the studio has created in years… but that doesn't mean it isn't without its problems.
The reason I'm keen to highlight that release date is because it's worth noting that RGG Studio still has over six months to refine its systems and mechanics, and apply layers of polish. Time which will be needed to get its battle system into fighting shape. For context, RGG Studio largely moved away from the fluid, somewhat slapstick real-time combat system which defined the best Yakuza games in favor of a punchier turn-based offering starting with 2020's Yakuza: Like a Dragon – a bold creative decision which I don't think the studio gets enough credit for implementing.
Stranger Than Heaven sees RGG return to real-time brawling, only this time with an ambitious flourish: Makoto's left and right sides can be controlled independently, giving you the capacity to perform punches, kicks, throws, and combos by using buttons which map to corresponding limbs on either side of his body. It's a neat idea, but I'm not totally sold on the execution. I found the entire thing to be a little staid and static, complicated further by a floating camera which seems hell-bent on losing track of the action or getting caught in elements of the environment – particularly troublesome, given how challenging encounters can prove to be when balancing multiple enemies at once.
I spoke with Masayoshi Yokoyama, RGG studio head and the executive director of Stranger Than Heaven, to get a better sense of what he wants this novel combat system to capture. "We want to tell the story of Daito through our combat system. When the game starts, Makoto is quite young and he's not a great fighter – this story takes you through 50 years of his life – in the same way that when the player starts the game, they won't be that skillful with the systems either. So we're hoping that by playing this character throughout the ages, the player themselves will grow alongside the character."
"We want to tell the story of Daito through our combat system"
Masayoshi Yokoyama, studio head
"Compared to other games that we have made in the past, a lot of them are something that anyone can play and eventually get to the end without too much trouble," Yokoyama continues. "But we wanted Stranger Than Heaven to be more gritty, and for you to feel that sense of growth as you both become better fighters over time. We also wanted the left-right, left-right style of the battle system to be something that feels more realistic."
From a role-play perspective, I'm with Yokoyama on that one. The battle system certainly is more realistic than anything we've seen from the Like a Dragon/Yakuza games. Stranger Than Heaven is more grounded and gritty, particularly with the way it handles attack combinations between enemy heads and elements of the environment, and the use of various melee weapons to help give you an edge.
But, having played through three separate encounters in three different ages, I never really got the sense that Makoto's fighting style or abilities had grown over time. I'm keen to see whether this changes by the time Stranger Than Heaven lands next year, as it's clear that there's something pretty special in here – but first impressions are of a system that's more button-bash than kinesthetic brawler.
