Fists clashing, bones crunching—it’s combat at its most visceral. On the flip side, there is the glitz and glamour of show business, where you handle everything from song composition to live stage productions. Stranger Than Heaven, an all-new title from RGG Studio, the team behind the Like a Dragon series, delivers a remarkably diverse array of gameplay as it follows the 50-year journey of protagonist Makoto Daito.
At a recent press preview event, we got hands-on time with select portions from four distinct chapters: the Prologue, Kokura in Fukuoka, Kure in Hiroshima, and Minami in Osaka.
Makoto Daito’s quest for a place to belong, and the vibrant port town
The prologue takes place in San Francisco in 1915. Framed for murder and pursued by the police, Daito manages to shake off the cops and board a suspicious vessel about to set sail from the docks. There, he meets Yu Shinjo, a fellow stowaway, along with the ship’s captain, Orpheus. From the outset, a dramatic story unfolds against the backdrop of a moody jazz-blues soundtrack. While you can feel the profound loneliness of Daito, who has lost his parents and faced racial discrimination, he also reveals a compassionate heart, putting himself at risk to protect Mashiro when he is spotted by the crew.
In the next segment, set in Kokura in 1915, Daito crosses paths with Tae, the woman who becomes the anchor of his life. Still searching for a place to belong, Daito is deeply shaken when Tae greets him with a gentle “Welcome home”. The nuance of falling for Tae is delicately captured through subtle facial expressions and minute hand gestures.
This section also offered a taste of free-roaming adventure. Bathed in sunlight, Kokura is a lively port town. Running through town while gazing at smoke billowing from the steel mill chimneys, navigating maze-like alleys bordered by wooden fences, grabbing a bowl of beef over rice at a street stall… simply exploring the area gets your blood pumping.
Immersive combat powered by dual-limb controls
At the Kokura steel mill, we tackled a long battle against multiple foes to rescue a kidnapped Tae. Stranger Than Heaven features a unique combat system that uses the shoulder buttons and triggers to control the left and right sides of Daito’s body independently. You fight by alternating left and right attacks while guarding in the direction of incoming strikes. Because your inputs sync directly with the character’s movements, the controls feel remarkably tactile. From the wide wind-up of a punch to the impact upon landing a blow, the combat carries the heavy, raw weight of human bodies clashing.
Unarmed fighting isn’t the only option; weapons add a brutal edge to combat. Compact one-handed weapons allow for lightning-fast strikes, but leav