STRANGER THAN HEAVEN Hands-On Preview – Three Hours Beyond the Brawling

Our Summer Game Fest hands-on preview gave us an early taste of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN‘s combat. However, more recently, we were invited by SEGA to get another look at the upcoming RGG Studio title, this time with three hours to explore its story, combat, and side activities. As a long-time fan of RGG Studio’s games, it’s safe to say I jumped at the opportunity. However, I had a few concerns going into this preview. My main questions about STRANGER THAN HEAVEN were: how does this new combat system work, and how would jumping between eras impact the storytelling?

After spending three hours with the game, split across a few different playable time periods, I now have a much clearer picture of what RGG Studios is aiming for with STRANGER THAN HEAVEN. Even though my time with the game didn’t manage to alleviate all my concerns, it absolutely left me wanting to play more. I’ve actually been thinking about the game every day since the preview event.

What I Experienced

Upon reaching the event, which took place in a small bar in London, everyone attending entered to find a live band playing songs straight out of the game. We were also greeted by the director of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, Mikinobu Abe, who is a delightful person who radiates passion for this project. I had a short interaction with Abe-san during my preview time, but I’ll explain why later.

The event began with a special video prepared by the team that showcases various bits of the game alongside the title song STRANGER THAN HEAVEN. Then we got a brief explanation of what we would be playing that day: three to four sections split across different decades in which the game is set. Total play time was around three hours, starting from the very beginning of the game. Although I was slightly quicker on most sections than the anticipated playtime.

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During the sections we played, we had the opportunity to engage with some of the more linear storytelling moments, as well as the open-world areas, and several of the mini-games, including the showman business mini-game.

What Is The Story Of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN

In STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, you play as Makoto Diato, a dual-heritage Japanese American who leaves San Francisco for Japan at the beginning of the game in order to escape the police. Little does he know that the boat he stows away on belongs to Orpheus (Snoop Dogg), a hardened criminal who traditionally doesn’t take pity on those who board his boat without permission. However, he seems to take an interest in Diato after witnessing him take down two guards and realizing that he is not a white man. I say that with all seriousness, as racial tensions and flat-out racism appear to play a big role in STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, especially for Diato himself.

We didn’t get much story after the opening of the game before we jumped to a different time period. This found us playing as Makoto Diato sometime after he arrives in Japan, still working for Orpheus, and having joined the wider Japanese criminal network by joining a Yakuza family. Diato is tasked with seducing the mistress of a rival gang leader, and while I won’t spoil the exact story here. I will say, in rather predictable fashion, things don’t quite go to plan, and it leads to an all-out gang warfare at a local ironworks that ends in a boss fight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t beat this boss fight during my time with this section of the game, but I will get my revenge once we hit full release.

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Combat Takes A While To Click

The most noticeable difference between STRANGER THAN HEAVEN and RGG Studios’ other work with the Like A Dragon franchise is without doubt the combat. Sure, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is an action brawler like the earlier Kiryu led Like A Dragon games, but its controls are deeper and more complex.

As Makoto Diato, you control all four limbs separately in combat using the bumpers and triggers. The right bumper moves the right arm, and the right trigger moves the right leg; the left bumper and trigger control the left limbs. It takes a while to get used to and can be confusing at first, especially when you also have to hold the B button (on an Xbox controller) while timing a button press to the correct limb to parry. You can just do a simple block by holding B, but it won’t get you very far.

On the offensive side, you can stagger enemies with multiple successful attacks in a short period. You can see when they are about to be staggered as the ring above their heads slowly becomes a more violent red color. Once staggered, you can perform execution takedowns by pressing both left and right triggers at the same time, once they appear on screen. Depending on enemy health, you may just tackle an enemy instead of executing them, which puts you in a top-mounted ground-and-pound position for a short time.

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If you do get the chance to perform an execution, though, I highly recommend it. They are gruesomely satisfying, particularly when you have a weapon in hand. That’s right, there are weapons in STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, and I’m not talking about bicycles or traffic cones. You can equip a variety of one or two-handed weapons, from Katana’s to Sledgehammers, Knives, Axes and more. You do this by holding Y during combat and scrolling through to select the weapon you want; each has different attack stats, with some also having additional buffs. One thing I didn’t see was the inclusion of any dual-wielding weapons, though I hope they exist, and I also didn’t spot any elemental attacks at all. However, this fits perfectly with what appears to be a slightly more grounded tone to combat in STRANGER THAN HEAVEN.

When you equip a weapon, depending on whether it is one-handed or two-handed, you can still punch or kick with your opposite hand. That’s because the weapon is an extension of you, controlled by your limb movement, meaning it fits perfectly within the combat system and controls, without requiring any changes. With two-handed weapons, you can even combine swiping attacks from both sides one after the other, if you get into a rhythm with your button presses.

Combat is a huge change and will be an adjustment for veteran RGG Studios players like me. At first impression, it feels like the perfect evolution of their older combat system, retaining that RGG Studios DNA while trying something new.

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Familiar World Structure And Activities

Like the previous RGG Studios games, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is split into a series of open-world areas rather than being one massive seamless open-world map. In STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, these different world segments seem to be connected to the decade changes that will happen as you play through the game. Each new decade we played in seemed to come with a new location. However, I can’t confirm whether every decade you play in the game has a different location or whether you’ll revisit some locations at different time periods.

In typical RGG fashion, the segmented open-world design lets the team create bustling streets full of side-quests and activities. From various forms of gambling to underground fight clubs, and, of course, the jewel in this mini-game crown: the showman business.

So, how does it work? As you travel the world, you can find sounds that inspire you and use them to create songs at a man with a piano. You choose music styles for different instrument groups and can unlock more songs by finding inspiration in the world. Then, when it comes time to put on a show, you can go around town, press X, and a bubble will appear above business owners looking to rent out their location. The more locations you rent, the better advertised your shows appear. Once you have done this, you go back to where you have composed the songs and speak to a man there to put on a show; you can then fast travel to the venue. This is where you select your singer and other band members; they all have different hiring rates, but they affect the quality and interest in your show. In this final phase, you also select stage effects like lighting and set your ticket prices. Then the mini-game itself ensues, this is where the showman element comes in, as the band perform, you will see a timer across the bottom of the screen. At various points on this timer, you will have to press a button at the right time (usually on the D-Pad or face buttons) to trigger different stage effects and transitions. The better you do, the more pleased your audience is, and the more money you have in your pocket.

It’s a fun, but maybe a little bit overly involved mini-game. However, I do know that being a showman features in the main narrative in some way, and that is what I can’t wait to see.

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Unanswered Questions and A Few Issues

At the start of this preview, I mentioned that one of my questions around STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is about how the time jumps would impact the storytelling. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to engage with enough of the story to get even an indication of this yet, due to how we were jumping between time periods. My hope is that this becomes clearer as we approach the January launch, but my concern is that a story set over so many decades could leave the narrative feeling like a disjointed mess.

It’s important to say that we were playing an in-progress build of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN. Interestingly, I encountered a bug that Game Director Mikinobu Abe told me he had never seen before. He seemed confident it was something that could be fixed well ahead of launch. Other than this one issue, I have to say that for a game which is still three months out from release, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN was an incredibly stable experience. Only one other person in my preview had a minor texture issue in one building, but the developers said this specific issue was already fixed in the most recent build.

Can’t Wait To Play More

In the end, this preview left me wanting to play more of STRANGER THAN HEAVEN; the mix of familiar world structure and side content with new combat is really exciting. As for the narrative, I still have some concerns, but the writing and performances are as strong as ever from the little I’ve had to play so far.

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I genuinely can’t wait to get my hands on STRANGER THAN HEAVEN again when it releases on January 15th, 2027, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Day One on Xbox Game Pass, Steam and PlayStation 5.

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