Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio have been making impressive Japanese gangster games for over two decades now. Now, Stranger Than Heaven, their first new IP since they released Judgement in 2018, is on the horizon. The game is a massive new venture for the Like a Dragon/Yakuza developer as it tells its story over the course of five different era of Japan. At Summer Game Fest, we were one of the first to get to go hands on with the game. While we didn’t get to see any story details, what we got to play felt different than anything they’ve done before.
The demo we got to play was focused on the game’s combat system. If you are a fan of their prior games, don’t expect to just go into this one and breeze your way through combat as a veteran of their beat ’em up style. Instead, Stranger Than Heaven’s combat is more hardcore and deliberate. Each of the shoulder buttons control your left and right sides with the bumpers being light attacks and triggers being heavy attacks. With that, you have to be aware of so much in combat. An enemy can grab one arm meaning you must use the buttons for your other side to break free. You also have a stamina gauge that depletes while guarding, and if it hits zero you get knocked down and must roll and evade attacks until you stand back up. You are also able to parry incoming attacks, but you must parry on the correct side the attack is coming from. You can also dodge while standing and timing a perfect dodge allows for easy retaliation.
The demo gave us three combat encounters with one for beginner, intermediate, and hard challenges. We were also given access to three of the game’s thirteen weapon types to try out which were the your fists, a knife, and a heavy pipe. I walked into the beginner fight thinking it would be easier, but immediately got overwhelmed and defeated despite there only being a few enemies. I used that fight to get the combat basics down and breezed through it and the intermediate fight which consisted of a larger group of enemies. Finally, the advanced fight was no joke. It was basically one of the game’s boss battles, and that guy did massive damage and could take attacks for days. It was such a challenge to overcome, but once I was able to master the dodge and parry system and when to do either, the fight became far easier. I even ended up beating him with all three types of weapons provided.
Overall, Stranger Than Heaven feels unlike anything the developers have done before. Fans won’t have to wait long either as the game releases early next year on January 15, 2027.