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Latest data drops on RGG Studio’s subsequent title Stranger Than Heaven have been properly, stranger than fiction in some methods. Whereas the inclusion of the late Japanese actor Bunta Sugawara appeared extra acceptable after listening to that Sega obtained formal consent from his household to incorporate his likeness into the sport, the inclusion of yet one more late iconic determine with Tupac Shakur is one other can of worms, because of the extra difficult state of his household property after his passing.

These are solely just some points which have made Stranger than Heaven unusual to speak about. I’ll admit that I personally haven’t been too keen on RGG Studio’s current releases both with Yakuza 3 Kiwami & Darkish Ties and Yakuza 0 Director’s Reduce for a number of causes. However, I wish to preserve an open thoughts with Stranger than Heaven. At Summer season Sport Fest 2026, I bought the possibility to go hands-on with it to see how its fight system is shaping up.

I used to be solely given half-hour to check out Stranger than Heaven’s battle system and I’ll do my finest to explain what I realized, although half an hour is certainly not sufficient time to completely perceive the intricacies of it. Don’t anticipate Yakuza’s fight system moving into. It’s solely totally different.

The demo showcased three totally different eras from Stranger than Heaven – the years 1915, 1929, and 1943, however they have been solely tiny slices of every and served as newbie, intermediate, and superior battle coaching levels. Not a lot exploration was potential, as a result of the demo funneled the participant into the fights nearly instantly. Plus, there have been invisible partitions that prevented poking into locations you weren’t meant to be.

Earlier trailers of Stranger than Heaven briefly touched upon how its battle system revolved round utilizing the left bumper, left set off, proper bumper, and proper set off to manage the protagonist Makoto’s limbs. I initially considered Tekken, since that combating sport mapped face buttons to a personality’s limbs in an analogous method. Stranger than Heaven’s strategy is far more inflexible, grounded, and at first, fairly clunky once I first tried to wrap my head round it.

In Yakuza, Kiryu would easily go right into a string of punches and kicks alternating between the sunshine and heavy assault buttons. Stranger than Heaven is far more concerned, and the participant needs to be far more attentive in how they wish to strategy each assault. Is the enemy visibly guarding their left aspect? Strike their proper. No apparent openings at their higher torso? Give them a kick to drive them to shift their guard elsewhere. Whereas a typical Yakuza combo string is likely to be one thing like X/X/Y/Y, Stranger than Heaven appears to be like extra akin to LB/RB/LB/RT.

Makoto additionally has guard and dodge maneuvers. Regularly blocking incoming assaults will drain his stamina, which makes his defenses extra inclined to getting breached – although this is applicable to enemies, as properly. Managing Makoto’s stamina and discovering methods to tire out your opponents, particularly harder ones, makes battles make extra sense. Good dodging slows down time briefly as properly, which permits gamers to both start a counterattack or sneak in a well being merchandise. 

Preventing greater than two opponents in Stranger than Heaven is hard, since I believe sustaining an offensive momentum is essential to creating its battle system click on. Having to ease off a foe I used to be attempting to get rid of shortly generally proved deadly.

Stranger than Heaven possesses one of the crucial brutal knocked down states for gamers I’ve seen in a sport currently. When a participant will get knocked down by an enemy assault, they can not rise up instantly; they need to wait until they’ve sufficient stamina to truly get again up. Enemies are free to repeatedly assault them whereas they’re on the bottom, and their solely choices are guarding (although they’ll nonetheless take a bit of injury per block) and rolling to a aspect.

Getting knocked down did instill a way of helplessness each time it occurred. Stamina restoration isn’t that fast, and the present construct I performed of Stranger than Heaven conveyed stamina in an unconventional manner. As a substitute of a stamina bar or meter, stamina is displayed via a color-coded circle that ripples each time it’s depleted. When the circle is white, that signifies that Makoto’s stamina is “wholesome” however because it turns orange, it means he’s operating out. This circle should develop into white to ensure that Makoto to get again up.

Makoto can improve the facility of his assaults by holding down a bumper or set off for a charged assault. Urgent each bumpers could have Makoto try and seize the enemy. Whereas blocking, gamers can parry an incoming assault in the event that they block into the proper course or angle of an assault. For example, if a hook is coming from the left, correctly countering the left punch will knock the enemy off-balance and deal vital harm to their posture. Depleting a typical enemy’s posture will normally put them in a finisher state, whereas harder enemies or bosses will provoke an assault that may deal a whole lot of harm.

Whereas Stranger than Heaven has been closely highlighting hand-to-hand fight to this point, I believe that it’ll really lean extra in the direction of a weapon-based fighter in its full launch. The presentation to press earlier than the hands-on preview talked about that there will likely be 13 weapon varieties, and the hands-on demo featured a small knife and big crowbar as different weapon choices.

Not like the Yakuza video games, there isn’t any sturdiness degradation on weapons in Stranger than Heaven. Gamers will even have the choice to improve them, as properly. The knife particularly was extraordinarily helpful in opposition to the lone swordsman boss within the closing superior stage. It took me fairly just a few tries to beat, as a result of the swordsman had some nasty strikes up its sleeve that required a stable protection after studying what all of them appeared like and which enemy stances executed them.

Since Makoto wields the knife together with his proper hand, the best bumper would primarily dictate when to put it to use. His left hand continues to be unarmed, so a helpful tactic I developed is sucker punching the boss with Makoto’s left hand to interrupt his motion and placing him into hitstun. This created a short opening for me to get in just a few stabs earlier than backing off and ready for a protected alternative to assault once more.

In the meantime, I discovered the massive crowbar helpful within the intermediate demo; it concerned a gaggle of enemies with a bigger foe amongst them. It was helpful in managing the gang at the price of having a big wind-up time to execute every assault and each of Makoto’s fingers have been occupied in lifting it.

I believe Stranger than Heaven’s fight system gained’t click on instantly for the overwhelming majority of parents. It does take a little bit of time to be taught and wrap your head round it. The ebb and move of fight took about 15-20 minutes to click on for me. I admire that Stranger than Heaven reveals a extra unconventional fight design and management scheme, as an alternative of what most different motion video games are doing.

As soon as I started to understand what Stranger than Heaven’s fight was going for, I fairly appreciated that I may create my very own assault openings and alternatives, reasonably than ready for the “your flip” / “my flip” dance that tends to dominate the cadence of another battle programs.

As I discussed earlier, Stranger than Heaven is already carrying some baggage although. I’m nonetheless unsure what to make of it and I’m crossing my fingers that RGG Studio doesn’t plan to… shock folks in an analogous method going ahead as Stranger than Heaven releases on January 15, 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X|S, and PC.