Stranger Than Heaven Hands-On: 5-Part Demo Breakdown | Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] place sometimes, but this year, Sega gave Select Media the opportunity to make it stranger than heaven. We went hands-on with developer RGG's next major project, and while our extended look offered glimpses into the decade

[00:15] spanning adventure, there's clearly still a lot more to see. The three-hour demo was broken up into five parts. The first three were all set in 1915. first on a ship headed to Japan and then in the harbor town of Kakura. These three

[00:30] sections introduce key characters, a major conflict in protagonist Makato's early life, and a climactic battle in an iron works factory.

[00:48] The later two sections highlighted two other cities and eras, 1929's Kur and 1943's Osaka. Both sections were centered around the multiple openw world Stranger Than Heaven's time periods. From miniames and short missions to the

[01:02] side content involving showbiz show planning, there was a lot to take in during the demo, which reinforced the massive scope that director Mini Kobu AB and the RGG studio team are going for in the full game. After we played the game,

[01:16] we sat down with Abbe to learn more about feedback received from previous demos, the inspiration behind Stranger Than Heaven's story, and more. Stranger Than Heaven seems to be shaping up to be a massive game with an emotional story

[01:29] at its core. Based on what I played, it should be capable of standing out rather than being lost in the shadow of RGG Studios Like a Dragon series.

[01:44] Makato Daito, a half American, halfJapanese man who finds himself torn between two cultures. In the prologue, he's chased by American policemen in San Francisco who use words like >> all this trouble for some goddamn

[01:57] oriental. While in Japan, he's greeted with Ketto, a derogatory slang word for non-Japanese people that literally translates to hairy foreigner. While these moments are set over a hundred years ago in 1915, Abbe says that the

[02:10] overarching themes are very much still relevant today. Questioning your identity is one big theme for a lot of people around the world, especially with resonates with people. Abbe said, "We thought making a character who's mixed

[02:23] race could spark a huge interest and a strong message, like it could give the courage for people to live their lives." Abbe mentioned that he knows firsthand the feeling of being considered an outsider even in his home country. I

[02:35] have a personal experience living abroad and then coming back to Japan. I'm not of mixed heritage and yet people still treated me like a gajun which is a foreign outsider. Abbe said telling this story really resonated with me. I wanted

[02:49] to tell this story as a director and that was the entire starting point on how we got to this concept. Along with the themes associated with Makato's mixed race, the Kakora section of the demo also focuses on the infancy of the

[03:02] Yakuza, which was another key point of exploration for the team. The Like a Dragon series up until now has told stories of an established crime syndicate. But for Abbe, his curiosity focused on when it began. While we were

[03:15] creating the Yakuza Like a Dragon series, we always had this curiosity of who would create such an organization or why would they create it, but we didn't have a great way of exploring it. Abbe said, "This theme led to the team

[03:28] deciding to tell the story over five decades. As they say, quote, started to feel like we need a huge time span to tell an epic story." End quote.

[03:52] GameFest back in June was with the core trigger buttons at the top of the controller was awkward at times with my attacks feeling slow and deliberate and difficult to combo together. The Perry

[04:06] system was especially underwhelming as the timing never felt consistent enough to wrap my head around. Right from the start of this hands-on session, it was obvious that whatever work went into tweaking the fighting system between

[04:18] June and October is the right choice. The demo's mechanics feel much more refined and responsive compared to what I played at Summer GameFest. My attacks were consistently landing and I could hit combos with ease. parry still gave

[04:32] something I could improve on rather than an issue with the mechanic. The finishing blow felt powerful, especially with a weapon in my hands. Landing a finisher on an opponent with a giant hammer was one of my favorite parts of

[04:45] the entire experience, and I did it a lot. Acknowledged that previous demos played a role in improving the combat system, but he revealed that the feedback wasn't considered negative by the team. We

[04:59] tweaked a lot, but our takeaway from the feedback wasn't like, "Okay, we might want to change our creative direction," Abbe said. Rather, as a whole, the core system that we believed would be fun and fit for this game was reinforced. It

[05:11] really gave us the motivation to boost after Summer GameFest that we are heading in the right direction. That reinforcement presented itself later in challenging enemies from back in June reappeared for another faceoff. The lone

[05:25] samurai showed up in both openw world sections of our demo. Kare and Osaka. And both times I defeated him on our first encounter. The hulking bald man meanwhile turned out to be Shimmeru, the head of the iron works that Makato

[05:38] infiltrates in Kokora and the main partner of major antagonist Okai. Shamura emerged as the main boss of the Kokora section of the demo. And while he improvements made it much more manageable to defeat him. Speaking of

[05:53] the iron work section, this part of the demo threw me an interesting curveball. Once Shimro was defeated, I assumed a cut scene would play before I then faced off with Okai in the office above where I battled Shimra. Instead, Okai

[06:07] Makato through the window, and I had to quickly run upstairs and take down small, but it was a defiance of my expectations that did not go unnoticed.

[06:24] referencing a term he and his team used to describe what Stranger Than Heaven is striving for, fictional realism, or the idea that while the game is rooted in real places authentic to the time period, it still takes creative freedom

[06:37] in certain elements of the game. One example, as Abe points out, is the use of jazz throughout the game. While jazz has existed for decades, the types of jazz featured in Stranger Than Heaven aren't necessarily authentic to the eras

[06:50] they are heard in. The demo provides multiple examples of this fictional realism idea through its miniames as they are a mixture of realworld games from the past and activities that might not appear as they did back then if they

[07:04] appeared at all. Multiple authentic Japanese games from the time like Oichi Kabu, a card game similar to Bakarat and Tehon Biki, a guessing game using cards numbered from 1 to six, can be found in multiple areas. Both of these date back

[07:18] centuries to when non-bankarata playing cards were introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Other activities straddle the line of possibly being real, but with some doubt. Underground fight clubs in 1929's Kur

[07:31] may have been a thing in real life, but here Makuto can challenge multiple opponents and make some real money when he wins. Similarly, we don't know if rolling cigarettes was a regular occurrence in 1915's Kakora. Nor do we

[07:43] capabilities, but both of those things exist here in Stranger Than Heaven and they're introduced by Orpheus, who is portrayed by Snoop Dogg, because who else would? >> [ __ ] not bad for your first time.

[07:56] should also confirm that Amaru, the character bearing the likeness of the late Tupac Shakur, was not in this hands-on demo. The showbiz sections, meanwhile, are where those creative liberties mentioned by Abbe really come

[08:10] tasked with helping Makato plan a musical performance. We had to choose the performer, the band members, the song, and extras like confetti and lighting. As long as the performance makes more than the cost, we succeed.

[08:23] in the world based on environmental noise. A neat way to tie the surrounding area into the player's consciousness. Some sources are obvious, like a man clapping in the street, while others are clever, like picking sounds out of the

[08:37] clash of weapons or the contact of Makoto's fist during a fight. When a colored orb of light appears on screen, by pressing a button, Makato registers the sound and it becomes part of his repertoire the next time he plans a

[08:49] specifically, we have a selection of genres for certain tracks. And Should I Sing of Love, for example, can either be performed as country blues or New Orleans jazz, while other songs can be played as a slow boogie, a lively pop

[09:04] tune, or a parade like March. This small section points to a very robust catalog of musical genres, and I'm already looking forward to how much music Makato can cook up in the final game. Sega packed a ton of content into our 3-hour

[09:18] we feel like we barely scratched the surface. We expect to spend a lot of time with Makato all around Japan when Stranger Than Heaven launches January 15th, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series

[09:32] 15th, 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.