Stranger Than Heaven Preview Shows Parry Combat and Music Mixing

RGG Studio's Stranger Than Heaven launches in January 2027, and new previews cover its combat, music and eras, IGN and DualShockers report.

DualShockers says Sega and RGG Studios invited it to a New York City preview session with the latest build of Stranger Than Heaven, alongside other media outlets and content creators. The writer played up to three hours of preselected sections set in 1915 San Francisco and Kokura, 1929 Kure and 1943 Minami. DualShockers describes the game as an action adventure prequel to the long running Like a Dragon series. IGN also played a new demo of similar length and came away positive.

According to IGN, the story starts with lead character Makoto Daito trying to leave San Francisco in 1915 while fleeing a crime scene. He escapes on a ship, meets Snoop Dogg's character Orpheus and arrives in the small Japanese town of Kokura. IGN says the Kokura story sequence produced over 15 minutes of cutscenes that held its attention. The outlet praises the cinematics and actor performances, and adds that the tone deals seriously with discrimination faced by Asians during the period.

IGN reports that the bumpers control left and right light attacks while the triggers handle the respective heavy attacks. Players hold guard and time a parry in the direction of the incoming strike to stagger enemies. IGN says combat still feels sluggish and gets messy against crowds, but that the calculated fights shone through once it adapted. Weapon choice matters too, since the writer found the hammer slows movement. IGN adds that director Mikinobu Abe confirmed the combat was reworked after feedback on earlier demos.

DualShockers and IGN adds that DualShockers calls the soundtrack the strongest part of the game, based on its limited time with the build. Colorful bubbles that appear mid battle are musical sounds that players can collect and use later when making music with composers. IGN highlights minigames, including being a music and club manager, which fit the theme of music breaking cultural barriers. Players can also learn to roll cigarettes from Orpheus, a mechanic that crafts items giving temporary stat boosts.

DualShockers reports bugs in the later Minami section, where Makoto fell through the geometry on entering several locations and was sent back to the spawn area. The writer calls them relatively minor and expects fixes before the January 2027 launch. IGN says it was conflicted after an earlier 45 minute demo that dropped players into battle without setup. After the longer demo, the outlet says it is now all in on the Yakuza team's latest.

Official videoWatch directly inside the article

Source: Game Rant

Source: IGN

Source: DualShockers

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