I’d be a liar if I said that Stranger Than Heaven‘s decision to feature late rapper, Tupac Shakur, didn’t catch me off guard. Murdered in 1996 aged 25, the open case has ran for 30 years, only finally being closed on Tuesday, September 1 2026 with the conviction of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis. Shot near the Las Vegas Strip from the window of a passing car, Tupac’s death was anything but peaceful, making his Stranger Than Heaven appearance feel odd at best, and thoroughly disrespectful at worst.
I spoke with Director Mikinobu Abe and Yakuza series Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto about it via translator at Gamescom, just ahead of the trial’s conclusion and Davis’ sentencing. How do you approach a situation like this respectfully, I asked, and has RGG used AI to replicate any part of Tupac’s likeness in Stranger Than Heaven?
“Another very legendary Yakuza actor in Japan, Bunta Sugawara, [also features] in the game,” Sakamoto tells me. Sugawara passed away in 2014. “We always approach the families and the agencies with the biggest respect needed and biggest respect possible.
“We wanted to first explain what we are intending with our game and the story behind it, and that we think that this cast would be ideal in order to raise the quality and dramatic features of the storytelling. So, with us really explaining it very thoughtfully and very deeply, all of them were very positive, so we were able to depict those deceased persons in our game. But even after we decided and it was negotiated and it was clear that they would be in there, we continued discussing with them very thoughtfully, with [things like] what models to take.”
He goes on to highlight that “no AI whatsoever was involved in this process,” and that the voice actors “always kept in mind the style of their acting when they were doing it. It was all very thoughtfully explained.”
It’s not the first time that Tupac’s likeness has been used posthumously, and his Greatest Hits album was released in 1998, with five more after that. His sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, has been embroiled in a legal battle against estate executor Tom Whalley (who owns the rights to Tupac’s likeness), for alleged embezzlement of funds, however, so it’s safe to say that it’s a volatile, perplexing situation to grapple with.
The whole thing still remains a little perplexing to me. A peaceful passing is one thing; if the family are fine with it, I guess that makes it slightly better. Tupac was murdered, however, and the ongoing controversy around his estate makes this all feel a little weird to me. I hope his involvement does what RGG wants; that it improves the quality of the game, and doesn’t feel cheap. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
