RGG Studio is no stranger to ambitious games. Look no further than Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with its massive story and playtime. However, Stranger Than Heaven, which spans 50 years and multiple eras, could one-up it, at least in terms of sheer scope. Building everything from the ground up makes it all the more ambitious.
To deliver on that quality bar, the team left previous-gen consoles behind completely. As producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto noted to IGN at the recent Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show, “We set out to make Stranger Than Heaven as a completely brand-new game, with the goal of creating something entirely fresh while putting forth the absolute best quality we can produce right now. [So] we decided to drop previous-gen platforms like the PS4 and focus on creating an experience best enjoyed natively on current-gen consoles like the PS5.”
Fans of the Yakuza and Like a Dragon franchise may immediately note the difference in the number of characters displayed. Their overall fidelity has increased as well. “In the past, hardware constraints meant limiting the number of characters we could display on screen at once, among other things, we had to give up on. With Stranger Than Heaven, by fully leveraging the PS5’s capabilities, we were able to showcase more characters on screen simultaneously than ever before and raise character quality to the next level.”
Given that you’ll be involved in gang fights with multiple characters on-screen at once, both on your side and against, it makes sense. However, RGG Studio may have taken this approach for protagonist Makoto Daito’s later journey as a showman. After working with composers, recruiting musicians, hiring singers (each with their own stories) and more, he’ll organize performances in various venues.
Based on gameplay, these can get fairly packed, with Daito still having tasks. Such fidelity may have been too much for previous-gen consoles to handle while still offering reliable performance. Of course, there’s the overall scale, though RGG Studio hasn’t outlined how it compares to its biggest environments.
Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15th, 2027, and based on all the trailers showcasing its various years, especially the opening in 1915 Kure, it’s shaping up to be something special.
