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Stranger Than Heaven is shaping up to be one of the more interesting spinoffs to come out of the Like a Dragon universe, even though its makers are quick to point out that it stands completely on its own. A recent hands-on preview gave us a first real look at how Stranger Than Heaven handles combat, and it split the experience across three stages set in three different eras and cities, offering a good sense of what the final product might feel like once it spans its full timeline.
Story and Visuals
The demo covered three stages: 1915 Kokura in Fukuoka as the beginner stage, 1929 Kure in Hiroshima as the intermediate stage, and 1943 Minami in Osaka as the tougher stage. The full game is said to span 50 years in total, and beyond these three cities it will also include 1951 Atami in Shizuoka and 1965 Shinjuku in Tokyo. Although the trailer showed a familiar name like Tojo Clan, the developers made clear that this is a standalone IP separate from the Like a Dragon series, with a different combat system, different cast, and different storytelling. The protagonist, Daito Makoto, is Japanese-American and mixed race, and he faces discrimination because of it. His journey begins when he stows away on a ship to Japan and gets pulled into a decades-spanning yakuza saga.
Each time period in the demo used different lighting and filters to match how people tend to picture that era, which helps make each stage feel distinct and pulls players further into the setting. The UI stays fairly clean throughout. In the bottom left corner sits a circular health gauge styled like a vinyl record, with a ring around it that resembles a sound waveform and ripples as you take actions. This ring works like a stamina meter, but instead of draining like a typical bar, it changes color. It starts as a steady white, shifts to yellow as you take repeated hits or successful blocks, and returns to white once the hits stop coming. If it turns red and you get hit again, your character collapses as if out of stamina, and while down you can only roll or block until you recover, since parries are not available in that state. Enemies have a similar system, though theirs works more like a stagger bar. Once an enemy’s bar turns red, you are able to execute them.
Combat
Combat splits your left and right side into separate inputs. LB and LT control your left hand and foot, while RB and RT control your right hand and foot, with light or heavy attacks depending on whether you tap or hold the button. Pressing both triggers together lets you grab or execute an enemy. The idea sounds simple, but muscle memory from other action games can trip players up early on, leading to accidental blocks instead of punches or dodges instead of attacks. It takes a bit of time to adjust to the rhythm of it.
Weapons can be swapped using Y or the triangle button. The demo offered two options: a kitchen knife, which is fast but short ranged, and a crowbar, which has wider range but swings slower. Each tool fits a different situation. The crowbar works well against groups since a single swing can hit multiple enemies, while the kitchen knife is better suited for one-on-one fights against tougher opponents. There was no weapon durability or breakage in the demo, and the full game is expected to include up to 12 weapons. Drawing a weapon noticeably changes how a fight feels, and the weapons themselves are designed to look and feel like real old-world tools rather than typical video game props.
Beyond standard attacks, knocking an enemy down allows you to mount them and land ground follow-up hits, alternating punches from left and right while they try to block with whichever arm you are swinging at. Even without fully breaking an enemy’s stagger bar, certain high-impact moves, such as a charged kick, can knock them down outright. The demo also featured a tough duel against a sword-wielding opponent. It took several attempts and careful use of parries, grabs, and high-impact attacks to bring the enemy down, finishing with a ground follow-up move.
