The first two fights in Stranger Than Heaven went pretty well. I punched my way through several guys in Kokura, Fukuoka, moved on to another fight in Kure, Hiroshima, and started getting comfortable with this unusual combat system RGG Studio has created. Then the demo took me to Osaka in 1943, put a knife in my hand and placed me opposite a heavily tattooed guy carrying a samurai sword. Suddenly I wasn’t feeling quite so comfortable anymore.
That escalation was basically the point of the Gamescom demo. Three eras, three locations and three fights that went from easy to intermediate and finally hard. There was no story to follow and I couldn’t run around these historical versions of Japan to see what else was happening. This was all about fighting, and Stranger Than Heaven certainly approaches that differently from the RGG games I’ve played before.
Left, right, and please don’t hit me
Most of the fighting happens on the shoulder buttons. LB and RB control attacks from Makoto’s left and right side, with the triggers giving you heavier attacks from those same sides. It sounds strange when somebody explains it to you with a controller in their hands, but once I started throwing punches, I quickly understood why RGG built the system this way. I wasn’t memorising long combinations. I was watching the guy standing in front of me. If I saw an opening on one side, I could attack there. If he started swinging at me, I had to pay attention to where that attack was coming from and react accordingly. Guarding, dodging and countering become a big part of every exchange, and getting the timing right can immediately put you in a position to hit back.
The physicality of it surprised me. Makoto isn’t bouncing between five enemies while everyone politely waits for their turn. Punches look heavy, bodies react convincingly when they get hit and a good counter can turn into a brutal finisher. When I was surrounded by several enemies, things could get messy pretty quickly. I was watching one guy, somebody else came at me from the side and suddenly I had to change what I was doing. Get a block or counter right, though, and Makoto can make very short work of someone.
The first encounter in 1915 Kokura was easy enough to give me time to understand all of this. The 1929 Kure fight pushed back a little harder, but I still got through it without too much trouble. By then I was starting to think I had a decent handle on the controls. Osaka disagreed though.
Knife versus sword seemed slightly unfair
The final encounter jumped forward to Minami, Osaka in 1943. My opponent was very clearly connected to the Yakuza, judging by the tattoos covering his body, and this time I wasn’t dealing with another group of guys throwing punches. He had a samurai sword. I had a much shorter blade. This fight completely changed how careful I had to be. I couldn’t just stay close and hope I could interrupt him before his next attack. That sword gave him reach, his attacks hurt and there were moves I needed to evade because trying to deal with them the wrong way was a very quick route towards losing the fight. I spent much more time watching him, waiting to see what he was about to do and only attacking when I thought I had enough time.
It became this nasty little knife fight where every mistake looked painful. When he swung that sword, I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. When I managed to avoid the attack, I had a short opportunity to get close enough for my knife to actually be useful. Stranger Than Heaven can look incredibly brutal during these moments, but there was enough control behind everything that I never felt like I was simply waiting for an animation to finish.
I eventually had to use everything the previous two encounters had taught me. Guard when I could, get out of the way when I couldn’t and don’t get greedy because one extra attack could leave me standing directly in front of a sword. Compared to beating up groups of enemies earlier, this almost felt like a duel. And yes, it was pretty damn difficult.
Five decades of broken noses
The demo only showed three of the five eras that Stranger Than Heaven will eventually cover. The full game follows Makoto across fifty years of Japanese history, starting in Kokura in 1915 before eventually reaching Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1965. I didn’t get to explore any of those cities during my session, but even these isolated arenas gave me a small look at how much the surroundings, clothing and weapons change as the years pass. That’s probably the part I’m most curious to see outside this combat demo. RGG Studio is building several versions of Japan across very different periods, and the fighting already reflects some of that progression. I went from bare-knuckle street fights to pulling weapons and eventually facing a sword-wielding opponent in Osaka. The full game has plenty of room to push that much further.
Visually, it already looks excellent. The realistic character models work particularly well with this type of combat because you can see the impact of every punch, stab and counter. There’s still some of that exaggerated RGG brutality when a finisher kicks in and Makoto absolutely destroys someone, but the regular exchanges have much more weight to them. A punch looks like a punch, and getting a sword swung at your face looks appropriately terrifying.
Early conclusion
Three fights were enough to convince me that I want to play a lot more of Stranger Than Heaven. I enjoyed learning the left/right combat system, especially once the Osaka fight forced me to stop taking chances and actually study my opponent. Now I want to see how all of this works outside a controlled combat demo, because fifty years of RGG Studio’s version of Japan sounds pretty damn interesting.