Spanning five decades, Stranger Than Heaven follows Makoto Daito’s rise from a mysterious Japanese-American outcast to an infamous hustler and gangster in 1900s Japan. Starting from his traumatic life in the segregated United States, to his eventual arrival in Japan, Daito’s growth leads him to being a scrappy dock and factory worker hustling on the streets of Kokura, to an up-and-coming nightclub owner and businessman in Osaka, and eventually to one of the key figures of the Tojo Clan in 1960s Shinjuku, shaping the lives of Kazuma Kiryu and Ichiban Kasuga in future entries.
Stranger Than Heaven is a standalone story, but it also offers some intriguing narrative flooring for the Like a Dragon series. As one of Sega’s most groundbreaking franchises, it evolved from a cult-favorite action-brawler about protagonist Kazuma Kiryu’s corrals with the Japanese criminal underworld, to a larger series where players navigate the streets of the fictional Kamurocho and the web of intrigue that shapes its future. The series also balances over-the-top action and goofy humor with its enduring protagonists, and its spin-offs tackle even more off-the-wall experiences, like turn-based RPG combat and arcade-style action, while keeping the serious tone.
Like a Dragon has always had a schlocky, silly undercurrent, even as it delivers earnest storytelling with heartfelt moments as players dive into the fun and culture of Japan’s urban nightlife. Stranger Than Heaven focuses on a more serious storyline with Makoto Daito and his adventures in 1900s Japan; in many ways, it felt akin to a similar decades-spanning crime story like Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. Still, the familiar combat beats and activities of a Like a Dragon game are present, but with a deeper focus on immersing you in a world slowly stepping into the modern era.
Despite the energetic style and tone of the marketing around Stranger Than Heaven, the game’s core story plays the material more straight than I expected. While there were certainly moments of levity and goofiness, the outlandish encounters and mini-games make Daito’s story as an outsider in an initially unwelcoming early-to-mid 1900s Japan noticeably more stoic than other games in the Like a Dragon series.
Stranger Than Heaven really puts its narrative weight on Daito’s perspective as an immigrant and mixed-race character with Japanese and White American ancestry. After fleeing from corrupt police officers in San Francisco in 1915, who accuse him of a crime he did not commit due to his race, Daito travels to Japan and discovers a different kind of racial prejudice and bigotry that he has to endure. This is an immediately effective perspective for a protagonist, especially in a Like a Dragon game.
It’s structurally similar to previous games, where you explore semi-open-world towns with activities and fights outside the main story objective — all with the intent to draw you into not just the setting, but the different eras of time. With the added context of having to endure racial slurs and other forms of bigotry from townsfolk when exploring the town, and outright brutality from citizens who want to fight, it adds a new layer of immersion for Daito’s story that’s more grounded and unnerving than the likes of Kazuma and Ichiban.
However, the game’s opening chapters occasionally lose pace and fall into clumsy storytelling moments due to Stranger Than Heaven‘s video game nature, which can undermine the subject matter. Moreover, the positioning of characters played by Snoop Dogg and Tupac (who wasn’t seen in the demo) feels immersion-breaking due to the stunt casting, especially when the former’s character and his crew dispense hard truths about bigotry while also trying to present themselves as almost fourth-wall-breaking figures. Still, I felt that RGG Studio’s handling of the tense, uncomfortable aspects of open racism is often well-intentioned and mostly well handled, presenting both the outward hostility and passive-aggressiveness of bigotry in a way that feels educational for the time period.
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