If you’re a fan of the Like a Dragon games (formerly known as Yakuza), then Stranger Than Heaven might already be on your radar. It certainly was on mine, and thanks to the good folks at Sega at PAX Aus 2026, we got the chance to sit down for some hands-on time.
As you would have seen from various trailers and promotional material, Stranger Than Heaven takes place across not only various locations within Japan, but various time periods as well.
We got to try three specific battles, each with its own time periods, location and difficulty settings.
The most interesting thing so far about Stranger Than Heaven is its unique approach to combat. The game presents a Two-handed/ left and right combat system, which is one I’ve admittedly never seen before, that uses R1/R2 or RB/RT for right-handed light and heavy attacks, and the opposite shoulder buttons for left-handed light and heavy attacks.
The first two battles were short and sweet against larger groups of enemies, with a bunch of standard goons, and one or two larger and stranger brutes. The third battle, however, set against a single elderly tattooed samurai, absolutely wrecked me.
This was the hardest difficulty setting on display here, but I would love to see if these battles will actually carry with them their own difficulties, prompting you to take them on or avoid them altogether.
Beyond this, you’re also able to switch between a couple of melee weapons on the fly with the touch of a button. Dodges are helpful, but blocking is necessary for counterattacks. Much like the attacks, you can also block in left and right directions.
Hits feel brutal, and you’re even able to finish off stunned enemies by holding the two back shoulder buttons together (R2 + L2 or RT + LT), when prompted.
It wasn’t quite clear to me on the demo, but as your health bar is indicated by a white circle in the bottom left-hand corner of the HUD, the surrounding circle flashes between red and green, and I can only assume this is some sort of blocking/stagger metre that wears away as you block incoming attacks. Stunning enemies with a flurry of blows leaves them open to the aforementioned finishing attacks, so it makes sense that it is.
Overall, while my time with Stranger Than Heaven was short and sweet, and based solely on combat, I had plenty of fun with it.
Given these games are so combat-focused, it’s nice to see such a unique take on controls. I admittedly forgot about the left-hand shoulder buttons half the time, but this feels like a system you’ll come to love once you wrap your head around it.
Stranger Than Heaven will launch on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC on the 15th of January, 2027.
Featured header image provided by the publisher.
