Transcript (en)

Going into my hands-on preview of Stranger Than Heaven, I was already excited about what RGG Studio had in store, especially considering how much I've enjoyed its previous games. But after getting to spend some time with it, I'm even more excited to see how everything comes together. There are side quests to complete, mini-games to play, random encounters with thugs, merchants to visit, restaurants to eat at, items to find, and plenty of other random, occasionally inconsequential activities. Rather than focusing on a handful of locations within a relatively modern setting, the developer is taking players through five different cities across 50 years of Japanese history. The journey begins in Kokura in 1915, a bustling industrial city known for its massive steelworks, before moving to Kure in 1929, where Japan's naval industry plays a major role in the city's identity. From there, the story takes players to Osaka in 1943, followed by the coastal resort town of Atami in 1951, before eventually arriving in Tokyo's Shinjuku district in 1965. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to experience the different eras, and I can't stress enough just how much fun I had simply wandering around the cities and seeing what I could find. It's one of the things I've always loved most about RGG Studios games, and Stranger Than Heaven certainly hasn't lost any of that appeal. But between the story, the combat, and all the little distractions scattered throughout the world, Stranger Than Heaven is already shaping up to be another RGG Studio game I can see myself spending hundreds of hours with.