Stranger Than Heaven director says RGG ‘intentionally’ forgot about Yakuza to create ‘something new’ — ‘Every single aspect of it, we started thinking about it from scratch, just to suit the style of Stranger Than Heaven’ Demi Williams | usagoldmines.com

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says the game was always going to be different from the Yakuza or Like A Dragon games
• Abe says, “There was no conversation whatsoever about what Yakuza or Like A Dragon was like”
• He adds that RGG Studios “never compared” Stranger Than Heaven to its past titles, so it became “something new”

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe has explained why the upcoming role-playing action game was developed as a completely new experience from RGG Studio’s Yakuza franchise.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Abe said approaching Stranger Than Heaven was “a big task” and a “huge challenge for us,” but knew “from the very beginning that we wanted to make this experience different from the previous games.”

Unlike the Like a Dragon games, which typically take place in one location and timeframe, Stranger Than Heaven shifts to a historical timeline by telling a story across five distinct eras and cities spanning 50 years.

It’s an ambitious decision for RGG, but Abe said the team intentionally forgot everything it knew from making the Yakuza series to create something new.

“While we were developing Stranger Than Heaven, there was no conversation whatsoever about what Yakuza or Like A Dragon was like,” Abe said. “We intentionally forgot what it was like in our previous games and started from scratch. We were doubting every single pixel of what we had in Yakuza.”

This included everything from the game’s map, the UI, and how RGG wanted to approach the world; Abe said it even applied to the narrative and cutscenes, and the team “never compared” Stranger Than Heaven to its past titles.

“Every single aspect of it, we started thinking about it from scratch, just to suit the style of Stranger Than Heaven,” he added. “We were never trying to make this different because we never compared it with our previous games, so in the end, it became something new.”

Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.