Sega invites us to go hands-on with five different section of Stranger Than Heaven, and I came away amazed by how stylish it is compared to Yakuza.
When I previewed Stranger Than Heaven at Summer Game Fest, my 45 minutes with the game were focused on its combat. It was a good introduction to one of its most unique features, but I wanted to see more of the personality and style I knew there would be. RGG's games are cinematic and silly in equal measure. You'll be singing karaoke on a back street one second, then beating the head of several Yakuza in the next.
Since Stranger Than Heaven is set over the course of 50 years, between 1915 and 1965, I wanted to see how it captured the tone of the time periods but still maintained its playful side.
The opening of the game is really strong. Set in San Francisco, you're introduced to the game's protagonist, Makoto Daito. After being chased by some gangsters, he ends up on a boat captained by Snoop Dogg's character. While the less that's said about Snoop's acting the better, Daito seems like a genuinely interesting character, and it'll be fun to see him grow as the game's 50 years pass. He'll inevitably transition from a scared young adult to a confident businessman, and we'll go on that journey with him.
Soon after playing through the game's opening, I was transported to Stranger Than Heaven's first main location, Kokura in 1915. Daito is getting his bearings and learning the ways of the world in Japan for the first time. This is where the quality of RGG's writing really stood out.
You meet a girl in a bar and spend an evening drinking and laughing together. Daito's relationship with her is instantly electric from the moment they meet, thanks to some excellent performances and impressive direction. The story in this section is more personal and intimate than much of the Yakuza series, and I was engrossed really quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing where that relationship goes, and how it'll inevitably lead to almost endless violence.
Interestingly, there's an almost watercolor painting aesthetic to the cutscenes in Stranger Than Heaven. The background is blurry in a stylized way, the world around you shimmering as the story plays out in the foreground. It's a little strange at first, but I think it's a great way to centralize the story while maintaining the early 20th-century style.
I came away most impressed by the game's overall feel after three hours of hands-on. There's plenty to get lost in, too. You've got all of the shopping, drinking, street-fighting, and general wandering about you'd expect from the Yakuza series, but there are some Stranger Than Heaven-specific activities you can spend endless time on.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/stranger-than-heaven/oozes-even-more-style-preview
