The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has largely found its footing as an action-brawler, extending to the Judgment games and perhaps informing parts of the turn-based combat systems in its RPGs. Stranger Than Heaven, which has a direct lineage with the rest of those games, takes a much different turn when it comes to action combat. No longer are you like Kiryu beating down waves of menacing men with swift combos and over-the-top heat actions like a superhero. You're the scrappy Makoto Daito, who moves like a boxer in a game that asks you to take deliberate, calculated shots by controlling each of his limbs individually – whether he's using his bare knuckles or any of the melee weapons he keeps tucked.After playing roughly an hour of Stranger Than Heaven's gameplay-focused demo, I'm a little conflicted on this new style of action combat. Don't get me wrong, it's a smart change, I just think it's missing a few of the finer details that make challenging combat satisfying and enjoyable even through repeated attempts. But even if I found it a little frustrating in the sense of having to fight the game itself in moments, the dare I say Soulslike approach to fights is a compelling idea which I expect to flourish as I evolve with it.How Combat Works in Stranger Than HeavenAs stated in previous showings of Stranger Than Heaven, combat works on a system where your limbs correspond to a specific button – R1/RB and R2/RT are for right-side light and heavy attacks, while the same goes for L1/LB and L2/LT on the left side. This presumably gives fighting a lot more depth than simply mashing buttons for light or heavy hits. The way this forced me to rewire my brain and make every move count, while also offering a level of flexibility that's unlike most action games, had me excited to experiment and learn how to handle tough fights – whether it was against four goons at once or one big Mr. Shakedown-style boss.It's not just about finding the window to throw a jab or get a quick combo in, you can pull off a command grab and toss enemies to the ground to mount them and start whaling on them. You can also grab one enemy with one hand, grab another with the other, and smash their heads together for a little crowd control. You absolutely cannot ignore dodging and blocking in Stranger Than Heaven, because you will not survive if you think you're like Kiryu who can tank a bunch of hits and quickly recover from energy drinks. I found that dodging side-to-side is more reliable than dodging backward, because you'd sometimes still be in range of enemy attacks and you'd also bring yourself out of striking distance. Once I understood that, a switch flipped for me – I was able to stay close and maybe even get a perfectly timed dodge to go into slow motion and get an easy combo in.From what I played, every fight can be an uphill battle.Blocking is, of course, a lot safer and easier to resort to when things get overwhelming. However, you have a stagger meter in the bottom left corner of the screen that pulses in different colors to indicate how many more blows you can take. When it starts flashing red, it's best you create some distance or dodge, lest you get knocked to the ground. If this happens, you have to wait a bit for Makoto to recover, and you also have to dodge attacks while on the ground by rolling to the side before getting back up. With dodging and blocking in mind, it's important to note that you take pretty big chunks of damage from an average hit while beefier foes can be quite spongy themselves; I'm not sure exactly how progression works and if it'll affect this dynamic, but from what I played, every fight can be an uphill battle.The Pros and Cons of a New SystemI played three separate instances – one in the town of Kokura in Fukuoka during 1915, where muddied alleys and troublemakers await a young version of Makoto. Here, I got a sense of the soft magnetic lock-on system and trying to manage who I'm directing my attacks toward. It can be a bit awkward when you're getting hounded, but it's generally good enough to distinguish between enemies. They weren't too tough and I tried to get experimental with separate limb control, breaking their stagger meter to do those brutal LT/RT finishers, and seeing how objects in the environment could be used as projectiles. It'll even recognize surfaces you can smash enemies into, similar to how heat actions in Yakuza would change depending on your surroundings.The second instance took me to the snowy dirt streets of Kure in Hiroshima during 1929, and a gang of menacing men and massive Mr. Shakedown-type guy with a sword who will bumrush you. Here, I got to use a hulking crowbar to get a feel for heavy weapons, and it's useful for chopping down the fodder if you can connect. This is where I think the combat system started to show its cracks, since you're not quite nimble enough to avoid attacks from that many enemies all at once even if you anticipate or see them coming. You have to commit to your attacks, as some of them have long animations that you can't cancel out of, leaving you vulnerable for fairly long windows. Enemies generally don't hound you as maybe two or three move in to strike at most, which is great because managing anything more than that would be hellish. Fighting the bigger brute started to ask you to read attack patterns closer and understand the limitations of movement since some of his moves are unblockable. Given the slower pacing of combat, I had to tap into the old Souls games I've played in the past.The third instance took us to Minami in Osaka during 1943, and had me doing a big battle at the bridge against a drunken master swordsman who is so closely designed like Souls boss. Here, recognizing attack patterns were absolutely crucial and being able to read the timings of each hit in order to dodge or block on time. Some of the sluggish movement and unresponsive dodging reared its ugly head in critical moments, but this is when I realized parrying would be the key since he's an aggressive foe. After maybe eight tries, I was able to finally nail the timing for parries and perfect dodges instead of just relying on blocks or the spotty, unreliable normal dodge animations.There's a second phase in this fight where the swordsman will rush forward and grab you and then stab you, which does almost full damage. You're done if you get caught by it, and it's not fun. You just have to dodge it and hope he doesn't keep tracking your movement in the last few frames of your own animation. I also had moments where the LT/RT prompt popped up for a big staggered attack and Makoto would just completely whiff and then be left vulnerable himself. It's little things like this that can take the wind out of my sails for what's otherwise a deeper, more thoughtful combat system that still carries the ethos of other RGG games.The Story So FarThere was no story content in the playable demo since it was solely focused on combat, which was the aspect I wanted to see for myself. However, there's always a strong sense of place in RGG's games where the setting itself is its own character. Seeing Kamurocho evolve over the course of eight games where it's as important as any other piece of lore in the Yakuza series, it oddly felt like a home. It's always been a lively place and it's one I could guide tours for if I had to. So, seeing three of the cities featured in Stranger Than Heaven's story told me a lot about how the people lived in those places and in those specific time periods – Kokura being a working-class industrial town, Kure being a massive naval port with a budding yakuza presence, and Minami being a dense entertainment hub with World War II tension reaching a critical point. Seeing how Japan rapidly changed with fashion, architecture, and social norms and how Makoto himself carries himself as he ages, these are fascinating bits of storytelling you can pick up on just by walking around town.Enough has been shared about the story in previous trailers and showcases to convince me that it's one I’ll want to see through to the end. That has historically been one of RGG Studio's greater strengths, and with Stranger Than Heaven exploring bigger ideas like being of mixed race heritage in a tumultuous time in both Japanese and American history, they're touching on subjects that can be very powerful in the right hands. It's also a story that uses music as a narrative theme to tie into what it means to find a home and build connections despite language barriers. RGG Studio's head Masayoshi Yokoyama told me in an interview that this is in large part a story about how the emergence of the criminal underworld is a product of the situations society thrusts upon its most vulnerable people.[It's] a story about how the emergence of the criminal underworld is a product of the situations society thrusts upon its most vulnerable people.With five different time periods in five different cities, seeing a country transform over decades through a full narrative arc is something you just don't see in games. Then having it all lead back to Kamurocho and exploring the origins of the Tojo Clan from the Yakuza / Like A Dragon series, I'm locked into what Stranger Than Heaven is setting up. However, in the leadup to its release, the caveats continue to stack.I spoke with Yokoyama about Stranger Than Heaven's story themes, historical context, and main character representing a unique ethnic experience (one that personally resonates with me). Of course, there's a level of withholding things for spoiler reasons, but I hope that it has more to say about a complex set of eras for Japan and world history in general. But it didn't give me much confidence when he spoke about the controversial use of Tupac Shakur's likeness for one of its characters, the famed rapper who died 30 years ago. RGG has had major fumbles in recent years, such as casting someone with multiple sexual assault allegations for Yakuza Kiwami 3, and I just don't know if I trust them to do the right thing and be thoughtful storytellers moving forward.The full picture of Stranger Than Heaven is becoming clearer, but it's one that I'll keep examining. Because for as much as I'm intrigued by what it's doing, it comes with baggage it needs to sort through. We'll see for ourselves when Stranger Than Heaven releases on January 15, 2027 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.