The hits of Summer Game Fest 2025 keep on coming! This time, we’re taking a look at a new trailer for Stranger Than Heaven — a rain-slick, jazz-heavy romp through 20th-century Japan as a hard-boiled detective.
Stranger Than Heaven is the next title from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (RGG), acclaimed creators of the Yakuza, Like a Dragon and Lost Judgment franchises.
The new Stranger Than Heaven trailer:
The trailer shown at the 2025 Summer Game Fest leans into the classic third-person action of Yakuza and Lost Judgment, rather than the turn-based direction of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. So those missing the good ol’ days of brawling in the streets as Kazuma Kiryu should get their bats and knives ready for this return to form. Our new hero (or anti-hero) is Mako Daito, a trenchcoat-wearing, hand-rolled-cigarette-smoking, grizzled detective working the mean streets of Japan.
The Yakuza and Like a Dragon games always dealt with mature themes like gangs and violence in Japan. However, looking at both trailers, Stranger Than Heaven looks to be turning that up a notch with almost anime-levels of blood in combat.
READ MORE: Review | Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (PS5)
The title was originally revealed at the 2024 Game Awards, then named Project Century, accompanied by a trailer set in 1915 Japan. The split eras across both trailers suggest we’ll likely see two timelines stretching from World War I to World War II, and how life and crime changes for people on Japanese soil across both wars.
The original Project Century trailer:
Wherever this adventure takes us, from the opening moments of a Japanese jazz lounge, I was one hundred per cent on board with this trip.
