Stranger Than Heaven Combat Inspired by Raw Ninkyo Yakuza Films, Director Says

Abe said RGG Studios “really wanted to make sure that the player feels this atmosphere that it’s either you kill, or you get killed,” and that the team “took a lot of inspiration from the old Ninkyo movies.” Ninkyo is a classic subgenre of Japanese yakuza-themed films made in the 1970s and 1980s.

The director pointed to New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, starring Bunta Sugawara, who also plays a character in Stranger Than Heaven. Abe said the film’s unrefined action scenes were part of what made the genre distinctive. “While we were watching these movies, we noticed that what made those movies special was how raw and gritty the action scenes are in those movies,” he told TechRadar Gaming. “No one throws a cool-looking fist punch or anything; it’s just people rolling around and fighting. We felt that atmosphere was what made those genres special.”

That approach also shaped Daito. Abe said the character begins as an inexperienced fighter and becomes more comfortable in combat as the story progresses. “We took a lot of inspiration from that, and wanted to make sure that Daito is a character who starts out not being too good in a fight,” Abe said. “As he progresses, though, he gets more comfortable fighting people. Because of that, because the game is about one man’s life, we definitely wanted to depict how the main character is evolving, or I guess more like ageing, through the narrative. We wanted to make sure that the player can also feel that, while also feeling that tension of kill or be killed.”

Abe said it was “really, really important that the combat feels intuitive” to create a sense of synchronisation between the player and Daito and to let players “immerse themselves in controlling Makoto.” He added that the character’s improvement is intended to match the player’s growing skill. “As the player’s skill gets better, so does Daito as a character gets better,” he said. “So that was the whole concept of what we wanted to depict through this combat system.”

Stranger Than Heaven is scheduled for release on January 15, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.