Stranger Than Heaven, the next game from the Yakuza and Like a Dragon team at RGG Studio, will let players soften its demanding fights. The studio says the game includes difficulty settings and assist items that can be equipped from the very start.
The game arrives on 15 January 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Its combat is built around parrying, which means reading an enemy’s attack animation and picking the right direction to block, not mashing buttons as in the studio’s earlier brawlers.
Assist items you wear, and everyone can see
Producer Hiroyuki Sakamoto described the options in an interview with IGN at Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show this week. Some of the items raise health regeneration. Others are for players who cannot yet block: they let you win encounters with plain left and right punches.
Sakamoto said the team tuned difficulty balance and control response after watching players try demos at game shows. A long tutorial early on is also meant to help newcomers learn the system.
There is a joke attached. The assist items are worn as clothing, so anyone watching a stream will see you have them on. Sakamoto called them “handicap” items.
The studio has not published the full list of assist items or how each one works. The game’s Steam page is live for PC wishlists.
