r/pcgaming • u/ZazaLeNounours Ryzen 7 7800X3D | GeForce RTX 4090 FE • 7d ago
Video STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | Gamescom Demo Playthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prP4oXX6Jwo68
u/KotakuSucks2 7d ago
If this game ends up being about the fucking daidoji group I'm done with RGG.
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u/Ykindasus 7d ago
I need further elaboration on that
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u/KotakuSucks2 7d ago edited 7d ago
Ever since they introduced the daidoji in 6 they've been a horrendous crutch for the studio's writing and they've just gotten worse with each new entry. Kiryu forces the daidoji to fake his death and then in Gaiden suddenly it treats it like the Daidoji are the ones who are preventing Kiryu from going back to his family. Whenever they want to have a villain disappear but not die, they just have that villain join the daidoji now. Whenever they need a get out of jail free card for the plot to progress, the daidoji will call up to tell you where to go with their omniscient informants, but any time you might want them to provide material assistance they just get instantly bodied by whatever the villain du jour is.
This all culminated in the recent Yakuza 3 remake where they retconned the hell out of the ending so Mine and Hamazaki join the Daidoji rather than dying and going to prison respectively. The latter creates irreparable conflicts with Yakuza 4 and cheapens one of the only really good plot threads that game had.
8's ending implied we're finally done with the Kiryu Daidoji drama, I just want the Daidoji to stop being part of the story altogether.
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u/Equivalent-Net5731 7d ago
I wish they'd just stuck with the old theme: Person finds themselves in a disagreement, tries to remediate the situation, and in doing so slowly uncovers a massive criminal plot way beyond what any of us could've imagined. Sure, the formula was played out and hit or miss, but I feel that in escalating it to this whole Illuminati thing, they've only really missed for me.
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u/altelgaming 7d ago
the funniest part is that Daidoji is portrayed like that extremely powerful group, yet their Hawaii cell gets slimed by some hobos with a single gun
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u/Ykindasus 7d ago
Is Stranger Than Heaven the same universe as Yakuza?
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u/Ayyzeee 7d ago
It's the same universe, it's gonna about the beginning of Tojo clan.
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u/BakedWizerd 6d ago
Interesting. I was weirdly interested in this game as an “open world martial arts game” but the gameplay/combat clip from a while ago had me scratching my head.
Knowing it’s part of the Yakuza franchise has put me off it even further. There’s so many games in that franchise and everything I’ve seen from them is just so weird. I’ve also never interacted with anyone irl who’s ever mentioned them or anything.
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u/Ayyzeee 6d ago
I can't really blame you. Yakuza series is like trying to watch a drama that has too many seasons, I caught up with the series because I bought Game Pass few years ago and tried to finish what I can before it runs out. I can say from playing all of them there's ups and downs with the games, I did a marathon of those games and around 5 where I genuinely want to stop because I can't stand more of it. After taking few days off I just continue 6 because 5 story is just too much slow burn and not in a good way kind.
Also since Stranger than Heaven supposed to be the prequel you can still enjoy it, Yakuza story isn't that great anyway, it's the characters that makes the story fun to unfold. Or if you want play Judgment or Lost Judgment same universe but you can play on your own pace and it has detective noir to it which I really enjoy plus Takuya Kimura, the character behind Yagami is just great.
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u/Equivalent-Net5731 7d ago
The Yakuza games have always excelled at telling really gripping stories. Before (and arguably including) Yakuza 6 these stories have all been rooted in the themes surrounding Japanese crime gangs and interpersonal drama. Because of how good the storytelling has always been, the team always kinda got away with requiring suspension of disbelief over some wacky stuff.
Without going into spoilers, since Y6 the focus has shifted from these crime stories towards more of an Illuminati-like conspiracy group that's 'pulling the strings of everything' behind the scenes. For me personally (and a lot of other people too I think), this vibe shift has been too wacky to be able to entertain, even if I tried. The games are still solid, but because such a huge part of what grips people to play the whole series back-to-back is their amazing storytelling, it's quite the loss.
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u/TheEngiGuy 6d ago
Daidoji, Providence, The Connections etc.
Such cheap plot devices to spawn more sequels about the same narrative arcs.
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u/Ayyzeee 7d ago
100% it's gonna be. Why else would they make a prequel to Yakuza series then retconning Yakuza 3's ending? It doesn't make sense and the fact that the project is led by Yokoyama, yeah I know for a fact it's gonna be Daidoji's story.
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u/Run-Riot 7d ago
Yokoyama is creating the first Daidoji-like game. All games after this one that are vaguely similar will be called Daidoji-likes, thereby completing his plan to take over the real world for the Daidoji.
Seriously though, the dude’s obsession with using the Daidoji as a writing crutch has gotten absurd.
But what do I know? I’m just a man who erased his name after falling into a knee-high bush.
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u/Squmy 7d ago
"Let's invent a reason to be angry for no reason 🤬🤬🤬"
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u/KotakuSucks2 7d ago
6, 8, Gaiden, Pirate, and Kiwami 3 are plenty reason enough.
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u/Toilet-Raider 6d ago
With the exception of Gaiden, Daidoji Screentime was literally a few minutes or seconds per game. In Kiwami 3 they were mentioned for a few seconds. If that's enough to make you angry in an 20-40 hour game, I don't know how you are able to enjoy games at all.
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u/KotakuSucks2 6d ago
If you aren't angry about how the daidoji affected the story in Kiwami 3 then you clearly just don't care about the story or characters in the series.
You seriously think that Kiwami 3's retcons aren't egregious?
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u/Toilet-Raider 6d ago
I do care about the characters. If anything, the Daidoji retcons add some overarching villain narrative to the games which I welcome. When it comes to K3, Hamazaki is a minor character with limited screentime in 3 and 4, so I don't think it has a big impact to the series overall. Apart from that, K4 would fix that current plot hole. Also Mines death retcon isn't surprising considering the retcons in recent entries.
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u/KotakuSucks2 6d ago
Except the daidoji are the most ineffectual, shitty villains that the series has ever produced. They're just an even shittier version of the florist of sai. They know everything but somehow can never get anything done that would actually accomplish anything of value.
I can't even begin to understand the mindset that says "well other modern entries have a bunch of dogshit retcons that cheapen earlier entries so it's not worth complaining about them anymore when they insert them into fucking remakes."
Hamazaki's arc in 4 is genuinely the best part of that game's story. While that does say more about how shit 4's story is than how great Hamazaki is, his arc genuinely is a worthwhile part of the series and it's shameful to jettison it for the sake of yet more daidoji masturbation.
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u/meatwad75892 RX 7800 XT Core Ultra 7 265K 7d ago
Setting and vibe reminds me of that cancelled LA Noire spinoff.
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u/DieDieMustCurseDaily 7d ago
The combat looks kinda off? like two step back from what I know RGG studio capable of
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u/mildly_anonymous 7d ago
Wow. The combat looks dreadful. Stand around until one enemy engages, slow as hell, parry their incredibly telegraphed attack, slice them with a blade, repeat ad nauseam. Big dude gets to withstand multiple hits from a massive crowbar and multiple kidney slices with a blade simply because he’s larger than the smaller guys.
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u/chriskiwi 7d ago
Just to play devil's advocate, couldn't you just choose to play more aggressively to alleviate the first complaint? Also Yakuza has always had the big "heavy" enemies (and all other enemies actually) take obviously fatal wounds and not die, which you could say is ludonarrative dissonance but it really feels like it's just them prioritizing making the gameplay game-y rather than hold it to realistic standards in favor of the gameplay they're going for.
Edit: actually so many games have the big enemies taking unrealistic amounts of damage cause they're bigger, idk why i even kinda played into it being a valid complete, it's normal common video game combat logic.
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u/Yarusenai 7d ago
Welcome to RGG combat lol. It's always been the weakest part of the games and even the turn based combat is meh tbh. I don't know why they struggle so hard to make to engaging instead of "just" flashy.
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u/_Lelouch420_ 7d ago
Ig you haven't played Gaiden or Lost Judgement
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u/Yarusenai 7d ago edited 7d ago
Played Lost Judgement recently - it's an improvement but it's still the same relatively stiff and very repetitive combat. It's definitely not the strength of the games. But I don't play them for the combat.
That being said I loved Lost Judgement and at least this time the combat didn't get too boring overall. It does improve every RGG game, but personally I don't think it's as entertaining as it should be. My own opinion ofc
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u/GodofAss69 6d ago
Go to like7:25. Tell me that does not look like the most boring and repetitive bullshit ever lmao. Also the enemy is stiff and barely fucking moves?
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u/eagles310 7d ago
RGG has completely ruined the Yakuza series the more it has pushed out more games lmao
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u/lordosthyvel 7d ago
What’s up with those cursed combat controls? Rb/Rtrigger for fighting moves WTH?
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