After a few hours with Yakuza’s Stranger Than Heaven, I’m sold, but I suspect it’ll be a divisive game.

Who doesn’t love a big change, a bold new direction, especially when so many video game publishers seem increasingly determined to take the safer route? While Stranger Than Heaven might seem familiar at first glance – particularly if you’re a fan of Like a Dragon developer RGG’s other third-person action games – it differs where it counts. And in my opinion, it’s one of the most exciting games the studio has worked on in a while.

Stranger Than Heaven tells the story of Makoto Daito, a man of half-American and half-Japanese descent, as he attempts to establish himself in Japan. It’s a story that spans several decades as the country evolves – decades that you’ll experience first-hand as the story unfolds – blending a strong narrative with gripping hand-to-hand combat and touches of silliness too. Its Like a Dragon heritage is clear, but it also seems like so much more.

Three things in particular stand out after a few hours of play: Stranger than Heaven’s brilliant approach to combat, the gradual evolution of the setting over the years, and the surprisingly musical heart of the whole thing.

Now I think the fight will be divisive. Rather than replicating Like a Dragon’s faithful action, Stranger than Heaven assigns your left and right taps to your controller’s triggers and bumpers. Attacks are heavy and heavier than other RGG games, with the configuration change causing each hit to ripple through the gamepad.

There is also an emphasis on parrying and dodging, encouraging players to spot the direction of an incoming attack and respond with a manual defensive maneuver matching that direction. An enemy throwing a haymaker from the right can be deflected with a well-timed parry to the right, for example, and some goon slashing at you on the port side from off-screen? Dodging backwards allows you to sneak under the attack.

Stranger than Heaven is also one of the most explicitly violent action games produced by RGG, with the possible exception of the zombie-themed spin-off of Like A Dragon, Dead Souls or Like a Dragon: Ishin. Here, Daito slits throats, stabs, bludgeons, and slays people in regular fights. There’s also a takedown mechanic that, by pressing two triggers simultaneously, allows you to take out low-health enemies using particularly brutal finishers.

Although it took me a few minutes to get used to the control system, I quickly began to love it. Something about the more focused controls, combined with excellent animation work, made the fights feel fierce and taken straight from the best action films. It’s the kind of combat that has your body moving left and right alongside your character. At the same time, however, it’s different enough that it requires work to master, especially the crucial timing of the display, and I fear many will run into it like a wall rather than endure the climb to greater heights of pleasure. The game was at its best when I was vigorously throwing myself into brawls, and I worry that some might feel encouraged to approach fights in a purely reactive manner.

When you get into combat, throwing punches and grappling enemies on the ground, the game takes on an almost savage turn. Fights are often dirty, explosive fights. You get hit with a powerful punch, dodge the next punch and tackle them to the ground. Wait for them with a few punches, then finish them off with a gruesome head slam against the hard floor. When you get up, you’ll see other enemies backing away in fear. Jump into Stranger than Heaven and the fights reach bloody heights that will stay with you.

As for the setting of Stranger Than Heaven, it’s truly wonderful, taking you from the smoke-choked horizon of 1915 Kokura, to an animated Kure of 1929, an animated Minami of 1943, and beyond. Jumping between each era in turn (I encountered them in a linear fashion, and this seems to be the case in the full game), I was struck by the world-building. RGG has always been good at depicting the modern era and has also managed to recreate the past, but I was deeply impressed by what seems to be a particularly moving depiction of an ever-changing Japan.

As I walk the dark, dreary streets of Kure, observing the people in this booming town, the details are striking. The people of Kure sit down to eat and drink, roaming its dwellings and alcoves, chatting with others they meet. And the period adjacent to the 1930s is flourishing – the theater posters and the rumble of early automobiles hitting the streets – all wonderful.

If Kure got me thinking, it was Minami from the 1940s that kicked me in the ass. The way its entertainment district clashes with old wooden docks creates a brilliant contrast, as dilapidated houses sit beneath shiny new buildings, reflecting the wave of modernization sweeping across Japan. There’s something fascinating about the world changing, and so does your character. In Kokura, at the start of the game, Daito is a struggling dirty brawler looking to settle down in an often hostile country. In 1943, it is a reflection of the living world around it. I left wanting to see more.

And then of course, there is the music. Stranger Than Heaven’s main management minigame sees players directing a musical revue, with Daito choosing songs and stage accompaniments for performances across the decades. Just a few days ago, Sega released an Act One trailer in which he sings a little song for the people of Kokura, and it’s safe to say that music matters in Stranger than Heaven.

I only had time to put on one show during my lab, but I was able to choose different singers and musicians, as well as change the mood of each song. You can compose new variations of unlocked music, for example switching from an upbeat song to a dark one, which might be better suited to an upcoming show. How this will all play out I don’t know yet, but given the many wonderful evenings I’ve spent at karaoke in previous RGG games, I’m up for this more extravagant and elaborate twist. Snoop Dogg, I might add, didn’t perform a song in the game, although he did teach me how to roll cigarettes and the joys of mixing different herbs.

Stranger Than Heaven stuck in my teeth like taffy, and I still tasted its sweeter bits for a while after playing. All this as an appetizer: if the full game manages to maintain the level of quality that I saw throughout the game, then I think this younger generation of the RGG generation has a bright future ahead of them.