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Stranger Than Heaven is set to be the most ambitious game that RGG Studio has made in a long time.
This is mostly down to the fact that its story spans a whopping 50 years, following main character Makoto Daito's steady rise to infamy. Structurally, the title's set across five different and distinct time periods.
These time periods each come with their own explorable cities, too, so this kind of scale is unlike anything we've seen from the developer since the colossal Yakuza 5.
It's perhaps no huge surprise, then, to learn that Stranger Than Heaven was originally conceived as a trilogy, instead of just a single game.
In an interview with Japanese outlet 4Gamer, director Masayoshi Yokoyama spills the beans, revealing that a 50-year story was initially deemed "too daunting" for potential players.
The plan, then, was to split the adventure up into three different instalments — consisting of an introductory title followed by two direct sequels.
However, as development began in earnest, the team changed direction, having concluded that the overarching experience would be damaged by making players wait "about a year between releases".
It's fair to assume, then, that Stranger Than Heaven's narrative has been condensed to some degree, so that it can all be squeezed into a single outing. But Yokoyama suggests that this is still a long game.
"Regarding the overall volume, we're not yet at a stage where we can give you an exact scale, but it's going to be quite substantial," he comments.
"The main story, in particular, is long. It's not that we intentionally made it long; it just naturally became long as we included everything we felt we needed to depict."
My immediate take is that I'd rather just have one game tackle Daito's story. Keeping up with three games over the course of about three years or so, in terms of production time, does sound doable, but perhaps a bit awkward — especially if that first chapter doesn't hit as hard as it should.
If Stranger Than Heaven can keep us hooked throughout the whole thing, then we'll know Yokoyama and his team made the right choice.
What do you make of this? Would you have been intrigued by a trilogy, or do you prefer seeing out Daito's journey in one big instalment? Watch the years fly by in the comments section below.