How Being An Outsider Fueled Stranger Than Heaven's Director and Actor to Craft Its Story

A story about a half-Japanese man struggling to find his place in the world – I feel particularly suited for covering RGG Studio's upcoming narrative-driven action game Stranger Than Heaven. After playing a new three-hour demo, I had a conversation with the director Mikinobu Abe and lead actor Yu Shirota, who plays the protagonist Makoto Daito, and was able to connect with them on what it meant to create a story about growing up and growing old as an outsider within your own culture.

Abe himself lived abroad and had to learn Japanese when coming back, and Shirota is of mixed heritage, which played a significant role in his career trajectory in acting and music. All of this informed Stranger Than Heaven, alongside the idea that music can break barriers, and that manifests as one of RGG Studio's most intricate in-game side activities yet. And while there are some curious decisions about casting for its characters (see, the digital resurrection of Tupac), having the J-pop idol Ado act and sing for this game is fascinating on its own – I got to the bottom of how that collaboration came together.

Below is our full conversation about all that and more, which has been edited for clarity and readability. For more on the gameplay experience, be sure to read my Stranger Than Heaven extended hands-on preview or watch the video version below.

IGN: The thing that stood out to me most was the theme of music being a core part of gameplay, story, and characters. Walk me through how the idea came to fruition as a consistent theme throughout Stranger Than Heaven. 


Mikinobu Abe: We were writing the narrative for this game and thinking of how we should portray Makoto – his life starts at escaping from America and coming to Japan thinking it was heaven, and then it wasn't. And for him, he doesn't have a way to communicate with people because they instantly hate him based on his looks, language, and culture. He realizes that music could be the only thing where he can get treated fairly. Like, good music is good music, no matter what background you come from. And so, how could we realize that?
We thought that could be an essential part of Makoto's life, finding something that he can fight fairly in.

That's the starting point, then after that it became related to the Showbiz mechanics where a musical component could be a part of his survival strategy in this harsh environment. 
And so yeah, that's basically the start of everything. Once we knew we wanted to tell that story, we had Shirota-san with a background in music, and with his background being half-Spanish and half-Japanese, I think those things really clicked together for telling this narrative. The music component is purely of the narrative we wanted to tell.

Yu Shirota: When Mr. [Masayoshi] Yokoyama came to me and told me about this game, he, of course, mentioned the musical part, so I was really interested to listen to his idea. And I thought, that's really interesting with music being a core of the game, and as [Abe-san] said, I have been singing my whole life, more than 25 years. Musicals, singing, and composing. 
So, I thought that's a perfect role for me. And Mr. Yokoyama also thought that it was the perfect role for me, being half-Spanish and Japanese, feeling like an outsider or a foreigner. But also having hope through music. This role is really, really interesting and also I thought this is the one for me.

IGN: On the topic of music, RGG have had Takaya Kuroda singing karaoke songs in the Yakuza games. So, this feels like a larger extension of that because also the minigames you have here with the band setup and management side activity. Take me through the creation of the Showbiz minigame and why it was important to evolve what we've seen in previous RGG games.

Abe: We never thought of this as a sort of extension of what we have created in the studio's past. Karaoke is karaoke and our minigames in general, including Showbiz, are there to depict the era and the city that we want to depict in each game. So, for the Yakuza and Like A Dragon series, the core concept was to make the player feel like they're in this modern city. For example, when I'm in the 2000s in real-life Tokyo, it has so much variety in what to do within that city. And, of course, karaoke is one of them, right? 
So all the minigames are based on activities you can do in Tokyo.

That being said, everything's reset in Stranger Than Heaven. We were thinking of resetting it to the point where, okay, we're telling a story in 1915 Kokura then 1929 Kure – what could be something that Makoto can continuously do as a way of survival, but also in a game? What could be something that a player can stick around and do throughout because he'll be like 50 years old. And then Showbiz was one of the core concepts we came up with. It came up when we had this idea of depicting the start of the Yakuza organization. And partially, it's not historically accurate in the game, but the Japanese music industry had some history not just with music, but also with show business in general, and had a few connections. Historically speaking, that's something we can get inspiration from and then make it into the game. It's something Makoto can do within his 50 years of life. So that's how it all began.

And the theme is music being the only way Makoto can basically make a living for himself. When that clicked together, it became this Showbiz mechanic that's in the game now. To add to that, when we were creating this, we started by thinking, what does a promoter do? Because it's not like you're the singer. If you're the singer, we could just make it into a rhythm game. We did have a moment thinking maybe it's a rhythm game? It didn't come up as wanting Makoto to be a promoter, so we started researching what promoters used to do. We'd read hundreds of books figuring out what they used to do. We found out that basically he does everything, from promotion to casting to booking the venue and everything. 
We thought putting that in the game would be cool, and that's just how it all became the minigame.

IGN: In the minigame, you are the producer of the show, you call when the lights go on and when the smoke and effects happen. I thought that was a cool way to turn it into a little bit of a rhythm game in that sense. [To Yu Shirota] Do you sing in this game? And what was that like?

Shirota: Yes! And that was a lot of fun. There's a scene where I'm following Orpheus, who's Snoop Dogg's character. He teaches [Makoto] how to rap and sing. I actually had a scene where I had to be like Orpheus and that was really hard! But that was a really good experience, trying to rap like Snoop Dogg. 
Like, here's an American guy who's my friend teaching me, and I don't know how much time I spent recording the scene, but it was really hard and also really fun. And there's more with some scenes of singing like it's a musical and I can't wait to watch it because I haven't seen them yet. I haven't seen it come together, but I put every skill that I have into them.

IGN: That must be crazy since it plays into a lot of things you've done with theater, acting, singing, and that seems really cool, man. And then the reason why Stranger That Heaven is hitting a note with me is because this character is mixed; he's half-Japanese, half-American. And that's something that relates to you, too. For me being half-Filipino, half-American, it's kind of like that identity crisis we go through. When I saw what this game was about, I was thinking, they're making a game about us! To you, why was that an important story to tell?

Abe: For the starting point, while we were making the Yakuza or Like A Dragon series, we were always curious as to who would create such an organization like the yakuza, and also why? That was always back in our heads. We were starting off by thinking, let's just create a game where a man just starts the organization. But we felt like that's a little bit… not boring, but it's just normal. Then we thought, how can we turn this into a narrative that really resonates with people? And then we came up with this idea of having a main character being of mixed heritage of some kind, and that's how we came to a Japanese and American character.

I used to live abroad as well, so I kind of knew the experience. I mean, I wasn't treated like I was of half heritage, but I knew the feeling of coming back to Japan, and I couldn't speak Japanese at the time. Once this concept [for the game] came to life, I was excited at the idea as well. We feel like this theme can really resonate with people, and it also resonates with the development team, including myself, for telling this narrative of Makoto's 50-year journey. It was something really important to us.

IGN: Playing this kind of character, what does that mean to you? How did that feel?

Shirota: When I started my career, it was really hard, especially in Japan. What a producer and director told me was, 'It's tough to find someone like you, but we can't hire you as this character because you're not normal.' That was the most heartbreaking moment for me and I was crying going back to my place! Thinking about that and now in this generation, I think people of half-heritage or someone who has few different cultures, there are so many people like you and me. Not even just nationality, but also sexuality, everything. I think now is good timing and a moment to be like, just be you. Makoto Daito, I think he's going to give people courage or some energy to live in this world, and the message that you don't have to prove anything, and you can just be you.

For me, even though I'm half Spanish, but in a role, I usually play a role where I have a Japanese name every time in Japan. When I do some musicals, it's usually from overseas, especially from America, but in Japan, when I do a movie or TV show, I always have a Japanese name and play a Japanese guy. And even in this game, I'm Makoto Daito, a Japanese name but he's half-American, half-Japanese, and that was really comfortable for me. Because, yeah, that's me. 
And I hope from now on, I can play these kinds of roles. I'm really glad and happy to have this role in this game and it's one where I could act within this role, for sure.

IGN: This is also a star-studded cast, too. Not just Snoop Dogg, but also Tori Kelly who is well-known. And for me, I'm a huge fan of Ado. She's amazing and one of my favorite singers. Can you tell me what it was like to get her on board for Stranger Than Heaven?

Shirota: That's a secret!

IGN: I know! But I gotta know!

Abe: Getting her on board, hmm. She was really happy to join for the part. We explained the story and we asked her to participate with the role, and there was no challenge there. I mean, no challenge if you ask me, but she really was happy with the role. But one of the harder parts of portraying her as a character was how we should visualize this character who is going to be portrayed by you, Ado?
Of course, we don't know her face. So, we worked really closely with her and her agency to nail the character model. We based it off of a face model, one that's obviously not her, and while we were doing all the concept art and 3D models for the character, we really, really worked close with her on how she wanted to look in the game. That was a process that was really fun and it really required our creativity on how we can represent someone who we don't know or her face, yet we've got to make it into a photorealistic character for her. That was fun and challenging while we were developing the game.

IGN: With a lot of names and actors, I'm sure you were excited to work with some of them. What was that like? Did you pick up on anything, work directly with them, or have conversations with them?

Shirota: Unfortunately, I was always alone in a booth so we couldn't do any collaboration when we recorded it. But I saw Dean [Fujioka] and Yu Shinjo and we talked about this game, and I was like, finally I could see them! Because every time when we were recording, I was imagining Snoop Dogg or what it would be like if we were talking to Ado, and I don't know her actual face

Abe: And it was her first time acting, so we didn't know how she would act in a game way, right?

Shirota: So, I really needed some imagination to play this role.

IGN: I can imagine it's very different from being on stage or being on a set, right?

Shirota: Yeah, totally different.

IGN: When you put out the clip of Ado's character talking in a cutscene for the first time, the whole fandom was like, holy s**t?? 


Shirota: Like, oh, is that her?! I mean, I believe that's her!

Abe: She did an amazing job with acting as Keiko, the character. There are so many good clips that I just really want to share and I can't wait for people to see that in the game. 


Shirota: It's really hard to describe, but after listening to her acting voice, I really think that it sounds very Japanese from the Showa era, like a lady from the Showa era in a very classic sounding way.


Abe: Oh my god, this is going to be so hard to explain! There is this certain way of acting that we had back in the era of Showa that actresses used to do. And it really sounds like that style of acting, which really gives this sense of nostalgia to each scene.

Shirota: Even in America or the Philippines, you know, people change the way they speak, right? So I could feel something in her acting that is from Showa, like 40 or 50 years ago.

IGN: You previously mentioned how much research you did for creating these places for the game. I know you said they're not 100% historically accurate and you had creative freedom to create places that do exist, but your own version for the game. And I know this game isn't necessarily about the history of Japan through the 20th century, but I do think it's a very important context for Makoto Daito and his trajectory. What can you tell me about the ways in which you have incorporated the historical element and how things changed in Japan? How is that reflected in Stranger Than Heaven?

Abe: At the end of the day, what was important for us was how we can depict this specific narrative for the game. That was the most important part for deciding the cities and locations in the first place. After doing all the research, we found out so many things that we didn't even know about Japan, and so we took a lot of inspiration from those elements and tried to make sure that we depicted them in the right way. It's been fun and it doesn't have to be entirely accurate, but as long as it's fun as a game or entertaining when we were going through approvals.

You know, I'm sure in 1915, Kokura wasn't like that back then. I'm sure of it. But what was important to us is that the player can feel like this might be realistic for what it could have been like back then. So, not just the research about historical events or what things they were using at the time, but research on the art styles people were using; like, the vintage lens that a photographer used to use back then. We did a lot of research on that kind of stuff and the creators back in those days who we don't even know the names of, yet they left these amazing black and white photos from those days. We did a lot of research on where their inspirations came from so we could depict their creativity in the game, then make players feel like this era and this city actually exists. Especially when doing research on vintage lenses and the film they used, that really helped us shape the world, do color grading for the game, and the cinematography for the cutscenes.

Also, our art director Daishi Kanaya has a background in oil painting. He did a lot of research on what type of painting they used back then and we got inspired by that. Like, if we went back in time, how would we depict those ideas? So, we were trying to reflect that kind of art in the imagination of 2026, but using the equipment that they were using then while trying out different color palettes to fit each era. Everything was to make places believable with some creative freedom and to make the player feel like they are in a specific era in an instant. I think creating vibes out of our research really helped us shape what we have in the game now.

Shirota: The 50 years that span in Stranger Than Heaven, and what's contained within those 50 years?
It's not just the time that passes, but also the characters and the relationships between them. Also, you can see them change along with the cities over time. And, like, how entertainment is depicted from the older days where you don't have communication over distances or TVs, and people keep making more direct efforts instead of seeing entertainment from farther away. You could sort of see the start of Japanese entertainment and then see it evolve over that time. Also, you can see Makoto Daito growing as a person, and I feel that those puzzle pieces really fit together to create something beautiful. So that is something I would really like players to experience and appreciate when they do play the game.