RGG Studio put out a dedicated combat gameplay trailer for Stranger Than Heaven. The date for this one was already set. This clip exists to prove the fighting holds up, so watch it with that lens.
What the trailer shows
The footage jumps across three distinct eras and cities that make up the game's scope: Kokura and Fukuoka in 1915, Kure and Hiroshima in 1929, and Minami and Osaka in 1943. Each stretch shows protagonist Makoto Daito fighting differently depending on the period, brawling through crowded streets and back alleys with the brutal, physical style RGG built its reputation on.
The cities are not random backdrops. Kure was a major naval hub, Fukuoka and Kokura sat on the industrial edge of prewar Japan, and Osaka in 1943 puts Daito in the middle of a country deep into wartime strain. RGG is using real geography and real decades to mark how much Daito's world, and his fighting style, has to change to keep up with each one.
What the trailer does not tell you
This is a fifty-year saga, not a single story arc. RGG Studio is building Stranger Than Heaven around Daito's life across five decades, using extreme violence as a survival tool early on and musical talent as a public persona later. The three periods in this trailer are checkpoints in that longer arc, not the whole game.
The dual identity is the actual hook. Combat and stagecraft are being built as two sides of the same character rather than separate modes bolted together. A studio known for street-brawler combat is betting that watching Daito survive as a fighter and perform as a showman in the same lifetime is what makes the fifty-year structure worth the runtime, not just a gimmick to justify three settings.
The release date was not new information. January 15, 2027 was announced earlier at Summer Game Fest. This trailer's job was narrower: prove the combat systems are ready to carry a game spanning that much time and that many settings, not to reset expectations on when you can play it.