Sega began streaming an in-depth “showbiz” video for Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s Stranger Than Heaven game (previously codenamed “Project Century”) on Friday. The video provides a detailed overview of finding musical inspiration, creating songs, and promoting shows in the game.

The game will launch on January 15 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. The game will also be available via Game Pass.

The game will explore different times and places in Japan’s modern history, including Kokura, Fukuoka in 1915; Kure, Hiroshima in 1929; Minami, Osaka in 1943; Atami, Shizuoka in 1951; and the fictional neighborhood of Kamurocho (based on the Kabukicho neighborhood, and a constant setting of RGG Studio’s Yakuza/Like a Dragon games) in Shinjuku, Tokyo in 1965.

Sega describes the game’s story:

A 50-year saga of those with nowhere to go and their desperate struggle to find a home. In 1915 San Francisco, a young boy, Makoto Daito, sneaks aboard a suspicious ship in the harbor under the cover of night. Born to an American father and a Japanese mother, Makoto faces harsh persecution due to his Asian heritage. 

After losing both of his parents, Makoto decides to travel to his mother’s homeland, Japan, where a fateful encounter awaits. With nothing but the shirt on his back, Makoto soon learns, however, that his voyage across the Pacific is anything but a “free ride,” and that this one choice will forever change the course of his life.

The cast includes:

• Yū Shirota as Makoto Daito
• Snoop Dogg as Orpheus
• Moeka Hoshi as Tae Matsumoto
• Tori Kelly as Suzy Day
• Akio Ōtsuka as Heigo Yashima
• Tokuma Nishioka as Kiyoshi Otsuru
• Satoshi Fujihara as Takashi
• Cordell Broadus as The Veiled Stranger
• Ado as Keiko Shirai
• Bunta Sugawara (model basis) and Takashi Ukaji (voice) as Genzo Iwaki
• Late American rapper Tupac
• Takaya Kuroda (who plays Kazuma Kiryu in Ryu ga Gotoku’s related Yakuza/Like a Dragon series)
• Kouhei Tsuji
• Yasukaze Motomiya (who plays Kosei Shishido in the Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name game and Kazuma Kiryu in Nihon Tohitsu’s live-action Like a Dragon Powered By Nihon Touitsu series)

Sega provided the following comment regarding the character Genzo Iwaki and the model for the character being based on the late actor Bunta Sugawara:

In STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, the late and legendary actor Bunta Sugawara appears. SEGA received formal consent from his family, and, with materials provided by Toei Company Ltd.—which produced many of Mr. Sugawara’s films, including the Battles Without Honor and Humanity— RGG Studio crafted his CG character design based on archival footage and photographs from the time.

Snoop Dogg, Satoshi Fujihara, Ado, and Tori Kelly perform the game’s theme song “Stranger Than Heaven.” The song will get a release this year.

The game is inspiring a live-action film on Netflix.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s remake of the Yakuza 3 game along with the new standalone Dark Ties title, launched as a single release for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam worldwide on February 12.

Source: Email correspondence, Sega‘s YouTube channel

This year’s 19th issue of Shogakukan‘s Big Comic magazine announced on Friday that Tetsuya Chiba‘s Hinemosu Notari Nikki manga will go on hiatus due to Chiba’s poor health. The magazine’s editorial staff stated that Chiba is eager to resume the manga’s serialization as soon as possible, but the editorial department will prioritize Chiba’s health and recovery.

In a separate statement by Chiba, he stated that the severe summer heat might be the cause of him feeling under the weather. Chiba added that he will focus on recovering to get back to drawing manga again. He apologizes for the worry he has caused, and asks for the readers’ patience as he takes some time to recover.

Chiba launched the autobiographical short essay manga in Big Comic in December 2015. Shogakukan published the manga’s first compiled book volume in 2018, and the seventh volume in November 2025. The manga previously went on hiatus in August 2024, and resumed serialization in December that same year.

Chiba debuted as a manga creator in 1956. He is perhaps best known for his Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow’s Joe) boxing manga, which ran from 1968 to 1973, and has remained a mainstay in Japanese popular culture for decades. The manga inspired two television anime in 1970 and 1980, as well as two anime films in 1980 and 1981. The manga’s story was re-imagined in a new sci-fi setting with new characters in 2018’s Megalobox anime, which credits the original manga as its origin. The sequel series for Megalobox, Megalobox 2: Nomad, premiered in April 2021.

Ashita no Joe received its first official English release under the title Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow in December 2024.

Chiba was nominated to the Japan Art Academy in 2022 as one of its first two manga creators (along with Yoshiharu Tsuge). He is also currently the chair of the Japan Cartoonists Association.

Chiba was honored with the prestigious Order of Culture award in 2024, and is the first manga creator to have received the honor. The order is awarded to those “who have made outstanding contributions in developing” Japanese culture.

Chiba is 87, and had heart surgery to put a stint in his coronary artery in January 2022. Chiba noted in a blog post in 2024 that he also had eye surgery.

In November 2021, Chiba had revealed that he admitted himself to a hospital in Tokyo after he started feeling unwell after summer ended that year. He stated that he started having abnormalities one after another in his heart valve, coronary artery, and throat. He then started treatment for a tumor in his throat. 

Source: Big Comic issue 19