Minigames and Side Content

1:23 Stranger Than Heaven's side content, as shown before launch, includes arm wrestling, dice and card games in 1915 Kokura, beigoma spinning tops, menko cards, mahjong, a shooting gallery and five-finger fillet, a betting fight arena and a masked serial killer in 1929 Kure, and side quests, street fights, shops and restaurants in every city. Makoto Daito also rolls his own cigarettes for boosts, has a home base, and can take photographs. The biggest side activity is Showbiz, which has its own page. Each of the five eras adds new activities, so this list will grow at launch on Jan 15, 2027; everything here comes from SEGA and from previews of pre-release builds. The clip is SEGA's Kokura In-Depth Look: the knife game, arm wrestling and menko.

Quick facts

Sources: Xbox Wire, May 6, 2026; IGN, Oct 21, 2026; PCGamesN, Oct 21, 2026; Game Informer, Oct 21, 2026.

Minigames by era

The October build covered the prologue, Kokura, Kure and Osaka, so IGN's games come from those eras; it did not say which city holds each. Nothing has been shown yet from Atami 1951 or Shinjuku 1965.

Beigoma and menko

0:47 Two of the games are period toys. Beigoma are small iron spinning tops; in the game they come in different weights and spin, launched with a power and accuracy meter, IGN reported. Menko are thick cards slammed down to flip an opponent's cards. Both were schoolyard games in prewar and postwar Japan. The clip is SEGA's Kure In-Depth Look.

The fight arena in Kure

5:58 Kure 1929 has an underground fighting arena. Makoto bets on himself against tougher and tougher opponents, then can rematch defeated fighters under handicaps, such as a time limit or no weapons, for more money, PCGamesN and Game Informer reported from the October build. It uses the same combat as the streets. In the clip IGN's Michael Higham describes the fight club in the October 2026 build.

The masked killer

A masked serial killer roams Kure as a tough optional fight, Game Informer's Brian Shea found. Who the killer is and what beating the killer gives has not been revealed.

Cigarette rolling

2:23 Orpheus teaches Makoto to roll cigarettes, a small crafting system whose cigarettes give temporary stat boosts. A Steam achievement list that leaked in September 2026, which SEGA has not confirmed, included one for smoking 20 or more of your own hand-rolled cigarettes, Rock Paper Shotgun reported.

Side quests, shops and street life

4:18 Each city has side quests, random thug encounters, merchants, restaurants and items, and each era adds new activities, Game Rant's Josh Cotts wrote on Oct 21, 2026; in one era almost every building could be entered. Performers for Showbiz are found through rumors in the same streets. How many side stories the game has is not known as of Nov 3, 2026.

Home base and photography

1:46 Makoto has a home base, where the Deluxe Edition record player plays music from each era. The game has a photography feature: the Deluxe electronic camera expands the photography functionality, SEGA wrote on Jun 17, 2026. What the base holds beyond that, and whether it moves with each era, has not been shown. The clip is SEGA's Kokura In-Depth Look on the old-fashioned camera.

What is missing compared with Like a Dragon?

Masayoshi Yokoyama has said Stranger Than Heaven has no cabaret club and no karaoke, two staples of the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) games; Showbiz takes their place. Whether old favorites such as the arcades, bowling or pocket circuit racing appear has not been said. Whether earlier cities can be revisited is also open: Yokoyama calls each era a "stage," as PC Gamer noted.

Frequently asked questions

Is there mahjong in Stranger Than Heaven? Yes. Mahjong was among the minigames IGN played in Stranger Than Heaven's October 2026 preview build.

What minigames are in Stranger Than Heaven? Stranger Than Heaven's minigames shown before launch are arm wrestling, dice, cards, beigoma, menko, mahjong, a shooting gallery, five-finger fillet and a fight arena in Kure. More may be revealed for the 1951 and 1965 eras.

Does Stranger Than Heaven have side quests? Yes. Stranger Than Heaven has side quests in each city, along with random street fights, shops and restaurants, according to Game Rant's Oct 21, 2026 preview.

Does Stranger Than Heaven have karaoke? No. Masayoshi Yokoyama said Stranger Than Heaven has no karaoke and no cabaret club; the Showbiz system replaces them.

Can you go back to earlier eras in Stranger Than Heaven? No, by the developers' account: at Gamescom 2026 the Stranger Than Heaven team told IGN you cannot "time slip" back to past eras and cities, since the story follows Makoto's life forward from 1915 to 1965.

Is there a photo mode in Stranger Than Heaven? Stranger Than Heaven has a photography feature, which the Deluxe Edition's electronic camera expands. Its details have not been shown.

Sources

• Experience More with the STRANGER THAN HEAVEN Deluxe Edition, SEGA (Steam), Jun 17, 2026
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN store page, SEGA, as of Nov 3, 2026
• Xbox Presents: A Special Look at Stranger Than Heaven, Everything We Learned, Xbox Wire (Danielle Partis), May 6, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven sure looks like a Yakuza series prequel, PC Gamer (Morgan Park), May 6, 2026
• Steam achievements for Persona 6, Fable, Stranger Than Heaven and a host of other upcoming PC games appear to have leaked, Rock Paper Shotgun (Mark Warren), Sep 9, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven developers talk about breaking away from action game conventions, AUTOMATON (Sayoko Narita), Sep 29, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven: The Final Preview, IGN (Michael Higham), Oct 21, 2026
• One Man's Story Of Biculturalism, Music, Fitting In, And Fighting Told Over 50 Years, Game Informer (Brian Shea), Oct 21, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven oozes even more style than the Yakuza series, PCGamesN (Tom Hopkins), Oct 21, 2026
• Stranger Than Heaven Hands-On Preview, Game Rant (Josh Cotts), Oct 21, 2026
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | 1915 Kokura, Fukuoka - In-Depth Look, SEGA, Sep 28, 2026 (video)
• STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | 1929 Kure, Hiroshima In-Depth Look, SEGA, Sep 30, 2026 (video)
• Stranger Than Heaven Finally Won Me Over | Extended Hands-On Preview, IGN, Oct 21, 2026 (video)
• Stranger Than Heaven: 50 Years of Japan in One Game - Hands-On Preview, GameRant, Oct 21, 2026 (video)