Revision 4

Alongside violence, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN is built around musical talent and showmanship. Makoto Daito rises as a performer and producer, and these systems form the game's second pillar.

Collecting Sounds

As Makoto moves through the world, he can capture ambient sounds, from sweeping brooms and passing trains to distant animal cries, someone snoring, and even the grunts and growls of the enemies he fights. These recordings vary with the time of day and the weather, and they are saved for later use.

Composing Music

Collected sounds can be taken to composers and musicians, who help turn them into raw material for original compositions. In this way the world itself becomes an instrument.

The composition system is explicitly a creation tool: players can freely mix and play the game's audio assets, and the tracks that come out of it count as user-generated material under the publisher's terms of use, which keep the rights in the underlying assets with the publisher.

Running the Show

Makoto takes on the role of a showman and producer. Players gather word on the street to scout and recruit talented performers, arrange band lineups, design setlists, manage lighting and staging, promote shows, and earn revenue. Makoto can set up and run a venue, choosing the band for each night, with Yu Shinjo as his partner in the venture.

Building a Production

A show is assembled from parts. Performers are scouted and hired, the band is arranged, the setlist is chosen, a cast is assigned, and the production itself, down to lighting colour and staging, is designed before the curtain goes up. Extra performers and extra stage-production items are also sold as bonus content, in sets of four and three respectively. Touring the country with these shows is how Makoto's rise from street orphan to master showman is played out.

An in-game promotional poster and an electronic camera that widens the photography options are also sold as bonus content, and a record player for the hideout plays music drawn from each era.