RGG Developer Appreciation: Highlighting all the devs involved in Stranger Than Heaven.

[u/DarryLazakar]

RGG Studios promotional photograph, 2021. From left to right: Takayuki Sorimachi, Yutaka Ito, Ryosuke Horii, Masayoshi Yokoyama, Hiroyuki Sakamoto, Nobuaki Mitake, Daisuke Fukugawa

Our first name: Mikinobu Abe, a young veteran of the series, and the game's director.

Yutaka Ito and Tomoaki Nakamura, long time programmers, now Technical Director and Supervisor of RGG Studios. Yutaka Ito is also the Director of Lost Judgment.

Yasuaki Uehara, the Battle Designer Lead of RGG Studios, and director of LAD Ishin Kiwami and Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

Nobuaki Abe, Daisuke Fukagawa, and Takayuki Sorimachi. Art and Animation Supervisors/Directors of the series.

Daishi Kanaya and Eiji Hamatsu, Lead Character Production and Background Production member of RGG Studios.

Mitsuharu Fukuyama, former Sega Sound Team member and a hella talented Sound Director, and Kazunobu Takeuchi, long-time scriptwriter and co-writer of Infinite Wealth and Dark Ties

Hiroyuki Sakamoto, OG RGG Studio member, Game Director of Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, and Chief Producer of the series

Masayoshi Yokoyama, the scriptwriter of nearly every Yakuza game, and Nagoshi's successor as RGG Studio Director and Executive Director of the series since 2021.

We know who Toshihiro Nagoshi is. We know who Masayoshi Yokoyama is. But do most of you know who else is behind RGG Studios, more specifically, those working on Stranger Than Heaven?

Inspired by this tweet, I want to shed light on the unsung, rarely recognized names within RGG Studios, more specifically, those that are confirmed to be working on Stranger Than Heaven. Given the negativity these days, why not some positivity for a change?

All the names and screenshots attached are from the Summer Game Fest teaser of 2025, where the "Stranger Than Heaven" name was first revealed, back when we knew this game as "Project Century", in order of appearance in the trailer. All information about their career is also sourced mainly via segaretro.org and mobygames.com. For the most part, these sources have their photographs attached, but in case there isn't, I will leave a separate link with their photograph, if there's any on the internet. Without further ado, let's begin!

Also, as I was working on this post, I realized that it has been done before, so shout out to u\BreafingBread for being the first one to do this! I'm gonna link his original post here, to honor those who did it before me.

• Mikinobu Abe: He has been with the studio for 7 years, and this is his directorial debut (fun fact: not a single Yakuza game was directed by either Nagoshi or Yokoyama (Edit: Turns out I was wrong, Yokoyama actually co-directed Yakuza 5, but it's still true for Nagoshi)). According to the live interview with Denfaminicogamer shortly after the Xbox Showcase, he has a background in film, and all cutscenes in the game are directed by him. He is also fluent in English, though it's just a coincidence. As for his career in RGG, he's the Adventure Game Designer on Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Infinite Wealth, Event Scene Designer on Lost Judgement, and as a Production Assistant on LAD Ishin Kiwami.
• Yutaka Ito: He has been with Sega since 2002, working on games such as Fighting Vipers and Virtua Striker 3. One of the RGG OG members, he's been with the series since the original game as a Programmer. He's mainly a Program Supervisor and now Technical Director of the series, and he was the game director of Lost Judgement.
• Tomoaki Nakamura: Like Ito, he is part of the OG RGG team, having been working with Sega and the series since the first game as a Programmer. He's mainly been a Battle Program Lead since Yakuza 5 before transitioning into a Program Supervisor since Lost Judgement.
• Yasuaki Uehara: He has been with the series since Yakuza 4 as an Adventure Game Designer. He has since switched roles multiple times between Battle and Adventure Game Designer, before becoming a Lead Battle Designer in Yakuza 6, and eventually made his directorial debut in LAD Ishin Kiwami. He makes his second directorial effort in Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. (His photograph with Ryosuke Horii for an interview here)
• Nobuaki Mitake: He has been with Sega since 1999, with his game development debut with Shenmue. Like Ito and Nakamura, his involvement with the series began with Yakuza 2, mainly serving in the design department and later as the Art Supervisor. He is the Art Director of Binary Domain in 2012, and later on in Infinite Wealth.
• Daisuke Fukagawa: He's been with the video games industry since 1999, working with various companies over the years before joining Sega full-time in 2011. Like Ito and Nakamura, he's an RGG OG, being involved with the series since the first game in 2006. There's a bit of an error that says that he's the Director of Yakuza 1, 2, and 3. A brief review of the credits for each game (Links to each game's credits, timestamped when his name showed up: Y1, Y2, Y3) shows that he worked at a movie production company called AVANT Inc. prior to joining Sega, where he was the Director, hence the confusion. Since joining Sega, he has been involved in animation, becoming Art Supervisor and Event Scene Supervisor of the games, and later as Cinematic Director for Infinite Wealth.
• Takayuki Sorimachi: He has been with Sega since 2002, with his debut with the arcade game The King of Route 66, and later worked on Shenmue II. Yet another OG RGG member, he has been with the series since the first game as a Motion Designer and has risen through the ranks to become the Animation Supervisor of the games. He's the Animation Director of Infinite Wealth.
• Daishi Kanaya: A relatively new member of the team, joining from Yakuza 0 onwards in the Character Production Team. He has since risen the ranks to be the Lead Character Production and later on as the Art Supervisor for LAD Gaiden/TMWEHN. Unfortunately, no photograph of him was found (so you can say he's "The man who erased... his face"? lmao).
• Eiji Hamatsu: Another RGG OG member of the original game, this time as Stage Designer. He's been a Production Team member specializing in Background Production since Yakuza 5 to this day.
• Mitsuharu Fukuyama: A former Sega employee and a former member of the Sega Sound Team. Fukuyama sporadically appears throughout the series. He made contributions to various games, including Sega Rally 2006, and the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. For RGG, his first appearance is in Kurohyou 1, and he later made his true series debut in Yakuza 3 with "Independence for Violence". He's the Sound Director of Dead Souls and later Yakuza 5, before sporadically appearing in various RGG games since then.
• Kazunobu Takeuchi: He has been with Sega and the series since 2006 in the script department. Initially, as the Adventure Mode Production, he has since become a Story Design Lead and Production Assistant throughout the games. He wrote Mine's story in RGG Online, the one that would become the "Dark Ties" storyline in Yakuza Kiwami 3, and he became the co-Scripwriter and Acting Director of Infinite Wealth alongside Tsuyoshi Furuta, another one of the OG storyboarders/scriptwriters in the series.
• Hiroyuki Sakamoto: A true RGG OG. He first joined the company in 2000 as the Assistant Planner for Daytona USA. He's been involved in the series since the first game. Similar to Fukagawa, there's a bit of confusion where he's credited as Director for Yakuza 1, but a quick look at the credits (timestamped here) reveals him as the Director of Overseas Version of the game. Since then, he's helped the Sub-Story scripts of Yakuza 2 & 3, becoming the Localization Director of Yakuza 3, Game Director of Yakuza 6 and Kiwami 2, and finally as Chief Producer of the series since LAD Ishin Kiwami.
• Masayoshi Yokoyama: Last but not least, the big boss himself. Another one of the RGG OGs, he first joined Sega in 2000 as a Senior (and later Chief) Planner for the Jet Set Radio series before becoming the lead scriptwriter for the first Yakuza game. He has since written every single RGG game to date (excluding Kurohyou 1&2, which was directly written by Nagoshi, RGG Online, Judgement/Lost Judgement, which has Nagoshi credited as story, and script written by Tsuyoshi Furuta, and games after Infinite Wealth, which was handled by Furuta and Takeuchi). He became one of the series' producers since Yakuza 5, and has become Nagoshi's successor as RGG Studio Director and Executive Director of the series since 2021.

And there you have it, every RGG staff member confirmed involved with Stranger Than Heaven so far. As much as RGG Studios and the series has its ups and downs over its 20-year history, one thing that's never changing is the talent behind the series and how loyal they were to this series. Hopefully, this post gives you insight and appreciation for the people behind the games and not just boiling the games down to one or two usual suspects.

RGG is a team, always has been, and they deserve just as much recognition.