Stranger Than Heaven Controls

Right bumper: right arm. Right trigger: right leg. Left bumper: left arm. Left trigger: left leg. Hold any of those to charge, release to dump a heavier hit. LT and RT together: tackle. Both triggers when an enemy is already on the floor: mount and pound. One side can block while the other strikes. That is the whole official gospel, restated in IGN’s combat overview, GameSpot’s chaptered recap, Shacknews’ hands-on, and SEGA’s own stream. The cheatsheet tool reprints it as a visual.

Face buttons, sticks, and menu holds have not been given a public bible. You will still move with a stick. You will still camera with a stick. You will still interact with a face button because this is a Dragon Engine action-adventure, not a rhythm game with no door-open. Do not invent a lock-on until review copies show one. Do not invent a Heat button. If a prompt appears for a context finisher, it will likely sit on a face button the way RGG always does. The sided violence is the new part; the rest is the house style.

Sit with a dead pad and narrate. “Left jab, right charge, left block, tackle.” Do it until your thumbs land before your mouth. Then watch the embed on the combat basics page and narrate that. Then watch a crowd clip on how to survive and narrate the grab-break. This is a musician’s metronome trick applied to a crime game, which is on-theme. Makoto is a showman. Your hands should be too.

Xbox and PlayStation layouts use the same bumper logic. Steam lists both families plus Steam Input API, so a weird pad can probably be beaten into this shape. The combat model is analog-trigger friendly because charge is a hold. Hair-trigger mouse binds will fight the design. If you are a keyboard loyalist, wait for a screenshot of the binding screen on the platforms page rather than assuming WASD plus clicks will feel like four limbs.

RGG has not shown a toggle that maps both arms to one button. They have not shown a color-blind limb highlighter. They have not shown a “classic brawler” fallback. Yokoyama’s comment that the combat will not be for everyone is a warning against expecting a comfort setting that deletes the premise. If those options appear, they will be listed here in a table, not a rumor. Until then, buy the game for the sided fight or wait for a patch diary.

Hands-on players mentioned a high-difficulty boss at the end of the three-arena demo. That implies a difficulty scalar exists in some form. It does not tell you the names in the menu. Use the hands-on impressions for the human texture — lag, hit-stop, the way enemies sometimes watch instead of swarm — and come back to this page for the buttons. Texture without buttons is a vibe piece. Buttons without texture are a PDF. You need both, plus the weapon list so you know what the right bumper is holding.

Show production, sound collecting, and scouting will sit on interact and UI, not on the combat bumpers. That split is healthy. You should not record a broom with the same hold that charges a kick. If launch controls mash those verbs together, we will flag it as a problem. For now, assume exploration uses the usual RGG interact key and combat uses the four triggers. The show guide covers the non-violent binds as verbs rather than keys.

Preorder Kagekiri and Deluxe weapons do not change the map. They change what a successful right-arm swing means. Learn the empty-handed chart first. Then put a knife in it. That order matches how the demos taught press, and it matches how to play’s advice to become fluent in limbs before becoming a collector of steel.