Fading Afternoon is a unique game. Created by Yeo, a Russian indie developer and published by Circle Entertainment, it completes a loose trilogy of Japanese street games similar in basic design to games like the Kunio series, but much more serious. Instead of simple gameplay, this is more of a character study, taking an unexpected key time in the main character’s life and experiencing his choices as your own to give some insight into life and aging using the Yakuza as a backdrop. As much a piece of interactive art as it is a game, Fading Afternoon takes us in unexpected directions and it can be equal parts frustrating and delightful by turns.
In Fading Afternoon, you play Seiji Maruyama, a yakuza enforcer recently released from prison. You’ve done your time in jail and now it’s time to rejoin society. Maruyama is stoic and reserved, quietly accepting his place and the expectations placed upon him by Azuma, the leader of his clan as he returns to the streets. The game focuses on learning about Maruyama, his acquaintances, his enemies, and his sense of duty in the face of events as they swirl around him. Plot delivery is through in-game dialogue scenes that slowly unfurl the nuances of Maruyama’s situation and you’ll want to pay close attention because this is a game that’s all about the details.
There are a number of things you should be aware of as you play Fading Afternoon. First, there are only a limited number of things you can do per day. You can visit three locations and then you’ll be forced to rest whether you like it or not. Each area has places you can interact with others and not all of them have any value to advancing the storyline. The game itself doesn’t direct you in any way either, so you can simply wander aimlessly if you ignore subtle prompts, leaving you confused and frustrated. Azuma gives you some direction but he never repeats his dialogue if you’re not playing attention and if you are impatiently button pressing, it’s easy to miss dialogue.
That’s because the structure of Fading Afternoon mirrors real life in a way that other games don’t. As gamers, we’re used to being spoon-fed directions and expectations from repeated dialogue if you missed something to the persistently recurrent yellow paint that was recently widely discussed and mocked online. Fading Afternoon doesn’t just break those expectations; it shatters them and stomps on the pieces until they’re nothing but forgotten dust. If you miss something in the game, it’s missed. There’s no going back and every scene transition autosaves, making your choices permanent. That can be frustrating because entry points change from area to area, meaning that you’ll enter, press the wrong direction, immediately leave and go back to the subway map, and lose a third of your interactions for the day.
For example, on the first playthrough, directions popped up about how to initiate a gang war by assaulting street thugs near the local pawn shop. As Maruyama had just gotten out of jail, rationally he wouldn’t want to get back in trouble, right? No prompt forces you to fight, there’s no real explanation of what to do in the game, and gang members never attack first. Compounding that were a couple of button presses that skipped some of the clan leader’s dialogue. As a result, walking around at random with no real idea what to do meant that time was going by quickly, Maruyama was going broke, no income was coming in and the entire game felt like a confused mess with no purpose. You know, like real life.
While this shouldn’t be possible in a normal game, Fading Afternoon is different. It’s purposely designed to be obtuse, to force the player to experiment, and to be inherently unpredictable. Tiny details matter and you’ll slowly learn to pick up on them, like an old-school PC game with no walkthroughs. This retro approach leads to an experience that ends up more meaningful that it would if you were handed all the information up front. Figuring out how gang wars work, what to do once you succeed, and how to interact and use the rather non-intuitive controls feels like a series of tiny successes that build along with the story. Think of it as a mirror to Maruyama’s experiences, coming back into the world after a long absence, only to find that things are different than they used to be and that you must re-learn the familiar in order to succeed. Everything in Fading Afternoon matters and while in other games, you can just put off things that don’t interest you, here you must pay your hotel bill in a reasonable amount of time when asked or end up with nowhere at all to stay and end up compounding your problems.
Moving around the map allows you to start gang wars, procure weapons, heal, and talk to various people from Maruyama’s life. As a Yakuza enforcer however, combat is definitely key so when you finally get around to fighting, you’ll find that the combat systems are robust and well-designed for both amateurs and hardcore players alike. Much like the Kunio and Double Dragon games, combat is a 2D/3D affair that allows you to move around the entire area as enemy gang members attack you. You can use offensive and defensive methods to fight and disarming enemies often lets you take their weapons, including swords, bottles, and even guns and use them against their owners. The combat is surprisingly brutal and swift too, but enemies fade from the streets and upon defeating all the gang members in an area, Maruyama squats down to signify combat is complete. You’ll also be offered images of one of the gang’s leaders who you’ll have to hunt down and take out to wrest control of the area. There are multiple enemy territories you’ll have to take over too, so make sure you’re paying attention!
In between the fast-paced combat of gang warfare, Maruyama is taking things slowly. He’s lived a life of combat and it’s clearly coming back to haunt him as he walks slowly from area to area, quietly talks with the people in his life, and looks broodingly into the mirror as he shaves. There’s a dedicated button just to light up a cigarette and sitting and watching the people walk by on the street is an activity that takes on surprising meaning as you slowly digest events and decide what to do next. There’s no timer spinning down once you enter an area either, so you can take as much or as little time as you want in your three daily activities. For many gamers, this is going to be a challenging game to play because it’s entirely counterintuitive to traditional game design.
Fading Afternoon is a master class in pixel art as well. Perspective is cleverly used to create a sense of depth in the 2D backgrounds and animations are fluid and complex. Combat animations are vicious and provocative as well, creating a strong counterpoint to the quiet contemplation that dominates most of the game. It’s clear that Maruyama both regrets his situation and has no control over events which are spiralling out of control and each plodding step through the various locations of the game reinforce his emotional state. Using pixel art to convey this level of emotion is a spectacular achievement and players who spend enough time with Fading Afternoon will find that the artistry of visual design throughout the game is impressive.
Sound design is surprisingly equally to the visuals and unique gameplay as well. Often in indie games, you end up with compromised gameplay, visuals, or sound. That’s definitely not the case in Fading Afternoon. Instead we’re treated to low-key jazz arrangements that complement the moody and pensive atmosphere of the game. While these tracks do repeat frequently, they’re very good, blending seamlessly into to ambience of the story and feeling like a suitable delivery vehicle for Maruyama’s mood. In key areas, the music shifts upward, taking a stronger beat and drawing player attention effectively, controlling not only the narrative but the emotional rollercoaster that players ride as they make their way through Maruyama’s life. It’s a soundtrack that’s worthy of a download at the very least and it’s genuinely a shame that the tracks aren’t readily available.
Despite all of the artistic value of Fading Afternoon, the game isn’t for everyone. Players that want to just jump into a game and play are going to find themselves stymied by the purposely obscure approach to design here and beat ‘em up fans may find themselves anxiously awaiting the next bout of combat. This unique approach is more like a visual novel than an action game and the slow pacing will not work for everyone. Art either works for you or it doesn’t and the best way to think of Fading Afternoon is that it’s a piece of art that may or may not appeal to you.
It’s likely that you’ll only get out of Fading Afternoon what you put into it. At only 5-6 hours for a run (and a fair bit of that walking about), each playthrough more fully familiarizes you with this unique gameplay and the hidden mechanics of the game. More than one will be required to understand the game and the immersion level increases each time as you start to expect what the game offers and then uncover new tidbits each time. The slow inevitability of middle age is in full display here and Fading Afternoon is a surprisingly effective narrative vehicle that will change the way you think about gaming. For only $20, this is an experience you’re not going to want to miss out on, though not everyone will have the same appreciation for Fading Afternoon. If it’s for you however, you’re going to love it.
This review is based on a digital copy of Fading Afternoon provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well in both. Fading Afternoon is also available for PC on Steam.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.
