Niche Game Reviews: A Fading Afternoon
Have you ever experienced being alone in a world that has moved on without you? Being in a city where you fill your time with the ghosts of the past? Unsure of what your next step in your journey is so you continue on with the dueling nature of who you are against who you were?
It’s a feeling I can’t aptly describe with words alone. It’s a sentiment I’ve grown accustomed to for so many years- it’s striking really. A set of choices and paths lead you down places you never would have guessed you’d arrive to. Within the journey to your next phase in life, you see people, places, things, nouns even. You laugh, you cry, you experience all that life has to offer and then some. In the end, you realize the path you’ve gone down is the only one ahead. No deviations or back tracks exist. How dreadful. How dreadful indeed.
Color me surprised when I found a game that describes this feeling so aptly.
Fading Afternoon developed by Shin-Yeo and published by IndieArk was released on September 14, 2023 and is the third installment in what I like to consider the “Reflection Core” series. The previous games being The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa and Arrest of a Stone Buddha. One of them I’ve reviewed in my younger years on this very site.
The themes in all of Yeo’s games capture a sense of reflection, solitude and quietness that I haven’t discovered in many other games I’ve played. It is incredibly relatable and I’m always surprised at how someone can evoke such an abstract and personal feeling of wistfulness and display it in art.
Themes and design choices from Shin-Yeo’s previous games work in tandem in this piece, so if you’re unfamiliar with their style of game design, allow me to provide you a quick rundown:
The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa focused on a coming of age story about a young man who lives alone and leads a school gang. He trains in various disciplines and grows skills while balancing his school work and personal relationships. All the while looking ahead to the bleak future of himself and his peers. The combat was tight and evoked River City Ransom beat em’ up mechanics with the ability to increase your stats and maintain your satiety by consuming food bought at convenience stores.
Arrest of a Stone Buddha dives deeper into the solitude of man, following an individual who’s only true joy and skillset lies in his assassination contracts. The dichotomy between the protagonists every day mundanity and his contract killing is striking. The gameplay evokes the boring and unfulfilling nature of the protagonist's life between the action filled shootouts and fancy akimbo gunplay. In this game, Yeo introduced some of the coolest shooting mechanics that pay homage to the likes of Wong Kar Wai’s Fallen Angels and John Woo’s The Killer. The bulk majority of the game and narrative is spent wandering 1970’s Paris, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and watching movies by your lonesome.
Fading Afternoon is a culmination of the previously mentioned themes and gameplay mechanics tightly wrapped up in a focused narrative package where the intersection of action, story, and theme meet.
The premise is as follows: You are an aging Yakuza and must return from a place of isolation and rebuild your former families glory while also navigating an uncertain future.
You play as Seiji Maruyama who has recently been released from prison. You meet with your old aniki- Azuma san and begin your life again as an aged Yakuza enforcer. Seiji is an old man who has seen his fare share of gang wars, thus, you don’t spend time training and learning new moves. Instead, you spend most of your time using the skills you’ve learned over a storied gangster career by combatting rival yakuza families in your city.
The main combat loop consists of positioning, punching, kicking, blocking strikes, and most importantly, performing parries/catch strikes. Catch strikes immediately kill your opponent and you preform them by holding down the punch button to guard and time your kick button as a strike lands. You can catch weapons to use against your opponents this way as well. Your arsenal of fisticuffs is fluid and consists of a mix of martial arts disciplines of Judo, Karate, and Boxing.
The gunplay takes cues from Yeo’s previous work. Every shot you inflict on your opponent is an instant kill and you can retrieve firearms during larger gang fights by performing the same catch strike mechanic. However, you mostly use your pistol for boss assassination tasks.
Fighting rival gangs is your main way to progress the story and earn income. With every foe you defeat you earn a noticeable amount of yen. Yen is used for various activities in the world such hostess clubs, playing poker, drinking alcohol, and most importantly buying cigarettes.
The gameplay loop has you travelling to different locations, engaging in gang fights, going home to heal, and repeating this loop until the gang boss is available for assassination in that region. You receive Polaroid’s of potential hangout spots of the opposing gang leader and you must hunt them down by visiting the various haunts located throughout the city. Since you’re only given a photograph, you’re encouraged to learn the lay of the land and visit the various shops and stores throughout the city.
I can’t forget to mention the music in this piece of art. Each location has a lo-fi jazz OST and the various clubs bring a charming Japanese city pop spin to the game- vocals and all. The best soundtrack out of the trilogy with The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa at a very close second.
In the midst of all the wanton violence, are the moments of quietness I’ve mentioned previously sprinkled into the mix. You control the protagonist as they journey through their last year of life. Visiting old friends, colleagues, enemies, scorned lovers, you watch as the choices the protagonist had made in their past unfold. No deviations or back tracking allowed in his life. How Maruyama proceeds in his short future is entirely up to the player.
To conclude this piece of overly verbose prose regarding a video game I like, I’ll say this. Fading Afternoon is an expertly crafted piece of video game art that may sadly fly under the radar for most. However, despite that, this niche game is one for books in the world of indie game development.
