Technos’ Kunio-kun series, a series of 42 that spanned a variety of genres, began in 1986 as a simple arena fighter. However, the most popular titles were those that featured non-linear role-playing elements based on soap opera-style high school brawls. Anyone familiar with those titles, particularly on the Famicom, Super Famicom, and later Nintendo 3DS, will fully understand how Fading Afternoon works.
Developer Yeo (real name Vadim Gilyazetdinov), who hails from Moscow, has coded several titles of a similar ilk, collectively known as his Existential Dilogy. Previous titles, The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa (2018) and Arrest of a Stone Buddha (2020) also borrowed from the Kunio-kun format. While they’re notable for their experimentation and ambition, it feels like everything Yeo set out to perfect has come to fruition in his latest title, Fading Afternoon. Supported by a thoughtful, reflective narrative, everything from concept to execution is executed with aplomb and flair.
You play as the recently released from prison Seiji Murayama, a Yakuza outlaw with a dark past and a bleak future. Set in Osaka, you quickly meet old acquaintances and rekindle ties, free to explore a map full of quaint, characterful streets and unique interactive locations. Initially, you are put up in a hotel by your gang, from where you are free to travel around Osaka during the day, with the subway acting as a transit point to available locations. You quickly learn to explore, strolling the streets, popping into shops, offices and other points of interest, and meeting friends and foes who occupy different positions and offer different opportunities. One of the key indicators of the map is ‘War’, which essentially means that a rival gang will be present in an area marked in red. Should you choose to engage in battle by striking the first blow, you will quickly find yourself besieged by outlaws. When in your own territory or conquered territory, Murayama often benefits from a helper; but if he finds himself in a rival’s territory, he must fend off his attackers single-handedly.
With combat being a fundamental part of the progression, it’s thankfully well implemented, and feels both manageable and satisfying. What’s impressive is how extensive your repertoire is, and how cleverly it works with just two buttons. You can punch, kick, combo, roundhouse, tackle to the ground, parry, and crucially, disarm enough opponents to use their weapons against them. It feels good to punch a punk and knock him to the ground, before pulling a gun out of the hand of an approaching hood and aiming it at his backup.
It is very mature, tonally, not only in its themes of illness, loss, painful memories and the loneliness of gang culture, but also in its visual violence. The fights are bloody, with broken bones, bullets to the head and knives to the gut that spray appropriately with crimson. The animation is fantastic and bursting with character, whether the sprites are smoking, sitting or slinging a bag over their shoulder.
What sets Fading Afternoon apart is the life simulator angle and the attention to detail that is given to it. In order to survive, you really have to learn to care for Murayama-san. If you don’t extend your hotel stay by paying for extra days, you suddenly wake up on a public bench, where at one point we realized that we had lost an important possession without ever understanding its purpose.
Without the convenience of a bathroom in which to shave, Murayama eventually grows a thick beard as the game’s impressive real-time day/night cycles pass. Wherever you are, from morning to noon, from dusk to dusk, the color palette changes accordingly, transforming the appearance of locations.
Money is essential to progress, and there are numerous, usually criminal, ways to do so. Should you die in battle, you wake up in the hospital with a hefty bill to pay. You can choose to approach the game as a poor, homeless thug, or rise to wealth, sitting in cafes and replenishing your HP with a cup of coffee. Increasing your wallet through combat opens up the world of the game. Money can buy you new clothes, be entertained at hostess bars, or hit a few balls at the baseball range. Murayama is a smoker, able to light and extinguish a cigarette with real skill, crouching wherever he pleases to soak up life as it passes. Vending machines are available to replenish your cigarette supply, as well as other amenities.
At the same time, Muruyama-san’s existence is a sad one, and the way his backstory is revealed, often in dream sequences, is captivating. With its non-linear narrative, your every decision, success, and failure changes the path you take and your ultimate outcome, meaning it can be experienced in countless different ways.
Fading Afternoon is best described as a 2D Yakuza game in a Kunio-kun mold. Yeo has brought his pixelated Osaka to life so convincingly that it’s a genuinely soothing experience to wallow in. The backdrops are gorgeous – easily rivaling some of the Super Nintendo’s best – and it all feels very authentic to what Japan is really like – like you’re on holiday, sort of. It’s done with a subtlety, a realism and a richness that makes every door or staircase you enter an enthralling experience, with your exploration opening up mini-games, diverging storylines and chance encounters with characters.
Our only real criticism is that you’re initially thrown in at the deep end, plot-wise. The banter is never overbearing or overwritten, but there are plenty of namedrops that you won’t initially remember, and it uses a cinematic approach to drip-feed backstory and its complex web of relationships. This can make things confusing at first, should you try to create a mental who’s-who directory. Thankfully, as you become more familiar with the streets of Osaka and revisit key NPCs, elements of the plot take center stage and you become more familiar with where it’s all going.
Conclusion
Fading Afternoon is a highly ambitious game that improves on Technos’ decades-old Kunio-kun formula in almost every way. It’s certainly Yeo’s most accomplished work to date, and impressive in its polish. What really shines is the way it expands on its life-simulator elements and those all-important details. It keeps things fresh, interesting, and engaging. While it’s occasionally punctuated by satisfying gangland violence, it’s certainly not a fast-paced game. With its somber storyline and melancholic motifs, it’s more of an experience to be immersed in, to be explored and tapped into for all its little surprises and diverging paths on subsequent playthroughs. For all it strives to achieve, more than anything else, Fading Afternoon is incredibly charming.