Amazing pixel art, a perfect atmosphere, and a groovy soundtrack kept me coming back again and again. The combat is gorgeously animated, and almost fun. I'm not a fan of how damage is calculated (green guy throwing a bottle = 36 damage, red guy throwing a bottle = 82 damage?), and some of the enemy types got on my nerves. There's no challenge in getting hit with a projectile from an offscreen enemy, just rote inconvenience. I do admire how the story is married to the gameplay, decreasing health and etc. Time is the ultimate currency here.
I've been following yeo for a while now, and while this is the first game of his I've enjoyed playing, I am a big fan of the influences he takes from. Immediately after dropping Ringo Ishikawa I watched The Friends of Eddie Coyle and had a blast, and after playing Stone Buddha I saw Le Samourai and had a similar experience. His games emulate the soul-crushing emptiness of these great films, maybe too well for my tastes. Fading Afternoon is a bloody yakuza affair a la Takeshi Kitano's Outrage, and understands that action can be visceral AND tragic too. The stories presented here are short but touching, and there are quite a few of them. The money bag system incentivizes playthroughs well enough, and the endings I got were certainly entertaining. The writing really shines through here, the characters feel fully formed with their own histories and experiences (shoutout to Chiba).
The major downside here is that yeo's disdain for user experience shines through as usual. You get a cursory combat tutorial - "punch a guy 10 times" "throw a guy 10 times", and then you're thrown to the dogs. Some people might like the idea of playing a game for four - five hours before understanding the basics of its setting, but I'm not one of them. Despite the usual ugliness of this design, getting over the hurdle resulted in some memorable playthroughs and a generally good time.
Fading Afternoon feels like the most coherent yeo project yet, with genuinely outstanding presentation and flair. The gameplay does drag it a bit, but depth is very much present in every department. I'm still playing it now, trying to figure out how best to spend what little time Maruyama has left.
I've been following yeo for a while now, and while this is the first game of his I've enjoyed playing, I am a big fan of the influences he takes from. Immediately after dropping Ringo Ishikawa I watched The Friends of Eddie Coyle and had a blast, and after playing Stone Buddha I saw Le Samourai and had a similar experience. His games emulate the soul-crushing emptiness of these great films, maybe too well for my tastes. Fading Afternoon is a bloody yakuza affair a la Takeshi Kitano's Outrage, and understands that action can be visceral AND tragic too. The stories presented here are short but touching, and there are quite a few of them. The money bag system incentivizes playthroughs well enough, and the endings I got were certainly entertaining. The writing really shines through here, the characters feel fully formed with their own histories and experiences (shoutout to Chiba).
The major downside here is that yeo's disdain for user experience shines through as usual. You get a cursory combat tutorial - "punch a guy 10 times" "throw a guy 10 times", and then you're thrown to the dogs. Some people might like the idea of playing a game for four - five hours before understanding the basics of its setting, but I'm not one of them. Despite the usual ugliness of this design, getting over the hurdle resulted in some memorable playthroughs and a generally good time.
Fading Afternoon feels like the most coherent yeo project yet, with genuinely outstanding presentation and flair. The gameplay does drag it a bit, but depth is very much present in every department. I'm still playing it now, trying to figure out how best to spend what little time Maruyama has left.