Fading Afternoon

55 hours and i don't think i've seen even a quarter of everything in this game. and i haven't been bored a single time. it's genuinely THAT GOOD. the combat is a bit lacking for options, but once you unlock the second character that's alleviated pretty well.

The fact that this game has layered context sensitive controls akin to Red Dead Redemption in order to do things like put on sunglasses or asian squat while smoking is everything to me. This game makes me feel like I am Beat Takeshi.

Bought this game because there is a dedicated button to put sunnies on and sling my jacket or bag over my shoulder like in anime.
10/10 worth it

Yeo's finest. Combines and refines the hand-to-hand and gun combat from Ringo Ishikawa and Stone Buddha, and weaves it into an emotionally resonant experience with the weight of a Kitano film.

at this point, we can just start saying that developer yeo has a distinct and very cool style of game, and Fading Afternoon represents the culmination of the gameplay and story ideals of their previous two games.
explore a lovingly crafted 2D open world and participate in the self-driven story of Seiji, a trusted earner in his Yakuza family who has just returned from prison.
Fight enemies with the bare-knuckle kickboxing as seen in Ringo Ishikawa, or with the grapple and gun based style from Stone Buddha. Go gambling, go drinking, romance a partner, buy new clothes, ride a bicycle, and just participate in Seiji's life. Tells you basically nothing but trusts that your instincts to explore and learn yourself are there. its actually quite easy to just miss story elements or even get locked out of progression. every hospitalization will reduce your overall health and after a number of hospitalizations, you WILL just die, so the first few rounds as you get used to the combat are easy to screw up. luckily there are a few key methods to end a run early while preserving your income.
No two playthroughs are the same: first and most obviously, the story progresses and ends in different ways based on gameplay and decisions. you can die after too many losses in combat, end the game by actual suicide as well as just miss various moments based on how you play, or reach one of multiple actual endings. While the first two weeks or so progress the same, the game never tells you how to react to its story and trusts you progress youself.
music and art are both great, and the dev is good at adding little features here and there.
cons are obvious but forgivable and in some ways make it better:
-no quest log or real status screen you dont have an inventory aside from smokes and bullets
-easy to forget whats happening, ive restarted multiple times because of breaks
-vague dialogue. Its written expressly to be like "you know whats happening"--repeated playthroughs are great because you understand more, but early playthroughs suffer from "whzt is happening"
-combat suffers from overpowered techniques, button overlap, and trying to be stylish tends to get you hurt--the players counter is the best move 8/10 times. Guard mode is also punch so you have to have enough time to get out the punch and enter guard mode before you start dodging, making bottle throwers a huge hassle, and just trying to get more elaborate combos tends to hurt a lot
-never tells you anything aside from how to fight. the tutorial is for combat, nothing else, so learning how to pregress, play minigames, get health, etc, is all up to you

It is a pleasant game but unfortunately a bit too ambiguous. Most events or variants of the story are undescribed in any way. Cutscenes happen all of the sudden, often without any explanation or follow up, and it is up to you to discover where and when to trigger a new route for the story, without knowing where it might lead. This combined with only one save slot means you will have to replay over and over again in order to discover different things.

One of my favorite game. I love everything from story to gameplay. Its a game that can touch your heart. I love it