Fading Afternoon Review (Nintendo Switch OLED)

by Jim Smale · July 12, 2024

Fading Afternoon Review, Seiji Maruyama is a middle-aged yakuza recently released from prison. Known as “Gozuki” (one of the demon generals from Buddhist mythology) he is the power that his oyabun counts on. But there is one thing his aniki is not taking into account: Maruyama is getting old.

Fading Afternoon Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
963MB download size.
Can remap the controls.
Easy mode can be turned on or off.
2D perspective.
Beautiful pixel art cutscenes and locations.
A hint button lets you turn it on and off to see what next to do.
A great story and it almost immediately grips you.
The game screen is a wide screen with black borders that show actions and hints in sections.
The ui on the screen looks like a point-and-click game, it’s not a point-and-click game.
Fantastic soundtrack.
Going on the train will give you access to the map and you can choose your location from there or just go home.
Smoke and stop smoking action can be triggered when you want.
The world is on a 2D plain as said but you can move up and down, it does the cool thing of letting you go up and down stairs, go along different levels, etc, it’s very impactful.
I never felt constrained and had a lot of movement and freedom.
In the pawn shop, you can find a gun range, here you time your shots and get points, and at the end, you get the sheet showing your shots.
It’s amazing how much they make the game feel almost 3D but keeping it clean with the 2D.
Doing the gun range and scoring points increases your accuracy rating.
The combat is a typical beat ’em up except you can do combos, reverse attack, block attacks, disarm, and use enemy weapons from them.
Some of the best pixel art animations.
Eat and sleep to regain health.
You can start fights with other gangs.
The game does Interactive elements really well and in a clever memorable way.
Earn cash from fighting.
Fighting and doing missions will raise the danger level in that area making it harder later on.
A lot of cool flashbacks.
Go to estate agents and buy a house from the catalog.
Your character can grow a beard over time, and use the bathroom to shave it when you want.
So many cool little bits.

Fading Afternoon Review Cons:

Very slow starter.
Tutorial pop-ups are very sporadic and not everything you would want.
When in combat it can be tricky to know if you are in the same level as your opponent.
The game doesn’t always do a good job of directing you to missions.
Combat has a lot to learn and in the end, you just button-mash it a lot.
No actual gameplay settings.
The music doesn’t change when going into combat.