Promise Mascot Agency from Kaizen Game Works is an absolute marvel. It somehow manages to balance not only a novel’s worth of story with the tedium of a management sim, but also be consistently funny and actively engaging.
You play Michi, a disgraced yakuza who has to go into hiding after losing 12 billion yen. He is then forced to reopen the mascot agency in the town of Kaso-Machi, which is overrun by a corrupt mayor and in complete disrepair.
It’s up to you to not only manage your growing roster of mascots, but also fend off potential harm to your family’s matriarch and do some good for the town. All the while, you’ll be joined by Pinky, another mascot.
Promise Mascot Agency thrives on its bizarre take on a crime drama, giving a weird parody aura similar to that of manga and anime, Gintama. The ridiculous is treated as every day occurrences, and the bizarre video game logic that applies to stuff like the invincible truck you’ll drive around town just meshes into this harmonious experience.
Something borrowed
The game feels like something new, despite it not being an entirely new concept. A big open world with things to collect and problems to solve. What Kaizen has to back it up is a unique style, vibes, and the cultural touchstones it latches onto – like Japanese live streams – that put Promise Mascot Agency above its contemporaries.
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that has exuded its own style entirely, without compromise. Promise Mascot Agency is an unrelenting comedic affair, but it does it with a panache that you just can’t find in the ever-homogenising world. The game does it also without being an impenetrable wall, cribbing the Showa era and other video game staples in a welcoming fashion.
If you’re not terminally online or deep down into the particulars of Japanese humour, Kaizen ensures that Promise Mascot Agency never veers too far up itself. There’s a generous amount of love dedicated to bringing the game’s entire shtick to life, and thank god it understood that filling an open world with stuff to do shouldn’t be tedious.
You’ll eventually unlock various upgrades, one of which allows you to fire Pinky from the back of the truck like a rocket. This will assist you with clearing up the garbage in the town, including the Mayor’s signs and cleansing sins from around the town.
Mascot trouble
Then there’s the mascots themselves. Every single interaction is gold, and I found that I genuinely began caring for them. Even if the interactions aren’t as often as I’d like, they’re just so much fun to be around that I couldn’t help but fall for their utterly useless charm.
I say utterly useless, because when you send them on a job, you might need to rescue them with the help of collectible heroes. Situations might be a broken vending machine at an event, or a gate not open enough for them to fit through. While funny and quite rapid, it is tedious once the roster starts to expand.
These segments are the only real “action”, so to speak, that you’ll have in the game. By using a collectible deck of cards featuring different “heroes” (I recently unlocked a hamster called Kaiju), you’ll save the mascot from embarrassment and, more importantly, save the money earned.
However it’s not like a continuous mini game. If you have three different mascots needing help, you have to do this individually and yes, funny, but also, its actively the most boring part of the game. There’s a strategy to it, but once you’ve upgraded some of the cards it becomes more of a button mash through the block of text and to quell the situation as fast as possible.
The mascot management is quick, simple, and clearly labelled, which is great, and it’s a genuine thrill to see a game wear its politics on its sleeve without compromise. Much like Kaizens’ efforts to fully realise their style, the game repeatedly hammers home its creators’ beliefs in a simple, but effective dance.
Mascot recruitment requires you to determine how much of a share the mascot will receive, time off, and options for increasing earnings after so many jobs. It forces you to treat each potential employee with care, and clearly wants this to persist outside of the real world. The happier they are, the better results you’ll receive. It’s such common sense that, if you just look at the news for five minutes, you’ll find that Kaizen could be perceived as a radical entity.
On its sleeve
This then ties into the actual political through line in the game, with the mayor who is siphoning funds intended to rejuvenate the town to himself. An optional task is to destroy his signs around town, with the destruction of the old guard actively encouraged. You clean shrines, rubbish bags and actively work towards bringing the town of Kaso-Machi back to life.
Promise Mascot Agency isn’t just about its comedy, but the positive action in life towards everyone generally leads to a better life. No one can be perfect, everyone has their faults – you literally play as a yakuza who has repeatedly killed – but its what we make of the world now, that dictates the future.
This said, I love that Promise Mascot Agency lets me launch a disembodied pinky at the establishment.
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