Promise Mascot Agency Review – Sophomore Killer
I somehow missed the release of Promise Mascot Agency a few months back, only realising my failure to keep track of what was one of my most anticipated games of this year when it became my turn for another Indie Watch entry. It’s a big mea culpa, because I doubt Kaizen Game Works was keeping things too closely guarded in the lead up to release, while I wondered like a dunce when the Paradise Killer devs were putting out their next title.
Promise Mascot Agency leans into what I liked about Paradise Killer – mystery elements, an open-world setting built for exploration – but takes it much further. So much so that in the first few hours, the game can feel overwhelming. I suspect Kaizen themselves have the same affinity for the Yakuza series as the Player2 Editorial Team, especially the banger Real Estate Mogul and Hostess Bar management sims from Yakuza Zero, because if I had to give anyone an elevator pitch style summary of Promise Mascot Agency, it would be Yakuza minigames mashed with Paradise Killer – chocolate, meet peanut butter to this reviewer.
PMA thrusts players into the role of Michi, aka The Janitor’, a yakuza enforcer armed with a broom who is exiled to the failing town of Kaso-Machi, tasked with hustling up a substantial sum of money to save his bosses from ruthless rival families. His ticket to fame and fortune? A run-down love hotel hastily converted into a Mascot agency occupied by Pinky, a mascot/severed human-pinky hybrid with the mouth of a sailor. Where the story excels is its deft blend of humour and drama, the absurdity of the many situations still resonating when considering the very real threats facing rural Japanese towns as the country’s population ages. Promise Mascot Agency is an outsider’s perspective in many respects, but with some presumed cultural advice from Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori, both formerly of Tango Gameworks and now at Unseen. Playing on a Switch 2, there were no impactful performance issues and much like Paradise Killer before it, Promise Mascot Agency uses Kaizen’s excellent art direction to overcome any fidelity issues, with another massive banger soundtrack on their hands thanks to Ryo Koike and Alpha Chrome Yayo who ensure a diverse array of tunes that will worm their way into players ears.
The open world of Kaso-Machi is where the bulk of the adventure takes place, the remainder spent in menus tackling the mascot management sim aspects or occasionally engaging in card battling. Promise Mascot Agency leverages its open world of characters, collectibles and mini games to drive the many overlapping timers that remind players they need to wire money to their boss, send hired mascots to jobs or restock stores around town with mascot related items – with some more popular than others at each. These compounding elements make PMA hard to put down as there is always something to be done, often so trifling it makes it difficult to make a clean break. The most egregious offender is the Mascot Job system, which involves matching a client and job with the mascot most suited to it. Mostly menu based, once you have a large stable of mascots to choose from it can feel like juggling somewhat, selecting the job, assigning the mascot and then equipping them with an item which serves two functions; give a percentage chance for the mascots stamina to replenish and avoid ‘incidents’, which is where the card battle system comes into play. When an ‘incident’ occurs, Michi and Pinky have a set amount of time to come to the rescue of the affected mascot, using cards acquired around town to attack the situation. In the early game, many of these can result in defeat as the Michi’s deck is weak and not suited to the varying kinds of incidents that can arise, while later in the game they may become trivial to deal with. While slight, it’s an enjoyable diversion from exploration that can on occasion become too frequent due to the number of mascots out earning their keep.
The impact on the narrative is one that I find common in these ‘just one more turn’ games, and that is a sort of blending together of the whole experience, only one or two major events breaking up the overall length which stretches more than a dozen hours. This length can creep up to twice that when going for a completionist run, perhaps more so with the latest ‘Prepare to Grind’ update that adds time trial races alongside numerous quality of life improvements, meaning now is the best time to jump into Promise Mascot Agency.
Exploring the town of Kaso-Machi can feel like a chore at the outset, Michi’s truck a real beater that struggles before José, the local mechanic can fit it with a few upgrades, locked until you manage to catch the fox spirits that have apparently absconded with the designs. José is just one member of a much wider supporting cast than Paradise Killer, with plenty of side stories and sub-missions dotting the map introducing us to online influencers, gaijin schoolteachers and a leather-clad dominatrix bar hostess. These elements give a sense of place which evolves as Michi tries to resurrect businesses, revive ageing train lines, restore outdated arcade machines or tidy up neglected shrines. Michi’s redemption isn’t just about him, but about the town of Kaso-Machi itself, which for far too long has harboured a secret exploited by its corrupt mayor for his own ends. Helping the residents work together to throw off the shackles of corruption and return their beloved town to an approximation of its heyday could come off as schmaltzy were it not for the sincerity of tone Promise Mascot Agency takes, another homage to the Yakuza series. This permeates the end game, a sense of sadness embodied by a map no longer cluttered with collectibles and new mascots to meet, where dialogue options are exhausted and money no longer an issue. The town is thriving once more thanks to Michi and Pinky’s care and yet they no longer feel as necessary as before. Rarely do I find myself upset at the end of a gaming experience, so it came as a shock that whilst I was satisfied with the conclusion of the overall narrative, I didn’t feel a sense of closure. It brough to mind the final words of A. A Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, here adjusted to better suit: “But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest an ex-Yakuza and his thumb mascot will always be playing”. It’s that most insidious of post-games, not the one that takes you to just prior to the final confrontation, but where the protagonists work is acknowledged and now life goes on, as it tends to. I hope Kaizen aren’t done with Promise Mascot Agency, because even though the credits rolled, I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to Kaso-Machi.
Promise Mascot Agency was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2 using code kindly supplied by the publisher.
