It in all probability gained’t shock you to listen to this.
On the subject of Promise Mascot Agency – a sport a few psychotic finger mascot and a man with a brush making an attempt to unravel the Yakuza secrets and techniques inside a cursed and run-down city, inhabited by a duck voiced by former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida – the weirdness is the factor.
I had a sense it could be after I played the first couple of hours of the sport that developer Kaizen Sport Works put out as a demo previous to launch. Having now pushed via the whole factor in a kei truck that sprouted wings in the direction of the tip, I can let you know unequivocally that it’s the case. The weirdness is the factor, and when you’re going to fall in love with this indie mascot administration sport, it’s the half that’ll seduce you, such as you’re an evil merchandising machine that’s simply began spitting junk all over the place as a result of a moss ball with legs forgot that home equipment don’t reply effectively to violence.
There are some factors when PMA pretends to be regular. The setup of its story (other than revolving round a crew that includes a grizzled finger mascot who’s completely smoking a cigar) could be very severe and surprisingly lore-heavy. Protagonist Michi Sugawara – dubbed The Janitor as a result of he’s good at cleansing s**t up – is a key cog within the Shimazu Household, and is tasked alongside his oath brother Tokihira with delivering a bunch of money to a different Yakuza syndicate as a part of a deal to safe underworld peace endlessly between three of Japan’s greatest crim collaborations.
Naturally, as a result of we will’t have good issues, it goes flawed. As an alternative of killing him to assist save her personal conceal, Michi’s boss Matriarch Shimazu as an alternative sneakily ships him off in a field to try to earn again the cash through a secret enterprise the household controls that nobody is aware of about. That’s the defunct mascot company within the rural city of Kaso-Machi, which is re-named Promise Mascot Company when Michi re-opens it alongside the aforementioned non-cigar smoking psycho finger – Pinky.
From right here, you’re within the mascot administration enterprise, and your job is to construct up the company by establishing a crop of mascot expertise, chatting to individuals who know of places and companies on the town that may need to rent them for occasions, and ensuring these jobs get carried out. Totally different mascots will swimsuit totally different jobs higher as a result of their traits – an occasion at a restaurant is an effective place to ship a food-themed mascot like a matcha roll that’s additionally a cat, whereas an occasion on the cemetery is the best place to ship a mascot formed like a funeral urn. Nonetheless, when you simply want the cash, as long as they’ve bought sufficient stamina, you may ship ‘em wherever.
As soon as they’re away, stuff may go flawed, at which level you’ll get an alert to answer through the sport’s initially intimidating, however truly fairly easy, mascot job menu. You’ve often bought at the least a number of in-game hours to reply, and once you do you’ll be whisked off to the livestream of the occasion the place, after a fast intro that sees a mascot host that vaguely jogged my memory of Michael McIntyre (learn: barely annoying hack) say stuff like “Ichigo Love has completely ****** it”. You’re drafted in to save lots of the mascot by deploying ‘mascot hero playing cards’ to deplete the difficulty/hostile entity’s well being bar. For those who succeed, you’ll get the total rewards for the job and, when you fail, you’ll merely get the bottom fee.
So runs the fundamental cycle of the administration facet, however as you discover Kaso-Machi and develop the company, loads of extra layers are added into the combo to spice up the complexity and hold you in your toes to a reasonably frenetic diploma assuming you’re making an attempt to maximise your earnings. That’s actually one thing the sport offers you impetus to do proper out of the gate, as on high of paying your personal payments frequently, you need to go to ATMs and ship money to Matriarch Shimazu with a view to assist her keep one step forward of the Yakuza knives of Damocles which might be hanging over her head following the botched job.
The outcome, particularly as you’re getting your ft below you, is that your business-running comes with a reasonably sturdy sense of urgency. You’re spending cash to develop and hold your boss alive simply as rapidly as you earn it, and I even ended up ever so barely within the pink at one level. At that stage, the administration facet of the sport possibly feels a bit atmospherically out of step with the opposite facet of Promise Mascot Company – exploring the sleepy, stylishly run-down city of Kaso-Machi and its usually fairly mountainous environment in Michi and Pinky’s kei truck.
It’s via exploring that you simply not solely cross off aims in the principle story; Michi and Pinky’s unravelling of the thriller that surrounds Kaso-Machi’s legendary Yakuza-killing curse and its comically corrupt mayor’s misuse of a authorities granted rejuvenation fund. You’ll additionally uncover a spread of various gadgets and tick off duties to assist you in operating the company. There are townspeople to recruit as mascot hero playing cards you may then improve by finishing their radiant quests, which often contain operating across the city accumulating 5 or 6 of a particular merchandise, stuff to select up (like new forms of mascot merch) and, most importantl, extra mascots so as to add to your weirdo workforce.
As a way to persuade a mascot to hitch you, you’ll want to barter with them. As I progressed I discovered that really providing an excellent package deal out of the gate appeared to pay dividends; low-balling them does not fairly minimize it. Welcome to the true world, youngsters.
Each mascot has stats like reputation, motivation, and stamina. Whereas you’ll naturally enhance these simply by sending a mascot out on extra jobs, making them happier from the start means you begin that journey additional alongside the highway. Plus, I discovered that providing perks like vacation days truly matches fairly effectively into the best cadence of the sport, with mascots taking a 24 hour break that really boosts their stamina recharge, somewhat than simply being left on the sidelines till they’ve recovered.
Right here’s the factor, although. Above all else, you’ll need to deal with your band of staff effectively, simply due to their extraordinary personalities. There’s a stunning quantity of distinctive selection when it comes to the mascot solid Kaizen and their collaborators have put collectively, with every one having a three-part life satisfaction journey they go on as you improve your bond with them. All of those are tailor-made to every mascot’s various character, however all of them roughly revolve round you serving to the mascot to attain a purpose that’ll enhance its life.
For instance, my favourite mascot, Karoushi – a terrifying black cowl with a face that lives in a haunted tunnel – serves as a metaphor for burnout, and solely speaks in grandiose allegorical passages that belong in an Italo Calvino novel. Their story was about overcoming the trauma of working too onerous and serving to some locals unionise.
Consistent with the sport’s theme of holding guarantees to assist of us obtain their desires, many of the townspeople you meet even have arcs like this via their city quests. Kaso-Machi’s an fascinating place to discover, with a cool mixture of run-down rural vibes and barely cartoonish spookiness within the type of locations just like the haunted tunnel which accurately treats you to a black and white filter accompanied by creepy noises each time you drive via it.
As with the mascots, you may inform just about each space and particular person has had plenty of thought and care put into shaping them and their backstory. Plus, Kaizen’s carried out an excellent job of guaranteeing the city adjustments visually as you renovate totally different uncared for areas of it to ascertain new mascot occasions spots – with the passive earnings generated by that being the sport’s finest high-cost, high-yield cash earner for the company.
One minor hangup is that the sport’s map signifies the place you’ll find each helpful merchandise and particular person on the planet by default. This is sensible when it comes to the most important characters/landmarks, however it does take some sting out of the exploration realizing that, for instance, when you trek out to one of many islands surrounding Kaso-Machi, you’ll discover precisely one merchandise. You continue to have the enjoyable of uncovering what precisely that merchandise is, however the ingredient of thriller’s diluted a bit.
One other side I didn’t fairly vibe with mechanically was the mini-game by which you ship mascot merch to totally different retailers round city – one other of the sport’s massive money-earners. Mainly, when you discover a merch merchandise out on the planet, it will get added to large arcade claw machines across the map as toys, which you then have to select up utilizing the painfully gradual claw with a view to get shipments to distribute.
It’s a cool idea that matches the sport’s theming completely in concept, however in apply, it was the ingredient of gameplay I discovered by far essentially the most monotonous. In the meantime, subcontracting mascots in different cities – the third member of PMA’s ‘right here come the large bucks’ trio – is much more stripped again. You purchase entry to places, discover the enterprise playing cards of mascots to man them, and increase, a good chunk of passive earnings.
There’s a level a way via the sport the place you abruptly appear to go from having heaps to do, but additionally have a relentless want for that cash, to having heaps to do, however way more cash than you could have stuff to spend it on. By that time, the principle story’s kicking into excessive gear, so it’s good to not have to fret about grinding as a lot.
As for that primary story, how a lot you’ll get pleasure from it comes right down to what I discussed at the beginning. It helps to be into Yakuza tales that are not afraid to get a bit foolish, however the weirdness is the factor that can seemingly resolve the place PMA lands on the okay to nice sport spectrum for you. For some, the array of genuinely humorous and touching moments that encompass every little thing from minor interactions to main plot beats will make this correct cult basic materials. For others, the in-your-face wackiness won’t mesh with their sense of humour, leaving their verdict within the realm of simply high quality.
Promise Mascot Company’s an excellent time. Uniquely charming sufficient that it doesn’t fall into the lure of being as dry as Michi’s very best Saturday evening, however with sufficient tough edges that it’d must work on itself a bit earlier than it might run for mayor of whichever cursed city all the actually nice video games inhabit.
Promise Mascot Company launches on April 10 for PlayStation 5, Nintendo Change, Microsoft Home windows, Xbox Collection X and Collection S. This overview was written utilizing a PC code offered by the developer.