In Promise Mascot Agency, you play as Michi, a yakuza hiding out in a small town, running a mascot agency with a sentient severed pinky finger… Yeah, this game isn’t afraid to be weird.
With the recent demo release and bonkers accompanying trailer, I had to jump in and give it a try for myself.
Promise Mascot Agency is an open-world adventure sim-management game developed by Kaizen Game Works, the devs behind 2020’s Paradise Killer.
Michi, a disgraced yakuza lieutenant, is in hiding in the ramshackle town of Kaso-Machi. Sent to re-open the out-of-commission mascot agency and earn back the money he lost in a botched deal. The foul-mouthed, ill-tempered Pinky helps you run the agency, born to a fairy mum and a severed finger dad! Pinky has no filter and openly chats about her dream of burying a body in the woods someday…
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In this world, humans live alongside mascots. Not people dying from exhaustion inside oversized outfits at sporting events, but actual monsters that’ve been around as long as us. Their quirky appearances and weird abilities apparently make them the perfect choice to promote events like store openings and book signings.
Your goal in Promise Mascot Agency is to restore the defunct agency to its former glory and help the cursed town — and mascots — prosper. To advance the agency, you need to recruit new mascots, cutting a deal that is amicable to both parties. That might mean giving them a bigger cut of the profits earned from events or job perks like extra time off.
The thing that threw me at first was that you aren’t running around the open world — you’re exclusively driving around it! You only set foot out of your car during cutscenes, conversations, or when managing the agency via the menu. It was a little weird at first, but I quickly got used to it. It took me back to playing games like Auto Destruct on the PS1 as a kid.
Around the open world are various collectibles to find, NPCs to interact with, and mascots to recruit. NPCs might give you paid work or even become a support hero for the mascots out on jobs.
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As you recruit new mascots, like To-Fu, the emotionally fragile block of tofu, you’ll be able to send them out to work events and earn money for the agency. Sometimes they’ll run into trouble on their job, like when To-Fu got himself stuck in a door frame… You’ll need to help them out by playing ‘support hero’ cards.
What impressed me the most about the demo was the eccentric cast of characters — both human and mascot — with excellently written dialogue that had me cackling to myself. Trororo, a cat-like mascot, has dreams of becoming the representative of the adult video industry and HATES pixelation in his AV videos!
One thing I’m uncertain about, though, is the handling of the truck itself. Navigating into tight spaces to grab collectibles could be awkward, and it just didn’t have the finesse that a character on foot would have. It also felt slow to get going, especially on an incline, unless you used your turbo boost. There are upgrades you can unlock to improve the truck, like extra boosters and glider wings, so I’m hopeful the exploration side of the game improves as you play.
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The vibes are simply on point in this one. A retro styled Japanese ghost town, inhabited by peculiar humans and bizarre Yōkai-like creatures, with gameplay reminiscent of a PlayStation 3 classic, and character dialogue that’ll have you spitting your drink laughing. Sign me up!
The demo is a timed experience lasting a few short hours, but in that time, I managed to recruit a few mascots, complete a few jobs, and explore a section of the small town. While short, the demo left me keen for more, and the game added to my ‘to play’ list for 2025.
Promise Mascot Agency releases on pretty much every current platform on April 11th.
