In Promise Mascot Agency, I’ve been seduced by a Tetris-block, shared an onsen bath with a giant egg, encouraged a slab of tofu to follow his dreams, and helped a human-sized severed finger run for mayor… This game is bonkers in all the right ways.
Developed by indie studio Kaizen Game Works (Paradise Killer), this open-world adventure sim-management game mashes genres together expertly; hooning around the map in a Kei truck whilst sending employees off to perform at promo events shouldn’t work… but it does.
Michi, meet Pinky
You play as Michizane ‘Michi’ Sugawara, first lieutenant of the Shimazu family. A feared Yakuza enforcer known as ‘The Janitor’, a nickname we can safely assume he didn’t get from sweeping hallways! Michi is all about family, loyalty, and honour. After being rescued from an early grave, Michi has become fiercely loyal to his adopted Yakuza family, his oath-brother Toki, and most of all, to his matriarch. He brings those same principles to the mascot agency, the employees becoming more like family than workers.
Voiced by the legendary Takaya Kuroda himself (Kazuma Kiryu in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series) with the same deep tone and stoic delivery, it’s hard not to see a lot of Kiryu in Michi, especially as they’re both tatted up, badass Yakuza.
In this world, humans live alongside mascots — which aren’t people dying from exhaustion inside oversized costumes at sporting events, but actual monsters that’ve been a part of the world as long as humans. Their quirky appearances and weird abilities apparently makes them the perfect choice to promote store openings, product launches and other events.
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The foul-mouthed, ill-tempered Pinky (played by Ayano Shibuya) is the most prominent mascot in the story of Promise Mascot Agency and is, without a doubt, the best part of the game. Born of a fairy marshmallow mum and a severed-finger Yakuza dad, Pinky is borderline bipolar, adorably cute one minute, and blowing up in a fit of homicidal rage the next. She has zero filter, which results in some hilarious outbursts, like openly chatting about her dream of burying a body in the woods someday!
The Plot Thickens
When a high-stakes deal is ambushed by a rival syndicate, Michi chooses to save the life of his oath-brother Toki over the money. Losing ¥12 Billion Yen (about 120 million AUD) isn’t something you just apologise and move on from however, so the family matriarch fakes Michi’s death and ships him off to the small town of Kaso-Machi.
The Shimazu family is in shambles, calling in every favour they can to stay afloat and keep the wolves from the door. With the help of Pinky, Michi is tasked with re-opening the out-of-commission mascot agency and earning as much money as possible to send back home.
Kaso-Machi is no ordinary town, though, said to be cursed by malevolent spirits that consume the soul of any Yakuza brash enough to visit. On top of that, the town is not exactly the ideal place to start a new business. Bled dry by a corrupt mayor, there isn’t much money to be spent on promotional events… at first. The more you invest in the town, the more alive it becomes, and the more work you’ll get out of it.
With a family to save, an unscrupulous mayor to unseat, the mystery of the Yakuza curse to unravel, and numerous townsfolk to engage with; Promise Mascot Agency had me gripped from start to finish.
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The Promise Mascot Agency
Re-establishing the town’s defunct mascot agency is slow going at first, with only one mascot to send out to promotional events and only a few types of jobs available to you. As you explore the island and build the reputation of your agency, more businesses will be open to working with you, and you’ll be able to convince more mascots to join your ranks.
More jobs + More mascots = More money to send back to your family.
Kaso-machi isn’t exactly a prosperous place, so the mascots still hanging around are a bunch of misfits that don’t really fit into society, but the Promise Mascot Agency can give them a home, a stable job, and help them achieve their dreams.
To-Fu, the emotionally fragile block of tofu, is your first recruit and also turned out to be my favourite of the bunch. He’s just so weird! A huge block of sentient-tofu that is constantly crying and apologising but so adorable at the same time. With encouragement, To-Fu built up his self-confidence and learned to value himself.
Michi, being so loyal and family oriented, soon expands to the mascots under his employment, often checking in on their wellbeing. ‘Life satisfaction checks’ conducted by Michi and Pinky serve as a means to expand on each mascots’ backstory and hopes for the future. By helping them achieve their life goals, the mascots become more popular with fans and more motivated to work, increasing the money they earn. I was just so happy when Trororo achieved his dream of becoming a representative of the Adult Video Industry in Kaso-machi… What more could a half-cat, half-yam monster ask for!
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Building a Business
When you recruit a new mascot, you need to cut a deal to keep them happy. On top of their base rate, you can add up to three work perks, like increased revenue share, cash bonuses, or regular time off. This isn’t just an empty gesture, either. You’ll need to keep your promises, or the mascots will stop working. It can be particularly painful when the bills are flowing in, and one of your mascots goes off on holiday, removing them from the working rotation!
Different mascots are suited to different event types, earning a cash bonus on top of the regular job payment. Sometimes, the mascots will get through their event without issue. Other times shit will hit the fan — like poor Trororo being attacked by a swarm of bees! — and they’ll call you for help.
Deck Building
In deck-builder style combat encounters, you’ll need to coach the mascot through their predicament by playing ‘support hero’ cards. Each card has different strengths for different situations. For example, one hero might be useful in getting a mascot unstuck from a door frame, but then be pretty useless in combating a malevolent spirit.
Cards also have action costs, and you only have a certain amount of actions available before you fail the interaction, so you have to pick wisely. Cards sometimes have special abilities, like adding an additional action point or drawing another card from your deck. It’s a pretty straightforward mini-game that brings some needed interaction to the mascot events.
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You can buy new support cards in some shops, find them hidden around the world, or get them by recruiting the locals as support heroes. Completing favours for your support heroes will gradually improve the rarity of their support card, increasing its stats. For example, the train station master Mr. Mori has lost all of his kittens, and for each one you find and bring back, his card will improve. Buying or finding duplicates of a card will also upgrade it further.
While there’s a decent variety of event types — from the opening of a new sex shop, to the launch of a new tofu product — and numerous ways each event can go awry, they do tend to follow a similar formula and grow a little repetitive after a while. I was taking my time exploring the world though, all the while sending my little gang of misfits out to work, so I ended up racking up over 500 jobs completed in my 25+ hours with the game… It would be pretty hard to make that many jobs unique. Also, watching a mascot get stuck in a doorway or trip over and barrel down a flight of stairs was funny, no matter how many times I saw it.
Bills and Investments
Just like in real life, cash is king — and you’re going to need a lot of it! You’ll regularly send back money to the family to keep them afloat while desperately saving to reinvest in your business and the town itself. On top of that, you’ll also have water, electricity and internet bills to pay everyday, there’s the cost of buying support items to help your mascots avoid hiccups on their jobs, and if you’ve agreed to pay mascots bonuses, you’ll have those to contend with as well! It can be a lot!
With a corrupt mayor embezzling council funds, it’ll be up to you to invest back into the local community. Doing so can be hard on the wallet, but it will increase the reputation of the agency, as well as open up new, higher paying job opportunities. It’s also really fulfilling to see the town come to life as you pay to refurbish markets, hang new lanterns, and invest in businesses.
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You can also invest in the Promise Mascot Agency itself, renovating the dilapidated love-hotel you use as a base. Upgrades can increase your passive income, help mascots recover their stamina quicker, and unlock a very handy fast-travel system.
Subcontracting
The most useful upgrade to your wallet, however, is the subcontracting business. If you save up enough Yen, you can buy up closed businesses — like a ramen stall or hot springs resort — staff them, and have them generate passive income every day. It’s not easy squirrelling away that initial capital, but once you’re in business, it feels like free money!
While just keeping enough money in reserves to pay your increasing utilities can be daunting, having to send money back to the family is even more so. A gauge will slowly tick down over time, and if it hits zero, it’s game over. Sending back your hard earned cash can get the needle moving back in the right direction, but it costs a fair chunk of your profits to do so, making saving for other investments an uphill battle. The stress was real.
Eventually, I hit the point where my passive income became enough to sustain my bills, and I was free to invest heavily in improving the town and agency! Yay!
Kei Truck
When exploring the retro-styled Japanese ghost town, you do so exclusively inside of your Kei truck. You never control Michi on foot. He does step out during cutscenes and conversations, but other than that, you’re stuck behind the wheel.
Honestly, it was a little weird at first, I was used to at least having the option to hoof it around on foot in other open-world games, and the van felt a bit awkward to manoeuvre. But as I grew accustomed to the handling of the truck, I started to love hooning around the island. It even brought up some nostalgic feelings, taking me back to when I played games like Auto Destruct on the PlayStation 1 as a kid.
The driving is very much a throwback to games of old, feeling a LOT like a Grand Theft Auto game, with its stunt jumps and batshit crazy physics. That said, there are some annoyingly indestructible obstacles; you can be speeding down the road one second and then be stopped dead in your tracks by a guardrail the next.
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Being a truck, squeezing down narrow alleyways to grab a collectible or pick up some trash could be awkward and tricky to navigate… Much more so than for a character on foot. At one point, I was caning it down the street and clipped a barrier, sending me tumbling through the air before landing perfectly flush between a house and another fence, leaving me pretty stuck! The game combats these sorts of situations with a handy ‘respawn’ button within the pause menu and will drop you at a close-by location without loss of progress.
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This is where the fun begins!
The real fun begins when you get your truck modified, improving it immensely. José, the local mechanic is also a bit of an inventor, but unfortunately, some pesky fox spirits have run off with all his blueprints! He’ll need you to track down the critters and reclaim the designs before he can kit out your truck. I’d recommend finding these foxes as soon as possible, as the upgrades are awesome.
There’s additional speed boosts to help you go faster for longer, glider and boat modifications for traversal of the air and the sea, and most importantly the ‘Pinky Launcher’, that fires Pinky forward at any target in your reticle. The launcher is especially handy for nabbing those hard-to-reach bags of trash around the world, so I’d suggest not worrying too much about combing the island clean until you get your hands on the launcher.
One of my favourite things to do in the game, especially after all the truck upgrades, is just drive along with no set destination. Zooming along a coastal road, firing Pinky at destructible objects and activating speed boosts for a hit of adrenaline. I might come across a cliff and decide to drive right off the edge before extending my glider wings and drifting slowly down into the valley. It just feels GOOD — soothing even. The games’ relaxing lounge music is the perfect backdrop to just cruise.
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Sidequests and Side Characters
The majority of time in the game is spent roaming the open-world island of Kaso-machi. There’s various NPCs to interact with, new mascots to uncover, tasks to complete, and collectibles to grab. Oh, and of course, new nail art to find for Pinky’s one big nail!
Talking to the townsfolk gives you more understanding of the town’s history and its current struggles, which often unlocks new job types to send your mascots out to. There’s a good mix of characters with a range of personalities, like the lonely fisherwoman who hits on Michi every chance she gets, the barman who loves to dress up in shiny leather S&M outfits, or the mascot MonouGe — voiced by the one and only Shuhei Yoshida — who wants to open a retro gaming arcade. Most villagers can be recruited as ‘support heroes’ and some even sell mascot support items like green tea, noodle bowls, or more bizarre offerings.
Scattered around the world are dozens of run-down shrines to spruce up, numerous spirits to exorcise, hundreds of ‘Vote for Mayor Maeda’ signs to smash through, and seemingly endless bags of rubbish to dispose of. These public service acts will net you a little cash, increase the rating of your mascot agency, and sometimes offer other bonuses as you hit certain milestones.
Late in the game, I’d get a little burst of excitement when spotting a sign or trash bag that I hadn’t found yet, and eagerly fired Pinky off in that direction. But being stuck on 99% of signs destroyed and 95.2% of trash disposed of got a little frustrating. After finishing everything else the game had to offer, I spent hours and hours flying around, hoping to find the ones I was still missing. While there’s no trophy tied to 100% completing them (I popped the platinum naturally during my playthrough) it’d still be nice to finish them. I hope the devs decide to patch in some sort of locator that pings when you get close to trash or a sign, or just add unfound locations to the map once you’ve finished the game.
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Should you buy Promise Mascot Agency?
Promise Mascot Agency blends open-world exploration with a quirky business simulator that works surprisingly well. Its eccentric cast of characters is a highlight — especially my pitiful boy To-Fu — as is the dialogue that often left me snorting with laughter. If you love Japanese culture, bizarre Yōkai-like creatures, slapstick humour, and Grand Theft Auto style driving… Then yes, buy this game.
I have my fingers and toes crossed that this is a success for Kaizen Game Works, and they greenlight a sequel right away! I need more oddball mascots, more open-world Kei truck antics, and A LOT more deranged and vulgar interactions with Pinky. It’s a vibe.
Quest Daily scores Promise Mascot Agency:
9/10
Promise Mascot Agency is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam on April 11th. There’s also a demo available now across platforms.
Quest Daily was supplied with an early review copy of Promise Mascot Agency thanks to the publisher.
