Promise Mascot Agency

Promise Mascot Agency is, to me, a perfect game. Read that again: perfect. Drive. Check out the view. Make dreams come true. Learn the woes of a living unagi promotion mascot who found out about declining populations. Relax. I just don't think you can have a bad time if you set foot in Kaso-Machi.

this game is so close to being a good game, I'm not going to go over the good because in all honesty all the reviews are mostly correct, the art style, gameplay reminds me of Banjo Kazooie funnily enough, music, its almost there. the biggest thing holding this game back is its writing and character direction, pinky is such a awful character that at 24 hours I've quit playing most likely for good. most characters have sidekicks whether its a brother, a good friend, or a rival, its always good to have somebody or something to provide the mc with additional support or ridicule when needed, it doesn't always need to be positive, actually quite the opposite, i don't mind a character who butts heads with the mc, and it can be a comedic relief at times. i think there is a fine line to strike to make sure that that it doesn't become annoying though, and pinky is not it. throughout the game i honestly think that this character writing was about as bad a Skyler white, what makes a character type this annoying is continuing hypocrisy, the fact that the mc (the character to which i was supposed to step into) is constantly berated throughout the game by the character architype which is supposed to support you, and like i said this support doesn't need to be positive reinforcement. its just every single time i do a mission where i have to cheer a mascot up or anything close to that pinky always chimes in with something along the lines of "mc was in the yakuza and is an objectively worse person in everyway because of it." now sidekicks butting head with the mc aside, and as annoying as it may be when it happens on a regular basis, is not alone why i stopped playing this game; i honestly think that pinky might be mentally worse than Michi. at the very least when Michi talks about his past childhood, its always in a dreary tone, you can, and a few rare points to the writers here, tell that these memories almost come from a place of regret, while as pinky reminisces on her fairly recent times of extortionism and violence fondly, and you can use the excuse "well pinky is still relatively young" (idk honestly what seems to be the threshold for young in mascot terms but from dialogue and other characters presumed age you can draw a pretty good estimate) and if that IS the case i think Michi should be doing better in trying to mentor this behavior and steer it in the correct direction, that is if he truly means it when he says that the mascot agency is his new family, that's another thing. Michi just lets everybody walk over him, the yakuza i can understand, people tend to let bosses walk all over themselves, but even people he just met he lets walk all over him, i could go on and on about this but I'm going to drop this point here as I'm getting a little tired of typing so lemme just get into the main thing that killed it for me. a little bit into the game pinky criticizes Michi for not participating in the free market and for being a yakuza once again, now at this point in the game we kind know that Michi's backstory kinda led him into the life of crime, in alot of sentences you can say he didn't have much of a choice or maybe HE felt like he didn't have much of a choice, he was a kid after all, either way you learn that Michi's yakuza kind of helps the community so its not all bad, while pinky went to school, runs a business, and is surprisingly able to make ends meet in this dying town, and yet still has a tendency twords violence, extortion, murder, etc. i have found almost no reason for any of that other than that pinky is insane, and you know what if it stopped there it would be fine, but the constant hypocritical moral grandstanding over Michi, its like an annoying cricket, you can deal with it the first few times but as soon as it displays itself as a constant you cant help but put a pillow over your ears. also idk what's up but there seems to be a surprising amount of absentee fathers in the game and sometimes just both parents in general, im going to make a large leap guess and say this is a bit of a self insert on the devs/writers part, no big comment on this just wanted to put that out there. last thing; I'm no intellectual, i just like to play games alot and honestly think that i know from that experience how to distinguish a bad character from a good character. it sucks because i like paradise killer, i really don't think that game had any crazy over the top divisive messaging, or if it did it was subtle enough to feel actually impactful rather than it just being a shoved down the throat message, which unfortunately Promise Mascot Agency didnt get this memo, their messaging seems to be contradictory, the story a little messy, and most of the dialog from pinky at least comes off as ignorant or hypocritical, and another big leap in guessing here but I'm like 99% sure that the devs/writers ended up picking this character to be the mouthpiece for their own opinions, that alone wouldn't make it bad but the delivery and execution seem to be all sort of awful and hypocritical in that way, but anyway thank you for reading.

nWanted to like it but didnt, it was like persona in how theres a bunch of talking for th efirst hour but it wasnt really interesting to me.

Pinky is best girl. It's a very cozy collectathon with some light mascot management thrown in. I was pleasantly surprised that they utilized my DualSense controller's adaptive triggers to create resistance based off of my current driving speed/boosting.

Really fun game that is part idler, part collectathon with anime humor

a big downgrade from paradise killer. less interesting characters less interesting world and the gameplay is totally dull.

It is a good game but I can't really call it amazing. The story is good but has pacing issues, the visuals are appealing but the town overall is kinda samey. The map has some interesting places but is mostly plain. It's not really long enough to get old but it also feels kinda rushed. Gameplay is mostly surface-level, the car controls kinda weird. All of that might sound negative but honestly it's fine. The game is fundamentally good, mostly because the story and characters are good (even though a lot of them are underdeveloped). Gameplay is mid but it doesn't really get in the way of the story. Just be prepared for it to mostly be a visual novel. A pretty good one but still just a visual novel.

It's like playing a Yakuza minigame but then it's the entire game.

I am having such a great time playing this game. Like Yakuza, this game has so much heart and it also commits to being unhinged in the best way. Navigating the town is rather clunky, but it adds to the charm of the game. Unlocking the truck upgrades really helped and flying was a breeze once i maxed my boost. I like how you can engage in the world in your own way. I put on an audiobook and just drove around collecting all the items on the map. All the character interactions are so fun, the quests are busy work but it's easy enough to work through and it's not tiring. The pacing of the main story is also pretty good and it doesn't take away from the management and exploration. I really enjoyed all the little details in the game, like how Pinky would change caps if you hit the water or were airborne. Pinky is best gal, she has the best lines in the game. Tofu is my sweet baby <3

[h2][i]Well, that was a weird summer...[/i] Yes. Yes it was.[/h2] Stuck in a rut, one Sunday afternoon exactly a week ago saw me delving the net for something new. Fresh. I'd landed on a question that I've not considered in all this time. What about Indie? They're the risk takers of the industry, creating something unique, a surprise that I'll never have stumbled upon. And after finding an article, I found 2 prime candidates. One of which: Promise Mascot Agency. After reading the weird and wacky synopsis, I thought I'd found something special. Let's unpack the business. [h3]Story ~ Yakuza caught between duty and history[/h3] Taking control of "The Janitor" Michi, an esteemed lieutenant of the Shimazu family in the Nakamura clan, your tasked with an important mission. The rival clan encroaches on your territory and Nakamura beseeches the Tokyo Nara clan for an alliance. Sent on a secret exchange of 12b yen that gets sabotaged, the alliance fails to blossom. Returning a vast fortune lighter, your family head has no choice but to claim your life... But do they? Instead, you're sent to a town on a lucrative business venture your family has kept a secret. A Mascot Agency! Sent to clean up and bolster this venture to fuel the deal that went south, work hard to build the agency into a legitimate nationally recognised brand! ...did I mention the town curses male Yakuza men? Best of luck...! This game starts out with a simple premise but has several twists and turns (mostly turns) to this dilapidated town you find yourself in. There's a history here, that as you go along, turns it from repaying a balance and mistake owed, to a mystery to stop something far graver from taking place. You will be strung along for a while and at least I found it a little hard to keep up or be interested. However, a good recap sequence before the final act, it's a tale that comes together very well. It's nothing earth-shattering but for a management game, I enjoyed and appreciated it as you work with the victims of the world that endured this tale. [h3]Gameplay ~ Business managed on the road![/h3] The story is told in the form of a Visual Novel with the VA Japanese only so be prepared to do a lot of reading. Grumble if you may, I felt the VA was perfect and some of the wacky antics that go on just wouldn't hit in English. When you aren't reading, you're taking your trusty truck through the streets Kaso-Machi. Interacting with it's residents, tame and wacky both whilst finding all sorts of collectibles in the world and participating in active events. You'll meet a range of characters from a mean tots crude metal supermarket clerk to BDSM proprietress of a bar. For real... Driving and becoming KM's most favored covert Yakuza, you'll need to manage your business! Mascots are basically non-humanoid citizens, they co-exist and co-fornicate with humans... :sips: Returning to above board..! These mascots are the life-blood of your business. Recruited to attend and promote businesses. You'll need to find, discuss contract obligations, arrange jobs and become a caring boss when they get in trouble. The aforementioned trouble see's you helping out your Mascots in a deck battler. You'll find "Hero Mascot" cards throughout your journey that vary in grade like trading cards. The higher the grade, the better the stats. Whilst you won't have to build a deck for those that prefer simpler systems, you'll need to pick your hand to play out of 2 exchanges to beat out the competition. So it's a driving game with management systems, a card battler, side objectives that range in quest activities like time trials, collectible hunting and gacha claw machine. It's a very varied game with none of the systems being overly too complicated to understand. [h3]Characters ~ Wonderfully weird and wacky[/h3] The stand out for PMA is easily its characters. You'll be able to explore a greater deal of the Mascot's personalities through work happiness reviews, find out their dreams and goals and help them get there besides working their obligated round-the-clock job. You'll help a slab of To-Fu overcome their insecurities, a... questionably white splattered cat chase their AV dreams and a Ghost like? Mascot bring exposure to... Graveyards.. Okay. The big personality of the game is your business partner, Pinkie ☆! For real, this chaotic thumb (yes, thumb) is an electric wild gun that will have you laughing and taking the edge off the scenario. Wishing death on the Crusty Old Geezer, eager to commit murder, go on tangents openly of insults and generally put stoic Michi in his place, Pinkie becomes such a contrast and perfect company to explore the game with. And her little yell when you crash into obstacles.. Gosh I belly laughed several times with the strange physics of driving, anticipating a crash just for Pinkie to go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!". It's brilliant. I'm so glad she's practically never not with us. Such a highlight of the game and never got overwhelmed with her uncontrolled twisted nature. There's many more characters with family-related and residents of the town, none of them miss. They're all great and voice-acted brilliantly. [h3]Criticism ~ Mystery Exposition[/h3] My only criticism is the story does drone on a little too much with the mystery but that may partially be my fault being distracted on Agency side of the game whilst story took shotgun, binging it all when I got round to it did wear me out a little that my attention span wasn't all there for it. I didn't allow for balance. Thankfully, when it comes to the final act, the recap helped me re-engage with the story and did a great job of it making it cohesive for the 80% or so I was tuned in. Lastly, I experienced strange input problems with my Dualsense controller. Not sure why but sometimes actions weren't picked up by the game and I had to reconfirm presses several times. Particuarly the X button for confirm and even the right trigger to accelerate. Sometimes it just wouldn't actuate in-game. All wired to boot. I swapped to a Xbox style Gamesir controller and the input problem disappeared. Can't think it's my hardware but something I noticed. A nit-pick to be sure. Surprised it supported the impulse triggers too which was a surprise, nice job, even if my experience was faulty. [h3]Conclusion ~ Solid Wacky Indie[/h3] At the core, Promise Mascot Agency is a cosy simple management game with a crazy Japanese story at its heart. You won't be challenged, the systems aren't intricate and you won't be stressed out, lest you make poor decisions or crank the difficulty (I opted for Normal). This is a Visual Novel heavy game so strap in for reading with some wild characters, wacky tunes and a chill ~20 hours to roll credits. The driving never over stayed its welcome either with upgrades that made traversal much more fun and outside my criticism in binging, I never felt PMA overstayed its welcome, even to 100%. It's a great time if you want a short and weird game with a collectible littered map to be distracted by.