DRIVING AROUND ODDBALL JAPAN IN PROMISE MASCOT AGENCY

Bring me that horizon

- By Jody Macgregor

Everything in Japan has a mascot.

Towns, sports, corporations, train stations—even prisons have mascots themed around local delicacies. In Promise Mascot Agency, those mascots aren’t just people dressed as a baby otter with a tortoise for a hat. Every big pink cat or walking block of tofu you see is a real living being who has to earn a living by opening shops and cultural events.

It’s your job as an exiled yakuza with the same voice actor and off-the-charts unflappability as Kazuma Kiryu from the Like a Dragon games to manage those mascots, assigning them jobs, negotiating bonuses, and bailing them out when things go bad.

I’ve heard Promise Mascot Agency called a ‘chore game’, which doesn’t do it any favors, but pointing out that it’s an open world collectathon probably doesn’t help either. Ubisoft-style open worlds and the grindy JRPGs Promise Mascot Agency is geographically adjacent to have devalued the genre’s currency. This take on the genre's different enough to make me enjoy it again, though.

TRUCKY CHARMS