I finished Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works) today–and 100%ed it. By the end of the game, I only had three achievements to get (not that big of an accomplishment as most achievements had nearly half the players or more accomplishing them), so I decided to get them–naturally. One of them inluded the plane, and, ugh. Just ugh. Oh, I got the item I mentioned in yesterday’s post–the one that I had to fly waaaaaaay up to the top of a building to get. After fucking it up for an hour yesterday (probably more like a half hour, but it felt much longer than that), I had another go at it today. It took me maybe five minutes and seven to ten tries to get it. Which is nothing for me!
I was mistaken in thinking I was at the very end of the game yesterday. I was not, and the game went from being open world exploration to being very much not that. I don’t want to talk to much about that because I don’t want to spoil it, but I will say that I liked the ending in general. I do think it was a bit too sappy for my taste, but at least it was coherent, unlike Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive).
I’ve tried to bite my tongue when it comes to the story of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 because I do not want to yuck other people’s yum. It has meant so much to so many people on an emotional level, and I never want to take that away.
But.
But…
But……
The story is hot trash.
That is my honest-to-god opinion of the story. I thought it started out strong with the prologue, albeit very melodramatic, and then it just steadily went downhill from there. At the end of the first act, I was shocked and gutted by the twist just as everyone else was. But the more I thought about it, the emptier I felt. It was a shocking twist, yes, but it felt very manipulative at the end of the day.
By the way, I included the voice cast reveal trailer yesterday because I was goin to talk about a few notable names, and then I never got past the fact that the voice of Kazuma Kiryu (Yakuza series, Takaya Kuroda) was the voice of Michi, the playable character in this game. I’m going to include the Japanese version of the trailer today, and I’ll finally mention two other names that were specifically released.
One was Swery65, a well-known video game director who has a distinctive bonkers style. The other is Shuhei Yoshida, the fromer president of Sony. Both of them play NPCs whom I really liked, but I don’t want to spoil it here.
Back to the story of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 compared to the story of Promise Mascot Agency–and eveyrthing else in comparison.
The trajectory of the story in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went from solid if melodramatic in the prologue to thrilling with a shocking twist at the end of Act 1. That felt less and less earned as the events of Act 2 were thrown at me is rapid succession. Two new party members, each with their own skill trees/moves. One of them had an interesting twist to his skills/moves, and while I appreciated it in theory, it was a bit tedious in reality as to how to actually acquire them.
The story went off the rails as well. All the restraint and pacinig, story-wise the game showed in the first act went out the window in the second. And the story went to some wild places. I would not have minded if I actually liked the story or thought it was cohesive. To me, though, it was all over the place and did not make sense when you picked it apart. What’s more, I felt as if it was written specificially to be heart-wrenching and moving.
In itself, that’s not a bad thing. Every writer writes to make an impact on their reader. However, it’s supposed to be done without the reader feeling like they were being manipulated to feel those feelings. Now, I want to be clear. The vast majority of people were profoundly moved by the game and thought the story was terrific. I know I’m in the extreme minority in thinking the story is hot trash. I’m fine with that, but it’s true.
By the end of the game, I was rolling my eyes and heavily sighing during all the exposition. I should have stopped playing at the end of the first act, but something pushed me to keep going. And I hated the story more and more as I went.
With Promise Mascot Agency, the story was paper-thin from the start. There was no indication/implication, at least to me, that it was trying to be lofty and ART. I could be wrong, but the irreverence streaking throughout the game made me think that the devs were not aiming for greatness. But then, the convoluted backstory makes me think that they are trying to be more clever than they actually are. I felt the same with the little I played of their prior game, Paradise Killer, too.
I was not as annoyed by it as I was with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I think the reason is because as I said, I never felt that Kaizen Game Works was trying to manipulate my emotions. That is something I really hate, and I will not tolerate it.
These are both games that I played, not knowing what to expect. I mean, I knew the very basics of each game, but nothing more. And, boy, were the rides vastly different. Literally and metaphorically.
One of them is in contention for my Game Of The Year, and it’s not the one that everyone else has on their list. I wrote about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and how the sum was bigger than all the individiual parts. I think I gave it a 7, which is a good score, but certainly not a great one. I really wish I had stopped playing after the first act.
As for Promise Mascot Agency, I grew to love it more and more as I played it–and I liked it a lot from the start. Yes, there are some things about it that I hate (flying and boating, and I do not like the driving, but I’ve gotten used to it, and the god-awful crane game. Fuck that shit), but in general, I enjoyed my time with this band of rag-tag mascots and other characters.
I’ve raved about how unique, memorable, and refreshing each character is. Even the mascots that were, shall we say, less than savory eventually grew on me. Michi is a solid main character, and Pinky is outrageously wonderful in her murdeous glee to make her hometown a better place.
I think one of the things I love so much about this game is that these are the freaks and the geeks, the weirdos and the outsiders came together and made a community/family that truly loved each other. Each of the people, mascots and others, had their flaws. They were not perfect, by any means. And that just made them more loveable.
I finished the game today, and despite hmy frustrations with some of the aspects of the game, I wanted to spend more time with all the characters.
That’s it for now. More tomorrow.