This is the fifth and last post I’m going to write for my official review of Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works). I still think about it, even though I have not played it for several days. All the thing s that irritated me about it have melted away, and all I have are warm feelings about my time with the game.
I have gone on and on about the characters in the last several posts, so I won’t do that again. But I will point out that this is similar to why I started writing my own mystery novels. This was decades ago when there mystery novels were niche, and it was a big deal to have female authors, let alone authors of color. There were two Asian female detective leads that I knew of. One was a Japanese American woman living in Tokyo, written by an Indian American woman–which, fun fact. The author’s stepmother is a Taiji classmate of mine. The second was a Chinese American woman (I think) with a really cringy, stereotyped Tiger Mom. I read the first book, cringing the whole time.
Nowadays, there are so many more, but still–no one anywhere near me. I am a weirdo/different in so many ways, I just accept that I’m different than the norm in every way that matters. Because I did not see anyone even close to what I am in the mystery novels I was reading, so I started writing my own.
That’s how I feel about this game. In general, games do not have characters that are anything like me. Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall), a game I’ve talked about a lot, is one. Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games) is another. Both of them had oddball characters who were on the fringe of society. These characters were not put into the game to be made fun of or laughed at. They weren’t there to be pitied, either. They were just there, living their authentic lives.
One of my issues with most media is that I cannot relate to the characters. This is visual media, by the way–so movies and TV shows. Books are different. One of the issues with American movies and TV shows is that everyone is just too damn good-looking. And white. So very white. (I haven’t watched TV or movies on the regular in over a decade, probably closer to two). When I did watch movies, I preferred European (mostly British) movies because the people in them looked like actual people.
It’s the same with video games. Most Triple A games are very narrow when it comes to their themes, their looks, and their story-telling. Even if they’re telling a story that resonates with most people, those stories are still pedestrian. Look, I know there are six themes in the world. And I know that it’s what you do with them that matters. But for whatever reasons, the stories that really hit hard with other people just leave me cold.
I don’t know how to explain it, exactly, because I only know that they constantly miss with me. Take Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive). Everyone gushed about the story and how emotional it was. People were raving about it so much, and even when I was onboard with the story (which was during the prologue), I was wincing a bit at how over-the-top it was. By the end of the game, I absolutely hated the story and called it hot trash in my mind. I kept that thought to myself, though.
That’s one reason of many that I love indie games. They are willing to create characters that aren’t in their tidy little boxes with maybe one mildly odd quirk. And, yes, I know that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an indie game, but it feels like it has aspirations to be AAA.
I was immediately at home with this crew of weirdos and freaks. I didn’t just tolerate them to move the plot along as I do with most games that try to get too deep with the characters. and, again, I keep my mouth shut because I learned the hard way when I was in my twenties that people really don’t want to know when you dislike something they love.
I would have been perfectly happy to just spend all my time in this game with the mascots and the NPCs. In fact, if Kaizen Game Works wants to make a sequel that is just a visual choose-your-own adventure with these characters, I would be so down with that. Or a dating sim! Hell, I could go with a cozy management game, too. Which, come to think of it, Promise Mascot Agency was, more or less.
I think going into the game with little hype and not knowing much about the game really helped keep my expectations in check. All I knew was the basic premise of a disgraced yakuza member starting up a mascot agency. I didn’t even know what the latter really meant. Mascot agency? I kind of pictured it as mascots of sports teams or something like that.
I just knew it was supposed to be really good, and it was on sale. The prologue was nothing special, but it was stylish enough and snappy enough to keep me engaged. I was just waiting fro the real game to begin, and once it did, I was hooked. I was a bit thrown by Pinky at first. She was shrill, supers-chaotic, and exceedingly foul-mouthed. This was before I realized that she was a literal severed pinky, but life-sized.
It took me an embarrassingly long time for me to realized she was a severed pinky, by the way. Once I did, though, I had to give the game props for their inventiveness. This was two or so hours into the game, and by this time, I was totally in love with Pinky. Why did my feelings about her change? I’m not sure. I think it’s because while she was rude and crude and exceedingly into murdering people in very graphic ways, she was also loyal to her town, her friends, and her family. She had a pure heart, and I quickly found her to be one of my favorite characters in the game.
It’s late, so I’ll finish up with one last post tomorrow.