In the last post, I was talking about how I always ended up doing the grind at some point in any game I played that had leveling/buying shit. I’m deep in it while playing Promise Mascot Agency (Kaizen Game Works), and I really wish I weren’t that way. Part of the problem is that I have an obsessive personality, but it’s also that I usually buy games waaaaay after they are released, which means that I get the DLC with it. I was playing Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions), which came with the DLC. I was into it (but didn’t love it as much as other people did) until the end of the second act/beginning of the third. Then, the story did me so dirty, I instantly hated it. I won’t get into that because it’s not really relevant here, but I played the third act with no joy in my heart.
I should have stopped once I finished the main game, but something compelled me to play the DLC. Which was more of the same and less enjoyable. It had cat sanctuaries, though, so that was a bonus. By the end of the DLC, I hated it so much, I quit during the last mission. I was probably half an hour to the end of the game, but I just could not make myself do it. I went back a month or so later to finish it up, but everything in me rebelled at playing it again.
I get this way with every game, even ones I love. At the end of every FromSoft game, I am so tired and weary, and yet, I keep trudging on. I begin to hate the game with every fiber of my body until I kill the final boss. Then, the fog lifts, and I’m back in love with the game again. Except the first Dark Souls. I hated it for whole year after I finished it.
With From games, I always bounce back and want to play them again. Except Sekiro, but that’s not what this post is about. Oh, and Bloodborne. What I sohuld say is that I always have one of the Dark Souls or Elden Ring playthrough on the go.
Today, as I was playing Promise Mascot Agency, my mind was on automatic. I’m not progressing the story at all–I’m just trying to clean up the side quests. And there are so many of them. I started a new mechanic today in which I (well, rather, Pinky, my assistant) debates with the corrupt mayor around the prefecture. Except, the game never explains what this means. It told me that I had to talk to NPCs in each area to learn things to use against the mayor. When I tried to initiate a debate, it would give me a percentage in multiples of 25%. When I saw 100%, I assumed that meant I would automatically win the debate.
Nope. What it actually meant was that I had done all the dialogue options with the local NPCs and whatever else in that area. When I debated the mayor, there would be three stock answers for each round, and one that Michi gave me (Pinky) that was original and based on the info we got from the locals. I was supposed to pick that answer in each round. Now, look. Maybe I missed them telling me that this was what I was supposed to do or I was too thick to pick up the subtext of ‘choose the prompt that Michi gave you’.
Now, I will put some of the blame on me that I didn’t realize the repeated answers were wrong, but how the hell was I supposed to know for the first one? That was just shitty explanation. Did I have to look it up? Yes, I did. Did I resent having to look it up? Yes, I did. Do I think it’s an unncessary addition?
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I have mixed feelings about it. I do think having Pinky run for mayor adds something positive to the game and the story. I also don’t mind the debates themselves, now that I actually know what I’m supposed to be doing. If they had explained it from the beginning, I would have been more forgiving. But, at the same time, I’m just worn out from all the side bits.
There’s another mechanic in which I have to have a chat with each mascot in order to increase their life satisfaction. I have to do it several times with each in order to get their full satisfaction. I have 19 mascots at the moment. And if they’re on holiday/on a job, I can’t talk to them. And if one of them needs me to take them somewhere to do something to increase their life satisfaction, I can’t talk to the rest of them.
The thing is, I like all the side quests for the most part. I like the characters and find them one of the best part of the games. They’re all quirky in charming and endearing ways, the mascots and the mascot support heroes. They do border on caricatures, but they manage to evade it juuuuuust. All of them are good-hearted, even if it’s really deep down. Yes, they are fucked up, but who isn’t?
And they are forming a comnmunity with members who really care for each other. There is a hint of a romance starting between two of the NPCs, which I like. And Pinky is the best with her crass, brash, irreverent humor. She ribs Michi about having a crush on his yakuza mother, and I don’t think she’s wrong.
I really like this game overall. I wish several of the elements were pared down or eliminated, but I can look past them. I will say the beginning hour or so was rough because I had given too generous of perks to my first few mascots and the constantly sending money thing was so stressfully. It still is in terms of having to do it every five to ten minutes, but at least I have the money to do it.
The charm of the game is still strong. I adore the characters, and I want to spend more time with them. I don’t like doing all the side quests, but I’ve resigned myself to doin them because I know how I am. That part is entirely on me, by the way. The compulsive need to do everything in the game.
Hooboy. I just found out that the glider is actually flying in the game. And it works like a flight stick. Which means I can’t use it because everything is backwards. Pulling back to make the nose go up. Pushing forward to make it go down. Left isright and right is left. Except, I can’t seem to make the plane go up at all until it suddenly goes nose WAY up in the air, and then I flip over.
I found this out because I was trying to reach an item up in the girders of a hotel construction site, and I discovered this is the only way to do it. I had tried the glider functions before, but they didn’t seem to work. Because I wasn’t using the controls properly.
Sigh.
I’ll write more tomorrow.