Heck yeah, the Paradise Killer studio is working with a prominent horror dev on an open-world management RPG about an ex-Yakuza and his Japanese mascot recruits

2024-04-30

GamesManagementHeck yeah, the Paradise Killer studio is working with a prominent horror dev on an open-world management RPG about an ex-Yakuza and his Japanese mascot recruitsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Kaizen Game Works, the studio behindthe bangin' 2020 detective game Paradise Killer, has revealed its next game, and it sounds absolutely wild in a way that seems meticulously catered to my precise tastes.

I think the best way to not only sum up whatPromise Mascot Agencyis about and also convey just how weird it is, I’ll just share what Kaizen itself says about its second project. Fair warning, it’s a doozy, so strap in. Promise Mascot Agency is “the world’s first (and best) open world mascot management crime drama.”

Open world. Mascot management (!), Crime drama.You’re an exiled yakuza lieutenant banished to a cursed Japanese town and tasked with restoring an old rundown mascot agency - that is, an agency catered to Japanese mascots down on their luck. For the uninitiated, Mascots are adorable little characters usually designed to promote something like a region of Japan, an event, or a business. For example,Domo-kunis the brown, fuzzy, rectangular representative for the Japanese public broadcasting company NHK, while Pikachu is the mascot for Pokemon. However, not all mascots are created equal.

As the sole operator of Promise Mascot Agency, along with your rotund mascot sidekick Pinky, you mostly deal with “misfit mascots,” like a big old cube of tofu literally named To-Fu whose greatest adversary is “Normal Sized Door”. Recruit To-Fu and they’ll do various jobs for you to increase the profitability and efficiency of the agency, but be prepared to train, manage their stress levels, and help them overcome challenges, like fitting through doors, using Hero Cards with various stat-boosting effects.

“Mascots have their own hopes, dreams and desires and you’ll need to negotiate to recruit them,” Kaizen says. “Some mascots want money, some want fame, some want a rice ball from the local convenience store and some want to see the entire world burn to ashes in glorious hellfire.”

Kaizen is working with Ikumi Nakamura, a developer best known for her work on Okami, Bayonetta, Evil Within, and Ghostwire: Tokyo, to bring this Japanese fever dream to life, which is yet another reason it is so firm on my radar you couldn’t pry it off with an industrial wrench. Promise Mascot Agency launches on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in 2025.

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Who knows, maybe it’ll weird its way into our list of thebest open world games.

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GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”

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Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”

3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”

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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”

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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

2Mufasa: The Lion King review – “It’s no Hakuna Matata but this Disney origin story is a class above the 2019 movie”

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3Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”

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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

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