Promise Mascot Agency Review (ttv/HailIlpala)
This is a difficult one. Paradise Killer is up there amongst my favourite games of all time, so I've been excitedly looking forward to the next release from Kaizen. However, this game is a mixed bag. The design and feel is amazing, the characters are quirky and have a lot of personality, and the whole thing just feels unique, and that's hard to do in gaming nowadays. However, there are some issues with pacing in the early game, money seems just a little bit too hard to acquire to get to that tipping point where you can start upgrading things, and it feels like a game with such a nice environment shouldn't want to put you under kind of rigid time pressure and discourage exploring beyond aiming for the dots on the map. One of the potentially funniest parts of the game (the mascots getting in trouble) gets boring quickly, as the same few crises repeat themselves over and over again. Also, while there are a lot of collection quests going on, certain ones are kind of critical, but get lost in the shuffle of many others which just upgrade Mascot Supporter cards a little. There are a few bugs (like it being far too easy to get wedged in to the terrain) which can of course be forgiven, but as for the rest of it, I really am torn. There are a lot of positives to say about the game, and I'm looking forward to continuing, but I also feel like, for all the amazing characters and design elements, the actual game parts need some readjustment. Maybe I'll feel different later on in the game, but for now I just wish there was a neutral review option, because while I don't recommend the game, I also don't think it's in any way a bad game, just one with enough flaws that mean I would be reluctant to tell someone they should buy it.