The article discusses the challenges faced by Kaizen Game Works in defining their upcoming game, 'Promise Mascot Agency.' Originally described as an open-world mascot management crime drama, it is, in fact, an RPG with management and creature collecting elements. Collaboration with Japanese artists Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori provided unique cultural insights and character designs. The game's mascots, a mix of bizarre characters like sentient burial mounds and nonconformist cats, have garnered positive early audience reviews, suggesting a successful connection with players.
"I think it's difficult to convey what the game is. We initially talked about the game... as an open-world mascot management crime drama, and to us that made perfect sense, but I don't think that has conveyed quite what the game is."
"The good thing that the team at Paradise Killer studio Kaizen Game Works have found... is this - early audience reviews of their ‘band of freaks’ have been universally good."
"We went to her [Ikumi Nakamura] with absolutely nothing... it was important for us to work with someone in Japan, being a Western team and setting a game in Japan."
"The mascots we got back were things that we would never have made ourselves and cultural references that we wouldn't have got to ourselves."
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