bingewatches

I enjoyed the critical darling of the moment, Blue Prince, as much as the next elder millennial video game critic. But after weeks of filling countless notebook pages with indecipherable notes — at one point even seeing puzzle solutions in my dreams — I began to crave a game that would carry the bulk of the mental load. As if the Great Gamer God had heard my prayers, Promise Mascot Agency appeared on Steam.

You fill the geta of Michi, aka The Janitor, a yakuza fixer who owes a big debt after a money handoff goes wrong. To make good, Michi agrees to move to a neglected town in rural Japan, where he must revive a flagging mascot agency — and restore the community — before an anti-yakuza curse kills him.

Crucial detail: In this world, Japanese mascots are real, living creatures. Pinky, the 6-foot severed thumb mascot that follows you through the entire journey? She’s a real, breathing, humongous bloodied finger. She’s also really into hardcore pornography with, like, as minimal pixelization as possible — but I digress.

The premise sounds more complicated than it is. Promise Mascot Agency is a chore game. You spend the bulk of the adventure driving around an open world, running errands, and fetching items for locals. Within an hour or so, the left side of the screen becomes a rolling to-do list.

Dig up some arcade missions on the beach. Recycle garbage at the junkyard. Drive from the westernmost point of the map to the easternmost point to recruit a mascot, then drive all the way back to chat with a new shop owner interested in using your team of misfits to promote a grand opening.

Developer Kaizen Game Works debuted with Paradise Killer, a psychedelic detective thriller we dubbed “the most confident game of 2020.” At first glance, it’s taken the classic sophomore album approach with Promise Mascot Agency — making everything bigger and flashier. The town and its surroundings (a mountain, a forest, a beach) sprawl well beyond the scope of most contemporary indie games. Michi is voiced by Takaya Kuroda, best known as Like a Dragon’s longtime protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu.

And yet, it doesn’t take long to notice the new open-world game is decidedly chill. Unpretentious. Old-school. The more complex systems — business management tinkering, a card-based combat minigame — feature the video game equivalent of bowling bumpers, ensuring that as long as you try, you’ll do just fine.

I’ve written versions of the above sentences as criticism of open-world games in the past. So why can’t I stop playing this one?

I think — and frankly, I’m still parsing my feelings each night when I return to Promise Mascot Agency’s beautifully decrepit village — that the designers at Kaizen Game Works know how to wield the chore game in just the right way, like a master sushi chef turning a palm of rice and a slice of fish into an unforgettable meal.

Here, the chores are simply a means of keeping my hands busy while I take a vacation in the game’s utterly charming world. With no mental pressure, I can take a long drive into the mountains, meet weirdos, chill to a killer soundtrack (peak Persona vibes), and notice all the little details. Ghosts gather outside a convenience store. Two mascots I met hours ago hang out at a park, unaware that I’m driving by on my way to save a human-sized block of tofu from embarrassment at a local retailer’s convention.

The game has filled a spot in my routine usually reserved for classic sitcoms. When I watch reruns of The Simpsons or 30 Rock, I don’t expect to be challenged. I certainly don’t plan to take notes. I know every beat before it happens, every joke before its punchline. But I find comfort in these fictional people and their cozy alternate reality. These shows give me something to “do” when all I want is to do nothing.

I’m not eager to drop everything and play more Promise Mascot Agency. But I’m happy knowing that after everything else that must be wrapped before the end of the day — work, make dinner, get my kid to bed — I have this game that will keep my hands busy and free my mind to wander.

Promise Mascot Agency was released April 10 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PC using a prerelease download code provided by Kaizen Game Works. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.