QCF: Promise Mascot Agency

he Yakuza/Like a Dragon titles are a series of video games that quickly etched their mark onto my heart, especially after I started to lose hope of whether or not the next Shenmue entry would ever happen. In spite of the action-laced criminal drama that the series is famous for, though, the B-Story styled side-quests and activities were what always hooked me for hours on end, more often to the extent that the main objectives of the games were ironically set to the side. While Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio made sure to pack plenty of flashy distractions and gripping stories, there was a certain recurring trend among the low-stakes pastimes that were included in each Yakuza title—a business-simulator-like mini-game. These side-operations didn’t just have some flimsy premise to justify their inclusion, either; these games are often sizable productions, complete with their own wacky gravitas of the “Saving the Orphanage” variety attached to the ordeal, and in some instances were just as deep as the main plot.

Thinking back, I remember spending a whole night grinding away at Ichiban Confections, and just easily lost count over how many times that I had thought to myself, “Man, this should be a whole-ass game with a full-time 40-hour campaign and everything…”

Well, it would seem that Kaizen Game Works must have heard my silly pipe dreams and did just that with Promise Mascot Agency, and even enlisted the incredible talents of Takaya Kuroda for good measure.

Beyond the parallels to the Dragon of Dojima’s outings, Promise Mascot Agency offers an engrossing story of perseverance and redemption through a massive melting pot of gameplay mechanics that have no business working together as well as they do. The end result is a fresh and weirdly addictive venture that delivers an experience that’s even better than the bizarrely solid sum of its parts.

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QCF: Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ (Switch)

Never judge a book by its cover; in this case never judge an RPG by its visual novel elements. I initially did not think I would play through this release from Sekai Games and Mr. Tired Media due to the bland and uninspired spin on breaking the fourth wall and using anime tropes with negative results.  However, after grinding out multiple hours of Undead Darlings ~no cure for love~ on the Switch and surpassing all the brutal objectives laid out in the zombie apocalypse I can say that the combat and challenging gameplay shows enough promise to make the title something worth checking into.

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QCF: Takeshi & Hiroshi

 know it may sound a bit silly, especially when you think about the importance of roles like Fire Fighters and Surgeons but, it can be argued that Video Game Developers are among some of the biggest heroes of modern society (this can honestly be said about all creatives, but stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this.)

The worlds they can weave, with designs that are teeming with a sense of wonder that bewilders and empower anyone looking for an experience to escape to; Game Developers offer an invaluable service, and for one aspiring designer-in-the-making, it’s the one gift he can give to an ailing little brother.

In a story where your passion can be someone’s entire world, enter Takeshi & Hiroshi; an interactive novel from Oink Games that’s packed with a lot of heart, a surprising amount of gameplay depth, and the regrettable snag of ending way too soon.

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QCF: Wintermoor Tactics Club (Steam)

The older I get, the more I miss my D&D group. I have so many great memories of our various adventures, some that were recorded here on Press Pause Radio for a podcast called Critical Fail. I had to stop playing on a regular basis once I started having children, and nowadays I look back on those days and realize how important that group and those antics were for me at the time. The same can be said for the group of students that make up the Tactics Club in Wintermoor Tactics Club. However, the difference for this organization at the fictional Wintermoor Academy in 1981 is that their bond and abilities may save the world while participating in a snowball tournament dubbed “The War of Clubs”. 

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QCF: Cherry Tree High: I! My! Girls!

f you dig Persona the way I do, 773's Cherry Tree High Comedy Club was a game that should have grabbed your attention last year.

It sported a social link-styled system that closely resembled Atlus' masterpiece game-changer, though its setting is obviously much less dark. I had always felt that a little something was lost in translation with Cherry Tree High Comedy Club, but it was fun nonetheless. With its moderate success, Nyu-Media saw fit to bring over the sequel to Cherry Tree High Comedy Club to Steam and other platforms as well, in the form of Cherry Tree High: I! My! Girls!.

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