I don't think I'm capable of rivalling Nic's enthusiasm for Promise Mascot Agency, the new open world game from Paradise Killer devs Kaizen Game Works, so I'll settle for saying "EEEEE". The developers have just released a nine-minute explainer video, which teems with scenes of gimp suits, winged vans, rocket-propelled pinkies, vicious card battles against small excited dogs, and a surprisingly in-depth management component. There are bits that make me think of Batman: Arkham City, and bits that make me think of Pathologic, and bits that make me think of Yakuza - a combination fit to burst the brain. Quick, before your brain bursts, watch the video for yourself below.

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I don't think I'm capable of rivalling Nic's enthusiasm for Promise Mascot Agency, the new open world game from Paradise Killer devs Kaizen Game Works, so I'll settle for saying "EEEEE". The developers have just released a nine-minute explainer video, which teems with scenes of gimp suits, winged vans, rocket-propelled pinkies, vicious card battles against small excited dogs, and a surprisingly in-depth management component. There are bits that make me think of Batman: Arkham City, and bits that make me think of Pathologic, and bits that make me think of Yakuza - a combination fit to burst the brain. Quick, before your brain bursts, watch the video for yourself below.

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If you've played Kaizen Game Works' wonderfully weird cosmic-horror-tinged vapourware deduction adventure Paradise Killer, you'll know the studio isn't afraid to mix things up, and its newly announced Promise Mascot Agency looks to be an equally wild, genre-bending ride.

Kaizen Game Works describes Promise Mascot Agency as the "world's first (and best) open-world mascot management crime drama", and it charts the adventures of a disgraced yakuza lieutenant - Michizane "Michi" Sugawara - after he's exiled to a cursed town and forced to turn a bankrupt mascot agency into a profitable business.

And things only get weirder from there. As Michi, players must explore the town of Kaso-Machi in their run-down truck, making friends, striking deals, and recruiting mascots (here "living creatures that have coexisted with mankind since the dawn of history") by satisfying their dreams and demands - whether that be a rice ball or something rather less benign.

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Every day, I wake up, and write about videogames, so it’s a strange feeling to realise I won’t be able to do that anymore, because videogames have been completed. Won. Done. Wonso. Doneso. Promise Mascot Agency is "the world's first (and best) open world mascot management crime drama." It's from Paradise Killer studio Kaizen Game Works Limited. You recruit Yokai-lookin' mascots. Yakuza are in it. You can upgrade your battered truck. You can play a tactical card game to help your mascots. Ikumi Nakamura, of Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo art-fame worked on it. Quick! Someone arrest these reprobates for voter fraud, because no one game should tick this many boxes.

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