Kaizen Game Work's second game!! As a massive Paradise Killer fan, I was veeery excited for this game just from its announcement. And honestly I was surprised at how both alike and different Promise Mascot Agency is from Paradise Killer.

For the good, this game shows once more a mastery of 'vibes'. The story told is about a failed yakuza member trying to redeem himself and his family, and to do that he goes to a remote japanese town to revitalize a failing mascot business (mascots being all real in this world). It feels like an 80s anime or a japanese drama, and that extends fully to all other aspects of the game. The game's world feels just like what you'd expect for an older, remote japanese town, the soundtrack doesn't take you out of that vibe and there's even an overlay option that gives the game that slight VHS blur/chromatic aberration that's common to that era.
The gameplay itself is mostly exploring the town of Kazo Machi just by driving around, and in that sense it resembles a collectathon: there are movement upgrades, office upgrades, hero cards, fishing spots, mascots and new characters to find by just exploring. And thanks to nailing the atmosphere of the world, even just going around finding things and progressing through the plot feels... comfortable. I woldn't call this game cozy necessarily but it's definitely an enjoyable, not stressful experience.

Along with the exploration, this game has some management aspects too, with you managing mascots going on jobs so that they make money for you to not only progress the plot but also upgrade the town and your offices, which leads to more jobs and more money. For this part of the game specifically, you have around 20 mascots to find and recruit, and, much like all the other characters in this game, they're a pretty fun bunch! Since the game sets the story in a "town of strays", most of them are leftovers or weirdos or has beens, but all of them have a little side plot to follow as you progress their 'Life Satisfaction', and I liked pretty much all of them by the end (Though some were more memorable than others. I love you Salary-Nyan).

Sadly though this business management part of the game falls a touch flat, and that ties into what I felt was the biggest issue with the game. Around 15-20h in you'll likely have seen most of the interesting stuff the game has to offer, and things start feeling like busy work. Luckily that doesn't emcompass much more than the last few hours of the game in my opinion, but it does feel like the game ran out of steam, and that's doubly so for the management sim aspect, since money stops being a real worry much earlier.
Not that you'll be able to buy everything early on. But I personally never felt the threat of a money game over looming, which is not necessarily bad, in fact it does help the laid back feel of the game, but it does go against some of the narrative tension, and thus the management aspect ends up feeling a bit hollow, even if it's still a core part of the game.

Funnily enough, thats a similar problem that I had with Paradise Killer, but I'm also happy to report that Promise Mascot Agency does have a much better ending sequence narrative wise, even if it did drag on a bit.

In all I did find my time with this game quite enjoyable!! Fun world to explore, fun vibes, fun characters, its pretty much all I wanted from another Kaizen Game Works game!

Information games really are such an amazing genre. Honestly, I think it's probably one of the best video game genres out there, as it showcases how games can, as interactive media, tell stories in a way unique to the medium.
And so!! Type Help!

Play this game.

No, really, play this game! It's a fantastic information game, it's free AND it's playable in-browser!

Among other information games (that I know of at least) the gameplay is most akin to Her Story, having you search for specific files using a very basic computer interface, but the story itself veers pretty far from that.
I won't detail much of it since its a short game and figuring things out is great part of the fun, but it's a pretty gripping mystery with lots of the trappings of the genre: an isolated mansion, a decently big cast... it's all there, and it's written pretty well!
I was genuinely surprised at how many little 'tricks' the dev left in for the player to figure out, little insignificant details that have you going "Ah!!" when you figure them out. Not all of them are related to the main mystery, of course, but things still flow in a way that even when you're stuck you'll still be figuring something out.
There were a couple of moments where I felt genuinely lost though, I can't deny. And, annoying as it was to have to rely on trial and error, the game's mechanics make it not as frustrating as it could be.

The final resolution to everything was very inventive too! I... honestly am not sure I liked it much as a conclusion to a mystery. But it's something that definitely sticks with you, even if its not as well explored as I personally wish it was, AND. It's definitely something that could only really be achieved with this level of intrigue by being told to you, the player, the way that it is.

This game's just.... lovely. Really, a lovely experience all the way through!
I'd played the dev's last game Islets before and liked it well enough, a fun if a touch unpolished little metroidvania, but!! You could feel the care that was put into the game.
I'm happy to say that the same level of care and attention is felt in Crypt Custodian!!

Crypt is a top down metroidvania, which surprisingly isn't that common of a genre. There aren't thaaat many movement upgrades to find, which is not really what you usually see in indie metroidvanias I've found. But the upgrades that are there, while simple, still make the experience interesting the whole way through.
The combat's fun too! A touch frantic and mashy maybe, but I wasn't expecting a deep system from this. It's a pretty fun mix of top down action and shmup dodging, and it delivered more than enough for the experience.

I think the highlight here are the vibes and the story. Crypt Custodian has you playing as a recently deceased cat that's locked outside "The Palace" (aka he's stuck in the bad afterlife) and tasked to being essentially a janitor. Through the game you're meeting other ghosts and making friends, finding out a bit of their lives, some happy some very sad, but it's never too much, and the game never lets the mood get too dour.
Honestly I think this might be a pretty decent game to play when you're down. It gives you the thoughts of the people you love still looking out for you even when the situations are tough, and even when they're too far away to be phisically present. It's not necessarily a 'happy' game, but its for sure a comforting game.