If I had a nickel for every obscure japanese point-and-click adventure “game” inspired by Buddhism I played, I’d have two nickels right now, with the other being Cosmology of Kyoto, which would get me nowhere but it’s still interesting how some of the more notoriously obscure games have some similar aspects to one another.

If you are reading this, I’m pretty sure you know who Osamu Sato is, or at the very least you know about LSD Dream Emulator, the trippy as fuck dream emulator (DUH) for PlayStation 1 that has garnered a sizeable cult following since its inception. But for review sake, let me pretend you don’t know jack shit about who he is. Well then, Osamu Sato is a surrealist artist and musician most people would probably know for the times he ventured into the realm of gaming back in the ‘90s. Speaking of which, throughout the decades many people from outside video games have tried their hands at making video games, whether they are people famous for creating pop culture icons such as Clive Barker (Undying and Jericho), Steven Spielberg (Medal of Honor) and… Justin… Fucking… Roiland (Trover Saves the Universe, High on Life)... Heck, Akira Toriyama, the guy who created a franchise as iconic as Dragon Ball, was the main artist behind one of the most well known JRPG franchises ever, in this case Dragon Quest. And this is all just counting people who were already pretty well-regarded by the time they first ventured into gaming Justin Roiland notwithstanding, though to be fair his reputation only started to truly deteriorate with later seasons of Rick and Morty and especially after his gross behavior was exposed to public eye, because we also have lesser known artists who decided to delve into this growing market, Osamu Sato being one of them, and what better genre for him to demonstrate his artistic prowess than the point-and-click adventure genre, Myst-like no less?

The 7th Guest and especially Myst, while not the first games to use CD-ROM, were some of the first games to popularize the format, notably for the cutting-edge technical capabilities that wouldn’t be possible in the floppy disk format. Myst in particular is odd to revisit nowadays, because back in the day it was a massive revelation due to its impressive graphics, but in hindsight feels like exploring a virtual cemetery where ancient civilizations once used to live there, but is now completely empty of any life aside from the player. Playing Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou on the other hand feels like stepping in an alien planet and exploring it, trying to understand its inner workings to then come back to Earth and release your findings into the public eye, and that’s what I’ll be essentially doing for the rest of this review, aren’t I? As a matter of fact, most reviews for anything, from video games to household appliances, could be summed up as people reporting on their findings about a piece of media or product and their thoughts on it, though there are major differences between judging, let’s say, a third-party PS2 controller by Mad Catz and a game like Ikaruga, as in, if someone said the former was trash, one would obviously avoid it since a barely functional product will be a massive waste of money, where as if someone said Ikaruga was the greatest SHMUP of all time, one could beat it and still leave thinking it wasn’t nearly as good as that one reviewer claimed it to be.

Actually, on the topic of Ikaruga, the SHMUP genre by itself is already a very Sink or Swim genre, when a player tries to get into the genre for the first time they will inevitably be overwhelmed by the bullet hell covering the screen and requiring them to maneuver through those bullets, and then in replays, the challenge comes from beating it while getting as many points as possible and/or without getting a game over once during that run or whatever other challenge such as beating Ikaruga without firing a bullet, AKA Dot Eater. But what does this have to do with Eastern Mind though? Right from the get go it immediately strikes the player as an overwhelming game, both in its surreal spectacle and odd structure signature of Osamu Sato’s oeuvre.

When one finally gets to first tip their toe onto the island of Tong-Nou, a green face staring in front of you will be ingrained in their mind, just that moment alone is already a very good indicator of its sense of style. Each of the two ears and cheeks of Osamu Sato Tong-Nou lead into a different region of the island, packed with brilliantly otherworldly landscapes accompanied by an eclectic, trippy and sometimes beautifully haunting soundtrack from the mind (and head) of Osamu Sato and populated by downright goofy-ass folks comprised of random shapes that sometimes might resemble something familiar and other times are in fact just a mishmash of random shapes, but regardless, its denizens stand out as very wacky due to their designs and personalities.

During the first few minutes there’s nothing to do but keep wandering around each location without having a clue about where to go or what to do, desperately trying to grasp what the fuck is happening until meeting your inevitable doom… But remember, this is the realm of Buddhism, not Computerism, so there’s none of that save scumming bullshit that plagued so many PC games from the 90s and 2000s, and instead you are sent into the afterlife and then you’re told your main goal:

Complete the missions of the nine lives, and get into the Mountain of Tong-Nou!

You must then choose to reincarnate as one of eight characters and complete their objectives, and after a long journey through the island you shall claim back the soul of Rin. Until that moment, be prepared for this bizarro journey… And please have a Tong-Nou Illustrated Book ready on your Furoshiki, it will be crucial.

And you know what? I want to stop for a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of the Tong-Nou Illustrated Book. It’s sort of a guidebook for tourists visiting the island, and the care that was put into detailing much of its world is astounding, it makes Tong-Nou feel like an even bigger place packed with its own unique culture, flora and fauna, and what you’re physically seeing is just the tip of the iceberg for a bigger universe (and since Chu-Teng is a direct sequel to this game, it very much is the case).

And indeed, the universe of Eastern Mind is a very strange one. The feeling of an outsider who’s forced to travel into a place with its own rules and logic that’s totally different from what we see in our everyday on Earth is indescribable, the bewildering qualities presented by the environments and characters found throughout the adventure give form to this weird cake, and the progression and puzzles are just the cherry on top. I’ve seen some people complain about the puzzles being obtuse, but like, isn’t that the whole fucking point? This isn’t Earth for crying out loud, this would be like if someone went to Mars and complained about the lack of oxygen there, at least if they had the chance to do so before inevitably dying there. I’d even argue that the cryptic nature of its “challenges” enhance the overall experience, as you have to learn not only how to solve a puzzle, but also how everything even works on Tong-Nou. And eventually, you’ll become accustomed to it, what starts as completely alien and absurd will become familiar, traversing each region will become second nature, and its metaphysics and saturn logic will become (mostly) clear as a whistle, and every mission from each of the eight characters is now accomplished, now the only thing left to do is reach the top of the mountain and recover your soul…

EXCEPT NOT AS YOU MISSED THE FUCKING MAGATAMAS THAT THE GAME NEVER TOLD YOU IT WAS NEEDED, NOW GO BACK AND COLLECT ALL OF THE MAGATAMAS, AND THEN COME BACK AND REALIZE YOU STILL NEED TO COLLECT MORE SHIT FOR YOUR DINKY ASS KATANA YOU LITTLE FUCK!

Why? Just… Why?? Just… Fucking… Why???

The pacing of Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou is fantastic. Despite it being comprised of only four relatively small locations (not counting the Central Mountain), there’s a stark variety in its progression, as you flip-flop between multiple characters with different objectives, and it’s just exhilarating to see the wacky hijinks each character must go through, like… How was someone supposed to know that to get the Eyeball of Dreaming you must pick up an ant and throw it at the face of the King of Life and then enter through his mouth and tell him the eye was originally from a guy named Tou-Gyou? I have no idea, and I love it. But then once you become Rin again and are forced to go search for the Magatamas, it’s like… How was someone supposed to know that to get into the Central Mountain of Tong-Nou one needed to get those Magatamas all around the world despite the game never telling you beforehand it was necessary, and then why should I get these random shit for my Katana when the game could have just told me from the very beginning those things would be important later on? I don’t know, and I hate it, because even if narratively it makes sense we should need to get the Magatamas, I don’t get why the game didn’t just tell me as soon as died that those things would be important later on, it’s just stupid, and not in a good way. A big dirt stain in an otherwise fascinating game.

Osamu Sato could clearly demonstrate in his groundbreaking debut within the gaming sphere that he’s not only a awesome artist and musician, but also someone who clearly knew their shit with video games and did something truly unique to the medium, and it's a shame it didn’t get nearly as much recognition as LSD Dream Emulator, which, don’t get me wrong, also deserves the cult following it got, but I think Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong-Nou is also a huge hidden gem and is far more interesting than that game (in my opinion).

Before wrapping this up I just want to do a brief review of Chu-Teng, this game’s sequel that was once lost media:

It’s kind of a letdown. Despite the even more abrasive soundtrack, even more absurd and zany characters and a even cooler story and worldbuilding, it just play as a typical Myst-like with the typical puzzles from that of other point-and-click adventure games, as well as less interesting “level design” in comparison to Tong-Nou. If you really like Osamu Sato’s oeuvre you should definitely check it out though.

We know this game like the back of our hand. There's scant few games that can qualify for "favorite of all time" because at this point, our favorites list is a 12-game pileup that grows every year or two--this could be a compelling argument.

You can honestly just copy-paste any compliments we gave to Chu-Teng here, because they largely apply here too. All we'll say is this game is a little longer, but also a little easier too. Please play this game, we promise if nothing else, it'll be a very interesting experience that'll be fun to talk about.