Eastern Mind: Lost Souls of Tong-Nou

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"There is a lot of zen to this whole dealie and it does get deep, but seriously look at those fucking things. It's like H.P. Lovecraft shat out Salvador Dali after eating Picasso." —Top comment on Youtube, which pretty much sums it up.

Eastern Mind: Lost Souls of Tong-Nou is a PC game released in 1995 by Outside Directors Company Limited. Eastern Mind: Lost Souls of Tong-Nou is also a... rather strange game.

The game starts out with a guy named Rin discovering that his soul was stolen by the island of Tong-Nou, presumably, for eating, and if he doesn't get his soul back, then he'll weaken and eventually die in emptiness. Rin decides to go and retrieve his soul, but before he does, his friend Yashiro gives him a temporary soul which will last for forty-nine days. When he gets there, it turns out the island is a giant green human head floating in the darkness, and in order to continue your quest, you have to enter the head through one of the orifices. The game only gets better from there. By the way, it was created by Osamu Sato, who is also responsible for LSD Dream Emulator, which explains much.

The game is very obscure, and not many people in the West know about it. There's a sequel, but it's even more obscure and unheard of and was only released in Japan, so literally nothing is known about it except that it's called "Chu-Teng" ("Chuuten"?).

Tropes used in Eastern Mind: Lost Souls of Tong-Nou include:

• Adventure Game
• All There in the Manual: The names for most of the characters found in the game (as well as their personalities) are found inside an illustration book you get while exploring.
• Art Shift: The introductory cutscene is in a simple drawn style, as opposed to most of the game, which is CGI.
• Creator Cameo: Tong-Nou is depicted as Osamu Sato's head.
• Dream Land: The Land of Dreaming, Mon-chien.
• Eldritch Abomination: The whole population of the island, and the island itself.
• Failure Is the Only Option: You have to die and reincarnate 9 times in the game, and three of your lives end instantly.
• Genius Loci: The titular island.
• Let's Play: The game is difficult to purchase; still, there is a number of Let's Play's on Youtube, includung one by Azuritereaction, the first part of which can be found here. For your viewing pleasure... I guess.
• Mind Screw: Could as well be called "Mind Screw: The Game".
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Apparently, the Island steals souls not for eating, but for purifying.
• Reincarnation: One of the central themes of the game.
• Womb Level: The game takes place inside a giant head.
• World Tree: Mingke-shu, The Tree of Life, is where Rin's reincarnations are created.
• Your Soul Is Mine: The reason the game's plot is put in motion.