Eastern Mind is a blog written by Bruno de Figueiredo. He calls it a “tumbleblog project.” It takes its name from the game by Satō Osamu. He published frequently after starting it in 2008 until he put the blog on hiatus in 2012. De Figueiredo continued writing in that time span. There’s a wealth of interesting thoughts and interviews on PostPlay and CoreGamers, not to mention the archive for COREgaming which was published contemporaneously with Eastern Mind.
After lying dormant for ten years, Eastern Mind returned in 2022.
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| Tripitaka (circa 1995) |
The blog celebrates obscure Japanese media. Take, for example, Tripitaka, a game which has long been thought to be lost media. Only recently has a copy of Tripitaka gone up for auction, with the winning bidder agreeing to upload some game footage online. For more background information, check out De Figueiredo’s original post.
Readers are likely to discover something they’ve never seen before by exploring Eastern Mind. It’s how I heard about Humanity, a puzzle game released in May 2023. Readers should try the demo of Humanity available on the game’s Steam page. It reminded me of playing through PlayStation demo discs that used to come with video game magazines. These memories were likely activated because Humanity looks a little like I.Q.: Intelligent Qube (1997).
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| Humanity (2023) |
It was serendipitous to see Maraganger mentioned on Eastern Mind. I’ve greatly enjoyed watching her videos on lesser-known video games that tend to focus on a vibe and/or aesthetic as opposed to more traditional game mechanics. 24 Killers is especially intriguing since it pays homage to Chulip (2007) and Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (1997). Which reminds me that I should really go back and finally beat Chulip after all these years...