Gokuraku Mandala

Mandala is a mystical circle in Buddhist sacred art, while Gokuraku is the Japanese term for Sukhavati, “Pure Land”, the heaven of Buddha Amitabha. It is not surprising that the game with such a name concerns itself with Buddhist themes, though mostly in a comical way. The three heroes of the game, a man named Tamon (the player-controlled character), the girl Amako, and her parrot Gon, are on a quest to find the mysterious Death God, who stole a valuable jewel from a Buddhist temple where Tamon was working.

Gokuraku Mandala is a point-and-click adventure. The player hovers the mouse cursor over objects on the screen and clicks on them to interact. Usually only type of command per object (mostly “Look” and “Talk”) is eligible. There are no puzzles, and progress in the game is often achieved by repeatedly selecting commands. The player is given considerable freedom to move around the game world (by choosing locations on the map).