This is such a gorgeous, well-constructed and thoughtful game that I struggle to understand the poor vote ratio (+22/-48 as of this writing). Perhaps it's the slow roll of the game as you play through the tutorial-structured first life; perhaps it's the large amount of (generally optional) reading. This Buddhism simulator is definitely worth a look regardless.

The core mechanic is a constantly rolling Effort bar. Every time it fills, if you are at an Encounter it gives you progress toward completion at the cost of energy, and if you are at Home it refills energy. The early game is about learning to manage the ebb and flow of energy, and unlocking mechanics (and permanent boosts from achievements) one by one. Within a few hours of mostly-idle play you'll unlock higher-tier encounters and tools, and reach the first prestige mechanic (karma and reincarnations within about a day. That's where I am as I write this review, with a whole lot more content unfolding and restarting with a fairly substantial boost.

My general impression is of a somewhat slow/grindy game with a LOT of polish. Early goals walk you through the game flow and interface, making the process of absorbing its system a breeze, and virtually everything has a clickable tooltip if you forget the mechanics. It's very transparent about how its bonuses stack and are applied, and you can respec for free at any time, encouraging exploration. I've got a few minor quibbles with the UI -- such as the fact that you can click on the Home picture to turn it into a stats panel, but trying to click on the stats panel to get back to the picture view (which is necessary to click on the effort/energy bars to manually juice them) frequently instead clicks on one of the stat elements to instead open up an explainer tooltip -- but this has the feel of a hidden gem.

And frankly, it's a breath of fresh air to play a game about cultivating enlightenment where that enlightenment means "treating yourself and the world with kindness and equanamity" rather than "punch bigger and bigger enemies". I've caught myself skimming through some of the encounter text and reminding myself to take a moment to center myself and breathe more consciously.