Journal

About

Journal is a single player casual simulation game. It was developed by Locked Door Puzzle and was released on February 17, 2014. It received positive reviews from players.

Enter the pages of the hand painted world of Journal. A journey through the life of a young and troubled girl as she tries to face up to the choices and responsibilities that come with childhood. An experience that questions the reliability of how we choose to remember events and explores the truths hidden within our dreams.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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81%

Audience ScoreBased on 259 reviews

story87 positive mentions

replayability3 negative mentions

Beautiful hand-drawn art style that evokes a childlike yet melancholic atmosphere.
Deep and emotionally impactful story dealing with adolescence, loss, and coping with trauma.
Strong narrative and voice acting with unique storytelling elements like integrating a journal and puppet show cutscenes.

Gameplay is minimal, mostly walking and dialogue choices that have little to no impact on the outcome.
Short playtime (around 2 hours) making the full price feel steep; better suited for sale purchase.
Story presentation can be confusing and disjointed, with important plot points revealed late and some characters feeling underdeveloped.

story
341 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
69%
5%
The story is a deeply emotional, personal narrative about a teenage girl coping with loss, grief, and difficult life experiences, delivered through a simple yet charming art style and immersive journal-format storytelling. While many praise its heartfelt themes, symbolism, and impactful ending, some find the plot confusing or slow, with limited player influence and occasional narrative gaps. Overall, it resonates strongly with players seeking a poignant, reflective coming-of-age tale despite some storytelling and pacing shortcomings.
- “For a story told using paper cutouts, the beguilingly simple distraction-less game mechanic elevates the art of storytelling.”
- “The story is a beautifully told, rather poetic experience that unfolds deeply and engagingly.”
- “Journal is an incredibly personal story that reflects upon life's greater themes through the eyes of someone not yet equipped to deal with them.”
- “The game pretends you're following this girl and sharing a story with her but you keep getting the information afterwards... for example something happens, okay... someone says 'do you know who did it?', you answer that you don't know and then the main character says... 'actually, it was me!' Wait, what?”
- “There was even a point in a chapter where I was asking myself: 'wait, did several days go by?', but nope, it's just that the story doesn't make sense.”
- “Unfortunately, the storytelling is confusing and leads to frustrating situations where the choices given lose their significance, for example when the player has to make decisions before they have the information to make them.”
graphics
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
46%
4%
The graphics are widely praised for their unique, hand-drawn, storybook-style art that creates a compelling, atmospheric blend of beauty and eeriness, enhancing the mood and narrative. Some users note occasional performance issues like lag during transitions, often hardware-related, but overall find the visuals striking and fitting for the game's tone. Though the art style may feel simplistic or childlike to some, many appreciate its strategic minimalism and how it complements the emotional depth of the story.
- “The artwork is perfect for setting the atmosphere of the game, balancing beautifully between stunning and brilliantly unsettling.”
- “Gorgeous art direction with hand-drawn graphics; clever use of real-world design elements to define spatial limits, paired with paper-cut shadow plays during chapter transitions.”
- “The unusual premise and beautiful hand-drawn children’s storybook graphics alone make the game worth the price of admission.”
- “Also, for a game not very graphically intense, the lag that happens when you change location is quite a surprise.”
- “There was also this strange graphical glitch where the entirety of the text was replaced with these rotating and shifting characters that looked like the text was glitching out to the nth degree.”
- “The art style is very childlike, in fact it seemed a bit too childlike considering the adolescent phase the protagonist is portrayed as going through.”
gameplay
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
16%
76%
8%
The gameplay is generally minimalistic and straightforward, focusing on walking, dialogue, and choice-based narrative rather than puzzles or complex mechanics. While some appreciate its simplicity as a storytelling vehicle, others find it repetitive, slow, and lacking depth or interactivity. Overall, it is best suited for players who prioritize narrative and atmosphere over engaging gameplay challenges.
- “For a story told using paper cutouts, the beguilingly simple distraction-less game mechanic elevates the art of storytelling.”
- “I find the gameplay mechanics, story, and premise mesh together into a solid presentation.”
- “The gameplay itself is fairly smooth and reliable, and area transitions occur quickly without any long delays or interruptions allowing the story to continue at a fairly rapid pace.”
- “Bad art, bad gameplay, bad cutscenes, poorly written... I'm quite used to bad walking simulators, but this one is like an emo fanfic.”
- “I’m not talking about the art style (I actually liked it, I found it very different), but both characters and gameplay were quite bad; I couldn’t feel sympathy for any character, and the gameplay is annoying… having to walk all over the scenario just to trigger scenes, casually leaving the screen when you don’t want to… what a pain.”
- “I want to recommend this game, I really do, but the gameplay detracts from the story too much to actually make me want to tell someone to sit down and play it through.”
music
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
40%
6%
The music in the game is widely praised for its ability to set mood, enhance storytelling, and complement the hand-drawn art style with a soothing, emotional soundtrack, often attributed to Kevin MacLeod. While some find it atmospheric and moving, others feel it is occasionally ordinary or not enough to elevate the overall experience. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a strong and memorable aspect that enriches the narrative and ambiance.
- “The soundtrack is just so well mixed to drive the mood exactly where it needs to go; every day has its own sound that builds to an epic crescendo as the week progresses.”
- “Like To The Moon, it is story-rich, tackles an emotional human subject in a moving way, with a wonderful use of symbolism, and has a beautiful soundtrack.”
- “The music changes as our heroine changes places within a side-scrolling environment from 'feeling blue' to 'something's off' any minute.”
- “Along with that, the music was just... okay.”
- “Even the big, momentous, reveal feels mundane and ordinary because of the music.”
- “Simple hand-drawn 2d sprites on 2d backgrounds, weird linear walking physics with janky scene transitions and a pointless jump button, lots of text about serious life stuff, music by Kevin MacLeod (aka Incompetech aka the royalty-free guy); there are so many things in this game that raise many red flags in my book.”
emotional
36 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a deeply emotional and thought-provoking narrative that resonates with players, often evoking tears and personal reflection. While some find it short or less polished in gameplay, its heartfelt story about loss, trauma, and coming-of-age effectively creates a moving and immersive experience comparable to notable emotional indie titles. Overall, it is praised for its honest portrayal of complex feelings and its ability to engage players on a profound emotional level.
- “The three choices seemed fitting, as those three emotions seem to be the major emotional keys that are dragged around in your head in response to losing someone.”
- “I can definitely say that the game struck me on an emotional level; it pretty much nailed how much it sucks to be in middle school, having friendships go down in flames, a parent abruptly bringing someone new into the picture, and trying to handle the loss of a loved one.”
- “Journal explores emotions and situations which many people find hard to cope with, and takes you on a very emotional journey.”
replayability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
50%
30%
The game offers minimal replayability, primarily limited to completing a few achievements after the first playthrough. Most players find little incentive to replay, as story outcomes remain unchanged, making it better suited as a short, one-time experience or a purchase on sale.
- “There's definitely a bit of replayability in this game too.”
- “This gives the game some replayability.”
- “No replay value.”
- “Grab it when it's on sale, because the price is pretty high for the very short 2-hour length and zero replayability.”
- “The only issue is that once the story is completed there isn't much replay value, as interactions don't seem to affect the outcome at all; in fact, the only reason to replay would be to try to achieve 100% completion of achievements.”
atmosphere
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
37%
The game's atmosphere is masterfully crafted, blending beautiful yet unsettling artwork with a fitting soundtrack to evoke a persistent sense of unease and emotional depth. Its minimalist art style and thoughtful audio design enhance immersion and support a poignant, atmospheric storytelling experience.
- “The artwork is perfect for setting the atmosphere of the game, balancing beautifully between stunning and brilliantly unsettling.”
- “There is a sense of doom lingering throughout the game that hints at something tragic, expressed through a gradual shift and a general sense of unease in the atmosphere and setting.”
- “The atmosphere is perfectly crafted to this end, and the ending brought tears to my eyes.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is praised for its clever, self-deprecating style, especially highlighted in a humorous alternate ending reminiscent of Portal's iconic endings. While overall funny moments are noted, voice acting that enhances the humor is limited to key parts.
- “The game also features a second, hidden ending which turns self-deprecating humor into an art form.”
- “Interesting concept, nice visuals, good voice acting that was not used enough (only important parts, which are written in the journal, are spoken by one actress), short story with a very funny alternate ending (that reminded me of Portal 1 and 2's ending songs).”
- “I found something funny in it.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
Character development is uneven, with stereotypical and faceless designs limiting depth for many characters, and the story often failing to connect to the protagonist's major life event. However, the final portion of the game provides meaningful growth for the protagonist and some supporting characters.
- “With that being said, the remaining 20% of the game brings much needed character development to the protagonist as well as some of the other characters.”
- “While the world and the character designs followed the mentality of the girl after this big moment in her life, it doesn't feel like the story relates to it in any way.”
- “While the world and the character designs did follow the mentality of the girl after this big moment in her life, it doesn't feel like the story relates to it in any way.”
- “It is also not helped by the stereotypical character designs employed to illustrate these other people, faceless or not.”
- “The remaining 20% of the game brings much-needed character development to the protagonist as well as some of the other characters.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from multiple stability issues, including glitches like conversations abruptly cutting off, misplaced interaction prompts, and buggy controls that hinder the otherwise simple gameplay. These bugs negatively impact the overall experience.
- “And there were a host of glitches in the game, from conversations cutting off randomly, to the interact button appearing over things I couldn't interact with, to certain text just being a ton of random letters (although, I think that was intentional, but it was never explained in the story).”
- “The ugly: awkward, buggy controls for such a straightforward game!”
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates smooth gameplay and strong performance, indicating effective optimization that ensures a seamless user experience.