Journal Review

I’m always faced with a blank page whenever I start a review, but I’m rarely reminded of the game by it. In Journal, a game from Locked Door Puzzle, you play as a young girl whose journal has been wiped clean. Is there something strange going on, or is there a more innocent explanation? I played the first few minutes of the game at EGX Rezzed last year, and was intrigued. The final product is short and sweet, and tells rather a somber tale. Whether or not it is a ‘game’ or not may be up for debate in the same way as Cellar Door’s beautiful Gone Home. As an interactive storytelling experience though, Journal does a good job.

The game has a wonderful hand drawn style that sits framed within the pages of a journal itself. As you move between areas the pages physically turn in a nice touch, and a coffee mug stain acts as a sun above your house. It creates a pretty warming, childlike aesthetic that draws you in and depicts some good parallels with the subject matter. The basic style means it’s not very hardware intensive, and ran fine on my PC throughout. Journal takes place over five days, and has you exploring the town and your school, and talking to people along the way. The only gameplay to speak of is dialogue options, and that is the whole point of the game. You build relationships with the people around you, and form emotional attachments with them. I finished the game in only about an hour and a half (your playing length may differ based on how quickly you read), but even so I felt involved with the majority of the characters.

It’s easy to finish the game in one setting, and I suggest you do so to fully immerse yourself in the experience. What starts out as a simple story of teenage troubles quickly turns into something a lot deeper. The world itself doesn’t appear to be quite right, and the people you talk to don’t always react in the way you’d imagine. It’s grounded in reality enough to feel like it’s real, yet it’s strange enough to keep you going to find out what’s going on. In the end, the story is touching, but also fairly depressing. Those expecting a happy ending will be disappointed, but I enjoy things that sway from the norm in this way. I’d be surprised if the story wasn’t based on a true one, at least in part. As you progress, the journal in your bedroom is filled in with events, and there is a real maturity to the writing.

Most of the story is told through text, although at the end of each conversation there is narration for your overall thoughts. In between each day, a seemingly unrelated story is told through shadow puppets. However the meaning behind each one is partly revealed as you progress through the later stages of the game. They take the form of children’s stories, but again, contain mature subject matter that turn them into kind of parables. The narration and sound design is pretty good, with ambient school noises and a soundtrack from Kevin Macleod, a man well known for his royalty free music.

Problems do arise when you start to look for more substance. You choose dialogue options, but for the most part this is just to select the next piece of text. There are not many real choices to be made, and when you are faced with them, they don’t feel that significant. Especially when you consider that the overall story is linear, and the ending will always be the same (apart from if you manage to find the hidden ending). I often found myself picking between two strange choices, which both seemed negative. The reasons behind this became apparent by the end of the story, but at the time of playing, it seemed odd to be nasty towards my supposed friends. Beyond the dialogue, all you’re doing is moving from side to side through the varying environments. You don’t have to talk to everyone, but you find yourself doing it since there’s not a lot else going on.

I look back on my time with Journal fondly, but I don’t know if I would recommend it to everyone. The story is engaging, and gets better as you go through, but the question of whether this needs to be a game at all is raised several times. I was playing it, sure, but for the most part I was just flicking through lines of text. It’s not a particularly feel-good story either, and as such won’t be for everyone.