Journal

Journals are personal things; housing our thoughts, experiences, and deepest secrets as we pour our hearts out into their pages. In a similar way Journal the game is also deeply personal to its developer, Richard Perrin, being kicked around for nearly a decade and only just coming to fruition after passing through numerous different forms and surviving setback after setback. It's a passion project that needed to see the light of day regardless of how long it took to do so, but as any artist should know, after spending so long with your creation it's easy to lose sight of where it's headed and what it has become. For all the time and devotion put into it, Journal is not the masterpiece its creator no doubt envisioned it to be, unfortunately materializing as something far less profound and memorable. Journal is the story of a girl. A girl having a very hard time attempting to come to terms with the recent upheaval of her life, as well as the general pains of youth attempting to find who she is in the world. It's a melancholy tale that attempts to deal with heavy problems in a realistic, relatable manner, but for all its endeavors to tell a more down-to-earth story than you often see in games, it overplays its hand by throwing its character through far too many hardships without ever elaborating on any of them. It comes off as disingenuous and almost exploitative, like an outsider trying to explain someone else's troubles without anything more than a surface knowledge of what someone experiencing them actually feels like. It's hard to feel empathetic when events unfold like those of a soap opera; without any explanation or justification, only serving to move the narrative onto yet another contrived moment. The cliches extend to the characters themselves, all of which encompass some form of clique or extreme to better fit into their role of providing the protagonist with a wall to bounce questions off of, with the answer being largely insignificance. One of my biggest issues with the characters and narrative on the whole is how it presents an illusion of choice with no real changes or consequences to speak of. Something you say may affect a handful of lines of dialog (usually not beyond the immediate scene) but the plot itself remains the same, with the most important moments being completely out of the player's control despite the dialog options continually alluding to something more, as if you actually have some control of the outcome. The worst of these moments are those that retain pertinent information until after you've had to make seemingly important decisions, without being given the facts to do so. For example, early on a friend of your character is accused of breaking a window, an act she denies and you are inclined to agree with, only later finding out that you were the one who accused her in the first place (and as is soon revealed, actually broke the window and were hiding the blame). These revelations come too late though, as you are forced to choose a side prior to being made aware of what actually transpired. It's like walking into a play during the second act; you're expected to already know the characters, their motives, and the the events that have occurred. By the end of the game I was thoroughly detached from the protagonist, as her actions became more selfish and out of character as the game progressed, and I was helpless to influence any of it or even be clued in as to WHY she was doing what she was. For what is essentially an adventure game with the puzzles and exploration removed, for the dialog and characters to be so uninteresting and half-baked made for an experience that felt hollow. It might not seem it, but this was a hard review to write. I wanted so badly to be drawn into the beautiful artwork and somber soundtrack which seem so ready to compliment a deeper story than we've become accustomed to, but it all fell flat. Perhaps it's a side-effect of Journal's tumultuous development process, but something went awry and the end result is less than amazing. It's hard for me to pan something that was obviously close to its creator's heart, but when it is flawed at such a fundamental level I can't write it off as something that can be overlooked, but instead have to dismiss it as a whole. Like the journal from the title, it's almost as if large portions of the game simply vanished, leaving you with a shell of what might have once been. [b]Full disclosure: this game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer. You can read more of my writing on [url=http://kritiqal.com/2014/02/17/journal-review/]Kritiqal[/url].[/b]

I can appreciate games with more focus on storytelling rather than gameplay (I even like Gone Home which a lot of people hate), but I did not like this game. It's not a bad game, the voice acting is good and sketchy artstyle is really appealing but I could not sympathize with the unnamed protagonist, nor did I have any interest in her. She's a troublemaker who lies, cheats, and steals... and breaks windows. Even if you pick the positive moral choices, it doesn't affect the outcome of the story and as a result, she's still a ♥♥♥♥♥. Throughout the whole game, you're left wondering what it is that she's going through that has caused her to behave this way. The muddled plot leads to a story that doesn't really go anywhere as they leave out details for pretty much everything, such as her parent's divorce, her grandmother's sudden change of behaviour, and the package you have to pick up from the post office. They don't really contribute to the story as the ending explains why she has been behaving in the way that she does in the game. The ending (which I won't spoil) was very cheesy and it was clearly meant to be sentimental but it just happened so abruptly. Nothing in this game has lead to the events of the ending, except for the carnival interludes maybe. I feel like I would've sympathize with the character more if they told us this in the first place rather than trying to make it into a huge twist. Is this game trying to tell us a story about the life of a teenage girl or was it meant to be deeper? Either way, the disjointed narrative structure of the game just shoehorns more mysteries and it was all pointless. They try to tell so much story within the short legth of the game. I bought this game with my disposable income of £1.74 as the game was 75% off. You can complete this game within an hour and a half and the achievements, as well as the game of course, is very easy. Unless the game is at that price, I would avoid. It's a love it or hate it game, but one with no incentives to play it through the second time. 5/10 - AVERAGE

[b]"Memory is not particularly linear - it is associative, repetitive, subjective and porous." - Dana Spiotta[/b] This whole little game that Richard Perrin was working on for 10 years is actually about memory, and how definitely subjective it is. Any event, any occurrence that we either live ourselves or solely witness, will be retold through a certain perception. There is no such a thing as the truth once an event is recalled from the memory. There is only our own experience, thus, any narrator is eventually an unreliable narrator. [i]Journal[/i] is a perfect example of this notion. The narrative centers a 5 day period in a nameless teenage girl's life when she's been trying to deal with both expected troubles of growing up, establishing a character, making choices, learning hard earned truths and living consequences; and a specific, singular disaster fundamentally too heavy for her young being to deal with. Through detached and off dialogue options, abhorrently selfish exclamations and numbing expressions, we take a walk. [i]Journal[/i] is an interesting, yet eventually surreal and nettlesome experience. The artwork is hand drawn, picking a thin balance between beautiful and creepy, and that many would basically define as being eerie. A melancholy, water color environment combined with slender, faceless characters do create our setting. The whole display screams detachment and an inability of adaptation with the world. A failure to emphasize is written all over the artwork. The music changes as our heroine change places within a side scrolling environment from "feeling blue" to "something's off" any minute. We are given short stories told with shadow plays between chapters to declare some bitter life lessons now and then, and complete a whole playthrough within 2 hours. I do adore story driven or narrative games mostly. But defining [i]Journal[/i] to be either story driven, or narrative would be an understatement and probably even a completely wrong definition. In this collection of personal expressions, the narrative is completely subjective with little to no room for diverse character progression. Contrary to player expectation with the choice options presented in game, our protagonist already displays a precognized set of actions. Her mentality, her actions and reactions are not actually alterable. Any and all events that we encounter within the game, are already lived, thus categorized and concluded within the mind of our heroine. We are solely there to witness her personal recognition of events rather than having a gameplay. She is a bitter, troubled, detached, numb child; stuck in an existential crisis. Is this a bad thing for us to witness in a game? Quite possibly not. This game was one of the best examples of "unreliable narrator" in any game I've seen before. Yet, it also comes with the direct obstacle of constantly misinforming the player, making him/her walk into dialogues with semi-truths, wrongly presented information and endless defense mechanisms, evading for any kind of truth to be discovered. Being trapped within the narration, you are doomed to make wrong choices inconsequentially. Thus, there is no immersion, no character sympathy or even empathy, no control over any outcome. You are forced to witness endless apathy directed through stereotyped declarations. The game is most definitely a great art project, and managed to accomplish what it has come to aspire: an ode to memory, perception and illusion of understanding. Yet, I find myself failing to recommend the game in the end. It is not fun to play. It is impossible for one to actually emphasize with the setting. It all is fleeting, surreal and numbing... as it was probably intended to be so. I most certainly appreciate it, yet fail to recognize the beauty of this kind of existentialist numbness as gameplay. There is no hate, no love, no fear, no bravery... "Nothing" wrapped in pretty colors. Pick it on sale if you'd like to take an unusual experience with the grand illusion of choice. Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ladystoryteller#curation]here[/url] - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

To debate whether this game has artistic merit or if it is worth buying seems almost pointless. The game is currently 80 minutes, and even then it is where the game has you make all the choices you can achieve before proceeding. It is not a game like Gone Home, where the details to every little thing are incredible. The game has rough edges where the main character would often clip at edges or I would go through a door twice due to tapping it once and going to the left slightly. But...I feel like it is a game that needs to happen for the continuation of the medium of games. The character goes by unamed, and the first few minutes are rather naively optimistic. You are exploring why the pages of your journal are missing! It will be a intriquing journey of mystery and investigation. But the game hides what your character did and did not do, thus leading to misenterpretations where you make a choice that you regret instantly. But, the game benefits from these choices. It is a very truthful game where the main character is not a vessel or a blank slate for the player, but is truly a confused young girl who is unsure of what is the right or wrong thing to say or do. Gone Home is where you view the experiences of a confused girl, while Journal is more about BEING a confused girl. I am really glad that my character doesn't agree with my own stance on the matter, even when she makes a choice I would have made because I am a seperate person from what her life is. The art, while getting a lot of praise from people, to me is very simplistic and helps achieve a children's story feel that betrays the true meaning of the game. You do not help people in this game, nor do you make lifes better. It is what a child would feel when going through such a painful moment in their life, and I really do respect and admire a game that can achieve such clarity on the subject of childhood innocence and even if it is possible. I say that it is a important step in video games is because this is a really personal story for the writer and artist. It is not a game where there is any power trip nor any sense of accomplishment, and is really not about finding the truth or letting go of things. It's about a normal person dealing with things that can never be undone or fixed. To spoil the ending or even the moments within it would ruin the experience of actually going through it. Would I recommend this: YES It is a very close and personal game, where the length or technical lack of polish does not ruin or even bring down the honesty and bluntness Journal has brought. I wish I could say specifics, but to do that would ruin your own experience with it. Suggestion for developer: I believe more polish to the game would be benefical, and more stories from the writer and artist would be greatly appreciated.

A poignant reminder of how subjectively we experience events in our lives. Highly recommended to any adventure/story fans that don't mind empathizing with a teen protagonist with her own individual issues and problems.

This is a quiet, lovely story about grief, remembrance, loss, and adolescence. I'm sure a lot of people in the "this is not a game" camp would be quick to dismiss it, but I know I rather like games that have a great narritive and are more of an interactive story. I'd most compare this to a visual novel...there's no puzzles to solve but rather just choices in responses to questions. The visual style is really interesting...the entire game takes place on pieces of paper, which flip as you change scenes and everything looks like a drawing. The game is rather brief though...it took me about 2 hours. It can probably be done in far less if you don't take the time to talk to everyone. I'd say to definitely wait until it's on sale, the full price isn't worth it, but it IS worth getting.

I will admit it: at first, I didn't like Journal. The main character comes across as an unlikable narrator. As other negative reviews have mentioned, she steals, lies, and hurts her friends. It's hard to find anything to like about her as you begin her story. But then the experience broadens, and you begin to see some of the reasons why she is making poor choices. One of the girl's regrettable experiences hit home so much that I was emotionally jarred. Perhaps because I was also once a teenage girl, I found myself relating heavily to her story. You watch as she struggles through the realities of divorce, relationships, death, and the daily nonsense of life. It is an extremely personal tale, and I was floored by what the game achieved. I could have easily been that girl, through some of the ways she related to others and the choices she made. I didn't like myself then, and the girl in the game doesn't like herself now. Journal is in some ways a tragic work. How much you like the game will possibly depend on how much you relate to her and her journey. There are some minor flaws in the experience. It can be difficult at times to determine where the next conversation trigger is, so that you may talk to some individuals multiple times fruitlessly, trying to figure out what you're supposed to do. You will wander over the same settings again and again, although this is accomplished at a pretty brisk pace that never feels too cumbersome. Some of the dialoge choices could be clearer; at times, I was unsure what my character was getting ready to communicate by the options. Still, for the flaws, I absolutely recommend Journal. It blends painful realism with touches of imagination that create a story that can stun you in the accomplishment of its narrative arc. I applaud Locked Door Puzzle for what they've made: Journal is a piece of art.

As much as I really wanted this game, and even wanted to give it a good review I just can't. I am sitting here fresh after playing it, feeling terrible after the game. Most of the time I can review games with a better manner of my feelings. This game however even though it made me feel terrible, it was for all the wrong reasons. You have absolutely no influence in this game what-so-ever. When I found out this girl was a bit of a trouble maker I thought I could just make the right choices and avoid it. To no avail though. And decisions were able to be made before you even knew what was going on. Like the broken window, your friend is upset because everyone thinks she did it, you tell her you know you didn't do it just to hear from someone else you were the one saying she did it. You also steal from charity, but not by choice, and you're not even aware of it until your stopped by a police officer and your character admits she stole. Then you can't even take it back by first choice, you have to admit it to your mother. The character is very very selfish and by the end of it I just hated her, and this game. The circus "cut scenes" were completely comfusing and I feel so terrible because I wasted money on this. It had been in development for a long time, one would expect better gameplay from it. I just cannot reccomend this game, because as much as I love games with stories, this just isn't a good one.

Journal comes with few interesting features like visualization and music, and rely heavily on storytelling aspect. However story isn't that gripping or intriguing from start till the end, even though final "twist" helps a bit. I personally didn't enjoy this game as much as i would like to, but quality is present. [i]Grade:[/i][b] C[/b]

"A little schoolgirl of divorced parents livethrough a phasis of regrets and sorries" From the creator of "Kairo" comes this nice little point&click adventure. The story is well told and the graphics are handdrawn. Once when you have started you can walk inside your opened journal (that's a diary with graphics and written). You speak to your school collegues and ppl from town. It's completely controlled over arrow keys + space. At the end of each chapter there comes this shadow puppet theater. It's introduced over an awful looking 3D animation in your bedroom. Mostly it tells you a fairytale related to your actual life. I would not say the game is bad. But it looks like a cheap flashgame and feels quite overpriced (still 1.79 EUR on sale).