Game: Dear Journey…
Genre: Casual, Indie, Strategy
System: Steam (Windows)
Developer | Publisher: Cosynook Games
Controller Support: None
Price: US $9.99 | UK £9.09 | EU € 10,25
Release Date: September 20, 2026
Review code provided with many thanks to Cosynook Games.
Back in March of 2026, I got to play the demo for Dear Journey… So I was pretty excited to see that the developers sent over a key to the full title. As a huge fan of deckbuilding games, I was ready to dive into vacation-designing once again to see how it all panned out.
A Game About Making Perfect Vacations
Dear Journey… is a deck-building game about being a travel agent. People come to you looking for something special during their vacations, and it is up to you to make sure their journey is as memorable, relaxing, and filled with the items they wanted as much as possible.
You have a deck of Activity Cards, Location Cards, and bonus cards. Each activity will be marked with one or two categories, and you need to match those with the categories that the customer has asked for. These are things like artistic activities, self-reflection, or relaxation, and the game calls them Core Needs. Each of these activity cards takes place in a specific location, which is indicated by the color of the card. In order to get all the points that you can, you want to match the location card to the location on the activity card.
The bonus cards also have a specific location indicated on them; they add more bonus points or work as multipliers for points on voyages if you match the location. You have a minimum number of points that need to be reached to make for a successful journey, and everything either counts toward or against the total you need.
Much Different From the Demo
One of the first things I noticed about the full release of Dear Journey… was all the changes the developers made for the better. I had a pile of complaints with the demo back in March, and it seems as though nearly all of them had been changed.
The first complaint I had was about the animations playing out regardless of whether it was necessary or not. While I thought it was a big deal in March, it no longer bothers me as much as it did back then. I have a feeling it is because so many other things that I disliked had been fixed, making Dear Journey… a lot more fun to play overall.
My second complaint back in March was about the moods of the activities not seeming to matter very much. If a customer asked for a specific Core Need, it didn’t seem to matter much to the totals. This has also been updated with additional types of stars that you can earn during each match. It makes the Core Needs and things like destination requests much more important. I like the changes that have been made to the point calculations, stars, and scoring. I don’t remember there being different colored stars that show you what areas you did well in.
Next, I remember being confused by merging and Keepsakes in Dear Journey…. Keepsakes are little items that you can merge onto your cards, and they add a buff to the card or to your overall scoring. The Keepsakes have a tutorial page devoted to them now, and each potential merge is explained in text below the card before the merge takes place.
Lastly, I think one of the big things that annoyed me in the demo was my lack of ability to tailor my deck in any way. I kept getting cards I didn’t want and didn’t have the option to remove unwanted cards. Dear Journey… seems to have gone the other way entirely and made your deck completely customizable for every journey you plan.
Playing With All the Changes
Dear Journey… feels much different to play now. There is a lot less randomization in your deck; you can basically completely tailor your deck for each customer. This cut down on the RNG a lot, making Dear Journey… feel more like a puzzle game than a deck-building game. However, I didn’t mind the change at all; it’s still a very unique and interesting idea.
There are a ton more cards now in the full version, and without the ability to tailor the cards to your customer somewhat, Dear Journey… would be extremely difficult to play.
Speaking of difficulty, the developers also added two new difficulty levels to play; there is easy, normal, and hard. I only had time to play on normal, but I am very interested in seeing how the other two change play. There are also now different starter Keepsakes and decks you can unlock as well.
The music is still amazing, the animations and design are fantastic, and overall, Dear Journey… is still a whole lot of fun to play.
The Cons of Dear Journey…
I didn’t have very many issues with Dear Journey… It is a unique deckbuilder, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it to people who enjoy things like Slay the Spire or similar. While I love those types of deckbuilders, Dear Journey… doesn’t resemble them much.
I also had some issues with the game crashing. It would completely crash Steam, rendering it functionless until I rebooted my PC. This only happened twice, but it was very frustrating those two times. Thankfully, Dear Journey… seems to save pretty often, so I didn’t lose much during those crashes.
Another issue I had was with the RNG. I found that the randomization of Dear Journey… was a little less random than I would like. For example, if a client asks to have their trip all in one place, I would put as many location cards for that location as I could in my deck. However, it always chose to have a variety if possible. So if I had three Urban locations and one Coastal in my deck, it would always choose two Urban and one Coastal, no matter how many times I redrew.
For the most part though, all the changes have been positive, and the gameplay is great.
Conclusion
Dear Journey… is fun, unique, and really adorable. I like the idea, the look, the vibes, the music, and the cards. Everything about it is unique for a deck-building game. However, it did have a few issues, including the not-so-random RNG, the crashing, and a couple of other things.
Overall, I think it is worth the $10; I enjoyed my time with it, and it is a great introduction to the idea of deckbuilders. It’s complex, it’s interesting, and I will continue to play it after this article is completed.
Final Verdict: I Like it
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