The Return to June's Journey

March 19, 2023: Testing the Waters

I haven't played June's Journey since about late July or early August 2020. Considering my track record with playing games, my play time was brief. At the time I did manage to get some things done to my island, but stopped playing for some reason.

Earlier this month, I started seeing this featured game ad for June's Journey while playing my go-to game, Hero Wars. After some back and forth I decided to revisit my game account. The return was bittersweet to say the least.

Return to Orchid Island

My island during Summer 2020 event.

It was nice to see my island again after 2+ years. In my absence, lots of volumes and chapters were added to the game. Along with this came some new tasks and events that weren't present when I was on last.

On a positive note, my club was still active and the amount of helpful players were intact. The first thing I had to do was to get my bearings. One of my first stops was the club page.

The Detectives League

This is a new addition where you play the game as you usually do to earn points each week in the hopes of earning a promotion to higher leagues. It was revamped in February 2021 to include all players; not sure how it was prior. March 25 was the first I participated in a league competition since my return.

March 28 was the second and it was more enjoyable than the one from the 25th. The training wheels are still attached at this point, but I'm making steady progress.

Mini Events

Detectives Needed, Fairground Fortune (December 2020)* and Sweep the Board (October 2021) made appearances since my return. DN was present during my original gaming session but the other two were new to me. Played Fairground for the first time and managed to collect all prizes.

Sweep the Board was played twice. The first time left much to be desired and the second, though better experience, was nerve wrecking. While you are granted tickets to play, you will eventually have to earn more tickets through regular gameplay (i.e. playing through the regular game chapters).

During my first experience, the last portion of the board called for 3-tickets to access the final route. Though simple, there are times when you are forced to go back to the last checkpoint if you fail to complete a scene successfully. Fortunately, my second attempt with this feature was more pleasant.

*I included the approximate dates for when the new features were mentioned on their Facebook page.

Memoirs

This feature didn't make an appearance till late 2021. The game is currently on Album 7, Family Trips. I have 3 of 12 scenes completed for the album and have 24-days left to complete the rest. Completing the album will reward decorations for the island; namely the water area of the island.

Current Progress

The current arrangement of my island.

I've recently reached Level-77 and made it to Chapter 14 of Volume 1. As a reminder, I ended my gameplay rather abruptly. In addition to progressing in the story, some renovations took place with the Lighthouse. 

At the time of writing, my Lighthouse will reach Level 11 by Saturday, April 1, 2023. Meaning I have 84-days to go before the Lighthouse itself is fully renovated. It would be nice if the cooldown timer were shorter for the renovations.

I also re-entered the game during a seasonal set called Bustling Bazaar. I earned enough seasonal points to get the grand prize. As cheery as I was, I realized that I needed to move some items around.

Thanks to the gift of compasses, I was able to do two expansions. In addition to this, I finally got my water garden sanctuary together; more or less. More room is needed so that it can be moved over to make room for the rest of the decorations.

Unfortunately, there's no group selection option. Which means, I'll be moving each piece one at a time to their new spot. While moving things around, some interesting discoveries were made.

First, I found a wooden bridge behind the Windmill of which I think came from the Summer Camp set. Second, I discovered something Reduckulous hiding next to the Vineyard. Last but not least is the ever growing need for compasses and stars. 

My current guesstimation for stars is that I will have 157 stars by the end of Chapter 20 if everything goes as planned. Compasses are another story.

There is a way to get them (via boxes) but I'm currently saving them for upcoming events. Namely the next seasonal set along with other mini events.

Progress is slow going at moment, but at least I have another game to talk about. I still have a long way to go since I'm still playing catch up with the game and rearranging things to make room for future decorations.

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