Journey Adventure Quest and Naming Stacks of Equipment
Collect and stack equipment to complete goals and take on dangerous, adjective-riddled monsters in Journey Adventure Quest.
In honor of my birthday weekend, I set out to spell the most obvious word of all time with the first letter of a series of games. If you know me… Journey Adventure Quest probably makes it obvious. Ha! Yet I was excited to return to this one after only barely playing it last year. Lots of quirky weapons and pieces of adventuring equipment were in store for me!
Game Overview
Game Name: Journey Adventure Quest
Publication Year: 2023
Designers: Brandon Beam, Tommy Noel, and Jesse Stacy
Artists: Cole Munro-Chitty and Emilyn Noel
Publisher: Triceratops Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
A series of 3 monsters must be defeated by drafting and equipping different items like helmets, weapons, and spells. Everything overlaps to get progressively more powerful, including these monsters… A corrosive blob is only the beginning of the challenge to achieve victory!
First Play
June 28, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
July 25, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
6
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
91
Game Area
42" x 24"
Low Score
45
A Rather Large Space
I forgot how much table space I needed to reserve… And this is only a piece of the entire area! My personal space was to the left, plus an equal area for the solo opponent.
The idea of partially overlapping splayed cards is very neat, and it’s nice to see equipment physically evolve!
But I was ready to swap over to tokens if I could, except guild icons couldn’t be replicated. So I went on.
It wasn’t like I went in with a negative mood, though! I’m just very focused on streamlined experiences these days, and I had a little too much trouble with the solo rules.
How Far Apart?
Each equipment slot splays to the right and down… Except for spells, which overlap and stack upwards. I found it very hard to guess where to start these stacks during setup.
These cards aren’t strictly needed, but there are penalties at the end of the game for not having anything in a stack.
I thought I remembered enjoying the process a lot more, but the adventures were private set collection goals.
Quests offered public set collection goals, and although I loved the unique items, there was a distinct lack of setting here. I didn’t feel like I was going on a journey anywhere.
Quality Components
The component quality is excellent, and I don’t want to downplay that in any way! Cardboard tokens are thick and bright, and they’re organized in this included tray.
Player boards are also excellent with lots of important information. The idea is to draft cards at different times of the day, in order, sometimes triggering bonuses.
In theory, I thought this would give me a way to narrate my daily tales… Yet it came down to symbols and icons.
Managing the solo opponent took a lot out of me, too. It was like playing for another human player at times.
Stacked Success
At the end of play, this is what a play area could look like. There are typically only a maximum of 18 cards that are drafted, but that could mean 10+ cards of a single type.
I loved the variety, but the randomness was very frustrating. The items I needed never came out.
There were some interesting decisions around what to take ahead of the solo opponent at times, but everything felt far too mechanical. And then… What did I end up with?
For me, I had trouble reading the diagonal lines of icons. Favoring flavor text with adjectives did not help usability.
Recognizing the Life Cycle of a Solo Game
It’s been very difficult for me to part with many games over the years, which might explain why there are so many shelves over here. Ha! Yet I’m getting better at figuring out when I’ve gotten everything I’ll get from a game. Since I need to make more space, this means I’m finding the times to let go and find a new home for a game I’m done with.
That doesn’t mean that I didn’t have fun at some point, though. In very rare instances is a game so terrible that I only have bad memories of it. Even then, it’s usually a case of me trying something different that didn’t work for me.
So I may sound a little harsh here, yet remember that I still had some laughs and definitely enjoyed the fun of this one in the past! It’s simply not a game for me anymore and I don’t see what else I’ll get out of the experience. That’s a good time to move it along and find a home with someone who’s likely to enjoy it and discover the fun it has to offer!
Difficult Monsters
Monsters increase in difficulty level, which is a nice progression that’s easy to see and plan for. Each one is revealed at the start of the round, ahead of drafting.
But this can be brutal… When attack cards never came out, I didn’t have a chance against the level 2 monster. The final round was a foregone conclusion and I knew I lost.
I appreciated the neat way the words made these monsters feel different, but they still felt rather generic in the end.
Perhaps I’ve simply grown out of the novelty, because I remembered having a lot of fun during my first few plays!
So Many Words
Take this pretty awesome weapon… I know small sums aren’t that challenging, but something about the diagonal threw me off. Maybe it was the temporary bonus, too.
But I didn’t find any reason to think up how this weapon functioned. An angelic, triceratops, lightning, scorpion, ruthless great axe of Omega sounded pretty cool, though!
Nowadays, I look for a strong theme to keep me engaged. There are other games where I can collect equipment.
This one was definitely fun for a few plays, though, and I don’t want to diminish that! Simply time to move on.
Session Overview
Play Number: 5 & 6
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Non-Competitive with Chaos and Loot Cards
Outcome: 45-67, 59-23 (1 Win & 1 Loss)
Spells can get pretty wild at times! The solo opponent picked up a lot of them during my second play, which resulted in a very mismatched experience. Victory came far too easily, and I was happy to move on. This might shine better multiplayer, or it could be time to find it a new home. At least I had a great time with it for a few plays, which is worth celebrating in the world of games!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
8
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- Lots of possibilities are possible when it comes to collecting equipment of different types to fill in the slots.
- Adding more powerful equipment and monsters is a neat idea that generally works well to focus certain efforts.
- Gameplay moves along quickly and lasts just 3 full rounds, with a pair of card draft phases during each round.
- Some of the final names of equipment can get pretty great, especially when there are at least 5 stacked cards.
- Variants are included to add some more ways to get the most out of the content and try out all of the components.
- All of the components are excellent in terms of quality, with a neat storage solution and well-produced tokens.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There is a lot of randomness that can making collecting sets or defeating the monster next to impossible.
- If attack or knowledge isn’t built up fast enough, the final monster can’t be defeated and the last round is wasted.
- Not all of the solo opponent’s rules are clear, and the need to manage another play area takes up a lot of time.
- It’s difficult to plan for the final size of the play area, which is already rather large with the splayed cards.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 60%
Goals and Milestones
Complete all 3 adventure cards in at least 1 game.
Defeat all 3 monsters in at least 1 game.
Win at least 1 game with the non-competitive mode.
Score the highest for all 3 quest cards in at least 1 game.
Win all 3 monster loot cards in at least 1 game.
Continue the Conversation
What are your thoughts about Journey Adventure Quest? Are there other solo games about collecting and upgrading equipment you played recently? I had some early fun with the different slots and silly names, but think this one has had its time in the spotlight in my collection. Time for it to fly like a nocturnal, hurricane, volcanic, arctic polar pelt belt!
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