The bar for Island Sanctuary and Criterion Dungeons are very high

[Skiros]

For many people, myself included, Island Sanctuaries and Criterion Dungeons are make-or-break for this game.

Square Enix need to make them overwhelming successes or this game will truly reach its turning point and go the way of WoW.

SE has an extremely bad history with side systems and content. The first iteration of Diadem was so poor it was literally deleted from the game. Eureka was a hot pile of garbage on its first iteration. Bozja was frankly mediocre, outside of the raids.

And those are the "good" side systems that they've made. Stuff like Mahjong and Lords of Verminion are either delipidated or largely ignored by the wider community.

They have not been able to make a side system that the majority of the playerbase enjoys and engages in since Heavensward.

Island Sanctuary in particular is what many people are watching for. It needs to be perfect. The bar is high because the playerbase has hyped itself up to such high levels that a failure would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. A lot of the playerbase is already very dissatisfied, and Square Enix cannot have its main attraction be mediocre.

1. There needs to be a long term progression within Island Sanctuary, much like what you see in Stardew Valley. Regions and systems of the island should be unlocked by progressing through the system. This progression needs to be an at-your-own-pace system however. But there needs to be a long-term goal for players to work towards.

2. The customization UI needs to be beyond polished. It needs to be extremely easy to customize your island and decorate it the way you want to, beyond what we already have in housing. For example, players should be able to save and upload island layouts and share it with others.

3. The Island Sanctuary must have an incredible amount of graphical assets in addition to what we have in housing to truly allow for player creativity and freedom of expression. If it releases with like 3 choices of grass, 3 choices of tables, etc. it is going to be a failure.

4. Island Sanctuary should feed back into the main game by providing players with rewards like glamours or access to gardening.

[Hanayumi]

Set my bar way low for Island Sanctuary, genuinely dont expect a whole lot from that. I am however hoping Criterion Dungeons will have decent variety or difficultly, also looking forward to new Deep Dungeon, whenever that comes out...

[Kaurhz]

I feel like a lot of the bar for Island Sanctuary is because people are essentially expecting it to be housing, which I think is a dangerous mindset. A system that ties in gardening, with minions, glamour, crafting and gathering in itself is a very good and realistic expectation. I would like to imagine. I want to go out on a limb and estimate it could be tying in components seen with Ishgard Restoration, honestly. There's going to be heavy limitations on it, honestly. But I think if they're presenting at least a gesture in the direction to what is eluded here then I'll be happy with it, personally.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

I feel like a lot of the bar for Island Sanctuary is because people are essentially expecting it to be housing, which I think is a dangerous mindset.

Indeed, though the complete radio silence about the system from the devs has not helped matters whatsoever. They hyped it up when it was first announced, and when people started hyping it up too much, they said to dial back our expectations... while not giving us any actual concrete information about what to expect from it to begin with.

The severe lack of communication regarding it and Criterion dungeons is going to be just as damaging to the final product as player's inflated expectations and hopes for them, honestly.

[Avidria]

Nothing I've heard about island sanctuary has made it sound remotely interesting to me so my expectations for that are already pretty low
Suppose we'll see though

[Veranolth]

You're better off setting the bar low and get pleasantly surprised than getting disappointed with your expectations being too high.

[Liam_Harper]

My expectations are so low they're buried right now. It's sadly true that SE just cannot do side content well first time. I fully expect Criterion dungeons to be casual content filled with gimmicks with an obscure hard mode that is nothing like regular Savage dungeons at all. I expect Island Sanctuary to be a barebones small instanced room with very little to do until at least next expansion.

There's also the fact we haven't even heard a whisper of the relic and even then, quite frankly I'm not jumping with excitement at the thought of another Bozja style grind for a weapon I'll never glam that's pretty much useless for most of the expansion.

Island Sanctuary in particular is what many people are watching for. It needs to be perfect. The bar is high because the playerbase has hyped itself up to such high levels that a failure would be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Almost no one is hyping Island Sanctuary. That in itself is a problem, there's not much excitement for upcoming content.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

I'm not jumping with excitement at the thought of another Bozja style grind for a weapon I'll never glam that's pretty much useless for most of the expansion.

God, if we have yet another instanced zone for the relic chain, I am going to lose it.

They are not fun, and I say this as someone who liked Bozja! It is not fun being cut off from the rest of the game to progress a storyline and relic weapon, and while they tried to fix that a little bit with Bozja, it was still far better to just grind it inside because you also needed to max your rank up to continue into the next area once it released. It also isn't fun trying to help your friends who start the relic later than you, and they have to go through all that rank grinding just to be able to do the same areas as you. HW-style relics were the peak of relic design, honestly, and I really wish they would go back to it.

I'm so tired of instanced zones for the relic. Absolutely sick and tired of them. Just let me do stuff in the actual game and overworld for them, I am freaking begging you SE.

[Wilford111]

Almost no one is hyping Island Sanctuary. That in itself is a problem, there's not much excitement for upcoming content.

You must have not met my friends then lol. Everyone I know is saying "Island Sanctuary will be the MMO Harvest Moon experience I've been waiting for!" When it's almost surely not going to be the case. People are overhyping Island Sanctuary a lot and I honestly feel bad for em. Cuz I don't really think it'll live up to the hype.

Like don't get me wrong, I bet it'll be good side content, but not to the extent people are expecting.

[Saraide]

Well I sure hope those two things will be fun, I'm paying good money for this game afterall.