The bar for Island Sanctuary and Criterion Dungeons are very high

[Lihtleita]

ive set the bar so low for island sanctuary that a drg will trip over it

lowkey dreading diadem 4 but you can put the dinosaurs in a barn

[IdowhatIwant]

I have low expectations for each. But if I get a really cool farming game I would be down with that. I also want some sort of unique fishing pond type thing.
But I sadly think it is just to allow players with out a house to have access to farming, which is extremely boring in it's current iteration.

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

The fact that the devs had to specifically state that it was not going to be like animal crossing and to lower expectations proves there was way to much hype over this.

[TaleraRistain]

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.

This, this, a million times this. I'm okay if they want to have an adventure zone. I actually like the general idea of that. But don't tie the relic to it. Let it stand or fall on its own feet. I agree that I did not like basically feeling like I was playing a different game because these zones isolate us from the rest of it so much. I think relic steps can have an option to get pieces/updates in an adventure zone, but just don't tie it either in story or implementation to the adventure zone. I enjoyed steps like the singing clusters with HW because even I'm doing the same roulette, that roulette is often giving me vastly different experiences from day to day. And not tying them to an adventure zone helps future proof them a lot more effectively.

To the OP, I don't have too many expectations. Not because I don't think the devs are capable of delivering something good. I'm just going off what we've heard so far, which has been limited. I don't really care for Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley games, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if they give me something I end up enjoying.

As far as Criterion Dungeons, I'm intrigued by the idea of scaling for number of players and interested to see what they do with that. If we're talking things that could be nice, then I would enjoy puzzles that aren't combat related similar to the second boss of Bardam's and that one solo instance in ShB. I'm not expecting that since they've never said a peep about continuing that sort of thing. I would just enjoy it personally.

[Nav_Fae]

The bar for Island Sanctuary is low and Yoshi P had said before that people's expectations are unrealistically high for what it really is. Comparing it Animal Crossing even when we haven't been given any information on it.

[Gemina]

I am going to say one thing, and one thing only pertaining to this, and that is after you have stated all of this...

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.

Why on Earth would you carry an expectation like this?

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.

Do you see the error in logic here?

[Eraden]

I'm starting to get the feeling that Island Sanctuaries is a hastily cobbled together stopgap to deal with the issue of so many people not being able to own houses and therefore also not being able to do any gardening.

[MintnHoney]

The fact that the devs had to specifically state that it was not going to be like animal crossing and to lower expectations proves there was way to much hype over this.

The keyword is "was." Now it's just a concern, as opposed to something that's hyped, at least in my social circles (limited as they might be). I guess the good news there is that no one is expecting much of anything from them, so they don't have to worry about not producing to expectations for at least some people.
On the other hand, the general playerbase is still riding off of whatever high they can for FFXIV, so expectations will continue to rise even when the developers tell them to lower it because (1) they won't have actually seen the message, (2) they're going to be expecting fantastic results because something (or perhaps someone, possibly whitey and knighty) led them to believe that they're being promised a quality piece of content, and (3) no one has been given anything concrete to use to tether their expectations yet, so minds will run amuck.

[Raoabolic]

The keyword is "was." Now it's just a concern, as opposed to something that's hyped, at least in my social circles (limited as they might be). I guess the good news there is that no one is expecting much of anything from them, so they don't have to worry about not producing to expectations for at least some people.
On the other hand, the general playerbase is still riding off of whatever high they can for FFXIV, so expectations will continue to rise even when the developers tell them to lower it because (1) they won't have actually seen the message, (2) they're going to be expecting fantastic results because something (or perhaps someone, possibly whitey and knighty) led them to believe that they're being promised a quality piece of content, and (3) no one has been given anything concrete to use to tether their expectations yet, so minds will run amuck.

(4) many players are noticing the cracks in the fixture and devs have to to assure/calm the playerbase as to not scare the money away.
The EW finale fiasco, the hothgar disaster, and the housing whoopsie means they really have to play it careful as to not make a sore situation even worse.

[KageTokage]

I feel like their biggest mistake was hyping up the feature before Endwalker even released as something major.

Had it simply been announced post-release in a LL I think people's expectations would've been kept in check better.

[Shibi]

I feel like their biggest mistake was hyping up the feature before Endwalker even released as something major...

Biggest mistake was shuffling Yoshi and other senior staff off to work on FFXVI and handing over XIV to the interns and contractors.