Island Sanctuaries - End Game Only

[Deveryn]

The difference in my mind is that Island Sanctuaries are about as relevant as the Gold Saucer when it comes to your characters development. It is non-combat side content that has no interaction outside of itself. The Firmament is side content used to level crafters and gatherers, HoH is there for leveling combat classes etc. The content has very different goals and I just don't see why you would restrict it to level 90.

Everything you mention has its place in the story and we have yet to even see where IS falls into place. Aside from that, there's nothing of actual importance IN Island Sanctuary, so what difference does it make if you have to wait a bit? What's wrong with having something more to look forward to at the end of the whole Hydaelyn / Zodiark saga?

[Amenara]

Everything you mention has its place in the story and we have yet to even see where IS falls into place. Aside from that, there's nothing of actual importance IN Island Sanctuary, so what difference does it make if you have to wait a bit? What's wrong with having something more to look forward to at the end of the whole Hydaelyn / Zodiark saga?

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

[Deveryn]

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

Why are you getting all worked up over this? It looks like you've already completed the story. What's with the white knight routine?

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

[Amenara]

Why are you getting all worked up over this? It looks like you've already completed the story. What's with the white knight routine?

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

White knighting...? I guess if advocating for a less terrible new player experience is white knighting then sure, that's what I am doing. I don't understand why you are so focused on making it a level 90 only experience and how it would affect you if a newer player had access to them. I care because I want the games new player experience to be the best it can be. Adding Island Sanctuaries to a lower level so new players can have access to a fun feature while they are grinding through the MSQ seems like a good quality of life idea. It is a positive with no negatives that I can see, however gating it through the entirety of the MSQ seems like nothing but a negative to me.

[Jojoya]

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

Yet there are players who get the game solely for the Mahjong Tournament in the Gold Saucer. You can't be certain that there aren't people who would get the game solely for Island Sanctuary - (or at least would if it wasn't locked behind a couple of hundred hours of MSQ).

Why withhold content that a new player would enjoy and that seems to have no real lore attached to the island content itself, only to how it is obtained? Again, SE could have made the lore for the quest that unlocks the island anything they wanted (Adventurers' Guild is bequeathed an island by a mysterious benefactor and our trusty Adventurer self has been asked to be the caretaker, as an example). Why is it important for it to be locked behind level 90 MSQ? No one loses anything if it's available to low level players because it is isolated content. What a player does on their island affects no one else.

[Packetdancer]

Yet there are players who get the game solely for the Mahjong Tournament in the Gold Saucer. You can't be certain that there aren't people who would get the game solely for Island Sanctuary - (or at least would if it wasn't locked behind a couple of hundred hours of MSQ).

To be fair, the mahjong angle is largely due to the fact that for years, there were literally no online mahjong games that were not terrible... save for the mahjong in FFXIV, for whatever reason. It wasn't "I want to play FFXIV for mahjong" but rather "I want to play mahjong, and literally all the other implementations are terrible, so I guess we're all going to play FFXIV just to use the only good online mahjong implementation out there."

I would argue that's far less likely with Island Sanctuary; I won't say it's impossible someone would take that same approach, but anyone who wants to play a "rebuild a pastoral area" game has a plethora of fairly solid options. Many of which have considerably more features and depth than Island Sanctuary is likely to have, because that is the entire focus of the game, rather than "hey, a neat side activity". It's not like "well, Animal Crossing is buggy, Harvest Moon has no features, the only one out there that actually works is Island Sanctuary."

Which, weirdly, was the case with Doman Mahjong. As to why SQEX was the only company that could make a non-horrible online mahjong system for a surprisingly long time...?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Midareyukki]

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

Gatekeeping content through the MSQ is the main process of an RPG. It's meant to be a world that evolves as you go along and reacts to your actions\the actions of others:
- Pokémon only lets you progress when you beat gyms and have access to moves that unlock routes.
- SMT games only let you explore new areas if you've gone through the main story (read: P3 tower levels, P1 Snow Queen, SMT3 Amala Labyrinth, even basic functions like fusing demons)
- KH locks minigames, items and equipment behind story progression.
- Final Fantasy itself has entire areas that only unlock after you've beaten a certain dungeon or watch a specific cutscene.

We're not playing an open world\sandbox game. We're playing a progression story, and content is gradually unlocked through it. Not even Skyrim does that. It's not gatekeeping in a negative sense. It's not "You cannot join this unless you're this sort of person".
The stuff new players unlock on the side as they progress the story are meant to be what they do on the side. It's called "side-content" for a reason.

The game doesn't have FOMO other than events, and events are (for the most part) available at level 15, provided you have access to every ARR city hub.
Sidequests and alternative content like PvP is stuff they can go ahead and unlock. But the main point of the game is its MSQ. Gatekeeping said content is part of the nature of the genre itself, it's not an inherent design flaw by Square directly to keep "the unworthy" off of their content.