Island sanctuary doesn't feel right.

[DPZ2]

Well, the Island was advertised as "Your own personal Island for relaxing and easy content"
What we got was "Tataru's Mammet sweatshop where you have to manage it for her"

Not sure if the devs are just that out of touch but Island Sanctuary is the biggest example of this game missing the mark I've seen in a long while.

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content. Having spent the first six months after starting the game in hotels with 'iffy' Internet, crafting and gathering was a quiet way of spending the evening during the week, with actual 'dungeon instance' gameplay relegated to the weekends. The Island is pretty reminiscent of those days.

One does not have to become a billionaire for the Island to hold interest. I've seen a number of comments about the lack of "content". Content that was rushed through based on Fear of Missing Out, it looks to me.

While you will get kicked out if you go AFK, you can log out on the island and find yourself back there when you log back in. You also get kicked out of dungeons after a certain period of time. An instance is an instance is an instance ...

Plus, it's a pretty nice place to go and watch a sunset on an otherwise off day in-game.

[Iscah]

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content.

The issue isn't speed or difficulty, it's that the end result of the tasks you're working on don't feel satisfying.

We were told to expect a slow-paced setting on a farm. We got a factory and a whole lot of mammets in hi-vis vests and hard hats, occupying every building and ruining the mood, doubly so when they keep talking about how good it is to cut down the trees and how much they hate nature on this wild natural island I would have preferred to keep in its starting state. (Still build stuff of course, but more eco-resort than factory town.)

The farm part itself feels neglected, too. I've said before, the animals should be kept in varied environments that suit them, with shelter and food, not dumped out on an empty field.

[Padudu]

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content. Having spent the first six months after starting the game in hotels with 'iffy' Internet, crafting and gathering was a quiet way of spending the evening during the week, with actual 'dungeon instance' gameplay relegated to the weekends. The Island is pretty reminiscent of those days.

One does not have to become a billionaire for the Island to hold interest. I've seen a number of comments about the lack of "content". Content that was rushed through based on Fear of Missing Out, it looks to me.

While you will get kicked out if you go AFK, you can log out on the island and find yourself back there when you log back in. You also get kicked out of dungeons after a certain period of time. An instance is an instance is an instance ...

Plus, it's a pretty nice place to go and watch a sunset on an otherwise off day in-game.

I did take my time and got everything at my own pace (or everything that I wanted, anyways). Doesn't change the fact that it's a right click simulator on par with Cookie Clicker. It definitely felt more like a chore to me than anything else after a while, and overall, it's just super... lacking.

Before you/anyone says I rushed, I really didn't lol. It took me weeks to even get to rank 10, and I picked it up whenever I felt like it. I'm not really grinding it out other than every couple of weeks.

And as for it being my "personal island", there's really nothing personal about it at all. You can't customize it, can't play your own music (unless it's bugged, whenever I tried to set a song it would reset to the default island music whenever I would come back in next time). Once you max out everything, actually going *into* the island is more or less not needed. There's nothing really.. personal or relaxing about it, IMO.

[Oizen]

One can certainly make the Island your own personal nightmare by trying to obtain everything in the shortest period of time.

Or, one can take time, play around with the easy content. Having spent the first six months after starting the game in hotels with 'iffy' Internet, crafting and gathering was a quiet way of spending the evening during the week, with actual 'dungeon instance' gameplay relegated to the weekends. The Island is pretty reminiscent of those days.

One does not have to become a billionaire for the Island to hold interest. I've seen a number of comments about the lack of "content". Content that was rushed through based on Fear of Missing Out, it looks to me.

While you will get kicked out if you go AFK, you can log out on the island and find yourself back there when you log back in. You also get kicked out of dungeons after a certain period of time. An instance is an instance is an instance ...

Plus, it's a pretty nice place to go and watch a sunset on an otherwise off day in-game.

What does that have to do with anything I said?

The Island is unrewarding if you do it in a week or a month, you do not get to add any of your own personal touch to it, you go to it to manage Tataru's mammet sweatshop, and then you leave.

What was advertised was not what was delivered.

[Jojoya]

What does that have to do with anything I said?

The Island is unrewarding if you do it in a week or a month, you do not get to add any of your own personal touch to it, you go to it to manage Tataru's mammet sweatshop, and then you leave.

What was advertised was not what was delivered.

The Island is very rewarding. It just may not have the rewards you are personally looking for.

I agree it lacks customization that would improve the experience but we were never promised much in the way of customization in the first place. We were told we'd be able to place buildings and change how they look. We can place buildings. We can change how they look (even if those options are boring).

Most of what was advertised actually was delivered. What wasn't delivered was the inflated expectations that players set for the Island despite YoshiP repeatedly asking players to lower them. We don't know if there will be further features added in the next update when it comes out or if we're just getting a new area that works the same way. Perhaps some of the little things that weren't delivered so far will be delivered then.

[vanaii]

The Island is very rewarding. It just may not have the rewards you are personally looking for.

I agree it lacks customization that would improve the experience but we were never promised much in the way of customization in the first place. We were told we'd be able to place buildings and change how they look. We can place buildings. We can change how they look (even if those options are boring).

Most of what was advertised actually was delivered. What wasn't delivered was the inflated expectations that players set for the Island despite YoshiP repeatedly asking players to lower them. We don't know if there will be further features added in the next update when it comes out or if we're just getting a new area that works the same way. Perhaps some of the little things that weren't delivered so far will be delivered then.

Yeah, I saw rumblings of uh oh when people were expecting a full-blown stardew valley inside of FFXIV. Maybe it'll become that in time, but that's a bit much to expect right at the start.

The best suggestion I've seen so far is the ability to place external "garden" furniture from housing on your island. People could have their own private gpose aesthetic garden... and I could place bonfires everywhere on mine.

Maybe, resources permitting, we could have a private interior. That certainly seems like something that would be gated behind a fairly long term gameplay unlock series, akin to the pixie playland or doman reconstruction. We are there to develop the private island Mr. Beast gave us, after all, so that naturally seems like the later stages of island development.

[Padudu]

The Island is very rewarding. It just may not have the rewards you are personally looking for.

I agree it lacks customization that would improve the experience but we were never promised much in the way of customization in the first place. We were told we'd be able to place buildings and change how they look. We can place buildings. We can change how they look (even if those options are boring).

Most of what was advertised actually was delivered. What wasn't delivered was the inflated expectations that players set for the Island despite YoshiP repeatedly asking players to lower them. We don't know if there will be further features added in the next update when it comes out or if we're just getting a new area that works the same way. Perhaps some of the little things that weren't delivered so far will be delivered then.

Very rewarding lol? Ah yes, I definitely feel awarded for the amount of timegates I had to jump through for a motorcycle mount.

This isn't a way to say that I don't like what we can buy the shop, btw, as I have a lot of it myself. But how rewarding is it really to just go to an island, gather for the umpteeth time, then leave. Or even when you finish let's reduce that - just talk to a couple of mammets, bam done. I didn't have expectations and I know YoshiP told us to keep it low, but honestly the content delivered was so unsubstational that I just wish the time developing the island went into their long-abandoned features instead.

[Iscah]

You don't have to level up your island at all. Keep it natural. And there's your non-sweatshop paradise.

And how were we supposed to know that? By the time you've done anything at all on your island, the damage is already done and you can't get it back.

You literally walk away to do your first instructed gathering craft, come back and the mammets have wiped out a nice thicket of jungle plants opposite the cabin so you can build their workshops on the bare earth.


Also, the farm (again). I paid the mammets for the second upgrade, expecting they would make something nice and happy for the animals, and instead they cleared away the nice border of trees and left a bare paddock with no shelter for the animals. Visually speaking, it's a complete downgrade, and we can't undo it.

Most of what was advertised actually was delivered. What wasn't delivered was the inflated expectations that players set for the Island despite YoshiP repeatedly asking players to lower them.

No, the advertised experience was not delivered upon.

I didn't go into it with inflated expectations or really any expectations besides the one image we had been shown: sprawling farmland occupied by our mounts and minions.

The final product bears little resemblance to whatever that image promised. The farm is not the core of the setting and the vibe is completely different.

[Padudu]

No, the advertised experience was not delivered upon.

I didn't go into it with inflated expectations or really any expectations besides the one image we had been shown: sprawling farmland occupied by our mounts and minions.

The final product bears little resemblance to whatever that image promised. The farm is not the core of the setting and the vibe is completely different.

Simply agree.

Also, I kind of think it's shitty practice to just slide it with "more features are probably coming and will be delivered." Like.. keep in mind, this is the expansion that is supposed to be a finale to FFXIV's "first season" and mostly everything has been sooo lackluster. The features in the island are legit bare minimum. Customization is like.. what, you replace one visual with another? Yay, I guess. We can have cobblestones that we get in the later ranks and switch it up for dirt paths and grass. Yay, I guess?

Oh, we can move the buildings and change the structures? Anywhere? Nope, restricted to squares. You can change it all you'd like, but it's all the same in the end, and the "customization" that's truly there is the minions you can place. Island Sanctuary feels completely unfinished and I mean.. we paid for the expansion and the game, the features that they advertised should already be there lol. Does it have to be fully fleshed? Of course not, but it should be better than what we got now.

The bar was already low and they still managed to somehow miss that.

[Jojoya]

Very rewarding lol? Ah yes, I definitely feel awarded for the amount of timegates I had to jump through for a motorcycle mount.

This isn't a way to say that I don't like what we can buy the shop, btw, as I have a lot of it myself. But how rewarding is it really to just go to an island, gather for the umpteeth time, then leave. Or even when you finish let's reduce that - just talk to a couple of mammets, bam done. I didn't have expectations and I know YoshiP told us to keep it low, but honestly the content delivered was so unsubstational that I just wish the time developing the island went into their long-abandoned features instead.

That depends on what you're interested in and what you're willing to make of it.

When you get down to it, almost all content in a MMO is repetitive. Why do you feel other repetitive content in the game has a better time/effort to reward ratio compared to the one for Island Sanctuary? Or is it just that the rewards from the other content interest you more?

Does that 20+ Craftsman's Command Materia IX I'm able to buy each week with my cowries earned from 5 minutes of effort a day feel rewarding to me? Certainly. That's time I'm not out having to gather to craft collectables for scrip farming to buy that materia since I'm probably going to need 400-500 of them to overmeld the upcoming crafting gear.

Considering those materia will be selling for 15-25k gil each when patch 6.3 is released (if not more), I would have thought that others that don't craft would feel it rewarding as well since they could use the gil to buy other things they want like expensive glamours and rare minions.

Silly me, I guess.

No, the advertised experience was not delivered upon.

I didn't go into it with inflated expectations or really any expectations besides the one image we had been shown: sprawling farmland occupied by our mounts and minions.

The final product bears little resemblance to whatever that image promised. The farm is not the core of the setting and the vibe is completely different.

What content was in the concept art that is missing from my island?



I've got what was in that image and so did everyone else that bothered to develop their island that far. SE can't help it if some players made assumptions about the content based on the concept art released instead of paying attention to what they were being told.