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.