Starsand Island

I dedicated several hours to the game and encountered lots of bugs during the gameplay which at first I didnt mind, hoping they would get fixed at 1.0 release… now i encountered a game breaking bug regarding the island missions that does no longer allow me to progress in the game.. I opened a ticket with support team TWICE, just to get an automated AI response and get closed with no resolution at all. Highly dissappointed

This is a surprisingly competent Farming Sim. The pricetag is rather steep , but I have to say it's well worth it. There is just a MASSIVE amount of stuff to do in this game, and even at 112 hours, I think i'm basically only halfway done at the moment. It feels pretty open-ended, and there is absolutely $40 worth of content in the box. It seems to get relatively frequent updates, and feels AAA in overall polish, fit, and feel. So the core of the game revolves around not only just growing things on a farm, but also managing a suite of crafting options and work-benches. You acquire materials by clearing things around the farm or going into the game's dungeoun, which is a multi-level forest that has several checkpoints. Each checkpoint is centered around a specific area that offers different resources for you to use to refine, build, and construct various gadgets. There are seven major facets to the game that make it what it is. -Farming: No surprises here. It is a relatively competent farming sim all on it's own, with some pretty deep and complex features that allow for a range of experimentation and automation. For instance: Crossbreeding some crops, Sprinkler systems, and a neat feature where certain crops (GMAX, I think) for each season will grow into giant versions if enough are planted adjacent to each other. -Crafting: No surprises here. You have to build various workbenches, refining stations, and storagees to manage a suite of buildables that are escalating in complexity and value. All of your tools are upgraded this way. Some of them in odd ways. There are also bizarre no-use objects like sachets and statues you can build for completing various quests that refresh each day, and reward you with experience and money. -Professions: Tis may be the first point where the game goes off the rails. While you are not required to do most of the profession missions or tasks, they are all mostly useful for progressing the story and your tech-tree. Every Profession is competently executed, and while you end up needing them all, they all provide valuable bonuses in other areas. (The various professions are: Farmer, Crafter, Rancher, Angler, and Explorer) Each one is tied to a Mentor character who you will complete tasks for to get to the next level. Generally these serve as a basic tutorial for each major aspect of the game. -Relationships: You will complete quests, talk to, and give gifts to various residents of the town to earn more social points with them so they like you better. Eventually they will let you in their houses and their bedrooms, and you get various rewards for doing so. It can be relatively rewarding outside of the stuff you get, just because each character is genuinely unique. -Fashion: The game has a complex and varied suite of fashion options for your character (with more varied options available for female characters). The game also hosts a wide variety of craftable and buildable items to decorate your home with, so Interior Design fanatics will enjoy the vast array of such things. -Building and Construction: There are various things to do before you can expand your farm size, but once you get cranking on it, it goes pretty quick. Eventually you will unlock additional locations, House Templates, and nearly unlimited pool of various elements to construct a home from by hand. The construction and building menu is a bit arcane and obscure, but once you get the hang of it, it goes pretty well. The game supports an absolutely limitless range options for constructing a home, and while it may be a bit complicated (It took me an hour to build a relatively mundane shaped barn with two doors.) you have enough freedom to do some pretty impressive things. And Finally -Exploration and Combat: I feel like this is really the weakest aspect of the game, but by no means is it un-enjoyable. The game offers a small variety of bosses and enemies to test your skills against, and eventually you will crush these things with ease, but early on they pose quite a challenge from moment to moment if you aren't properly equipped (which early on, you will not be). Exploration is quite enjoyable, and there are tons of hidden gems just waiting to be discovered. The game does a great job of crafting a believable and fantastic world to explore and capitalize on by selling 86,000 pumpkins in one season. 10/10. Would craft a Hoverboard for Zerine again.

More of a NEUTRAL review. I started out really enjoying the game. As I got farther along though, I realized this game is very craft heavy. It's basically all you do in the game to level up. Go home and craft this. Go home and craft that. And my yard is full of equipment, gadgets, and tables for crafting all of these things. Its a bit much! The game started to feel like a chore rather then fun times. There's very little in the way of fun, little side distractions too, which is something I enjoy in games. I enjoy crafting, but not to this extent. And everything is SO expensive in the game! From the supplies you need to craft with (a lot of mining and tree chopping), to buying the recipes, etc to use to craft. Its EA, and I hope they tweak some of these issues to make the game a bit more fun later in-game.

bug多到数不完，隔段时间下回来看看，一进游戏前面的还没修新的又来，纯找罪受来的。刚开始还说4月出全平台，前段时间想偷偷搞内购被骂，到这还在ea，不出正式版不改这个差评

I purchased this game when it was in EA. I have purchased many a game in EA and it having taken a year to years for it to have reached it's 1.0. I have also been in it's discord. They are updating the bugs and everything that should have been it it's finished state upon the release of 1.0. But this was a CASH GRAB. I have tired to get a refund, because it was $40 bucks and I was hoping with this and the way it was unique that it would only get better... It in fact did not. People who had that Kickstarter for other consoles have to change because they can't get their ducks in a row. As a person that can't get her funds back and is very upset with how incomplete a 1.0 (which if they don't know IT THE COMPLETE AND UNBUGGY FORM OF THE GAME) was release. I will tell my friends that this is a garbage game and I will be suggesting other unique Farm sims that they can play. This game is nothing but a cash grab towards anime fans, where honestly the storyline isn't there and the fact that the MY time series has allowed them to have some of their characters in this game is a atrocity to the My time series, considering they actually have a story with their games and are actually good. Gameplay: You can finish most of the game within hours to a day depending if you hyperfocus. They only thing that kept me engaged was the trying to get other types of breeds for each farm animal, but even then their is no system. Two basic creatures can have multiple of the Rarest type which then the Rare breeds down give you anything, also there are breeds of cow that you can't milk, so if you need that make sure your cows are strictly the B&W cow. You will be selling more babies then breeding them. It crashes and the fishing is so weird that I can't even figure out how it functions and I LOVE FISHING IN MY FARM GAMES. I had a fully automated farm by the first fall. There were no LIs worth romancing. 3 Looked the exact same, and all the LI had some bland personalities. I would have love to see the personalities SHOWN in game like with how the move and interact with the world. But no all walk around with the same gate and some stay in the home for most of the day, yet you have to delivery something to them. They actually revamped a character AWAY from her unique design. The Seasonal events don't feel festive or fun, just hey their is this race and you can buy stuff, OR craft stuff and see if you get the items for a possible item you need to crafts' blueprint. The Forest is useless after you go through it once and then all you have to do is place robots to gather everything. Also their are blueprints that are on a RNG to hope you even get the thing that save. I RARELY saw Rain in the game. This isn't Sandrock where that is the gimmick of the game. We're on an Island, there should be rain and storms and my fields should get damaged. If all this doesn't stop you from purchasing the game, then I hope you enjoy the lost of funds. Because I rather have used those funds to get a different game that development team actually gives a damn about their product. For those that say but there were signs, yes but it was in EA. The point of EA is that it will be buggy and I would be playing to help improve the game for those that want to wait until 1.0. This is not a complete product far from it. Please look to other games. THIS IS NOT IT.

Dozens of games released full access this year, and this is by far, the WORST one yet. Disappointing, underwhelming, lackluster and a waste of money because wdym we're already in full access but the content we have is still as*? Barely any new npcs, no romance updates, no story. We can't even have a decent date or hold hands with our chosen partners. It's 2026 and similar games made in 2017 can do better. Lol.

[h2]Starsand Island : joli, agréable… mais creux[/h2] Difficile d’ignorer complètement le contexte de sortie de Starsand Island : politique commerciale discutable autour de l’EA et du DLC day one, faux avis positifs suspects, agressivité autour de certaines critiques négatives, puis retrait temporaire de Steam après l’utilisation sans autorisation d’éléments visuels provenant d’un autre titre, sur fond de vrai-faux indé changeant de nom au gré du vent. Je n’irai pas plus loin ici. La vraie question est surtout celle-ci : dans un genre déjà très concurrentiel, Starsand Island vaut-il ses 40 € ? Après une quarantaine d’heures, pour moi, non. Le jeu est pourtant beau et agréable à prendre en main. Les environnements sont lumineux, plaisants à parcourir, et le système de métiers est probablement sa meilleure idée : mentors, grades, certifications, étoiles et talents donnent une vraie sensation de progression. [u][b]Mais qui reste sous-exploitée.[/b][/u] Il n’existe que cinq métiers : fabrication, exploration, agriculture, élevage et pêche. Surtout, fabrication et exploration sont les deux véritables locomotives du jeu. Elles donnent accès aux plans, outils et ressources nécessaires aux autres professions. On ne choisit donc pas réellement sa voie. On peut bien sûr pêcher toute une journée ou cultiver pendant deux jours, mais pour progresser sérieusement, il faut revenir aux mêmes deux métiers centraux. C’est dommage, car le jeu possède déjà tout ce qu’il faut pour aller plus loin : couturière, métier à tisser, machine à fil, établi de couture… mais pas de métier de couturier. Même chose pour la cuisine, etc... [u][b]Le monde souffre du même problème.[/b][/u] Il est rempli, mais rarement vivant. Des lieux, des habitants, mais sans arcs narratifs, comme juste là pour les requêtes Fédex du tableau communautaire. Des routes sans circulation et des véhicules très chers (merci l'économie pétée) alors que l’hoverboard suffit déjà largement à se déplacer et permet même d’accéder à des zones autrement inaccessibles, rendant les achats peu opportuns. Qui a envie de conduire sur des routes vides ? Les touristes sont là, mais servent surtout de décor vivant, avec parfois une demande pour les prendre en photo. Le jeu donne constamment l’impression qu’on a cherché à remplir un monde d'assets, mais sans réel lien entre eux. [u][b]Et surtout : où est l’histoire, ou les histoires ?[/b][/u] Après quelques dizaines d’heures, je n’ai toujours pas rencontré de véritable trame principale, que ce soit en fin ou en post EA. Ce choix peut être assumé, mais il faudrait alors compenser avec des arcs secondaires solides, des histoires liées aux métiers, des personnages réellement développés ou des événements réguliers. [u][b]Ce n’est pas le cas.[/b][/u] Les relations reposent surtout sur les cadeaux et les demandes du tableau communautaire. Les événements saisonniers sont rares. On progresse, on récolte, on fabrique, on remplit des commandes… mais le monde, lui, semble immobile. L’économie n’aide pas non plus. Les graines coûtent cher, les récoltes rapportent peu, les plans peuvent coûter presque autant que les commandes qu’ils permettent de réaliser, et de nombreuses améliorations importantes demandent énormément d’argent. On travaille beaucoup sans vraiment avoir l’impression de décoller. Pour un jeu présenté comme “cozy”, c’est assez paradoxal. La fameuse liberté est également très relative. Pouvoir choisir de pêcher, miner ou cultiver aujourd’hui n’a rien d’exceptionnel ; d'autres titres le font très bien. [u][b]La vraie liberté aurait été de pouvoir réellement choisir une carrière et construire son économie autour d’elle.[/b][/u] Graphiquement, le jeu est réussi, mais le chara design me met davantage mal à l’aise. Certains personnages censés être adultes ont des traits extrêmement juvéniles, alors que d’autres PNJ sont clairement représentés comme adultes. Avec les romances et certaines formes de sexualisation, cette différence crée chez moi un vrai malaise. Je ne prête aucune intention particulière aux développeurs : je trouve simplement ce choix de représentation discutable. Enfin, à 40 €, l’absence de localisation française me paraît franchement mesquine. Au final, Starsand Island n’est pas mauvais. Il est joli, agréable à jouer et contient quelques bonnes idées. [u][b]Mais il me donne surtout l’impression d’un énorme circuit de train électrique, mais où personne ne s'est donné la peine de relier les wagons entre eux, et beaucoup de fonctionnalités, d’éléments du genre sont repris tels quels et transposés sans originalité ni sens de la composition. [/b][/u] À 20 ou 25 €, j’aurais probablement parlé d’un life-sim sympathique et imparfait. À 40 €, j’attends davantage. Starsand Island n’est pas un mauvais jeu. Il est simplement trop cher, trop superficiel et presque trop cynique pour justifier son positionnement. [table equalcells=1] [tr] [td] Si cette évaluation vous a plu, vous pouvez rejoindre ou suivre mes groupes Steam : [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/jeuxjoue]Jeux Joue[/url] — Groupe généraliste consacré aux jeux vidéo. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/AccessibleGamesFR]Accessible Games FR[/url] — Groupe consacré à l’accessibilité des jeux. If you enjoyed this review, you can join or follow my Steam groups: [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/jeuxjoue]Jeux Joue[/url] — General gaming group. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/AccessibleGamesFR]Accessible Games FR[/url] — Group focused on accessibility and disabled players. [/td] [/tr] [/table]