I’ve happily pummelled a lot of hours into sim games. Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, The Sims, Disney Dreamlight Valley. If it’s focused on creating a cosy life with tasks like farming, crafting, and fishing alongside characters that need my help, I’m there. So, when I saw Starsand Island was on the way, well, colour me excited. And after 15 hours in early access, I can confirm there’s a serious amount to love about it. But, there’s also some glaring things that I’d love to see improved before it fully launches this summer.
Starsand Island has a simple story behind it (and I’ll get into why this is a slight drawback later on). Grandpa’s left you a lovely lot of land on the island, where you apparently spent a lot of time as a child, as the residents will mention. To reestablish yourself, you’re invited to master a number of professions. Five, to be exact.
Crafter, Farmer, Angler, Rancher and Explorer, you can work your way up from beginner to expert. Either you take these on one by one, or you can dare to juggle them all in one go. I was feeling particularly plucky, so I went for the full cohort. After all, I’m trying to get the best idea of what Starsand Island has to offer. Each profession comes with an accompanying guide, an NPC with an unbelievable amount of tasks to give you, and a lot to say about it. For this, you definitely need to pay attention.
As far as any other conversations with NPCs, narrative, or a storyline that becomes affected by your efforts, it’s incredibly thin on the ground. I mentioned that Starsand Island’s simplicity is one of its potential drawbacks and any hope I had of these characters having a smidgeon of depth crumbled with each conversation. Why isn’t my presence making an impact on the island? Why don’t these people have any drama? All of these tasks I’m doing, all of this running around, all of the affection I’m building up with these characters, and all it seems to do is gain me access to their private quarters and perhaps a cheeky treasure chest inside.
But, there is plenty to do to distract you from this lonely existence. Crafting, raising animals, harvesting crops, improving your lot, and cooking up a storm are just some of the options you’re given free rein to choose from. And most tasks do require you to collect resources from across Starsand Island. Soon enough, you’ll also take the portal located not too far from your homestead to the Moonlit Forest. This network of caves and checkpoints is full of mysteries, treasure and abundant resources. And it’s a lovely contrast from your usual island life.
While Starsand Island and Moonlit Forest separately are fluid, in order to move between them, you’ll find yourself on the loading page a fair amount which can feel a little monotonous. Fortunately, another clever idea from developers Seed Sparkle Lab, means you can actually sleep and rest up in tents inside the Moonlit Forest (as long as you’ve repaired the checkpoint). Since you can faint past 2AM, taking away half your stamina for the next day, it’s worth a rest. And with such a late curfew, I felt like I had a lot of time in my day to get what I wanted done, setting a wonderfully cosy pace to match the game.
Visually, the expanse of the island, the forest, and its accompanying waters, which you can also explore, are stunning. A Studio Ghibli-inspired aesthetic, it’s whimsical, soft, and lovely to look at, which makes spending hours wandering around one of the easiest tasks you’ll do. Plus, the way you travel around the island is wonderfully unique.
Early on, you craft a skateboard and some skates. Soon after, you’re riding a moped. And before you know it, you’re on the back of an alpaca or ostrich leaping across the meadows and mountains of Starsand Island like a true explorer, befriending capybara, puppies, and cats as you go.
Since there’s a lot of travelling to complete tasks, I found myself incredibly grateful for the multitude of transport options. Unfortunately, even with these fun modes, the movement doesn’t feel the smoothest, especially when it comes to any hint of platforming in the Moonlit Forest lacking a certain fluidity at pace, or the way your boat moves over the seas.
As is the case with most cosy sims, crafting is a core mechanic and in Starsand Island, it’s a little… chaotic. You craft a lot and not on just one or two machines. No, a whole harem. There’s the charcoal kiln, furnace, cutter, separator, ore analyzer, gear smith, ammo maker, sewing table, the list goes on.
While most of the time in Starsand Island you can switch your brain off and just play (which I love), you have to kick it up a notch to keep track of exactly what you’re crafting where and when. If you’re easily distracted, like me, you can end up spinning far too many plates. To craft, you also need to unlock blueprints, either rewarded to you, foraged, or bought at the various shops across the island. Alongside a General Store, the Lex Woodworks for building (which I’ll get into shortly), and various cafes and restaurants, there’s also shops specific to each profession, which is particularly handy.
Like Stardew Valley, you’ve also got a hot bar for easy access to the tools you’ll need to mine, chop trees, pile land, water plants, and even brush your rabbits. Straight off the bat, you’ve got full access to two bars of space. And while that’s great, your wider bag will still quickly become plump and overflowing with items. The trouble with that is, you’ll then need to craft an abundance of storage boxes to fit all your stuff. Yes, I can gain access to my storage boxes, but there’s also 15+ of them already. And while you can craft more advanced storage boxes, they require a lot of effort.
But, there’s also some seriously wonderful things to love about the storage system in Stardew Valley and it’s clear that Seed Sparkle Lab knows their audience. Firstly, you can gain access to your storage boxes whenever you need the items without having to make sure they’re on your person. Secondly, you can access all of your storage boxes by just entering one, which saves a lot of time. And finally, you can stack items with one simple button at a storage box for a quick way to keep particular items together. Anything for an easier life, eh?
Alongside crafting, you’ll also reap the rewards of your professions by unlocking the ability to raise your own animals, grow your own crops, and fill your own pond with catches from the sea. There are clever interweaving moments here too, like how your animals will tend to the weeds growing in your crops, or how the rabbit poop you inevitably obtain can be turned into chicken feed (yum).
And on your lovely plot of land, there’s also build mode. Now, I’m primarily a live mode player so when it comes to building, I’ve got little patience, which may come as a surprise considering I love a cozy sim. But, I’ve indulged in enough building all the same to know that while Starsand Island’s offering is abundant and technical, it’s also not very intuitive. Something which they’ll hopefully iron out.
You can build pretty much anything from scratch, adjusting walls, floors, details bit by bit, and you’ve got a freedom to build what you want, as long as you stay within your plot. But, I found it laced with bugs that had me hopping in and out of build mode more than my rabbits were even capable of. Fortunately, there’s also the ability to buy layouts of entire houses for your home, which I happily enjoyed. In time, there’ll be social uploads that you can take advantage of, similar to The Gallery in The Sims, but notably it’s not quite abundant yet in early access.
For now, there’s a few glitches that’ll hopefully get ironed out for the full launch, like the NPC I kept spotting floating by a bin, or the task I was made to complete three times in a row because if I slept it restarted, or an NPC completely disappearing off the map despite the tracking telling me I was right on top of them. It’s to be expected though, it’s not a polished game yet.
Then there are larger issues like the build mode, which has the chance to be one of the best things about Starsand Island, with some tweaking. Or, the character’s stories, which may be an intentional omission from Seed Sparkle Lab, but one I’m sorely missing.
There’s also so much I adore about this game already and it truly speaks to fans of life sims. It looks amazing, it’s incredibly fun, and there’s plenty to do that I feel utterly compelled to keep playing. Plus, with the expansion of Starsand Port, as well as the station and other parts of Starsand Island still clearly under construction, I have hopes that additional content will round out this sim that’s currently lacking a little intention. And if it doesn’t, well, I’ll happily switch my little brain off and indulge in the whimsies of island life.
