Ah, do you feel that breeze on your skin? Do you feel that freedom to explore an Island and do whatever you wish with its virgin lands? This is the idea behind Island Sanatany a place where we can develop our little island into a paradise that only exists in our minds.

The story behind the island is that Tataru went out of her way using the gil she has earnt to buy us an island so we can do as we please and that’s the first problem as ultimately it doesn’t FEEL like our island but rather Tataru’s. The reason it feels like this is when we turn up Tataru pretty much starts by saying “welcome to your island, start building shit to make money for me”.

Before I go on about what we can build I will say the island looks amazing but I don’t like the gathering idea. I may be in the minority here but I would rather go out in the actual world and gather stuff and bring it back to craft. I understand why it is all on one island but it does feel limiting.

When it comes to what we can build I found it disappointing. I will be the first to put my hands up and say I was hoping for a form of private housing but what we got was just a single house-like thing with a bed with a bunch of mammets that could easily just be called Chucky. There was nothing we could change in it and I would have loved it if the house was just another instance like the apartments but even the option to change which bed we have, what chairs to put in and such and move the mammets out of the way would have gone a long way.

The buildings we can build are very static and only provide a minor buff to stuff such as gathering and crafting but the animals and farming I do like and wouldn’t change. It would have been nice to have some buildings such as a cabin to people can visit, or a tent for that survivalist feel, a dojo so we have our SSS dummy or even an armoury so we can show off our gear.

The lack of being able to pick our buildings just makes it feel like all the islands are the same and that we are just doing it because someone told us to make money for them. I understand that they wanted to make it feel like a browser game and to that effect, it does a good job but there was so much more they could have done to make it feel like OUR island. I get people will say to not expect much more or that they will develop it further in time but no what we got now is what we will get with it just being expanded on.

The farming side of it I also found disappointing as it is the bit I was looking forward to. I can understand, although disappointed, that the items you grow and gather on the farm can not be used on the market board but I would have loved it if you could grow untradable versions of items that you could use for gathering such as folklore items. A minor change like this would at least allow using the farm for something for your gain and the fact there isn’t even a “garden” for personal seeds just sucks more so for those people that have no housing and are unable to do any cross-breeding.

Furthermore, there is no reason to visit anyone’s island as it is all the same and once max rank is done I doubt there is much reason to visit either. It would have been nice for it to be our island with stuff that we would have liked and not just a profit machine for Tataru and her army of mindless mammets. Seriously even just being able to place a tent down anywhere would have felt better than a static island. Right now all the Island is that you run around clicking things, build the same things as everyone else and then set up your production for the day which you can do automatically anyway.

Still for what it is the island is fun but sadly below expectations and while I understand the development team said not to expect much it still sucks to have so little customisation and also at the end of the day it just doesn’t feel like ours.

Honeygain - Earn money passively by doing nothing!