It’s simple to suppose there are as many cosy farm/life sims as grains of sand on a seaside. But we cosy followers regularly need extra: extra land to until, extra animals to lift, extra money to make. Now Starsand Island has cropped up among the many muddle.
Chinese language developer Seed Sparkle Lab launched it on Early Entry in February 2026, and has now launched it on consoles. And though the gameplay loop is completely nice, it’s presently stuffed with bugs and efficiency points that sandbagged my expertise.
The story is fairly primary: you visited Starsand Island as a child, and ten years later you’ve returned to flee your gruelling metropolis life. There’s not far more to it than that, and I needed there was one thing to root my character to the farm itself.
Gameplay will really feel acquainted to farming sim fiends. You play by way of the seasons, with occasions and crops tied to the time. You’ll be able to tackle totally different ‘Professions’: Crafting, Farming, Fishing, Ranching and Exploration. Every has particular duties and sub-tasks to do, specified by a togglable UI information that’s useful with out holding your hand.
Within the Crafting Career you utilize processing tools machines (worktable, looms, furnaces, cutters) to show uncooked supplies into different supplies which you may use, reward or re-craft once more. As a Farmer you are likely to crops, experimenting with fertilisers and delivering objects to eating places or the ranch. Ranching sees you take care of adorably-designed animals each actual and legendary. The Fishing mechanic is near SoS:PoOT’s, and provides you a large aquarium to fill. Within the Exploration Career you journey to the Moonlit Forest to mine and struggle monsters.
The fight is fairly easy – dodge enemy assaults after which hit them along with your slingshot. You by no means need to ‘commit’ to a single Career both – the truth is, they feed into each other: Rancher quests provide you with rabbits which eat weeds to guard your Farming crops. The Crafting Career requires you to mine ores within the forest, levelling up your Explorer Career.
It’s set to music that blends into the setting. Some tunes jogged my memory of the Disney Dreamlight Valley soundtrack: brilliant woodwinds, light-touch violins and a gradual tempo. Likewise, the sport itself is gradual, initially, however the loop will get extra enjoyable as you play, and shortly I felt enthusiastic about my Career development.
The rewards methods are very granular. Coin is the primary foreign money, and there’s Starsand for finishing villager requests. You’ll be able to change Starsand for advantages resembling recovering stamina when sitting or elevated possibilities of digging up chests.
You might have numbered ranges related to achievements like ‘Turn out to be an Apprentice in All Professions’. You acquire stamps for reaching sure numbers of gatherables, crafting recipes, and so forth. Then there’s Island Life, which rewards primary gameplay, however it’s important to do duties in a selected order. These may have been condensed into one easy system, a la Animal Crossing’s Nook Miles.
Assembly sure NPCs opens an (inconsistently voice-acted) cutscene that appears like a meet-cute, your outings are known as ‘dates’, and the love system works equally to different video games: converse daily and provides them presents to extend their hearts. Nonetheless, the sport calls marriage ‘transferring in’. That would both be inclusive or homophobic.
The devs have tried to offer NPCs persona – an appendix homes full backstories for every – though I discovered most of them interchangeable, and their dialogue a bit bland. Many say they like machines or animals over people, or, adversely, how they’re at all times blissful to see you!
Dialogue could also be a translation difficulty, however the characters additionally look related. The artwork workforce appears extraordinarily gifted, and closely influenced by Rune Manufacturing facility or Genshin Impression, but nearly all of the townsfolk share the identical large shiny eyes, small frames and pale pores and skin tone. Extra variety among the many characters would assist keep away from early-game confusion over who’s who.
Followers of the My Time video games can be excited to see Portia’s Gust and Ginger, and Sandrock’s Fang and Nia, although they could be upset on the lack of associated quests.
Your farmland provides you a little bit of area to play with, and you’ll improve it later. Customisation is respectable right here, with a spread of flooring, partitions and even grasses to make it your individual. That’s difficult, although, as a result of Construct Mode is kinda janky and gradual, and suffers from bugs like tools and doorways disappearing utterly. This function does make use of the Swap 2’s mouse perform, although it’s nonetheless a bit clunky.
Efficiency points abound outdoors the house too. Body fee drops if you transfer so it feels such as you’re working on sand. You’ll be able to craft a skateboard, or hire a mount, scooter or automobile, though they’re all fairly clunky (nonetheless, casually driving an ostrich to the shop is hilarious). It made me grateful for video games the place getting round was really clean and straightforward.
Talking of taking issues as a right, menus are a stand-out: user-friendly, detailed and useful. Choosing an merchandise reveals you a mini encyclopaedia: sale worth, origin, crafting recipe. Processing unit menus have a shortcut to improve them. Crafting menus clearly mark quest recipes, whereas an on-screen guidelines shows quest-related objects. These particulars are small on handheld, however helpful nonetheless.
I’ve talked about a number of efficiency points, however, like sand after the seaside, they hold showing. Starsand Island doesn’t run practically in addition to it ought to on such a robust console. The devs launched a patch mid-play, making some minor enhancements. Nonetheless, points have been nonetheless current at time of writing.
It’s typically stuttery, gradual and unresponsive; when you choose, say, one thing within the stock, or a fast-travel level, or a recipe to craft, there’s a beat earlier than something occurs. Finishing quests was often unattainable: I couldn’t hand over an merchandise, or the hunt reappeared after I’d accomplished it. Worse, I beat a boss within the forest, just for it to respawn after I’d picked up the post-battle loot. The load screens could be over one minute lengthy. And I misplaced depend of what number of instances the sport crashed – even post-patch.
Conclusion
So far as the core recreation goes, there’s nothing really horrible about Starsand Island, however there’s not so much distinctive both. The gameplay loop is nice, choosing your individual path is sweet, and the menus have been extraordinarily useful. It’s an honest size at over 60 hours minimal – although with the gradual load instances and delays it may be for much longer. Actually, the ever-present bugs and efficiency points weigh the whole expertise down.
For those who take away all of the bugs, the sport within reason enjoyable. It’s simply laborious to justify choosing this one when there’s a sandstorm of cute cosy farm sims on the eShop. Nonetheless, if the anime artwork model and gameplay loop seize you, I’d recommend ready till the bugs get patched, or looking for it out on one other platform.
