It’s simple to assume there are as many cosy farm/life sims as grains of sand on a seaside. But we cosy followers regularly want extra: extra land to until, extra animals to boost, extra money to make. Now Starsand Island has cropped up among the many litter.
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 at present full of 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 way more to it than that, and I wanted there was one thing to root my character to the farm itself.
Gameplay will really feel acquainted to farming sim fiends. You play via the seasons, with occasions and crops tied to the time. You’ll be able to tackle completely 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 Occupation you utilize processing tools machines (worktable, looms, furnaces, cutters) to show uncooked supplies into different supplies which you would possibly use, reward or re-craft once more. As a Farmer you are likely to crops, experimenting with fertilisers and delivering gadgets 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 offers you a large aquarium to fill. Within the Exploration Occupation you journey to the Moonlit Forest to mine and battle monsters.
The fight is fairly easy – dodge enemy assaults after which hit them along with your slingshot. You by no means should ‘commit’ to a single Occupation both – actually, they feed into each other: Rancher quests offer you rabbits which eat weeds to guard your Farming crops. The Crafting Occupation requires you to mine ores within the forest, levelling up your Explorer Occupation.
It’s set to music that blends into the setting. Some tunes jogged my memory of the Disney Dreamlight Valley soundtrack: shiny woodwinds, light-touch violins and a sluggish tempo. Likewise, the sport itself is sluggish, initially, however the loop will get extra enjoyable as you play, and shortly I felt enthusiastic about my Occupation development.
The rewards programs are very granular. Coin is the principle forex, and there’s Starsand for finishing villager requests. You’ll be able to trade Starsand for advantages equivalent to recovering stamina when sitting or elevated possibilities of digging up chests.
You’ve gotten numbered ranges related to achievements like ‘Change into an Apprentice in All Professions’. You gather 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 specific 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 referred to as ‘dates’, and the love system works equally to different video games: converse on daily basis and provides them items to extend their hearts. Nonetheless, the sport calls marriage ‘transferring in’. That might both be inclusive or homophobic.
The devs have tried to provide 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 all the time comfortable to see you!
Dialogue could also be a translation challenge, however the characters additionally look comparable. The artwork crew appears extraordinarily proficient, and closely influenced by Rune Manufacturing unit or Genshin Affect, but virtually all of the townsfolk share the identical massive 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 will likely be excited to see Portia’s Gust and Ginger, and Sandrock’s Fang and Nia, although they could be dissatisfied on the lack of associated quests.
Your farmland offers you a little bit of house to play with, and you’ll improve it later. Customisation is first rate right here, with a variety 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 sluggish, and suffers from bugs like tools and doorways disappearing utterly. This function does make use of the Change 2’s mouse operate, although it’s nonetheless a bit clunky.
Efficiency points abound exterior 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 lease 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 truly clean and straightforward.
Talking of taking issues as a right, menus are a stand-out: user-friendly, detailed and useful. Choosing an merchandise exhibits you a mini encyclopaedia: sale value, 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 gadgets. These particulars are small on handheld, however helpful nonetheless.
I’ve talked about a couple of efficiency points, however, like sand after the seaside, they maintain showing. Starsand Island doesn’t run practically in addition to it ought to on such a strong console. The devs launched a patch mid-play, making some minor enhancements. Nonetheless, points had been nonetheless current at time of writing.
It’s usually stuttery, sluggish 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 search 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 will be over one minute lengthy. And I misplaced rely of what number of occasions the sport crashed – even post-patch.
Conclusion
So far as the core sport goes, there’s nothing really horrible about Starsand Island, however there’s not rather a lot distinctive both. The gameplay loop is nice, choosing your individual path is good, and the menus had been extraordinarily useful. It’s a good size at over 60 hours minimal – although with the sluggish load occasions and delays it may be for much longer. Actually, the ever present bugs and efficiency points weigh all the expertise down.
For those who take away all of the bugs, the sport is fairly 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 counsel ready till the bugs get patched, or looking for it out on one other platform.
