I’m not sure how much I’ll talk about my initial playthrough or not yet so much as just experience in general. Maybe it’ll be a mix. We shall see! Regardless, I had been anticipating this game from the very first trailer. I was so incredibly excited and then immediately heart-broken when it was revealed to be Apple Arcade only. Even outside of the fact that I don’t really have any Apple Devices, these types of games are not ones I’d really enjoy on a phone and/or on a subscription. The game has been out for PC and Switch for over a month now though so I wanted to try and give my thoughts.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m kind of tired of Live Service games, especially after full retail games would have things very slowly be released (Splatoon, Animal Crossing: New Horizons), and even more so when they are on a subscription so in some ways, waiting this long was maybe for the best, but in others, sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming and when looking up information, you’ll get a mixed bags of things that may actually be helpful and things that only apply to a version that no longer exists and this kind of also adds a bit to my frustration.
As it is, the game has held back updates for this release. In fact, several big qualities of life updates are being held off until our first free update and I’m not entirely sure why. While we will get that content and those features then, the whole City area (and everything that brings) is still not going to be available for PC and Switch players. I don’t know if Apple Arcade still has some kind of exclusivity on the game’s content but considering that this will bring some of the content that was released in the most recent update there, it doesn’t feel like that’s the case.
I think the biggest complaint I heard from friends who played on Apple Arcade were that the game has a lot of “walls”. If you’re not sure what that means, it essentially means that the game has limits to how much you can do in a day and/or quests that often will be split up into various parts that also can only be done daily or longer. It’s generally something you may see often in mobile titles which kind of makes sense considering the game was an Apple Arcade exclusive (I specifically say kinda because it could be played on all Apple Devices so people could play it on Apple TV as well, for example) so being able to do a quick 15-minute quest and be done can be nice, but it doesn’t really work as well when paying $40 (or $60 if you spring for the deluxe version) for it.
And I will say, having played it, the walls are definitely pretty exhausting, and I think depending on your tolerance for them will be a large part of how much you enjoy the game. I’m at a point where getting new quests depends on getting certain Visitors to want to stay on the island. Besides that, characters can only show up every other day, if you’re lucky. Many characters also have schedules that mean they won’t always be available to travel to your island which many being every other week, monthly, or even during specific seasons. And whether you care for certain characters or not, outside of quest requirements, some characters also require other characters to be moved in before you can actually get them to start showing up.
To get a Visitor to move in, you must get them to 5 stars which requires completing 5 different quests. You can only get one per visit, you are not guaranteed to get a visitor quest for your daily quest even if they’re visiting, and you can only get up to three visitor quests a day. So even if you do manage to get them in (which is also chance based– just because they have a room they like doesn’t mean they will show up), you still need to hope you even get one of the quests for their star ranks. It’s an arduous process and really frustrating with just how RNG-heavy it is. I wouldn’t mind a daily quest– it’s everything else that is so frustrating. I don’t think there should be a limit on visitor quests a day. If you get a visitor, you should get their quest no matter what.
Essentially, two of the longest unlocks are with unlocking the Greenhouse and unlocking Milk. If you’re into the gardening and flower breeding aspect, the Greenhouse will be a huge boon to you as it makes it a lot easier to get other colors and patterns. And with a whole bunch of flowers and over 20 different colors, not to mention all the patterns… There are a lot of flowers to work towards. To get the Greenhouse, in addition to getting Wish me mell’s friendship up, you need to unlock flower plots at the Seaside Resort, Spooky Swamp, Gemstone Mountain, Mount Hothead, and Rainbow Reef which require getting Lou, Aro, Poco, Chico, and Marin respectively. And then you also need Lutz. That doesn’t even get to the number of materials needed to then upgrade the greenhouse…
As for Milk, you need to get everyone associated with Cinnamoroll in the game moved in as well: Espresso, Azuki, Chiffon, Mocha, Cappuccino, Coco, Nuts, Poron, and Corune. To get Coco and Nuts, you need to have Chiffon, Mocha, Espresso, and Cappuccino as permanent residents. Once you have the four of them, Azuki, Coco, and Nuts in and have completed various Cinnamoroll-related quests (some are also required for Coco and Nuts), you can finally get Poron in. And for Corune, you need to get Poron moved in. This doesn’t even bring up their various schedules in the first place.
I don’t think being a fan of Sanrio is necessarily a requirement to enjoy the game if you just like doing quests and decorating and cute little friends and customizing your character and stuff. You’ll learn about everyone as you go. I do like Sanrio and I’m mostly familiar with all the characters in the game so far with just a couple I mainly only knew by name/have seen briefly. I think the only ones I am not familiar with at all are some of Wish me mell’s friends.
In some ways, the game feels like what Disney Dreamlight Valley is, but for Sanrio and so I think if you expect something similar, you’re not too off the mark. That said, as previously mentioned, the walls are pretty rough. The game has a lot of restrictions daily, despite the actually day-night cycle in the game being completely on its own. It does at least mean you can experience all times of day regardless of when you play plus it also means multiple weather events can happen in a day (which… also have their own RNG. There are some exclusive Critters, Fish, and Materials during each weather effect). Everything else works on a daily schedule and while they are supposedly looking into possible adjustments to the system, there are no guarantees it will happen just yet.
I’m still really enjoying the game, but some walls feel especially frustrating. Sometimes, I’ll have a quest done within about 5 minutes. Others just feel so horridly forced to be cut off that it feels off-putting and awkward to just leave it there, such as one character disappearing and just being like “oh, we can talk to this person tomorrow, no rush” I feel like there is very much a rush actually???
If it wasn’t for friends helping with items, I’d probably be a bit more frustrated too because some items are incredibly limited (like 2-7 you can find a day. I think the most of an item you can find per day is about 50? With one having about 60 a day) and it’s just… frustrating. I’ve mentioned before how I have days where I really want to sit and play for hours so it kind of stinks when you’re just… done.
On a positive note, when you do become best friends with a character, they can help gather materials (one per day) which helps a lot as someone who can get burnt out with that kind of thing. In general, all the characters have helpful traits that you unlock as you become better friends. The unfortunate part is that you can only have up to two abilities at a time (just one until you do a specific trait from Kiki & Lala) and have to track down characters to switch off, though an upcoming quality of life feature for Switch/PC (already out on Apple Arcade) lets you call them to you in the menu. I think the thing that bothers me most is a lot of this abilities are super handy, and I do wish I could just… have them all activated whenever and maybe turn some off when I feel like it. Pochacco helps you move faster and helps collect things from challenges, Pompompurin lets you jump higher, Hangyodon helps you swim faster and increases the chance of rare fish… Every single character has at least one ability and they all feel so helpful that I really wish I could just have them all on all the time. At least calling should help make things quicker as I go around doing things (I just need to remember to swim).
That said, while some feel more situational (Like Hangyodon and Badtz-maru would be the best team to use for when I want to go all in on fishing, as rare as it is because of all the activities in the game, fishing is one of my least favorites (it just feels slow and clunky)), I’d probably keep Pochacco and Pompompurin on all the time for the increased movement speed and jumping height. Tuxedosam gives you a 25% chance to get an additional item when shopping (which also extends to any visitors as do all crafting-related abilities) and it’s just, I don’t even want to keep switching. I just want to have them all on.
I finished the first part of the story, and it was fairly sweet, but I was kind of disappointed as there was a big ending cutscene with a song and everything, but your custom character isn’t part of the cutscene at all. It makes them feel completely outside of the celebration which feels awkward because they were clearly such a big part of everything. The whole thing is about saving the memories that “all our friends are part of”. “A grand celebration of everything friendship” to “do all together” and then we’re… not in it. It feels weird and awkward and really took me out of what should have been exciting.
Anyway, despite my disappointments there, like I said, I am still having fun. I just wish the walls weren’t as forced as they are and that things were more flexible for all playstyles, especially when people playing on Switch and the PC will generally want to play longer sessions in the first place.
Edit: I realized I had forgotten two very important things I wanted to talk about: The Deluxe Pack and Customization.
A lot of people wonder if the Deluxe Pack is worth it. For the most part, supposedly nothing is exclusive to the Deluxe Pack– all event items are to make a come-back (and outside of the grand opening items included, this does seem to be the case as each event rolls around with older items being available through Tuxedosam’s and My Melody’s shops). You also don’t actually get all the past event items. Some examples are any of the 50th anniversary stuff, Christmas clothing, and some Spooky clothing (like the Lolita dress which was one of the items I had been most excited for).
But besides Event stuff, you do get a lot of materials and items that can reset friendship gifts (normally capped at 3 per character a day) and item spawns which can give you quite a jump start which I super appreciated, especially with the aforementioned walls.
As for Customization, it’s cute and I was able to make something I liked in the end, but you are limited to 3 body types and the six different head options are each linked to a specific body type– two head options to each one. This was sometimes frustrating as sometimes the head type I liked best wasn’t my favorite body type and vice versa.
Similarly, rather than choosing colors, you are limited to choosing a color palette. Each palette consists of three colors that are automatically applied to certain parts depending on the pattern you choose. Additional patterns are unlocked through character friendship and events. Some color palettes are also exclusive to animal types (for example, my favorite color palette is actually exclusive to sheep, but I liked the options for bunny best and at least was able to make something super cute with a pattern from Cinnamoroll).
I do think you can probably still make something you’re happy with, but it’s another thing I wish was much more flexible and I personally feel like you should be able to pick the color you want out of everything for your starter one and just unlock others later.