In 2024, a Chinese developer called Seed Sparkle Lab launched a Kickstarter campaign to develop a farming sim with deeper life-sim elements. Coupled with an anime aesthetic, the developer sought to have players write their own “life story” through how they spend time in the game, leveling up its five job classes and interacting with residents. After an Early Access period, the game launched on PC and consoles after much anticipation from the cozy gaming community. Let’s talk about where Starsand Island stands as a 1.0 release in this review for the Switch 2 version of the game.

Starsand Island captures much of the escapism popular in the life-sim and farming-sim genres. Arriving at an overgrown plot of land and meeting a resident eager to teach you the ropes, you quickly become a staple of this small island town. From here, fans of this style of game will know what comes next. You plant seeds, meet people, engage in some dialogue and tasks to enhance relationships, and plenty of other staples of the genre.

The major differences in Starsand Island should set it apart. For example, not even 40 minutes into the game, you’re given access to quicker means of navigating the island. There’s no humble process of slowly expanding your horizons after legging it in your new, unfamiliar home. Speaking of home, you almost immediately get to redesign your house on a grand scale, pushing past the process of living in a little shack with hopes of one day making your homestead look as good as you can dream.

The art style itself is a bit of a deviation as well. Starsand Island aims more closely at an anime aesthetic that isn’t quite Studio Ghibli or a direct ode to the shoujo manga genre. It’s somewhere in between, and with greenery as far as the eye can see, plus a densely populated town, you’re whisked away from the moment you start playing to a dreamscape. Of course, like any dream, things can seem too good to be true, which is the case thus far with the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Starsand Island.

Before we dive into concerns, it’s worth noting that the developers are aware of issues affecting some 1.0 versions of the game. Switch 2, a powerful console that can run the likes of Resident Evil Requiem and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is plenty equipped to handle a game like this. However, in my first 5 hours of play, I experienced multiple crashes, major frame-rate drops, and an overall fidelity that did not match what I imagined for a full release of a game that had time to cook in Early Access.

On handheld, the issues are even worse and make me feel like this one needed more time for optimization. PS5 users are even talking about performance issues on Reddit. The core gameplay of Starsand Island is serviceable, and I do love the relationship building and job systems that help structure your new, exciting life. That said, in the state it launched in, it’s hard to feel engaged and intertwined with its story when you’re so distracted by technical errors.

Nobody thinks Starsand Island is reinventing the wheel. Its speed-run approach to giving you tools to enjoy the game is interesting, and the art style is compelling. The issue here for me is it’s just not worth playing in this state as of now. I’m not a fan of telling people in a review that the game will be great once it fixes its optimization issues. Truly, I can’t even say that, with the fixes, this will be an all-timer for the farming-sim or cozy-gaming genres. Still, the state it’s in now makes it an easy pass until things get straightened out.

There is a good game hidden beneath graphical issues and performance bugs in Starsand Island. I hope the team gets it in better shape before a dozen more games like this release and bury it a bit. Still, it’s not something in good conscience I can say you should run out and add to your Switch 2 library until some major improvements occur.

A Nintendo Switch 2 review copy of Starsand Island was provided by Seed Sparkle Lab for this review.

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Starsand Island

39.99

5

Score

5.0/10

Pros

• Good core setup and job system
• Quick addition of QoL features

Cons

• Performance is a major concern and not worth the hassle as of now
• Underwhelming handheld performance makes this a docked-only experience for now
• Art style is limited by rendering errors and screen tearing