Preview: Starsand Island Is Built on a Solid Foundation
When I first played Starsand Island, it was early in development, not all the different types of professions were ready, and the build felt like a work in progress. Now that the game is properly in early access, it feels far more cohesive. Yes, not everything is there yet and I can’t live my virtual life to the fullest. Some balancing definitely needs to be done. But it does feel more pulled together and ready to go than it originally did.
As a quick refresher, Starsand Island is about moving to a rural community your character is already loosely connected to in order to start a new life. Previously, they’d only visited due to their grandpa living there. Now they inherited the home and, after a friend named Solara helps them settle in, they work on becoming part of the community.
The biggest change I noticed between my initial Starsand Island experience and this return to the early access build is that there’s substantially more here. The Crafting, Exploration, Farming, Fishing, and Ranching professions feel much more fleshed out than before, with especially farming and fishing offering more variety in terms of yields, ranching adding more animal husbandry options, and many more recipes available when it comes to making things. These feel pretty full right now, though admittedly I haven’t completed any of the professions at this point. All of these seem advanced enough that I suspect I wouldn’t miss too much in 1.0 if I try and go ahead and do as much as possible now.
Some professions did really hook me in now in this build. Especially with the Farming and Ranching lines. It seems very easy to get settled, and the range of crops and animal is great right now. There are hybrids possible, if you spend enough time playing, and greenhouses are already present. Like getting to Expert Rancher and accessing the alpaca and ostrich are helpful for the extra eggs, feathers, and wool, not to mention riding them is quite cute. And the DNA element to it is helpful for breeding purposes, should someone focus on that lifestyle. However, I will note that exploration’s combat does seem to still need work. While bows are present as a weapon, adding a nice ranged option, there’s still not much there. We could use more enemies, as well as mechanics like dodging.
While the profession changes in Starsand Island probably the first and most obvious area to get a glow-up in early access, the relationship element feels pretty good right now too. This applies to both animals and people. The pet system reminds me a bit of Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, in that you aren’t just buying a new buddy. I mean, yes, Woof and Wow Pets does offer them. But we also adopt wild animals by befriending them and reaching basically three hearts. This means you’re going to need to work to get the fox or squirrel to be a friend.
As for the human relationship element, it does feel pretty fleshed out even now in Starsand Island. There’s a decent number of love interests at 15 total (8 bachelorettes and 7 bachelors). These feature voice acting, though there’s not much yet, and there are more appearances in quests and interactions with folks that made me want to give gifts and check in daily. In some cases though, I felt like some of the folks were just pretty faces. There isn’t enough to them yet to make them lovable. However, it does seem like that could change. The team stated there will be more to the dating system come April 2026. I would like and hope to see marriage and kids in the endgame too.
However, I will say some stuff doesn’t feel completely balanced or 100% set yet. This is an issue acknowledged on the Steam product page and in the roadmap. I would like a little better performance when really racing through on mounts or on an item like a skateboard. Some character models could be adjusted a little. Getting your house and land built up does take a lot of time, and it doesn’t feel like it’s quite designed for us to get to the point of a massive complex with a home we could have a romance option move into yet. I do wonder if we might see rebalancing progression and development updates, since the crafting part does feel stronger than the pre-launch build I played and the team did mention that’s in the roadmap.
Starsand Island is essentially coming along, with the early access version showing a lot of progress from the initial build I played. There’s a lot more to every profession in the game, though exploration could use a bit more additions and adjusting. Romance is starting to seem more viable, and pet adoption is enjoyable. Some rebalancing would be great, but the foundation for the 1.0 version later this year seems pretty stable.
Starsand Island is in early access on the PC and Xbox Series X on February 11, 2026, and a full launch that also includes Switch 2 and PS5 versions is set for Summer 2026.
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