Aw yeah, a moment Final Fantasy XIV players have been waiting for: more information on Island Sanctuary. The FFXIV team revealed Island Sanctuary quite some time ago. It debuts in FFXIV Patch 6.2 coming late August this year, and during the latest Live Letter on July 1, we got plenty of details about the chill vibes ahead with this brand-new piece of content.
The overall concept is to build and form your own personal island — each player gets their own instanced island, and it’s largely solo-based content. There will be a progression you’ll go through to build out your island and eventually create and cultivate your own land. Players should also be aware that, despite being rooted in farming and crafting, there are no requirements for crafting and gathering Jobs in Island Sanctuary. Don’t worry about those Disciples of the Hand and Land here!
Activities in Island Sanctuary
It’s intended to be comfortable and casual content where players gather materials, care for creatures, build different facilities, craft items, and chill. You’re essentially building a base of operations, and you’ll get to customize its appearance and features as you progress through the content. Part of the experience is earning rewards — Island Sanctuary will have its own currency which can be used to get special items.
Director and producer Naoki Yoshida said players won’t go HAM on developing islands, but we’ll see about that. Based on the preview image shown during the Live Letter, the Island Sanctuary zone looks to be huge (see below). A Roegadyn was used for scale while the majority of the island was curiously censored.
One of the best aspects of all this: Island Sanctuary will have its own separate inventory space. All materials gathered and used are specific to Island Sanctuary. You’ll have to craft new tools from gathered materials which will help you harvest resources more effectively. Growing crops, planting, and cultivating seeds you find on the island will also be part of the equation (this will be separate from estate crops).
Okay, but really, the best part is being able to let your minions run free on the open range. You can release multiple minions and they’ll wander and follow you around. You’ll also be collecting and taking care of various other creatures exclusive to Island Sanctuary — some of which will be rare or with unique color schemes.
Another new feature is that you can create handicrafts and little trinkets based on the materials you collect. The idea is to export them outside of your island. If you enjoy playing the Market Board and taking part in unforgiving capitalist schemes, you can make handicrafts based on market demands. However, you cannot make Gil by selling handicrafts; they will instead be sold for the island-specific currency.
Additional Info on Island Sanctuary
While this is solo-based content, you’ll be able to invite friends and fellow free company members to visit your island. The chat during the Live Letter asked if you can bring NPCs, but such is not the case. Yoshida did say player feedback is always welcome for future updates.
Players will be able to fly in Island Sanctuary, but flying must be unlocked by progressing — thankfully, this means no hunting down aether currents. Yoshida also said mount speed should be fast.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see Island Sanctuary in action during the Live Letter — Yoshida mentioned there are still a lot of bugs to work out. However, we’ll likely get a live demo in the next Live Letter, which will come closer to the release of Patch 6.2 in August. It’s shaping up to be the Harvest Moon we were expecting for FFXIV!
More on FFXIV Patch 6.2
We have plenty more on Live Letter 71 and FFXIV Patch 6.2, so be sure to check out our coverage on The Linkshell. Check out what we learned about the next Tribal Quests with the Omicron on Ultima Thule, which will focus on gathering. We also got a look at Variant and Criterion Dungeons, the new relic weapons through the Hildibrand quests, the next MSQ dungeon called The Fell Court of Troia, and much more.
