izigame.me

I'll begin by stating that I love the My Time series, but I also think the Devs need to pull their heads out of their butts. My Time at Portia was a life line for me during a very hard time, a way to escape from the stress and anxieties of reality and just recharge. I put 600+ hours into and despite the glaring issues was willing to give the Devs a pass as it was their first foray into the genre. When I saw the announcement for Sandrock I was excited but also disappointed because they were moving on to a squeal when the first game still felt incomplete and unpolished. It also bother me that they were again seeking crowdfunding while seemingly abandoning their last crowdfunded title, still I gave the game a chance, hoping they had indeed learned from their mistakes. I bought the game when it released in early access and played of and on throughout early access and it was an improvement over Portia in many ways, until full release. Now for all important Pro/Con list as well as the list of bugs that have been the most annoying.
PROS:
QoL improvements, It's great to be able to complete mission or build at the assembly station without having to run back and forth to the nearest chest.
Multiple Commissions, Being able to take more commissions per day as you level up your workshop is great.
Joining the Civil Corps, Being acknowledged for your efforts in protecting the town is nice and the bounty board is a nice way to earn some extra Gols when running hazardous ruins or even gather resources in close proximity to wanted enemies.
Outfit Overlay, It's nice to be able to wear normal clothes without having to carry top tier armor around to change into for combat.
Chest Upgrades, Being able to place a larger chest on top of a smaller one to add space without all the tedium of manually transferring the items inside to a new chest.
Abandoned Mines, This one is a bit of both pro and con for me. First the pro would be that each mine it unique and makes you want to clear every speck from the room to see what it looks like which is a vast improvement over the boring design of Portia's mines. The cons would that if you accidentally hit the soil under a node before collecting it you may not be able to target it (can trigger OCD in some players) and the annoy addition the mole enemy that pops up interferes with the soothing tasking of mining ores and lastly it hard to tell what's an exit and what's a secret room. Bottom line they could do with a few tweaks but overall an improvement.
Story Line, I really enjoyed the main story, though I fell credits should have rolled after defeating Duvos and that everything after should have been more of an epilogue/post-game story due to the main threat having been dealt with. The side quests were great for the most part, some made me physically uncomfortable due to second hand embarrassment (I'm looking at you Arvio and you too Burgess!) and one of Miguel's was quite disturbing (it felt like I was gardening with Hitler, massive cringe from this one), but most of the other were pleasant, cute, funny, and occasionally heartbreaking.
CONS:
Storage is a Nightmare, First off this game is packed with way more items then Portia, many of which don't stack and with the addition of 3 tiers of item quality levels which stack separately... you get the picture. As if to make storing the multitude of items you'll need to keep on hand worse they nerfed the storage size, in Portia chests held 20, 30, and 60 depending on the chest, Sandrocks chest hold 15, 20 and 40. This to me seems like a really crappy to do.
Farming and Ranching, Both were better in Portia, I know they wanted to make things different but somethings should be left alone. Farming is a massive pain. First you have to open the farming opinion from the radial menu, then place down straw (which you have to buy and replace after you harvest), then you can plant. If you want to move the plant you can't just pick it up like in Portia, you have to use the Home Edit Tool (which you have to buy) or run all the way to CJ to use the free option. Ranch is just painful because the livestock pens take up so much yard room yet still fell like animal cruelty due to how claustrophobic they are.
Items and Crafting Recipes lock behind romance, This was one of my biggest pet peeves with Portia too, a lot of the more aesthetically pleasing items are locked behind romance missions so if you want to unlock something you first have to romance the character it's associated with. Personally this makes me uncomfortable for multiple reasons, the first one being some of the more desirable items are locked to characters I can't stand, the second one being that this method of unlocking items makes me feel like the town bicycle, which makes me sick. At least they didn't link achievements to individual candidates this time.
Romance in General, While there are an abundance of marriage candidates most don't have anything unique after marriage. They all have the same bland missions with very little too them, even Logan who has a decent amount of pre-marriage friendship and romance missions has nothing unique. Also, a number of marriage candidates don't become available until late game.
Photo Options, It drives me nuts that I have the you have the same poses with everyone regardless of relationship, there are no extra poses unlocked with romance and good luck getting a family photo with everyone at least somewhat facing the same direction. Which brings us to the next issue.
Children, So far I only have Andy and a newborn but I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of interact with your children. Why can I not hug my child before they go off to school or before bed, this is an essential part of family life yet we can't do it. I was also upset with the fact that when you take your children out with your spouse that the children do nothing. The first time I went on a date with Logan after the proposal/marriage it asked if I wanted Andy to come along and I got excited, I went straight to Catori World thinking I would get the see my new son enjoying the rides and nope, he just stood there and did nothing. What's the point of transforming a combat zone into an amusement park designed for kids if the kids aren't going to interact with it? Why even have the option to bring your kids if they can't do anything?
Sandfishing, this is one of the most boring fishing mechanics ever, I loved fishing in Portia. I kept a fishing pole and bait on me at all times and would happily drop everything for the fishing contest but I can't stand sandfishing. Aside from the mind-numbing boredom they is again the unbalanced ratios.
Home Editing, I could honestly write a rant on how bad this aspect of the game is that would put Cooper to shame, but the short of it is that to call this feature early beta quality would be generous. The camera control is atrocious and the auto stairs and doors are beyond ridiculous, why does every room need a staircases?!!! Building a second floor is hideous because the base of the upper floor clips through the ceiling, the stair railings clip through the walls, and of course if you try to run a roof in an L shape the overhang will clip through as well. That's just the structural parts, the decor (what limited choices there are) is even more of a headache to deal with. The furniture placement is by far the worst and has honesty caused my to stop playing and do a shot to calm my nerves on multiple occasions. If you are OCD do not attempt to use this feature, it will trigger you! The sad thing is it could be good if they put in the effort. Heck even just the ability to freely move and rotate would make a world of difference in placing furniture.
This is not including the bugs, lag, long load times, pathing issues, immersion breaking marketing in game, and of course the sleazy graphics bs to accommodated an aging handheld console that will obsolete before this game is truly a full release.