The first time Hello Kitty Island Adventure popped up on my radar was just a few days after its late July launch on Apple Arcade. Online gaming publications in contrast it to Animal Crossing — and I like Animal Crossing. I used to be additionally trying for a new cell recreation, so it felt like a match made in heaven. And for the first few days, it was.
It’s a assured cell recreation with great graphics, gameplay and controls. It hits tougher than it has any proper to. Plus, it’s on Apple Arcade, so you possibly can play it on any Apple {hardware} with cloud saves. But after some time, how a lot you want the core gameplay loop might rely in your love of the Sanrio characters greater than the recreation itself.
That mentioned, earlier than I knew it, I used to be hooked on exploring the map and unravelling the recreation’s mysteries. It was a enjoyable few days that stored it feeling recent as I found extra areas and recreation mechanics. Uncovering what gadgets provided most friendship factors or hidden gadgets scattered round the map is an superior cell expertise and a very good showcase for Apple Arcade.
But after some time, Hello Kitty Island Adventure began to point out its limitations.
Welcome to the island
The recreation begins with a enjoyable parachute touchdown on a resort island. In typical cozy recreation model, your customized character and the Hello Kitty crew begin to restore it. To begin, it is advisable to reconnect with all the characters strewn throughout the map, and in flip, discover the surprisingly intricate archipelago.
There are islands to traverse, mountains to climb, and an enormous undersea space you possibly can enterprise beneath when you attain the mid-game. Poking round all the nooks and crannies is what makes this island really feel enjoyable early on. There’s even a stamina bar like fashionable Zelda video games for climbing and diving, including to the limitless exploratory really feel early on.
The map is designed to be somewhat maze-like earlier than you unlock the capacity to swim. During this time, it felt like there was a new character or discovery round each nook, and it stored my curiosity in the recreation. Venturing too far off the crushed path and discovering a hidden space earlier than the story revealed it, felt like being let in on a secret, and helped construct my anticipation for the story moments after I unlocked them.
The principal story chapters are tied to your friendship degree with every character. By giving them items every day, you get nearer to them and get rewarded with gadgets, skills and the extremely sought-after story parts. Depending on how a lot every character likes the present denotes how a lot friendship expertise you acquire. The character’s skills are additionally very useful. For instance, journey with the explorer Chococat, and there’s a random likelihood you’ll get an additional merchandise when crafting. Then, when you get him above degree ten, he’ll additionally spout out suggestions in the hidden ‘Puzzle rooms.’
However, the principal motive to degree up your friendships is to unlock story quests. These add substance to the recreation and, as a rule, result in enjoyable environmental adjustments that I wasn’t anticipating. As of the time of writing, most characters have between 15 and 20 friendship ranges, and wherever from two to 4 of these might embody story quests.
Beyond that, you possibly can catch bugs/fish, store, craft, enhance trip houses for different characters, and take part in just a few mini-games scattered round the map. These all differ in enjoyable ranges, but the exploration and thriller stole the present.
The darkish aspect of island life
There are in-game days that change the look of the Hello Kitty Island Adventure’s lighting, but many issues on the Island don’t really reset till a full 24 hours have handed.
One instance of this is the limitation of giving three items to every of your pals per actual day. In the starting, this isn’t an issue since you degree up at a fast tempo no matter what items you give. After some time, it’s a must to begin being exact along with your items, which takes a tedious period of time.
For instance, to get three mid-level friendship gadgets for Tuxedo Sam, this is what I did day by day;
- Find Chococat
- Get him to observe you round so that you get entry to his bonus capacity
- Head to a crafting desk
- Make six ‘Fabric’ swatches, one after the other. If you’re fortunate, Chococat’s capacity might get you an additional one or two of those.
- Combine your cloth with 9 Feathers and 15 Sand Dollars.
- Realize you solely have 9 Sand Dollars
- Quickly search the close by seashore to search out 6 Sand Dollars
- Back to the crafting desk
- Pray you’ve all the feathers (you do)
- Combine your cloth with 9 Feathers and 15 Sand Dollars to make Tropical Fabric
- Drop Chococat
- Pick up Hello Kitty
- Give items to Tuxedo Sam (once more, one after the other)You have to do a variation of this for most characters, but some don’t need crafted gadgets and would fairly have intricate coffees, puddings, or baked items. The method the recreation is arrange suggests I ought to simply take my time and test in for a brief session day by day, but I discover myself wishing I may play this recreation extra like Stardew Valley. If the recreation has all these intricate techniques for me to reap the benefits of, I wish to do it, particularly if this is what’s standing between me and finishing its story.
Note: On August twenty fifth Sublink launched the recreation’s first content material replace (1.1). It contains the capacity to craft multiple merchandise at a time. On one hand, the truth this function was delayed to a month after launch speaks to the unfinished nature of the recreation, but on the different, it’s good to see the repair added.
Other shallow features of Hello Kitty Island Adventure embody fishing and critter catching, two Animal Crossing collection staples. There is a museum-type ‘Nature sanctuary,’ but it’s solely for critters and doesn’t provide a lot incentive for filling it out with all 40 animals. You can provide particular fish as high-level items or trade-in 10 per day for some further Sand Dollars, but past that, there’s little to do with them.
The restricted assortment extends to clothes and furnishings as properly. There are eight units of furnishings with ten items every and sufficient outfits that I’m very certain I’ve seen all of them in the retailer over my time enjoying.
An instance of the fashionable recreation pipeline, for higher or worse
I lately realized a couple of time period known as ‘Agile development.’ It’s a venture administration philosophy for recreation builders that goals to get a viable product out the door after which help it for a time interval with function updates.
If you’ve performed different video video games in the previous few years, this in all probability sounds acquainted.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure, for higher or worse, is shackled with this enterprise mannequin, and for me, it didn’t work with how I wished to play. Since it’s an Apple Arcade title, I anticipated the recreation to supply full expertise. Don’t get me improper, there’s a ton of superior content material in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and I wouldn’t be scripting this story if I didn’t take pleasure in my time with it, but I stored working into issues that felt not fairly completed.
Then, on August seventeenth, the recreation acquired an replace that proved this challenge was greater than only a feeling on my finish.
One of Hello Kitty’s unlockable skills lets you degree up character friendships 25 p.c sooner, and the builders determined to decrease it to 10 p.c to decelerate individuals who had been ending the recreation too rapidly. As somebody who aimed to complete the recreation, this meant extra tedious useful resource gathering, sluggish crafting, and quick journey journeys round the map. So, after 20 hours, I made a decision to name it quits at 85 p.c full.
Others criticized this replace on-line, and the improvement crew responded on the recreation’s official Discord channel, stating that they’re planning to help Hello Kitty Island Adventure for years to come back, but that they should hold folks enjoying, or they gained’t be capable to do this.
They additionally talked about that they hope so as to add story quests to each friendship degree in the recreation. Revealing one other side of the recreation that’s unfinished since most characters at the moment have 15 ranges and two quests as a substitute of 15.
Overall, I nonetheless loved my time on Hello Kitty’s island, but when a recreation is so clearly nonetheless mbeing actively developed, it appears like I’d be extra incentivized to play in a yr as soon as just a few main content material updates are out. Sure, I’d prefer to help the devs, but on the different hand, this is a Hello Kitty title on Apple Arcade; it’s not that misplaced to ask for fine quality. At the very least, the recreation’s ‘1.1 update’ with multi-crafting proves it wanted a minimum of yet one more month of improvement. This may have been a decent 25-hour recreation with great cell graphics, an fascinating story, and enjoyable aspect content material to play by, but the insistence on growing Hello Kitty Island Adventure as a service makes it really feel incomplete except you like Hello Kitty.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure is accessible by Apple Arcade ($5.99/month) on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac.
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