My Time At Sandrock
Game Title: My Time At Sandrock
Released: November 2, 2023
Game Length: 160 Hours (seriously)
Grade: A
Updates
Problems and Patches: Scattered about between the updates are a list of patches that fix a number of bugs and crashes. The developers were generally on top of letting people know the known issues. Most of the focus was put on the finishing touches for the multiplayer after their announcement that it will have a completely different experience than the main campaign. To avoid spoilers, there were some additions and features made to the endgame as well. With a game this size, there is a chance you are going to run across a few of them. One obvious bug that took them awhile is removing the sand in the machine checks. The only blatant problem that prevented me from making any progress was when Cheery Conspiracy Quest didn't quite have all the objects move to their positions to complete the quest. What you are supposed to do isn't quite clear during Whisper of the Heart but wasn't too daunting to work around. It is pretty amazing that something as simple as saving anytime you want and automatically saving at key points in the game can make so many people happy. In January, they focused on a lot of performance fixes like loading and lighting. In March, they made more changes. Update 1.2 had a lot of performance fixes when it came to the Nintendo Switch. They later developed cross-play Update 1.2 across the platforms.
DLC: When you are playing through one of the quests in the game, you'll sneak a peak at some sketches of some new attire a character would love to create for people if he could get people to help sponsor his dream. Afterwards, you can find that same paper on the front desk of the salon. Those are actual clothes you can buy in the store. Personally, the beach clothes that can be worn by you and your friends are a bit too revealing for my tastes. The Deluxe Edition includes a cute gecko, furniture, and wallpaper. These things and other clothes are quite strong for the early game when you can start sending your pet on missions, place down furniture to boost your character, and the outfits provide you incredible strength despite having the ability to change your appearance with something else. Also, there is a Boutique Store that allows you to buy replicas of each item for a couple pennies. In addition to buying more wardrobes for your clothes or furniture for your house, you can purchase the tools to capture creatures.
Kickstarter Project: Some features in the game were added later on to fulfill Kickstarter milestones. Things such as the pet, weapon, clothes, and promotion shirts were all available when the game launched. You can actually purchase the in-game versions of the chibi figurines (with in-game currency) by the lady that creates the pottery. Nearby is also a page that links you to purchase the online versions. The plushies are also adorable. People who donated $500 or more were able to design weapons, add artwork, design a monster, design a pet, help design a side quest, create a hairstyle, or name a character for the game. The actual project didn't "dig" to $600,000, but they did respect their requests through a number of patches like custom weapons and hairstyles and Buggy Racing in Update 1.3.
Updates & Crossovers: They added a letter with some free Chinese New Year decorations. They offered a free promotion shirt as well. My Time At Sandrock had a crossover with Let's School and Party Animals. Update 1.3 is a little odd because it is broken up to the free portion of how your pets now have a character page and engage the enemy and the purchase content that allows you to make pets out of enemies. Update 1.4 added some new romance features (warning - kiss alert).
Relationships
Benefits: There are certain milestones that your relationship hits that provide you benefits. Associate at 100 points has them share their birthday, give you something on your birthday, and may ask for a desired gift that awards more than the usual points. Buddy status at 200 points is when you can start seeing where they are at the map at all times. You can also invite them to play with you or a take a photo. Friend status at 400 points is when you can give them a heart knot to begin a romance (or you can wait until they confess their feelings to you one day if you choose the specific dialogue options). Characters who host a store will provide you up to 25% discount depending on their relationship status. For example, Heidi will discount items you buy at Construction Junction Shop for your workshop and Trudy will discount purchases for land. Those that don't watch a shop will generally provide you some sort of stat increases such as attack or health points. Fighters will increase the potency of your weapons. Passive characters can increase your maximum stamina points. Since Update 1.3, certain pets can gain additional bonuses and provide you perks if they are following you.
Exchanges: There are two people who are interested in cooking. They will sometimes ask if you know how to make a recipe that you can share or tell you about a new one they might have discovered on your own. There are a number of characters that will provide you exclusive quests after reaching a milestone or special missions with additional information within their chart. When you become more acquainted with them, you can modify their attire and add accessories like a bead bracelet or star earrings.
Meter: What every person likes to know is how long it takes to build-up a villager's relationship status to unlock all those fun features. Well, it takes a long time. It isn't exactly as straightforward as making sure you chat with them on a daily basis or giving them things they might like. You can play a card game three times, spar with them in a mock battle, or spend the day with them on a playdate. Points are awarded double during a festival or three times during their birthday. Most gifts are straightforward - don't give them things like venom or ripped jeans and do give them crafted items. Completing missions, choosing the right dialogue options during cutscenes, or fulfilling their commissions can all increase your relationship status. They will gain five points for seeing one of your artifacts in the museum. Whenever a character hits a milestone, all their associated contacts and family increase as well. Once you buy a Banquet Table, you can host parties where their relationship increases depending on the number of food items they eat. Donating money to the contribution box during a meeting can increase your relationship status with all church members.
Romance: Once you choose to romance a character, their speech and demeanor will change. Their "hanging out" will turn into dates. Because of how the story unfolds, some characters might not be able to accept your proposal until after a certain date or not at all. You can romance several at once, doesn't matter whether you are a boy or girl, just as long as another doesn't catch you on a date. There are various items available on the rare merchant, game register, and elsewhere that helps modify this status. Dead branch will break up the romance, engagement ring if you wish to get married, a broken mirror if you want a divorce, and an apology bear if someone gets jealous. As of Update 1.4, there are special romance missions that become available after a confession.
Kids: Parenthood is a very complicated process. You must be married, have at least 900 relationship status, wait at least four days after marriage, and have an empty Baby's Crib in your house. Then, you must wait for your significant other to make mention about having kids one morning to which you can choose a response. Since there isn't an option to outright refuse, you can initiate the child icon from your spouse. Pregnancy lasts two weeks in game to which your partner will make the occasional comment or you can file for adoption that takes two weeks through the church. Once the child is born, you will choose a name for it and what they will call you. Picking a name from the list will provide you a vocalized version from the development team. There are a number of phases with various needs you will need to fulfill to keep the relationship in good standing: infant for two weeks will require things like bottles and diapers, toddler for four weeks that requires a number of toys to be played with, child standing will require a bed instead of the crib to sleep in, and then a quest to attend school after eight weeks. You can have two kids, in addition to any kids you might naturally obtain when pairing up with someone who already has one.
Outside Resources
Data Discs: There are a number of things that are going to draw out your gameplay. The first one will be the Research Center. Through the stations that you can research, it will take about 120 days to complete them all. While the story will call for various blueprints to be compiled for story purposes, they do not seem to impede this progress. Each one will require a number of data discs to start the process. You can speed things up by donating a lot more, but you will always have to wait at least one day. Data discs are also used to pay for the museum to instantly construct a relic or obtaining seeds.
Fishing:
Since there isn't really that much water in the desert, you'll be
throwing out bait to lure out the fish that digs through the sand pits.
Some can be found on the ground in the regions, like worms, or from
plants while higher tiers of bait will need to be crafted with a number
of different items. You'll need to throw out a sandfish trap that grabs
them like a giant claw. While this side activity isn't as lucrative as My Time in Portia, the bigger fish can sell for a hefty sum of 2,000. All the fish can be donated to the museum on the second floor. They can also be inserted into an upgradeable sandpit or a 10-slot aquarium decoration.
Mines: There are three mines for each of the tiers. Eufaula Salvage Abandoned Ruins will provide copper and tin. Gecko Station Ruins has iron and manganese ore. Mole Cave Abandoned Ruins contains aluminum, magnesium, and nickle ore. Starship Abandoned Ruins has titanium and zinc. Each mine has 11 levels which means there is a chance you will be spending at least 44 days traveling through them all. Each mine will have a certain number of power stones, types of dirt to dig through, and a number of relics to obtain. Make sure to buy a couple pieces of relic at the vending machine when you enter and buy something to restore your stamina in a pinch. Defeat Scrooge McMoles when he appears maybe once per run for some miscellaneous items. Use your devices and upgrade them when you can to scan more and fly better. If you enter a room for the first time and explore the outskirts, there is a chance you will find an unmarked mysterious room that will take you to a hidden chest. Each level unlocks the moment you enter in a new floor. There will be an option to reset all floors to accumulate more goods when you need it.
Gems: Throughout the regions, you'll find scattered supplies of rare gems you can harvest. While your stations might need the occasional craft made with these items, they are primarily used to increase the quality of an item. An ore refinery can break down excess ore into gems or you can buy some with ruin tokens from the Civil Corps if you are needing something quickly. A refiner will display all possible items and how many of which gem you'll need. The process will upgrade the item from outstanding (green) to perfect (blue) to purple (rare). You can even repeat the process and choose not to change to the new version of the item if you prefer the perks of the original.
Vegetation: When it comes to the trees close to the train track, Burgess will come over and tell you how important it is not to chop those trees down. He'll give you a warning at first but then provide some negative consequences each thereafter. Large trees or hard cacti don't chop down well. Instead, you will need to kick the tree for it to drop down items such as fruit or bird nests. Other forms of trees and logs can be chopped down for some wood that comes very necessary to crafting. Go ahead and chop down the stump too as the whole tree will regrow within the next couple days. Bushes and wild grass usually provides some fiber and occasionally dew that can be converted into water. Bump into the occasional tumbleweed a few times for some wood or fiber as well. A number of things can be picked up by hand for food like sandberries or mushrooms.
Scrap: There are a number of different types of scrap you will encounter all over the desert. Nearly every one is important to gather as some material can be exclusively found from these piles. Sometimes, you can literally pick up little pieces off the ground through town with your hands. If you aren't familiar with what dregs are, they are essentially used as fuel for your stations. Food scraps oddly still doesn't have a purpose despite being able to pick up hundreds of these little pieces all throughout town. There are two places where you can place an order for material to be delivered to your house on a daily basis. No matter when you place the order, it will always last until the current year ends. Because of the number of scrap piles you will obtain, having a number of Recyclers to sort through the mess is always a good idea.
Monsters: A large number of clothes will require you to obtain leather from various monsters. Other items such as venom for medicine, meat for food, or gunpowder for fireworks can all be found on specific types of enemies. When there is a sandstorm, you'll occasionally see enraged monsters with common being one level higher, elite as three levels higher, and bosses set five levels higher than the character. Hazardous Ruins is a bit different where you will fight through a number of enemies before reaching a boss. You can send Civil Corps out to defeat monsters at various locations for ruins tokens or run through them yourself for a time & stamina entry fee. Any areas where you are inside will stop the clock and not consume stamina for any action.
Survival Resources
Stamina: Stamina gets consumed on a daily basis and fully restores along with your health after you sleep in your bed. There are a number of ways to increase your stamina through items, building up your relationships, or listening to some very boring stories from your friends. Any sort of interaction when attacking, picking up things off the ground, or using a tool will use stamina. Food can help restore some stamina either immediately or slowly over time. You'll want to make sure not to eat more than one meal at a time since the perks you gain don't stack. Meals can be obtained a number of ways like the vending machine in mines, from various shops in town, or through gifts. You can order meals at the Blue Moon Saloon and even get a big discount if you order the meal of the day. Meals can be created at the cooking station either from experimenting with various ingredients or the recipes you learn from Mabel and Owen. Simple meals can be made at the drying rack when you are in a pinch.
Farming: Despite being in a desert, there will come a time you will learn how to grow plants within your workshop space. The system is self-contained in its own mode within the character sub-menu wheel. You do not have to manually access the toolbox, but you will want to make sure to use the intermediate toolbox when you get to that point to customize the dimensions. Seeds can be obtained from Water World, Farm Store, or special ones from Mysterious Man. The process can be rather complicated to learn.You need to create a soil tile by placing down straw. The tile can be moved around from your house decorating mode like a standard object. You must pour water on the crops for them to continue to grow and fertilizer for more produce. The game makes sure there is no waste by preventing you from adding more to the soil if it would be more than the maximum. Each crop will grow faster during their set seasons. The soil has a number of tiers that makes it more effective the more you use it. Some crops will require a larger number of tiles and trees will not be removed when harvested. Once you reach endgame, you can create a greenhouse by placing down a station that turns the entire floor, that isn't occupied by a decoration, into soil. When you fix the windmill behind your workshop, random baskets of potatoes and tomatoes will appear each day.
Weather: There are two types of weather that you have to watch out for: sandstorms and rain. A sandstorm will build a pile on sand on your stations that needs to be cleared away by a feather duster or a vacuum cleaner. Any items that you might have piled up on your stations has a chance to be blown away to the dip in the ground next to your workshop. You can install a sandstorm wall that with a press of a button, or automatically if you have the upgrade available, rise from the ground around your workshop. Your character will be constantly trying to cover their eyes unless you have a helm equipped (cosmetically) that covers your face. Most of the town will be staying indoors to wait it out. Enraged monsters, mentioned above, will appear. Anything that has water or dew, including your tank, will rapidly disappear. On the other hand, rain will water your plants and fill up your tank, collectors, and even any wooden barrels you have placed on the ground.
Objectives
Commissions: There is a board at the commerce guild that allows you to select a number of things you can craft for people. They usually offer you a few days to build and hand over a particular item (does not have to be in your inventory) that is usually related to the most recent areas you unlocked. Sometimes, an exceptional item that might have been made for a quest will be thrown in among the list. Events can also add a few more options to the board. As long as you do not progress the questline, these additional commissions will continue to populate the board. This includes your friends who want to prepare for festivals during the seasons. You'll eventually get your chance to build your own commission board at your workshop that functions in the same way. Don't forget that there is also a request board you can check on the next page. Each commission will list how much your relationship status will increase, amount of gols gained, your experience, and workshop rating. These boards will physically show the commission boards, despite not showing any text, from a distance. Be careful as the system does not distinguish which items you have are of rarer quality. You will need to be cautious as crafted items will naturally come out perfect but resources will need to be further refined from outstanding quality to perfect standing if requested as such. Not being able to complete a request or canceling one will penalize you relationship status and workshop rating. You can place an advertisement on the board by City Hall that randomly increases the amount of reputation, experience, and gols you gain for a week. Once you gain a rank, you can visit the commerce guild on Saturday and Sunday to inspect items for additional rewards. You'll need to find two to four differences between two 3D images. Craft yourself some magnifiers if you need hints. Each season, as well as year, will provide you a list of rewards on how high your workshop rating is compared to the other builders.
Tools: You aren't going to get far in this game without having the proper tools. Thankfully, you don't have to carry that many around. A pickhammer will be used for breaking rocks, tearing up scrap, gathering ore from mineral deposits, collecting animal bones, and conducting a lot of other activities. An axe is used for cutting any sort of vegetation from bushes to trees. These tools will progress through the tiers until you ultimately create power tools like the chainsaw and drill that won't require you to press for each action. Using these devices will cost you stamina and require a certain strength threshold to interact with higher tiers. Depending on how you upgrade them, they can provide you affixes like the ability to hit multiple things at once in a small area, gain extra material, or give a chance to restore stamina on each hit. Feather duster and eventually the vacuum will clear away sand that collects on your stations and covers chests. There are a number of other tools that unlock features such as the camera for photography, planting kit for farming, or a whistle for your pets.
Weapons: The game does a great job diversifying the types of weapons. From the start, you'll be able to craft daggers for fast strikes, sword & shield that allows you to block attacks, spears that extend your reach with multiple blows, and great swords that hit hard with longer swings. At certain points of the game, you'll have an opportunity to use a player-designed weapon like a keyboard or a cactus on a stick. Some like the cat claw or trumpet will make sound effects. Perhaps the most unique weapons are some power gloves that break opponents quickly and an energy sword that shoots blue waves with each strike. Affixes that you can change at the refinery will determine how great a weapon performs. These can trigger whether an enemy is higher or lower in level than you, whether you are low in health, how they react when an enemy's guard is still up, or when you defeat an enemy. Health regeneration can improve your chances as much as increasing the chance of breaking their defenses depending on the circumstances. Combat isn't the smoothest when it comes to targeting enemies, but there isn't any penalty for switching your weapon in the middle of battle. When you choose to spar with another character, they will only allow you to use the lowest damage values to keep things fair. You can throw things like rocks and grenades. You'll also eventually be able to use ranged weapons that use ammunition like pistols, rifles, and shotguns.
Miscellaneous
Animals: There are three buildings that will allow you to raise your own animals. You can build a barn to grow Yakmels for things like hair and milk. Chicken Coop will keep hens and roosters for eggs. Hutch will keep the bunnies comfortable as they leave fine hair behind. These cannot be upgraded and has a set number of slots available. This side activity isn't as lucrative as you think since it requires a lot of space, initial down payment for the baby animals, the right kind of food to help keep them happy as they mature, and the resources left behind can be easily obtained by other means. In less than a week, you can resell the animals as full grown adults and repeat the process all over again. Though, I will admit that there is a certain kind of joy in petting them everyday. On the other hand, getting the animals you can ride in the desert is a bit more difficult. After building a stable, you'll need to buy yourself a horse for speed, yakmel for endurance, or a balance between the two through a camel. There are also two exclusive mounts available near the end of the game from completing a quest or marrying someone specific. Calling a ride is as easy as opening up your sub-menu and using the whistle to select an animal.
Details: There are a lot of little things they put in the game that might take you by surprise. For example, they added something called panda eyes if you go to sleep after midnight. This will put you in an exhausted state that removes the perks you normally would get in the morning. There will be a big black smear around your eyes that can only be removed with concealer or sleeping well the following day. You can extend the time through some stamina knowledge to 3am. You can listen to a story told by Owen at the Blue Moon Saloon every Saturday night after 7pm. You can pay respects to characters when they visit a relative's gravestone at a specific date.
Travel: The train you see in the beginning of the game that takes you to Sandrock isn't something you will be able to ride around in for the rest of the game. Instead, you will need to discover specific spots in the area where you can place down a Yakmel Transport System. This specific item will need to be built each time and physically placed down for every location. This creates a sort of fast travel that is only available if you click on a bench and then click on another available bench when the map appears on the screen. Traveling is instant and fast forwards the clock the amount of time it would take you to get there with a horse. The cost is very low in gols, less than the number of clock minutes it would take you to travel. Be careful as you will not be able to use the system past 1:30am.
Automation: Once you reach beyond a certain point in the game, the option to build a factory and a greenhouse becomes available. These features are somewhat completely different than what you might have been used to before in the game. The first thing you need is a room that converts into a factory room where you can place the stations that convert resources. This does not include cooking, dew collectors, or the relic restoration machine. Place the factory control panel outside and you'll never need to walk inside with the various stations. In fact, you can't interact with them or upgrade them when they are integrated with the system. You don't need a workstation present and the assembly is also part of the factory control panel. The interface is completely different and can create a queue depending on the number of stations available. Placing a greenhouse control panel inside will drop a tile of soil in every possible spot that doesn't already have something there. You don't need to go inside as you similarly can access the greenhouse control panel set outside the room. You can determine how quickly they grow, how much produce you receive, and the amount of resources they consume. At any time you earn a spouse or a character later in the game, they can assist you in duties around your workshop. Anything they might need should be placed inside a helper box. They can clean manure, gather resources, clear away sand, and even add food to the banquet table during a party.
Music: One thing I applaud in the game this size is how the music doesn't get monotonous. There is certainly a level of repetition when performing the same types of activities, but the developers do a wonderful job straddling between music you wouldn't directly listen to and beats long enough to fit the atmosphere. If you want to hear a few bits, you can check out the full soundtrack. Though, there will be a few surprises sprinkled in for your enjoyment. Cooper and Hugo will will sing a special song after you build a stage. There are songs that play during a Dance-off. A surprise visitor comes way later and sings this one song near the end of the game.
Workshop
Decorations: There are a number of decorations that are allowed to be inside or outside. Any number of masterpiece art pieces, picture frames, and other types of paintings can be placed up on the walls. There are a number of decorations that can put smaller items on display such as tables, shelves, and bookcases. While there are weapon racks, they sadly only hold two or three items each. There are plenty of different types of wardrobes that will hold hats, shirts, pants, and shoes. Jewelry cases will show off a selection of mined gems. You can sit in chairs and sleep the day off in any type of bed. Each decoration contributes to a bonus value to your character up to a set maximum of the size of your expansions. These items can further be refined and upgraded to increase its individual value.
Edit Mode: Things get a bit tricky when you are trying to use the system built to manipulate the space around your workshop. There is a showcase manual that you can choose to copy other people's houses. You can move any object, including chests and plants, around your workshop. You can build and upgrade any structure from this interface. The actual sections of your house will start as a simple room that you can expand up to a certain size. Connect multiple rooms and the system will automatically add doorways inside and staircases to the floor above. Since time freezes, you can take your time adding and removing any sort of decorations you have available, supplemental decorations from the manual, doors that lead outside or across rooms, and windows. When adding staircases, the floor will highlight where a room above is available. Unfortunately, the game cannot recognize anything outside the room you are in. You must move room to room when modifying the space around you. The good news is that the system automatically deducts or refunds the cost of items you change while decorating at your workshop.
Interface: Your inventory can be expanded with the
purchase of each slot that extends beyond 250 slots. You can mark a
specific item (not transferring over to duplicate items in your
inventory) as a favorite with a star or junk as a trash can. You can
filter items by food, furniture, resources, weapons, stations, junk, and
favorites. All chests can be viewed from a single chest. You can
rename them and paint them a different color inside or outside your
house. The mini storage chest holds 15 while the standard wooden chest
holds 20. You can buy the large storage chest that holds 40 from the
mysterious man but be aware that you will need to "turn a page" while
accessing the chest to see all of the items. You can move the chests
around from your house decorating mode or carry them through the door if you want them in the house. They can also place them on top of the roof. You can sort or automatically deposit your inventory into chests by pressing the right analog stick.
Your equipment slots will only check what you have available in your
inventory but your cosmetic equipment slots will check everything from
chests to wardrobes. While the tool-tips of the equipment are shown in
the window, there isn't a way to filter them by improvement or stat.
They are at the mercy of how the game gathers the data. Instead of
limiting you to equipping one type of accessory, they offer a total of
three slots you can equip a number of items that will go around your
neck, around your wrist, or on your waist. The item will be marked with
rotating arrows if something needs to be swapped out. Items for
commissions do not need to be in your inventory, but items as desired
gifts need to be selected from your inventory.
Competitions: Oddly enough, there are "festive" events once you unlock certain features in the game that reward a different kind of currency. Dance-off is a quick rhythm game where you press the right buttons set to one of the customized songs. Tour de Rock becomes available where you slide down a hill in a sled and dodge giant rocks. Showdown at High Noon is a pure fighting competition one-on-one in a ring where can make bids on who will win each round. Competitions and festivals are both shown on the calendar with their own set of reminders.
Play and Date: There are a number of things you can do on almost a daily basis with the people in town. You can choose to spar with them in the ring or play three rounds of the unusual twist to the rock-paper-scissors game with the card version of Critters. A number of activities become available as you unlock features in the game such as launching fireworks (make sure you actually have the items in your inventory), stargazing, riding the tram card together, sandboarding, chatting by the oasis, dining at the Blue Moon Saloon, and sand painting. The Game Center Shop allows you to play Space Pilferers and Whac-a-mole together. These two as well as a few others at the shop reward you special tokens and are available to play by yourself. There's even a Mahjong Table where you can play for tokens at the shop or one you built yourself at the workshop. Expansions that are made near the end of the game (no spoilers) will allow you to do even more with the character you are hanging out with.
Summary
Review: My Time At Sandrock does a fantastic job providing you a rich story with a ton of optional content. Although you never visit other towns, more things become available as you assist characters that come and go in constructing new things that benefits the town as a whole. There are plenty of new areas to explore as you literally break ground and build bridges. The dialogue will always follow your reaction to the situation, whether you have bonded with a certain individual or if you weren't present for an important event. While the game improves upon the basic gameplay elements that its predecessor My Time At Portia offered, the developers stopped short of making them great. Despite the improvements and additions they made to the game for the past year since its release, there are still plenty of simple features missing that could solve big problems like adding filters to compare weapon strength or rarity without going through every single item in storage. While I applaud the modular approach to designing rooms you could easily move around, there's a level of reproach to how difficult it is to decorate a large house. Although these things detracted from my overall experience, the game far makes up with flexibility in progressing through each event. Characters will always ask you if you want to start a mission, there will be no time limit for important commissions, and some interactions are completely optional. I definitely recommend this game.