Now that Hello Kitty Island Adventure has arrived for Steam and Nintendo Switch, cozy gamers have something to fill the Animal Crossing gap in their lives. The game features many of the same elements that made Animal Crossing: New Horizons such a hit, including cute characters, decorating, collecting items, and multiplayer. With the big release behind them, the developers at Sunblink are looking ahead to the first major free content update. It will include plenty of new quality of life updates and friendship rebalancing, but that’s not all. According to a recent post shared in the official Hello Kitty Island Adventure Discord, Sunblink is considering some bigger adjustments to fix player complaints about time-gating.
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Games like Hello Kitty Island Adventure operate on a real-time model, which has some pros and cons. Players get daily rewards and new item spawns thanks to the daily reset. But waiting until the next day for new things to do can make progress feel too slow for gamers who really link to sink into their cozies. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons, many players found a handy solution, commonly referred to as “time-travel.” This trick involves changing the console clock to trick the game into thinking it’s a new day, respawning rewards.
However, trying this in Hello Kitty Island Adventure will permanently damage the save file and make it impossible to play multiplayer. Sunblink has been very transparent about this fact, yet it has many gamers upset about having to wait until the next day for more to do. Given player feedback around this and similar time-related concerns, Sunblink has shared some potential updates in consideration for Hello Kitty Island Adventure. These fixes, along with other quality of life changes and new content, are set to arrive with Content Update 1.
New Content Coming to Hello Kitty Island Adventure in the Free Update
The first major update for the console and Steam version of Hell Kitty Island Adventure will release sometime this spring. Many of the updates will bring the game version in line with content from the Apple Arcade version, but the team is also looking at more in-depth changes in response to player feedback. To get a sense of what’s coming to Hello Kitty Island Adventure with this update, here is every confirmed change along with other considerations still under debate.
Quality of Life Updates
The free update will feature quality of life updates to make gameplay more enjoyable. Features being added include:
- Furniture stacking to put multiple items on tables, etc.
- Call friend to summon companions from anywhere
- Expansions to the Icy Peak area
- New character quests and furniture sets
Friendship Rebalance
In addition to the general quality of life improvements, the upcoming Switch and PC update for Hello Kitty Island Adventure will also rebalance gifting and friendship. This is mainly so rewards will match the quality of the gift you give, but will also make some adjustments to tags. Updates include:
- 1 additional bonus for two heart gifts
- 2 additional bonus for three heart gifts
- Non-preferred tags will add one point each
- Some tags will get upgraded, including Chocolate Item and Fruit becoming uncommon tags, with the Mochi Item becoming rare.
These changes will also arrive in the Apple Arcade version of the game.
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Possible Real-Time Play Fixes
The big ticket item here is that Sunblink is considering ways to improve the real-time elements of Hello Kitty Island Adventure. The proposed changes for this area aren’t set in stone, and the developers make it very clear they are still considering whether or not these changes are worth implementing. The proposed adjustments to the game’s real-time elements include:
- Spawned items building up over time for up to 3 days, giving players more to find if they log in after missing a few days
- Additional bouquets from My Melody if they miss a certain number of gameplay days, which would make it easier to build up friendships in longer, less frequent play sessions.
- New resources that accumulate in real-time rather than re-spawning when the game resets, to give players more to do in longer play sessions.
The team also notes additional adjustments are being considered for future content updates as well. While many players are enjoying the game, it’s good to see Sunblink taking feedback into consideration when looking at updates to Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
Would you be eager to see changes to the real-time gameplay loop in Hello Kitty Island Adventure? Let us know in the comments below!
