The FFXIV Island Sanctuary update might be giving players of the MMORPG their own Animal Crossing getaways sooner than expected. If you’ve ever felt like Final Fantasy XIV wasn’t relaxing enough, the new mode – which seems to resemble life games such as Stardew Valley – promises an opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle to explore and develop your own personal island.
The FFXIV 6.2 special site has been updated with additional details ahead of Live Letter 72 on August 12, which is expected to break down the upcoming patch in full. Among the details is a short section on Island Sanctuary – which, most intriguingly, is listed as a “patch 6.2” feature, suggesting that it may be arriving with the late August update.
Previously, the tropical paradise was said to be coming with patch 6.25 further down the line. Adding to this release date speculation is the fact that the closing bullet points for the article do not list patch 6.25 next to Island Sanctuary, but do for other features we know to be scheduled for later updates.
In addition, the Final Fantasy XIV English Twitter account has been eagerly tweeting about Island Sanctuary, saying that “The time is nigh” and that “Island Sanctuary is coming soon!” Perhaps most explicit of all, however, is a tweet which states, “Looks like there’s a lot of exploring arriving with Island Sanctuary in FFXIV patch 6.2!”
It certainly seems, then, that we might be getting to explore the much-anticipated resort and get our farming game fix by the end of August. Of course, we won’t know for certain until an official announcement is made. In the meantime we have reached out to Square Enix for clarification, and will update when we have confirmation on the status of the feature.
Island Sanctuary might be the closest thing to Animal Crossing on PC, but we have a selection of some of our other favourites in the genre at that link. The FFXIV Astrologian and Dragoon reworks are not arriving any time soon, after they were delayed until a major expansion release. Meanwhile, the ongoing FFXIV Moogle Treasure Trove rewards offer some hard-to-get mounts.