My Private Hideaway: Buyer’s Remorse
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
When Granzella, Inc. first offered the Southern Island Hideaway to us, I was thrilled with this Irem Seaside of Memories replacement.
As soon as I went there and explored a while, I was enthralled. It was so gorgeous with lush, tropical vegetation, an ocean view…and there was so much detail to see, from a rocky islet, to a butterfly grove, to a waterfall with a pool. There was a watercraft game, where you could see the other players racing around the island, a store with lots of new items, including watercraft you could buy for the game, and a small underwater area with new treasures waiting to be discovered, too. The crab pinching a sore finger was hysterical. There was a day and night cycle also and at night there was a beautiful fireworks display. Rumors abounded that a wedding chapel would be added some day, like they had at the Japanese location. I quickly found stairs there leading up the side of the cliff and there at the top I found rock seating with other ocean views, a place for a roaring bonfire and a cabin that I couldn’t get into.
I was intrigued. What was this for? Would we ever be able to go inside? Was it just part of the scenery? Later, I found out this was a private estate that would hopefully be for sale one day in North America. I vowed that I would buy this space as soon as it was available here. Last Thursday, as part of a slightly delayed update, the space became available for us to purchase and I ran to the “New and Featured Items” store and bought it. I was impatient to get to my new private estate and see all that was offered. I had heard a lot about this space, but I was eager to see for myself.
Like the public Granzella space, there is a day and night cycle here every two hours which is very pleasant, although it would be great to have diurnal control instead. There are great views all around, but these are, for the most part, the same views that we’ve had all this time from the public space.
The cabin or hut in this space is small. No, actually, it’s tiny. It has rooftop access, three balconies (two small and one mid-sized) and two very little rooms. The thatched roof offers some seating, the balconies allow for placement of a few small items, and the interior rooms will only allow for the smallest size of items to be placed there, if you want to be able to move around in them.
At least there are three furniture spawning spots. It was a challenge to decorate, but I finally have use for the dinky Paris modern couch from Sony, the minuscule art deco dining table from mydeco, and the really tiny vivid contemporary bed from Lockwood.
The stairs from the first floor to the second floor cut into the already limited space of these two rooms. The stairs from the highest balcony spiral up to the roof and there are some oddly placed unmovable plants on this balcony. The cabin has no places for wall hangings or picture frames and the walls, while log-style, are plain and an odd grayish brown color. The floors and stairs are plain wood planks of a different color and really need rugs to brighten them up.
There are two exits here from this space. The front door in the lower room leads to the hill top area of the Southern Island Hideaway public space, near the bonfire. The rear of the property has a lower-level medium-sized balcony and from there you have access to the “My (not so) Secret Garden,” which is actually also the Granzella public space, only an area that is not accessible from there itself. You must enter this area from your or a friend’s private hideaway space, so it is at least semi-private.
From here you can walk to a viewing spot which has seating and a unique view from the rear of the island, which can only be otherwise seen while playing the water craft race. You can also walk to a lovely viewing spot above the waterfall or to a secret excavation site very close to it, which allows you to dig fossils for a second time each day.
This is sure to be a big hit with the collectors, but not for me. I’m afraid I find the fossils you can earn uninspired, the repetition of the same ones irritating and the game itself tedious. Last, but not least, you can also walk, by way of a rope bridge, to the roof of the store and sit there and converse with people below, if you and they choose to do so.
I have to admit I do enjoy sitting on the roof of the store and having people ask me how I got up there. It brings back fond memories of Central Plaza and standing on the bench there. This novelty will wear off soon for me and others, however.
As the view from the private space includes the excavation sites and the wedding chapel, it’s obvious why Granzella had to wait for these items to be added to the public space before offering the private one for sale and yet, how thrilled I would have been if this space had been offered months ago when the views were new and novelty of the public space hadn’t worn off. It’s all in the timing sometimes.
- Day and night cycle
- Second round of fossil digging (if liked)
- Access to unique area of public space
- Tiny, tiny, tiny
- Second round of fossil digging (if not liked)
- No wall hanging spots
- Slightly higher price
- Old news
June 13th, 2012 by Kassadee Marie | 10 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
It’s rather intriguing and a tempting buy, but nothing that you said has prompted me to add it to my queue in favor of other spaces.
While this leaves a bit to be desired as a personal space (Island Bungalow is way better if you want a tropical beach space), the added access to the island makes this one worth the buy. If you love Southern Island Hideaway but hate the crowds, you’ll find the new areas much quieter and more enjoyable.
If you’re into the fossil digging game, it’s a must-have, as it doubles the number of fossils you can get each day. Does that make it worthy of the price? I think it really depends on how much you like Southern Island Hideaway.
Let’s face it: what’s a developer to do these days. From original concept to securing the funding to doing all the programming, a new item in Home can take 6 to 9 months before it is available to buy. And in that time period, other developers bring delicious new properties that are innovative, visually stunning, and highly competitive. Two years ago, this Private Hideaway would have been a smash hit. But now the competition is so fierce, a developer needs a crystal ball (and a lot of market data) before investing the time and money into creating something new for Home. HIW makes a good point -- it is a matter of perceived value. If it does the things you want it to do, then it is worth the money.
If one likes beautiful and small and likes the public space a lot, it’s wonderful magic.
I saw this space in Japan months ago and knew then that it wouldn’t be a buy for me, though it is a nice little addition to the beach space. It has a great feeling of continuity because you can step out the front or back and end up at the beach area. But that is all it has to make it stand out. I agree with most of your assessments Kass.
I think it’s a matter of perspective. I don’t see this as a personal space first and foremost; to me, it’s an upgrade for Granzella’a fossil-hunting minigame, that just happens to reward me with a personal space. Similar to the Edo Row Houses and the Edo of Nippon monster-hunting game.
In much the same way that buying the upgraded Sodium 1 weapons gave you ornaments as a reward, upgrading your abilities in these two games gives you a personal space as a bonus. But the real value is in acquiring a second location to hunt fossils, or the ability to heal back to your maximum health while hunting monsters in Edo.
That said, if neither game is of interest, then I agree that these personal spaces should not be purchased as the buyer will be underwhelmed. Better to go with the Plum Pavillion or Tropical Escape spaces instead.
The reason I like small spaces is that you can fill the space with livable furniture arrangements and make use of moe than one active item. I would be happy to show you what I have done with my space any time Kass -just say the word.
*more instead of moe heh- iphone typing. lol
I too was totally stoked when I discovered I would finally be able to get inside that hut on the hill. And while it is tiny from a decorating stand point, I didn’t hesitate to purchase it the moment it became available in the NA market. That’s when my disappointment hit big time. Like the bungalow space, this space also has a decorating bug in it. I was only able to place approximately 52 items in it before I ran into the all too familiar errors saying I had too many things too close together. It didn’t allow me to move, remove, or add any items even when I selected to remove all and start over. Like the bungalow, I deleted the file through the menus in the xmb only to find run into the exact same errors.
I am, if nothing else, a home decorator and frankly I am becoming extremely discouraged about buying “toys” that are broken. We really have no options to get these things fixed, and after a fight we may be lucky enough to get a refund on it.
It’s been a year and I am still waiting for the fishing game at Waterfall Terrace to be fixed, so I am not holding my breath that anything will be done with the bungalow or island hideaway anytime soon.
So so sad!
Great article Kassadee. Yes timing is everything in Home sometimes. Well put.
agian great article.