It’s complicated, and I would have to sit and think for a long time to share all of my opinions and thoughts about it. The game does a great job a getting you hooked, thanks to whacky and unpredictable outcomes. This also keeps the game from ever becoming stale. Many aspects make the game appealing to casual players who still seek a PvP experience.
I fell in love with the game a while ago. It just never stopped being fun, and I kept playing and playing and playing. I would go for hours and hours without getting tired, learning more about how the game works and finding a complex array of different tactics and strategies.
After some updates around August of 2023, the game was changed. I want to make a big feedback post about what went wrong and how to fix it, but feel this isn’t the time when it would receive the attention I want it to, and would rather increase my understanding of the game’s mechanics for the time being. The game‘s meta no longer feels exotic and complex, it’s repetitive and bland now. I couldn’t pin a single reason as to why, but I have my theories. I made some feedback initially, but I never got a ton of attention, except from another top player who shared similar feelings:
“You couldn't explain it better, I play lucky islands since its beta phase on bedrock and before that I played it on java, now there is too much loot that doesnt add anything to the game, personally I feel that I dont use the wands or the special bows as much as before, games were funnier before 1.19, now as you say, it's just fight-fight-fight, you don't need to think much and that’s so sad, I used to play like 30 games (everyday) in a row without getting bored and now I barely can play 6 games and left the server for some days again…” (#1 Bedrock Lucky Islands solos player, Visored Track, now retired.
From this thread, comment #8)
No, I haven’t quit yet. The games still a bit fun to play, it just isn’t the same as it was which is sad because it was truly something special. I’m not giving up on it any time soon, for now I want to try to research more about the game and help build a community around it, then I want to try to fix the games flaws because I genuinely think it could become such a fantastic game. However, I understand it will be nearly impossible to accomplish anything significant, and I am going to be challenged greatly along the way. Of every type of game it could have been, it just had to be in a Minecraft server with a theme made popular by kids YouTubers. Things could definitely change if I find something else I feel the same passion for.
At the moment, it’s hard, I’ve learned on the more difficult input device and have my own list of problems with Minecraft as a base game, but the game has my soul on a leash and it isn’t letting go anytime soon. My mental health has also been very very bad lately (part of the reason I’m less active), and the game‘s flaws sometimes add to my frustration and sadness. I really need to take a brake from playing competitively and focus completely on research and community projects. I’m hoping things will get better as time goes on.
Lucky islands is a special game that holds a place in my heart that I’m never ever going to forget one way or another, and I’m not going to give up on it just yet.