Na Sandboxes are just the worst. Actual physical sandboxes are much more fun when there's stuff to play with when you're in there, it's a lot less fun when you're just sitting in sand. Games that are heavily developed over time, crammed with content, with the player being given the choice to do whatever they wish in whatever order is great. However given the nature of how these games are developed, games are never released complete and as the framework tends to be implemented first before the content, you end up with a big map with 20 or whatever places to investigate but you have to wait years and years for the content to be made for those places.
Sandboxes and version 0.1 are just..... just no... Too much "do I go here? No. Do I go here? No. Do I go here? No. Ah fuck it I'll go play Above the Clouds"
And heaven fucking help any game that introduces a sandbox with a time component....
I don't mind sandboxes, but I 100% agree with this.
Games like Big Brother, Man of the house, all of NLT games, Peasant quest, Struggle with sin, Paradise Lust could all be classified as "Sandbox" games and all of them were great and are/was among the most popular games on F95.
But a bad sandbox game with no content (Or excessive grinding) is just terrible and worst then your run of the mill VN.
However, a well-executed sandbox game, for me is one of the most satisfying games to play, BUT it needs to be well executed.