Enough Dreamlight to fill an entire valley! (Disney Dreamlight Valley in review)

     Hey friends, you may recall that I wrote something of a preview for Disney Dreamlight Valley a few months ago, just based on what I could find on the website and in the trailer that had been released. The game has been out now for a few weeks in early access, and I have to say that it's a genuinely fun and interesting time. The game is still far from finished, of course, and they're not trying to hide that, considering some of the characters that are on the front of the box haven't been added yet, but just based on what is here at this point is pretty great! Come with me and I'll do my best to explain what the game is, and why I'm really enjoying it so far.

Magic is what it's all about!

    Dreamlight Valley interestingly begins in a similar way to Stardew Valley. Your character is tired of life in the big city and decides to move to the country, where they spent some time when they were younger. They remember the adventures and imaginary worlds that they played in as a child, then drift off to sleep, waking up after being transported into Dreamlight Valley. The game literally takes place in a dream world, which I think is a pretty cool concept, it is interesting that you not only move away from the city, but also you're in a dream, but it's still really neat. Upon arrival, Merlin, the wizard from The Sword in the Stone (as well as just Arthurian legends), greets you and tells you about these thorns that have started appearing in the valley and making characters lose all of the memories of their past accomplishments. Within a few moments of your arrival however, you discover that you have the ability to make these night thorns disappear with the magic of Dreamlight. You clear out the thorns in the starting area and reveal the house that you'll be staying in during the game, and you're off to the races. Early on, you receive several magical tools which will help you along the way in helping out the villagers and restoring Dreamlight Valley to the magical place that it once was. One of the main issues, however, is that there are only a few villagers left in the valley following the curse, most of them fled to their own realms or something else happened to them. When you begin the game, there is only Merlin, Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck, and Goofy (who is in a different area that's blocked off by rocks at the beginning, serving as a tutorial on how to use the pickaxe). Throughout the game, you get many more villagers to live in your little town, as well as more biomes to adventure through and eventually save.

    I was not expecting the story content in this game. I went into it expecting what basically would be a Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing experience, just with Disney characters as the villagers instead of the people (or animals) that made up the population of those game worlds. In this game, however, every character has a level up system of their own. All characters can get relationship levels up to Level 10, with new missions to give your character every few levels. This is honestly where the majority of the game's content is so far, with some missions being required for unlocking more characters for the valley. The best example I can give is Mickey's quest line, which is almost entirely devoted to saving Minnie, who has vanished completely from the valley. With the Forgetting caused by the thorns, people who are completely forgotten by almost everyone apparently just disappear, with Mickey apparently being the only one to remember her, but with Merlin's help, eventually Mickey and Minnie are reunited, but tragically, Minnie can't remember Mickey after she comes back and you have to help her out with that! The character missions aren't your only objectives though, because there are also story missions that help Dreamlight Valley get back to the way it once was with the help of the Pillars of Hope, which staved off the curse of the forgetting in the past, before the "Orbs of Hope" were lost. For each of them, you have to complete a different task of sorts, but my favorite one that I've come across so far is definitely the quest related to the Glade of Dreams Pillar, where all of the houses were cursed and the only way to fix the curse was to bring back the orb, which could only be achieved through some pretty dark and mysterious magic that had real lasting consequences for several of the characters in their individual quest lines. I don't want to say exactly what happens there, but I was honestly really impressed with how that whole situation was dealt with. There are lots of hints and teases for what may eventually come into the game, and even movies that don't have characters yet have furniture giving some sort of representation which is really exciting, considering all of the talk that they've already had about expansions.

All the Realms!

    There are many different biomes to explore, and as if those weren't enough, there are four alternate realms, with promises of many more still to come! The biomes that make up the valley are the Plaza, the Peaceful Meadow, Dazzle Beach, Forest of Valor, Glade of Trust, Sunlit Plateau, Frosted Heights, and the Forgotten Lands. All of these areas are very distinct, though since the game isn't completely finished yet, it doesn't seem like any story content has been put out for the Sunlit Plateau, Frosted Heights, or the Forbidden Lands, but I'm excited to see what they'll be adding to these areas. They all have a pillar of Hope, and I should mention that I picked up a Dark Crystal that seems to have some sort of special significance from the Forgotten Lands, but I'm not sure if anything has come of that yet. I know there are plans for Scar from the Lion King to be added to the game sometime later this year, and I assume he will have something to do with the Sunlit Plateau area, if the Elephant Graveyard there is any indication. I love how the characters all have a tie to one of the biomes as well, which is a cool idea. Moana and Maui move to Dazzle Beach, as do Ariel and Ursula from the Little Mermaid, as well as Donald Duck, whose boat is parked there from the beginning of the game, even though we don't know where he is at that time. I won't talk about all of the characters that I've found in the game so far, as there have been a few that I didn't know about until I ran into them, but there were also some who I knew right away. The Realms that you can access through the Dream Castle make a fun and interesting way to get more villagers back into your town, and it's abundantly clear how the developers at Gameloft are going to keep expanding on this game. The interior of the castle is made up of tons and tons of doors, though at the time of writing, you can only access four of them, Wall-E, Moana, Ratatouille, and Frozen. Through each of the doors lies a small area of a character's home world, and a few missions to complete in order to convince each of them to come live in the valley again. To convince Remy to come back to the valley, I was teleported to a kitchen of Remy's new restaurant in Paris on a very important night, when a big food critic was coming to dine there. I had to help him prepare several dishes and eventually get a good review from the critic. Once I did that, I told him that he should open a restaurant back in the valley, which he accepted after I built him a house. Ironically, his house is much bigger than mine, even though he's just a rat, and doesn't take up much space, as you'd expect. The next realm that's coming is Toy Story, as the last trailer revealed, and I'm really excited to see what we have to do to recruit Buzz and Woody to our kingdom, and what adventures they'll have when they enter. 

So much to talk about!

    I've spent a long time talking about the characters and the story, as well as the setting, but I have to take a moment here to talk about some other amazing things that this game brings to the table. The music is fantastic, especially as a big Disney fan. There are lots of cheerful tracks that keep the game very light and carefree, though in the few serious moments, or in the much darker area of the Forbidden Lands, the music is much heavier. Expect to hear lots of familiar Disney songs in this game, often treated as just little audio nods to movies past. When you hang out with characters, it always plays a tune based on the movie that they're from. For instance, when you play as one of the "Mickey and Friends" characters, such as Goofy, it plays the "Mickey Mouse March," when Merlin is hanging out with you, it plays an instrumental version of "That's What Makes the World Go Round" from The Sword in the Stone, which really caught me off guard when I heard it for the first time. When Wall-E follows you, it plays an instrumental of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello Dolly, which was a major theme from the movie, was another great touch that I didn't see coming. Of course, the natural music as you walk around incorporates a lot of "When You Wish Upon A Star," which is always lovely. In addition to the non-diegetic tracks in this game, there is also a lot of singing, humming, and whistling from the characters in the valley. Mickey Mouse will whistle a familiar tune from Steamboat Willie from time to time, Wall-E with chirp out the notes of "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," his favorite song, Elsa will sing out the melodious tune that she sang out several times in Frozen 2, and Ariel sings her little ditty that she sang many times in The Little Mermaid. There are just so many cool touches to these characters that make it that much cooler to hang out with them, as well as seeing them all hanging out with each other (as we all know I love crossovers).

    The clothing and customization options for your character as well as the valley at large are pretty phenomenal. You're able to move the buildings basically anywhere you want them to go at any time, without being charged anything for it. Do you want your house to be in the Forest instead of the plaza, just so you can get a change in scenery? You can totally do that, just move your house using the furniture tool, and you can do that with other houses as well, though I don't think you can move Scrooge's shop or Remy's Restaurant. I could be wrong about that though. Speaking of Scrooge's shop, he changes out the furniture and clothing options that he sells every day, and the more that you upgrade his shop, the more options you get, with the more upgraded shop carrying bigger pieces of furniture like beds or hot tubs. I love how much of this furniture is influenced by the Disney films, and it always gets me more excited to customize my house with new stuff when I see something cool in the shop. 

    With this being a free to play game, I'm sure many are thinking that you buy this stuff with microtransactions, but as it is right now, the only thing that real money can possibly pay for is more Moonstones, which you use to pay for the premium pass, though you can also get this currency by playing the game. Right now the event fest (which the Moonstones are used for) is the Pixar Fest, which lets you have more items based on Pixar movies, but honestly you get so much stuff in Scrooge's store, and that is refreshed every day, I haven't felt like I've missed out on much. The same goes for the two more expensive Founder's Packs. I bought the standard founder's pack on day one which allowed me to play, but was the cheapest option only being $30 as opposed to $50 or $70. I got fewer items and Moonstones, but I was curious to see just how far I could go, and the answer is quite a lot! I don't really feel like anything was really kept behind the paywall and I've still had a great experience, despite the few premium items that I didn't get. I have to say that the game is coming out in a free-to-play model starting next year, so the monetization might pick up after that point, but it doesn't sound like it's going to, just based on interviews that have been had with the team. They have said that some expansions down the road may be an extra charge, same as a DLC type experience, but we'll have to see how that goes.

    I'm happy to say that the game has only been out for a few weeks, and I have really enjoyed it, at least playing for a little while basically every day that it has been out. It's a really fun game with a lot of personality to it, and while I have to admit that I was always probably going to love this game, as the Disney fan that I am, I think I would still happily play a game like this even if I didn't have the personal attachments with the brand. If nothing else, I would definitely say give this game a chance when it goes free to play next year, or if you have Xbox Gamepass, it's already on there, so please give it a try, I think you'll be happy that you did!

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends! I hope you're enjoying Disney Dreamlight Valley if you've tried it out so far, or I hope that what I've written here has inspired you to look into it further. This is a cool game made by a mobile developer, which I feel deserves some praise for their efforts. I also need to throw out that they've updated Disney Magic Kingdoms (A mobile game also made by Gameloft) for years now, so I definitely believe that Dreamlight Valley will get the same treatment as far as that's concerned, even though the two are vastly different games. I hope you're all doing well and having a great week! I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Dreaming Neighbor, and I'll see ya real soon!