What's new in the Valley? (Update on Disney Dreamlight Valley!)

     Hey there, friends! It has been a few months since the most recent Animal Crossing-type game came out back in September, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and I've been playing it off and on since then, so I thought I would spend some time this week to catch up with some developments that have been made in this game! This probably won't be super long, but I just want to talk a bit about the cool things going on in the valley. Let's all nap under a big oak tree and head on back to Dreamlight Valley to help the residents out with getting more comfortable in their new homes!

New Characters!

    The makers of the game at Gameloft have added tons of new content since the game's launch, and I really appreciate it! Some of the characters have been more integral to the story than others, but some have just been nice to have around in the valley. Among the characters that have been added since launch, there's been Scar (Lion King), Olaf (Frozen), Mirabel (Encanto), Stitch (Lilo and Stitch), Buzz, Woody (both from Toy Story), Simba, and Nala (both from Lion King). Scar was added in the first content update I think, which is interesting since Simba and Nala were just added along with the Lion King realm in the most recent update! Buzz and Woody were added along with the Toy Story realm, and Olaf was added with a fairly significant update to the lore of the story, where the orb for the Frosted Heights was finally added, leaving only two Dreamlight Pillars still surrounded by darkness, the second one in Dazzling Beach and the one in the mysterious Forgotten Lands. Stitch is just a fun little guy to have in the village, which started with a quest from Donald that claimed to see an alien! Of course everyone thought he was just crazy, but then Stitch's ship crash landed. I love that his house looks like Lilo's house at the end of the original movie, with the orb at the top of it, and it's also just great to see the little guy bust out a Ukulele and start playing.

New Events! 

    The Star Path has continued to be a thing, and with it, we've gotten events for lots of different holidays, mainly Halloween and Christmas. I definitely bought into the Holiday pass (with the moonstones that I had, I haven't paid for anything other than the original purchase of the early access). With that, I got a lot of neat holiday stuff which I used to decorate my town for the winter months, and I also got a new costume for Merlin and Mickey, which was very nice! I missed the "Disney100" celebration, which celebrated 100 years of the Disney company, but the current one is based on Disney Parks. The Disney Park star path has gotten some cool attractions, for instance, my village has a small version of the "it's a small world" clock tower, the "Mad Tea Party", the "Pixar Pal-Around" from California Adventure (which is a big ferris wheel), "Dumbo the Flying Elephant" (the ride, not the character), and a topiary featuring Figment, the dragon from "Journey Into Imagination with Figment!" Along with the rides, I've also gotten new costumes for Donald and Goofy based on a skipper on "Jungle Cruise" and a conductor for the "Walt Disney World/ Disneyland Railroad," respectively. There are also smaller items like park benches and concessions carts, along with wearable things for your character, such as magic bands, a Mickey Waffle-shaped backpack, and lots of different themes that you can use for customization.

     I need to repeat again, I have spent no money on this game other than buying the standard edition founders pass for 30 dollars back in September when the game first came out. There are lots of opportunities to get more moonstones in your world, just by completing missions and unlocking them from the different season passes (since a lot of item rewards don't require you to unlock them with Moonstones, including a lot of moonstones on the Star Path). There is a separate store menu where you can buy items with moonstones, and that's also new to the game, I guess they felt like there weren't enough opportunities to give people new stuff for moonstones already, but here you just pay for them with moonstones instead of collecting the season currency and buying things through the Star Path. I know that sounds kind of complicated, but it seems to be a much less aggressive microtransaction model than the one that they're utilizing for Disney Speedstorm, the Disney "Kart-Racer" which is also developed by Gameloft and recently released in early access. I haven't played that for myself yet, so I can't say for sure, but I'm just basing that off of what I've seen so far. I'm hoping to try that one out sometime soon, don't get me wrong though!

    I'm still enjoying Dreamlight Valley a lot, and I'm constantly impressed by the different clever jokes hidden in the character dialog, as well as the overall story potential that comes with so many different characters interacting from different intellectual properties. I've still got my fingers crossed for Rapunzel and Flynn Rider being added soon, since Mother Gothel has been in the game since the initial release and Rapunzel's tower is in the box art. I'm also sure that Belle and the Beast are on their way, but we'll have to wait and see when! According to the update schedule, it looks like a princess is headed to the valley in early summer, so I hope we'll hear more about that soon! Disney Dreamlight Valley still has a lot of growing to do, since we still have no plot points around the Forbidden Lands, and I'm still very excited for whatever this game does next.

    Thanks so much for reading this short update on the changes being made to this game, friends. This game is a lot of fun, and it's supposed to be free-to-play at some point soon, so I hope you'll check it out then if not before. Are there any characters that you're hoping will be added soon? There are so many already in the game, I'd say the sky's the limit, and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Thanks again for your support and I hope you'll all have a great week! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Dreamlight Valley Resident, and I'll see ya real soon!