Disney Dreamlight Valley’s Winter Update is a bit of a scrooge…

After a small update adding Lion King antagonist Scar to the valley, Disney Dreamlight Valley’s first significant update arrived just in time for the holidays. It did feature some appropriate holiday cosmetic rewards you could earn but more importantly three new characters to unlock for the valley, Buzz, Woody, and that psychotic yet loveable alien Stitch.

So let’s start with the Winter offerings of cosmetic items you can earn through the star path. It offered some holiday decor, emblems, and a Christmas-themed outfit for both Mickey and Merlin. I’m honestly disappointed there were only outfits for Mickey and Merlin to unlock. I’m not expecting every character to get one, but two out of the 20 residents you can currently have in the valley is pretty weak. I basically got the two outfits and the big Christmas tree to display in the valley, and then I was done.

But that’s not the biggest part of the update, the big part is of course new characters, with Woody and Buzz pretty instantly accessible. Stitch I have not gotten yet as you have to wait several days between events in his quest line multiple times, but also, there’s very little guidance on how to even unlock Stitch, I really had to look it up online to know what even to do. There’s an element of surprise discovery sure but maybe at least one of the valley inhabitants saying they saw something weird in the Forest of Valor or something would be a little helpful push and certainly more engaging than just having to look it up.

Then finally there is Woody and Buzz and, I just dunno maybe I was expecting too much here but for what is the first major update for Disney Dreamlight Valley it’s just very much what you’ve been doing. I wasn’t expecting anything major but maybe some new wrinkle or activity or way to play the game would have been welcome.

I also need to complain about a quest. I won’t spoil it but one requires flowers. Lots of flowers, and you can only grab a couple at a time and then need to wait however long it is for them to respawn. That’s kind of ridiculous. If your update is going to include a quest that requires you to collect lots of flowers, and your game has a mechanic where you can plant stuff, I should be able to buy seeds to plant flowers to speed that up, not a big reach.

I should clarify that I am still having a good time in general with Disney Dreamlight Valley, it’s just that the first big update really didn’t provide anything new aside from a couple of characters, and in most other aspects that are big parts of the game (i.e. the Star Path where you unlock premium cosmetics), it was pretty lacking. There’s still a good base game here and I’ll continue to play but if this continues to be how updates are handled I don’t see myself still playing much of Disney Dreamlight Valley beyond whenever it hits full release.

That’s it for today and likely for the remainder of 2022, but I’ll be sure to post something in early January to kick 2023 off so see ya real soon!