How Disney is my Dreamlight Valley?
Disney Dreamlight Valley is here! It’s been out for just over a week and while it’s in early access and a lot could change between now and full release when it will be free to play sometime next year, I thought it’d be a good time to give my impressions after spending many, many hours with it the past week.
Firstly, I want to make it very clear because this is from Gameloft, a developer known for free-to-play, mostly mobile games with games very much built around trying to get you to spend money and lots of it, as of right now, while Disney Dreamlight Valley has premium currency (moonstones) you can pay real money for, as of right now, all those moonstones are used for is to unlock some premium cosmetic items and it’s actually pretty unobtrusive to the point you might forget it’s what they are even used for. This game is in Early Access and that could change, but I hope at least mostly stays this way.
So Disney Dreamlight Valley is pretty much what it appears to be, a mix of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with that Disney flavor thrown in. And it’s not super original in that regard, but it’s an extremely competent one of those types of games, which admittedly is a big surprise. And I’ve mentioned this in posts about games like Disney Magical World, to some extent I think I actually prefer the quest-based structure games like this have to Animal Crossing because there are easily definable and clear goals to accomplish so this may actually keep my attention longer than New Horizons did (not that I didn’t enjoy that but I only played it for a couple of months while everyone else seemed to play it for at least six and some are still playing it).
Disney Dreamlight Valley’s biggest strength is definitely really making the most out of its memorable cast of famous villagers. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and many others don’t just inhabit the village (many you have to complete questlines for in order to get them to move to your valley in the first place), they really live in it. They have their own schedules (sometimes they are asleep and unlike in Animal Crossing cannot be woken up), histories, and relationships with everyone else in the valley. You build on that as well as build your own friendships not just by doing quests for them, but literally having them accompany you and hang out while you fish, mine, garden, etc. It makes for a very compelling gameplay loop frankly.
So at this point, I don’t have much else to say about Disney Dreamlight Valley aside from this effusive praise of a game I’ve spent most of my free time playing and will continue to do so. Is it a “forever” game? That probably depends on how often big content updates come along but we already know something with both Toy Story & Lion King characters is in the works to arrive sometime soon. For now, though, this is easily my throw on a podcast and play a few hours every day game. I definitely highly recommend Disney Dreamlight Valley if it’s the style of game you are into. It’s free on Gamepass but easily worth the $30 base “founder’s pack” price to play it on other platforms as well (but maybe not worth the $70 I dropped on the “ultimate one.)
I’ll certainly be writing more about Disney Dreamlight Valley in the future as I get more experience and updates roll out so look for continuing coverage. My next post will likely be about Return to Monkey Island as I am highly anticipating that game and it’s out in just a few days so see ya real soon!
