Disney Dreamlight Valley impressions: Friends and magic all around

Ich möchte to continue playing Disney Dreamlight Valley. I’ve spent days collecting supplies to help Donald Duck rebuild his houseboat that’s washed up on the shores of Dazzle Beach; I’ve upgraded Goofy’s vegetable stalls; I’ve collected flowers for Minnie Mouse to give to Mickey. Look: I’m doing this for the power of friendship — even for the Disney and Pixar characters I couldn’t care less about, like stinky Kristoff from Frozen or Rapunzel’s evil mother who keeps telling me I look awful.

Dreamlight ValleyThere are many comparisons that have led to Animal Crossing New Horizons, and for good reason: It’s the Disney and Pixar-ified life simulation that’s filled with beloved movie characters instead of Animal Crossing villagers. You do a lot of the same things — fishing, gardening, collecting flowers and recipes, and making friends with the folks in the area. It’s a comfortable sort of repetition that fans of the genre know and love, something that’s easy to slip into and out of, even with the ever-present pull of “I’ll just do one more thing.”

Image: Gameloft/Disney

This is the big difference. Dreamlight Valley’s Disney and Pixar characters all have their own friendship quests, alongside the game’s overarching main quest. Even as a middling Disney fan, someone who has nostalgia for the franchises but has a waning interest as an adult, it’s delightful to mingle with beloved characters — Minnie, for instance, who ends most conversations by telling me she loves me, or Moana, whose cheerful, adventurous spirit makes me giddy. Pair these interactions with the instrumental swell of Disney’s classic songs and the child inside me gets chills.

This is the main thrust Dreamlight ValleyBuilding relationships seems to be the focus. It’s what composes the fabric of life there, a kind of currency that makes all that wonder — and wandering — possible. It’s got me thinking a lot about friendships, not only the ones in games, but in my own life, too.

I don’t know. Maybe that’s cheesy. But after the power of friendship being stuffed into my ears for the 19 hours I’ve put into Dreamlight ValleyI feel the emotion. The game’s inspired a bit of childlike joy in me, a sort of care that I want to bring back to my own life and relationships. Dreamlight Valley boils friendship down into its simplest forms — acts of kindness, service, and quality time. I spend so much time thinking about how fostering connections is hard — especially as an adult — but I don’t think it has to be. Because of the pressures and capitalism, I get so exhausted that it’s easy to forget about what is really important.

Image: Gameloft/Disney

So, the spirit of Dreamlight ValleyIt makes it easy to repeat the same thing over and over again. For the most part, it hasn’t felt like a chore to do chores in the game, because I know that each step is peeling back another layer surrounding the best parts of Dreamlight Valley. But the key phrase here is “for the most part.” Dreamlight Valley’s had some major balance issues with its finite resources, stuff you can forage for and collect across the world. Dream Shards proved to be a major problem. I was locked out of my game for quite some time due to the fact that I didn’t have enough. My friends had to stay in their homes until I got the money I required.

Gameloft fixed the problem and Dream Shards became less common after an update on Thursday. The developer did not make any changes to resources such as flowers and other foraged items, which can cause players problems. Thank youSlowly, hold up the quests again

Because Dreamlight ValleyBecause it is early access, you can forgive the technical difficulties much more easily. Everything else — the friendship and magic of it all — is special, and once it’s had its full, official release, it’s a game that has a good chance at coming out from under Animal CrossingNew Horizons’ shadow and standing on its own.