Disney Dreamlight Valley (2023)

I have over 700 hours on this game. Got it for way too much money on Switch in "early access" and have enjoyed it a lot over the past few years, but it STILL runs like absolute ass, crashing all the time, menus being slow, the online shop tab taking an eternity, freezing up randomly, etc.

Tried it on Switch 2 last night for the first time and holy shittt, the difference is astounding.

I should love this game to bits. I'm a big kid at heart, I love Disney/Pixar, and the gameplay style is great for relaxing. And I AM enjoying it, it just...doesn't quite hit the mark for me somehow.

Maybe part of it is that I'm put off by the limits on gameplay progression--I expect that in free mobile games where they're trying to get you to pay to overcome obstacles, but when I've paid for the full game (or in this case, gotten a free month of Game Pass), I expect to be able to progress at my pace and not get soft-locked. That and I wish there were more characters from the Disney vaults and not just the newer films.

Anyway--this is enjoyable for now, but I don't think I'll be picking up a copy when my month is up.

The new expansion (the first half of it, anyway) dropped yesterday. I'd kind of forgotten over the past week or so because I've been so busy/sick, but when I went to play for a bit last night, I was like, "Oh yeah, that's today!"

Went ahead and grabbed it, but I haven't started the questline to access the new area or anything yet. I'm a little more focused on finishing up tasks for this admittedly-lackluster star path event that ends in five days, but excited to finally see Hades!!

I finally caved the other night and grabbed the DLC, despite being super irked with the fact that I had to pay full price for it on top of already paying more for the game than you'd have to pay now to get the game and DLC bundled.

(From previous status about this: I spent like $85 or something on this (Ultimate Edition) when it first came out, and now the expansion is $30. I wasn't really bothered by them changing their minds about this going ftp after a year or so (it's staying paid), but now the game and expansion are being sold together as the "Gold Edition" for $70 and there is no Ultimate Edition anymore. So I paid more than that for the base game and now am expected to shell out ANOTHER $30 for the expansion if I want the new area and all of the new characters it adds, but new players can get everything for $70? I guess you could say I got to play for a year with what I paid because it was early access, but considering the fact that it's not going ftp now, this is ridic.)

I'm gonna say it's worth it, since I've already sunk over 300 hours into this game and continue to enjoy it. Buying the DLC opens up a short new quest line where you unlock a new gate inside the Dream Castle. (The Dream Castle is where all of the doors for new characters are located whenever they're added in updates. There are still a TON of unmarked doors, leaving room for many upcoming character additions.) This gate leads to a platform where there's an archway transporter leading you to the Isles. There were like five other arches there, which tells me lots of DLC in the future.

The new area has three huge biomes, many new characters, a new hourglass tool, new fish/flowers/gems/gatherable materials, a second Scrooge shop, another Remy restaurant, new Goofy stalls with new crop seeds, etc. You unlock the shops in much the same way as in the main Valley, but I have like 1.2mil gold at this point and was able to upgrade them to max right away. It took a lot longer when first starting out with the game. There are tons of new quests and things to explore, and you can easily fast travel back and forth between the Isles and the main Valley without having to deal with the gates and Castle and stuff.

Free updates and events roll out all the time with characters, outfits, decorations, etc., so there's still a lot to do in the base game without grabbing the DLC. But so far it's been a great expansion.

A year ago I swore I would never play this. I thought I didn't like the art style and I'm not a huge Disney fan. Then last year, I kept seeing people's decorated valleys and they looked amazing, and people were talking about a new questline that was about depression (in a cozy Disney game? what??), and I had to eat my words and finally got the game last fall.

Now I'm 100+ hours in and I'm just getting more and more obsessed with it. With the roadmap for future free updates and DLC, this feels like that chill, cozy game I actually can take my time with a play my one save for a looong time. Other than the Star Paths, I feel like there is no rush with anything at all, and I can log on to play 15 minutes or 5 hours and both times feel good!

So I haven't played much in the past few months. Played for the Halloween event and then tapered off while I was working on Star Ocean, so I didn't look into the expansion info much. Since I've been back to it for the past couple of days for the winter event, I noticed many of the villager characters having items I've never seen for their daily requested items--gems and flowers and such that def aren't in the Valley. Then I realized it was stuff from the expansion island.

But now I'm super irked, because I spent like $85 or something on this (Ultimate Edition) when it first came out, and now the expansion is $30. I wasn't really bothered by them changing their minds about this going ftp after a year or so (it's staying paid), but now the game and expansion are being sold together as the "Gold Edition" for $70 and there is no Ultimate Edition anymore. So I paid more than that for the base game and now am expected to shell out ANOTHER $30 for the expansion if I want the new area and all of the new characters it adds, but new players can get everything for $70?

I guess you could say I got to play for a year with what I paid because it was early access, but considering the fact that it's not going ftp now, this is ridic.

I didn't even know that there was currently a level cap for your character level (40), but I hit it a few days ago. From looking into it, it was 30 previously, so I'm hoping that goes up again with new loot with the update next week.

I still have a few Valley residents who haven't hit Level 10 yet, but I'm not in a rush to do so. I threw gifts at Ariel like crazy because I wanted the dress from her Level 10 quest, and have been running around in this fancy gown for days, haha.

Excited for the new event, characters, and house customization. But that drops on the same day as Theatrhythm so I'm gonna be busy next weekend!

One of the things that I really hopes gets changed/updated/whatever is the inability to sell furniture or clothing in this game. You can sell whatever foraged stuff you pick up, as well as the foods that you cook, but all furniture and clothing gets put into your furniture/clothing inventories to be used and nothing beyond that.

When the game first came out, probably a week in, I saw a full outfit in the clothing shop that I was gonna save up for that day (it was like 40k). I went off to do some tasks and mine gems for money and such, and while harvesting some crops, out pops a pouch of clothing loot. It was THAT outfit. Saved me 40k and I was really happy to find it, but what if I'd gotten that drop like five minutes after buying it?

I know it doesn't just not spawn items that you already have, because I bought some Beauty and the Beast gold rose earrings two days ago, and just got them again from a loot drop. I spent like 11k on them or something. Look in my inventory, and it's just the one pair there because you can't sell them anyway, so why show doubles? I dunno, I know it's early access and that things could change, but there's so much crafting that you could make money off of instead of that being limited to selling foraged stuff for crap gold or doing the whole farm-harvest-cook-sell routine for more than a few hundred gold. Just feels weird to find/grow ingredients and be able to sell the cooked meals, but you can't sell the crafted products that you also spent a bunch of time finding materials for.

This game is doing SO MANY things right. I was telling my friend about some of it and we were joking that the devs must be Animal Crossing fans who got sick of how many QOL things we all want but will never get.

• First and foremost, it is on a real-time clock, thank fuck, but it's also the absolute best way of implementing it: crops, fruit-bearing plants, mining points, etc., around the island grow/replenish within like 15 minutes or so as they might in an accelerated-clock sim (there aren't any visible timers so I'm estimating); Scrooge McDuck's shop has new items each day but you aren't rushed to buy them like you would be in basically any other sim that isn't AC because of the clock (he also has a full catalog ordering system); you aren't forced to go to bed, at any point, ever.
• There's a tool wheel, and the tools do not take up inventory space.
• Crafting and cooking pull right from the storage. I have a chest in my house and two right outside by my crafting station. The game never came right out and said it, but I was doing some gathering and stashed some stuff, then went to craft, and was able to make things that used materials I didn't have in my pockets.
• Any decorations that you craft go into your furniture inventory, and clothing is separated into a wardrobe inventory. Your main inventory pockets are expandable. The fact that you can access all three of these inventories at any time by simply pressing X is fantastic. You can move trees, fences, buildings, etc., around the town. I haven't adjusted much of this yet, but it's super accessible.
• You can quickly multi-plant/harvest crops by just holding A. Your character will move along the plots and plant/gather them as long as they're all touching. You can also multi-harvest random plant spawns (herbs, flowers) around town that are next to each other.
• There's depth to the characters, and to the purpose of your time in Dreamlight Valley. Your character has a level, but you also have friendship levels with the various characters around the Valley. The conversations with them are actually pretty interesting and not repetitive.
• Tons and tons and tons of customization options in the character creator and within the main game itself. The character creator actually has skin options with vitiligo, which is super cool and inclusive. Tons of hair/feature choices as well. You can edit your character at any time from the wardrobe.

I meant to jot some stuff down over the past couple of days since I picked up the game, but these are most of the main ones. Really impressed with this and glad that I picked it up.