Disney Dreamlight Valley seems a simple game on the surface – meet a bunch of Disney and Pixar characters, build a nice little community and live happily ever after. However, there’s a bit more to it than that.
First Steps Into The Unknown
Starting off is like most life sim games. You create an avatar, arrive at your future home, and get a quick list of things to do as a nice little tutorial. Which is the case for Disney Dreamlight Valley. The character customisation is a bit basic, but a nice little feature is that there is no gender – there are just two body frames and all other options (including clothing items and hairstyles) are open to everyone. There’s also a great clothing customisation section with various motifs, designs and great colour options if you want to put together your own look.
Speaking of nice options, just a little side note here. The game comes with a “Streamer Mode” in the Audio settings which is both easy to find and to switch on and off. With this mode, copyrighted music isn’t just taken away. Instead, it is switched out for a more streaming-friendly soundtrack to help avoid all those pesky copyright strikes and muted audio.
The range of characters here might seem a little random but it oddly works in that unique Disney way. To start off, there are 17 characters to unlock, meet and interact with over the course of the story. This might not seem like a lot but once you start building the community and unlocking more areas of the map, it feels like a good number. There are more characters coming to the game, with both Toy Story and Lion King content already confirmed to be coming later this year. Right now, the game doesn’t feel too crowded which is a massive plus.
When it comes to the missions, they do fall into those usual categories we see in other life sims. Gathering resources and/or currency, crafting items, building various dwellings, improving your own, upgrading your backpack (which is a must, believe me) but with a Disney twist.
With A Little Help From Some Friends…and A Map
Learning where to get various items, both for crafting and gifting, is useful but there is a great section in the pause menu which will tell you where items are in which areas of the map. This is also where you can keep track of what you have unlocked across the game and it is all well organised too. Clothing and furniture items are listed by franchise in their own sections, as are the unlocked characters. In the character lists, it will also tell you your “friendship” level (which is key for unlocking missions and extra items) along with letting you know what you can do to improve it.
Another little feature I did enjoy was the map tracker. Once a character is unlocked, and in your valley, they will appear on the map screen in the pause menu, which makes finding a specific character that much easier. It will also let you know if the character is “asleep”. This means both the character and their home are locked off for certain periods of time. While this can be frustrating if you need them for a questline, it’s also a nice touch of realism and allows you to focus on other things for a bit.
For those wondering, cross-progression and cross-platform do work quite well. I played this game on both a PC and mobile (via the Xbox app & Cloud save) and was able to pick up where I had left off with no real problems. The UI works well on both small and large screens which is a big plus for a game in Early Access. The only issue I can see arising is that this game is currently it is limited to one account/one save per device. This also means that trying to start a new save will delete all your progress. It remains to be seen if this will continue once the game goes free to play in 2023 but it could cause some frustration.
As this is an Early Access phase, there are obviously some issues. Most notably in the form of mission blocking bugs. So far, the bugs I encountered were just slightly inconvenient rather than game-breaking. While one – when a mission item couldn’t be collected – did halt my progress in the short term, it has been since patched out and I was able to complete the mission. So just be aware that, at this point, there are bugs, but they won’t be there forever. There are also some slight camera glitches and the odd bit of clipping, but as I said there’s nothing yet which has truly ruined or broken the game for me. Another thing to keep an eye on is Cloud Saving. While it is part of the game – so players can switch up devices if they want – it isn’t automatic so you do have to go into the settings every once in a while and make sure the save is synched up.
The Verdict
To sum up, Disney Dreamlight Valley is a game with a lot of potential. The art style is the right side of cute, the story is engaging, the quests aren’t too repetitive, and the character roster is a good mix of classic characters and new favourites. There is a lot to enjoy here for Disney fans and for sim game fans. If you happen to be both, this might be an ideal game to add to the collection.
Score – 8/10
Disney Dreamlight Valley is available now for purchase on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC. The game is currently scheduled to go free-to-play in 2023.
Words by Megan Roxburgh
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