Disney Dreamlight Valley | Taken for a Quickie

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With the centenary of the House of Mouse right around the corner, a new game has come to transport us to Disney’s fairytale land. We see what all the fuss is about with Disney Dreamlight Valley in the latest entry in our quick-look review series.

by James Michael Parry

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@james_parry

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So, what’s Disney Dreamlight Valley all about?

Imagine you’ve been transported to the happy-go-lucky world of Disney, to a place where all manner of characters live and kick back between live-action remakes, but alas, all is not well…

The Forgetting has caused characters to return to the worlds from whence they came, trapped apart from their friends. It’s up to you to restore Dreamlight Valley and bring everyone back.

Sounds very…Disney. So...is it like Kingdom Hearts?

Not really. While Kingdom Hearts has a dense lore and original characters to keep up with. DDV is far less complicated. Everything is pretty straightforward, and there’s plenty of help working out what you need to do, if you need it.

Here you will find the likes of Mickey, Goofy and Donald, but really that’s where the similarities end – not that I wouldn’t rule out Sora turning up for fun at some point in a future update.

An update, so this is some sort of live service, endless immersive experience?

It’s not as cynical as it sounds. Somewhat surprisingly actually, as there’s plenty of opportunity to make the virtual currency purchasable here, but so far everything appears to be in-game.

There are daily quests, which are replenished as soon as you do them rather than being timed, and characters have favourite gifts which cycle each day as well, just to mix things up.

Generally you’re free to explore the valley at your own pace, and in any direction you feel like, gathering up characters as you go.

You mentioned Mickey and co., what sort of other characters are there?

Part of the fun is discovering characters as you go, but to give you an idea of a few you’ll meet at the start, there’s Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, Remy from Ratatouille and Wall-E from…well…I’ll let you guess.

At certain points when you are introducing new characters you have to choose between one and another, and it’s not clear from what we’ve played so far if you’ll eventually be able to unlock everyone, but our gut says you will.

Each character has their own relationship with the player, so you build friendship levels by interacting with them, doing activities with them while “hanging out” and giving them the aforementioned gifts.​

What’s the gameplay like?

The experience feels very similar to Animal Crossing, with mining, planting seeds and watering them, and crafting items from recipes all present and correct. The look and feel has the cartoony look and feel of Disney, as you’d expect, but the animation and user interface has definite influences from the likes of Fortnite and The Sims.

A lot of the time you’ll be talking to the other characters, fetching things for them or making food for them. Particularly fun is cooking with Remy, as a nice bit of attention to detail sees the colourful squiggles you might have seen in the film in the game itself.​

So, what’s the verdict?

At this early stage the game is still feeling a bit rough around the edges, with visual bugs and game-breaking ones causing us to quit out and reload numerous times. That said, developers Gameloft are definitely on to something here.

The game is easy to pick up and play, and gradually clearing the darkness and scary thorns out of the world is very satisfying. Add to that the opportunity to potentially befriend your favourite Disney character and things start to get even more exciting.

How far the fantasy world will go remains to be seen – will we see a tiny Grogu going about his business in Dreamlight Valley in future? – but already there’s potential, and an Autumn update is confirmed to bring at least Woody and Buzz from Toy Story (notably without Tom Hank’s voice however) and ​The Lion King into the fold.

Everything is quite surface level, but it’s wholesome and fun, and a great game to enjoy with your loved ones, particularly those who are less comfortable with gaming.

The game is already a bit of fun and with a bit of polish could be something truly magical.

Have you been playing Disney Dreamlight Valley? Let us know what you thought in the comments, or in our Discord.​