I first played Disney Dreamlight Valley back when it first released in 2022. I had heard some people talking about it and decided to check it out. I wasn’t expecting much, but I quickly became obsessed with it and even started a YouTube Let’s Play. This was huge for me because I am not a Let’s Player. But I really enjoyed the game and was playing it via Xbox Game Pass as initially, Gameloft had promised the game would go free-to-play so I held off on buying it.
A year into early access, Gameloft changed its mind about going free-to-play, so I stopped playing because I didn’t want to buy the game lol. Sounds dumb, considering I probably spent more on Game Pass to play it than I would have if I had just bought the game in the beginning but it was the principle of the thing.
Cut to a few years later, and one of my best friends decided to pick up the game on Xbox Game Pass (yeah, it’s still on there). So I decided I would join her on the Dreamlight train. Truthfully, I wasn’t planning on it, but the more she told me about her valley, the more I got a bit of FOMO and decided to dip back into the game. While I didn’t miss the game after I stopped playing and had no desire to go back, now that I have played it again, I am once again obsessed.
Since it has been so long since I played, I noticed a few things that have changed, and I wanted to make a post talking about it. I initially recorded a YouTube video but the quality turned out terribly, so instead of trying again, I thought it would be better to write my thoughts down. Plus it’s been a while since I’ve made a blog post, so hey.
The first thing being, there are a ton of new characters. This was to be expected because I think when I stopped playing I had unlocked everyone there was to unlock. So I was naturally overwhelmed, as immediately when I logged in I was adding Tiana, Pocahontas and Cinderella to my valley.
Did I miss all the villager quests? No. But that is most of the gameplay lol. I have been trying to just do them all at the same time, which I think is also part of my problem. I think it’s better to see one quest storyline through before doing another, but I was just trying to clear a bunch of them as soon as possible. Especially when a lot of quests have you placing things in the valley, it is much easier to enter decor mode once and place everything, versus constantly opening and closing it. Especially on Xbox, using a controller is annoying compared to using a keyboard and mouse.
Along with there being loads of new characters to add to the valley, we now have access to floating islands which is kind of fun. A place to store the villager houses which can get in your way. I’ve not really been using these as I kind of like everyone being in the valley. The only person who I have moved to the floating islands is Remy, and it’s only because his house is unnecessarily big for a rat. Plus, he’s always hanging around his restaurant anyway. I think some people also use their floating islands for gardening and storage which I can see being beneficial but I don’t need to do that for now.
I’ve also noticed that with more people around, my map doesn’t always show every character. Like, I’ll be looking for Tiana or Cinderella but I can’t see them on the map. I don’t have them filtered off either, but I’ve come to realise if they aren’t on the map they are by default in their house. Which is fine, but was a bit annoying in the beginning when I was trying to find them and couldn’t see them. That being said, if you need them for a quest they most definitely come out of their houses so it’s not all bad.
They have also stopped the villagers from sleeping! Yay! I remember this was super annoying a few years ago, as I always played in the evenings and Mickey would always be sleeping! I can’t believe this was even a feature to be honest. I know it’s a game set in real time but the real time doesn’t affect very much; it’s not like Animal Crossing, where the time of day means different fish spawn or that there are in-game holidays we celebrate, so why have people sleep?
Another thing I noticed and appreciated is that they removed the cooking result screen every time you cook something. That being said, bulk cooking is still not a thing? Not that I ever need to cook a lot of something but seems kind of weird we can’t do that. I also wish that when you selected a recipe from the list to cook and then went back to the list that it wouldn’t take you back to the top. I always go through the recipes to cook gifts for people and it’s so frustrating having to start at the very top of the list every time. So there are still things which could be improved.
Speaking of things that could be improved, the camera options suck. Having come from games like Infinity Nikki, where you have so much more control over camera placement and options, I really notice when there is a lack of them. Like, it’s been 4 years and we still don’t have any new facial expressions or poses? Why can’t I move the camera around? It’s very disappointing, especially when they introduced Dream Snaps which is all about taking cool pictures and matching themes. It just seems like an oversight.
The animal companions are also still a bit useless. Originally, they were purely cosmetic but now they can help you when fishing, foraging and gardening by picking up resources. And honestly, the only useful one I think are the ones that help with gardening. I remember constantly having to stop gardening to pick up resources a villager dropped for you, but if you have animal companions, they do it for you. This works well for gardening as you stay in one area long enough for the animals to pick things up, but when you are doing anything else, you are constantly moving and so the companions do not get a chance to pick up the items. So, I could do without them but I do try to use them when I can. If they were able to increase the range for them it would be better, especially for picking up foraging items.
The biggest difference from the last time I played is that we finally have multiplayer functionality in the game. Though to me, this doesn’t seem like much. I think I have said in the past about how multiplayer seems dumb if all you can do is visit each other because everyone has the same resources in their valleys. I mean, yeah, it’s fun to visit to see how people have decorated but I am not sure if there is anything else here which is of value.
I do like the dream team idea though, as I like to see the progress my friend has made in her game and she can see mine. I think this is fun but I also wish the update timeline was its own page and we could filter it. It would also be good if there were notifications when someone made a request there/it was fulfilled as otherwise you are just constantly checking the tab and that’s no fun. It would also be good if people got notified when you reacted to their photos and things like that too so you know they did see it. So yeah, again, room for improvement.
Those are all the things I have noticed since picking up Dreamlight Valley again. It has been really fun to get back into it and with so many new characters to unlock I will be playing the game for a long time to come. I did splurge and finally buy the game along with the new Honeyglow Woods expansion, so if anything I gotta keep playing to get my money’s worth lol. But no complaints from me as I am having a good time.
I don’t think I will be restarting a Let’s Play on it anytime soon but I think it’s okay to leave that in the past. I think it will be interesting to see how I feel about the game once I, eventually, catch up on all my quests again. I mean, does the game really hold value once you’ve completed all the storylines? I know that they are continuing to update the game for now, so there’s always going to be some kind of content but I wonder what it will be like when it runs out. Maybe that will be my next blog post lol. Stay tuned to find out.
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