The Nintendo Switch exclusive casual life simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons was one of the most played titles during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020–2021. The game offered the ideal path out of negative thoughts, delivering lighthearted enjoyment that depended on habit and monotony-focused mechanisms. This combination proved to be both soothing and addicting, indicating the growing popularity of high-budget casual games. The lack of risk, making mistakes, or dying in Animal Crossing was well-liked by players. The successful combination was growth, growth at the price of a little persistence, and incremental development.

It's a little perplexing that so few people have tried to replicate that model and create a similar cross-platform game up to this point. One may argue that Stardew Valley came close to realizing that dream, but not everyone like the game's constrained scale and pixel-art style. Disney Dreamlight Valley is a licensed monster that doesn't hold back while attempting to get under your skin. Disney and Gameloft made the decision to take advantage of that market opportunity. For the last ten years, Gameloft has been honing the "art of seduction" in the mobile market. The ideal partner was the business that produced free-to-play games that were unparalleled in their capacity to captivate players. This monster was the product of combining that knowledge with an unrestricted budget and the greatest entertainment history provided by Disney (and Pixar).

Original Sins

Disney A cross between a life sim and an adventure game, Dreamlight Valley is situated in the previously stated valley and features a mystical illness. Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Buzz Lightyear, Remy, and hundreds of other beloved Disney and Pixar creatures lived in a peaceful paradise until a bad guy unleashed Forgetting, destroying the neighborhood and dispersing everyone. In addition to causing people to lose sight of their friends, family, and purpose in life, forgetting also caused environmental degradation. The once-beautiful landscape is now dotted with diabolical thorns; meadows and cottages that were once joyful now sound hollow.

There is a bright spot in that stormy cloud that appears after you, the dreamer, enter the Valley. With Merlin at your side, you'll begin the difficult task of deciphering the enchanted mystery, bringing everyone back to life, recovering their memories, and making friends. In addition, you'll spend a lot of time mining, fishing, cultivating, harvesting, cooking, creating, and decorating. Powerful activities like resource grinding and lighter puzzle solving are the main features of this action-packed game. You won't completely understand the game's vastness until many hours into a step-by-step introduction, since the initial pace is deliberately designed to avoid overwhelming the user. But it never becomes too complicated. It only grows on the "flat plane," offering you new activities while keeping the level of complexity simple. The sole prerequisite for Dreamlight Valley, which is appropriate for young children, is the ability to speak one of the seven supported languages.

Friends You Have to Put In Work

Disney Characters and resources are at the center of Dreamlight Valley. Each new Disney/Pixar character must fulfill their mission, which mostly consists of grinding certain things, in order to unlock them. For example, in order to retrieve Ariel, you'll need to gather wood, ropes, and more mats to repair the raft that will transport you to her island. Hardwood is one resource that isn't available in the beginning zone. Dreamlight is required in order to open the sections that border the meadow.

The primary resource in the game, dreamlight, is a mystical material that is obtained as a mission reward. Additionally, you may get it by fulfilling mini-achievements. Certain ones, like extracting a certain quantity of minerals, are allocated at random and may be repeated, while others are cumulative and permanent. Dreamlight is mostly used to open the various zones, some of which serve as temporary residences for vanishing characters that you must return to the valley. For example, 3000 Dreamlight are needed for each of Remy, Moana, and Wall-E to be unlocked. You could make this much in an hour or two if you work hard enough.

Developing friendships is the next task on the schedule after the rescue. Although you may spam-level love by giving them random things, finishing their objectives will bring in the most rewards. Here, one quest generally leads to another; they often provide fresh information, a questline to a different character, etc. Aside from materials, a few tasks call for some simple riddles or puzzle solutions. It takes three easy steps to solve an idol-and magical barrier-based three-tiered conundrum in order to save Ursula, the antagonist from The Little Mermaid.

Heaven of Customization

Quest completion, chest opening, and purchasing at Scrooge McDuck's store provide you access to a variety of apparel, furnishings, and décor pieces. There is an overwhelming amount of stuff you may wear or decorate your house with in this game, making it a customizing haven. Since many ornamental goods may be crafted, you'll find yourself accumulating resources even more. There is a distinct currency in the game, and you can sell Goofy everything you grind, create, or cook. The majority of the money you earn will go toward creating the homes for the people who have been saved and fixing fast-travel wells and stalls in recently accessed areas. You might also use it to renovate your house or add more rooms, furnishings, and décor.

And lastly, energy management. Energy used in physical work such as gardening, mining, and other tasks may be restored by eating or by going home. Here, experimenting with different ingredients and learning new techniques makes cooking enjoyable. Higher-tier meals provide greater energy and may also have additional advantages like accelerating activity.

E stands for Everyone.

Disney A lighthearted but well-made living simulation, Dreamlight Valley is meant for as large a viewership as possible. A charming creature that will snag on to your brain if you let it was developed by fusing Disney/Pixar cinematic mythology with Gameloft's industrial know-how in addictive gaming mechanisms.Even though it seems nice, it's still being built. For those who buy a Founder's Pack, the game will be accessible in Early Access starting on September 6, 2022. In addition, it's available via Xbox Game Pass before the game's 2023 release date of free-to-play.