A Disney-themed Animal Crossing clone that is better than it has any right to be, and even improves upon its predecessors in some ways, but can get a bit grindy.
I remember when Dreamlight Valley was announced - an Animal Crossing clone, with a Disney overlay, made by the mobile game developed Gameloft. "Welp, this will surely be a soulless cash grab", I cynically thought. And while you could argue whether or not Disney trying to ride off Animal Crossing's success is a cash grab or not, this game is anything but a phoned-in rip off.
Dreamlight Valley is clearly made by people who have spent a lot of time playing Animal Crossing and other farming/life sims like Stardew and Harvest Moon. It takes a lot of what Animal Crossing does, sprinkles in some flavor from farming sims, and adds some really nice quality of life stuff. For instance, I would love to be able to just hold down a button and auto-plant all of my crops in other games like this. And Animal Crossing could really take a page out of Dreamlight Valley's book by showing you where all the villagers are on the map at any given time.
The general objective of the game is to bring the valley you reside in back to life. This involves finding Disney characters, building them homes, and expanding your valley by unlocking new biomes. In general, this game has far more structure than something like Animal Crossing. It actually has a quest log to give you a bit of a push in the right direction. But you can still just do your own thing and expand your town how you want.
As you go, you'll work on your relationship with the Disney villagers, and do quests for them to unlock items, outfits, and things for your village. The problem is, some of the later stages of these quests can get extremely grindy, requiring you to mine a ton of iron from around the valley to progress. Several friends I know who were playing this game completely fell off when the grind hit, and have not gone back.
The good thing is, the devs seem to be extremely receptive to feedback. The game is in early access and they are constantly listening to players which is fantastic. Because the game is in early access, it still definitely has some bugs including some that may lock you out of completing quests until they are patched.
Weirdly, one big thing this game is lacking in is personality. Disney on its own is not a personality. It's got that Disney charm, the theme is great, and the characters' mannerisms are often spot-on. Watching Wall-E cruise around the town and then sit on a bench while holding his feet (?) is very cute. But when you talk to a character they'll just spit out one of five generic voice lines then be silent while you read through some dialogue. There's no cute bebebese to mimic the conversation you're having with these characters like in Animal Crossing.It's just silence which starts to feel a bit cold.
Overall, the game is a great life sim especially if you have any kind of appreciation for Disney properties. And it's only going to continue to grow as they add more characters, biomes, and other content to the game. Unless you're in a rush to try it, I recommend waiting to give them somer time to work through the kinks while in Early Access.
+ A lot more than an Animal Crossing clone
+ Good gameplay loop of finding new villagers and expanding your town
+ Nice quality of life improvements over other life sims
+ Great visual style
+ Plenty of content planned for the future
- Very grindy late-game quests
- Early Access kinks and bugs
- Personality is lacking
- Some incredibly grindy trophies that will take over a year to finish
I remember when Dreamlight Valley was announced - an Animal Crossing clone, with a Disney overlay, made by the mobile game developed Gameloft. "Welp, this will surely be a soulless cash grab", I cynically thought. And while you could argue whether or not Disney trying to ride off Animal Crossing's success is a cash grab or not, this game is anything but a phoned-in rip off.
Dreamlight Valley is clearly made by people who have spent a lot of time playing Animal Crossing and other farming/life sims like Stardew and Harvest Moon. It takes a lot of what Animal Crossing does, sprinkles in some flavor from farming sims, and adds some really nice quality of life stuff. For instance, I would love to be able to just hold down a button and auto-plant all of my crops in other games like this. And Animal Crossing could really take a page out of Dreamlight Valley's book by showing you where all the villagers are on the map at any given time.
The general objective of the game is to bring the valley you reside in back to life. This involves finding Disney characters, building them homes, and expanding your valley by unlocking new biomes. In general, this game has far more structure than something like Animal Crossing. It actually has a quest log to give you a bit of a push in the right direction. But you can still just do your own thing and expand your town how you want.
As you go, you'll work on your relationship with the Disney villagers, and do quests for them to unlock items, outfits, and things for your village. The problem is, some of the later stages of these quests can get extremely grindy, requiring you to mine a ton of iron from around the valley to progress. Several friends I know who were playing this game completely fell off when the grind hit, and have not gone back.
The good thing is, the devs seem to be extremely receptive to feedback. The game is in early access and they are constantly listening to players which is fantastic. Because the game is in early access, it still definitely has some bugs including some that may lock you out of completing quests until they are patched.
Weirdly, one big thing this game is lacking in is personality. Disney on its own is not a personality. It's got that Disney charm, the theme is great, and the characters' mannerisms are often spot-on. Watching Wall-E cruise around the town and then sit on a bench while holding his feet (?) is very cute. But when you talk to a character they'll just spit out one of five generic voice lines then be silent while you read through some dialogue. There's no cute bebebese to mimic the conversation you're having with these characters like in Animal Crossing.It's just silence which starts to feel a bit cold.
Overall, the game is a great life sim especially if you have any kind of appreciation for Disney properties. And it's only going to continue to grow as they add more characters, biomes, and other content to the game. Unless you're in a rush to try it, I recommend waiting to give them somer time to work through the kinks while in Early Access.
+ A lot more than an Animal Crossing clone
+ Good gameplay loop of finding new villagers and expanding your town
+ Nice quality of life improvements over other life sims
+ Great visual style
+ Plenty of content planned for the future
- Very grindy late-game quests
- Early Access kinks and bugs
- Personality is lacking
- Some incredibly grindy trophies that will take over a year to finish