Disney's Dreamlight Valley

[Rumpy]

Been playing this one for awhile now, so I think I've collected enough opinions on it to be able to post about it. So what is Dreamlight Valley? It's Disney's answer to the crafting RPG genre, and in this you'll interact with Disney characters from across different Disney properties. As a crafting RPG, it feels somewhat lacking. And by their very nature, crafting RPGs can be very grindy, but oh boy, does this ever feel grindy. In fact, you even have microtransactions. But those are thankfully limited to some of the more high-end crafting items such as furniture.

You'll do quests to unlock missions and characters and biomes, but because the world is small, it constantly feels like I'm grinding towards my next unlockable and always roaming around waiting for things things to repopulate. One of the more baffling decisions surrounding this game is connected to the day/night cycle. For some reason, the developers tied the cycle to your PC's clock, in real-time. If you load up the game in the evening, it will be evening in-game. Conversely if you load it up during the day, it will be daytime in-game. This has led to some frustrating issues for someone who only games in the evening, because you see, these characters need to sleep too, and I've often needed to talk to someone only to be told they're sleeping while trying to enter their houses. There's no way to change this behavior, and it can prevent players from making progress at certain times.

Quite frankly I'm torn about this game. I love interacting with the characters, which all have unique personalities, Donald Duck being my favourite so far, but the gameplay loop has some fairly big issues, not to mention it feels uninspired. I've played My Time at Portia, and that game felt a lot better at being a crafting RPG than this has. One fun thing I've noticed is that if you're using the photo mode, and you have characters nearby, they'll often notice you taking pictures, walk to where you are and pose for you.

[Baroquen]

I purchased this awhile back, and played it for a bit (Steam has me at 7.5 hrs). I enjoy these kind of crafting RPGs but tend to wander away from the after awhile. I agree that Portia does this style better, but the Disney characters can be entertaining. I've got nothing bad to really say about the game, still have it on my drive but haven't actually booted it up in ages. Definite apathy on this one.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, the characters are definitely fun, and I'd say easily the best part of it, which says something. If the Portia devs had handled this one and combined their gameplay with Disney characters, then we'd have a much better game. The thing I love about Portia is that the devs combined a sense of cartoon style with interesting gameplay and unique world and it would have fit right in with Disney. It also felt more like a cartoon world than Dreamlight Valley, where with DV you experience the framework much more.

[Baroquen]

Portia felt more like a little living village. Meanwhile, DDV feels like different areas (MMO-like maybe), connected together. Sort of like a giant board game. Still - it's not bad, but just different.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, you're right about Portia feeling like a village. They're two very different design philosophies. While Portia did have different biomes, it felt more like a living place, whereas you can feel the game more in Dreamlight Valley. It feels so weird to me that each biome is walled off in a square-like fashion with ramps going up or down to them. It ends up feeling not very organic, or that the game doesn't have a very good flow to it.

Have you played Portia's predecessor/prequel?

[Sudy]

They haven't implemented any multiplayer features yet, right? Also still have to pay for early access even though it will be free to play eventually. The cosmetics store is expensive even now, but it's been a while since I booted up. To me it was a total Animal Crossing knockoff, but that's fine if you're into Disney. It also feels pretty polished for early access and there's more of a story than in AC.

You can access your account on any platform (I bought it on Switch), but you have to pay for the client on each one until it goes F2P which annoyed me. It's on PC Gamepass though.

Palia is filling my desire for this genre right now and it's free in beta, but it feels a lot less complete.

You may want to check out Fae Farm which looks like it has greater co-op components, if that's your bag.

[Rumpy]

I wasn't even aware they were planning multiplayer. To be fair, the world itself feels small, so I'm not even sure how well that would play into it. And the thing is, even from a gameplay standpoint, the world itself feels rather bland.

[Sudy]

I don't know the specifics as I haven't been following development, but I suspect it will be in the vein of Animal Crossing multiplayer, in which you just visit another person's town. But maybe they'll surprise us.

The reason Fae Farm looks interesting to me (I've only seen one trailer), is that it looks like you can build a homestead with four other players in co-op, instead of just visiting others' homes/farms like in Animal Crossing and Palia.

[Baroquen]

Don't think I'd pay $40 for Fae Farm because there's very little chance I get my money's worth. This game type just doesn't grab me enough for that.

I have Portia and Sandrock, though I only played Portia, and not that much. Steam says I have 90 hrs in, but I believe a huge chunk of that was my kids playing. I might get back to that one someday. Might get back to DDV too. I forgot that it's still officially in Early Access. It plays well considering. No crashes, and certainly seems "complete", even as they add new content. That said, I read the latest patch notes recently and still haven't booted it up. So....

[Rumpy]

The reason Fae Farm looks interesting to me (I've only seen one trailer), is that it looks like you can build a homestead with four other players in co-op, instead of just visiting others' homes/farms like in Animal Crossing and Palia.

That sounds similiar to how Stardew Valley does it. It almost feels like if Dreamlight Valley would do multiplayer, it would have to have a separate home area where the players would build their homes. Otherwise, it could gets crowded quickly, and I've already heard complaints about crowding as you unlock more characters and their homes. And some of them have large footprints, such as Mini-Casita. It's weird how some homes are small for their size and some are larger, like Kristoff's home.

Speaking of homes, one aspect of the UI that really confuses me is the upgrades. I can't make sense of it. You can pay to have extra rooms made, and you have access to that early on via the elevator, but for some reason the extra rooms never show up. Do you have to upgrade the house via Scrooge first? That is something that is never properly explained and it's very un-intuitive and clunky. I've already upgraded via Scrooge at least twice. Ideally, I think they should combine the two systems into one, because it would make more sense for Scrooge to build onto it for you at your direction, and at least let you know how you can expand it properly.

[Rumpy]

The grind is real in this game. You feel it more in this than other games of its type, as the missions don't vary much, if at all. The requirements on how much of the variety of materials just increases while your tools don't improve to help you out, or the amount of resources available for picking in the biomes is low. This is all exacerbated by the fact that the areas are small. For example, for one friendship quest, it was requested I pick 8 of a specific flower, which I thought would be easy. But, it took me all night of repeatedly scouring the area where they grow, which was a pain. Seriously, the design of this game baffles me at times.

[EzeKieL]

All I do in this game is tend to a farm of 300 plants which is our money engine. I say 'our' because I make the money and my 5yo daughter spends it all and decorates her house .

We sometimes do quests but very rarely tbh. We did unlock every world in the castle and judging from the empty spots there they have a lot of DLC/expansions on the way.

I think the game is ok for Disney fans, if you're not a fan it's quite meh.

[Rumpy]

I would consider myself a so-so fan. Never been to their parks and I'm not subbed to Disney+, but I do enjoy whatever comes my way.

[Rumpy]

Hmmm, interesting. I think I've experienced a mission flow problem. Each biome is divided into two halves, and the other halves all can only be accessed when you get upgraded tools to clear off the obstacles blocking them. Generally, I've not had an issue with a mission requiring specific items, until this one mission. There's a mission in the Sunlit Plateau that requires me to acquire Pink Houseleeks. It's said that only 3 or 4 grow at a time. I've scoured the entire part of the biome that's accessible to me every day for the past week, with no such luck. Looking out across to the inaccessible area, I think I see what I need. I don't know if it's just my luck that they've grown on the other side, but I've never come across a mission that required items that weren't already accessible to me in one way. If it's the case that those particular flowers only grow on the other side, then that particular mission shouldn't have been given until I was ready for it. Or at least the parameters regarding those particular flowers should be changed.

[Rumpy]

So, I've completed the main story and maxed out every character available at this point. I feel there really isn't much to this game. Just mostly grind. The rewards that you get for completing some of the missions are generally disappointing, particularly if you're playing as a male. You really see the kind of demographic they're going for, but come on, throw a guy a bone? Getting dresses as a reward for a long quest chain is rather disheartening when missions require so much grinding. It never feels rewarding enough, even when you complete the main story, as the game never makes you feel like you've accomplished anything. The game world ends up feeling quite empty.

There's an expansion coming out where they'll introduce a new land, but I don't think I'll bother with it.