Disney Dreamlight Valley, the tried and tested of the new life simulator in Disney sauce
Disney Dreamlight Valley
All dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. Maybe it's true, maybe not: in any case we didn't say it, but the famous Walt Disney; therefore, even if only for his legacy to humanity, the aphorism deserves to be taken into consideration. The maxim is also a bit of the philosophy behind the new, ambitious Disney-themed project, a video game developed and published by Gameloft known as Disney Dreamlight Valley.Basically, you've (almost) come to realize that. that we, among others, have been hoping for for a long time: a real life simulator in the style of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, but completely focused on Disney and Pixar worlds, characters and situations. An ambitious step forward, compared to the first two Disney Magical Worlds, which in any case had been appreciated above all by the little ones: now, in fact, the magic of the Mickey Mouse House could seriously fascinate the rest of the public, proposing a style of play that already in the past it has proved effective in other productions. By proposing it, it must be said, also on all consoles in circulation and on PC, with an all-encompassing diffusion.
In the Disney Dreamlight Valley trial we explain what this game consists of, as well as how much it has drawn heavily from titles similar and to what extent it has tried to innovate. If you've never been to Disneyland, this is sure to be the right opportunity for you.
The plot: let's save the Dreamlight Valley
The main area of Disney Dreamlight Valley ... once you have saved it from oblivion The routine of everyday life, you know, it can be very overwhelming. It certainly is for the protagonist of Disney Dreamlight Valley, who at a certain point decides to escape from the city, holing up in the surrounding countryside, where he remembers being so happy as a child, when his imagination was enough to make distant journeys. But after a while - here the story begins - a fantastic journey really begins, because he dozes off waking up in the Dreamlight Valley, an enchanted world dominated by the famous Disney castle and inhabited by the most famous characters of various feature films and television series, good or bad. they are.Or rather, this was the Dreamlight Valley before the arrival of the hero of the moment, because in reality there is not much left to remember the glories of the past. After putting together their avatar choosing from a number of options (not too convincing for the moment), the player finds himself in a dark world, infested with thorny vines, with the Wizard Merlin trying to keep them at bay. It is precisely the famous character of "The sword in the stone" to explain what little he remembers about what happened to his land. At one point, Oblivion took over living beings, homes and places; the Disney characters have lost their memory (Merlin himself does not remember exactly the details of the story); the ruler of Dreamlight Valley finally disappeared into thin air. What to do?
Obviously the Disney Dreamlight Valley protagonist (that is us) is magical, so he can eliminate the evil that haunts the world simply by touching it, without any real reason. Thus began the adventure to restore the various areas of the game world (limited for now, but in the future they will be expanded), to bring the characters back to their homes and in general to defeat the evil that infected the Disney kingdom.
The main adventure is organized according to main missions (assigned by Merlin) and secondary (related to the equally secondary characters of the Dreamlight Valley). The one and the other constitute the progression system, but in general the title wants to immediately leave the player the possibility to live the experience he prefers, according to a balanced mix between sandbox and relaxing life simulator.
Animal Crossing with Disney characters
The oblivion of Disney Dreamlight Valley does not distinguish between good and bad: everyone will be helped Disney Dreamlight Valley is for the moment an early access title: it means that the full version will be released on consoles and PC only next year. Notwithstanding that the basic structure should not change too much, to date everything seemed to us an Animal Crossing with Disney characters. And be careful, because this is absolutely not a bad thing considering how much the Nintendo series has always been appreciated. Gameloft has done nothing but study it carefully, selecting certain mechanics and objects and then adapting everything to your life simulator, which still retains original sandbox aspects.Some examples will better clarify what the gameplay consists of. Apart from the main adventure, which, however, at some point can be ignored to devote yourself to something else, Disney Dreamlight Valley does not necessarily have objectives. The player can furnish his house as he wishes, transforming it from a shack to a palace; he can restore Uncle Scrooge's shop to buy new items and sell what he no longer needs (earning coins); she can take care of his garden, equipped with a hoe and watering can; to fish; pick fruit; pick rocks; uprooting trunks. The heart of the experience lies in the interaction with the game world. Each action, among other things, is never an end in itself, because it allows you to complete permanent and wide-ranging objectives (for example helping a certain number of characters) thus earning points and leveling up.
Merlin will lead Disney Dreamlight Valley players along the main adventure New levels unlock new possibilities in Dreamlight Valley, guaranteeing a constant virtuous circle: previously absent characters arrive, old abandoned businesses reopen their doors (such as Goofy's stall or Remi's restaurant, the Ratatouille mouse), new items become available for purchase. The city comes to life again and in the meantime access to other Disney kingdoms is beginning to be unlocked (such as those of the Lion King, Frozen, Oceania).
Not all mechanics seem perfectly sensible. For example, picking or removing evil vines requires energy, which the hero needs to either eat or rest in the house. But why consume resources, when it is literally possible to enter your home and sit down on the sofa for a moment to fully recover? Even the game menus for the moment are a bit confusing: they would like to show newcomers all the good things available (and there really is), but it's easy to get lost between one item and another when you are bombed in a few hours of a thousand possibilities.
One of the clearest menus in Disney Dreamlight Valley The truth is that the balance of similar video games can only be truly investigated in the long run, and above all when the product is complete. For now, Disney Dreamlight Valley does not present truly original elements: it remains a life simulator accessible to all, intriguing even for adults, which however tries to attract using well-known (or very recent) faces from the world of Disney and Pixar. In the long run it will still need constant support and, above all, we need to understand how much the progression in the main story will affect the possibilities related to the gameplay. For now, the story, in addition to being banal, risks limiting the freedom of newcomers.
Disney Dreamlight Valley already seems to be a promising evolution compared to the two Disney Magical Worlds in terms of content and depth of the offer . Basically, however, it remains a convinced imitation of famous series such as Animal Crossing (from here the shots are really evident) and Stardew Valley, with the addition of a main plot to act as a leitmotif to the appearance of the various Disney and Pixar characters. A title of this type can work very well without too many problems, especially by receiving constant support from Gameloft. Some aspects of the gameplay for now do not fully convince: the story itself seems a bit too intrusive, the freedom granted to the player limited, the game environments with little space available. However, these aspects can be easily improved by 2023, and for many players they may not even be a problem at all. We will continue to watch over Disney Dreamlight Valley, a product that certainly deserves the attention of the public and critics.
