Disney Dreamlight Valley

Disney Dreamlight Valley takes place in the titular "Dreamlight Valley", a magical valley with various biomes populated by Disney and Pixar characters. The game features nonlinear gameplay similar to Nintendo's Animal Crossing games where players take control of a customizable human player character living in the valley. The valley is synced to real time based on the time set on the player's console or computer.

The player can explore the valley to gather resources and use their magic to clear away "Night Thorns", unwanted plants with dark magic that spawn throughout the valley. Foods can be cooked into various meals at a cooking station such as an oven or a campfire, while other resources can be crafted into materials or furniture at a crafting station. The player can eat food to replenish energy, which is required to use magic-imbued tools including a pickaxe, a shovel, a fishing rod, and a watering can; meals can replenish greater amounts of energy than foods grown, harvested, or purchased in the valley, and can make the player "well fed", which gives them a movement speed boost, increased luck at getting resource bonuses, and the ability to sprint across the valley faster by gliding on magic (albeit at an energy cost). Furniture and certain objects can be placed and rearranged in the valley or inside the player's house, and the player can also move and rotate buildings in the valley to their liking. The player can also change their outfit and appearance at any time, clothing can be customized further by the player with a clothes and furniture designer option called "Touch of Magic". Unlike in the Animal Crossing games, the player's tools, clothing, and furniture do not take up space in their inventory; tools are selected using an option wheel and never break from use, while the inventory screen contains separate "wardrobe" and "furniture" options for clothing and furniture respectively.

The player can earn a currency called "Star Coins" during gameplay, usually by selling most items in their inventory to Goofy at various stalls run by him throughout the valley. Star Coins can be spent on crops and seeds sold by Goofy at his stalls, materials sold by Kristoff at his stall, certain foods that are only available at Remy's restaurant, or on clothes and furniture sold by Scrooge McDuck at his store. They can also be spent on new buildings or building upgrades (all handled in-universe by Scrooge's "McDuck Construction" company) that provide additional benefits, such as more items available at Goofy's stalls or more space in the player's house, or on wells strewn throughout the valley that allows the player to fast travel to different biomes.

The player can interact with and befriend the villagers, including heroes and villains. The player can build up a "friendship level" with that villager by having a daily discussion with them, giving them gifts, completing quests they assign the player, and (except for characters who can only swim in the valley's waters) hanging out with them and doing activities, including gardening, mining, digging, harvesting, and fishing; doing specific activities with a land-based villager, depending on the role the player assigns the villager at friendship level two, will earn the player more resources related to that activity. Raising a friendship level (up to level ten) with a villager will give the player rewards including Star Coins, exclusive furniture and clothes, and exclusive motifs for "Touch of Magic", as well as increased resources from hanging out with them and new quests.

The game follows the player as they decide to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of the city and return to their old rural home and visit the backyard play area they used to enjoy when they were younger. Leaving their backpack against the well, they lie down on the picnic blanket and fall asleep as they begin to remember and enter into a dream world. As the story progresses, players may get a strange sense of déjà vu.

Upon appearing in the titular Dreamlight Valley, the player is met by Merlin, who explains that Dreamlight Valley used to be full of Disney and Pixar characters co-existing peacefully in harmony, but that all changed with the disappearance of their beloved ruler, at which point, Night Thorns began growing around the valley, leading to "The Forgetting", where while many characters fled to their home realms for protection, others stayed, but the Night Thorns caused them to lose their memories, and the valley fell into disrepair as the Night Thorns overran it. The player decides to help restore the valley and get rid of the Night Thorns.

To start, the player is able to use their own magic, known as "Dreamlight" to clear away the Giant Night Thorns blocking access to the house that looks like their own from back in reality. After recovering a memory hidden in the Night Thorns inside, the player and Merlin decide to investigate the Dream Castle, only to find the entrance blocked by Giant Night Thorns. After performing some activities around the village and recovering the Royal Tools, including a fishing rod, shovel, watering can, and a pickaxe, which also breaks the eternal night spell over the valley, along with meeting some of the other villagers who stayed, including Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck, and Goofy, the player is able to clear away the Giant Night Thorns and regain access to the Dream Castle. Inside, doorways to various realms where the other villagers had fled when The Forgetting came are found, but they all have been sealed by Night Thorns. The player will need to collect more Dreamlight to unlock the doors to visit the realms, help the characters inside with their problems, and once accomplished, be able to bring them back to the Dreamlight Valley to help restore it. Along the way, they help Scrooge and Goofy reopen their businesses, help Remy reopen his restaurant for the characters to dine at, fix up the garden for WALL·E to grow crops in, repair a canoe for Moana to catch fish with, and provide housing for many of the characters returning to Dreamlight Valley through Scrooge's personal "McDuck Construction Company". The player also opens up other regions of the valley blocked by Giant Night Thorns, allowing further exploration, meeting other characters who stayed in the valley, and helping them as well, such as Kristoff, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Ariel, Ursula, Scar, and Mother Gothel.

However, as they restore the Pillars that are found in each biome, they are told by some of the characters that The Forgetting was behind what happened. After meeting Mother Gothel and undoing the spell that trapped many villagers in their homes in the process of freeing her from the same spell, the player character learns they are the former ruler of Dreamlight Valley, having left when they were younger and thus causing the Valley to fall into such disrepair before they returned now.

Upon meeting Cinderella's Fairy Godmother in the Forgotten Lands biome, as the player helps her, just as they are about to restore the Pillar in that biome, The Forgotten appears and steals the Orb, revealing themselves to be the player character's inner child corrupted by negative emotions due to events in the past that drove them into a deep depression and leave the Valley. The Forgotten intends to use the Orb in a spell that could very well destroy the very fabric of the universe. Only when the player is able to stop it and talk to The Forgotten are they able to convince The Forgotten to reform and atone for their actions, thus allowing The Forgotten to become a resident of the Valley as well.

While The Forgotten may have been forgiven for their actions and returned to the Valley to begin their repentance, there are still more threats out there that the player will need to deal with in due time, as the credits hint that there are more areas beyond the Valley and a new threat in Jafar.

Disney Dreamlight Valley features several Disney and Pixar characters who reside in the valley as "villagers".[7]

Several other characters have been announced to be added in later updates:

Additionally, Pua from Moana appears as an unlockable companion (pet) for the player.

Disney Dreamlight Valley was developed by Gameloft Montreal to recreate a life simulation adventure game. Manea Castet, Game Manager of Disney Dreamlight Valley at Gameloft Montreal explained, "Our development team is a big family of Disney and Pixar fans and have poured all of our passion into the development of Disney Dreamlight Valley, especially in the way we depict characters and their story arcs," and continued, "We can't wait for fans to join the Early Access this summer and help us bring this new ever-evolving Disney and Pixar-inspired world to our excited community."[10]

Announced in June 2022, the game was released in early access for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on September 6, 2022,[3] while the macOS version released in early access on December 6, 2022, alongside the game's second content update.[4][6] On August 30, 2023, Gameloft announced that a physical release for the console versions featuring exclusive content and physical extras, titled the Cozy Edition, will be released on October 27, 2023, with the Xbox, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 versions' physical releases containing a disc, and the Switch version's physical release being a code-in-a-box release (containing a printed code instead of a Switch Game Card in the box) due to platform limitations.[11]

• Official website
• Disney Dreamlight Valley at IMDb