Disney Dreamlight Valley seems to be one of the newest, and biggest slow-paced life simulation games.

The game was released on early access in early September, and still has secrets waiting to be uncovered. Many Disney fans have already purchased the game and are loving all it has to offer.

“There’s enough content here already to give a good sense of what’s to come,” Gamesradar said in their YouTube video, ‘Disney Dreamlight Valley Early Access Review’ Gamesradar continued, “and a foundation to build something rather special.”

Disney Dreamlight Valley originally released a trailer on YouTube on April 27th, 2022 and has sparked major interest, especially since its early access release on Sept. 6th, 2022. It has already had more than 1 million downloads 10 days after release, and the numbers keep rising to this day, almost a month after its release. 

“There is so much to do in this game, but it rarely ever deters you on how you want to do things yourself,” Paste Magazine said in their recent review of the game.

In the beginning, there is a customization page, where everybody’s free to customize their character however they want, much like the game, The Sims 4. The game allows a person to choose between male and female, along with different body types, hairstyles and facial features. And once customizing the character is done, the game truly begins. Now, the game starts off much like how the game Stardew Valley starts out. The character lived in the big city, before deciding to have a better, less stressful life, and move to the countryside in an old family home. But, unlike Stardew Valley, where the game focuses on beginning to repair the town, this game ventures off to an old Disney-themed playground and takes a long nap. This is where the game begins as a dream, and the entire game switches to a new world, full of thorns. And, this is also where the first encounter with the first Disney character of the game, Merlin from the ‘Sword in the Stone’ Disney film, which was released in 1963.

After helping Merlin unlock the gate, and enter the Valley, everybody gets a grasp of the story the game is trying to tell. Essentially, before the dream, the Valley was once a happy vibrant place until ‘The Forgetting’ began. The ‘Night Thorns’ appeared and caused lots of iconic Disney characters to forget everything, even memories about their own lives. And, after clearing the Valley of Night Thorns, the Valley is later renamed the Plaza. The next character to encounter is the iconic Disney character, Mickey Mouse. 

After clearing the night thorns, and helping Mickey remember who he was, he helps the character collect Dreamlight, which is one of the many money currencies in the game. Dreamlight helps unlock new parts of the map, along with other Disney universes inside the iconic Disney castle, which is unlocked after using 2,000 dreamlight.

This is the next part of the game, where the character can go to different worlds, also known as different Disney movie worlds, like to the Gusteau’s Restaurant from Ratatouille to get Remy, or going to an Earth full of trash and dirt to get Walle. There are currently only four worlds to explore, which are the Ratatouille world, Moana’s world, Walle’s world and Frozen’s world.

“I know this is a sponsored video, but all of my emotions and excitement are 100 percent real,” Laurenzside said in her playthrough of Disney Dreamlight Valley, which she was sponsored to play.

“Let’s get us a Walle!” Laurenzside declared when choosing her first world to explore.

Much like Stardew Valley, after saving up enough dreamlight, a new area can be unlocked; Peaceful Meadow. And with Peaceful Meadow, a new house and iconic character unlocks with it; Goofy. 

After unlocking more to the world, the game begins to seem like Animal Crossing New Horizons. More people are gained into the plaza and the plaza can become decorated anyway the player likes. And, a house is provided to the main character as well, and can be customized to anyone’s liking, as long as the furniture they want is there.

Speaking of furniture, much like Nook’s Cranny in Animal Crossing New Horizons- a store where furniture can be bought- along with clothing, exists. They are only available if they’ve been purchased before, or have been crafted before. The famous Scrooge McDuck, runs this store, and also helps place, build and upgrade houses and stores.

Much like Scrooge McDuck, everything has a price tag. So, how can these items be bought exactly? Dreamlight does not buy physical items, so a firm currency is invented, Starcoins. 

Starcoins can be earned in chests laid around the map, when getting rid of night thorns, or if items are sold in Goofy’s stall, which has one stall per area other than the Plaza, which is reserved for Scrooge’s shop.

In Goofy’s shop, any crops in the general area where the shop is, can be bought. For example, in Peaceful Meadow, Goofy sells carrots and lettuce at his shop, while down at the Dazzle Beach shop, Goofy sells sugar cane and bananas. Other items can also be sold. Starcoins can be earned by selling some items, like fruits on the trees and bushes, fish and food from a recipe, which can be obtained by cooking.

Cooking is the biggest thing where Starcoins are earned, and gain friendship status with others. After unlocking Remy’s world, and bringing him to the Valley, Remy’s restaurant can be unlocked. This means customers can be brought in and allows anything to be cooked. But, the biggest restriction being only items in the recipe list can be cooked. A way people are earning Starcoins fast is by cooking Souffles, which consist of four ingredients that cost roughly 820 coins to make, and then can be sold at Goofy’s stall for 1.2 thousand coins, earning the player roughly 400 extra coins. “It will make this method faster and you’ll make more profit quickly.” Shamsuddin from NintendoSmash said. “If you sell 20 Souffles to Goofy, you’ll be making a profit of 8.2 thousand Star Coins. It is one of the best methods to get more Star Coins quickly… and you can easily make 100,000 Star Coins in no time.”

Cooking not only helps earn more coins, or level up friendships, it is also a huge section in earning more dreamlight for tasks. More dreamlight, means more to unlock.

Along with Peaceful Meadow, there are eight total areas to be unlocked, all with different houses and characters to unlock. For example, Dazzle Beach is the next area the game wants to unlock. Dazzle Beach has the iconic Disney villain, Ursula, along with Donald Ducks’ houseboat, but no Donald, for now.

After helping with friendships, more events are unlocked too, which in turn means adding more friends to the valley.

Overall, this game has many different aspects, some already deeply discovered, and some still awaiting to be discovered. “We’re overjoyed to see you discover what is means to #LiveMagically,” DDV said on their Twitter account. “This is just the beginning!”