Available since September 6 on almost all platforms, I had the opportunity to try my hand at disney dreamlight valley, developed by Gameloft studios, accustomed to "freemium" type mobile games. VAT is no exception to the rule... or almost since, although announced as free (when it was released in 1.0), it goes through an early access phase requiring a few hard and stumbling coins, enough to delight this scrawny Scrooge ! After a dozen hours on the game, it's time to draw a first portrait facing this title that blows hot and cold.
The character editor is quite nice. Note that you can come there whenever you want!
The goal of disney dreamlight valley couldn't be simpler: you have to free the land of Oblivion, an evil that has hit the valley, causing most characters to disappear and affecting their memory in addition to blocking access to the different regions available on the map. Welcomed by a more zany Merlin than ever after having created his avatar via a relatively complete editor, we are entrusted with a long-term task which consists in bringing all the characters back to the map by clearing with magic the thorns which invade the areas and block entrances to the half-dozen biomes currently available.
Two areas will be available from the start: the Esplanade and the Prairie Tranquille. After completing a series of quests and chatting with a few well-known Disney characters, such as Mickey, Goofy, Scrooge, one will unlock access to Castle of Dreams, which acts as a hub to access other worlds . Our favorite enchanter explains to us that we must use the Dreamlight to channel our power and release a door of thorns. This famous Dreamlight is obtained by accomplishing various and varied objectives, from a simple change of outfit to the planting of 3 vegetables through the renovation of a house or a barn. We will regularly validate objectives to increase the counter, until reaching the amount requested to unlock the door of a kingdom in the Castle, or to remove the thorns blocking access to a new biome.
Each time you strengthen your friendship with a character, you earn a reward
However, this is not the only resource available, since we also have gold coins, which this dear Scrooge loves, who will not hesitate to extort you - let's not skimp on the term - every penny preciously garnered. This currency is obtained by harvesting and then selling resources, which will take up a significant part of your playing time! You can also get some coins by strengthening your friendship with each unlocked character. By talking to them, helping them or giving them gifts, you increase your level of friendship, which unlocks rewards at each new level. From level 2, you can specialize a character so that it accompanies you and helps you farm by providing additional resources. For the example, I asked Scrooge to help me mine. So I invite him to come with me and I go with my pickaxe to break rocks and other deposits in the hope of obtaining precious stones worth several hundred gold coins. At regular intervals, Scrooge will "double" the reward obtained, which allows me to obtain more resources while strengthening my friendship. Besides coins, one can get clothes, furniture, stickers and whatnot. However, don't expect a discount on Scrooge's shop. Even at max level, he won't do any friendly pricing. If it weren't so old, I think it would have already turned into duck breast.
In addition to the extraction of ore, we will also have to improvise farmer, gatherer or even fisherman! We'll go get our various sidekicks to help us with our tasks and maximize our gains, being careful not to use up our energy bar... If the latter is empty, you have no choice, you'll have to eat by mixing ingredients to obtain sometimes surprising dishes that will restore your energy or even "boost" your energy, allowing you to move faster. If you don't have to eat on you, you will have to take a short walk around your house to get your energy back up in a few seconds. Practice ! Speaking of house, a housing system is of course present. In addition to the furniture provided by completing quests and requests, you will be able to craft your own furniture, provided you have the necessary resources. The possibility of enlarging your living room and adding adjoining rooms is also possible... for a fee, as always.
VAT is indeed based on a very curious principle where you will have to pay absolutely everything. Renovating your house and buying furniture or other clothes makes sense... on the other hand, when Scrooge asks you to drop 1000 coins to reopen HIS shop, or pay 10 gold coins to install the cave of Ursula or renovating Donald's little boat, you will quickly see red. Especially since as you progress, the prices will explode, which means that our gameplay loop will lengthen considerably each time we bring a new character into the Kingdom.
This therefore results in a repetitive game in essence, and which does not hesitate to push the cursor further and further to artificially maintain the player. In itself, why not, it's not the only game to work in this way, and for the moment, no Pay-to-fast system is available, which puts players on an equal footing (anyway, no multiplayer is implemented to date). On the other hand, the game is in such a state that it seems advisable to invite you to wait a bit. I alternated between PC and Xbox Series to make this preview, and saw several curious things. Cloud backup is capricious for the moment, and you have to go a little forcefully by spamming the backup import to recover your backup from one platform to another. Although the save summary appears correctly, "paid" currency (obtained by opening chests or taking an Early Access deluxe pack) does not sync across platforms, so I end up with 1140 moonstones on one side, and 23 on the other...
In addition to this concern, I had 2 crashes on the Xbox, which also displays a much lower graphics rendering than what the PC version offers as it is. The PC game is also surprisingly stable, if we omit the many quest bugs (or lack of clear indication to accomplish an objective) that we encounter at various points in the progression, which forces the studio to send compensation so that we can overcome an objective... Other bugs are regularly reported on Discord, with an alarming distribution of concerns on Nintendo Switch. My spouse has also opted for this support and got a pack at 29.99€. At equal playing time (~12h), no less than 18 crashes took place. I will not dwell on the graphic quality of the title, with shadows that shame the support and a framerate that makes the yoyo.
Despite all these setbacks, disney dreamlight valley exudes a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that makes me go back there quite regularly to stroll, meet Wall-E in his garden, Mickey who sings (too much!!) or even arrange the Kingdom to my liking by optimizing my farm to have a maximum of resources in a short time and to be able to continue to progress by unlocking new doors to the Castle. If you are interested in the title, however, be aware that you are setting foot on a game that is clearly not finished. Yes, that's part of the purpose of Early Access, but it's rare that I arrive at a game in such a questionable state at pre-launch.
Disney Dreamlight Valley is available in early access on PC, Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch. The entry ticket is €29.99, unless you have a subscription to Microsoft's Game Pass, which provides immediate access to the title.
