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When Disney Dreamlight Valley was first revealed, many gamers didn’t pay much attention to the title. Clearly trying to capitalize on the life sim trend and taking clear inspiration from games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, many assumed the game would be an average title at best or shovelware at worst. However, it quickly became a surprise hit with Disney fans, as the charming characters and licensed music elevated a simple concept into a consistently enjoyable and relaxing game.

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While developer Gameloft has a lot of work to do leading up to the proper release of the game, especially when it comes to fixing bugs, the early access period has been promising. The core experience of interacting with Disney characters and building a customizable valley works well, and part of what makes the game so much fun is its numerous quality-of-life features. In reality, Disney Dreamlight Valley completely surpasses the beloved Animal Crossing: New Horizons in this area, as the game allows players to make much more progress in one go.

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How Disney Dreamlight Valley makes things easier for players

One of ‘s greatest assets Disney Dreamlight Valley is that players are not discouraged from playing at night. While some characters like Moana and Mickey Mouse go to sleep, this only lasts for a few hours instead of all night, allowing players to interact with them later in a long session. Furthermore, at night, players can do everything they can do in the morning, making things easier and more accessible than Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

One of the best examples of this is the shops, as players can access Scrooge McDuck’s shop and Goofy’s stalls at any time. This is a big difference from Able Sisters and Nook’s Cranny in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as the former is completely closed overnight and the latter only offers a dropbox for the sale of items. This is a huge plus for gamers who can only play at night because they can shop just like during the day. However, being able to do more things at night is far from the only quality of life available.

Planting multiple crops at once is something else Disney Dreamlight Valley feature that is extremely useful, as is the list of favorite items for residents. This helps to avoid annoying moments, such as searching for the owner of a lost item in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, because players know exactly which person to give certain items to. Using rare colors for fishing is another nice touch as it is much easier to read and understand than the shadowy figures used for Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ fish.

Fast travel is yet another great quality of life feature included in Disney Dreamlight Valley. although Animal Crossing: New Horizonssuper mario content added limited fast travel through tubes, it only allowed players to connect a few dots and forced them to make a Mariothemed item on their island, even if it didn’t fit the aesthetic. Disney Dreamlight Valley‘s resources don’t have the same problem, and the fact that there is one in every region makes exploring the map a breeze.

However, the best quality of life mechanic is the option to craft multiple items at once. Animal Crossing fans have been asking for this to be constantly added, but with some time Animal Crossing: New Horizons2.0 update that doesn’t offer it, it seems clear it will never make it to the most recent game. The fact that Disney Dreamlight Valley this quality of life option already present in early access is exciting and shows that some thought has gone into making the game as relaxing as possible. While quality of life features can still be added, such as the option to cook multiple meals at once, the game already feels a lot better than the competition in this area. As such, Nintendo should take some notes when making the next one Animal Crossing game.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is available in early access for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.

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