Disney Dreamlight Valley Is A Free-To-Play Life-Sim That's Coming To Switch In 2023

Free-2-Play games again ?? 😩
PASS !!

I'm glad to see more modern stuff, if nothing else. I feel like Disney coasts along on re-using their old 'classics' too often in stuff like this

Wait, this isn’t Disney Life!

(This game looks like it plays like The Sims.)

Wait for the parent backlash about in game transactions!

Will the new soft swirl Space Mountain be in this?

Could be fun. Saw Atlantis in the trailer, if they include more lesser marketed Disney stuff I might check it out. Personally speaking, I would love to see old, more obscure characters like Pecos Bill, Ichabod Crane, Johnny Appleseed, Ferdinand the bull, Lambert the sheepish lion, anyone from the Silly symphonies, Brer Rabbit (like thats ever gonna happen) The reluctant dragon... They have a wast selection of characters and movies, I don't just want to see the most popular ones or the new ones.

My favorite Disney movies are:
Favorite: Pollyanna
Favorite live action: Pollyanna
Favorite animated feuture length movie: Hunchback of Notre dame
Favorite shorts: Goofy in motor mania, Country cousin, Little Hiawatha, The three little pigs, All in a nutshell

Nope. Not supporting Disney. They're nasty. (Although I wouldn't mind a Black Cauldron game.)

It looks interesting, but nothing turns me off of a game more than the term, "free-to-play," well, except for maybe the word, "roguelike."

I absolutely love the look of this. If it was a full priced release I'd happily buy it based on the trailer alone. But "Free to Play" has me nervous. I used to play "Magic Kingdoms" a lot and its very nicely made and fun to play but over time, the new content added (especially the time exclusive stuff) became less and less possible to get for free. I played it every day so didn't mind dropping a fiver every month or so to get the last few things I needed before the time ran out, but eventually it got to the point where it seemed more like £30-50 to realistically get everything each time they dropped a new theme/character set, and I had to dip out, because I have a "gotta unlock em all" mindset and having characters or items that I had missed drove me mad, and I could feel the urge to just buy them every time the opportunity came up.

Umm, sold much?

@Grail_Quest Black Cauldron is my favourite traditional Disney movie, and Eilonwy is the best Princess!

@Tobiaku Is the three little pigs not the one with the insane Jewish stereotyping?

@nessisonett In the 1930s version, yes. The animation was replaced in the late 40s reissue (they completely reshot the entire thing as a "remaster" of sorts on higher quality film, and swapped out the offending cells in the peddler scene. And the audio of the accent was replaced in a further revision shortly after that. So any versions shown on tv or on vhs in the 80s/90s etc had the antisemitic tropes removed long before - I guess Jewish stereotypes weren't deemed as "funny" after WWII happened.

@samuelvictor I’d assume that Walt would realise after the war that it was more profitable to keep his views rather less obvious.

@nessisonett Haha I just edited my comment before I saw your reply, to give more context and made the same point about after WWII the public wouldn't have let that slide so much. But rest assured that pretty much everyone alive who has watched that short has not seen the offensive version, unless they have sought it out through a clickbaity/historical context YouTube video which would have been an unofficial rip from a vintage 1930s film reel. Its not existed since the 40s and that version was never shown on television or home video to my knowledge.

@samuelvictor Nowadays there’d be people complaining about censorship if that happened!

I'd like to see more of the game, but I'm glad someone at Disney is letting someone else try and make an engrossing experience with their properties. They have enough content to make a strong game with the right mind behind it; Kingdom Hearts is a good example.

But always so protective of their brand, Disney is also hesitant to let people use anything but their most well-known or lucrative franchises. Like someone else mentioned, they had a bit of Atlantis there in the teaser, so maybe if they tapped those lesser known titles, I'd be even more interested.

@nessisonett As @samuelvictor explained, yes the wolf did dress up as jewish peddler in the original uncensored version. Its still a fun short and the song is great. @samuelvictor, the European Walt Disney treasures DVD Silly symphonies uses the original costume but the new "working through college" audio. Atleast the one I own does. If I remember correctly, I think Leonard Maltin also showed the original version in introduction to the short on the American set also.

And @Nessisonett, its unlikely Walt himself had anything against jews if thats what you mean by his views, the Sherman brothers where jewish and has done great work for Disney

Free to play! I think we all know that is bending the truth nowadays.

It's a good idea and potentially very enjoyable. Free to play though, so.......

I hope parents concerned over there being an endless money sink notice Disney Magical World 2 on Switch, which I’ve heard to be a very serviceable Disney-fantasy life sim.

@nessisonett "These days you get arrested and thrown in jail if you say you're English, don't you?" Cab driver to Stewart Lee 😂

@Tobiaku Oh wow I didn't know that, thats interesting. I wonder why or how, when it was replaced in the 40s, they decided to go back and remaster it again later on. Maybe for historical context. Its certainly not the version shown on tv when I was little, nor on the vhs I had. Thanks for clarifying though, I stand corrected!

@Kyloctopus Magical World 2 is great! This certainly looks similar from the trailer, though as you've said, parents not wanting spending getting out of hand would be better off with the "one price gets all" game.

It bothers me that Disney seems to be leaning more into "free to play". I'd have totally bought Disney Speedstorm at full price, as it is, I'm purposefully going to avoid it so I don't get sucked into spending more money. The trailer for this one got me interested though, as I like Magical World 2 so much.

@AlanaHagues This is the second recent Disney game that's free to play. (Speedstorm, the Disney kart racer coming this summer, is the other free2play.) It looks like a worrying sign that game devs, or Disney IP gatekeepers, are giving up on regular retail game experiences for the micro-transaction-addiction structure. I mean, is this the new iteration of Disney Magical World (3ds)/Disneyland Adventures(Xbox)? If it is, oof!

@samuelvictor Why it was edited in the 40s, probably because Walt felt it was in poor taste after WW2. They also cut that one black character from Fantasia because Walt felt she could be offensive decades before the general public would have agreed with him.

How they did it, someone drew the wolf with glasses and they made a new version of that scene. Fun fact, there is also another version of the movie where the wolf is dressed as a nazi Disney used as a propoganda short during WW2.

Edit: Sorry I missunderstood the question. The reason they did that other version much later, is because Disney felt Walt's censored version was not censored enough. My guess is you have the one with the postman outfit and college audio? I belive there also are atleast one version with the segment all gone. As for why they did the version I have, most likely because the Walt Disney treasures lineup is more geared toward adult Disney fans.

I do like some of Gameloft games so I will probably check this one out

I wasn't sold until they showed the Atlantis: The Lost Empire stuff.

If Elisa Maza, Tiana and Mulan are in it…I will be there with bells on. If not, I’ll wait on reviews.

I have lots of words, but all I'm going to say is I hope 2023 comes faster.

@Tobiaku I've absolutely no problem with them redrawing characters to avoid offence as times and opinions change, certainly for the versions that will be widely shared and shown to children. And I think you are right that in some cases Walt showed an awareness of these things even before the general public attitudes changed.

I also think that overall, in a historical and preservation context, its important to not sugar coat old media or art. Just because something is offensive now doesn't mean it was deemed offensive by general public consensus at the time, and we can learn a great deal from it. Disney get a LOT of flack for things from the 30s and 40s but I'd defy anyone to find a major media company in America at the time who weren't doing the same, it was simply the norm, sadly. Times and attitudes (thankfully) evolve. As you said, the Treasures line is mostly for adult collectors interested in animation history. The reason most get concerned is if Disney content is being repeatedly shown to small children as a replacement babysitter of sorts I'm sure when making films in the 1940s they weren't thinking that children would have 24/7 access to the same film 80 years later.

Perspectives on something like Song of the South (which someone mentioned above) massively change over time. In a way, it was very progressive to make a big budget film with a black lead character as a hero to the white children, and Walt had a love for the traditional folklore tales and wanted to share them with a wider audience, at a time when the lead actor was not even allowed to attend his own premiere or pick up awards at award shows due to segregation. To look back on it now and say he was a racist for making it is kind of missing the context, though there were definitely mis-steps in the execution, which I believe were even pointed out back then by NAACP. But at the same time, nowadays, just having the film readily available on Disney+ for kids to stream repeatedly 80 years after it was made would be unwise as times have (rightly) changed. Context is always important, I feel.

@Tobiaku (continued) Sunflower in Fantastia of course needed replacing (and imo should never have been included, even at the time) but its always bugged me that they never did it properly by redrawing her - different versions either cut her out (which makes everything go out of sync with the music), zoom in to crop her out, making the quality look weird and the line work go thick, or just add some repeated footage from previous shots. For such a beautiful film as Fantastia, the fact they never went back and redrew the scenes is very strange. It was regularly brought up at shareholder meetings and for many years the official word was that the character "never existed" and they were rumours, which was obviously untrue. Very strange.

I don't expect the Nintendolife staff want a big long conversation about the pros and cons of Disney as a company in their comments section, it always leads to a flame war. And in any case, I'm at least slightly biased because I have worked on and off for various Disney subsidiaries and affiliates for 20+ years, and also am just a fan of many Disney properties. I'm very aware of their missteps and I speak out (internally) if I ever feel something is wrong or misguided, or conflicts with my values, as is bound to happen with any major corporation trying to do worldwide business for as wide an audience as possible. But I can say that there are several other major film companies I have quit and refused to ever work with again on severe moral grounds (even asking for my name to be removed from credits and donating my fees to charity so I couldn't profit in any way), and Disney have never brought me close to that point, and have always been very open to constructive criticism internally, from my limited experience, and I do often see positive progress in areas over time.

@samuelvictor YES! Thank you! My favorite Disney traditional animated feature as well. Also, Eilonwy is awesome! She was also awesome in the books the movie is drawn from. Wish there was more Black Cauldron merchandise out there.

@Mando44646 - Hell, they barely even do that often. Only games I saw after Infinity tanked was KH and the LK/Aladdin/JB Collection re-released twice.

@samuelvictor Walt made family movies, not kids movies. I agree NL probably don't want a long conversation about Disney that leads to flamewars, but just to explain my personal stance I'm just a huge Disney buff, and someone who likes old movies in general. Big fan of Walt's live action movies. I wish they would release the movies uncensored and with better picture quality than most of their classic animation recived in HD. I mentioned Brer Rabbit from SotS I actually think its a cute movie, I like the cartoon segments Atleast give people the chance to either buy it uncensored or censored so people can choose.

@Grail_Quest Totally! I love the books. I actually looked into if my own production company could get the rights to make a series of live-action films based upon them, but Disney still had the rights at the time.

Around 2019 I was told there was talk internally of them starting preliminary development of a possible tv series or number of films based on the books, theres definitely people within Disney who want that to happen. Sadly I know first-hand that the unexpectantly long fall out of Covid has delayed a great many projects, cancelled others, and made companies less able/willing to take financial risks. I've not heard anything since 2019 about Prydain based projects but I'd assume Disney still holds the rights. I'm hopeful they will eventually use them.

As for merch, yeah me too! There's hardly any, though I think I own it all. At least they still semi-regularly put out Black Cauldron enamel Pin badges. I've got quite the collection! Disneyland Paris does a Welsh festival for 3 days each year, the parks & village get filled with thousands of Welsh tourists, and they add Welsh language sections to some events, put on Welsh themed entertainment, dress Mickey and Minnie in traditional costume etc. Its always struck me as a wasted opportunity that even during these times there is literally no Black Cauldron merchandise available. It would sell like crazy.

@Tobiaku The animated sections of Sots were included as shorts on various releases I believe? I certainly remember them being shown on television a lot and included in some VHS compilations. At shareholder meetings the film always comes up because its always threatening to enter public domain - at which point it would likely start appearing for sale everywhere whether Disney want it to or not. The argument is always that Disney should release it before that happens so they can control the marketing and presentation of it, and make some cash (instead of letting others profit as they would if Disney let the copyright expire).

Originally it was going to be in PD after 75 years, which would have been last year, so talks were feverish behind closed doors as to what to do - seemed most likely it was going to get a Treasures style limited release that had an introduction by someone, explaining context and that it's not intended for children nowadays, I remember Whoopi Goldberg was suggested at one point though nowadays I think she has been a bit too controversially outspoken on certain issues for that to work.

However, if I remember correctly, the expiration date of copyright in this case has been extended to 95 years, which means we'll have this debate again around 2040. Goodness knows what the media landscape will be by then.

Again, probably beyond the scope of this comments section, but its interesting its taken until now for Splash Mountain to be redesigned, given its based on a movie no-one's allowed to watch in the country the parks are in. I love the ride, I'm an animatronics nerd, and I think the Brer rabbit character is cute. But I also think a Princess and the Frog refresh is a great idea and will fit well in the surrounding areas of both US parks. I don't think its officially announced yet, but it looks like the redesign will be delayed, so Brer Rabbit is still there for the short term future, at least. As far as I know, the Tokyo Splash Mountain will remain unchanged.

Looks like a generic mobile game tbh

@samuelvictor I know the songs atleast are on Sing along VHS's. The movie was released on laserdisc in Japan. I have two unofficial blu rays of it from different film reels. I belive its public domain already in Japan atleast. Would LOVE to see them do a Treasure style release of it! I would be willing to pay up to 1000$ USD for such a official release on BD with good picture quality! Except for Remus (he is great) the live action segments are a bit weak in my opinion, but the cartoon parts are really fun.

Did not know Goldberg had been suggested but I remember she said she liked the movie on a Disney conference thing. They could probably get Leonard Maltin again, after all he did the Treasures lineup and TCM

@Tobiaku From what I heard at least, the feeling seems to be that if they do decide to put out a Blu-Ray or whatever, they would have a person of colour as the "context talk" at the beginning. I think that's sensible.

I agree that the majority of the live action stuff in the film is slow, but much of the animation is brilliant, and of course James Baskett did a wonderful (Oscar winning!) job.

And yes I should have specified that the 95 year extension is only in North America, other countries have their own laws.

Thinking about it now, that may be the reason that Splash Mountain has still retained the characters. Technically Mickey Mouse (and other characters) should have entered public domain. But the fact that Disney can prove that they are universally recognised as trademarks of the company means they can prevent unofficial merchandise using the characters, as it could reasonably be mistaken for Disney product. So perhaps by having the Song of the South characters still prominently appearing in Disney theme parks and occasionally as guests in shows and on compilations, they can prevent (in America at least) the film being able to be resold unofficially when its copyright expires. I'd not considered that til now.

@samuelvictor Wow! Did not know that about the Welsh festival in Disney Paris. You're right, that would be the PERFECT time to celebrate Cauldron, what with it's ties to welsh mythology and the Mabinogion. I wish I could have visited Disney Tokyo when they had the Black Cauldron ride.

I've seen some of the pins you mentioned. They are awesome. I've only been able to find a Dallben one via pin trading at the parks. I DO have some merch, like the three plush (Gurgi, Doli, and Hen Wen), the Gurgi Happy Meal toy, a copy of the VHS release and two art commissions of Taran and the Horned King from Disney MGM Studios. I need to get the Funko Pop releases. There is also this really cool Fantasmic light up globe featuring a bunch of the Disney villains, with the Cauldron in the center. They sold it in the parks for a while. Sadly, it's easy to collect for BC as there isn't alot out there. Lol. Very cool to find a fellow fan on here!

More free to play mobile games aimed at kids who will make a hole in their parent's pockets due to the microtransactions... yay, I guess?

@Grail_Quest If you are interested there is also a porcelaine sculpture of Taran, Eilonwy and Gurgie. And another one with Taran, Gurgie and Henwen.

@Grail_Quest Yeah Disneyland Paris also has the only version of "Its a Small World" where there are Welsh dolls. I'm Welsh by blood so that means a lot to me, and I've tried to get to the Welsh festival as often as I've been able to over the years to support it and hope it keeps going. We're such a small little country we often get forgotten or just thought of as part of England. I've nothing against England of course! Its just nice when Wales gets recognised, so a major Disney film based on Welsh Folklore and using Welsh names was so cool to me growing up.

Really awesome that you have lots of merch too. When you say "art commissions of Taran and the Horned King from Disney MGM Studios", I assume you mean the Orlando theme park thats now called "Hollywood Studios"? Do you mean there were artists there and you could actually ask them to draw stuff for you? If so thats awesome! Sadly the first time I went to that specific park was in 2017, and by that point the Animation building had been converted into Star Wars Launch Bay (I think?) so there was nothing even remotely like that.

I'm pretty sure I remember that globe, and I think it was based on a painting. I remember it being exclusive to "Art of Disney" gallery shops in the parks, and I think it played "Grim Grinning Ghosts"? I was tempted to buy it but as it didn't have any Black Cauldron characters, just the cauldron, I persuaded myself I didn't "need" it... the globes are expensive in the parks! lol

@Tobiaku I have a "Magic Memories" limited edition Taran, Eilonwy and Gurgi which I assume is the one you mean? I'm not sure I've seen the other one. Its so strange/sad to me that there are no plushes, dolls, figures etc of Eilonwy, considering how many there are of all the other princesses. I know the film didn't do too well at the time, but I'm always running into people online who love it, and I believe the recent Blu-Ray sold better than expected, despite only being available mail order, and I've been told they've been surprised at its popularity in streaming too. Maybe that will trigger more merch in the future

@Tobiaku Awesome! Didn't know about those. I'll check them out. Thanks!!

@CodyMKW - Collab? Square does not own KH, it's all Disney. They wouldn't, in all honesty, need to collaborate with anyone. Unless they want the FF stuff, of course.

Did I just hear another modern mention of Rayman DSi? A hidden masterpiece...

I keep seeing articles comparing this to Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, when it seems much more like The Sims FreePlay or Farmville to me. The studio has a long history of forgettable licensed freemium games. This and Speedstorm seem to be its first big screen games, but I see no reason to believe they won't be equally crappy.

Which is disappointing, because if there really were a Disney-themed Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing, it would make billions.

Only time will tell for this sort of thing.

Another damn f2p Disney game, but my gosh is this one suckering me in.

@samuelvictor I think one or both of them were in the Magic memories line yes.

@Grail_Quest Did you play the old Sierra game?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93a_wI4f_c

@Daggot @Grail_Quest I did! I had no idea it existed at the time, but around 2002 I saw it on ebay and bought a boxed copy for the collection, and then also played it through on a modern pc with emulation.

Its... not bad. A fun novelty for someone who loves the film and characters for sure. It has the usual jank and frustrations of early Sierra point & click / adventure games, but also the usual charm and quality. My only sadness is they hadn't made it just one year later... the fact its limited to EGA colour pallettes not VGA means its gaudy and not really possible to recreate the visual atmosphere of both nature and dark areas. A year or so later we could have had 256 colours to choose from (and adlib music?). I find EGA (or, god forbid, CGA!) games very hard to go back to nowadays, they give me eye strain if I don't turn the brightness of the screen right down because the specific colour palletes are so high contrast.

Heck, 5 or so years later we could have had far better animation, music and even voice acting. I hope theres an alternate universe somewhere where Black Cauldron was successful enough to warrant the game being remade with a CD-ROM Day of the Tentacle/Sam and Max style. I'd chop off a limb for that.

But still, its fun for what it is and really cool that it exists. I would have really loved it at the time! Does a really good job at getting all the major scenes of the film (if I remember correctly theres multiple possible routes through, most of the big scenes are covered if you do them all. I cheesed it with a guide lol) and adapting them to the "x Quest" format.

Oooooo this looks interesting!

@Daggot I did play that BC game! Albeit, through emulation, many years after release. In '85 when the game launched, I don't think we had a computer in the house yet, and I was probably too young to be aware that the game existed. Ironically, about 5 years later, we DID get a family PC and got REALLY into the King's Quest games, which was the flagship series for Sierra, who also had developed BC. King's Quest would become my favorite game franchise of all time (still is) and Sierra, my most beloved game developer. Black Cauldron, the game, represents a neat moment where two of my favorite things connected to each other, before I was even a fan of either one. I really need to get a boxed copy.

@samuelvictor I agree with you on the VGA graphics. Some people really love (and prefer) EGA, but I remember the jump in color richness and lush, detailed backgrounds made possible by VGA and SVGA and was blown away at the time with the worlds that game creators could craft with that added power. King's Quest 6 is probably tied for my favorite all time game, and the environments there were just beautiful!

@Grail_Quest Absolutely. Some games of that period rank as the most beautiful aethetics videogames ever had, for me personally. By the time you add the near infinite resolutions and colour depth of modern games, most times something is lost for me somewhere along the way. Theres often art to be found in doing the best you can with strict limitations... however personally as I said the exact colour pallette of EGA is not one I find pleasant because of the high contrast and clashes. The main 256 colour 8bit pallette of VGA gives a lot prettier results while still requiring clever use to get the best from it.

@Grail_Quest You know about this, then right?
https://cygnusentertainment.com/history/

@Daggot Yes! But thank you for posting it! King's Quest creators returning to adventure games after 20 years is a dream come true and has been my #1 gaming wish for decades now. I can't believe it's happening. Between that and the announced return of Monkey Island, 2022 is shaping up to be LEGENDARY!!!

This looks interesting, but what's this game about? An MMO? Life simulator? Some kind of spiritual successor for Toontown or Club Penguin?
Nope... not yet. Memorability needs to be a factor here :I