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Video Game / Disney Dreamlight Valley

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Disney Dreamlight Valley is a Disney Life Simulation Adventure Game developed by Gameloft Montreal and published by Gameloft. It is a sandbox featuring various characters from across Disney and Pixar. It had an early access release on September 6, 2022, and was fully released on December 5, 2023. The game is available for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS,note  macOS,note  tvOS (Apple TV),note  and Microsoft Windows (via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store).

Once upon a time, there was a place called Dreamlight Valley, where many different Disney and Pixar characters lived. Princesses, animals, heroes, villains, everyone there lived in complete harmony.

However, one day, an event called "The Forgetting" happened. Darkness struck the valley and Night Thorns appeared, causing the inhabitants to lose their memories and most of them to leave. The Ruler of the Valley also vanished at this time.

That's where you come in. After leaving your busy life in the city, you wake up in the titular valley and discover you have powerful magic in you that can fight back The Forgetting. With some help from some magic tools, you set out to restore Dreamlight Valley to its former glory!

    Universes (franchises) represented 
Characters currently in the game are written in bold. Characters who are or will be available via paid expansions are written in italics. Leitmotifs for each franchise and their characters are also mentioned in parentheses.

Tropelight Valley:

  • Adaptational Badass: In Tangled, Mother Gothel was only shown to be a woman who randomly came across the sundrop flower and somehow learned to take advantage of its powers but had no intrinsic power of her own (which is why she was so particular about keeping Rapunzel around). Here she's shown to be extremely well versed in the dark arts, even able to create powerful curses and figure out how to locate and restore magic items like the sunstone.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: The villains (such as Ursula or Mother Gothel) are a lot more pleasant to interact with compared to canon. While they're often sarcastic towards the player, they can be pretty affable if you take the time to bond with them and make no effort to take over the valley or harm others. Although they did manipulate/betray the player in the past in attempts to gain power, which ended up leading to a lot of the current problems, so it's possibly less that they had a change of heart so much as they've learned not to mess with you directly.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Mother Gothel and Scar were both introduced to the game before any other characters from their respective franchises, and while the heroes are referenced in their dialogue, for the most part you get to interact with them one-on-one.
  • Always Check Behind the Chair: Treasure chests and hidden items can be found just about anywhere, including in people's houses, behind homes, and in dead end areas.
  • Ambiguous Situation:
    • The game doesn't dwell too much on how the characters' that relocated to Dreamlight Valley's original worlds are managing in their absence, especially since some of the characters leave their original realms without telling their friends and family (or subjects, in Anna's case) that they're leaving. While Ariel does imply that it's possible for her to visit her original home, likely suggesting that it's possible for the other characters to do it as well, the players never actually see the characters leave.
    • Every character in Dreamlight Valley had actually lived there prior and for a long time but some returned to their original homes due to The Forgetting. With that in mind, it drives the question of how this all factors into the Disney characters' original storylines and how Dreamlight Valley came to be a place where they all gathered.
    • There are also times that it's implied that these are not the "real" characters but rather fascimiles created by the Ruler within Dreamlight Valley who just have the same memories as the movie counterparts and the Realms were just safe spaces created to protect them from the forgetting using those memories and are not actually the worlds from the movies. Most notably implied when Nala asks how Scar can be here since he died, and one of the reply options has the Ruler saying that this might not be the same Scar that she remembers.
  • Amnesiac Lover:
    • Kristoff's memories of Anna are taken by Ursula to save the valley from a curse, so when Anna returns to the valley he can't remember her. It's such a specific Laser-Guided Amnesia that he still has memories of Elsa and someone else being there, but it's just a nebulous shape and not Anna herself. All he can remember of her is her smile.
    • Minnie is brought back from limbo but she has no idea who Mickey is, she just held onto his name in the world in-between, but the name has lost all meaning to her. He tries to hide his heartbreak but Minnie can still feel he's in a great deal of pain which makes it more difficult for Minnie because she really wishes she could remember him.
  • An Economy Is You: Scrooge's clothing and furniture shop is always full of customers. Customers who never redecorate and only own one single signature outfit. Worse, before you start moving in new people his shop only serves 3 other customers: Merlin, Mickey and Goofy, none of which have any need for the items he sells.
  • An Entrepreneur Is You: In order to move in new characters, they'll need houses; Scrooge will happily build them for a price. Two guesses for who will have to pay that price.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some characters have bonus outfits you can unlock for them to wear, dubbed "Dream Styles":
    • Anna: Adventurous Annanote  (Premium Shop)
    • Ariel: Ariel's Human Form (quest unlock), Winter's Wonder Arielnote  (Royal Winter Star Path; Dream Style uses her human form as base)
    • Belle: Winter's Wonder Bellenote  (Royal Winter Star Path), Belle's Green Gown (Starlight House Bundle)
    • Buzz Lightyear: Stealthy Space Ranger (The Wonder of Pixar Star Path)
    • Donald Duck: Ranger Donaldnote  (Disney Parks Star Path), Pirate Donald (Haunted Holiday Star Path)
    • Elsa: Frozen Elsanote  (Premium Shop)
    • Goofy: An Extremely Goofy Conductornote  (Disney Parks Star Path)
    • Merlin: Festive Merlin (Festive Star Path), Bermuda Merlin (Premium Shop)
    • Mickey Mouse: Merry Mickey (Festive Star Path), Platinum Mickey (Centennial Star Path) invoked
    • Mike Wazowski: Monsters University Varsity Mike (Lovely Monsters Star Path)
    • Minnie Mouse: Platinum Minnie (Centennial Star Path) invoked
    • Scrooge McDuck: Summer Vacation Scrooge (Premium Shop)
    • Stitch: Trick-or-Treat Stitchnote  (Haunted Holiday Star Path)
    • Sulley: Monsters University Varsity Sulley (Lovely Monsters Star Path)
    • Ursula: "Vanessa"note  (Ursula's Transformation Dream Bundle)
    • WALL-E: Dapper WALL-E (Dapper WALL-E Dream Bundle)
  • And I Must Scream:
    • Upon entering Dreamlight Valley, the player finds out that some of the villagers have been trapped in their houses for an unspecified but implied to be a long amount of time due to the effects of The Forgetting until they're set free.
    • The player first encounters Ariel trapped on a deserted island where she explains that no matter how she tried to return to Dreamlight Valley she would always end up back on the island. This was because of an enchantment placed on her thanks to a deal Eric made with Ursula in order to protect her from The Forgetting.
    • Minnie was probably the worst off. Until she's brought back to Dreamlight Valley, Minnie spends quite some time trapped in a blank void called the Here and There with no memory of her past and no means of communicating with anyone until late into Mickey's friendship quest. The only thing she had to keep going is the name "Mickey" and the idea that she had a home to return to.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: The Fairy Godmother's Miracles Take Time quest has you entering the Forgotten's memories to retrieve the Orb of Remembrance. During these segments, you actually take control of the Forgotten, who has very... different dialogue options from the player.
  • And the Adventure Continues: After the player dispels the Forgetting for good and the Forgotten reforms to atone for everything they've done, Merlin lets the player know their journey is never done and there are still Disney characters trapped in their realms waiting to be brought back, as well as many other places outside of Dreamlight Valley to discover, which A Rift In Time expansion has already proven with Eternity Isle.
  • Anti-Frustration Features:
    • Most villagers in the game follow a specific schedule, consisting of going outside, visiting Scrooge's shop and Remy's restaurant (if applicable), staying indoors, and going to sleep (during which they cannot be interacted with). However, Merlin and Scrooge will never sleep, as Merlin is required for multiple quests and Scrooge runs his shop, ensuring you can always access them if necessary. Similarly, other characters who run specific services (Goofy, Remy, Moana, Kristoff, Beast) can still have said services accessed even if they are currently asleep.
    • The Rift In Time update added the ability to disable certain villagers if you want a less cluttered valley or aren't a fan of a certain character. It also added an animated dust cloud effect around flowers that need watering.
    • Completing Beast's level 10 quest adds a station that generates flowers, letting you get a more balanced variety without having to constantly hunt for them.
  • Anti Poop-Socking: The energy system is meant to stop you from going on and on performing activities nonstop and force you to stop and go back home every few minutes to take a break, even prepared meals that will recover your energy will eventually run out and you'll need to go back home to prepare more. That said, once you walk into your home and your energy is instantly replenished there's nothing stopping you from walking right back out and going back to what you were doing, and the constant respawning of materials doesn't help one bit. The April 2023 update added the ability to steadily regain energy by sitting down on any chair or bench, so even going home isn't necessary if you put down enough seats.
  • Apocalypse How: A regional societal collapse from the Forgetting. Darkness covered all of Dreamlight Valley, the lands became plagued with Night Thorns causing everyone to forget almost everything, and most of the population either vanished or had to retreat into their own dream realms because the magic sustaining their presence disappeared.
  • Ascended Glitch: When the game released in early access, one recurring bug involved various characters misjudging the weather or time of day, resulting in them commenting on things like rain during sunny days or early days during the night. This would eventually be fixed for most of the cast, but was retained for Goofy due to him being dumb enough for it to be in-character for him.
  • Ascended Meme: Players frequently complained about the frequency of L shaped couches and the Blue Pearly Table Lamp appearing in Scrooge's shop, to the point of both becoming memes in the community. In February 2024, Scrooge's shop was expanded; on display on the upper level is a book titled "Ergonomic Benefits of L Couches & Their Decorative Value Part I" next to the Blue Pearly Table Lamp.
  • Background Music Override:
    • If you take one of the characters with you, their musical themes will sometimes play over the normal background music, such as "Le Festin" from Ratatouille when you take Remy, "I See the Light" from Tangled if you take Mother Gothel or Rapunzel, or the "Mickey Mouse March" if you take one of the Mickey & Friends characters.
    • Whenever you enter the Forgotten Lands, that area's music will play over any other background music. It will even play over the characters' Leitmotifs if they're hanging out with you when you enter.
    • Characters who play an instrument for their Idle Animation, such as Kristoff and his lute, Prince Eric and his flute, and Stitch and his ukulele, will have the music of whatever they're playing play over the background music.
  • Beam-O-War: When the player confronts the Forgotten in the Dark Castle, they fire their magic at each other. The collision of beams tears open a hole into their deepest memories, allowing the player to reason with the Forgotten and convince them to change.
  • Berserk Button: The name of Ariel is all Ursula needs to hear to completely drop her affable façade and go on a murderous tirade against her. Quite useful when you need to capture the pure essence of unbridled rage for a quest.
  • Birds of a Feather: WALL-E and Ariel are friends due to their habits of collecting stuff.
  • Bigger on the Inside: Believe it or not, your house. Once you've fully upgraded it, you can keep adding up to twenty floors, which is enough for a whole apartment complex, yet your house will always look like (in its default appearance) a decently-sized two-story gablefront house on the outside.
  • Bleak Level: The Forgotten Lands is a dark, spooky place full of dead trees, thorns, green fire, and a pumpkin house where the Fairy Godmother lives.
  • Breaking Old Trends:
    • In terms of its early access release, this is the first Gameloft-developed Disney and Pixar game made specifically for consolesnote  instead of mobile, although Disney Speedstorm was supposed to be the first (and it was still the first if only full releases count).
    • The surprise success of this game led to Gameloft cancelling plans for the game to go free-to-play, making this the company's first major title to be a pay-to-play release.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory:
    • The Star Paths, which are monthly side missions that allow the players to earn points to access exclusive content, exist in two variants; the Standard Path and the Premium Path. While the Standard Path is available to all players and can be grinded out normally, the Premium Path, which costs 2,500 Moonstones, not only gives the players the option to skip through some missions but also gives players access to Premium-locked items, pets and outfits, including some "Dream Style" skins for the villagers such as "Festive Merlin".
      • While Moonstones can be obtained daily by accessing blue chests or by grinding out Star Path missions (which won't give players enough to purchase Premium unless they saved over multiple passes), it's far quicker to obtain them within the duration of the Star Path by paying for them with real money.
      • Subverted, however, as the items obtained via the Star Paths are all cosmetic and don't give players any base game advantages over others that don't have access to it unless, of course, they wanted to decorate their village with items that can only be obtained via the Premium Star Paths.
  • Broken Bridge: Initially you'll only have access to the plaza and the meadow. All other areas have been cut off by giant night thorns, and you'll need to use Dreamlight so Merlin can remove them. There are also examples of bridges being blocked by walls of a certain obstruction, which will require you to complete a quest to upgrade your tools.
  • Bubblegloop Swamp: The Glade of Trust is a dank, marshy swamp full of tall trees.
  • But Thou Must!: In order to complete the spell and stop Gothel's curse, Kristoff, the only other person who hasn’t been trapped in their home, must sacrifice his love by giving up his memories of Anna. Even when the dialogue tree itself acknowledges this as a horrible option, you can’t actually move forward in the story or even get people out of their houses until you talk him into it. Thankfully, continuing with Anna’s quests makes it possible to restore his memories fully.
  • Call-Back: Knowing their original stories adds a lot to the conversation you can have with the characters and they will acknowledge or mention past events.
    • To get WALL-E to return to the village, the player must gather three items for his collection that all reference events in his movie: a fire extinguisher, a boot with a plant growing from it, and a ball that resembles the Pixar Ball.
    • Ursula will lament that at one point she had Triton's crown and trident and lost it all, and she'll readily admit that she did push it with the whirlpool and the whole "becoming a gigantic monster" business.
    • If you react positively to Mother Gothel's teasing, she'll be glad you get her sense of humor, unlike "some other girls who shall not be named". And her explanation for creating a curse that forces people to stay in their homes is that you won't need a giant tower if you just use magic to keep people in their homes.
    • Mickey will mention he's had multiple jobs throughout his life and you can ask him about them, including the time he worked as a magician's assistant (there was a lot of carrying water around, and brooms, so many brooms).
    • In Moana you'll hear the story about how Maui gave humanity coconut trees. Here, once you recruit him he will give you instructions on how to catch, bury and water an eel that will grow into your first coconut tree.
    • Olaf's role in the community before The Forgetting was as the Village Storyteller; a nod to his breakout scene in Frozen II and the spin-off Olaf Presents.
    • Due to their apartment being used as a house skin, Mike and Sulley live in a Monsters University style house.
  • Call-Forward:
    • Despite Woody and Buzz's depictions taking place before Toy Story 4 (as Woody is still with Bonnie), both of their respective houses call forward to events that only occur in later on: Buzz has a camper van (referencing 4's Road Trip Plot and Buzz staying with Bonnie) while Woody has a carousel (referencing how he chose to stay at the carnival with Bo and became a lost toy).
    • One of Nala's daily discussions mentions that she and Simba plan to have a cub in the future. The cub's name? Kiara.
  • Cap: The maximum level your character can reach is 40. All the Disney characters have a maximum friendship level of 10.
  • Character Exaggeration: Despite the events of Moana taking place before the start of this game, Maui has lost nearly all traces of his Character Development, and has become even more arrogant and self-absorbed than he was when Moana first met him in the film. Most of his dialogue consists of him bragging about his exploits as a demigod, or assuming that the player is only talking to him to either thank him or ask him for an autograph.
  • Character Signature Song: Villagers will sometimes whistle and hum to the tune of songs from their films as they walk around town.
  • The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: In the Scramblecoin minigame, you cannot have more than one of the same figurine in your deck at once; each one must be of a different character. Goofy and Gaston, however, are not subject to this limitation as they feature five of the same figurines (of themselves) in their respective decks. Ironically, this benefits the player more than it does either of them, as both characters suffer from major flaws in their deck (each of Goofy's figurines can only pick up one coin at a time while Gaston's can only go in one direction at a time and only stop when they hit an obstacle) that make them very easy to beat.
  • Content Warning: The July 2023 update added a content warning to the Forgotten Memories quest, which deals with themes of sadness, loneliness, and anger.
  • Cooking Mechanics: Food is necessary to restore your energy while out and about, so you're given the ability to grow, purchase or forage your own ingredients. You're also encouraged to discover new recipes by experimenting in the kitchen by mixing ingredients. Bringing Remy to the valley increases the number of available ingredients and if you decide to wing it and make up a dish on the fly he'll give out a positive or negative reaction based on the potential star rating of the unprepared meal before you actually choose to cook it so you can tweak the recipe before finalizing it. Furthermore, most characters will visit Remy's restaurant around meal times and order a specific dish. You can prepare it for them and you'll earn a big friendship boost with that character in return.
  • Cosmetic Award:
    • A majority of the unlockable furniture in the game can not actually be used and are simply for decorative purposes.
    • The critters, which the players can unlock by feeding the same critter twice, are actually pretty useless. Despite their varying appearances, they all behave the same as they don't do anything other than follow the player around. When it comes to interaction, all the players can do is pet them. The update that introduced Simba and Nala would rectify this by giving the player other ways to interact with critters, such as giving them pet toys and being able to hold them.
  • Cute Machines: WALL-E, who your character finds so cute that you have the choice of telling him how adorable he is when you first meet him in his realm.
  • Dark Reprise: When playing as the Forgotten, the musical jingles for certain actions come out dark and distorted.
  • Dialogue Tree: You usually have at least three choices to answer in any conversation or you can even choose to refuse outright to listen to any request from the other characters, fleshing out your personality a bit more and avoid Railroading you into any quest you're not ready to do just yet.
    • What's more, some options the game gives you can make The Player out to be sarcastic or outright rude if they so choose. Nothing too egregious since this is still a Disney game, but if you ever wanted to tell Elsa you think Olaf is annoying, the game lets you.
  • Double Unlock: Even after you gain access to new areas by using Dreamlight, there will always be sections in each area cut off by different obstacles (evil mushrooms, ice, tree trunks, etc.); you'll need to progress the story with certain characters who will upgrade your tools, granting you the ability to remove the obstacles permanently and have full access to every inch of the map.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: The Scramblecoin game introduced in the A Rift in Time expansion features several characters as game pieces who weren't available as villagers by that point: Cinderella, Cogsworth, Lumiere, Flynn Rider, Wreck-It Ralph, Pumbaa, Rafiki, and Forky.
  • Easter Egg: The runes in the Mystical Cave are taken from Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Decoding them produces the cheeky message "If you can read this you are too close."
  • Enlightened Self-Interest: Implied to be the reason why the villains are all much nicer than they are in their respective canons. Since the Valley relies on peaceful coexistence and the Forgetting seems to work on negative emotion, simply helping the player out is much safer for them rather than trying to take over.
  • Fetch Quest: A number of the game missions are retrieving items for the characters, or retrieving items to create an item the characters need.
  • Fishing for Sole: One sidequest to recruit WALL-E involves fishing up a boot from the lake to give to him. Apparently, Goofy found the other boot.
  • Fishing Minigame: You can go fishing in any of the multiple bodies of water around the valley, though you'll need to carefully time your presses to reel in the fish. Missing, however, won't mean you lose the fish, you can try again on the same spot, the only downside is the wasted energy.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: In certain dialogue options the player can potentially confuse the characters from more old timey eras like Anna or Ursula by mentioning things like pizza or video games.
  • Food Porn: Many of the meals you can cook - which include things like Kronk's Spinach Puffs and Mushu's Congee - look absolutely delicious, with detailed models and descriptions that emphasize how tasty they are.
  • Friend to All Living Things: If you feed the critters around the valley they will befriend you and you can unlock them as pets that follow you around. Of course, they're all ridiculously cute Disneyfied animals. Furthermore, to proceed with the story you'll eventually befriend and even earn the trust of well-known villains like Ursula and Mother Gothel.
  • Furry Confusion: Remy and Mickey's inclusion in the game creates quite a bit of confusion since they're both rodents (a rat and mouse respectively). Within the lore of Ratatouille Remy is most definitely portrayed as not magical in any way, other than the fact that he somehow understands Linguini and is somehow able to control his body, but he doesn't speak or show any additional capabilities beyond other regular rats in his world, yet he's completely different from Mickey who is for all intents and purposes the closest thing to a human. Add to that the existence of squirrels (another type of rodent) that behave like perfectly normal animals and we've covered half of the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism.
  • Game-Breaking Bug: Many players, coming fresh off the heels of the wildly popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons (another cozy life sim game with a real-time clock) tried their hands at "time traveling" (messing with the console's internal clock to change the time or date) to disastrous results. Items already spawned on the ground can't be picked up and no more will be generated once depleted (like fish or mining spots), the Star Path system will also appear as offline and unable to connect as well as other various issues. Gameloft has confirmed that while this is unintended game behavior, they will not prioritize fixing it since this is not the intended way to play the game. So far, the only solution seems to be reverting back to the original time/date and keeping it there.
  • Game-Favored Gender: Inverted Trope. The gender of the player character is merely aesthetic, meaning that male players have access to the same items and clothing that female players do and can wear them even when playing with a male-presenting avatar. However, it's clear from the variety of unlockable items, clothing options, hairstyles, and accessories, especially ones that can be unlocked from Friendship Levels, that the game's primary target demographic is women. This is likely justified, as the vast majority of life sim players are female.
  • Gameplay and Story Integration: While the three favorite items are randomly chosen for each character every day, for some characters, concessions are made so that they don't ask for something that they cannot use or would be outright averse to using:
    • Characters incapable of eating will never visit the restaurant.
    • WALL-E, a robot physically incapable of eating, will never request meals and will instead only request items that can be found around the village or be grown in his garden. The same applies to Woody and Buzz, who generally request flowers and gems and very little else.
    • Ariel never requests food items that have fish as an ingredient, and usually requests vegetarian meals or desserts and various surface world objects like flowers and crafting components (e.g. fabric).
    • Since Simba and Nala want to minimize meat eating to reduce harm to the valley, they'll tend to have vegetarian dishes and desserts in their daily favorites. They will still want fish and fish dishes from time to time, though.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation:
    • Depending on the order in which the player completes quests and unlocks realms, Kristoff's daily discussion dialogue will often mention Anna, even when he has no memory of her.
    • Despite several of his quests pointing out that Scar is a carnivore and can't eat anything that isn't meat, Scar can still appear in Remy's restaurant and order non-meat products like salads and birthday cakes. Simba and Nala do the same thing despite Nala talking about similar things in her quests.
    • When Stitch arrives in Dreamlight Valley, Donald and Scrooge's dialogues will have them worrying about Stitch wrecking the Valley and urging you to build his house as soon as possible. However, he seems pretty well-behaved from the moment he arrives, with the only destruction being his crashed spaceship, leaving the Valley as is. Additionally, while Donald and Scrooge believe he'll be wrecking his own place once it's built, the inside of his house looks clean and well-maintained.
    • While the developers took measures to make sure Ariel and Ursula cannot engage in fishing activities themselves, such as making it so they don't have fishing animations in their human forms and won't have the fishing companion attribute for the player to select, they will still watch the player fish and cheer them on if they succeed, as well as look disappointed if they don't. As well, they will happily accept any cooked fish dishes due to the NPC characters not having any disliked items. Furthermore, after Training Manuals were introduced, it's possible to gift them a Fishing Training Manual to change her role to fishing, negating Gameloft's efforts to block the role from them (unless another update comes along to fix this oversight).
  • The Ghost:
    • Kristoff mentions that he and Sven like living in the forest since it reminds him of the woods where he grew up. However, Sven is not in the game at all.
    • Several other Disney characters such as Rapunzel and Flounder are mentioned in the game but never make an appearance outside of memory shards.
    • While not quite mentioned, some characters have furniture items based on them in the game, such as Vanellope von Schweetz, Ralph, and Cinderella. However, all three of these characters were featured in the game's launch trailer, implying they'll be added to the game eventually. Some items in the Centennial Path also featured Snow White and Tiana, though neither have been announced to be coming to the game yet.
    • The Pixar Pier ride decoration from the Disney Parks Star Path has artwork of various Pixar characters. Some of the characters depicted: namely, EVE, Sulley, Mike, and Mei Lee, weren't present in the game at the time, though the former three were all later added.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Heroes like Mickey Mouse and Ariel can hang with villains like Ursula and Mother Gothel without any major problems. Justified in that the Village relies on peaceful coexistence between them in order to function properly.
  • Gold Makes Everything Shiny: During the "Beauty and the Beast" section, the player can disguise themselves as a human-sized candlestick by using a golden curtain as fabric for the costume.
  • Gonk: In stark contrast to the other realistic fish in the valley, the Here and There Fish has a comically ugly design with bulging eyes, a bulbous nose, and a huge frown.
  • Green Hill Zone: The Plaza and Peaceful Meadow areas are calm, grassy places where the player can learn the game's mechanics at their own pace.
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • Delivery quests to characters are rather unintuitive, as when the player orders something for themselves they have to wait until it arrives, while items ordered for other characters are immediately placed in storage to deliver in person.
    • Nothing indicates that Realms besides the initial three can be opened, which is the only way to obtain certain characters like Elsa, Anna, Woody, and Buzz.
    • The hidden potato quests have nothing in-game to indicate their existence, and the Orange Potato quest takes it to a new level by requiring you to wear the Lenses of Shadows and perform a Pixel Hunt for 20 microscopic pieces across the realms, including Mickey's Secret Room.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Donald will constantly fly into a rage at the slightest provocation. It's even included as part of his idle animations. You can confront him about it in conversation but he'll deny that it's an issue.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: It's revealed that Prince Eric didn't go missing. He's actually alive and well as part of Ursula's "garden" of unfortunate souls. He sacrificed himself to Ursula in exchange for keeping Ariel safe from the Forgetting. This is why Ariel was found stuck on a deserted island unable to return to the valley.
  • Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: The rocks, coral, mushrooms, ice spikes, tree stumps, and bone piles that litter the valley can't be climbed over and can only be cleared by the player's magic tools. May be justified, as the obstacles are heavily implied to be magical in nature, with many of them requiring the tools to be enchanted properly to get rid of them. Even Elsa finds herself unable to clear away the ice spikes.
  • Internal Reveal: It's heavily implied from the very beginning that the former ruler of the Valley is none other than the player character when they were younger. Eventually, Mother Gothel confirms it; since she was magically trapped inside her home, her memory wasn't affected and she immediately recognizes the player character. You even have the choice to respond "I knew it!".
  • Interspecies Friendship: Considering the valley is populated by characters from different Disney canons, this is a given. The human characters interact with the anthropomorphic animal characters as if they were any other person.
  • Item Crafting: You can use a crafting table to create decorations and items using junk you've collected around the valley.
  • Joke Character: The Forky pawn in Scramblecoin. The piece can enter from anywhere on the board and move up to two squares at a time in any direction... but it can only be used for one turn before removing itself from the board for the rest of the game, rendering it more or less useless.
  • Jump Scare: The Casita has unintentionally been this for players with the noise of the windows and doors opening and shutting catching them by surprise.
  • Jungle Japes: The Wild Tangle area from the A Rift in Time expansion is a huge jungle area with large trees, fly traps, and capybaras.
  • "Just Joking" Justification: Most of Mother Gothel's dialogue, even her greeting quotes, will include some form of this while she claims she's "just teasing you". You can turn the tables on her and answer sarcastically which she will not appreciate, as she's at least self-aware enough to realize that you're making fun of her habit.
  • Kleptomaniac Hero: Characters have no problem with you breaking into their houses to take items and open treasure chests, and "borrowing" items is required for several quests.
  • Letting the Air out of the Band:
    • The music in the Toy Story realm sounds warped and off-key to go along with Buzz malfunctioning from having low batteries. Finding a pair of replacements gets him and the music back to normal.
    • During a story mission where you play as The Forgotten, the tunes for crafting an item and cooking a meal sounds discordant to reflect the miserable mental state The Forgotten is in.
  • Limited Wardrobe:
    • Outside of "Dream Styles", the Disney characters wear the same outfits that they wore in their original movies or their sequels and unlike in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the players can't gift them new clothes to wear.
    • Averted in the case of the player, as they have various outfits they could unlock or buy to wear, some of which they obtain from the Disney characters.
  • The Lost Woods:
    • The Forest of Valor is full of trees and dark, long grass. One quest involves going through a portal to rescue Donald Duck, who got lost in the foggy Dark Grove.
    • The Forgotten Lands has a lot of trees, to the point where you'll probably get lost on your first visit.
  • Macguffin: The player must restore several pillars with missing orbs to fight back the Forgetting. They each have a trial associated with what they represent:
    • The Orb of Friendship: The player must build friendships with three other villagers so the orb can be released from the thorns.
    • The Orb of Power: The player must prove their worth by solving the riddles in the Mystic Cave so they can fish up the orb at the bottom.
    • The Orb of Courage: The player must go through a misty forest maze to find Donald who has the orb.
    • The Orb of Trust: The player must trust Ursula that her spell will allow the orb to be retrieved and break the curse.
    • The Orb of Nurturing: The player must restore the orb by planting it and letting it grow.
    • The Orb of Love: The player must receive an act of love (a hug from Olaf) for the orb's magic to be restored.
    • The Orb of Remembrance: The player must go into the Forgotten's memories and retrieve an image of the Dark Castle.
    • The Orb of Unity: The player must place all the other Orb pillars in certain places on Skull Rock after learning an Atlantean cipher and retrieving the Orb from the Dark Castle after saving the Forgotten.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Between several Disney and Pixar series.
  • Mental Health Recovery Arc: The Forgotten's storyline revolves around the player helping them cope with their feelings of abandonment and depression when the other characters didn't know how to help or, in the case of Gothel and Scar, made things worse. The player gets through to them by listening, empathizing, and reassuring them that they aren't alone.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • When someone gets welcomed to the valley, they get teleported in front of the castle and strike a pose while a short Leitmotif from their series plays. This process is identical to how characters would be welcomed to the kingdom in Disney Magic Kingdoms, another Gameloft/Disney title.
    • The game features various items and recipes as callbacks to other Disney properties and characters, some of which that aren't even in the game yet. For example, there's a 5☆ recipe for the cake from Sleeping Beauty, titled "Aurora's Cake" along with Kronk's Spinach Puffs from The Emperor's New Groove.
    • During Simba and Nala's recruitment questline, at one point you have to repair a broken sound system given to you by Scrooge, who says it belonged to "someone Goofy knew"... implicity, that someone is his son Max, who used a similar-looking sound system in A Goofy Movie.
    • Buzz Lightyear's Stealthy Space Ranger Dream Style appears to be based on the dark blue Stealth Buzz Lightyear variant, released in 1996 by Thinkway.
    • During Gaston's final friendship quest, he holds a contest for one of the villagers to replace LeFou as his sidekick. One of the finalists of this contest is Olaf. Olaf's original voice actor, Josh Gad, also played the live-action version of LeFou in Beauty and the Beast (2017).
  • Necessary Drawback: Remy's Realm is a kitchen stocked with a number of late-game ingredients, as well as a stove where you can cook a large variety of dishes. However, all ingredients and any meals made from them are automatically removed from the player's inventory when they return to the valley, and they also don't progress any Dreamlight Tasks that require cooking certain items. However, nothing's stopping the player from making high-energy meals and eating them in the Realm, as the energy gained from them doesn't go away, and any recipes learned there will be retained to cook in the Valley.
  • No Cartoon Fish: Even though every other creature in the game has been given the signature Disney cutesy treatment, most fish (except the Here and There Fish) are shown as completely realistic (within the game's art style limitations).
  • Noble Demon: Ursula of all people has taken on a more active role in saving the valley and often works together with Merlin despite his protestations, not out of any sense of guilt or remorse over what happened in her story, but simply because it's what's needed for the valley to survive.
  • Opening the Sandbox: At the beginning of the game your only power is to remove Night Thorns, but you soon gain the Legendary Tools and the powers of crafting and cooking, enabling you to mine, garden, fish, and more.
  • Palmtree Panic: Dazzle Beach is a seaside area full of sand and fishing spots through the nearby sea.
  • Play Every Day: Several features, such as feeding the animals, having daily discussions, and Scrooge's shop getting new stock can only happen once per day. This encourages the player to continuously check in every day for new content.
  • Prefers Going Barefoot: Moana and Maui are always barefoot. The player can also go barefoot if they wish.
  • Rare Random Drop: Occasionally, completing an activity will make a bunch of related items or coins spawn in the vicinity, giving you a limited time to grab them all.
  • Relationship Values: By talking with, giving gifts to, and hanging out with the valley's residents, you'll increase your friendship level with them, which can get you furniture and cosmetic items, and allows you to progress on their questline.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter:
    • The aptly named "critters" that inhabitant the valley are all absolutely adorable and, with some effort, you can befriend them and turn them into pets. Yes, even the impossibly adorable crocodile babies.
    • If you complete Moana's penultimate friendship quest, you will unlock her Housepet Pig Pua as a companion. Oh, and during said quest, once you restore Moana's memory of Pua, you can even tell her via a prompt that "Pua. Is. So. Cute."
  • Scavenger Hunt: To get the orange potato, you have to equip the Lenses of Shadows, then look for pieces of it around the castle and various realms.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: All three villains, Ursula, Mother Gothel, and Scar, start out trapped inside a seaside cave, a willow tree, and a giant elephant skull respectively; it's up to you to release them. Furthermore, after releasing her, Mother Gothel's curse is unexpectedly released onto the inhabitants of the valley, and the player character, Merlin, Ursula, and Kristoff (the only ones who managed to escape the curse) will need to work together to save the others.
  • Sequence Breaking: You can skip the tool upgrades to access certain areas by abusing the decorating system. The magic wells that are used for teleporting can be relocated, and there's nothing keeping you from moving them past the obstacles and teleporting there. There's nothing of particular importance in these areas, but you'll be able to explore them long before the game would normally allow you to.
  • Shifting Sand Land: The A Rift in Time expansion introduces the Glittering Dunes biome, a huge sandy desert biome with piles of sand, cobras, and cacti everywhere.
  • Shout-Out: In one of Jack Skellington's daily discussions, he can ask the Player if they have any scary ideas for Halloween. One of the possible dialogue options is "Haunted Animatronics".
  • Shown Their Work: In regards to many details for the characters, particularly Mickey and his core cast, the references sprinkled throughout not only go into some of their most notable roles and story events but even go over some of the Don Rosa and Carl Barks comic stories.
    • One of the daily discussion topics The Player can discuss with Scar is the topic of how he got his trademark scar. He then asks The Player to guess how he got it. Each option presented to The Player is a reference to various spin-off media of The Lion King that have possible origins to Scar's scar; a cobra, a buffalo, or Mufasa.
  • Slept Through the Apocalypse: Mother Gothel was creating a curse that would keep people stuck in their home, but the former ruler found out about this and made the curse backfire and trap her inside her house. Unexpectedly, this saved her from the Forgetting, and when she's finally released, she's completely unaffected, unlike all the other inhabitants of the valley.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Frosted Heights is a cold, icy area full of ice crystals and frozen trees.
  • Stepford Smiler: When you first meet him, Mickey of all people comes across as this, particularly of the depressed type. He keeps up a cheery facade even though he's heartbroken over missing Minnie and he's barely keeping it together.
  • Sprint Meter: In the April 2023 update, the yellow energy meter from eating cooked food now doubles as this. You now have the ability to surf along the ground with magic, which steadily drains as you use it.
  • The Stinger: After the credits, there's a scene in the dark castle where the familiar silhouette of a certain vizier appears...
  • Supreme Chef: Naturally, Remy is the best chef in the valley. Before he'll move into the valley, you have to impress him by completing several recipes, with the last one being his signature dish: Ratatouille.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: If you offer to build Maui's house close to Moana's, he will emphatically state that that is completely unnecessary, as he doesn't miss her at all. Multiple times.
  • Temporary Online Content: As part of the Live Service Game model, the game will feature a battle pass-like system called the "Star Path" where you are given a month or so to complete a list of objectives which will earn you points to trade in for clothes, furniture, pets, and stamps. If you fail to unlock all the items by the time the event ends, you won't be able to obtain them later on.
  • The Three Trials: To get the Orb of Power, the player must solve three riddles in the Mystic Cave to get to it.
  • True Love's Kiss: Breaking the spell on Eric requires Ariel to give him this.
  • Video Game Caring Potential:
    • You can feed the local wildlife and befriend them. If you do this often enough, you will unlock them as pets that can follow you around. If so inclined, you can even pet them.
    • You can bond with the residents of your valley by giving them items they like.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • Thanks to the Dialogue Tree, you can be outright mean to some characters. You can tell Maui straight to his face that he's got nothing to his name but an overinflated ego, criticize and even mock Donald's temper tantrums, make fun of Merlin, and so on. Usually, every conversation has at least one rude/sarcastic answer, and there's no downside to choosing that one every time if you like.
    • The December 2022 update added the ability to craft special Christmas gifts to give to the residents of the valley. If you're feeling particularly jerkish or want to punish the residents for being naughty, you can give them coal.
  • Virtual Paper Doll: Your avatar has a lot of customization options to choose from, ranging from simple items like hoodies and jeans to full-body outfits. You can even create your own clothing by applying colors and decals. Notably, clothes and hairstyles are not gender-locked and you're not asked to choose a gender, just a male or female-presenting body type.
  • Warp Whistle: You can warp around the valley via any repaired wishing wells.
  • We Buy Anything: From rocks and sticks to precious diamonds and other gemstones, Goofy's stall will buy anything off of your hands that you don't want anymore (and isn't required for a quest). What he does with all that stuff is anybody's guess.
  • Wham Line: When you discover the secret hideaway in the Frosted Heights, you find more entries from the Old Ruler's journal. What's on it is quite concerning...
    It's not working. Nothing is working. It must be the Pillar's magic stopping me. [...] I have to tear out the Orb to cast my spell. There's no other choice. [...] The spell... It went wrong. Need to find somewhere else, somewhere quieter. Might need to rip out all the Orbs to do this...
  • Wham Shot: After unblocking the stopped up river in the mines within the Sunlit Plateau, you get a glimpse of "the Forgotten" Ursula mentioned that was behind the Forgetting...and they look just like you. This is quickly followed by when the Player goes through the portal the Forgotten came through: they came from what looks like a dark, twisted version of the Valley with a ruined version of the castle and glowing green water. Your character is understandably shocked when you go to report this to Merlin.
  • Wizard Needs Food Badly: The number of actions the player can perform are limited by their energy bar, and once depleted, they can't perform any strenuous activity (they can still pick up items, however). The only two ways to refill the energy bar are going back home or eating something. Prepared meals restore this bar even beyond max, adding a second yellow bar on top of the blue one, so preparing meals before exploring is recommended by the game. Or dropping everything and constantly returning home. Thankfully, the bar grows a bit every time the character levels up.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Sven and Max are directly referenced by Kristoff and Prince Eric respectively, but neither of them are in the game. Eric in particular even has radiant dialogue where he wonders aloud if Max will be ok without him, lampshading this trope.
    • Prior to his recruitment, Remy thinks to himself that Colette and Linguini will probably be able to manage the restaurant for a while without him, though the player never gets to see either of them in person.
  • You Can Talk?: Asked when the player enters the Lion King realm and can understand Nala perfectly fine.

Alternative Title(s): Dreamlight Valley

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