Games I’m looking forward to from 2025’s Not!E3/Summer Games Showcases

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to make a single post this time discussing everything. Though, I will be unsurprised if most of this ends up being from Wholesome Games’ Showcase. This list is solely in the order I saw them during showcases.

That said, I’m sure there are games I may have missed whether it be due to the speed of Sizzle Reels or just trying to keep up with everything. Either way, I’ll be checking out a lot of demos revealed.

New Games

  • The first game to have caught my eye is the upcoming A Planet Full of Cats— Devcats seems to keep wanting to outdo themselves and doing a hidden object game mixed with metroidvania is certainly something I can’t say I’ve really seen before. In all honesty, I’m not really a Metroidvania fan. It’s not really a game style I enjoy (partially as I struggle with navigation so I dislike the backtracking), but I will try it for the Cats. With most of their games, I’ve been playing alongside my husband so at least he’s good at Metroidvanias.
  • LEGO Voyagers – I love the LEGO games and being able to also play alongside my husband already makes this stand out to me. I hope we can pick our LEGO brick color though.
  • Scott Pilgrim EX – We had played the previous Scott Pilgrim game together and it was a lot of fun so excited to see more of this.
  • LEGO Party! – As mentioned, I already really enjoy LEGOs and essentially Mario Party but with LEGOs? Sign me up immediately.
  • Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School – To think, both of my favorite Escape Room series are getting a sequel! I can’t wait to play this with my husband. I hope we can customize our character this time, or at minimum, let us choose which of the two we want to play as instead of setting it by which player number you are.
  • Big Walk – While I’m a little worried considering my awful sense of direction combined with the fact that I usually end up playing these types of games solo, I still really like the idea of it and it looks cute.
  • Gourdlets Together – I adore Gourdlets so one where we can interact with friends is nice. I’m not sure how the fishing mechanic is (hopefully it’s not too bad) and I have mixed feelings on having to re-unlock stuff (I’m still struggling to unlock some things in the main game), but other than that, it looks fun.
  • Vending Dokan!: Kozy Kiosk – This looks so cute and– what do you mean it’s also out now?!
  • Adding to the games suddenly dropping immediately for release today is Fireside Feelings which looks adorable.
  • The Wholesome Games sizzle reel was just… jam-packed with so many things… And many are games I’ve been either looking forward to or are new games I am now very excited about so shout-outs to: Clawsome, On-Together, Shiba Sweet, Pawsta, and Townbox.
  • Block Block Block – This looked really cute.
  • Dono’s Tale – Also looking very cute.
  • Cats Around Us: Black Cat – These are always really cute. Nice to see another one too… I still need to get the previous ones though…
  • Coffee Talk Tokyo – So excited to see another Coffee Talk game coming out! I loved the previous two so excited for the new one as well.
  • Upin & Ipin Universe – This looks like a lot of fun.
  • Animalkind – These just looks really cute, honestly. I am definitely picking the Dog.
  • Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth – I loved the first Moomin game so I’m excited that another one will be made!
  • Go North – Honestly, it just sounds really fun. I also do like exploration-focused things, just when things feel more structured and not as open which I feel like this will be.

New Games through Steam’s Summer Games Page

AKA games I didn’t see in a showcase, but caught my eye in the Steam hub page for everything. This section will likely continue to be updated as I check out more demos so keep an eye on it until this extra statement is removed!

  • Cozy Organizer – This was so cute. It can use some adjustments with the item hit boxes (You can read more about it in my demo playthrough for the game, but I still had fun.
  • Unbox the Room – I really love seeing more types of games like this.
  • DIGI-DOLL – Genuinely really loved this. Just super cute and nostalgic. The bear is my favorite.
  • Cats in Cozy Rooms – While I love interior decorating in games, I most enjoy it when I have some kind of structure to build around and I love helping these cats get all moved in.

Additional Updates for Previously Announced Games

  • Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds – While not a new announcement, I’ve still been really looking forward to the game and it’s nice to know that it’ll be coming in September and we’ll be seeing other Sega characters in it as well.
  • TOEM 2 – I LOVED the first game so so SO much and was thrilled when they announced a sequel was coming out. Seeing more of it just makes me all the more excited and I can’t wait until it’s out and I can play it.
  • Instants is out! I’ve been really looking forward to this so hopefully I can pick it up soon.
  • Is This Seat Taken? has gotten a release date for August 2025! Another one I’ve been very excited for.
  • MakeRoom – Continuing the Release date announces is MakeRoom releasing August 7th! I love interior decorating and this is about the right level of depth for me to not feel too overwhelmed with it.
  • Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell – I love mysteries. I love wholesome vibes. Is it any surprise I’m excited for this? You can check out the Kickstarter here.
  • SQUEAKROSS RELEASED TODAY!!!! (As this will likely not be out “today”, June 7th is when this was announced during the Wholesome Games Showcase!)
  • Tales of the Shire is releasing July 29th! I am very excited about all the cute pink dresses.
  • Haunted Paws – The only horror game I may try playing. I don’t know if I want to sign up for the Alpha or not, but I am looking forward to playing this with my husband.
  • Out and About – Another game I’ve been super looking forward to. Still looks great.
  • The Wholesome Games sizzle reel was just… jam-packed with so many things… And many are games I’ve been either looking forward to or are new games I am now very excited about so shout-outs to: A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe, Danchi Days, Capy Castaway, and Letters To Arralla.
  • Woodo – I’ve been so excited for this game for years now. I want to play it so badly…
  • Not Monday Cafe – I absolutely adored the demo and am so excited for the game’s release.
  • Idle Waters – A demo I played a while back and am looking forward to.
  • Building Relationships – This just looks so silly and I had a lot of fun with the demo.
  • Undusted: Letters from the Past – Another game I’ve been super looking forward to and really enjoyed the demo for.
  • Lost and Found Co. – I’ve been looking forward to this game since the initial announcement so always excited to see more of it. I hope we get a release date soon!
  • RollerGirl – I remember playing a demo for it ages ago. It’s nice to see how far it’s come and still looks really fun.

Additional Updates for Released Games

Honorable Mentions

AKA games that seem interesting, but I am unlikely to play or need more information first.

  • Mongil: Star Dive – I love the creature designs, but I think I’m just kind of overwhelmed enough with these types of games and just really do not have the time or energy to play more of them.
  • Please, Watch the Artwork – I’ve been slightly interested in the recent Spot the Different “anomaly observation” games, but I don’t like horror so seeing one that will be without jumpscares and everything, not to mention I’ve enjoyed the previous games, has me somewhat curious. Since it is being released around Halloween, I am still a bit cautious, but I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on it.
  • UNBEATABLE – I’m absolutely awful at rhythm games which is literally the only reason I won’t get this, but the music is amazing, and I’ll be getting the soundtrack regardless.
  • Rollick N’ Roll – As someone with a lot of nostalgia for these type of games, I just love the look of it. Unfortunately, I just got so anxious with the more difficult levels in the demo T~T
  • There are No Ghosts at the Grand – Honestly, I was really excited… and then they showed dark rooms, monsters, and Cthulhu and I signed right back out. I liked the idea of just helping restore the hotel and town and finding our father :( But not all the spooky stuff.
  • Animo – While I’m semi-burnt-out on these types of action open-world games, I really love the creature designs so I’m at least somewhat intrigued.
  • FBC: Firebreak – Very much not my type of game, but wow is it nice to hear no battle passes and no daily streak things as I really hate both of those and am so tired of them in games.

And that’s it! I may end up updating this for any of the later in the month showcases, but we shall see! Let me know if you liked this format or prefer the one I’ve done previously :)

Blog-related things & DDLV Interlude: Frustrating Events

So, while this will mostly be a Disney Dreamlight Valley update to talk about recent stuff and discuss the new developer update, I did want to give a bit of a blog update! In general, posts have slowed down partially due to time issues, but also just due to some health things and stress as well. You may have noticed I haven’t made posts for not!E3/Gamer Christmas yet and I’m debating this year of doing one post with my favorite games/games I’m most intrigued by that are shown during all the showcases for the first two weeks of June (I may edit it with some honorable mentions for any later ones) rather than my usual just talking about the showcases a bit and naming some games.

I don’t know if I’ll necessarily have tons to say, but I’m hoping it will be a bit more organized and lessen the number of times I end up just repeating some games.

I’ve also been working on a Hello Kitty Island Adventure post to catch up for occasional future posts (the reason it hasn’t gotten any was due to losing a lot of screenshots so I’m slowly having to retake all of them which is just… rough), but as much as I hoped it’d be out by now, I’m not entirely sure when it will be done and the frustrating reality is the longer it takes, the more I have to add to it.

Regardless, thank you for your patience and support. We’ve also gotten a lot of donations recently which really helps so much with keeping the site running and helping me afford general day to day needs.

With all that said, let’s get onto the main point of this post: Disney Dreamlight Valley.

I’m going to start with the Patch Notes just because it’s a bit easier and I figure it’s kind of the more exciting part. It’s also nice to finally see the voting up for the community-chosen companion. I don’t personally have a preference for the Animal Base so I’m more interested in the other options (According to the polls, Aesthethic/Theme will be Vote 2, Neck/Attire will be Vote 3, Head/Accessory would be Vote 4, and Vote 5 will be an Emitter/Trail). That said, it would have been nice to see an option for the Night Thorn Ferret that was often mentioned in the early DDLV Discord days.

The next patch is coming June 18th, right after the Dreamlight Parks Fest event ends essentially, and will finally give us the rest of the Skull Rock quest. I’m excited to finally give the Forgotten a new name (if only I can also give them a new look…), though, I have no clue what to name them.

I figured we’d be seeing either Peter Pan or Captain Hook first with Skull Rock so not too surprised with Peter Pan’s arrival.

I’m actually pretty excited for the upcoming Star Path rewards as I love the seashell-inspired stuff.

That said, we need to talk about the Premium Shop… again. One of the things shown is a “Never Land River Kit” which I’ll admit I don’t have full details on so some of this in just conjecture, but if that is a premium pack required to let you essentially make your own decorative river paths, it is… really obnoxious to make that Premium Shop only. It looks very pretty and maybe it is just an item, but “River kit” sounds like more than that.

The worst part though? The new Companion Bundle featuring Max. Ignoring that it’s another actual companion from the Disney universe being forced into a pay only pack, Max also has the ability to dig up resources for you. Quality of Life/Accessibility-esque perks should not be pay to access. Not to mention as someone who likes to use a lot of different companions, having to essentially have Max out for that perk as well is also kind of frustrating. I’d much rather them add a new questline that can teach all companions to be able to do this (that you can toggle on and off) rather than doing this Premium Shop exclusivity with Max on multiple levels.

Of course, with the new friendship levels, maybe some other companions can also dig for you? It’s hard to say just yet. All I know is I have a lot of companions to level up now…

The final part of the Storybook Vale will release three weeks after our Skull Rock adventures and I’m very excited to have Aurora finally in the Valley. Now all my favorite Disney princesses are in. Just hoping for Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, and The Great Mouse Detective still…

We received a new roadmap essentially going through the rest of the year. It seems something Inside Out-related for late Summer, a return to the Beauty and the Beast Realm for Lumiere and Cogsworth, and the update in Winter sounds like it may finally bring in Cinderella. I’m always excited for new quests and characters so those will always be my favorite parts in the game.

For those playing on Playstation, the upcoming update will finally give them crossplay as well so it’ll be nice being able to play with everyone.

Another Showcase is planned for later this year, but I’m just glad there is time to prepare for everything upcoming.

Alright! Let’s go to the next part of this post now where I talk about what I’ve been up to in Disney Dreamlight Valley and I just, I need to say this because wow did I not have enough issues with Wonderland as it is: I hate the Cheshire Cat. I think doing his friendship quests and the “Cheshire Chaos” event kind of fueled it all the more.

I’ve mentioned previously how much I wish we could have a designated event area. With the addition of Floating Islands, I have felt this all the more strongly. Trying to find things in your valley if you decorated at all or even care to some extent can be exhausting to begin with but adding tons of restrictions on how much you can even find at any given time makes it all the worse.

Regardless, before we get to the event stuff, let’s talk about the Cheshire Cat’s arrival into Dreamlight Valley and his Friendship questlines. Continuing from my last post, the theme was continued Valley chaos and I just… hated it. Would have liked to keep one of these fish though.

I then got his tree up and did his quests. These quests honestly made me feel terrible. I just felt really bad or frustrated the entire time.


For anyone who missed the Cheshire Chaos event, the event itself involved finding “Cheshire Cracks” which were glowing pink dig spots in the Valley and finding pink pawprints in various realms (Toy Story’s, Lion King’s, and Aladdin’s respectively). I thought I had taken screenshots finding these, but I guess I was so frustrated I didn’t so I only have my recording.

The annoying issues, outside of trying to find cracks in a various packed valley (You’ll notice I ended up removing a lot of things during all this), are:
1. There can only be up to five cracks at a time and they only appear every 15 minutes. They’re a pain to find, limited to how many can show up, the Valley isn’t exactly small, and these are how you get memories which has the usual memory issue where you aren’t even guaranteed to get a new one.
2. Adding to annoying limits, Paw prints are also set to 5 being present at a time (per realm) with them spawning every 15 minutes. You needed to clean up 20 per realm. It’s just an annoying way to stretch it out.
3. While if you logged in on the 15th, you could do everything at once, just like with the Cheshire Cat himself, you had to wait 4 days to be able to do the next part of the event.

And these are the things that are just so frustrating about the events. The memory system is annoying enough with how you can get repeat memories even for permanent ones– doing it for a limited time event makes it really stressful. Having event-specific things spawn on your island makes it less encouraging to even bother decorating in the first place if you may need to end up clearing things out to help find them.
Add in all the unneeded walling and it quickly feels more like a tiring chore than any kind of thing to have fun with.

Which brings us to the Dreamlight Parks fest where we’re back finding buttons that litter our island, placing decorations we may not actually want to, and once again having questlines that require waiting a couple of days for the next one on top of Mirabel’s being very tightly bound (to the point where they added the reward to everyone’s crafting table after realizing) because of Critter schedules which could be fixed if taking pictures with Critters you’ve befriended counted and/or having it not require specific different ones. You need to take a photo of Mirabel with each Squirrel (which unless it is Sunday, will take 2-3 days), feed 3 different Rabbit colors a carrot (which since most days only have two, you’re likely waiting an extra day), and take a picture with each Sea Turtle (which again, will take two days to complete due to Critter schedules) and just… If it weren’t so many tight restrictions, this could absolutely have been something to take care of in a day.

Scrooge’s were at least not too bad to take care of since using the Mining Enhancement potion actually counted unlike how it usually goes with the Star Path, but it would’ve been nice to be able to do it all at once instead of four tasks being stretched over a week by making you wait a day inbetween each.

The new popcorn buckets are cute at least.

Moving on from events, Dinah was added to the Premium Shop as we continue the official critters in the premium shop trend… Less frustrating was the Tea Party Monkey, though, I still feel the prices for Critters in the Premium Shop are just too expensive.

Finally, as usual, we’ll end off with recent Dreamsnap entries.


Disney Dreamlight Valley – It’s time for Wonderland Whimsy!

Before we get fully into the update (as technically I’m writing this first part a couple of days early), I wanted to talk a bit about the patch notes for the update.

I feel like it’s been ages since we had a realm release back-to-back. I suppose it’s because the biome stories are done now.

Still really not fond of the “weeks to unlock a character” thing. I didn’t enjoy it with Stitch, HKIA has burned me out on it so badly (with the only boon that I don’t really need to seek something out each time– as long as I set up everything properly, it’s RNG after that and I can just hope and do their quest quickly), and it’s a concept I really hoped they would not do again. I think it’ll be all the more frustrating for me because I am not an Alice in Wonderland fan and I do not like the Cheshire Cat yet I’m going to have to go crazy to get him in.

I still haven’t gotten all the new items from past updates for Scrooge so at this point, I feel kind of numb when it comes to shop updates. I feel part of it is there have been so many bugs with the Furniture and Clothing logs (not to mention I swear sometimes Premium stuff still counts when it’s not supposed to??) and it’s such a pain to search through that my motivation is pretty dead with it. I feel like I’d be more excited if I could see all the new items added rather than just hoping something new shows up.

Pretty excited to fully use tables and I’m always happy for more Player House Expansions… Even though I have yet to finish adjusting to the latest one.

Launch day, we also got a blog post which thankfully gave exact dates for Cheshire Cat and once those days pass, it’ll be immediately locked from anyone who gets to it which is at least better than with Stitch, but I also just wish they could let us all do it at once anyway then…

I can’t say I’m looking forward to the May event though if it is more chaos-oriented…

With all that said, let’s get to Wonderland Whimsy!

As per usual, the first things I did was unlock the Premium Star Path and check the Premium Store. I always like to get the new companions ASAP.


I’m still… very disappointed about actual characters being sold in the Premium Store. I really think any non-original Critters/Companions should be able to be earned in-game. R2-D2 is especially such a big deal, and I feel like he should definitely be gotten through a Realm or something??
I do love the photo pose interaction though.

I think the biggest thing that kills me is them doing more of the seasonal bundles and then doing an additional one with a house style… They just feel so obnoxious :(

Moving passed Premium stuff, it was time to make our way to the Castle to unlock the new Alice in Wonderland Realm. I’m still not sure if the ponytail going like that is a bug or part of the “Wonderland experience”.

Alas, the door becomes too small to go through and then a White Rabbit comes out and you have to chase it out into the Valley. It essentially goes from the Plaza, to the Meadow, back to the Plaza, and then near the path up to the Forest is the Rabbit Hole… Unfortunately, I got stuck on something and lost track of it for a bit and then it got stuck on a night thorn so uh, after freeing it, things continued, and we were off to Wonderland.


It’s… essentially what you expect once you get there. Unlike most Disney fans, I’ve never really been much of a fan of Alice in Wonderland for various reasons so most of the stuff felt more frustrating for me than anything.

Regardless of my personal feelings, it was time to meet Alice. Unfortunately, she ends up disappearing and the Cheshire Cat is… what you’d expect I suppose.

Alas, to continue onwards, first we must find the Cheshire Cat along the forest. Then, collect various ingredients to make “More Time” along with finding some chests along the way– one which contains some furniture items, but also one that starts off a bit of a key puzzle. Once you eat “More Time”, you’re then instructed to find a portal through the forest either by randomly going through (there are essentially 9 maps– it’s roughly 3×3) or you can use the little guys that will make arrows showing you the way to go.


Once in the hedge maze, you’ll have various stealth moments to find your way through to where Alice is.


It was then time to get more things in the Forest in order to craft a perfume for Alice to return to her normal size.


It’s then our turn to shrink down to get the four key on the table for freeing the animals after placing some of the various game pieces from around the garden onto the table. I was actually kind of excited for this part, but they used a heavy blur for most of the table distance and it honestly gave me a headache. I really wish they just left it alone or just… blurred the background a bit but not the objects as ell.

After cleaning the garden up, it was time to leave. We just needed to use all the perfume on the door to fix its size first.


I will say Alice’s house is pretty cute. Though, maybe not so much the signs on the wall…

Before I went full in on Alice’s friendship quests, I went back to Wonderland to get the Cheshire Cat to sneak around the valley and then stopped by Scrooge’s to kick off the first Cheshire Cat quest.

It’ll be one week until the next part…

Alice’s first quest involved Vanellope causing words from Merlin’s book to fly out, so we had to gather them back up.



Honestly, I’m really surprised we didn’t get one of the special trail White Rabbits– whether the Card Suits or the Letters… Maybe we’ll get a special companion through the Cheshire Cat’s questlines… Though, honestly, I’m kind of scared of what to expect.

Alice’s next quest was essentially a treasure hunt to find an old treasure of hers. The first clue lead to a bottle on the beach near the entrance to the glade, the second lead down to the Mystic Cave where we had to fish a bottle up, and the last lead to a log with two glowing eyes in it where her Kaleidoscope ended up being hidden.

The next quest was essentially helping her come back together after the kaleidoscope split her into two essentially…

After checking our mail, it was time for Alice’s final friendship quest which was essentially to throw an Unbirthday party. It also restored the Kaleidoscope to be less… risky and thus, we had another memento to join our journal to be used at some point in the future.


After that, I made a few small adjustments in the large dining room where I put the new Tea Sandwiches item.

And finally, our latest dream snaps:

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Interlude before the Wonderland update

So, the Developer Update Video is out which talks about the upcoming Wonderland Whimsy update and confirms its release date for next Wednesday: April 23rd, 2025. Unlike most people who play the game, I’m actually not a fan of Alice in Wonderland so I can’t say this update really captures my attention. I’m looking forward to the new realm despite that though.

Before we get into what I’ve been up to since my last post, I wanted to talk about the Developer Update itself first.

The Realm looks fairly big, but I am very much not looking forward to more stealth segments. It also sounds like the Cheshire Cat will work similar to Stitch and the whole socks situation which I… really wish they wouldn’t do again. I wouldn’t mind it as a daily thing (though, still not really my preference), but doing it weekly is just… so frustrating, especially as I always worry about messing up a step and pushing it back further.

While I don’t know if I’ll use the Uncrafting station much, it is nice to see the option. I’m happy for the chest upgrades, though wish it could work on all storage items.

From the Star Path preview, the Flower Gazebo and Fountain are probably the main standouts for me, but I wouldn’t say I like anything more than things we already have. Victorian outfits excited me until I saw the colors, but maybe there will be some cute pink dress…

As always, I will get the Animal Companions immediately, but I still have mixed feelings on ones designed over an existing character.

We finally are seeing more Star Wars stuff and I am very much judging R2-D2 being a Premium Shop Companion/Item instead of something free or even an actual character. At this point, I’m genuinely convinced the Premium Shop is partially being used to gauge popularity– we got a bunch of Alice in Wonderland themed items and the Realm is now finally here, we recently got a bunch of Winnie the Pooh items so maybe we’ll finally see the Hundred Acre Woods, and maybe if this does well they’ll bring more Star Wars stuff.

I think in general most of my patience with the Premium Shop died when the game decided to stay pay to play. I’m actually okay with the latter point– I just don’t think it should still have a Premium shop then. Especially when we have to pay for Expansions anyway.

With that said, let’s move on to the few things I’ve done since my last post, which uh, to be honest isn’t much.

First, I did a couple more adjustments around the Valley like setting up a rainbow arch and putting in the new Oasis Well skin. I’m not too surprised to see ones for Wells now which honestly, I am kind of excited about and felt this looked best in the Plateau for now.

I’m still hoping to do some stuff on the floating islands, especially as they won’t be plagued by like… night thorns and stuff and I do have ideas— just haven’t fully felt up to executing it all. I kind of wish I could save certain layouts of items or easily just… move things up to the Floating Island over needing to essentially remove stuff, re-find it, and re-set it up and I think those are the things that have been holding me back from working on it right now as I haven’t been in the best of health lately so my energy levels just aren’t there right now.

Eggstravaganza also returned with a brand new egg color: Purple! These were found exclusively in Realms which uh, I like the idea but with how big realms are now, it wasn’t really fun finding them. They also seem slightly smaller than the other eggs, but I’m not entirely sure that’s intentional.


While the new items were cute (the balloons were probably my favorite), I think the highlight for me initially with this event were the special Bunnies you got from the Dreamlight Tasks and nothing new got added in that regard.

I’ve also really liked seeing a lot of new Winnie the Pooh themed items, even though it’s mostly been through the Premium Shop. I’m really hoping to set something up in either the Glade of Trust or the Floating Island version of it to be like a Hundred Acre Wood area…

Besides that, as usual, I participated in the Dreamsnaps. It’s been a bit harder to feel particularly creative right now, but I still try to do my best.

Anyway, I’ll likely edit this post on Wednesday with my Dreamsnap entry for the week and then we’ll be back next Wednesday to talk about the new update! Be sure to keep an eye on my Youtube as well for my playthrough of it.

Disney Dreamlight Valley – The Tales of Agrabah Update and Lucky You! Event

Continuing to get to updates later than I’d like to, I at least got my playthrough up right away. And well, now I can talk a bit about the Lucky You! Event that started earlier this week.

As always, I started off by taking a look at the Star Path and new Companions available. Besides the Companions, my favorite furniture item was probably the Relaxing Oasis Escape. That said, I’m incredibly disappointed that the bonus items have already switched from “just recolors” to having something exclusive. I already disliked the bonus item situation (and we have a new bundle bonus item as well -_-), but they said it would just be recolors and already went back on it… That said, we still have a premium store and premium currency despite the game no longer planning to be free to play so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised :/

Moving on from my critiques, our newest Critter Companions are a vacation-ready Capybara and a cute little Reindeer, both which have their own exclusive critter house as well (The Reindeer comes with theirs, but the Capybara’s is another item in the Star Path). I swear I had taken screenshots right after getting them, but I must have accidentally not saved them? So these are from more recently.

The Capybara’s animation is the same as every other Capybara, but the Reindeer has its own unique pose.

Checking this out was when I realized I never checked out two fairly important Companions for their poses which are very cute.


I love the pose we make before we pick Figaro up. I want that as a regular pose I can put on whenever.

Anyway, once I was done with the new Critters and unlocking the new floating islands, it was onto the castle for the new Aladdin Realm!

Our first goal was to find our way to Jasmine. And this was about the only time I felt I had any sense of where I was going because it only got more confusing as I went…

With pickaxe upgrade on, it was time to find our way to Aladdin.

Once thing I accidentally kept doing was sequence breaking a bit through a combination of exploring and getting lost, so I often found things before I even needed them. Similarly, instructions weren’t always clear such as needing to figure out where the gems were… when they were with the monkeys I had already seen so I was apparently supposed to go back to the group of monkeys.

Thankfully, I already found all the Golden Bananas so I was good to go for the next part and rescue Carpet.

With Carpet rescued, it was time to take down the cause of the sandstorm.

With my constant getting things before I necessarily needed them, I was so nervous about breaking something, but thankfully, I got through the quest with no issues and now, Jasmine and Aladdin were in the valley.

As for Carpet, well, he’s here too… But as a Companion. Unsurprisingly, this is his photo pose, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about him being a companion. I guess he doesn’t really talk, but… It feels kind of weird on who is decided to be a full character in the valley vs who just becomes part of the Critter inventory.

One thing I sadly also lost the photos of were getting the keys. I do talk about it on tips page for the game. I managed to find all the keys in one go (especially as once we had to fix a few stalls for Aladdin, it was important to me to try and fix them all), though I had accidentally missed picking one up. They kind of blended in a bit when they just… dropped after finishing certain goals. I was really excited we got the Agrabah craft table as one of the rewards from unlocking the door, but kind of sad the door didn’t actually open or anything. Everything just popped out.

Anyway, with the Realm finished, it was time to give Aladdin and Jasmine more flowers than they would know what to do with to get their friendship quests unlocked. I started with Jasmine first since she technically arrived at the Valley first. Her friendship story was fairly unique as it had more to do with the Player Character than her, even though it was partially told through relating to her own experiences. I pretty much called the book inside the flower somehow belonging to us and it seems like it’ll end up leading to some kind of extended questline in the future (at least according to Merlin in the post-quest).


Once again though, it hits very close to home. On a less personal note, I hope we’ll get more sandcastle-type parts in the future. I didn’t expect the centerpiece to kind of just be a sand sculpture of her palace.

Regardless, it was then onto Aladdin’s which involved breaking into Scrooge’s Vault (to test his security system), getting our own magic carpet (which I wish we could have put some input into instead of the usual Dreamlight Valley night thorn aesthetic look), and puzzles.


The puzzle thing was a bit frustrating since I kind of figured what to do (though, it took me a second to realize the mechanics of it) and also had a feeling the perfect thing for Jasmine was bringing her along in the first place, but oh well…

Aladdin’s final quest was setting up a market with his gem stall which I’ve already had a market more or less set up completely already.

The only one not there is Tiana’s because her stall needed to be near the restaurant. And well, Gaston’s is stuck on Eternity Isle. I might move the stalls to Plaza if I end up moving some things onto a Floating Island. We’ll have to see.

Regardless, the last thing I did was increase the size of some of the rooms which I’m really excited about. I still need to do more adjustments to a lot of the rooms, but I’ve so happy for the 12×12 rooms. (Just ignore that the camera position made some tables invisible)

Anyway, as mentioned at the start of the post, the Lucky You! Event started earlier this week for the first time. I’m kind of surprised it’s only a week-long because spawns are… well, not always great and the clovers can blend in a lot to the ground, even if there are sparkles. The first ones I saw I picked up completely by accident just working on night thorn clearing.

I’m glad you could at least craft Four-leaf clovers in addition to finding them, even if it required 10 for one. There were essentially two event rewards– the shirt for getting 7 four-leaf clovers (whether by finding or crafting) and the Pot of Gold which took quite a lot of four-leaf clovers to make. It’s really pretty though.


With the new floating islands available (now making one per biome), I’m thinking more on what I want to do, but I still feel rather undecided. Right now my main thoughts are turning the Plaza Floating Island into like a Toon Town Neighborhood & Park (not sure how many rides I can actually fit though). If I can’t really fit the rides there, I could maybe use the Frost Floating Island for them as I don’t really feel the need for a whole other snowy area right now. Or maybe the Sunset Plateau Floating Island for similar reasons? I’ll have to see.

The Glade of Trust floating island is probably going to be the “Villain” area because it has water for Ursula, but I’m still kind of annoyed that you can’t really move Mother Gothel. I’m hoping they’ll change something with that and maybe let you give the big Willow Tree a bit of a makeover.

I’m debating moving my house and certain things to the Meadow Floating Island and then re-adjusting things in the Meadow currently, especially as a lot of the spawning stuff down there drives me nuts, but I also really like how it looks so I’m just incredibly undecided.

I also played around with some of the new patterns, but I think I still like my usual dress as is.

Finally, Dreamsnap time.

Let’s talk about Hello Kitty Island Adventure!

I’m not sure how much I’ll talk about my initial playthrough or not yet so much as just experience in general. Maybe it’ll be a mix. We shall see! Regardless, I had been anticipating this game from the very first trailer. I was so incredibly excited and then immediately heart-broken when it was revealed to be Apple Arcade only. Even outside of the fact that I don’t really have any Apple Devices, these types of games are not ones I’d really enjoy on a phone and/or on a subscription. The game has been out for PC and Switch for over a month now though so I wanted to try and give my thoughts.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m kind of tired of Live Service games, especially after full retail games would have things very slowly be released (Splatoon, Animal Crossing: New Horizons), and even more so when they are on a subscription so in some ways, waiting this long was maybe for the best, but in others, sometimes it can be kind of overwhelming and when looking up information, you’ll get a mixed bags of things that may actually be helpful and things that only apply to a version that no longer exists and this kind of also adds a bit to my frustration.

As it is, the game has held back updates for this release. In fact, several big qualities of life updates are being held off until our first free update and I’m not entirely sure why. While we will get that content and those features then, the whole City area (and everything that brings) is still not going to be available for PC and Switch players. I don’t know if Apple Arcade still has some kind of exclusivity on the game’s content but considering that this will bring some of the content that was released in the most recent update there, it doesn’t feel like that’s the case.

I think the biggest complaint I heard from friends who played on Apple Arcade were that the game has a lot of “walls”. If you’re not sure what that means, it essentially means that the game has limits to how much you can do in a day and/or quests that often will be split up into various parts that also can only be done daily or longer. It’s generally something you may see often in mobile titles which kind of makes sense considering the game was an Apple Arcade exclusive (I specifically say kinda because it could be played on all Apple Devices so people could play it on Apple TV as well, for example) so being able to do a quick 15-minute quest and be done can be nice, but it doesn’t really work as well when paying $40 (or $60 if you spring for the deluxe version) for it.

And I will say, having played it, the walls are definitely pretty exhausting, and I think depending on your tolerance for them will be a large part of how much you enjoy the game. I’m at a point where getting new quests depends on getting certain Visitors to want to stay on the island. Besides that, characters can only show up every other day, if you’re lucky. Many characters also have schedules that mean they won’t always be available to travel to your island which many being every other week, monthly, or even during specific seasons. And whether you care for certain characters or not, outside of quest requirements, some characters also require other characters to be moved in before you can actually get them to start showing up.

To get a Visitor to move in, you must get them to 5 stars which requires completing 5 different quests. You can only get one per visit, you are not guaranteed to get a visitor quest for your daily quest even if they’re visiting, and you can only get up to three visitor quests a day. So even if you do manage to get them in (which is also chance based– just because they have a room they like doesn’t mean they will show up), you still need to hope you even get one of the quests for their star ranks. It’s an arduous process and really frustrating with just how RNG-heavy it is. I wouldn’t mind a daily quest– it’s everything else that is so frustrating. I don’t think there should be a limit on visitor quests a day. If you get a visitor, you should get their quest no matter what.

Essentially, two of the longest unlocks are with unlocking the Greenhouse and unlocking Milk. If you’re into the gardening and flower breeding aspect, the Greenhouse will be a huge boon to you as it makes it a lot easier to get other colors and patterns. And with a whole bunch of flowers and over 20 different colors, not to mention all the patterns… There are a lot of flowers to work towards. To get the Greenhouse, in addition to getting Wish me mell’s friendship up, you need to unlock flower plots at the Seaside Resort, Spooky Swamp, Gemstone Mountain, Mount Hothead, and Rainbow Reef which require getting Lou, Aro, Poco, Chico, and Marin respectively. And then you also need Lutz. That doesn’t even get to the number of materials needed to then upgrade the greenhouse…

As for Milk, you need to get everyone associated with Cinnamoroll in the game moved in as well: Espresso, Azuki, Chiffon, Mocha, Cappuccino, Coco, Nuts, Poron, and Corune. To get Coco and Nuts, you need to have Chiffon, Mocha, Espresso, and Cappuccino as permanent residents. Once you have the four of them, Azuki, Coco, and Nuts in and have completed various Cinnamoroll-related quests (some are also required for Coco and Nuts), you can finally get Poron in. And for Corune, you need to get Poron moved in. This doesn’t even bring up their various schedules in the first place.

I don’t think being a fan of Sanrio is necessarily a requirement to enjoy the game if you just like doing quests and decorating and cute little friends and customizing your character and stuff. You’ll learn about everyone as you go. I do like Sanrio and I’m mostly familiar with all the characters in the game so far with just a couple I mainly only knew by name/have seen briefly. I think the only ones I am not familiar with at all are some of Wish me mell’s friends.

In some ways, the game feels like what Disney Dreamlight Valley is, but for Sanrio and so I think if you expect something similar, you’re not too off the mark. That said, as previously mentioned, the walls are pretty rough. The game has a lot of restrictions daily, despite the actually day-night cycle in the game being completely on its own. It does at least mean you can experience all times of day regardless of when you play plus it also means multiple weather events can happen in a day (which… also have their own RNG. There are some exclusive Critters, Fish, and Materials during each weather effect). Everything else works on a daily schedule and while they are supposedly looking into possible adjustments to the system, there are no guarantees it will happen just yet.

I’m still really enjoying the game, but some walls feel especially frustrating. Sometimes, I’ll have a quest done within about 5 minutes. Others just feel so horridly forced to be cut off that it feels off-putting and awkward to just leave it there, such as one character disappearing and just being like “oh, we can talk to this person tomorrow, no rush” I feel like there is very much a rush actually???

If it wasn’t for friends helping with items, I’d probably be a bit more frustrated too because some items are incredibly limited (like 2-7 you can find a day. I think the most of an item you can find per day is about 50? With one having about 60 a day) and it’s just… frustrating. I’ve mentioned before how I have days where I really want to sit and play for hours so it kind of stinks when you’re just… done.

On a positive note, when you do become best friends with a character, they can help gather materials (one per day) which helps a lot as someone who can get burnt out with that kind of thing. In general, all the characters have helpful traits that you unlock as you become better friends. The unfortunate part is that you can only have up to two abilities at a time (just one until you do a specific trait from Kiki & Lala) and have to track down characters to switch off, though an upcoming quality of life feature for Switch/PC (already out on Apple Arcade) lets you call them to you in the menu. I think the thing that bothers me most is a lot of this abilities are super handy, and I do wish I could just… have them all activated whenever and maybe turn some off when I feel like it. Pochacco helps you move faster and helps collect things from challenges, Pompompurin lets you jump higher, Hangyodon helps you swim faster and increases the chance of rare fish… Every single character has at least one ability and they all feel so helpful that I really wish I could just have them all on all the time. At least calling should help make things quicker as I go around doing things (I just need to remember to swim).

That said, while some feel more situational (Like Hangyodon and Badtz-maru would be the best team to use for when I want to go all in on fishing, as rare as it is because of all the activities in the game, fishing is one of my least favorites (it just feels slow and clunky)), I’d probably keep Pochacco and Pompompurin on all the time for the increased movement speed and jumping height. Tuxedosam gives you a 25% chance to get an additional item when shopping (which also extends to any visitors as do all crafting-related abilities) and it’s just, I don’t even want to keep switching. I just want to have them all on.

I finished the first part of the story, and it was fairly sweet, but I was kind of disappointed as there was a big ending cutscene with a song and everything, but your custom character isn’t part of the cutscene at all. It makes them feel completely outside of the celebration which feels awkward because they were clearly such a big part of everything. The whole thing is about saving the memories that “all our friends are part of”. “A grand celebration of everything friendship” to “do all together” and then we’re… not in it. It feels weird and awkward and really took me out of what should have been exciting.

Anyway, despite my disappointments there, like I said, I am still having fun. I just wish the walls weren’t as forced as they are and that things were more flexible for all playstyles, especially when people playing on Switch and the PC will generally want to play longer sessions in the first place.

Edit: I realized I had forgotten two very important things I wanted to talk about: The Deluxe Pack and Customization.

A lot of people wonder if the Deluxe Pack is worth it. For the most part, supposedly nothing is exclusive to the Deluxe Pack– all event items are to make a come-back (and outside of the grand opening items included, this does seem to be the case as each event rolls around with older items being available through Tuxedosam’s and My Melody’s shops). You also don’t actually get all the past event items. Some examples are any of the 50th anniversary stuff, Christmas clothing, and some Spooky clothing (like the Lolita dress which was one of the items I had been most excited for).

But besides Event stuff, you do get a lot of materials and items that can reset friendship gifts (normally capped at 3 per character a day) and item spawns which can give you quite a jump start which I super appreciated, especially with the aforementioned walls.

As for Customization, it’s cute and I was able to make something I liked in the end, but you are limited to 3 body types and the six different head options are each linked to a specific body type– two head options to each one. This was sometimes frustrating as sometimes the head type I liked best wasn’t my favorite body type and vice versa.

Similarly, rather than choosing colors, you are limited to choosing a color palette. Each palette consists of three colors that are automatically applied to certain parts depending on the pattern you choose. Additional patterns are unlocked through character friendship and events. Some color palettes are also exclusive to animal types (for example, my favorite color palette is actually exclusive to sheep, but I liked the options for bunny best and at least was able to make something super cute with a pattern from Cinnamoroll).

I do think you can probably still make something you’re happy with, but it’s another thing I wish was much more flexible and I personally feel like you should be able to pick the color you want out of everything for your starter one and just unlock others later.

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Interlude before Tales of Agrabah update

Like the last few times, I haven’t really been doing much. I’ve been poking in at least once a week just to check the Premium store and any other limited event stuff like some of the new things for Christmas/Winter. While I still need stuff from Scrooge’s shop, I’ve just been kind of discouraged to keep checking it, especially having to check it three times instead of just once.

Regardless, I’ll start with some of the holiday stuff– we had a cute thing to build a Snowman though, not being much of an Alice in Wonderland person, the end result wasn’t really my thing…

There has also been a lot of Premium Shop stuff I’ve really liked recently.



I definitely want to place more of that pond… Maybe when I finally get the motivation for the Floating Islands.

Finally, some of my recent DreamSnaps entries:




With that all done, let’s talk about some of the previews we’ve been seeing on DDLV’s social media.

First up, we’re getting more Floating Islands so that should help with the missing biomes and I’m hoping it may help me with my motivation that has been struggling a bit. I also love the new Capybara, but Critters are always my weakness so.

Secondly, a search bar for cooking will be so nice. Scrolling to find recipes, especially as you get more and more unlocked has been exhausting.

Third… The Mini Reindeer Bundle and the Cloud Cottage look so cute. I’m also excited that it seems like we may be able to have bigger rooms as I’d love to make some rooms even bigger.

With how it’s been broken up, I’m guessing we’ll see another update tomorrow, though, I’d have preferred to just see one video with everything… Especially as I hate watching these updates in portrait mode videos. Regardless, the update isn’t too much further away (It releases Wednesday on the 26th), so we’ll see the patch notes soon enough. I’ll likely update/edit this post with any future thoughts as more information drops.

Edit: Looks like I spoke too soon as we had a full regular video today with everything, thankfully. Still would have liked it from the start!

Edit 2: Patch notes are out! Not really much new than what we already knew about, but I hope we can customize our “Tapestry glider” to some extent and I’m disappointed, though not surprised, we’re continuing the Seasonal Bundle cosmetic item set. We also will have a new Spring event which I’m kind of mixed on. I do like new events, but I hate having to look all around the Valley for stuff and just wish things didn’t spawn everywhere.

Also nervous for stealth mechanics as I tend to be very bad at that type of thing…

Let’s talk about Infinity Nikki!

It’s been a while since my last post for various health reasons, but I’ve been asked a lot about my thoughts of the newest game in the Nikki series and how it lives up to the tagline of “Coziest Open World”, especially as I’ve been playing it nearly every day since release. Before I start, I want to clarify that I have only played the game on PC so everything I say will be based on my experiences with that platform only.

While I didn’t play the very first Nikki games, I did check out both Love Nikki and Shining Nikki with both essentially hitting my same problem with most Dress-Up games: You didn’t get enough money to actually spend on things you wanted and often needed to buy things you didn’t even like to pass the challenges on top of needing to repeatedly earn multiples of items to get others. The crafting mechanics frustrated me, I hated a lot of the outfits I needed to wear, and the gachapon systems [in the ones that had them] just made it all the more frustrating. For those reasons, I didn’t play either for long.

Despite those concerns, Infinity Nikki feeling like such a different game with the focus not really on the dress-up portion (besides Ability Outfits which are slightly different) had me intrigued from the very first trailer for the game. Open World games can be hit or miss for me as if they are too open and there isn’t enough structure for where to go next, I can feel quickly overwhelmed, but I love exploring and puzzles so if it manages to not cause that, I tend to have a lot of fun.

One of the nice things with Infinity Nikki is that while there are enemies, they aren’t really flooding the map and most only take one hit to defeat (with some taking 2-3. Bosses can take 3-6). HP also quickly refills as soon as you’re out of combat, on top of it being really easy to get out of combat by just… hiding behind something or moving a distance away, so you don’t really need to worry about getting into a position of running into more enemies while being low on HP. This makes it so I can explore without really feeling nervous or bothered. I’m not constantly afraid of running into things or getting frustrated when I get aggroed by an enemy when I was just looking around as one click, and it’s gone, and I can continue with what I was doing. The only tricky instances are when I’m riding the bike as sometimes I can’t get off it or away properly as I’m being attacked, but you’re unable to attack on the bike.

In that same vein, crafting doesn’t feel as awful when I can just be running through freely without having to worry too much. I still have mixed feelings on how exhausting gathering stuff can be for me as someone who easily gets turned around, but the map tracking can be pretty helpful to just keep an eye on which direction I need to run to get to what I’m looking for. They have also since made it, so things respawn when the day rolls over vs it being based off when you grab things in the first place thankfully. Especially as some items can only be gotten once per day.

That said, at the moment, not everything can really be tracked by the map (such as enemies who also have resources you need, though this will supposedly be added in the next update), but the map does also show all Whimstars you’ve collected which can be helpful to keeping track of which you found. I hope they may do the same with chests and Dews of Inspiration at some point. I still have two areas left that I need to find more on, but it’ll be a while as both are fairly big. I will say for a launch; the map and amount of story was a lot more than I was expecting. And we’ve already gotten a decent-sized new area (that is permanent, thankfully) after two months.

I think there is also a point where it can still get tiring to gather everything (though, this will definitely vary per person) due to some things requiring stealth, others requiring specific times of day, and needing to keep switching costumes for the various ability outfits. Similarly, you really do need A LOT of items for making everything, especially the boss materials which you… do not get very much per play (Only 5) when some outfits require hundreds. While I am very thankful for the fact that I can just… quick skip it instead of redoing things, it’s still just a ridiculous number of things you need to build up, especially at a 350 cap (so you can get 8 plays a day spread between multiple bosses or getting materials for things).

And there is so much to use the energy for. There are Eurekas which are essentially boosts to your outfits for the fashion stuff (and also look very cute), but… Well…
-What Eurekas you get when playing a map are random with the only real adjustment being the difficulty level you’re playing.
-While this is more a personal thing (though, there is also one achievement), 5* and 4* Eurekas have various different colors. 4* Eurekas have three colors, 5* Eurekas have 5 colors, one of which is the “Iridescent” color which is considered the rare one. Unfortunately, the color it turns into is randomly picked upon hitting level 10. You can get repeats. Sometimes I’ve gotten the same color several times in a row. I’ve only gotten Iridescent ones like… twice now. One of the goals for the most recent event even requires you to get a specific color of a specific Eureka… Thankfully, you do not need to complete it to manage to do enough of the goals to finish, but it’s still kind of disheartening.
‘- 3* ones only have one color and max out at level 5.
-It adds up very quickly.

While you can find Blings all over the map (and I know some people hunt the Bling enemies each day), it’s a tiring process especially as it’s not the only upgrade/purchase that adds up fast. There is the Stray Hatty that requires a ridiculous number of blings to get all the Whimstars from it (my final three Whimstars total are from it and I need 6 million for them :|) and the general item evolution and glow-up to earn more points for the Design Challenges. These also require tons of Bubbles as well which is yet another thing to use your energy for. While you can also trade in extra clothing for the colored bubbles for glowing up, you get more from the Boss fights.

The worst bling-sucker though, or I suppose tied with the Stray Hatty for those last ones, is the in-game Bling Gachapon machine: The Surprise-O-Matic, sometimes called the “SCAM-O-Matic” by players, which has some incredibly terrible odds for 20K per pull. It’s 0.8% for 5*’s and a 1.6% chance for 4*’s. You’ll get a 3* item otherwise. The items are exclusive to it. The 4* and 5* items are limited to 1 per account so at least you won’t double up, but 3* items are unlimited, mainly used for the Glow-up bubble trade-in feature I mentioned above.

Both are likely to be an end-game thing I suppose, but needing such a ridiculous number doesn’t feel rewarding– just frustrating.

One thing I really hope gets added in the future is the ability to mix and match Ability stuff. For example, there are currently three different “Float” outfits– the starting one, the Fairy one, and the Origami Crane one. It’d be neat if I could mix different outfit parts from all of them, including the different color unlocks, so like I could use the dark hair color from the 2nd Fairy evolution, the dress from the first Fairy color, and a combination of items from the other two and then just… pick which ability I want to use.
Other things locked to outfit sets are certain poses in the camera or interactions and considering some items literally give you the option to toggle off abilities (like I’d probably turn the scales off for the items that released during the Ribbon Eel event), it’d be nice to have more variety with all of that.

I’ve also been hoping to be able to dye specific parts instead of whole outfits which a dye system is in the works, so fingers crossed. Some of the most frustrating parts with the Resonance outfits (especially ones you pull for through the Gachapon mechanic) is a combination of:
-You need to pull 160 times for certain special things in 5* Resonance banners. So far, these have been photo props and a special animation (a new dance). It’s a lot of pulls, especially when those may be the only things you care about in the first place.
-Each 5* Resonance outfit has four colors. One is unlocked when you pull the outfit completely twice, but the other two require over 200+ pulls as they are the final bonus rewards (180 and 230 respectively to be specific). Depending on your luck, you could get the second outfit very quickly and yet, you can’t even evolve it unless you get the evolution items from 180 and 230 pulls for those respective evolutions first, whether you care for them or not. Using Dance Till Dawn as an example, I would have loved to get the cute Bear you can have on your shoulder in every color, but I just couldn’t justify pulling that much, especially when the only items I really cared for outfit-wise were the tights and earrings, all which I’d have liked in more colors, but not to the extent of pulling that many times. Similarly, sometimes I really love the final evolution color (which requires a second of the outfit) and not so much the other two, yet I need to go in order to actually evolve to the one I like best in the first place.

While they do have various free outfits and even 3* outfits can earn decent stats, so you don’t necessarily need the 5* ones, they can still sometimes help. I would say the biggest issues is some bonus things, if you’re the type who really likes a lot of options with photos, have only been attached to certain limited time resonance outfits such as various ‘Whimsicality’ abilities. Wings of Wishes also has a faster float speed which can be very helpful for some of the tighter timed challenges.

So, there is still the aspect of “You will have to level things you do not care for” and “You may not like the outfit that is best for a challenge”, but I think everything else being more my speed and finding things I like helps make these less frustrating. That said, while the focus never feels fully on the dress-up challenges, they are technically required to finish the current story arc so far. You only need to score “Normal” to pass each one, but you will not get the special scenes or finish the challenges until you get Perfect.

As for the story, I think this will be the biggest thing for you to debate on how cozy/wholesome the game is. If you’ve played other Nikki games, you should be more than familiar with the occasional darker lore hidden in things such as outfit descriptions and moves, but the story DOES get dark at times and while there is that underlying feeling of hope, the game literally takes place after a war and is even helping refuges. I can’t really talk fully about darker moments without spoiling the story, but it does go there, and it is very clear that this is just the beginning as well.

Overall, I’m having a lot of fun with the game even if I’m already burnt out a bit on collecting. I’m hoping to get the rest of the Dews of Inspiration I need before the upcoming update this week, but I’m not sure if I’ll truly feel up to it just yet… Fingers crossed.

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Sew Delightful Update

Despite the Expansion only being a couple of weeks ago, we have another new update bringing in Sally and the newest Star Path… which also has bonus items now because it needed to give me more reasons to dislike it, I guess. In general, I just dislike “bonus” items because sometimes the recolors are nicer than the original ones and I have so many friends who have struggled with the Star Path, especially as it’s become longer already. It’s one thing if the Bonus was just more moonstones or in-game items, but I’ve never liked the concept of recolors being locked to this. Hopefully they can at least come back in some way at some point.

Regardless, I’m most excited by the new decorating additions with the floating items and additional rotation options. I don’t know how much I’ll use the latter just yet (nothing is really coming to mind that I want to rotate that way), but I am excited to make use of the Islands. I kind of wanted to use one for the Villains, but ignoring that Mother Gothel can’t exactly be moved, Ursula’s house requires water and none of the Floating Islands will have any, so it seems that idea is unlikely.

My other ideas are maybe a Critter Island and/or an Island for my favorite Villagers to help free up the Meadow more.

For now, though, the update is here, so I quickly loaded up the game as soon as it finished updating.

Immediately upon logging here, I had a quest from Merlin in reference to the Floating Islands, plus a letter explaining how to unlock Sally which I think was pretty good considering all the questions any other time a new character is added that isn’t just in a realm or already there in some way. I had already finished all the prerequisites, so I had a letter from Jack essentially starting things off.

While I did briefly talk to Merlin (who essentially just said to teleport to the Floating Islands to continue), I decided to focus on getting Sally unlocked first.

It was then time to get Sally leveled up. First, she had a date with Jack. Technically two as the first one didn’t really go that well.

We then set up a Compost that Mike ended up eating (I had really been hoping for a special Critter we could get, but my hopes were quickly slashed) followed by Sally finding a sewing buddy in the Fairy Godmother as Daisy and Minnie didn’t work out. I get they wanted their usual style for their “new venture”, but I think they still could have fit in some nice collaboration stuff…

That said, considering the quilt was supposed to be about memories of our adventures, I was kind of disappointed it was essentially just a tiled picture of the Castle…

Sally’s final quest was kind of disheartening with Sally thinking she was going to have a nice friendship with Ursula only for her to try and use Sally instead. Every time I think the Villains have some character development, it’s quickly a step back… Maybe I’m just too naive too.

In between all this, I did finish up the Floating Island questline and unlock them all. Merlin essentially asked to be moved up there and I moved him and the Fairy Godmother up there for now, but I still don’t feel as inspired as I hoped to. I think maybe making the Plaza floating island a Village and using the current Plaza as some kind of home base could help or even putting favorites there and expanding stuff on the Meadow, but I just don’t really know what I want to do just yet.

As for the Star Path, it has been drawn out even more and I already know so many people who prefer the bonus colorations to the regular and this is why I just do not like this kind of thing. As always though, my first purchase was the new Critter.

Finally, I took care of the new DreamSnaps. You can’t really see the full outfit with the picture I took, but I’m honestly pretty happy with it.

I wish Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete had been an option from the start

The game dropped about a day and a half ago now and honestly; after playing for like… a full 24 hours, I really am happy with it. Some new things aren’t explained super well (I probably would have spent some of my Complete tickets on the catalog items if I found them sooner) and having my crafting time reset kills me, but for the most part, it feels like a much more relaxing experience.

I do miss being able to help friends directly, but I think that may genuinely be the only thing I miss. It’s nice seeing them in Whistle Pass, but not entirely the same.

Leaf Tokens are so much more generous in regard to what you get from using them than Leaf Tickets ever were. If it was 25 Leaf Tickets for 5 pulls on a Fortune Cookie instead of 250, maybe I wouldn’t have been so upset with it all. I still think having premium-only stuff in a game that encourages collecting is an issue, but at least the price wouldn’t feel as awful. You even get 50 Leaf Tokens for leveling up over 10 Leaf Tickets and just, Leaf Tokens are so much more generous in nearly every way. Literally the only things that feel a bit expensive are some Terrain Options and the way you lessen the crafting time needed (which takes a total of 380 Leaf Tokens to get back to instant crafting/shortening by 24 hours– it’s 60 for 6 hours off, 120 for 12 hours off, and 200 for the full 24 hours off).

I do wish I had found the Catalog section for using the Completion Tickets sooner as I likely would have bought several items from there before doing more Fortune Cookie stuff. Honestly, I do kind of wish I could pay a bit of money for a bunch of Complete Tickets and Leaf Tokens because there is just so much, I want to get and I’m worried on how many of those Tickets you can truly get in-game. There is at least the option to spend 50K Bells for a bunch of Leaf Tokens per month.

I would say most of my other big issues are just ones I’ve had since the original like there still isn’t really a super great way to earn Bells fairly quickly. I still wish I could have a bigger campsite and RV (before anyone says anything on the latter, we already somehow have a fully realized 2nd floor– the RV space was never realistic). I still hate that some of the Gardening Event tasks unlock later (one of the things that frustrated me most when they started doing that).

There are some things suffering from the new format like I definitely am earning a lot less flower seeds than I ever did in the original game during garden events. Flowers at least need to be watered less, but the lack of flower seeds does kind of worry me for the next part, even if we can just buy them. I don’t have that many bells, okay?

Anyway, for the most part, I’m having fun. I don’t know if I’ll constantly be checking it as much as I am now, but I actually feel relaxed playing it again which I appreciate.

Finally, here is my Camper Card! As the winner of every poll, Merengue is on it with me. I’d really like to try and make a physical version. I think that’d be nice.