Disney Dreamlight Valley – Talking about my Playthrough/Thoughts of the Expansion and recent update

While the Expansion has been getting the most discussion, it’s not the only thing in this update. We have Jack Skellington, possibly some new regular quest stuff, and even Multiplayer is finally here with the game’s full release. Hopefully this means we’ll see some of the Community items we’re still missing soon as well.

If you just want my general review on the Expansion/DLC, you can click here for my thoughts and on if I feel it’s worth it passed all the gamebloggy stuff. Otherwise, continue to read below!

As per usual, some quick things before we get to the update stuff. For one, I finally managed to get one of the Lifeguard chairs which was nice:

I also have gotten more inspiration on decorating those other houses, but I do want to see more of what gets unlocked in this update first before doing anything so with that said… Let’s get to it! This post was written over the course of about a week.

I think the hard part is deciding what to do first. Seeing what’s new outside the Expansion or rushing right over to the Expansion stuff. As per usual, I have literally no plan and will just be trying to do everything even if the order is a complete mess.

In the end though, Steam made my choice for me– the update was out, but the DLC was not. I know it was available on Switch and some other systems, but as I primarily play on Steam, that’s where I decided to start.

Of course, right as I got to starting, the Expansion did show up and I ended up having it start as I booted up the game regardless. I decided to still focus on the non-Expansion stuff first as planned which honestly turned out for the best because wow is the Expansion overwhelming, but we’ll get more into that in a bit.

While talking to Merlin due to the Expansion cutscene starting, I noticed something suspicious behind him near the bench.

Turns out, it’s a Matryoshka and is used to unlock Jack. You need to find all four sizes– a tiny, a small, a medium, and a big.

Before going Matryoshka hunting though, I wanted to stop by the mailbox first where there were quite a bit of rewards waiting.


With that done, while doing my Matryoshka search, I ended up setting up the thing for multiplayer. I’m not sure when I’ll check out multiplayer, but at least it’s all set up now.

Anyway, as you gave the Matryoshka to the tree, the tree would become more decorated until it opened up.


Jack then moved in and I ended up placing his house near the tree. The inside was nice.

I then got to work on Jack’s friendship quests. Getting this throne photo to tick was a pain and this photo isn’t even particularly good.

Also, obligatory new pets pictures and yes, I did immediately get the new Star Path pet because of course I did.

I also placed my favorite item from Jack’s friendship quest and one of the new items from the Premium Shop.

As for a more temporary thing, I like the banner, but I don’t think I’ll permanently keep things set up like this… I’m not sure where else to put the banner just yet though.

Also, these were genuinely adorable and I was really sad we had to destroy them over picking them up and keeping them…

Before finally going to the Expansion, I placed the other item that came with the cute Polar Bear over in Frosted Heights (as despite being called miniature, it’s still pretty big):

With everything new done besides Star Path stuff, it was time to continue forward to the Expansion area. And looking at the whole doorway area, clearly a lot more is planned…

It was then time to sail forward and we finally made it to Eternity Isle.

I genuinely love it so much. It’s so pretty, there’s so many waterfalls, I really like the crystals… Really, the only place that isn’t super my thing is the Desert area which considering my love of water fixtures, that’s not surprising.

There is a sandfall at least.

I decided to focus on the story before Friendship Quests as I figured they would require getting more areas unlocked. We ended up meeting EVE first and after some trial and error, we finally unlocked the new tool.

Next up, I ran into Rapunzel, but I also just want to show more pictures from around the area as it really is super pretty.


Eternity Isle is honestly huge– nearly as big as the Valley and feels like it has as much to do as the game did at the start and we know there will be at least two more updates coming for it.

While helping out Rapunzel, I also met Gaston. I did end up finishing Rapunzel’s part of the story first though.

And I was fairly excited about this new crafting item… But it was also bigger than I expected.

Anyway, with Rapunzel’s side done, it was time to continue working on Gaston’s and well…

With the Cave of Wonders revealed, it was time to go in. I LOVED the puzzle aspects of this so much but was upset I didn’t manage to get the tools upgraded again before doing it. I wish I realized chests would be trapped behind them. Obviously, I went back to get them later after I did, but I’ll explain more about this in the next section.

With that done, it was time to finally meet Jafar. I didn’t expect him to actually note that I didn’t need any hints for the puzzle and that’s kind of why I wish I got the upgrades before doing this.

I don’t know if it would have mattered, but each chest was a Pile of Gold of various sizes and Gaston had asked for gold and you say you didn’t find any, but I wonder if I was able to get those chests ahead of time if there would’ve been different dialogue like how Jafar has different dialogue about how you did on the puzzles and I just feel bad about it. I wish I could’ve had something to give it after…

Anyway, Jafar tried to take the tool from us, but failed and poofed away. There is an odd bug where you’ll occasionally see his sprite on the map, but he isn’t actually around. I’m guessing we won’t actually be able to have him as a character until one of the next updates for the expansion. Regardless, this is where the Expansion story ends for the moment.

With that done, it was time for working on friendship quests so I started with Rapunzel’s first because I adore her. I also crafted more water fixture-esque items. Honestly though, this bracelet is super pretty and I kind of wish it was an actual item we could have.

Rapunzel’s quests were really sweet and I relate to her a lot (I would say in general, my personality is a cross between her and Belle).

I still don’t think her or EVE should’ve been tied to an Expansion considering, but I’m happy she’s finally here. In general though, I wish they’d stop introducing just part of a duo or group.

Gaston without Lefou is pretty depressing, especially after playing through his quests. Rapunzel clearly misses Flynn/Eugene and I really hoped we’d at least have Pascal here, but no… Vanellope without Ralph, Kristoff still doesn’t have Sven, Stitch is missing Lilo, etc. They keep bringing them up and it just makes me really sad.

Anyway, Rapunzel’s questline ended with her hosting a painting class. I didn’t expect for us to also get to make our own painting. It reminded me of how I used to make these crazy pictures on KidPix deluxe when I was in Elementary school where I’d use hundreds of Stamps to make these giant pictures.

Rapunzel’s dress ended up being the final reward and I do love it a lot.

Also just more pictures from around the sights:


At this point, I remembered I hadn’t done my Dreamsnap entry yet so I finally took care of that. Blue isn’t usually my color, but I think it came out nice.

Of course, one of the last Star Path quests I got was to enter the Dreamsnaps competition which is… frustrating. Obviously, I’ll enter in two days as I don’t want to submit over my current entry, but I’m just kind of frustrated. I don’t like being walled, I don’t like how much longer and more involved some of the tasks are now, and there is even less of a reason for it to even be here now that the game’s free to play is currently not in the cards anytime soon.

In general, I hate only being able to see 6 (or 3 if you don’t upgrade) tasks at a time. Similarly, I still hate how the Premium Shop updates and again, with the changes, I dislike the FOMO Rotation set-up all the more.

With quests mostly done (I was stuck waiting until tomorrow to continue EVE’s and Gaston’s friendship quests), I decided to do some decorating and new rooms. First, I added some piles of gold to the Discovery Room on the 3rd Floor and switched out the Fireplace in my bedroom on the first.

I then decided to start some work on decorating the 4th floor. First, I have a bit of a Cozy Display Room where I wanted to put the Scramblecoin and other neat things. I then also made a fancy dining room to display more of the various food items in the game.

Meanwhile, back in the Valley, I made some room to place the new crafting table, added the neat Water arch thing, and also set up the Hot Tub near the pool though I may still adjust that last one…

Finally, I was able to continue with Friendship quests so I started with EVE’s first and this moment is really sweet, but again, really feels like it shouldn’t be behind a paywall.

EVE’s quest ended with Fireworks.

And even Gaston’s ending was pretty interesting where you had to decide for Stitch or Olaf to be his new “sidekick” which… I can’t believe they had us choose. I ended up picking Olaf because I think the positivity would do him some good and I also find it funny that Olaf’s voice actor is the same person who played LeFou in the Live Action show.

It was then time for the organization process. As an aside, the Glimmer item is super pretty when placed down.

I ended up switching out stuff in my character’s bedroom to try and just display some of my favorites.

I then ended up adding more to the dining room and moving most of the stuff I took out, along with various other things, to a new room on the 4th floor to essentially work like a ‘Museum’.

While I ended up using Floor 19 for most of the new items (and I guess I’ll turn it essentially into an Expansion Storage), I was able to fit the new flowers in the Flower Room on the 20th floor.

Going to the Star Path, I picked up the new dress and just… really wish there were other color versions (though, maybe also a bit of a higher collar). In general, I want a light pink version of a ballgown dress– we’ve only really had two dresses so far with the hands folded pose and I really want more in different colors– both of the current ones are grey-ish.

I also ended up getting Belle’s and Ariel’s Winter Outfits which I really loved. I don’t think I’ll ever end up changing these unless Belle gets a hood down version.

I also got the ice skating rink which was the final Star Path reward I really wanted. It’s disappointing it can’t actually be interacted with beyond sitting on the bench, but I’m not surprised.

Something that will be mentioned often in this entry is I constantly kept making additions and adjustments to the new rooms in the house. There’s just so many things and the gifts honestly look pretty nice.

What I didn’t expect was the Robot you could craft was actually a Critter you can wear! They’re so cute.

And, of course, with at least one of each new pet unlocked: the new poses. I honestly find the Capybara one kind of disappointing though. I think the pointing is just kind of silly, but the petting cute at least.


As mentioned, I did a lot of various re-arranging of things as I went and unlocked more:




I also made the Sandfall after FINALLY managing to get Scales (you fish outside of the bubble spots). It’s… a lot bigger than I expected and doesn’t really work in the more lush areas, but I’m leaving it there for now.

I’ve been super indecisive on what I want to move to the new biomes and what I want to keep in the Valley. I REALLY love all the Waterfalls and stuff and it kind of makes me want to set up a bunch of stuff and do a huge makeover in the Eternity Isles, but I also spent so much time setting things up in the Valley.

If you place someone in one area, they are removed from the other though so I’d have to re-adjust certain things if I do. Maybe I’ll just move over my most favorite characters, but it’s just… really hard to make up my mind. I’d have to move a lot of stuff too and some stuff can’t be adjusted at all in Eternity Isle. Despite that, I did know one house I had to move to the Valley– EVE’s so she and WALL-E could finally be reunited. I ended up using the space I had the Alien Party area that I didn’t really care for.

I did end up using some of the stuff to make a nice picnic area near WALL-E’s garden and the Waterfall though.

Finally, I ended up placing the new houses I got plus some stuff I newly crafted over by Vanellope’s.

Of course, I think the one thing a lot of people are wondering is what I think of the Expansion overall and if I find it worth it. The short version is, yes, I do think it’s worth it. You get pretty much as much content as the base game had (just less characters, but considering more updates are confirmed for the expansion, it could still end up pretty close). The biomes are honestly really huge, each kind of divided into sub-sections, there’s over 100+ new recipes, and it definitely feels like $30 worth of content, especially considering it’s not even ALL the content this expansion is supposed to have yet.

On the downsides, we still have various premium microtransaction features despite the game no longer planned for Free to Play anytime soon, if ever. I’ve had certain bugs I would run into occasionally prior to these release MUCH more often and in some situations, worse. I haven’t had this much soft-locking in ages and I had to reset the game 3-4 times just doing the main quest.

And there’s still the fact that some things in here were advertised prior. Obviously, these things have nothing to do with the content itself and I do think the game content is really interesting and the new biomes are beautiful.

I can’t comment on multiplayer because I still haven’t had the chance to personally experience it, but I will say I am disappointed to hear how many items can’t actually be given to friends along with the lack of any way to purchase through their catalog which would’ve been a really nice feature :/

Finally, the new tool, the Royal Hourglass. It’s… fine. Most things you turn back time on are solely through the story quest thus far, so it isn’t really used for any kind of treasure finding that way.

Besides removing certain obstacles, the big feature is that it works kind of like a metal detector and can find treasure by indicating which way to search by a glowing arch that points in the direction the treasure is in. It’s blue if you’re not close, gold if close, and a dark reddish-orange when very close. Essentially a hot and cold radar.

I would say the biggest disappoints for me with it are:

  • I was actually really excited for the treasure finding feature thinking it would lead you to one-time secret treasures like finding chests in certain Realms, but instead it’s just another grind with items respawning for you to find every so often in every single biome (and sub-biome in the case of Eternity Isle) and some items even only showing up on specific days.
  • An issue with both the Orbs you can trigger and the treasure hunting itself, it does not really take into account your surroundings at all. Multiple times I have had an issue where it’s pointed to somewhere I literally can’t get. This is a huge issue with the Orb Barrier stuff as that’s timed.
  • Finally, to get the treasure, you have to spam the interact button which is not only painful for me after a while (my entire hand and arm were killing me after playing so long doing that over and over), but frequently led to me accidentally picking up or harvesting things when I didn’t necessarily want to. Also the usual issue of sometimes talking to a Character you’re hanging out with when just trying to grab stuff.
  • Honestly, I’m already tired of the Orbs spawning even if I need stuff because I just am very particular about my organization things.
  • Actually hanging out with a Companion to get more stuff has a catch-22 attached because certain items (the gift ones) are actually weighted towards who you’re hanging out with. For example, if you’re hanging out with someone from Mickey’s and Friends, you’re mostly going to find Pink Bows.
  • Similarly, if you wanted to switch any Villagers to the new skill for the new tool, the book requires A LOT of the new ingredients as well.

In general, most of the new crafting stuff gets very expensive and unlike Dreamlight which you likely have a ton of at this point even with the addition of potions and things, some crafting recipes require a lot more Mist in addition to it being used for unlocking the various areas of each biome.

It just makes things a lot more grindy and the main way to earn mist is through the whole treasure seeking and removing rocks. I would say that’s really my only complaint. Well, that and whoever decided that Linguine with Pesto should be made with Oregano instead of Basil.

To finish this off, final Critter unlock moments that I haven’t already shown! I officially just have the Rare colors left.



Anyway, let me know if you think I should move a bunch of stuff over to Eternity Isles or stick to the Valley! Because I am… entirely indecisive.

Should I move things to Eternity Isle?

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In the meantime, I’m going to wonder just what mysteries this could hold…

Fashion Dreamer – It’s time for the Fantasy Fair! (plus some stuff before that)

The update is finally up and so my playing has begun.

Before we get to all the new stuff though, I did want to highlight a few last things– For one, I FINALLY got the eye color I’ve been using properly unlocked (It was from Fired-up Finn).

And of course, not long after I unlocked darker shades from Hasty Hassan and Downhill Derek. The latter’s is a good in-between of Hassan’s and Finn’s so it’s what I’ve ended up using.

Still not sure if there is a haircolor that fits my mascot OC though… On the bright side, I did get another of the Shoe pattern I wanted for her which is a bit closer to the shoes she wears:

I also finally managed to complete my secondary goal of meeting every NPC Muse. I finally managed to meet all 200 getting the last several on Sunday @-@ I would say my favorite NPCs are Riddle-Fan Ridley, Encouraging Eleanor, and Petless Pierce.

Finally, I wish we could have the little Droid just floating around us. It makes me sad we can’t.

As an aside, I hope this new update brings new Vending machine items (LIKE A TEDDY BEAR) as I have been maxed out at 999 coins and I do not want any of these things.

ANYWAY… Now fully onto to the Fantasy Fair and 1.2 update! Right as you load up the game after updating, you’ll be given some new patterns– the Magazine Collaboration ones and some new ones that tie into the Fantasy Fair. You need to have at least a Gold Influencer level in order to see them to create.

As for the main event itself, the Fantasy Fair essentially works by being 14 groups of four tasks so you can only ever work on four tasks at a time which… I hate. I get that it’s because tasks repeat a lot and thus, you’d finish a lot sooner, but as someone who can’t stand repetitive tasks, this is really frustrating and having the same task repeat every few groups makes me want to scream.

But it’s not even just the tasks itself. It’s having to deal with the requirements multiple times with the small 5,000 Item limit I keep hitting, a follower limit, and needing to be in Online Mode to even do any of the Event which also makes less Character muses show up and thus, those take longer and it’s just… really annoying honestly.

Some of the tasks are also either buggy or not worded particularly well (I noticed a few typos) and it just… was not fun. I would say the worst task though is needing to fill Lookit Requests because they require another person sending you requests in the first place. No tasks should require another person’s activity. While I had a friend I could ask and also some kind people on Reddit who helped, it was still kind of annoying due to invisible timers on how often a request could even be sent. Requests also would sometimes take quite a while to even arrive.

In the end, dealing with the tasks really highlighted my issues with the game over actually enjoying the extra tasks. I did at least get the Fountain, but as expected, it was 3×3 so I had to do quite a bit of moving things around to get it to fit:

There’s also no way for me to make it so multiple could fit at the current limits :/

It took me about 6-7 hours or so to finish all 14 tasks and that was with help for the requests being sent. Obviously, for people who enjoy having a little to do each day, maybe they won’t have as much of an issue, but I still think tasks that depend on other people’s actions aren’t fun and requiring online, even if it is free in the game, to even access the tasks when there ARE tasks that can be done offline is really annoying. What also didn’t help was losing about an hour of my recording due to some technical issues :(

However, for whatever reason, the event was suspended this morning for “technically issues” and I’m really confused as to what those technical issues are as I did finish the Event. I know I wasn’t the only one. The only thing I could possibly think of is maybe it is supposed to be able to show up Offline? I really don’t know.

Personally, I would much rather see one set of tasks with totals (possibly less) that last all month over needing to constantly finish the previous goals to unlock the next and keep having to go back and forth through the same tasks :/

Moving on, I also got the new Lookbook from this random new NPC. She disappears after, but I wonder if she’ll be used to distribute other new features. I ended up making three outfits for now– I’m not really the type of person who makes tons of different outfits, but it was fun.


I’ll likely never actually wear the Butterfly outfit (I wish the Wings weren’t an Outer so I could wear some kind of thing for Sleeves or something but oh well), but it looked cute. There may also be a background I really like, clearly.

Anyway, here’s some screenshots of me doing the new poses to finish things off.

Hopefully I can get to more work leveling up NPCs, but the rotation still isn’t great, honestly…

Disney Dreamlight Valley – The final interlude before the first expansion & patch note thoughts

It’s crazy to think the expansion is releasing in a handful of days. It feels like November went by so quickly and I can barely wrap my head around it being December now. I still have a lot of mixed feelings for reasons I’ve stated previously and I’m sure I’ll talk about more as I play through the Expansion with my next post. As much fun as it would be to stream, I’m still getting over being really sick recently and just do not have the energy to, so I hope the videos will still be fun to watch (with the gifting cut down because I just don’t think watching me gift hundreds of flowers is fun).

Anyway, let’s talk about what I’ve been up to since. Like the last few times though, it’s mainly been working on Dreamsnaps and checking the shops.

That isn’t to say I didn’t have any ideas of things to do, but some things I’m just… still waiting on or could still use some more inspiration (such as everything in the Glade of Trust).

Anyway, as for Dreamsnaps, things have been going okay! I’m making a decent amount so a big thank you to everyone who has voted for my entries! It makes me happy you like them.


I also managed to level up again so yay. Just two levels to go.

The other thing I ended up doing was finally pick up the Dreamlight Valley Cozy Edition— it was on sale for quite a bit and it’s been taunting me solely for the new Companions (and the Cottage is also one of the items I figured could look nice in the forest). I probably should’ve grabbed the items off Steam and not Switch which has now put some Moonstones only on that device, but I was worried the mail wouldn’t show up on Steam and it needed to be claimed on Switch and yeah…



Of course, more Critters also meant I had to place more of the cute little Pet Houses… I really wish each house fit at least 5 over 4. I felt bad that I couldn’t put all the Raccoons together. I ended up putting three in one and two in the other. It’s also just an odd choice when most Critters have at least 5 color variants to begin with…

I am running out of places though at this point for these and I’m not really sure where else to put them. It feels weird to split them up, but I also need to find room for Rapunzel’s Tower in the meadow as well… I figure I may move the Carousel to the Valley like the Spinning Teacups. Either way, placing the rest of the houses will need to wait on that.

I also ended up placing the Cottage in the Forest like I envisioned, and I grabbed Eric’s Boat and also the Tower of Terror from the Premium Shop. I have no plans for the Tower of Terror currently, I just liked the colors. No clue if I’ll ever put it somewhere or not…

I had been wanting to try and decorate each of the houses I’ve spread around at this point, but I just feel really uninspired. At best, I feel inspired with one room (the main/entrance) and then uninspired for the other three rooms they automatically have… I’m not entirely sure when I’ll actually manage to get to them.

At the very least, I finally went and worked on some of the other 3rd Floor Rooms after having to set up one room for the Forgotten in my own house:

It kills me a bit that I can’t seamlessly put the Water Walls next to one another like the one room in the Avatar Design Tool. :(

Anyway, the patch notes have been revealed, so let’s talk about that. Obviously, this may contain some spoilers for the upcoming update.

Discover new recipes with Remy to keep you energized, build a Stall for Goofy so you can cultivate exotic new fruit, and even set up shop for Scrooge McDuck. What, you thought he wouldn’t find a way to capitalize on your adventure?

While I obviously expected new recipes, I didn’t know if Goofy would have new stalls in the new areas and I’m super surprised about Scrooge getting another store as well, but it’s pretty exciting. I have no ideas yet for how I want to decorate the new areas from the Expansion, but I mean, I’ve barely figured out all the areas in the Valley as it is.

Speaking of crafting, you’ll also find a new way to create items on the Isle: the Time Bending Station! Combining the magic of your Royal Hourglass with this station will allow you to create Quest items, Ancient Machines, and other exciting objects to help you on your journey, and of course, decorate your Valley. You’ll also be able to upgrade your Royal Hourglass here, so don’t forget to visit from time to time!

But wait—what’s an Ancient Machine, you say? Using technology from the Isle’s mysterious past, you’ll be able to increase your efficiency around the Valley. These Machines will not only help you cook faster but also automate gardening and other tasks so that you can maximize the “pumpkin to pumpkin puff” pipeline.

As everyone probably knows by now, I’m not really a fan of crafting, but automatic stuff will be really nice and I’m curious what new items we’ll discover with all of this.

While Act 1 of Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time will bring 3 new Villagers to players’ Valleys, you can expect additional Characters to be added as the expansion story continues. There will be two additional acts released in 2024, bringing new Villagers, stories, and surprises!

At this point, I’m not surprised more characters will be tied to future Expansion parts (though, I don’t really like the Expansion being split up in the first place), but I’m still disappointed about Rapunzel and EVE being tied to the Expansion/as paid characters. Similarly, I don’t think Jafar should’ve been teased at the end of the main story if it was going to be a paid expansion.

I hope Skull Rock that has been being teased for so long will still be part of the main game and not the expansion, but with the note of crafting Quest Items and the whole “turn back time” element, part of me does wonder if both Skull Rock and all the Atlantis hints could end up requiring the Expansion.

I’m not much of a boardgame person, so I don’t have much to say about Scramblecoin. I know myself well enough that I’ll likely want to try and collect all the game pieces regardless, but I kind of hope I don’t necessarily have to play it if I don’t want to.

Bonus Rewards for Early Adopters

We’re so excited to see everyone’s enthusiasm for the Disney Dreamlight Valley: A Rift in Time expansion pass and intend to celebrate the first players to land on Eternity Isle’s shores! All expansion pass owners who check their in-game mailbox from December 5 to December 12 will be able to claim two exclusive bonuses—a Jester Monkey and a royal costume.

Additionally, ALL players who check their in-game mailbox between December 5 and December 19 will be able to claim two more exclusives—a Dreamlight Gaming Chair and a Dreamlight Valley’s Savior Jacket.

I shouldn’t have necessarily been surprised considering the original first week bonus (which I still think should be brought back even if people need to spend Moonstones for the items or whatever), but somehow I still am. Especially with a second one that for some reason ends a week before Christmas??

I think what really gets me is to have both of these end before Christmas. I get the “one week bonus” for the first which I’m still against, but fine, I understand the timing, but the second one still baffles me about not making it longer. It still feels like a bad choice either way :/

Despite my apprehensions, I am really interested in the expansion, and I can’t wait to get Rapunzel, but I still find some decisions rather baffling and it’s going to be a very crazy week.

Edit: The patch notes for the non-expansion part of the update have gone up as well so I wanted to talk about that too!:

We’re also excited to bring a touch of frosty fun to your Valley with our new Royal Winter Star Path, featuring iconic wintery Dream Styles for Belle and Ariel and more exciting cozy additions.

Honestly, I don’t know why we even still have a Star Path if the game is no longer going to end up being Free to Play. We already have the Dreamlight Duties/Achievement stuff. I don’t feel it’s needed.

Regardless, these are the first character costumes I’m genuinely excited for. I’m really curious how Ariel’s will look, but I can’t wait for Belle’s. I do wish her hood was down instead of up though considering the Valley doesn’t really get that snowy outside of one area.

Most of the details are things we already were aware of– Jack Skellington is coming and seems to require finding things around the village (“keep an eye out for signs of him around your village”) in order to meet him, the Holiday event is making a comeback, Dreamsnaps and the Premium shop are still doing their things, Multiplayer is coming, etc.

I would say the big new things that caught my eye in the patch notes are:

Knee length versions of basic skirts added to provide you with more outfit options!

Pretty excited for this as someone who prefers longer skirts, even if I still have yet to get anything I like more than my custom dress.

Have more control over your Valley with the ability to add and remove Villagers using the map menu. Please note that villagers will always appear in your village if required for a quest.

This is a pretty interesting choice. I think it’s good for people who really dislike certain characters though. I don’t know if I’ll personally use it, but could be useful in the future.

An all-new multiplayer mode comes to the game with Valley Visits. Hang out, share items, and collect new Pixel Shards to craft powerful cooking and crafting buffs!

I’m going to wait to see how Pixel Shards work and how you earn them before fully deciding my stance on them, but I generally just don’t think more currencies are good. I hadn’t planned to use multiplayer much outside of helping friends with materials for quests so I’m curious how it’ll all work.

Fashion Dreamer – Talking about the Update news and Current Progress

Updated with some details from the English Press Release and English trailer!

Before we get to more on what I’ve been doing since my last full update post, I wanted to talk more about the update first due to news coming out today. In general, I’ve had one goal I’ve been hoping to clear before the update hits in December– unfortunately, partially due to me getting really sick (and still am, honestly), it is very unlikely I’ll complete it: Getting all the NPCs unlocked along with all their level-up rewards. I’ve only met a little over 50% of all the NPCs in the game and I don’t even have 10% of all the level unlocks of those I even met. It’s very much a grind and with the lack of filters, even after finally deciding to make a few helpful quick categories, it takes longer than I’d like and is what takes up most of the playtime right now.

I had hoped, at least, maybe the update would be late December. I already have to deal with Dreamlight Valley’s update on the 5th and Pokemon’s DLC expansion on the 14th so late December would be the best time for me.

But it ended up being announced over on Twitter that it’ll actually be on the 5th as well. There is a chance it could be late on the 4th due to timezones and based on the maintenance time they give (1:30AM-2:30AM UTC on the 5th which would be 8:30PM-9:30PM Eastern Time on the 4th), but of course, that still means a late night followed by an early morning.

They ended up giving some additional information as well alongside a Trailer:

There are also some collaboration items coming as well.

As for the Event, it’s bringing:

  • Limited Time Fair – Online Only. Earn Stamps by clearing tasks to get rewards such as limited patterns, hairstyles, and keys.
    • December’s Fair is the ‘Fantasy Fair’ which will be available for one month. It seems 14 total fairs may be planned right now?
    • Tasks seem to be doing certain things multiple times such as Liking outfits another player is wearing, Liking items from the Showcase Board in the Pop-up Areas, making Lookits for other players, and following other players.
  • There will be 5 Patterns you can get (all consumables so make sure you make colors you really like or hope you can get more options from other players), a new hairstyle, new eye color, 3 new poses, and 6 new Photo Frames.
  • Plus 4 new Showroom items
  • In general, the Fairs themselves seem like a permanent feature that will change up monthly.

Plus, the following new features as part of the update in general:

  • 4 new Patterns (possibly tied to Influencer level?)
  • 1 new Hairstyle
  • 1 new eye highlight
  • 1 new make-up
  • A Lookbook so you can save your favorite outfits.
    • It seems you can make categories/catalogs of up to 10 Outfits per “Label” so to speak which I have mixed feelings on? I’d rather just have everything saved together.
  • New Muse Notebook so you can easily check Character Muses you met, their levels, and see photos of them that unlock as you earn their level-up Rewards. A good way to easily see if you still have items to unlock from them and be reminded of what they unlocked.
  • New Collaboration items with the Japanese Shoujo Manga magazine, Ciao. Features items with patterns for Shining! and Lily the Fashion Doll

They’ve also added more previews for the January update showing a wedding-themed Jacket, bridal-dress, and a Steampunk Hat with goggles.

Personally, I would say I’m most excited by the Lookbook (It’ll be nice to FINALLY save outfits) and this Showcase item:

On a downside though, it looks to be about 3×3 which would be too big to just replace my current Dress Mannequins, so I have no clue how I’ll fit it without having to overhaul things which I really do not want to. I’m really hoping I’m either wrong about the size or miraculously, the Showroom size will be increased, but my hopes are low…

As for January, I’m excited to see the Steampunk set and I hope there will be other styles of Wedding Dresses and not just a sleeveless one.

But in the long run, it’s still hard for me to actually be excited by new items as long as the item limit continues to be as small as it is. I REALLY hope there is an increase during the update, but I feel like that is something that would’ve been announced if so :/ And once again, we’re encouraged to be liking everything and do more following despite these limits…

Moving on to my own progress, it’s really just been constantly trying to work on leveling up the NPCs whenever I do feel up to playing. I essentially go to Online mode first to get any new likes or Lookits or things and then switch to offline mode.

Some of my favorite Lookits I’ve received from other players recently.

I ended up making my hair a bit darker now that I unlocked a darker color.

I had fun exploring official randomly generated Showrooms. Honestly, if there’s one thing I’m sad about with the whole room limit, it’s no longer visiting showrooms because they can be so fun to check out.

I also ended up making another version of the Witch’s Dress which I felt got closer to Mizuki’s dress colors… It’s definitely not perfect, but it works. I need to see if there’s maybe closer shoes and hope I get a closer option for her hair/eye colors at some point. I also made one more muse to claim my final spot.

Besides that, I’ve had lots of NPCs showing up in my Showroom including repeat visitors. I thought each could only show up once, but I guess not.

Anyway, it’s back to the NPC Grind… as soon as I start feeling better x-x

Edit as of November 28th at 9:15AM: The English press-release is out! Some additional details:

Some of these new looks are available through the Limited Time Fair, a free in-game system to support every influencer in Eve with a fresh set of objectives for them to complete each month, earning them useful items and patterns. Designed with approachable objectives respectful of players’ time, the first Limited Time Fair features a Fantasy theme with nearly two dozen items in a butterfly dream motif.

That sounds like a lot more items, though, I’m still in the “how can I deal with more items when I can barely handle everything that currently exists”. The way this is worded though does make it sound like a Season Pass essentially which… I mean, I guess at least they’re free, but I suppose I’ll see how “approachable” these objectives are in the first place. At least nothing will be truly gone due to being able to get items from other players (in which I desperately want a bigger showroom and the ability to place more things), but with so much color variety, there is no guarantee someone will find the exact color combo they want if they don’t make it themselves.

We also got more clarification on the Collaboration Items:

Finally, all Muses will receive T-shirts made in collaboration with ‘Naisho No Lily’ (written by Fujita Hasumi), which is being serialized in Ciào Deluxe; and ‘Shining!’ (written by Nao Maita), which is being serialized in Ciào’s main magazine; and a T-shirt and Photo Egg frame made in collaboration with Ciào.

It’s nice to get confirmation that all players will really be getting them and it won’t be a situation of hoping to get from Japanese Players.

I updated the video above with the English Trailer so we also have the exact translation for tasks:
-Like an item won by a Player Muse [3 times] -Like an item marked with a blue star in the Pop-up Area [3 times] (If you haven’t played online, a Blue Star item is an item made by another Player)
-Make a Lookit for a Player Muse [3 times] -Follow a Player Muse you met in a Cocoon [3 times]

For the most part, these really do feel approachable, but considering there are both Follow Limits and Item Box Limits, it once again feels a bit like an oversight…

Edit 2: They’ve been giving additional information on some new features that will be in this update over on the official Twitter:

  • You will now be able to zoom in when dressing a muse to whatever item is highlighted. Pretty happy with this as trying to find the right glasses colors is a huge pain. Still would prefer color filters though.
  • The button to confirm the Filter change is being switched to Y to lessen confusion.
  • Notifications for Likes will be sped up. As someone who has left the game up for like 30 minutes for these to finish, I definitely appreciate it.
  • Muses will switch out more often.

I really hoped maybe the Item Box would be increased because 5,000 is really small, but it doesn’t seem like it unfortunately :(

Fashion Dreamer isn’t Style Savvy and that’s okay

Rather than my previous posts which were more general first impressions and talking about how my playthrough has been going, I suppose you could consider this post the closest to some kind of review of the game, but I guess I’m tired of seeing the same critique on the game over and over that often is complaints of things that the game said would not be included from the start or show that not much playtime was put into the game in the first place (For reference, I’ve played over 110 hours at this point).

Similarly, due to the graphic similarities and Syn Sophia’s involvement, a lot of people considered this to be a successor to Style Savvy or some kind of spin-off game that would still be heavily involved, but Fashion Dreamer was said from the start to be its own IP. If you really wanted to compare it to the Style Savvy series, it’d be more accurate to compare it the same way you would compare Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer to the main series of AC games with how HHD focuses very much on one specific part of the games.

Fashion Dreamer does a similar thing with the focus on the dress-up portion in a much more relaxed way, but unlike Happy Home Designer, Fashion Dreamer is fully its own things and the comparisons to Style Savvy, despite understanding why they happen, aren’t really fair to it.

I will say I do love the Style Savvy series and there are things that Fashion Dreamer desperately needs from that series (and I am praying comes with updates), but I think if your favorite part of the Style Savvy series was the actual dress-up aspect and the Caprice Chalet from Fashion Forward, you will still find a lot of enjoyment from the game solely from all the Muses to dress-up (both the NPCs and other player’s Muses) and the Showroom.

If your favorite part was the story stuff and/or interacting with the world/exploring areas, your mileage may vary. There is some bits of story here and there, but it’s fairly empty. You can hit credits after unlocking all 4 Cocoons (Each Cocoon is an area of the game you can walk around in) and it’s really just “boost your influence”. NPC Muses do have some loose story, but it very quickly can start repeating with only a few alternatives at times.

Similarly, more player interaction was kind of switched out for being able to freely move around in the different Cocoons. There’s not much to do beyond making outfits unless you enjoy taking photos (As there are various poses you can unlock both through other Muses and Items you can get from vending machines in the different Cocoons) which can be pretty disappointing. There are certainly photo spots in the Cocoons themselves besides the Photo Egg, but as someone who does not use camera mechanics much in games, it doesn’t really do anything for me.

If your favorite part of the Style Savvy games was the store management and customization, you’ll have a lot left to desire as unfortunately, the game isn’t really for you. Similarly, while there is a creation tool in Fashion Dreamer, it really went all in with color options (as you can flat out use the entire color wheel) and thus, patterns can’t be customized or designed in any way (In fact, many patterns use an odd Multicolor color slider situation where you can’t even pick each separately as there is a limit to how many colors an item can have be changed as well :/). The game also had less item categories for some reason so there’s not as many layering opportunities (like layering a shirt under a sleeveless dress).

In all honesty, I feel like most items have a decent amount of variations that I don’t find myself missing anything pattern-wise (For example, the Shirred Dress has multiple variations such as plain, floret, and with a necklace), but I really liked how additional 3D Parts could be done in Fashion Forward and would’ve loved that aspect here to make more items your own as other than your brand logo showing in a corner/next to the name when looking at an item and choosing colors you want (which… anyone could try and mimic in the first place*), there’s nothing to really make something unique to you. In the same sense, if it wasn’t clear, I think how the ‘multicolored’ items are adjusted is just… really bad and weird.

* This is kind of the weird contradiction of the game and where I personally think its biggest issue comes from. The game flourishes with the involvement of more players to the point where Nintendo Online is not required to go online in the game, but it also means if people stop playing as much, you may find yourself with less to do after a certain point.

Similarly, the best way to earn e-Points in the game is through having other players like your stuff. Otherwise, your best option solo-wise is taking a lot of pictures which I personally hate (You have to save the pictures to your album for them to count and I constantly stress over the idea of running out of memory– a large part of why I bought a capture card was so I could screenshot pictures of games I knew I would take a bunch in). If you don’t want to spam your album with tons of pictures, then the best way I found to earn Follows is by changing an item or two in your showroom, leaving, going back in, and repeat. As for Likes and e-Points, if you know someone who plays or have another Switch Profile, you can earn 100K per Outfit that is liked in your showroom (You can have up to two mannequins) which they can then leave the Showroom and delete and re-like it, but both of these options are kind of against the “community aspect” of the game.

The thing is, you also earn more points by using your own items (using other players’ items will get you points still, but not as many as the creator of the items you use will also receive points) so in some ways, it’s not even beneficial to keep items other players made which… feels like it goes against the whole “Like everything and help one another” mantra– continuing onto that, you only can have 5,000 items at the moment which… is not very much considering just how many color variations there can be, the way that affects requests (I’ll talk about that more soon), and again, the whole “like everything” mantra.

It’s kind of a shame that it’s almost encouraged to like things and then immediately delete them (and you can only delete 10 items at a time) which seems to go against the entire message of the game, and it just feels like this issue was completely overlooked. And I think that’s where most of the games’ shortcomings come from– good intentions, but bad executions with some aspects just not… feeling completely thought through:

  • Encourages liking every item, but more points for your own brand and a limit of 5,000 items total.
  • There are no filters for colors, material type, patterns, specific item type (IE: Sorting tops by shirts or tees), etc. With how varied the color system is, this both probably made it harder to make filters, but also makes it harder for some requests because who knows whether an item will sufficiently count or not.
    • It is worth noting that you can make your own ‘Favorite items’ tabs and even rename them to maybe categories or outfits you know that work, but I personally don’t feel it fixes the main problem and each tab is limited to 32 items.
  • Many physical customization options are locked until you level up certain NPCs (or get lucky and the Muse at the Salon area has it available for you to put on)
    • Also despite finally giving the option to play as a masculine character, not all items can be worn by both muses– mostly just accessories which is pretty disappointing. Photo Poses unlocked by NPC Muses are also locked by body type for some reason?
    • Body type is also linked to height (and there’s only really like… 2– no real plus-sized options and most of the options are fairly petite in every way (I’m not saying those should be replaced though as a note– just more variety overall, it mostly being just height isn’t much).
    • Despite giving a color wheel for clothing, skin tones are honestly pretty limited, especially for darker tones.
    • WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE PONYTAIL OPTION. (maybe there is an NPC that will unlock a new one, but I haven’t found them yet if so) Every other hairstyle has bang alternatives, I’ve unlocked multiple pigtails (give me a wavy/curly long ponytail with a bow!!) and this just… drives me nuts. The one positive I can give is at least its wavy and not the same straight ponytail we usually get, though, longer hairstyles in general are still kind of lacking (Which considering how much Orihime’s hair clips, maybe that’s why, but I feel there is a middleground and I don’t need any hair falling down the front…).
  • The Showroom is very small. Not only can you just decorate a small part of it, only up to 25 Clothing items can be displayed alongside only two mannequins (which is another weird choice considering all the focus on making full outfits). Similarly, because you can’t walk under ceiling items for some reason (or put anything under them), it’s easy to accidentally block off items from people. There’s also no way for someone to see all your designs or anything. I’m not entirely sure what the furniture/decoration limit is, but between the lack of interaction with items (outside of grabbing the clothes off them), the fact that you cannot walk under ceiling items, and many of the items are fairly big in this tiny space, you really can’t get as much use of a lot of them as you may like. Also, depending on the Decoration item, they’ll have 2-5 color variations– most seem to have 2-3. Wallpapers and Flooring are similar, though, there’s a handful that have only one color option unfortunately (I want the Princess Wall in pink so badly…). I assume part of this is because NPC Muses can visit you, but even if you needed a portion of the front clear (I’ve never seen more than one visit at a time), there is still so much empty space.

The thing is, despite my problems with it, outside of the incredibly rough grind* at later levels, I’ve genuinely been having fun with it. As much as I adore Style Savvy and the store customization, the whole store management part (balancing storage, your money, etc.) was never fun for me and sometimes it became a game of “What is the most expensive outfit I can give someone to make more money to buy more things and clear my storage a bit” and not “What do I think this NPC will genuinely really like”.

* I know some people enjoy the grind and like the slow and steady pace. For me, I just prefer to be able to work with everything immediately so I can play the way I want over feeling the need to style items certain ways or put out certain items or just keep making the same things to level up sooner. Obviously, you can still take your time either way, but there were some items I just really wanted to unlock ASAP.

Fashion Dreamer overall is much more relaxing with no way for you to really fail and if you just need to relax and turn your brain off for a bit, it’s really good for that (Unless you’re me and making muses for other players because then I am just hoping I manage to make them something they love and probably spend a lot of extra time on it). Of course, that’s also why the lack of filters is such an issue– most of my game time is literally scrolling through items and who knows if I’ll actually hit the requirement because whether it decides your colors are complimentary or the right shade after all (the number of times I use Pink that the game refuses to say is Pink kills me), but after a while this just becomes a lot less fun.

I’m still enjoying the game a lot and still feeling that itch to play it, but scrolling through so many items every time is exhausting and while again, I could use those custom filters of my own item choices to help lessen that, I’d rather keep them for items I really like. Maybe I’ll still do it at some point (though, I still feel like it doesn’t always fairly recognize colors…), but I know the box order will drive me nuts if I have Favorites 1-3, Blue items, Cool items, Cute/Cool items, and then Favorites 4.

I would say another odd aspect of the game is, despite the tutorial at the start, there are SO MANY things not really expanded on and that you just kind of learn yourself, whether by accident or on purpose, but I feel like that also means a lot of newer players who drop the game sooner may never even learn about them because there’s no real indications about many of them:

  • When creating an item, You can preview it off a mannequin and even on your player by hitting the L stick. This helps a lot with color matching.
  • You can make an item a ‘Hot Pick’ (which will make it show up on recommended and stuff) by hitting the right stick while hovering over it in your Item Box. You can only select one item as a hot pick though, but you can change it at any time.
  • You can like items in the Showroom from the back of Decoration items as well. Similarly, NPCs who follow you can also visit your showroom and ask you to style one of your brand items for them.
  • The Color Slider is more flexible then you may think. Besides going between color palettes and the Color Slider in general, you can use the D-Pad for increments of 1 and the Stick/Toggle for increments of 10. You can also press Y for it to cycle through color options.
  • Using the stick, you can choose just specific items to like instead of the entire outfit (though, personally, I’d do the latter anyway– liking an entire outfit gives the person more points than liking individual items).
  • There’s a lot more you can do at the Salon Mirror than you may think.
    • Besides changing your character’s customization options, the Salon muse available (and what options they have will change both per day and by which Muse is there at the moment) will offer 3 different options– these can include options you may have not unlocked yet. This goes for the ‘Trending Page’ that you can see online as well (Though, these will not change per Salon Muse– just when trends change). Unlike when previewing items on a Muse in the main areas, any customization you get from the Salon Muse(s) will be kept (though, it still won’t unlock until you properly do so).
    • You can change what Muse you are using at the mirror as well.
    • This is also where you would change what your Muse’s blurb is. (Lively Me is the default in English).
  • While you unlock the different Cocoons at 1K, 5K, and 10K respectively (along with the credits at 10K), there are still Ranks beyond at 100K and 1 million which will unlock new trophies and patterns.
  • Each Cocoon’s Vending Machine, Gachapon Machine, and Photo Egg (Essentially a photobooth) are different. While Muses can show up at any, some will show up more often in specific Cocoons. They can also have some different items that are recommended based off the Cocoons style.
  • There are 200 NPCs you can meet and dress-up. You get more as you level-up whatever NPC Muses you start with. Despite there seemingly being no maximum level, the last unique thing they can unlock is by level 13 at most (Most stop sooner at anywhere between 8-12). For more specific level unlocks, I highly recommend this spreadsheet.
  • If you prefer to play offline, the game will generate Showrooms and Recommended items from the basic in-game items. This can be a great way to get more default stuff, though, default game items do not have any rarity value.
  • Brand Level goes up to level 200. The highest item rarity is 10.

Honestly, every day I see people discovering new things or realizing how things work or better ways to play and the game will continue to be updated as well. I think there’s a number of things that can be done better and adjusted, but I still find the game fun.

What it really comes down to, as I said at the start, is why you enjoy Fashion Games and the Style Savvy series to determine if you will get enjoyment out of the game. Who knows, maybe down the line, some features you really wished were here could be added.

I’m the first to admit I am very much not a fan of the drip-feed updates tendencies nowadays and would prefer a game take a lot longer before releasing to have everything in it from the start, but that isn’t how everyone feels and at the same time, I’m glad I can take breaks when I feel like it. Right now, my goal is to get every character to their maximum level unlock before the next update in December. Fingers crossed I’m successful.

But in general, while I know some people are disappointed, I do think there is a place for a game where you can just do all the dress-up without the stress I feel other Fashion games can have (especially when you’re needing to try and get a bunch of items you don’t even want) or any risk of failure.

It’s also really nice seeing people want you to make them an outfit or sending you a Lookit and some of the NPCs are really sweet, despite the lack of dialogue variety at times (Encouraging Eleanor is my favorite). I’m really hoping as the game updates, most of the issues people are finding with the game will be fixed up.

The only other downside I’ll really give for the moment is the Gachapon is… kind of terrible. You can earn Gachapon tickets from making outfits for Muses (whether NPCs or other players) and the rates are just awful. There are so many items I’ve had yet to get because I still can’t pull them. Considering the entire point of getting patterns is so you don’t need to use e-Points to make an item (which can cost up to 500K), I don’t see why they can’t make them key unlocks still or Brand level/Influencer level unlocks where the patterns can still be worth earning but aren’t exclusive to those. There’s also no indicator if you pulled an item before so if you made it and deleted it or didn’t note it down, there’s no real way to even keep track of what you may still need/want.

Anyway, that’s just my two-cents as someone who both enjoys this game and the Style Savvy series. I still find Fashion Dreamer fun, I think it has a lot of potential, but as I said, it all comes down to why you enjoy these type of games to determine if this one will be for you as well. And if you’d rather see the game in action, I have most of my playtime uploaded in a fairly handy playlist over on Youtube.

Fashion Dreamer – The 50 Lookit Prompts Challenge (and hitting Master Rank!)

So, over on Reddit, harrifangs made a prompt list for 50 Lookit Prompts.

And considering I finally hit the 1,000,000 Tier in Fashion Dreamer, this felt like a fun way to celebrate. Especially as actually hitting Master Rank in-game was kind of lackluster compared to everything said for Diamond and Platinum.


On a positive note though, a lot of the designs I really wanted that I had yet to unlock yet ended up being from hitting Master Rank. I ended up having juuust enough e-Points and keys to unlock all the things I really wanted.

In general, hitting Master Rank was my last big goal. I do have some other goals such as unlocking all the NPCs and getting them leveled up/maxed out (is there even a max NPC level??), but it’s just too much of a slog right now without proper filters… I may still at least organize some stuff and clear out my item box a bit, but I mainly just need some better QoL features to be able to work on what I have left. I’d like to get enough keys to unlock all the patterns as well, but that’s essentially tied to NPCs so it hits the same problems.

Regardless, while you could do the 50 Lookit challenge by doing one prompt a day, I decided to do them all in one go because, well, I like to do things in one go.

So, here’s my outfit for each prompt! Besides following each prompt, my general goal is it had to be something I would actually wear and I would only be changing the outfit– not any physical character stuff. I also tried to not repeat too many things, but well… I do have a specific style. There’s maybe a couple of things I wouldn’t wear, but the lack of shorter jackets really became an issue I wasn’t prepared for @-@

Similarly, it only hit me after I got somewhat into it that it would’ve probably been better to do each in full vertical ones, but oh well… I guess that gives a reason to watch the Youtube video version. I essentially used a random number generator to decide which background to pick before getting tired of switching Cocoons and just going in order.





Anyway, to end this off, I hope an update gives me a pink version of this wall :| STOP MAKING PRINCESS-THEMED ITEMS ONLY IN BLUE, JAPAN.


(Yes, I’m still bitter about Animal Crossing, shhh)

We made the Macadamia Nut Balls from Food Theory!

It’s been a long while since our last food-related post, hasn’t it? There’s a lot of reasons for that, but I’m doing my best to get back in the baking/cooking swing of things.

We had bought all* the ingredients after watching the episode back in September, hoping to make them that week for a trip, but various circumstances both before and after said trip ended up delaying things quite a bit. We weren’t able to find Macadamia Nut Butter so we ended up using Peanut Butter instead, but hopefully we can eventually try the recipe with the proper nut butter.

The recipe is fairly simple and the idea of it was for a quick, easy, and healthy snack (though, not necessarily the cheapest– macadamia nuts are the most expensive nuts in the world after all, well, unless you live in Hawaii). I’m not much of a snack person usually, but sometimes I can be and I always enjoy the sweet/salty combo and the flavors were up both my husband’s and my alleys, so we figured, why not give it a try?

I think our biggest worries were:
-How long it could take the ingredients to combine, especially mixing manually.
-How much would stick to the bowl/how annoying would the bowl to be clean
-How the dough would feel as we rolled it by hands

And every single worry was actually alleviated. Mixing went very well– it didn’t take long at all and barely anything stuck to the bowl (and what did was very easy to remove with our hands).

There was nothing sticky left in the bowl and even the dough itself was actually fine to touch? It didn’t stick to our hands, it rolled perfectly, and it didn’t give me that usually iffy feeling I tend to have when mixing anything by hand. As someone who can be kind of sensitive to certain hand sensations, I was really worried and my husband thankfully offered to take up the rolling job, but it was actually fine for both of us, much to our surprise.

It didn’t take long at all to roll them out and we ended up with quite a bit.

And with how easily everything mixed together, we were able to clean it in no time as well after we finished. With the Macadamia Nut Balls placed in the fridge, it was now just time to wait for them to cool.

Finally, time had passed and they were all set:

I would say they definitely taste good, but are a bit salty and dense (I suppose that’s part of keeping it filling) which is likely due to needing to use peanut butter. It makes me want to try and make this again with macadamia nut butter even more. I think if we make these again, other adjustments I may do is add a few more macadamia nuts (or at least chopping them up or cutting them in half so they’re spread more) and maybe also add some dark chocolate chips which I think could balance the flavor really well.

Either way, pretty tasty and genuinely super easy to make. Really happy we tried them out!

Fashion Dreamer – In which the grind really hits (~40+ Hours of playthrough so far)

So, this post is written over the last couple of days or so as I really wanted to talk about things as I’ve played further since my first post. I will say the things that I think have me most frustrated with the game at this point can be summarized as the RNG, Grind, and lack of filters.

The RNG and Grind are kind of a combination thing where having to deal with one would likely be less frustrating than having to deal with both, but I’m going to start on the filters first.

Unfortunately, the closest you can get to more specific category filters, out of the official filters, is just organizing by categories altogether. It’s still not great. There’s no way to categorize items by color or type or look or anything which as someone who is not particularly fashionable, it makes some challenges quite a struggle.

There’s also an issue with having so many colors where some shades will not qualify even if maybe they should, such as certain pink shades I use not counting as pink, but red or purple. I still haven’t even figured out what colors count as neon– if it is palette related, I haven’t unlocked it yet.

And that’s where my issue with the RNG comes in. Getting additional colors, such as eye colors for example, are randomly given when making outfits for characters. You have 8 eye colors to start with unordered numbers. There are apparently dozens of eye colors and who knows when you’ll unlock them because you just need to hope you’ll unlock it after creating an outfit. I’ve only unlocked two so far and I’m at the point where so many requests just… keep repeating. There isn’t enough different dialogue and even dressing up other players’ muses can only do so much as they don’t change out too often and I don’t want to like… clog up someone’s mailbox as you can only have 100 at a time. And while this is absolutely a me thing, I stress a lot more when putting together a design for another player than for an NPC which also means suffering through the lack of filters even longer.

At this point, I’ve more or less given up on the idea of even getting any new physical customization options I want. If I could, I’d love darker brown eyes and/or a nicer ponytail (mainly for nicer bangs but I wouldn’t mind a ponytail version of some of the nicer wavy hairstyles). Bonus would be a darker brown hair color that isn’t the pure black that has more cool tones than warm tones, but I’m mostly okay with the hair color I have at the moment. I wonder if any characters even have a nice ponytail…

At the very least, sometime after you get a character to follow you, they may show up in your Showroom and request an outfit around one of your brand pieces which is pretty neat.

But the actual rough grind has nothing really do with influence or follows. That isn’t to say there aren’t rewards for that still– I did end up hitting Diamond Rank at 100K Likes which unlocked some new patterns (still need to use keys to unlock them though) which was a surprise, but I’d be even more surprised to see any rank above diamond. I guess we’ll see though. Supposedly there’s Purple at 1 million?? So there is still some long haul for me, but at least it’s something I feel I have more control over.

Regardless, the real grind is all about your Brand Level which goes up to 200. And it just gets slower and slower. It’s times like these where it makes sense that this game lets you go online even without having Nintendo Online.

It takes more experience to level up, item costs are higher to make (Rarity 10 items cost 500K to make– you’ll be needing to spend around 700K or so for those last sets of levels), and just going around making outfits just… doesn’t do enough. You’re essentially really hoping tons of people like your stuff or to get lucky with Bingo and/or the Gachapon.

Bingo should be pretty obvious as to why as some of those multipliers are crazy, but the chance of you actually getting a multiplier is pretty low. I’m like 90% sure a person I saw at 160+ must have gotten one as they only had about 40K likes so I’d be surprised if they earned enough points otherwise unless I’m missing something obvious. Even a level 200 person I saw had just 140K Likes (while I currently had over 200K at this point– as I get closer to finishing this post, I’m at over 400K) so whether it’s them getting very lucky or me missing something, I don’t know.

As for the Gachapon, that’s how you don’t have to pay e-Points for patterns as long as you have some you earned from those. In this case, you’re hoping for high rarity items which would give more experience without paying, but I have yet to get a single super rare item. I’ve gotten Silver only a handful of times? Which… is a really low rate and many of the items aren’t even in the gachapon anyway.

And that’s what I mean when the RNG and Grind is rough because this is the part of the game I’m stuck at as I desperately try to earn more so I can unlock the Dresses I want to at some level I’m not even sure of. The repetitiveness gets tiring and the only real bright spot is when I get a cute mail notification of someone wanting to make an outfit for me. Some of my favorite outfits some people have sent:

I ended up making two more muses– one based off my site mascot and one based off my husband:

I don’t really have any plans to use either, but I had fun making them.

Going back to what I was saying before though, each of the issues kind of aggravates the others. I wouldn’t find the grind so tiring at this point if the filters were better and there was an undo button, but right now I have to spend so much time scrolling (even with the Filters) and reading each name to figure out what kind of fabric something is or guessing at what may count and thus, miss out on a heart or two because I just don’t know and there’s too many items for me to memorize everything that works and doesn’t and I don’t really want to waste my personal filters with that.

Similarly, I don’t think there is any good reason to lock physical customization behind character gift RNG. Animations? Fine. Those along with Keys, Tickets, and new characters seem fair to me. Patterns are kind of frustrating, but considering all the RNG and grind with them, I’m not surprised. But eye/hair/skin colors? Different make-up types? That’s a lot more frustrating.

As it is, I recently realized you can only have up to 5,000 Items saved. And I don’t even know where to start in cutting some out, but it’s made me want to be a lot pickier with what I like. (Since taking thing screenshot, I’m past 4,000 now. Really going to have to get that all organized soon enough)

I think the rough part is, like with the Style Savvy games, it’ll become an issue of having items for helping characters vs items you actually want, but it still feels rather small after how big Styling Star’s inventory space was. I understand that is a different game, even if Syn Sophia is behind both series, but you’d think the Switch version would be able to have more than a 3DS game. Besides the fact that part of the entire point of the game is liking each other’s stuff which is the best way to help people earn Points, you need to constantly be making items to get your brand points up, so you’ll be making a lot of the same thing in different colors at times and it just… feels like a bit of an oversight. Speaking of oversights, I also feel like the game has been more laggy the more I’ve played/collected things which uh, also isn’t great.

I’ve seen people say how at least you can always remake your own items, but it just gets so expensive and I really wouldn’t want to do that personally.

More than anything though, I feel like the word I’d use to best describe how I feel playing the game right now is “discouraged” which… isn’t really great, especially for something that’s only been out for a few days. The cost jumps up so quickly and I’m not entirely sure if I progressed too quickly or it just was considered to be a slow burn, but it’s really unfun to suddenly need to spend 500K to make certain items. Not all items have patterns you can earn otherwise and don’t even get me started about the amount of items I still have locked. I’m trying to just get items I really really like since I’m not sure if I’m supposed to unlock them someway or not and as you get items that cost 60 Keys to unlock, they really do become a rare commodity. I really wish I would get more keys instead of Lucky Coins I won’t even use because I rarely take photos, let alone any with the vending machine items to need more than like… 1-2 of each item.

Despite my discouragement and some of the more negative focus of this post, t’s not like I’m not enjoying the game. I still am and I really like it a lot– I think the biggest problem I’m facing is the grind is mostly out of my control. What I can do personally earns very little and the main ways are up to other people and RNG and that’s not fun. Especially when you get the exact same request multiple times in a row.

I know some people are disappointed with the lack of areas and not having a proper store and while I wouldn’t mind if the Showcase was bigger to BE a proper store, I do enjoy the more relaxed pace of not necessarily needing to buy up items and manage an inventory. That was always my least favorite part of the Style Savvy games and I enjoyed dressing up everyone and customizing stuff more.

As for the areas, we have a lot more room to roam in each of the areas we have so I can’t really be too surprised, but I do wish there was more to do in each area. There’s very little character interactivity outside of the Camera poses which I’m just not really interested in. Maybe more could be added in the future, but other than talking to characters/making them outfits, liking items, and taking photos at little spots in each Cocoon (or the Photo Egg), that’s… really it.

But as I said before, the game is very much focused on the dress-up portion and there isn’t really much for people who preferred the management side.

On a positive note, I did finally figure out how to look up players so here is my friend ID!:

The font color is… certainly a choice. If you’re having trouble reading it, it’s: jwn37pAXmp

I ALSO FINALLY GOT A PHOTO WITH THE CUTE BEAR:

And I’ve been hoping to try and work on my own categories to help with the filter issues, but the problem is that I still don’t always know what will and won’t count for certain requests which is why more official filters are so needed. You can also set only 32 items to each personal categorized list which… I wish there wasn’t a limit for your lists. I know there are 10 pages so it’s 320 total, but I guess I just wish I could scroll certain lists so I could have a bunch of different things because I can’t think of any good way to split up items in the first place.

Regardless, Updates are planned for the game and while I have mixed feelings on it (I’ve long since been tired of drip feed updates– New Horizons and Splatoon pretty much broke my patience with that kind of thing), I’m hoping that means better filters and increased inventory limits will come as I can’t really enjoy more clothing being added until some things are adjusted.

Anyway, after too many days, I finally unlocked the Witch dress at level 172. I also managed to get the eyecolor I wanted from one of the salon people. I still don’t have it technically, but since I rarely change physical stuff, hopefully I won’t accidentally remove it.

I think at this point, the only things that will be keeping me from playing more is the limited space of Showrooms (The room is so big and I get they want space for NPCs to come in, but there’s no reason just the front can’t be reserved for that and there is still al ot of space) and lack of filters. I’ll likely be playing in Offline mode now that I’ve hit level 200 to try and level up NPCs and get my Likes up until I hit 1 million. (I’ll probably just edit this post once I do unless I feel like I have a lot more to say).

The small showroom size still drives me crazy between the fact that items can be blocked, you can’t go under hanging items, and how big some items are (plus the amount of variety when you can place so little). I’ve done my best to make sure all items can be reached, though, some need to be reached from behind.

Anyway, to celebrate hitting level 200 (and getting this post up), I did this template I found on Tumblr by alinatron-mewtube.

Of course, right after I put that together I updated my Showroom again so uh, oops:

Anyway, onward towards 1,000,000! And whatever the Max NPC levels are because at this point I have over at 30+ and I’m scared. (Edit: There does not seem to be a maximum, but NPCs cap out at level 13 so I’ll just be getting them all to that now).

Fashion Dreamer is finally here!! (First Impressions after ~11 Hours of Gameplay)

As always, if you prefer videos, you can check out my playthrough here.

While it’s still technically a couple of days for the USA, with the power of timezones, it is officially out in Japan!

So, first thoughts shortly into the game:
-I knew the Gachapon would be coming, but it’s still kind of annoying.
-It’s disappointing that body type is tied to height. I feel like 6 is closer to my character’s body type but it’s a bit too tall :/ No where close to the tallest, but still taller than a lot of the characters where I feel a bit awkward as someone who is not tall.

-It’s also disappointing that some items are body type-specific– essentially only accessories and a few other things can be worn by both Body types.
-Eye colors are super limited?? I think you may unlock more colors but it’s just a really odd choice considering?
-Nearly every hairstyle has some kind of variation except the ponytail :|

At this point, I’ve played over 11 hours of the game and in all honesty, I am itching to get back to it. I think there’s something definitely addictive and fun with it, but I don’t think it’ll necessarily appeal to all fans of the Style Savvy series.

The game itself is very simplistic which I think some people may enjoy while others will find off-putting. Your own character’s story is mainly about connecting with NPCs and expanding your influence. That said, the top score needed is 10K and then the Credits will roll.





Sir, that is a very impassioned speech, but the game hadn’t even been out for 12 hours yet…

I had over 20K by the time I finished stream and ended up hitting 10K before I even saw the last Cocoon or finished a single character’s story. I feel like I barely made a dent.

The bigger part of the game comes from the crafting/pattern system and growing your brand which has its own level system and seems to possibly go up to nearly 150 going by furniture unlocks. That said, this gets fairly grindy as you level and if you are not able to play online, it is ludicrously slow. There is going to be a certain point though, even online, where if there isn’t enough new players the amount of currency you get will just be too slow.

Essentially, outside of people liking your outfit or clothes at your showroom (and visiting it in general), the only way to get points yourself is from making outfits for characters and the Bingo game where you earn 12K for one Bingo (unless you get Bingo like immediately and then it’ll be doubled) and can earn more based on multipliers for slow (Which based off how fast is, I can only assume it’s for being so unlucky, your next pull can only be Bingo) or getting more than one Bingo at a time with getting 4 Bingos at once being 100x. I have yet to get a single multiplier.

The points are used to make patterns of items if you do not actually have the pattern onhand. You earn the patterns themselves from the Gachapon and you earn Gachapon tickets from helping NPCs (Non-unique stuff also earned from helping NPCs: Color Palettes, Bingo Tickets, some points, Keys which are used to unlock certain patterns, Coins you use to unlock new stuff in the photo mode that seem to be one use?). You are not guaranteed to get Gachapon tickets from them. I’m not entirely sure how it all works honestly, but the better you do, the more you get. Regardless, I think I maybe got like… 60 Gachapon tickets total in my 11 hours of playing and I received tons of repeats and not many unlocks so I’m grateful that you can unlock things from leveling up your Brand too because the gachapon kind of sucks.

But that also means you’ll generally be using that currency to make more variations of outfits. This is also important because NPCs will sometimes ask for things that, sure, you might find, but may be easier to make such as a “unique” outfit in different colors (Usually things made by player brand) or “vivid” items which refer to items make with the Vivid Color Palette (Hope you unlocked it) or “Rare”/”Super Rare” items that have to do with what level you unlocked things or Gachapon rarity or something– so far it seems to be whatever the highest number is on Stars (Blue Stars are items by other people, Red Stars are items by you).

Speaking of unexplained situations, the filter is incredibly basic and I can’t tell if I’m missing something or if it’s an awkward translation issue, but it SOUNDS like I should be able to filter more? Like it’ll tell me to look into the “Sandals” or “Shorts” category and I sure can’t find those so I’m stuck going through every Shoes and Bottoms because I can’t find a way to narrow down sooner. This only gets worse by the encouragement to like everything (as it could help with NPC Tasks and it helps others get points) because you’re trawling through items with no way to categorize more than what part of the body they go on.

I would love to sort by color, by fabric pattern/type, style type (Cool/Cute/Elegant, I genuinely don’t know), by specific types of shoes– even half the kind of search we get from Style Savvy and if there IS a way to do so, I have no clue how and as someone with not tons of fashion knowledge, it’s killing me, but it’s also not fun to have to spend 10+ minutes scrolling through hundreds of items reading each name to see if it mentions if it’s the thing you need for a task.

The NPCs, however, are very forgiving. I’m not entirely sure it’s possible to fail a task. I usually get at least 2/3 hearts for most tasks. Every 3 hearts you get, the next time you meet an NPC, you’ll get a level-up event. These vary in the task, but can be anything from: Matching something for the character (whether an outfit piece or like… their hair color), them copying your outfit (or complimenting it if they can’t), them styling you an outfit, them bringing a new NPC into the fold that you can meet (No cutscenes though– just… Hey, my friend will be coming now), or them giving you a new item/pattern/color/character customization option (I’ve gotten poses and lips so far).

The storylines are somewhat basic, though, are there tied to a character’s personality. I’m not sure what the maximum level is (I think the highest I have an NPC right now is 7 or 8?), but essentially there are three things you need to hit for all three hearts:
-Their Wishlist Want (Could be anywhere from a coat to super rare beige loafers)
-Colors (Do they fit the character? Do they go well together?)
-Making a lookit in the first place

Other factors are trends (There is a trend board that updates in real time. Despite it saying ‘tomorrow’, I saw it update multiple times as I played) and matching those can also add to your score and how much the NPC likes them.

I generally just do my best and it seems to work out, but you could probably min-max it to unlock things faster as you do need to hit three hearts to level them up so if you get less than three, it’ll take at least one more Lookit before you can level them up.

The Cocoons unlock as your Influencer rating grows, but beyond taking pictures (The Photo Egg templates also change per area) and changes in what items are available in the Gachapon, there’s not really anything to do at any of them.

Each has an area where you can check the trends and top items though plus a unique person who can suggest a look for you (Mainly just make-up and hair color), but I would just pick whichever you like the aesthetic best and hang out there. That said, the music does get repetitive after a while.

I feel like some NPCs may be more likely to show in certain ones, but that might just be me or even because I played in Online Mode for the majority of my playtime which mixed in players alongside the NPCs. Considering the NPCs are still there and you can grow your influencer rating and earn more Likes to earn more to use on Patterns, it feels there’s little reason to not play in online mode. This costs really do get expensive– right now, I have patterns that cost 160K to make. I can only imagine how much higher that cost can get.

Speaking of repetitiveness and NPCs, the voices are… interesting? It’s not even so much the delivery (I think the Voice Actors did fine), but the voices feel randomly attributed and who may be speaking it may not fit the character at all. Similarly, you have no input on your own character’s voice so uh, hopefully it sounds okay? The voice lines are also super random and very short to the point where they feel jammed in rather than cohesive.

I would say my personal favorite parts of the game have been getting Lookits from other Players (I’m still too shy to style anyone myself though) and the Showroom.

I’m not sure if there is a limit to how many Lookits you can receive. I kind of hope not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if so. I always liked interior Decorating on a more simplistic scale, so I really love the Showroom a lot, but:
-You’re limited to 25 Clothing items that can be shown off in total in your Showroom. You will hit this very quickly.
-You can only have two mannequins.
-The space is genuinely just really small in general and you can’t put items under hanging items.

I still managed to make something I like and am happy with, but I am already struggling when it comes to deciding what I should put out as I earn more clothing items I really like.

That said, there’s little reason to do the Showroom beyond earning some points when you update it and helping other players. There’s no way to view all items a player created. If they didn’t put them in the Showroom and/or aren’t wearing them, you’re unlikely to see them unless you catch an NPC with their styled outfit on and even then, it may not be anything that NPC is wearing.

The game loop more or less boils down to:
-Walk around current Cocoon room you’re in and style any NPCs you see while also making sure to like their outfits to get new items (If playing online, also like Player’s outfits to earn more items).
-Go to wherever the Trending stuff is and like any items that you haven’t liked before that are on any of the Boards (Whether it be the popular items, current recommended, new, or Lucky Color stuff). Also still keep an eye out for NPCs for the above.
-Maybe make some items if you feel up to it and have enough currency or have a NPC Wishlist request you know you can make.
-Repeat.
-You could also visit some random Showrooms to change things up though and see what others may have put out… to like more items.

It’s very simple and as mentioned, the storylines themselves are rather basic. Despite that, I still enjoyed playing (I streamed for 9+ hours on what was supposed to be a ‘short stream’ particularly because I had noticed the gameplay loop was rather small from my playthrough earlier that day, but I still didn’t want to stop. I felt inclined to keep going) and am looking forward to getting back to it. I’m not sure how long I’ll be super excited to play (As it is, I am worried the cost of pattern items as I level up more may eventually burn me out– it feels like a lot to earn), but I’m at least enjoying it for the moment and I see a lot of promise even if things feel a bit basic.

That said, if you played the Style Savvy series more for the Store Management than the Dress-up feature, this game won’t really be for you. There’s still the puzzle aspect of requests, but that’s really it. This is very much it’s own game despite the similar style.

Anyway, if you have any questions, let me know!

And to finish this off, some of the outfits I had as I played through:



There’s a few dresses I’ve gotten that I REALLY hope I can get the pattern unlocked for so I can make them pink… Fingers crossed.

Disney Dreamlight Valley – Showcase Overview and Thoughts

I initially planned to write something under my last post, but I figured I’d just make a new post to fully talk about each thing. There’s still some time before it starts today (I’ll be writing as I watch) so before that, I want to talk about some of the things that got announced leading up to this.

I know I did talk about the initial announcement so I’ll mainly be talking about things after that and before the showcase.

The first thing that was announced were the hosts– I kind of expected it’d be the community managers of the game so I was surprised to see it’d be Kit and Krysta who you may remember from hosting Nintendo Minute. They’ve since gone on to have their own Youtube channel and Consulting Company. I didn’t know they played Dreamlight Valley, but honestly, it’ll be nice to see them hosting something again. I do watch their new videos from time to time, but still surprised Nintendo ended Nintendo Minute (though, Kit and Krysta left Nintendo anyway but).

Second, there will be codes given for three new items: A Balloon Arch, 2 Balloon Pillars, and Mickey Ears. These are mainly just color variations, but based off the Backpack (we’ll get to that), I’m guessing this is the ‘Celebration’ set.

Third, they confirmed what would be included in the ‘A Rift in Time’ expansion:

  • New Friends
  • New Biomes
  • A Whole new adventure

This does confirm there will be characters exclusive to the Biome, though, it still doesn’t necessarily confirm which ones just yet. I don’t want to assume that the characters shown in the key art are linked to this (Despite ‘A Rift in Time’ literally being on it), but the wording does make me wonder if maybe the Expansion won’t be as optional after all story-wise.

That said, the main game’s story IS complete. It had the credits roll. The Forgotten storyline was resolved for the most part (There’s still the Treehouse looking the way it is and Skull Rock which has been being led up to…). The main things missing are some of the Milestone gifts such as the Partner Statue and Community Designed Animal Companion.

But the cliffhanger says there is more to the story. Both with Skull Rock as hinted through the Forgotten’s Questline after finishing the main story and the Jafar teaser after the credits. Even outside that, there’s a lot of loose ends with all the Atlantean stuff and the Sunlit Plateau Mines. I’m also really wondering what will be included and if any will end up part of this Expansion after all.

It’s not like I haven’t paid for expansions before– that’s not really the issue, it’s more teasing something directly in the main game and then saying it’s an optional expansion puts a bad taste in my mouth. That said, we still don’t know if this will be the case and well, we should find out more details soon enough.

It was confirmed that the 2024 Roadmap will be shared during this (and hopefully more on what to expect for the rest of this year beyond the full release) and alongside various statistics, we received a new code: DDVBPACK which gives us the Celebration Backpack:


(As an aside, there was also a Halloween code released before all these announcements: HALLOWEENBUNDLE. I still add new codes as they release on my helpful tips page)

The final reason/announcement we received before Showcase day was a confirmation that we would be learning about the next free update as well which seems to include Jack Skellington at the least. I’m curious if it’ll be a new Realm or if he’ll just have his own way of showing up. There’s also the ice skating rink. Both were shown in the initial trailer about the showcase, but still nice for the confirmation they will be free. Of course, that lends even more to Rapunzel, Eve, and Gaston being part of the Expansion after all.

Regardless, it is officially Showcase Day and it’s finally starting, so here we go.

The stream was kicked off with the initial teaser trailer plus out first code: DDVBALLOON – Balloon Arch and Pillars.

We got a preview of Jack Skellington, though, no other Nightmare Before Christmas characters were shown or hinted to, plus confirmation that the next Star Path would be “Winter-themed” with some of the items available being Belle’s Winter outfit and an Ice skating rink. My Frosted Heights is pretty packed at this point, but I’ll definitely try and make some room. Belle’s Winter outfit is also one of my favorites of hers so it may be the first time there’s a costume I’m genuinely excited about. I do wish the hood was down instead of up though.

We then got to see the Road Map:

Essentially, with the full game launch out of early access, we’ll be getting Jack Skellington and Multiplayer (So, December 5th)
Late Winter: Monsters Inc. Realm. Mike and Sulley were confirmed even though only Mike was shown. I wonder if we’ll see Boo too.
Early Spring 2024: “vibrant new Villager”– maybe Daisy considering the picture?
Late Spring 2024: Mulan realm.
Summer 2024: Tiana + new recipes
Every new update will bring a new Star Path which isn’t really surprising as that’s kind of how it’s worked anyway.

Multiplayer:
Besides touring around each other’s valleys, you can:
-Give/exchange materials
-Visit each other’s Scrooge’s shop.

Hopefully this can help me knock out the items I’m missing. It does mean you can’t give items though which stinks as I would love to give people copies of older items they may have missed out on. I’m also looking forward to helping friends out with my material hoards.

We then got to hear more about the DLC– Eternity Isle is made up of three biomes: Ancient’s Landing (where you’ll meet Eve), Glittering Dunes (where you’ll meet Gaston), and Wild Tangle (where you’ll meet Rapunzel). The map is similar in size to the original Valley map, you can decorate the biomes the same way you would in the main valley (and the island has an entirely separate point counter).

The Biomes will contain new plants and ingredients (which we can take back to our valley to place as well). The biome Critters will be Capybaras, Monkeys, and Cobra Snakes. Some of the new ingredients are Strawberries, Cinnamon, and Fantasy Figs.

I don’t really have a complaint with the Biome sizes or anything. That’s honestly a lot (and I was expecting $10-$15 for one new biome). I am still kind of bothered with the characters they’re tying to this due to one being teased very early on, and another being heavily tied to a character in the main game, but Realms are still free and plenty of great characters are still coming to the main game for free as well. I’m assuming they are tied heavily to the story and it’s why it needed to be these characters, but I really hope we’ll get Flynn/Eugene much sooner than it took us to finally get Rapunzel.

Eternity Isle will apparently be made of three chapters with the first (Welcome to Eternity Isle) launching December 5th. The second part will be launched in Spring 2024 (The Spark of Imagination), with the final part (Treasure of Time) launching in Summer 2024.

This is definitely a minority opinion, but I would’ve preferred the expansion not happen until Summer 2024 then have things split up like this. I really don’t care for the split-up situation and considering this isn’t even going to be in Early Access anymore, it doesn’t feel like there is a good reason to do this either beyond drawing out the story and playtime.

The other kind of off-putting part for me is that Jafar and the new tool were already hinted at before the Expansion announcement and it just feels weird to have Jafar tied to an expansion then instead of part of the main game story. I’m in no way saying the Expansion doesn’t look like it’s worth the price or anything, but just that the content itself being tied to it feels a bit questionable to me I guess. The tool, for those who may have forgotten, was teased on one of the early roadmaps as well so this has clearly been in the works for some time, but it just… shouldn’t have been there if it’d be a paid DLC thing I guess.

The tool looks really neat and I’m excited to see all the ways it can work with puzzles and am already wondering how it ties into places in our existing valley (which again, makes it being a paid expansion still feel kind of surprising to me) such as the interesting door in the Forgotten’s Castle…

We’ll also be getting special machines we can craft that can automate stuff such as Watering and Cooking and, kind of like with Ursula’s transformation in her dream bundle, really feel like stuff that shouldn’t be tied to a paid DLC concept.

Other miscellaneous new features were the confirmation of more cooking recipes (finally) with some confirmed to be Poutine, Latkes, Biryani, and Arepas. Also, a Strategy board game you can play with villagers? Player with the most coins wins. I’m pretty terrible with these, but at least it seems like it’ll just be for fun.

Plus, the other code: DDVHEADBAND. It wasn’t working until like… several minutes after the Stream ended, but seems to be working now at least.

Finally, the game is coming to Apple Arcade, which I guess is as close to ‘free-to-play’ as you can get considering it’s just thrown into the Apple Arcade subscription. It’ll apparently include both the base game and the new expansion– A Rift in Time. No Star Paths or Premium Shop will be in the game (so will you just have the items in Scrooge’s Shop?).

And can I just say how much I hate that they can do versions like that for Apple Arcade, but still have to do microtransaction-y stuff for everything else? Apple Arcade is not that much and even in the long run, they will likely finish the game and be able to get everything for much cheaper than those stuck with the microtransaction-mess that games are lately and it just… why.

I think right now the big thing is that there’s not really a good excuse for the Premium Shop and/or the Star Path when we’ll be having more full expansions (thus in the $30 range) and the game will continue to cost money. The Premium Shop is still awful with the rotation system (just make everything always show up…) and the Star Path brings way too many limited items into the fold.

Personally, I’d rather see both gone and Moonstones just be able to be used for old Star Path/Founder’s Pack/Event items and stuff. Including like… the 1-week Crocodile and other code stuff too. Other options are just the ability to get certain things sooner, but still being able to earn them in-game.

Despite my concerns, I really do think the Expansion looks great. I just wish everything felt more balanced.