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<\/a> who you may remember from hosting Nintendo Minute. They’ve since gone on to have their own Youtube channel and Consulting Company<\/a>. 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). <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Third, they confirmed what would be included in the ‘A Rift in Time’ expansion: <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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: 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.<\/p>\n Regardless, it is officially Showcase Day and it’s finally starting, so here we go. <\/p>\n The stream was kicked off with the initial teaser trailer plus out first code: DDVBALLOON – Balloon Arch and Pillars. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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) Multiplayer: 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. <\/p>\n 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). <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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… <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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?).<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Despite my concerns, I really do think the Expansion looks great. I just wish everything felt more balanced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1478,127],"tags":[1723,1487,1453,1526,1492,1489,1491,472],"class_list":["post-14452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney-dreamlight-valley","category-pc","tag-a-rift-in-time","tag-ddlv","tag-disney-dreamlight-valley","tag-dlv","tag-dreamlight-creator","tag-dreamlight-valley","tag-dreamlightcreator","tag-pc"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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\nLate Winter: Monsters Inc. Realm. Mike and Sulley were confirmed even though only Mike was shown. I wonder if we’ll see Boo too.
\nEarly Spring 2024: “vibrant new Villager”– maybe Daisy considering the picture?
\nLate Spring 2024: Mulan realm.
\nSummer 2024: Tiana + new recipes
\nEvery new update will bring a new Star Path which isn’t really surprising as that’s kind of how it’s worked anyway. <\/p>\n
\nBesides touring around each other’s valleys, you can:
\n-Give\/exchange materials
\n-Visit each other’s Scrooge’s shop. <\/p>\n
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