Disney Dreamlight Valley Early Access: A Delightful Fun Time

I decided to buy the standard founders pack of Disney Dreamlight Valley for early access. Right from the start, I was pleasantly surprised because of the wide variety of options with character customization down to body type, skin tone, and hairstyles. I was delighted and touched that I was able to create a Filipino character like me. That representation matters and I'm so glad that the game represents that really well. 

Welcome to Dreamlight Valley! 

The game has a very relaxed vibe with you rebuilding the village and using magic of course to rid the valley of dark thorns that cause a dark magic spell of forgetting happen. That's another aspect of the game as well, helping many different characters retrieve their lost memories. You can visit the worlds of notable characters and ask them to come live in the Valley to help rebuild the village. You can plant crops, go fishing, go mining, cook, and craft in the game. You can hang out with the different characters one on one which boosts your friendship with them and you can assign them a role like gardening which helps boost your stats as well and can give you extra crops because of their magic. 

Hang out, make friends! 

This also leads to fetch quests for characters which smartly introduces crafting and how to do it. Sometimes, you'll need to make a specific item for the character like a decoration or a magical item. All the various materials can be found in the different biomes and can be created at your crafting table. There is also cooking in the game and sometimes they will ask for specific dishes which you can cook in your house as long as you have a stove. You can get recipes from your Disney friends or you can experiment and discover new recipes on your own. I like all of it, but the cooking is my favorite because it's fun trying out different things and seeing what dishes I can create. 

Time for some crafting!

There's also the fact that you can change your outfits and you can customize your character at any time with the inventory/user menu. So if you want to try a new hairstyle or try a whole new look, you can do that. You can also decorate your house and your valley with the furniture items. You can visit Scrooge Mcduck for different outfits and furniture. His inventory changes every day so be sure to check it out; that way you don't miss out on anything new. You can also do your own custom design with the clothes, ranging from shirts to dresses which is great and offers a lot of fantastic options. 

You can change your outfit and your look anytime.

Sometimes it can be challenging to find a character when you want to turn a fetch quest in which is why the map comes in handy. You can look at your map and mark the character icon on the map and it will create a sparkly magical trail that you can follow all the way to them. I love that they have this feature because it makes it a lot easier to find everyone.

Finding friends on the map is easy. 

You can take photos with characters, putter around, and just have fun doing what you want. The relaxed vibe of the game is really nice because you can take your time with it and there's no rush. There's a good mix of villains and heroes and it's amusing to be friends with all of them. Scar in particular had me laughing about how snide he can be, but most of the time he's just a big typical cat lounging everywhere. Even funnier is when taking photos with characters in the background, they will stop and pose with you which got me a rather cute and silly photo of Scar and Minnie Mouse. 

Scar is a Minnie Mouse fan! 

That being said there are some definite issues with the game. Remember, it is in early access so there are definitely going to be some things that are buggy and game issues that need work. First up is the constant game crashes. I've been playing this on the Nintendo Switch and I love it, but I have learned to save my game often because after a few hours the game suddenly crashes. This can be very frustrating if you're right in the middle of a quest and then you have to do it again because the game crashed at the worst possible moment. Second is sometimes quests break where something isn't loading the way it's supposed to or a character doesn't load in correctly. It can be a little disconcerting, but reloading the game does seem to fix it. Last is how some of the quests feel a little grindy like making a clocktower for someone and that is because so many materials were needed to craft it and I would have to wait until the next day to get some of them because the drop rate for them was not good. It felt tedious and overlong to the point that by the time I was finished, I was glad to be done with it. The good news is that Gameloft has been great communicating on their social media about the issues, what is getting fixed, and what they're working on. They have a discord as well which helps a lot. 

Ahh, night in the Valley is magical. 

Dreamlight Valley does go free to play next year and there really hasn't been a lot of microtransactions and there's a ton of content that isn't hidden behind a paywall which makes me really happy. There's a ton to do in the game and I've enjoyed all of it immensely because it touches on that cozy, relaxed vibe that I enjoy from my life/farm sim type games. Whether it's having a blast cooking meals with Remy from Ratatouille or having a good time gardening with Wall-e, Dreamlight Valley is an all around delightful fun time. 

I love my garden! 

*Disney Dreamlight Valley in early access is available to play on the following platforms: Steam, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

Bayonetta 3: Even More Camp and Fun

Yes, there has been a lot happening surrounding Bayonetta 3. The recent Bloomberg article did a great job with talking to both parties and showing that there is more to it than what was initially shown. That being said, voice actors absolutely deserve to be paid well for their work and time. I am not disputing that at all. The problem is the former voice actor for Bayonetta didn't really tell the whole truth and it comes across as very dishonest and her dunking on the new voice actor for Bayonetta was weird. The other issue which I feel is a lot bigger is that she's a bigot. It definitely disappointed me considering that for me personally Bayonetta the character means a lot to me as a queer person. Sometimes, life works out that way and we do our best to learn from it and keep pushing forward. Either way, do your best to be kind. Now, let's get on with the review.

I was excited to play Bayonetta 3. I have played the previous two games and absolutely loved them. Right at the start Bayonetta 3 hooks you in with an epic fight happening with Bayonetta and a shadowy monster. This also introduces us to a new character, Viola who is definitely giving off amazing punk rocker vibes. Bayonetta is defeated by the monster known as Singularity and Viola escapes through a world bridge to another universe to find help fighting Singularity. 

The game then shows the Bayonetta we know driving with Enzo and of course Rodin is here too. That's when Viola shows up and everything goes to hell as a bunch of monsters show up called Homunculi. This gives the game a chance to give a fast tutorial on how the combat buttons work, how to witch walk which slows down time, and how to unleash epic attacks on the monsters.

Bayonetta and Enzo together again.

This first fight is a blast. The combat is even better and I appreciated the sheer camp of the game and loved getting to play as Bayonetta again. There's some new moves to learn as the Homunculi are a little more challenging, but it's a great time. 

She's back! 

After the chaos dies down for a time, Viola explains that she's an Umbran witch from another universe and that Singularity has already destroyed many alternate universes. To stop Singularity they have to travel to the island of Thule which acts as a gateway between universes in order to get the five chaos gears to lead them to the Alphaverse where Singularity is. Thus starts the main chunk of the game as Bayonetta travels to these different universes to find the chaos gears. She of course meets multiverse versions of herself and all of them are very cool as they fight alongside her in some moments. The fights themselves are great. I had a lot of fun just hacking and slashing away as well as using some new moves with Bayonetta's guns.

Taking out a giant monster.

Bayonetta has also learned some new moves and added a few more epic tricks. She can now summon demons to fight. She can have up to three in her amulett and some are familiar faces like Gomorrah while others are brand new like a demon train. All of them are fantastic and it added a layer of planning out fights, because each demon brings a different element so I had a good time deciding which one I wanted to use. There are also moments where you can summon a demon in giant form and this was awesome! The kid in me loved that I got to have giant monster fights. They play like rock, paper, scissors as you either attack or defend. These fights were wild and I enjoyed all of them. 

Giant monster fight! 

I did love the customization in Bayonetta 3. Naturally, you get these new things from Rodin at his bar. You can change Bayonetta's guns and accessories. The biggest thing I liked is that you could change the color of her costume, her glasses, and hair. I went with my favorite color, purple. If you have the money, Rodin is ready to sell you all the colors. There are 7 different costumes too, but you need to reach certain points of the game to unlock those. Once you do however, you can choose your favorite costume.

Bayonetta in my favorite color, purple. 

I was delighted to see we got to play as Viola and Jeanne in certain chapters. Getting to play as Viola was a lot of fun. Viola is a bit of a klutz, but that adds to her charm and I found her rather endearing because she's trying so hard and while she may not really show it, she cares a lot. Her fighting style is different from Bayonetta's and she doesn't have a full arsenal of weapons, but combat with Viola is wildly fun. She fights with a katana and she can toss it to summon her demon, Cheshire. While Cheshire can fight on its own, this means Viola can fist fight alongside him and she can't use witch time. Viola is really fast and I really liked her fighting style. It added another great aspect to the game playing as her. I was always happy to get to play as her when I saw it was a chapter with Viola. Cheshire is wonderful because of my love for Alice in Wonderland and Cheshire is my favorite, but also because when Cheshire teams up with Viola they can do some pretty powerful attacks.

Viola and Cheshire are awesome! 

The chapters with Jeanne are a little different because they're side chapters that play as a stealth side scroller. These missions are short and timed so Jeanne has to get through them quickly. Jeanne can use her powers to change form to crawl through vents, swim underwater, and stealthily get rid of Homunculi enemies in order to get to the elevator undetected. These are a lot of fun and I really liked playing as Jeanne in these. There are four of these side chapters with Jeanne and I enjoyed them. I just wish there had been a few more of them with her. 

Jeanne takes out a boss in her chapter.

The story for Bayonetta 3 is interesting and I was fully invested because of the great gameplay and the introduction of a standout character in Viola. I did like seeing Luka again too because he seemed to be more a part of this story than a side character. Without spoiling, I do understand why many are upset with the ending of Bayonetta 3. I'm saying this as a queer person, Bayonetta has very much brought me a lot of queer joy. I'm pansexual and seeing how much camp and cheeky fun the games have brought, genuinely makes me happy. Did I love the ending? Not really because it made me sad and it felt a little rushed. I do understand the valid concerns about queer baiting in regards to the ending. However, I will say as someone who is in a hetero presenting relationship, it stings a bit seeing once again the bi/pan erasure from some of the people speaking those concerns. I know that my relationship is not queer because I'm married to a man, but I myself am still very much queer. That is the part that bothers me. The idea that if a bi/pan person is in a hetero presenting relationship we're suddenly "not queer enough" or "not really queer" and it's something that I know I have had to fight against for a very long time and still have to fight against, and I'm tired. Other than that, I agree the ending could have been handled differently and while it's not a perfect ending, I do think it leaves some things open ended for the possibility of another Bayonetta game. 

Overall, I loved Bayonetta 3. It brought even more camp and fun. It brought back more of the over the top fights I love, added a cool new character, added the best giant monster fights, and of course showed off those sweet dance moves as only Bayonetta can. I had the best time with all of it. 

What a fun time! 

*Bayonetta 3 is available to play on Ninendo Switch

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer