If there’s one thing Disney Dreamlight Valley knows how to do well, it’s an expansion. Between A Rift in Time and The Storybook Vale, the worlds brought to life outside of your standard valley have been undeniably enchanting. But after spending time exploring Wishblossom Ranch and meeting its inhabitants, there’s an absolutely unfathomable amount of childlike joy tucked in its story which I haven’t experienced since I was first welcomed to Dreamlight Valley.
Although it follows the same process of meeting new characters who need your help, completing their quests to unlock them as friends, and clearing up any chaos caused by some force linked to your trauma, Wishblossom Ranch is unlike any of the expansions Disney Dreamlight Valley has released. Each biome you explore is so different from one another, yet the quests that link them and the relationships between the characters you meet pulls them together in an incredibly neat package. The excitement I felt to get to the next area constantly drove me to keep playing, even after hitting a roadblock such as needing to level up which would usually be enough to make me call it a night.
But even these progression halts aren’t as severe as I thought they would be, which means you can put as much time as you want into the DLC without having to wait around. Don’t get me wrong, Disney Dreamlight Valley still knows how to make you work to progress, and there are certain features of the expansion that do feel like a slight hurdle to jump over before you can sink yourself back into the story. But even then, the world is so much fun to explore, you forget you’re working towards something so simple like levelling up—which is especially clear when you start levelling up your horses.
In fact, I’d say that horses are the game’s most significant addition outside of an entirely new area, and they really shake up the routine and help make everything far more exciting too. Not only is getting around easier, but you need to bond with these horses to unlock new areas rather than having to grind Dreamlight Duties to collect enough currency to take away barricades made by the chaos taking over the land, which is what we’ve seen in previous releases through the use of Inkies and Mist.
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(Image credit: Gameloft)
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(Image credit: Gameloft)
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(Image credit: Gameloft)
Not having to spend hours working through Dreamlight Duties to access a fraction of the map massively helped me lose myself in this adventure. I’d much rather spend an hour bonding with my horse by riding it around and doing day-to-day tasks like farming and mining than having to chase down companions to pet or cooking 400 meals for a measly dribble of Dreamlight that barely covers the cost of one of these forcefields. You do enough of that in the base game, so it’s nice to have a break and feel like the game is so familiar yet so exciting.
Even the characters and quests feel more fleshed out in this expansion. Although their quests still consist of collecting a certain amount of a biome-specific item or cooking a dish, they feel more personal and catered toward each of the unlockable characters. For example, you have to get Tigger to say a series of words featuring a letter, so of course you make a meal featuring something he doesn’t like which conveniently results in him shouting its ingredients out loud in disgust. Little things like this not only make the characters feel more realistic, but it helps you feel more connected to them too.
It certainly helps that you feel somewhat free to do whatever you want too. If you’d rather take your time bringing the ranch back to life biome by biome, then you can do that. Little DIY projects around each area will keep you occupied, tasking you with collecting certain materials like old wood and rusted parts to re-build them. But, if you’d rather blast through the story and save the ranch from the decay first before re-building it, you can do that too. As I’ve already mentioned, there are a few instances where you need to slow down a bit and focus on one thing rather than blasting through quests, but there is still a sense of being able to do things at your pace.
This is massively helped by the fact the DLC has been released as one single unit rather than in sections like the previous ones. When you finish one section of the story, such as unlocking Cruella, or finding Khan and being able to make your way to Pixie Acres, the story simply continues. There’s no sitting back and waiting for the time to pass until the next part or the next character unlocks. Which, yes, led to quite a few late night sessions after promising myself I’d just help my horse hit the next level because there was no enforced cap to stop me.
Even though I’ve already firmly cemented myself into Wishblossom Ranch and met each unlockable character, there’s still so much more for me to discover, and mend before my ranch is truly back to life. I look forward to the endless hours I’m bound to spend galloping around with my new horse companions, and it’s left me incredibly excited to see where Disney Dreamlight Valley takes its next expansion. Whenever that may be.
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