FanX 2022 featured an exciting reunion panel for "Psych" fans, as stars Timothy Omundson and Maggie Lawson joined forces for a laughter-filled chat about pineapples, podcasts and solving cases. However, we at Signs of the Times remember Omundson best for his role as the baddie-turned-bestie, King Richard, on the short-lived musical comedy "Galavant."
Omundson took a few minutes during the panel to reminisce about his "Galavant" gig, with some supportive fangirling from Lawson. Here's what they had to say:
Lawson: How great was Tim on “Galavant?”
Omundson: […] I’ve had such incredible
roles to play. To leave “Psych” and then – well, you never “leave ‘Psych’” –
but, to have done “Psych” for eight years… well, eight years; 120 episodes; at
this point, three movies – of, hopefully, eight… [Audience cheers] …to then get
to do “Galavant” was just an embarrassment of riches. Here’s a little secret: I
had not done a musical since high school, so I got to work and just, really, I
had no idea what I was doing. […] In between hiatuses, I had to double down on
singing lessons. I really wanted [to learn how to] sing because I really had no
idea – I had no technique, whatsoever. I was in a recording booth with the
great Alan Menken. [Audience cheers] He’s done some stuff. …and I recorded one
of my first songs [-] one of my big songs… my big song – I think it’s from the
pilot – and I can’t hit the top note. I could sort of see through the recording
booth glass, all the producers kind of look at each other, and I immediately
[start sweating]. I’m like, “I am getting fired. They’re gonna realize, they’re
gonna discover I’m a fraud. I’m gonna get fired immediately.” Alan comes in the
booth with me and he’s trying to teach me how to sing, and I’m like, “This is
horrible!” So I left the booth that day, trying not to burst into tears, and
vowed that I would never let that happen again. On hiatus, I went back and took
lessons and learned how to sing, just because I was afraid I was going to get
fired. It was the greatest job, second to “Psych,” of my life. Because, I mean,
like, riding horses through the countryside of England and Morocco? Come on!
Lawson: I remember that process. You worked so hard. I
remember being on a plane back from Vancouver as “Psych” was finishing up. […]
I remember saying to you, “You can do whatever you want – what would be your
next job?” And you kind of said all of those things that “Galavant” had, before
“Galavant” had even come along. [Then] that showed up and I remember that
audition process; it went on and on and on, and I remember being like, “He’s
gonna get this!”
Omundson: It literally took five months for me to finally get
the job. So, at that time, every human being that my family and I knew, knew I
was up for this role, and I was like, “This could be so embarrassing if I don’t
get this job.” But the […] network had a big English movie star in line for the
role, so they kept putting it off until they’d offered the job to not just one
movie star but two. I’m not saying who, but they were British…
Lawson: But they weren’t Timothy Omundson!
Omundson: Thank goodness. So, finally, one of them said, “You’ll
have to hypnotize me to sing,” because he was afraid of singing. [“Galavant”
creator] Dan Fogelman, right from the get-go, was like, “Don’t worry, you’re my
guy. We’ve just got to get the network to let go of this dream with these movie
stars.” And, the next thing, I’m on a plane to England!
Lawson: You’re still his guy!
Omundson: I’m so incredibly lucky. So, to go from “Galavant,”
then… [sarcastically] Maggie, did you hear that I had a stroke?
Lawson, sarcastically: Wait, what?!
Omundson: Oh yeah, it was in all the papers! I’m ok, though.
[Audience laughs, sympathetically]
Lawson: Oh, fantastic! [Audience cheers] You’re the greatest
warrior I know!
Omundson: So, to go from that little, massive brain injury
to then have my “Psych” family, who rallied behind me like they all did, to
build the movies around me, was just… I’m still gob-smacked by it.
A few minutes later, a fan asked Omundson what his favorite song was to perform on "Galavant." Omundson replied, "[It was] probably the song 'Goodnight, My Friend.' It was such a beautiful song. I think that was my favorite song of all. It was a beautiful song, incredibly touching. So, it would probably be that one."
*****
What is your favorite Timothy Omundson role? Have you found all of the hidden pineapples in "Psych"? And, perhaps more importantly, how badly do you think they need to bring "Galavant" back for a third and final season? Let us know in the comments section, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.
As always, keep it here at Signs of the Times for even more FanX fandom.
FanX 2022 brought together a dream pairing of actors from "The Walking Dead," who never officially met on-screen: David Morrissey and Ross Marquand. Morrissey played the dastardly Governor in 20 episodes between Season 3 and Season 5, and Marquand's character, Aaron, has survived for more than 100 episodes, down to the episodes leading up to the series finale. The pair took the Grand Ballroom stage to chat with fans about their time on the show, some behind-the-scenes hijinks and the ever-popular "what if?" scenarios.
Here are some of the highlights from their Thursday afternoon panel:
A fan asked Morrissey what it was like to film an infamous Season 4 episode between the Governor and Hershel.
Morrissey:Whenever anybody goes on the show that you’ve spend time with, it’s really hard. Scott [Wilson] was a special person. He was a great man. When I joined the show, […] to be working with such a wonderful actor, who I had been seeing for a long time, in films like “In Cold Blood,” “The Great Gatsby”… This was an actor that I’d admired – not just as an actor but as a man – for many years. So when I read that episode, yeah, my heart sank because I knew everyone was going to hate me, but also because it was a tough thing to do. The day we did it, all the crew turned up and they all had, like, Hershel suspenders on and stuff like that. It was a mixed day for everybody, but that happens when a lot of people die on the show. They become your friends. You become very close to them, so it is hard to see someone go, after so long. The good thing was that I did that and then I died quite quickly, so I thought that people would see that I’d suffer, so that was good. [Scott Wilson] was a great man, he was a great actor and a really great friend. It was hard to do [on the show] but it was hard to lose him in real life, as well.
A fan asked what the relationship between The Governor and Aaron would have been like if their paths had crossed on the show.
Morrissey: Well, I think it depends on when they meet in their arc, really. I think I could see [Aaron] working in Woodbury. At one point, Woodbury was a really successful place. It was working well, it sort of had a community. It was sort of a dictatorship but it was working ok. In that point of our story, I think we would have got on very well. I think what the Governor was looking for was a good, solid community, and that’s what I think [Aaron] would have brought. Later on, […] once the Governor went psychotic, I think everybody was up for grabs, really.
Marquand: I think Aaron’s always been desiring of community and helping rebuild the world, but he’s also a great judge of character, so I feel like, if it was the early days, he’d be like, “This guy seems all right but I’m gonna keep an eye on him,” but much like Michonne, as the series goes on in Season 3, I think she’s the one that first starts to kind of poke holes in [the Governor’s] world. It’s Andrea that’s kind of like, “He seems fine!” And they sleep together and it’s all good! [Uneasy laughter from audience]
Morrissey: It was wonderful, after we slept together. It was fine. [Audience laughs] What could have gone wrong?
Marquand: But I think they would have gotten along, at first, too. I agree.
Morrissey: But, also, I think what the Governor was doing was he was presenting one personality to his populous, and what you saw was him doing something else privately. I think, for a while, the people in his community thought he was a good guy; only the audience knew that he was scheming behind and doing things he shouldn’t have been doing. But yeah, I think if we would have met at that time, Aaron would have fit in really well.
A fan asked if they ever stop and think about how strange their jobs are.
Morrissey: Yeah, I feel that about 20 times a day. I used to feel that way a lot. As a younger actor, I used to think, “This is ridiculous, that I’m earning money like this” – particularly when I thought about how my parents went to work. I thought, “Here I am, dressing up in a costume.” But I feel that less now. [Now,] I’m very proud and lucky to do my job. I do this thing – Andrew Lincoln and I used to do this a lot – we’d be somewhere in the middle of some field, boiling hot, covered in blood, sort of sweating [due to] having done scenes of running away from zombies and stuff, and Andrew would turn to me and go, “Isn’t this great?” And you had to do that. I constantly, now, as an actor, remind myself that I am living my dream! My dream, as a kid, was to be a working actor, and that’s what I’m doing. I have to remind myself to appreciate every moment of the day [that] I’m doing it. There are aspects of my job – our job – which [are] ridiculous, but how great is that? That’s great, as well. I have to […] really remind myself[,] whereas, as a younger actor, I would slightly think, “What are you doing, David? You should be building things. You should be… look at your hands! You’ve never done a day’s work in your life.” I don’t think that now. I’m really proud of my job, and I know it’s hard work, as well. I’m much more in tune with it than I used to be.
Marquand: I think, for me, Season 6, where Maggie and I are trying to find Glen and we get stuck in the sewers and I was covered in fake poop… That, for me, was one of those moments where I was like, “Wow. I made it.” [Audience laughs] It was just such a surreal thing because the art department on our show is probably the best art department I’ve ever worked with and they do such a good job. From what I understand, they took Snickers bars and ground them up in a blender, but only so much, and they just poured gallons and gallons of what looks like… Sorry, if this is grossing you out. You watch “The Walking Dead,” so it probably isn’t grossing you out. [Audience laughs] But we’re just covered in this stuff and we’re swimming around in this, and it was really low lighting. I remember the zombie that was going to kill me was coming out, right between my legs, and I was like, “[Exclaims]” I didn’t have my glasses on [and] I had terrible vision before I got LASIK, and this thing swiped at my face and got a chunk of my eyeball and everything. He, immediately, was apologizing profusely because he couldn’t see because he’s got lenses on his eyes, and we’re both just in this apology cycle: “I’m sorry!” “No, I’m sorry!” “No, I’m sorry!” We’re both covered in crap. “Oh no! I’m sorry!” “No, I’m sorry! I should have reacted faster!” It was just, like, what are we doing? We’re both just covered in poop and we’re apologizing to each other, and he’s a zombie. It was cool. So yeah, that was a moment for me.
The panel moderator asked Marquand what TWD fans can expect from the final eight episodes of the series.
Marquand, doing an impression of Donald Trump: Everybody
dies. Everybody dies. It’s very sad. It’s a very sad day for everybody.
Literally, everybody in the show, they just all die. [Audience cheers and
hollers] It’s very sad, the ending. You gotta believe me. Believe me: you’re
gonna cry your hearts out, ok? You’ve never seen something so sad in your
entire life. It’s all death. Nothing but death. Blood, sweat, tears. Everyone
dies. It’s very sad. You’ll love it. You’ll love it. [Audience cheers]
*****
Have you stuck with "The Walking Dead" to the end of the series? Do you have a favorite character from the series? Let us know in the comments section, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.
And for everything else FanX-related, keep it right here with Signs of the Times.
Disney legend Jodi Benson - best known for her role as Ariel in the 1989 animated classic "The Little Mermaid" - held a Q&A panel at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention last weekend. Throughout the 45-minute session, Benson reminisced on her career as a voice actress and even treated fans in attendance to a full performance of "Part of Your World."
One of the highlights of the panel came when a school teacher asked Benson what advice she would give to the young girl who will be playing Ariel in their upcoming production of "The Little Mermaid." Here's what Benson had to say:
Well, first of all, she needs to have fun, and she needs
to be real and authentic and vulnerable. It’s not like you’re acting. Ariel
just is. I mean, she’s just a regular 16-year-old girl who just wants something
more. It’s a really sweet, sweet story, so I think as long as she’s just being
real and doesn’t feel like she has to perform or act something out, it’s going
to be beautiful. You need to fall in love with Ariel, right at the very first
second and then root for her throughout the whole film, the whole stage show.
Benson also shared a humorous story about being offered the role of Barbie in "Toy Story 2."
[Panel moderator: They didn’t audition you for that particular
role.]
No, and that was really weird because I’m only used to
auditioning for things. No one’s ever called up and said, “Hey, do you want
this job?” I mean, it just doesn’t happen in the theater world. After
“Mermaid,” I got a call first from Don Bluth Studios, saying, “Hey, do you want
to do ‘Thumbellina’ with Barry Mannilow?” And I’m like, “Well, yeah! Sure, but
do you want me to come in and audition?” They’re like, “Nah, you’re good! It’s
good. You’re great.” […] And then [the opportunity] came up for Barbie in “Toy
Story” [and] I got a call from Pixar, going, “We’d like you to come in and
record the voice of Barbie in ‘Toy Story 2.’” I was like, “Great! I’ll be ready
for an audition. Do you have some words or lines?” [Pixar said], “Nah, we’re
good. We know Barbie’s in there somewhere. We saw Ariel, we loved you, and she
lives in there. We’ll figure her out.”
So we played with a box of Barbies – the producer and the
directors literally played with a box of Barbies – and we started to talk to
each other. They were talking to me. They looked really silly, as grown men
going [imitates high-pitched voice] “Hi! How are you?” […] We did this Barbie
thing and then kind of came up with it and started to record it. I had to
physically act it out – because I’m a theater person, I had to act everything
out, physically, which is very strange in a studio.
[…] Mattel was there, and this was a big deal because
Barbie had never had a voice before, so [they were] explaining this to me and
I’m like, “Excuse me, but I actually did the voice of Barbie in a workout
Claymation video in 1988 or ’89.” You could see the executive looking at me and
[imitates nervous laughter] “I knew that!” I didn’t want to embarrass her, but
I just said, “Actually, you know, I did give Barbie a voice. I don’t know – do
you want that voice for Barbie?” She said, “No, we’ll discover a new voice.” …It’s
the same voice from the video. [Audience laughs] If you put them side by side,
you’d be like, “Yep, that’s Jodi.”
Barbie was super fun. She was supposed to be in the
original, but Mattel was like, “No, we’re not going to have Barbie in an
animated cartoon.” And then they saw how well it did, financially. [Audience
laughs] “Toy Story” was a big old hit, and then Mattel was like, “Hey! What’s
it look like for ‘Toy Story 2’? Maybe Barbie can come back. Is she invited
back?”
Money talks. Money talks.
One final note of interest from the panel was that Benson said she is not going to have a cameo in the upcoming live-action "Little Mermaid" remake but that she is helping with press and publicity for the new film to help the movie succeed.
*****
Did you attend FanX this year? Did you have a favorite moment from a panel or a celebrity interaction that you enjoyed? Let us know in the comments section, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.
For more FanX fun, keep it here with Signs of the Times!
The new life-sim video game Disney Dreamlight Valley launched its early access phase last Tuesday, and, so far, it has been quite the adventure. But what makes this game special - especially in comparison to other popular titles in the same genre? And is it worth dropping money now on a game that will eventually be free to play?
I'm not going to waste much time trying to explain to you what the game is. I'm sure there are plenty of articles and blogs out there that can go into extensive detail about the plot without me having to type it all up here. But I will briefly summarize it for you this way: if Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley had a kid and it lived in Kingdom Hearts, that's pretty much what you're looking at, just without any violence, romance or ridiculous loans to pay off. That do anything for you?
I heard about Dreamlight Valley a while back and was immediately interested in it - especially when I heard that it was going to be free to play, which I thought was totally shocking and un-Disney-like. I somewhat kept tabs on the game over the past few months, thanks to sponsored ads and posts on social media. I knew the game was launching on September 6, and I couldn't wait to download it to my Playstation. However, I woke up last Tuesday morning to quite a shock - the game wasn't free, after all. I had to buy it for $30.
I must preface my next sentence with two statements:
Thirty dollars is not expensive, for a video game.
After some momentary contemplation, I happily forked over the money and bought the game, without even fully understanding why I was doing it.
What is the Founders Pack, and why does it cost money?
I learned a lot about Dreamlight Valley on the morning of September 6. I Googled several variations of "Why isn't Dreamlight Valley free like they said it was going to be?" Here's what I found out:
The version of the game that is available to play right now is considered "early access." They called it the "Founders Pack." That's a fancy way of saying that it's a beta version of the game that is not 100% finished. It's a hands-on method of letting the developers know how the game is running and whether there are any problems that need to be tinkered with before the full, free-to-play launch. Essentially, the $30 I paid granted me early access to play before most other people.
The early access period is planned to last at least six months, meaning that the free version of the game will go live in early 2023.
The money I paid also rewarded me with exclusive cosmetic items that won't be available to gamers who begin playing when the game launches for free. This included some cool Mickey-themed furniture for my house in the game, as well as some unique clothing items (most notably, a "Mickey ears" headband made of donuts) and an animal companion named the "Choco Crocodile," which is a little gator that looks like an ice cream sundae. As far as I am aware, it literally does nothing, other than follow my character around at all times, sparkling and looking adorable.
Early-access users will be able to earn special in-game rewards that will not be available later on. For instance, the game is currently celebrating Pixar Fest. Players can focus on certain goals to earn limited-time Pixar items, like Miguel's guitar from "Coco" or Carl Fredricksen's fireplace from "Up." Pixar Fest is running in Dreamlight Valley for about a month. Once that timer hits zero, all that Pixar stuff will be locked, making it unavailable to people who wait to play the game for free.
There are two tiers of paid content above what I paid; I think they're $60 and $99, if you're really hardcore. Those higher levels provide even more exclusive stuff, like a Buzz Lightyear-inspired tuxedo-looking thing. Looks sweet, but I'm not paying twice as much so I can have it. Thirty bucks was fine with me.
After one week, do I feel like getting the Founders Pack was worth it? So far, I'd say yes. I'm going to milk that $30 for all it's worth, and I'm having a great time.
Ten reasons to love Dreamlight Valley
1. The characters
The immediate draw for Dreamlight Valley is the Disney IP. If you showed somebody a picture of characters on Animal Crossing and a picture of characters on Dreamlight Valley, then asked them which game they want to play, I'm guessing that nine times out of 10, they'd pick Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck over Tom Nook and Isabelle. Dreamlight Valley is great because you meet Merlin, Goofy and Scrooge McDuck right off the bat, and can welcome new, recognizable neighbors to your village within 30 minutes. After one week, I've added characters from "Moana," "Frozen," "The Little Mermaid," "Ratatouille" and several other Disney and Pixar movies. They all live together (I can even pick where most of their houses go) and they naturally interact with one another, as if it's totally normal to have an ice queen living just up the road from a Samoan demigod.
Unlike Animal Crossing, where you've really got to luck out to get cool neighbors, or Stardew Valley, where you're plopped into a city of townsfolk that you've never met, I'm excited every time that somebody from a beloved film expresses interest in joining my ragtag bunch of villagers. Dreamlight Valley just announced the next few steps in their content roadmap - specifically that Scar from "The Lion King" and the toys from "Toy Story" will be joining the game in Fall 2022 and Late Fall 2022, respectively.
2. It actually has a story
I love Animal Crossing - I even named it one of the five things that saved me during quarantine! But after playing that game every single day (literally) for over a year, it became a chore. I knew I had to log on to check into that little ATM machine and get my Nook Miles, and while I was at it, I might as well do some fishing, chip away at my mountain of debt and check in on my little sweater-wearing buddy Marshall, but that eventually just stopped being fun. It became tedious and repetitive and I lost my will to keep doing it.
Stardew Valley is great - different, but great - but racing against the in-game clock to tend to all my crops and making sure I pet every single chicken and cow, along with maintaining relationships with everyone in town - all before I pass out from exhaustion (yes, that's a real thing), gets tiresome, too. I have to play Stardew in spurts so I don't get burned out.
Dreamlight Valley actually has a plot. You don't have to do anything, necessarily. If you don't want to garden, you really don't have to that often, other than when it's required for quest progression. I was mentioning to my wife that I hardly garden at all anymore. If you prefer to just go fishing, you can just go fishing. If you feel like picking some apples or cooking at Chez Remy, go ahead and do it.
But if you want to focus on the main storyline in Dreamlight Valley, you're really in for some fun. It continues to surprise me how detailed and interesting the story has been, for a game that is ultimately going to be free for everyone. I've paid more money for worse storylines, quite frankly. My journey to discover what happened to the valley and why all the residents started disappearing has been a fascinating one, with a few exciting twists and turns along the way. That's something I couldn't say about Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley.
3. Unbreakable tools
It stinks when stuff breaks. If you've played Animal Crossing or Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you know what I mean. In fact, I traded Breath of the Wild back in to Gamestop because of the breakable weapons. (I sometimes regret that decision, but I truly felt like if I got a really strong sword, I couldn't use it because after a certain number of hits, it would break. So dumb.) In Dreamlight Valley, you get all your tools fairly quickly into the game. They're yours to keep, and they're only going to get stronger. You never even have to refill your magical watering can. It's so glorious.
4. Cooking and crafting, made easy
One thing that I really love about Dreamlight Valley is that you don't have to have everything on your person, if you're trying to cook or craft something. For instance, if you want to make a meal for Merlin that requires a fish, some lettuce and a lemon, those things can be stored in a treasure chest back home and you can still access them, no matter where you are. If you've got it - anywhere - you can use it. Needless to say, I've got six chests in various rooms of my character's house, just to hold all my crap so I don't have to lug it around with me everywhere I go.
5. Wildly different biomes and realms
In Animal Crossing, you're on an island. The seasons vary from real-life month to real-life month, but you're always on an island. In Stardew Valley, you've got pretty drastic changes in weather, from in-game month to in-game month and even from day to day, but you're always in Stardew Valley.
In Dreamlight Valley, there is a central geographical hub called the Plaza, which is pretty standard. But down the hill, you've got a meadow with several little fishing ponds. Further south, there's a tropical beach where bananas and coconuts grow. In the northwest portion of the map is a forest with big trees and a small stream. There's also a dark, swampy glade, a desert plateau and several regions that I haven't even unlocked yet - one of which I know is covered in snow and ice. In other words, you can access extremely varied climates just by running 30 seconds in any direction, at any time of the day. Each region, or biome, has unique plants, vegetation and minerals, so you'll likely want to visit all of them, any given time you boot up the game.
In addition, players can travel to different realms, based on areas from Disney and Pixar movies, which is where new characters typically hang out before you can recruit them to come live with you. Up to where I'm at in the game, there have been four realms, but the developers have stated that they'll introduce many more down the line, in some cases lining up with future movie releases. Who knows which characters and which worlds they'll introduce in the future?
6. Sarcastic responses
As you progress through the game, the characters will ask you to run errands for them or help them accomplish certain things. These missions are driven by text dialogue (augmented by occasional, generic lines of audio). Almost always, the game will allow the player to select one of several possible responses to guide the conversation along. For instance, if Anna from "Frozen" asked you to help her pick some berries, the player might say, "Sure! I'd love to help you!" Perhaps they might say, "What do you need berries for?" And, from time to time, they'll even give the player something really snarky to say. Here are the best three thing I've said so far:
In response to Scrooge asking me what I thought Merlin might have bought from the store. I said, "Something old... like him." Scrooge then chided me and told me to stop making his customers the butt of my jokes.
I asked Mother Gothel how old she is.
When Ariel told me she believed superglue to be something that humans put in their hair, I responded, "You should try it sometime."
7. All will be revealed... from the very beginning
One of the biggest pains I experienced with Animal Crossing was the misery of picking up those bottles on the shore that would give you a recipe to craft something. Like, you might open one and it would be instructions for how to make a wooden desk, then your player would be able to make one for their home. The problem was that it was a total crap-shoot every time you got one and, after you'd played for a while, the recipe in the bottle was almost always something you already knew, making it completely worthless. I remember hoping for the recipe for an ironwood dresser for months. I finally got it, which, sadly, felt like I had just won the jackpot.
In Dreamlight Valley, if you're curious about how to craft something, you can literally just look it up in the crafting menu. You don't have to hope and pray that you'll randomly stumble across the instructions. They're right there, from the very beginning. I have noticed that, as I have unlocked different areas of the map, picking up a new flower that I'm encountering for the first time may unlock a new crafting recipe, but it's not like I go to find out how to craft that item and it doesn't allow me to do it or won't tell me which resources I need. It tells me, clearly, what I need and how to do it.
Similarly, for cooking, if you randomly toss some stuff into a pot, you can make anything. Nothing is locked for new players. If you've got the right ingredients, you can make it, and the game will even save that recipe for you to use again in the future. I've been using a website like this one as a guide any time I come back to my house with a bag full of ingredients that I foraged as I walked through the glade, beach and meadow. If I have a new, rare or unique fish or vegetable, I just CTRL+F it on the list of recipes, throw the stuff in and make it. Boom. Pretty simple. Pretty convenient.
Another really nice thing is that if I need to mine an emerald and I can't remember where those are found or if I need to look for a specific type of flower but I can't remember where those grow, I can pull up the "Collections" page in the menu and it will tell me exactly where to go.
8. Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!
I know I already talked about how great the cast of characters is in Dreamlight Valley, but one more aspect of the game that makes it a lot of fun is that it's not just the good guys who want to move in. There are a couple villains, too! The quest mechanics, as I mentioned earlier, give you some freedom to treat people in certain ways, so if you want to talk to Ursula like she's the most despicable creature on the planet, you can pretty much do that. On the other hand, if you want to sort of flirt with Mother Gothel and tell her that her dress is stunning, like I did at one point today, you can do that, too. You can run missions for heroes and villains without any sort of morality system; doing one thing for a villain isn't going to turn everyone else against you. Heck, I even agreed to spy on one of the villagers, which truly made me feel despicable, in retrospect, without any major ramifications, which is pretty nice, honestly. Deep down inside, it feels like the characters all want the valley to prosper, no matter how virtuously they choose to go about it.
9. Cross-platform functionality - eventually
One thing that I absolutely cannot wait for is cross-platform functionality, which is to say that, once the game goes free-to-play, if I am busting my butt on the Playstation and my wife wants to watch a TV show, I will be able to save my game to the cloud, then boot it right back up on the Nintendo Switch, using the exact same save file. You actually may be able to do that right now, but I assume you'd have to pay at least $30 to buy it on the other console. Once it's free for everybody, you could just make sure the game is downloaded on both systems and you'd be good to go. The version of the game that I bought was technically compatible with the Playstation 5 and the Playstation 4, and I've verified that the cross-functionality works by downloading the game to the PS4 and loading it up. It worked like a charm, so I could actually go play in the office on the PS4 while my wife plays in the living room on the PS5, but from my one-time experience starting the game on the PS4, the load time seemed to be dreadfully slow, so I think I'll just stick to the one platform for now.
10. It's a game I can play with the whole family
As I just mentioned, this is a game that my wife and I have both been playing over the past week. She's not as much of a video game junkie as I can tend to be sometimes, but every once in a while, I introduce her to a game that she really enjoys. We've both made some impressive progress on our villages, at this point, and it has been fun to talk about the game together and compare and contrast the decisions we've made along the way. I really hope (and I do expect) that Dreamlight Valley will eventually introduce a multiplayer aspect at some point down the line so that we can play the game together and visit each other's villages. That's one thing that we haven't really been able to do with Animal Crossing (we'd need two Switches in order to play together simultaneously) or Stardew Valley (we have it on Playstation and the Switch but the game doesn't have cross-platform functionality). Once DLV becomes free for everybody, if we could play together, either with each of us on a Playstation or with one of us on the PS5 and the other on the Switch, I think that would be a blast.
Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of all is that my son, who turns two next month, absolutely loves Dreamlight Valley. The first few times I played it, he would legitimately scream when he saw Mickey moseying on down the path. One time, I had the game paused and my son saw a Mickey Mouse emblem on one of the menus. When I un-paused the game, he almost started crying because the Mickey icon disappeared. He has cheered for me when I've caught fish or successfully built a character a new house. He has brought me one of the Playstation controllers while I was working and asked, "Play Mickey?" And it's even a game where I feel like I can hand him the controller for a few minutes and let him mess around (he's not old enough to know what he's doing yet) without fear that he's going to get my character killed or do something that's really going to mess me up.
If you're looking for a game that everybody in the family will enjoy - and probably one that everyone in the family will be begging to play - Dreamlight Valley is it, even for a down payment of $30.
What bugs need to be worked out?
There are a few things that I've noticed so far that I hope the developers can iron out in the coming weeks, and I know that they're already working on a few of them, which is awesome. The first update patch should be released at some point this week.
The update will include:
✅Fix for changing clothes ✅Improved Founder's Pack claiming ✅Fix for Error 7 ✅Reduced Switch crashes ✅Improved Dream Shard frequency ✅Multiple fixes for quest progression tied to unreachable, missing, and unrecognized items
In my experience, the game has run mostly fine, but here are a few kinks I've noticed:
Most egregiously, I'm stuck on an early quest for Donald Duck, where I have to collect a bunch of items in his boat - one of the items is stuck underneath a table that I can't move, thus making the item unobtainable. (Editor's note:This was fixed in the first major update patch.)
The camera can be a bit janky, especially in the forest (tall trees occasionally obscure the view) and in small rooms (the Ratatouille realm).
The game has completely frozen on us a couple times, requiring a hard reboot, which solves the problem - and we've never lost any unsaved progress - but is not ideal.
I've seen some items randomly disappear, like all of the food on one of the shelves in the Ratatouille realm.
The camera occasionally blasts from where the character is to the completely opposite side of the map, which is odd but corrects itself quickly.
When I added two new rooms as expansions to my house, the addition of the east wing deleted the treasure chest I was keeping all of my food in; thankfully, I didn't lose any of the food - it's all still there when I go to cook something - but the chest was completely deleted. (Editor's note:This was fixed in the first major update patch. They even gave me back my chest with all the food still in it!)
The skin tone on the marker for the player's character (most noticeably in my wife's game) does not match the skin tone of the actual character.
Some characters randomly, rapidly glitch when standing close to the character (I've mostly noticed it when fishing or standing close to an edge.
None of those glitches were irredeemable, in my opinion. Nothing made me rage quit. On the contrary, anything that made me have to restart the game just made me sad that I had to stop playing for like two minutes while the game closed and rebooted. It looks like the DLV team is collecting feedback and actively working to resolve known issues, which I appreciate.
Verdict
When I first learned about Dreamlight Valley, I thought it looked awesome. I was stoked to see that it wasn't just a mobile game and that I could get it for my PS5. I was a tad concerned that being free-to-play would make it feel cheap or that it might be loaded with microtransactions (making you pay real-life money to access certain aspects of the game). After diving into the game for a week, I cannot understate how please I have been with it. I've honestly been pleasantly surprised. It amazes me to see how much content they've packed into this game so far. The map feels huge, the storyline is actually really interesting and it seems like there is plenty of room for growth and expansion. The $30 I paid for this game feels like nothing. It feels like a "thank you" to the team that created this incredible game that I've spent the past week enjoying with my little Disney-loving family. I can't wait to see what the developers have in store. Here's a little taste of what they have planned, as announced in this past weekend's D23 Expo:
Have you seen the buzz coming out of the D23 Live Stream? We're excited to announce some BIG news about some small friends coming the Valley. Experience a sneak peek of the Toy Story Realm - coming to Disney Dreamlight Valley in late Fall 2022!✨ pic.twitter.com/d93umsd3lR
Disney Dreamlight Valley is out now (early access), on all major consoles and PC. Click here for more information.
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Are you playing Disney Dreamlight Valley yet? If so, how are you liking it? What are you loving? What weird glitches have you encountered? If you haven't picked it up yet, what's holding you back? We'd love to hear what you think in the comments section, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook.
