So… quite a lot of news dropped today. I think most people are happy from what I’ve seen thus far, but I definitely can see some people being upset too.
For those who haven’t read the article yet, the short version is:
- Game leaves early access December 5th. Free-to-Play will not be happening just yet despite the leave of Early Access.
- A full expansion happening. Costs $30.
- When Early Access ends, so will Founder’s Packs. Replaced with the Standard Version of the game + 5K Moonstones ($40), the Cozy Edition (only physical option, $50, comes with some exclusive pets and taunts me so), Gold Edition ($70)– Comes with 15,000 Moonstones, 3 Exclusive items (A Capybara pet, special house, and some outfits), and includes the DLC, and the expansion pass itself is $30 (So if you’re new and want the game and expansion pass in one, it’s essentially the price of each + bonuses).
- Anyone who owns a Founder’s Pack will receive the Gold Edition exclusives for free in addition to 2,500 Moonstones. This applies to anyone who buys one by December 4th as well– essentially whether you already have one or buy it before December 5th, you will get these.
- Special Livestream going into more detail about the Expansion and what is to come on November 1st, 1PM Eastern Time.
I think the biggest bit of discussion is the fact that Free-to-Play is being pushed back to who knows when. The game will be remaining a paid game for the “foreseeable future”. In all honesty though, I don’t actually think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I do feel bad for people who had been holding off on the game for it to be Free-to-Play and now knowing this may never even happen (or at least not for a very long time), but the number of games I’ve seen go Free-to-Play and take a turn for the worse is immense at this point and considering how much better Moonstones have been to earn since the edition of Dream Snaps, I can understand why this choice may have been made. Personally though, I’d love to see the Star Path or Premium Shop go away if they are going to keep it a pay for game and have the expansions.
I know some people are upset because there is still the Premium Shop and everything, but microtransactions have long since stopped being exclusive to Free-to-Play games and they are still purely cosmetic. There are MMOs that require money to buy the game, have full-priced expansions, and microtransactions paired with a subscription and for me, I’m just thankful Dreamlight Valley does not have a subscription tied to it. I would say the worst stand out to me is the Star Path/Mission Pass more-so than anything else.
As for the Expansions, they said from the start that there would eventually be paid for expansions that added biomes. Again, this isn’t new and while maybe people felt better about those if the game was free-to-play, paid for expansions for a game you bought is certainly not new in any way so… again, doesn’t feel too odd. Of course, whether it’s worth the price tag will depend on what we learn from the livestream.
I do have mixed feelings on story content being locked to expansions though (even the smaller ones and as I brought up before, I still think Ursula’s is especially bad as you have to buy this Moonstone Expansion/Dream Bundle in order to turn her into a fully usable character which DOES have an effect on gameplay). New biomes is one thing, but even if it’s not the main story, I feel like story and quest content is part of what makes Dreamlight Valley so unique in the first place.
I would say my biggest concern though is with the characters shown on the Key Art.
Rapunzel has been teased since the start and initial trailers. Eve has been constantly brought up by WALL-E. Neither one of them should be stuck to a optional Biome Expansion in my opinion. Gaston, fine, but in general, I don’t really care for characters being tied to expansions. But I guess it’d be a hard sell just for new biomes. I’m hoping I don’t get too tempted by a new biome because moving everything out of the meadow may kill me, but so many waterfalls.
There’s a lot of familiar things in the key art and one stand-out is Agrabah. While I do not think it’ll necessarily be tied to the expansion due to the teaser at the end of the main story and the fact that main story content is supposed to always be free/included in the main game, but it does mean that not everything in the Key Art may necessarily be tied to the Expansions.
I’m also excited for new Critters– it seems Snakes, Monkeys, and Capybaras will be options for the new biomes. Along with various other stuff too.
Moving on, as mentioned above in my short summary, Global Launch will have new versions of the game available to buy and Founder’s Packs will be retired (I still think the items should stick around as DLC bundles, personally). I really wish we could buy the Cozy Edition Exclusives as well. I just have no reason really to buy the game again. And I’m so paranoid of screwing up the Cloud Save or something. But I really want the Raccoon Companions :(
That said, I’ve seen people upset that new players can buy a bundle that includes the Expansion that costs the same price as the Ultimate Edition. And I mean, we got… a lot more items in edition to 20,000 Moonstones. And it still technically costs them more for the game itself which will now be priced at $40 versus the $30 it currently is (The extra $40 we spent was essentially the Moonstones and then all the cosmetics and furniture from the other two Founder’s Sets in addition to more cosmetics just for the Ultimate bundle that were really just extra bonuses as the value was all int he Moonstones).
And we are getting those Cosmetics from the Gold Edition along with some Moonstones just for having a Founder’s Pack, so… And the expansion itself also comes with 5,000 Moonstones.
Anyway, the livestream is November 1st and I’ll wait to say much more until we see all the details. I’ll likely edit this post and put my thoughts at the bottom unless I feel I have tons more to say.
Overall though, I would say right now it sounds okay. I just want to be able to get the Cozy Edition Cosmetics too and I hope not too much of what was advertised previously is exclusive to an expansion.
Moving on, what I’ve been up to in DDLV in the meantime. In all honesty, not much… Mainly it’s been back to just checking Scrooge’s Shop each day and taking care of Dream Snap stuff every Wednesday.
My latest Dream Snap entries:
I also managed to get some new items I’ve been pretty excited about and have been doing my best to decorate with. I’ve also been excited for the new HALLOWEENBUNDLE code as it let me get the Pumpkin assortment I was still missing too.
Anyway, I don’t expect much to really be happening until we get the next content update which I’m guessing we’ll hear news on during the livestream. Just 5 days to go…