We're not Disney superfans, but we're fans enough that we thoroughly enjoyed Disneyland Adventures despite its obvious cloying goal to coax you into booking your next vacation at their theme parks. So I had relatively high hopes for Disney Dreamlight Valley, which just released into Xbox Game Pass.
It's a hot mess. First, there is a ton of exposition and most of it is read, not spoken. The game mechanics and quests are super dull - you basically start by zapping Night Thorns which mostly look like piles of poo with vines. When you open the mailbox to claim a prize, it takes you OUT OF THE GAME to enable cloud saves by creating a login. Uh, cloud saves already exist for all games on Xbox - so this is clearly some sort of account linking ploy.
Finally, right at the end of my run, I ran out of energy. Really, that's a thing here? No, you don't have to buy energy boosters with real cash, I don't think, just eat some berries or rest in your home. Still, feels unnecessary. Oh, and there are no starter achievements - expect to play for a long, long time before you earn any.
All in all I'm very unimpressed so far, but judge for yourself:
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