Meet the Disney Dreamlight Valley Mechanic: The Perfect Addition to Animal Crossing

In Disney Dreamlight Valley, players can enjoy a life simulation game that bears similarities to the Animal Crossing series. Players can cultivate crops, fish, build furniture, and bond with beloved Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Mirabel Madrigal from Encanto. However, Disney Dreamlight Valley has a unique feature that Animal Crossing could learn from - the ability for characters to follow players around and offer assistance in various tasks. By reaching Friendship Level 2, players can select one of five specialties, including Foraging, Mining, Fishing, Gardening, or Digging, and even teach their characters new roles with the help of craftable Training Manuals.

This Could Give Players' Favorite Animal Crossing Villagers More To Do

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players have the opportunity to encounter several hundred unique villagers on their island, a vast difference from the limited selection available in Disney Dreamlight Valley. However, due to the sheer number of villagers available, players may struggle to find their desired companion. Popular villagers like Raymond the cat may take months to appear, leading to the emergence of a "black market" where players can buy and trade valuable villagers. To enhance the player experience, future Animal Crossing games could introduce companion roles, allowing players to interact with their favorite villagers on a deeper level. This system could also incorporate unique strengths and abilities for certain villagers, such as Athletic villagers being able to easily carry large quantities of items.

Companion Roles Can Decrease The Animal Crossing Grind

In contrast to other games in the genre, such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Stardew Valley, Disney Dreamlight Valley offers a unique solution to the grind-heavy nature of resource gathering. The introduction of companion roles allows players to decrease the amount of time spent performing repetitive tasks. By spending time with characters and increasing their friendship level, players can benefit from an abundance of extra resources each time a character accompanies them. This feature is particularly advantageous for players seeking to amass wealth quickly, as it enables them to rapidly farm high-value items like Pumpkins.

Animal Crossing has the potential to incorporate some of the unique features of Disney Dreamlight Valley, such as fishing and digging, while also adding its own twist with activities like bug catching and popping present-filled balloons. Blathers, the knowledgeable owl who runs the island's museum, could play a crucial role in recreating Dreamlight Valley's "re-classing" system, by helping players find fish and bugs more efficiently. Players could also exchange items with Blathers to change their villagers' companion roles, or perform tasks at the museum to receive "lessons" from the wise owl. Although it's unlikely that Animal Crossing: New Horizons will receive a major content update that introduces companion roles, it's certainly a feature that could be included in future Animal Crossing titles.