Like many different Disney lovers, I’ve fallen down the rabbit gap of Disney Dreamlight Valley. It has all of the coziness of a life simulation sport the place you rebuild a city, with the added bonus of Disney characters bouncing round and greeting you. I fish with Goofy. I purchase gadgets from Scrooge McDuck. I cook dinner with Remy. I see Ariel swimming across the seashore. All is nicely in Dreamlight Valley, apart from the truth that I by no means fucking see Mickey Mouse.
Mickey lives proper throughout the road from me and he’s all the time asleep once I play. Now, I is likely to be a Disney fan, however I’m additionally a working grownup and an evening owl, which implies that I normally play the sport after 11 p.m. Much like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Disney Dreamlight Valley follows actual time, which suggests when it’s day time in actual life, it’s day time within the Valley. And when it’s 11 at evening and I’m on my sofa in cozy pajamas with a mug of tea, Mickey is quick asleep in his home. I suppose I’ll by no means get to degree up our friendship.
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Image: Gameloft by way of Polygon
He’s not the one character with an early bedtime. Moana and Kristoff additionally tuck in early. Moana operates a canoe for the participant to catch fish from, and interacting with it implies that Moana exhibits up for a second to say hello — irrespective of the place she is or what she was doing. I really feel actually responsible about yanking her from sleep, however a gal has bought to get her rainbow trout, y’know?
The most egregious instance, nonetheless, got here when Anna requested me to search inside her home for a quest. But she shares her home with the opposite Frozen characters, and since Kristoff was asleep I couldn’t enter, which meant that I had to wait until the subsequent day to progress.
I might play the sport earlier — and I do, when time permits — however there’s something very soothing about taking part in a sport the place you run round gathering little issues and serving to characters proper earlier than bed. It’s calming. It helps me flip my anxious mind off and get to sleep. So I’m going to proceed this nighttime ritual of taking part in Disney Dreamlight Valley. I simply actually want Mickey Mouse stored the identical hours as me.
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When I do play a little bit earlier and handle to catch him, he all the time yawns and says one thing like “GAWSH IT’S GETTING LATE.” Sometimes, that is at 8 p.m. (Notably, Goofy as soon as greeted me at 6:30 p.m. with a cheery “Good morning!”; I knew we had been kindred spirits.) And I can’t even unlock Minnie until I progress extra with Mickey. I want a Disney model of New Horizons’ Night Owl Ordinance, which lets me drive my villagers and the native companies to preserve the identical hours as me.
I must be grateful that at the very least Scrooge’s retailer and Goofy’s stall can be found 24 hours a day (capitalism by no means sleeps, babyyyy), and that I can decide up fish from Moana and crops from WALL-E’s backyard every time I would like. The villains are evening owls too, and I can all the time rely on Gothel to make a passive-aggressive dig at me once I stroll previous her. And Elsa appears to preserve the identical hours as me, so we will hang around collectively anytime I would like. Admittedly, it’s remarkably in character of Mickey to be an “early to bed, early to rise” kind of particular person [ed. note: I’m pretty sure Mickey is a mouse, as indicated in his name] and though his hours frustrate me, he’s simply so dang endearing that I can’t get mad.
Perhaps I shouldn’t drive these characters to cater to my whims, like I did to my New Horizons villagers. Perhaps they may train me to be affected person. Or maybe Mickey ought to simply keep up late for one dang evening so I can lastly get his girlfriend again.
