Disney Dreamlight Valley Opens Up The World With The Keepsake Sea

Disney Dreamlight Valley has been a delightful addition to the cartoonish life-sim genre. More than just a Magic Kingdom reskin of the Animal Crossing archetype, the game has evolved a lot since it debuted at the tail end of 2023. The game allows players to craft their own versions of a Disney experience, encountering classic characters, deep-cut fan favorites, and new faces as they rediscover their connection to their imagination.

Bringing that experience to life has always been the key to the game’s mission statement, and it remains a cardinal north for the newest expansion, “The Keepsake Sea,” a new seaside environment that allows players to venture into the depths as a mermaid, explore as a pirate, and make new friends along the way. During a chat with Disney Dreamlight Valley Creative Director Joshua Labelle, ComicBook got to see the open ocean for ourselves and experience a whole new world.

Welcome To The Keepsake Sea

Positioned as a beachside environment for players to explore, the Keepsake Sea offers Disney Dreamlight Valley players a lot more to see than they may initially realize. Exploring the region offers players the chance to encounter new characters like Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Meg from Hercules, and Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Similar to previous Disney icons that have been wandering through the game’s overworld, players can interact, befriend, and even adventure alongside some of their favorite figures from the expanded Disney canon. The idea is to open up the world to the player’s imagination, making the oceans (both beneath and above) an enticing place to explore.”

“We always wanted to eventually go underwater in some way and get to explore there. It’s such a key kind of Disney fantasy for players. On top of all the new tops and costumes that you’ll get for both the male and female body types, we wanted to have armor. We wanted to have stuff that was more of a classic Ariel look. We even have some looks we haven’t shown off yet. One of the key things was that we really wanted to be able to let you transform yourself and have that full mermaid Ariel fantasy.”

This extended to the game’s narrative development as well, including a magical being living within statues of mermaids. It’s through these mermaids that players are able to venture into the depths and truly explore underwater environments. It’s little pieces of lore that feel fitting for the overall experience. Labelle explained that “Every time we add a new expansion, it is a new main story for the game. If you want them to allow you through to the next area, you have to prove that you have that pure, childlike spirit. We have a lot of things in our game that hark back to the fact that this is a world that the player made when they were a kid. They left behind guardians to protect it from villains, so you have to go underwater to keep them awake and keep progressing… We really looked at things that make underwater stressful in other games. We wanted to lean as far away from that as we could. There’s never any danger of running out of air; there are no timers. You’re just swimming around and vibing, exploring at your own pace. I think this is a game our players come to for relaxing. We try to keep that in mind as much as possible.”

A Part Of Your World

The other big change for the game is the expansion of the beach under the sea. Reaching the ocean allows players to transform into a mermaid form and then venture around the island. This works as a quick traversal method and opens up an entirely new means of resource management. The big draw is then being given your own undersea kingdom to flesh out as you see fit, with a way wider range of motion and sandbox to play in.

“Whenever there is a new expansion, we think about whether the expansion is a big enough fantasy for the game to support it. Our last one brought horses to the game. You really realize that there’s so much Disney stuff around that to play with. It was the same thing here with mermaids and pirates. We’ve really tried to make them feel quite distinct in this expansion.”

This extends the available characters to meet and ranges from the shipwreck architecture of the setting to the soft glow of the underwater vibes. The entire expansion is designed like that, with toucans flying around that can be unlocked as pets. Venturing underwater reveals larger spaces for customization, so players can make their corner of the world truly their own. The driving principle remains that players must feel like the elements brought into the experience are authentic to the Disney identity, even just beyond those Little Mermaid touches.

“There’s still like quite a lot of sea out here, so I’ll just mention that we’ve only been showing off the first biome of this new expansion,” Labelle teased. Given the amount of worldbuilding and space made available in this expansion, that was a somewhat shocking reveal. “Each biome is its own separate island. I think our mermaid tails would get a bit tired, so we’re also giving players their own enchanted pirate ship. You can see it’s got a crane on the back. We’re adding a new salvaging mini-game where players will be able to sail out at sea and find different spots where they can salvage stuff from the ocean, and they’ll be able to craft new, unique furniture with that. On top of that, you’re going to be able to crew your boat with different Disney villagers of your choice. If you want to have a ship crewed by Mike Wazowski and Goofy, go for it. Our audio team is really doing some fun stuff with sea shanties and with the audio experience of the boat as well. So we’re very excited for people to do that. It’s all about making that feeling of Disney come alive for the player.”