[EXPlay] Everdream Valley | Nintendo Switch

Welcome to EXPlay, (Explain & Play) the review series where we care not for scores but tell it how it is when it comes to every game we get our hands on, whilst also taking the time to include some lengthy gameplay, to give you the reader, the chance to shape your own impressions and views whilst watching and reading.

In this explanatory review, we’re covering Everdream Valley by developer, Mooneaters:

Everdream Valley (The Explanation)

Everdream Valley launches on the Nintendo Switch this summer bringing familiar gameplay elements from games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing as you help to restore your grandparent’s farm and help your neighbors through a variety of jobs. Jump into an enchanting journey in Everdream Valley, a captivating countryside where magic weaves through the air. As school ends and summer begins, you find yourself immersed in a world of adventure and wonder on your grandparents’ quaint farm. 

 

Jumping into your new adventure directs you to some early missions to fix up a chicken coop, clean up an orchard, fix fences for animal pens, and gain a new friend by adopting a dog. As you move through the valley you will pick up items you find along the way like wood, fruits, vegetables, pieces of wood, and more. The items you find around can be used to fix fences and clean up the farm, which will become small jobs your grandpa, grandma, and other neighbors ask you to help with.

 

Overall the game feels a bit like Stardew Valley in how you control the various items to plant, fix, and demolish things you will find strewn around the farm. The main downside of Everdream Valley is that you are thrown right into things without much of a control tutorial and figuring out how to find things work and what you are supposed to do is not as straightforward as I had hoped. Controlling your character is also a bit hit or miss in terms of how you walk and run (hitting the ZR button) and pick things up and interact which sometimes caused issues either interacting with the wrong item or using a tool when I wanted to pick something up. As I walked or ran around the map it seemed as though my character would glitch or get hung up on some of the geometry in the game, many times not making that much sense and just causing frustration as I moved around the game.

 

Another issue I have with Everdream Valley is that there is a lot of reading in the game about how it directs you to what you need to do. Characters have markers on their heads where they are in the world and show up on your map, which is helpful, but sometimes knowing what you need to do or take to them is buried in the various menus within the game. In some ways, there is just too much going on in the UI to find easily what your main objectives are. You can pin an active task to the screen which is helpful, but then you only see that one task and it covers up some of the screen real estate. This isn’t as much of an issue on a tv screen but if you are playing on a handheld the screen gets cluttered quickly and can be overrun with various UI elements, text, and your toolbar.

 

Now I know it seems that I may be bashing Everdream Valley but there are some shining moments that I enjoyed in the opening hour or so of the game during my EXPlay. For one the characters you encounter are charming and the game itself is very cozy in terms of being a slow-burn kind of game that you can cross off your to-do list at your own pace. The characters I met in the early game are rendered nicely and look unique. I met my grandfather and grandmother, your mother, though she left the farm pretty early in the game, and a neighbor. Each of these is quirky in its own way with unique personality traits and lines of dialogue that support the overall story and charm of Everdream Valley.

 

If you are looking for a unique simulation game in the same style as Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, Everdream Valley is sure to fill that void. It may however be a bit on the quirky end of things with some gameplay hitches and hiccups to overcome. There are a few issues I had while playing in terms of gameplay stutters and difficulty connecting with some actions. Overall I think the game has enough charm and things to do to keep the attention of young gamers and those looking for a fun farming simulation game.

Everdream Valley (The Gameplay)

Game Specifications:

Developer: Mooneaters
Publisher: Untold Tales
Platform: Nintendo Switch (eShop)
Category: Adventure, Lifestyle, Simulation, Arcade
No. of Players: 1 (Single System)
Release Date: NA & EU: June 23, 2023
Price: $24.99
File Size: 946 MB
Nintendo.com Listing