Disney's Dreamlight Valley, released in early September 2022, is an adorable adventure game with elements of a life simulation mixed in. The game follows the player as they fall asleep at night and enter into a dream world. As the story progresses, players may get a strange sense of déjà vu. The Disney-owned ABC show Once Upon a Time, which aired from 2011 to 2018, has an eerily similar plot. Was this a complete oversight from the game's developers, or was this a way for developers to re-use an old idea and call it something new?
At the beginning of Dreamlight Valley, the player leaves a city and goes to a wooded area that the narrator insinuates the player has been to before, and the player sets out a blanket and falls asleep. They then encounter Merlin, who proceeds to explain that the only way to enter Dreamlight Valley is to pass through dreams and that the player must possess magic themselves. Merlin states that the player must be the one the valley has been waiting for -- they must be the one to save Dreamlight Valley and stop "The Forgetting."
Dreamlight Valley was once a carefree, cheerful place where all characters lived in harmony and everyone was happy. Merlin tells the player that all the magic and friendship in the valley came from the Ruler, and it was this Ruler who protected the valley from dark magic. When this unnamed Ruler left Dreamlight Valley, the residents began to forget everything about themselves, the scenery turned dark, and thorny bushes grew throughout. The once-colorful valley is now dreary and dull, and the residents have no memories of their former lives or even friendships.
When players progress through the plot of the game, they slowly restore all the memories of different characters and return Dreamlight Valley to its former glory. The land is colorful again, and the player can unlock all the different realms, playing through the challenges and puzzles of those realms. For those who have seen the ABC show Once Upon a Time, this plot line sounds oddly familiar. The main character, Emma Swan, is a bail bondsman in the real world. She is approached by a 10-year-old boy, Henry, who claims he is the son she gave up for adoption. He takes her to Storybrooke, Maine, and shows her a fairytale book he's been reading that he believes is about her.
Henry tells Emma that Storybrooke is filled with fairytale characters that were cursed into living in the real world, and none of them remember their true identities. He convinces Emma that she is the long-lost child of Snow White and Prince Charming and that she is the one they've been waiting for to save Storybrooke and all its residents from the Evil Queen's curse. The longer Emma spends in Storybrooke, the more she realizes the truth of her destiny.
It's odd that both Dreamlight Valley and Once Upon a Time feature a savior who needs to save fairytale characters from a dark magic. The similarities here are clear -- but is this just an oversight on Disney's part, or a product of lazy writing that they hoped no one would notice?