Capsule Review: Disney Magical World 2
A life sim set in a crossover Disney universe. Your Mii-based character moves into a town populated by Disney characters (and other Mii-like townsfolk) and explores connected worlds themed after particular Disney properties, undertaking quests and doing favors for beloved Disney characters. There’s a real-time day/night cycle, but it’s just cosmetic and doesn’t block off any of the game’s content. There’s a seasonal cycle too, with special holiday-themed events throughout the year.
The content is well-dressed busywork without a lot of depth but with a good variety of activities, including exploration and some surprisingly nontrivial combat, material-gathering and fishing, furniture and outfit crafting, farming crops and managing a cafe, rhythm-minigame-based dancing, and plenty of customization options (I want some of those shirts in real life). It’s also consistently warm and loaded with treats for Disney fans.
This second installment is basically the first game again, but better. There are more places to go and more things to do, the various parts of the economy flow together better, there are substantial friction reductions in key parts of the UI, and a few simple changes have vastly reduced the frustration level of the late game. If you enjoyed the first one, you’ll like this one more; if you haven’t played either, skip the first one and start here.
I Stopped Playing When: The game has one hundred thirty stickers to collect, serving dual purpose as an achievement system (stickers are rewarded for meeting certain goals) and as a progress gate (new areas become available as you collect a certain number of stickers). Getting them all is more or less beating the game, though there is more cosmetic content (outfits, furniture, etc.) to collect. Unlike in the first game, the later content does not become obnoxious, so once I collected all the stickers I kept going and did not stop until I had accomplished and collected absolutely everything the game had to offer.
Four Stars: Great. Not only did I finish the game, I probably played through the whole thing again and/or completed any optional objectives. It's an easy recommendation for any genre fan.