Disney Dreamlight Valley 'fixes' Moana dress by making it look nothing like Moana

Update: A message in the Dreamlight Valley Discord has acknowledged the countless feedback received regarding the dress change. Responding in a thread about the dress, community manager Rachel wrote: "Thank you so much for sharing all of your feedback surrounding the Tropical Flourish Gown. We are certainly working with the team to evaluate the future of the previous iteration of the dress returning to the game.

That said, we do want to confirm at this time that it was never our team's intention to monetise the previous iteration of the dress. While we cannot confirm at this time if the dress will return, if it does, it will not return as part of a future Star Path or as purchasable content, but instead be free for all players."

It's reassuring to know that the dress won't be sold for premium currency in the future, and we can only hope the dress will make a return in the near future.

Original story: Gameloft pushed out a confusing "bug fix" for Disney Dreamlight Valley earlier this week, making a major change to the final reward gifted to you from seafaring princess Moana.

Each character in Disney's Animal Crossing-like has its own set of rewards as you gradually level up your friendship. Moana is no different—maxing out her friendship meter rewards a dress reminiscent of the one worn herself. With a red bandeau and layered tan skirt, it's pretty obvious at a glance which character and film it's supposed to be representing.

Except the dress no longer shares Moana's iconic colour scheme. At the bottom of the bug fixes list in the game's October 31 update, there's one peculiar change: "Swapped the item colour of Moana's level 10 friendship item to its intended colour scheme." A bit strange, considering the old dress's colour seemed pretty intended. Instead, fans were confused as they logged in to find that the dress had been changed to a bright blue hue, with the pattern from the skirt's middle ruffle missing entirely.

The change has caused a bit of a ruckus in the Dreamlight Valley community. A thread on the game's Discord server has racked up over 1,500 comments, asking for the developer to bring back the pre-patch dress. "This is hideous, I don't know how they can say this was the original intended colour," one message in the thread read. "Nothing Moana wears is blue, and we already have a blue dress with Elsa." Another person joked that it looked like Gameloft "adjusted the tint with a slider bar," adding: "It doesn't make any sense. The colours perfectly matched Moana. What's the real reason?"

what_color_is_the_dress from r/DreamlightValley

Reddit also poked fun at the change, with one post comparing it to the infamous blue/gold dress debacle of 2015. In a post about the change, more fans expressed their frustration. "This is BS. I don't care if this is the 'original colour' and they 'fixed it.' This is NOTHING like any dress anyone in Moana wears. This is just an excuse to put the actual Moana-looking dress behind a paywall and that makes me angry. We earned that dress."

Concerns about it becoming a paywalled item have been expressed in both the game's subreddit and Discord server. Though you currently have to purchase the game, Gameloft intends to go free-to-play when it leaves early access next year. With that change we can likely expect some sort of paid-for cosmetics store, leaving many worried that's where the original dress will end up.

It definitely seems like a bizarre change, especially when both patterns and colours are being changed. It does make me concerned that Gameloft will later plonk it on a store for premium currency. I'm sure the decision won't go down well if it does happen, especially with fans already feeling cheated. Gameloft did not return my request for comment, but I'll update if the developer offers any kind of explanation.