Unlike any other livestream before it, the Beauty and the Beast livestream hit on a day when I had absolutely 100% no way of viewing it.  Even during most of today I was forced to wait, avoiding all social media in hopes of not having my first impressions of it be spoiled.  After all, news of this game has become quite divisive, leaving some folks thrilled while others go storming the comments of every thread they can find with rage.  At long last, I finally sat down to watch the livestream and wow, what a lot of stuff we are getting.  So, without further ado, I will now breakdown my thoughts and impressions of what is to come in Update 9.  Let’s take a look!

First of all, I think it’s important to note that this is easily the biggest update we have EVER gotten.  From story content to a huge event, it looks like we are getting a little bit of everything.

Merlin

The devs started us off with a personal favorite character of mine, Merlin.  Now Merlin can be welcomed and once part of the Kingdom he’ll have all sorts of fun treats for us.

What I love about the concept of Merlin is the fact that yes, there are things we want from the game.  Things like unlimited happiness and being able to collect everything at once, but at a certain point, making things too easy takes away the actual “game” here.  Merlin solves this problem by offering a sort of “Pay to Cheat” mechanism.

Merlin has a free spell which allows us to collect on all buildings at once.  Note, this does not complete quests, so be prepared to still do a bit of clicking around.  Then, you can choose to pay to bring your happiness to max and then pay more gems to keep it there for a full 24 hours.  For a player like me, this is AMAZING!  Often days at a time go by in between updates where I don’t play and getting my happiness back up is a huge pain in the butt.  Thanks to this, that won’t be a problem.

I’m sure some players might be angry about the fact that these cost gems, but remember, NONE of these things are necessary to the game.  They are luxuries and quick fixes for those who, honestly, want to be a little lazy in their gaming.  Think of parents who who only get a small chance at the end of the day to play the game.  My mother comes to mind.  This is a great way for her to keep up with people who play all the time and I really like the accessibility it adds.  I can only imagine future spells will add even more ways for casual players to enjoy the game to the fullest.  To me, that is a very exciting prospect.

Here’s some more info on Merlin straight from the Devs:

Merlin is now a character that can be Welcomed! Residing in the hut to the right of Main Street, he can perform spells that can assist you around the Kingdom. Let’s divulge into what he can do:

1. Spell Books

Level up Merlin to unlock “Merlin’s Collector”, which allows you to collect Magic, XP, and Tokens from buildings in one fell swoop.

2. Spell Scrolls

These handy Spell Scrolls are available for purchase via Gems, and they can be used regardless of Merlin’s level.

• Happiness Booster: Boosts up Happiness to 1 higher tier immediately. Can be performed multiple times up to the maximum tier.

• Happiness Shield: Protects Happiness for a full day by stopping it from decreasing. Cannot stack multiple Happiness Shields, but lasts for 24 hours per usage.

Chip and Dale

Ever since Mulan launched and and we got a little sneak peek at what was to come, we’ve known that Chip and Dale were on their way.  Well, at long last they are coming and something tells me they will be very late game content.

They are SUPER cute though and I am always happy to see some non-event characters that everyone can enjoy regardless of timing.

Beauty and the Beast

Be Our Guest Event

While we still don’t know the time limit or the start date, we now know that the Beauty and the Beast characters will be part of an epic timed event.

From here, we were able to see that Belle, Beast, Lumiere and Cogsworth would all be welcomeable, with Mrs. Potts and Chip being gem characters and Gaston being our last welcome baddie of this event.  That’s A LOT of characters and very worth getting excited for!

Looking at some quick shots of the event timeline, we can see that the event will have two battles and will most likely end with getting Belle and the Beast ready for their dance.  More on that in a moment.

Tappers

Anyone not in love with snogies might be sad to hear that this tapper is much like them, but with a few very welcome changes.  Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the Vine Cages.

The first thing to know is that a lot of characters can help take care of these.  More importantly, many non-event characters can handle them and collect items for them, which is much better than Frozen in which ONLY event characters could manage them.  It’s also key to note that once the items are collected, getting rid of the vine cage only takes 10 seconds as opposed to one hour.  The devs actually commented on the fact that it would be less intense and that is always a relief to hear.

We will ALSO have a second tapper much like the storm clouds, the dishes and silverware thankfully appear much easier to see as they move a lot and are larger.

New Attractions, Decorations and Concessions

Thank goodness we are getting a new land, but also, OMG ONLY ONE NEW LAND!!!  Of course, I totally understand the need to stabilize the game and don’t hold this against the devs in the slightest but as I watched all the new content on the map, I could only weep silently as I tried to figure out where I would fit all of it.

First up, we saw Be Our Guest which looks lovely if I do say so.  It will definitely be one of the finer eateries in my park, despite the real restaurant it’s based on being one of my LEAST favorite in the park.

Then we’ve got Gaston’s Tavern with a very mighty chair for him to sit on a boast.  I especially love the stage lights so that he can literally bask in his own radiance.

As a side note, I loved watching the devs hopefully click on the child with the wish only to see him run off in another direction.  Welcome to my life Devs!!!

Beast’s Castle might be the only attraction that doesn’t quite live up to what I’d like it to be.  Then again, if it were too big, where would I fit it?

And of course the workshop where Belle lives with her father.  Oh and look, an adorable little explosion bursting from inside.  Hope no one got hurt!

And at last we got to see some new crepe concessions and a couple new decorations or as I like to call them “PLEASE STOP DROPPING FROM CHESTS!!!”

Characters

If you like collecting characters than this is the update for you!  We have a whole bunch of characters coming our way!  From Belle to Beast along with the ADORABLE Lumiere and Cogsworth.

And who could forget Gaston, Chip and the giant man-eating teapot.  What’s that?  You mean to tell me that that’s Mrs. Potts?  But, she’s bigger than the Beast.  Aw, I see.  Yes, that is Mrs. Potts and she is ginormous!  If all else fails, she can literally EAT Gaston!  If he’s roughly the size of a barge, she’s roughly the size of Godzilla.

Costumes

As I suspected, we are getting our first non-main character costumes with Belle and the Beast’s fancy dance outfits!  I think this goes without saying, but these will be timed just like the event itself.

We’re also getting a new Mickey costume BUT it won’t be available until a bit later.  Something tells me this will be to celebrate the one year anniversary of the game.

New Parade Float

And what event would be complete without a new parade float.  This time around, I can honestly say that this is easily one of my favorites.  It just has so many moving parts and really stands out from the previous floats.

Final Thoughts

Wow!  I mean just wow!  There is so much content here I really can’t wait to jump in.  Everything here just feels like the game is getting this great overhaul of content and I for one am thrilled about getting to start in on it.  From Merlin to Chip and Dale to the Be Our Guest event, I expect this will be the biggest and best event yet!

On a smaller note, I want to say that this was my favorite livestream to date.  Everything was very well organized and planned out and I really got a sense for a little bit of everything.  If nothing else, it made formatting this post super easy, so thank you Devs!

Now I know that everyone has different feelings on what is coming in this update, so feel free to tell me what you think in the comments, but do me nice about it.  I’m a sensitive soul you know!  In any case, thanks for dropping by!!!

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