The Sims has a great history with dragons, but The Sims 4 doesn’t do it justice
If you’re looking for dragons in The Sims, you need to look past the paltry option The Sims4 and get back in The Sims3. Dragon Valley, released in 2013, adds a new fantasy world to the life simulation game. It is a medieval-inspired neighborhood with lore and heritage, where dragons abound. Except in most Sims games there have been dragons The Sims2But The Sims3‘s Dragon Valley world built on the myth of the creatures in a way that previous and current games have not.
Dragon Valley has a backstory: Although dragons are now small pets that you can carry on your arm, their larger counterparts once posed a threat to the land. The city is still recovering from the massacre, but adult dragons haven’t been seen in years. Thanks to a scientific discovery by a new family, the O’Connells, the dragons of Dragon Valley remain small – and are now only slightly mischievous instead of outright destructive. The elven families who call Dragon Valley their home are wary of the dragons, creating a dispute between new and old: “Don’t let them confuse you”, the elven character Mithrilen says in a piece of lore published on the Dragon Valley store page. ‘Just look at the dragons. They’re supposed to be ‘babies,’ but each one does something more dastardly than the last.”
There is a big difference between them The Sims3‘s dragon world and The Sims4‘S Realm of magic expansion, which allows players to have a small purple dragon as a companion. Even The Sims and are Making magic expansion had iconic dragons that you could care for as if they were babies. The dragons hatch from eggs that also need to be cared for and calmed by talking to them through the shell. And from there they become sweet babies who can start fires and burn Sims to ashes.
To that I say: bring Dragon Valley to The Sims4. The perfect dragon expansion for The Sims4 would be a mixture of the pet dragons of The Sims: Creating Magic and the world building of The Sims3‘s Dragon Valley.
While Dragon Valley added depth of lore, the dragons didn’t actually do much; after taking care of an egg, they hatched and just hung around. The dragons didn’t need to be cared for, as in The Sims: Creating Magic. But they were helpful: if you had a red dragon, you didn’t have to sleep. You didn’t have to eat with a green dragon. Each of the dragons had skills to nurture (by talking to them about topics), such as setting people on fire or giving charisma to the owner. The dragons inside Making magic had to be met and would go away if you didn’t take care of it, making it a more interesting system. In The Sims4the dragons essentially do nothing other than add some visual flair.
However, Electronic Arts has merely dipped its metaphorical toe in the fantasy: There are only seven small packs compared to the dozens built around family, friends, careers, design and fashion. The Sims4The game’s fantasy offering gives players ghosts, aliens, magic and werewolves, but not robust, meaningful dragons, as the franchise has done in the past.
The Sims4‘S Cottage living expansion felt like a turning point for the game, at least from a storytelling perspective; it gave me a reason to get my Sims out of their homes and into the world to do little favors and storylines built into the game. I see the return of dragons within The Sims4 as a way to build on that progress – a way for developer Maxis to use its narrative tools while providing a very different fantasy playground for people to iterate on. Until then you will find me inside The Sims: Making Magic talking to my dragon eggs.