Harvest Moon Forever: Cheating in Harvest Moon

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Cheating in Harvest Moon

Any one who has used my game guides knows that I do not believe in 'codes' or other types of 'cheats' but I am more than happy to find an 'exploitation device' within the game itself that allows one to succeed more quickly or gain an advantage.

Much to my delight, I found an early 'cheat' in Rune Factory. It is included in my General Guide, but for any one who reads my posts on this site, I will write about it here as well.

There are a number of festivals in Rune Factory as in other Harvest Moon games. In the first year, it is difficult to participate properly in any of the early festivals, apart from attending and speaking to the villagers.

The Spring Festival is the equivalent of the Spring Thanksgiving Festival, which is the Japanese 'Valentine's Day'. In Harvest Moon games, it is a day when boys give 'Cookies' or 'Chocolate Cookies' to girls they fancy. In almost every Harvest Moon game, one's character is unable to do anything for the girl or girls he likes in the first year as he will not have a kitchen nor an Oven in which to bake any suitable offerings. Rune Factory is no different in this respect.

The next Festival in Spring is the Egg Festival. In Rune Factory, there virtually is no hope of obtaining the 'Cockadoodle' who lays eggs before the Egg Festival in the first year, but I suddenly realised that there was a shop that sold small eggs. Without knowing what would occur, I bought an egg and stored it in my rucksack for a day or two before the Egg Festival.

On the day of the Festival, I went to the Town Square and offered my (purchased) egg to Jasper, the officiating judge. Much to my delight, he not only accepted my spurious offering as a genuine entry, but actually declared that I had won the contest!

Winning this contest is not simply a matter of pride. The prize is 5000g and an Empty Bottle! An Empty Bottle may not sound like much, but for those who are playing Rune Factory, it is worth its weight in gold, as one only can obtain health Recovery Potions if one has an Empty Bottle in which they can be poured.

By 23 Spring, 5000g may not be that significant, but another Empty Bottle really makes a difference when it means that one can take three Recovery Potions instead of two to the caves.

27 Spring is the day of the Cooking Festival in Rune Factory. As in most other Harvest Moon games, one must resign oneself to the certitude of failure in the first year, having neither kitchen nor appliances with which to cook anything, even a dish as simple as sashimi.

There is only one house upgrade in Rune Factory, instead of the usual two that are possible in some of the other Harvest Moon games but it is quite costly. As in all Harvest Moon games, however, all good things come to those who wait...

Part of the fun of Rune Factory is the addition of traditional RPG combat to Harvest Moon. I always love to fight monsters who drop 'war trophies' on occasion. In most cases, a chest can contain one of two or three different items in Rune Factory. War trophies in chests do not appear each time a monster is defeated, which makes it even more of a 'surprise package'. I never outgrew my love of wrapped gifts and chests in RPGs never fail to delight me even when they contain nothing more than a 'cheap bandage' or 'cheap cloth'. After all, the next chest could contain a special sword or crystal...

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For all Harvest Moon fans and players

As Freyashawk, I have written about 150 guides for games, most of which have been guides for Harvest Moon games. These are published on IGN. IGN has given me the title of 'Mistress of Harvest Moon' and I strive daily to earn the right to maintain that title. Although there is a link page on IGN that lists all the guides published there, they are not organised by game, but rather given in alphabetical order. I therefore created this page in order to provide links to the guides I have created for each Harvest Moon game. If you access the General Guide for any game, links should be included to all other guides for that game in a section at the end. I will try to add links to ALL guides as time permits, but until I do, you always can refer to my user page at IGN for the complete list.

I wrote the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames as well.
Harvest Moon Forever!

How to Use my Guides

I write three different basic types of game guides. I usually write a General Guide for every game, which is fairly comprehensive and deals with all aspects of the game. It may or may not be in the form of a Walkthrough, dealing with game aspects as they occur. My Innocent Life General Guide is an example of a General Guide that is organised as a Walkthrough.

After writing a General Comprehensive Guide, I often write a Calendar Guide giving birthday and festival dates, with additional information that may be helpful, such as favourite gifts for each individual. For all Harvest Moon games, I usually write a number of 'mini-guides', such as Events Guides for each year of gameplay, or Recipe Guides that give all recipes one can make. Fishing, Mining, Shipping or Item Value Guides are other mini-guides that can be very useful when playing Harvest Moon. Character Guides give detailed information about every character in any specific game. My Courtship and Marriage Guide is devoted to all aspects of Courtship and Marriage, including schedules of Heart Events, Rival Heart Events and the likes and dislikes of every Eligible Girl and/or Bachelor.

Although this site is devoted to Harvest Moon, I have included links to game guides for other games. I created a separate link section for Animal Crossing Wild World as well, because I wrote more than one guide for that game.

N.B. All my game guides are published by IGN. This webpage has been created simply to allow players to find links to all my guides more easily.

Copyright Infringement Warning

It is really sad to discover that there are individuals who are willing to steal my guides and to attempt to publish them under their names. Fortunately, there are many players who recognise my guides when they see them anywhere on the internet and who are willing to alert me when some one tries to steal my material. I want to thank all those players for their help in these cases.

Some one stole one of my guides and tried to publish it on Gamefaqs under his/her name. The guide has been removed and the poster has been banned. I now have a contact in the Legal Department at CNet. I spend many months sometimes writing a guide. They are available for the private use of any individual without cost, but they are not available for theft!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town

You will notice that I wrote far more guides for More Friends of Mineral Town than I did for the original 'Friends of Mineral Town'. At some point, I would like to publish more specific Events Guides for Friends of Mineral Town, but players should be aware of the fact that ALL Calendar Events Guides for MFoMT can be used when playing the original FoMT. The Events are the same in most cases in both games. If, therefore, you are playing FoMT and you wish to know the events that can be experienced in the third year of gameplay, refer to the 'Third Year Calendar Events Guide' for 'More Friends of Mineral Town'.