Harvest Moon Forever: Secrets of Sims2 Castaway

Monday, December 17, 2007

Secrets of Sims2 Castaway

IGN has published my guide for Sims2 Castaway for Wii now, although it is a work in progress. Even though I have not been able to transfer all information from my game journals to the guide yet, it does have a fair amount of useful information in it.

One of the most vital 'secrets' of Sims2 Castaway is the potency of guarana, a spice that can be found in many locations on the islands. Using guarana in any cooked dish will give your Sim extra energy and allow him/her to pass through new Portals, exploring difficult terrain, whether on land or on sea.

Make certain as well that you create all possible tools as quickly as you can, as this will 'unlock' new items.

Accept deliveries from Chimps. This fulfils goals as well as allowing you to obtain a piece of the Treasure Map.

I have noticed something very troublesome where the PSP version of the game is concerned. It is extremely slow at the point of moving from one location on the map to another AND whenever you wish to save the game. I advise saving frequently, although it is a case of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' as the game system has shut off more than once for some reason in the middle of saving, thus corrupting the data. My system never did this with any other game, so I only can assume it is a problem inherent in Sims2 Castaway. I therefore would caution players to keep more than one save file for their game. Furthermore, as the system shuts off randomly in the course of this game, usually when saving or using the map to move from one location to another, even when the battery is fully charged, one is in danger of losing valuable progress if one does not save frequently.

Apart from these problems, the game is fun. The Wii version IS superior, alas... I always would like to be able to declare that a game on a portable system is the equal of the same game on a console but in the case of Sims2 Castaway, the PSP version is not quite as good for the reasons I have given.

There are more clothing options in the Wii version as well... although that is a minor point of comparison

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: Thanks for the Castaway guide. The saving bug seems troublesome, however I have yet started playing Castaway (but will do so soon)so I cannot confirm nor deny if I have the same bug, I'll let you know either way. But Thanks for the preliminary guide anyway!
greetings
Shaggy; December 18, 2007 at 11:28 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Freyashawk,

Indeed. I was highly disappointed to discover that you were correct. My PSP version of Castaway is affected by that glitch. My PSP just shuts down unexpectedly when moving from one area to another, or when trying to save and even once when I was trying to harvest coconuts. How is it possible that a huge company such as EA can release a game for a platform when it had such inherent glitches? I have now been playing for about 3 days or so, and the shut down has occured 3 times already, causing me to have to restart once (losing everything and make a new crew) and it is making me hesitant to continue playing. grrrrrr :-(

Regards
Shaggy; December 21, 2007 at 6:31 AM
Freyashawk said...: Ah, Shaggy, I am sorry to hear of your troubles with the PSP version of the game. I did suspect that the problem was in the game and not the PSP... and I am glad for the confirmation of that, although I don't know what solution I can offer, apart from saving in as many slots as possible. Why don't you do that? You should have almost a dozen slots for the game. If you ALWAYS save in at least two of them, you should have a back-up game that is not too far removed from your current progress.; December 23, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Thanks Freyashawk

Indeed that is precisely what I am doing. However it does detract from the gameplay of an interesting game.
Keep well
Shaggy; December 24, 2007 at 3:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Dear Freyashawk

just an update on that bug.... touch wood, I have not had the bug re-appear once yet since I had those 3 crashes in the begin. I have frequently been saving in multiple slots, and although the load times can be rather annoyingly long, the game has seemed to stop crashing. Maybe this bug is just inherent in the opening few days of the game?? In either case, I am thoughly enjoying playing it now! Have a wonderful year end. May 2008 be all that you want it to be!
Regards
Shaggy; December 31, 2007 at 5:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Dear Freyashawk

I am sorry if this is the incorrect place to publish this comment, but there is something i need to know:
How do you ask a girl (such as Mist) to the moonlit eve festival?

many thanks
toagie

by the way, where do I go to be able to send you this type of email without having to interupt another conversation?; January 9, 2008 at 8:35 PM
Anonymous said...: this has not happened to me and im almost finished the game, last island, how far were you when this happened?; January 25, 2011 at 11:26 PM

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!

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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.

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