Thursday, January 31, 2008

The First Hot Spring in HM DS and HM Cute DS







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In earlier Harvest Moon games, your village often had a Hot Spring when you first arrived at your farm. It was thus even in Mineral Town, but in Forget-Me-Not Valley in HM DS, you must discover the Hot Spring. Your first opportunity to do this is by experiencing Flora's 3rd Heart Event, otherwise known as her Blue Heart Event. Sometimes players fail to understand that experiencing Heart Events does not force you to marry the girl or bachelor involved in the event. It is best to experience as many events as possible, whatever you ultimately decide to do with your life.

In 'Cute', the discovery of the first Hot Spring remains tied to Flora's old Blue Heart Event. In fact, it is virtually identical to her Blue Heart Event in the 'boy' version of the game. The only difference is that you cannot raise her AP in 'Cute' but you must raise her FP to 255 in order to experience the event.

It is rather a curious event actually as it involves the discovery of an extraordinary lithograph. This purportedly is the entire reason Carter and Flora are working in the Valley but when Flora brings the lithograph to him, he tells her he cannot join her to search for the 'treasure' because he has 'other plans'. What plans possibly could be more important than his life's work???

It does give you the chance to take his place in the treasure hunt, joining Flora to dig for the hidden 'treasure'. That treasure is the Hot Spring. Unlike some events that transpire at night, this one takes no real time and you will find yourself outside your house at the end of it at the same time you entered the screen to trigger the scene.

Incidentally, what is odd about this is that I was able to experience it on a Tuesday night, ostensibly Flora's day off. It is rather annoying that I was able to trigger this event on a Tuesday, against all logic, but that the game continued to operate like clockwork on Sunday night when I tried to experience Part II of Skye's Event, denying me any opportunity to do so after allowing me cruelly to trigger Part I. (And Skye is disappointed with me!!! He reverted to purple heart level when I failed to appear.)

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