Island of Happiness and Tree of Tranquility Guides

My Island of Happiness Guides should be available online at IGN on the day that the game is released in the States, but I will not be able to write online guides for Tree of Tranquility as I accepted an assignment to write the Official Strategy Guide for Brady Games. That printed guide, the Tree of Tranquility Official Strategy Guide is available now for pre-order at a number of sites, including Amazon.

New Harvest Moon Festivals and Wonderfuls

Although 'Island of Happiness', due now to be released in mid-August, includes most of the traditional Harvest Moon festivals from other games, it has some new festivals as well. In fact, the game differs from most other Harvest Moon games in that few of the Festivals will be celebrated or even displayed on the Calendar until your character 'unlocks' them through his/her accomplishments or the attainment of specific goals.

Areas of the map are 'unlocked' when your character pays for the construction of bridges and roads when those projects are made available at Gannon's shop. Once those areas are unlocked, your character will be able to expand his/her activities. In fact, the area where Festivals are held must be unlocked before any Festivals can be celebrated!

Island of Happiness therefore contains more 'surprises' for the player than most Harvest Moon games. Even an experienced Harvest Moon fan will not know what to expect in many cases.

For example, I was not surprised to discover a Cooking Contest in Spring but when I 'unlocked' the rice paddies and began to grow rice, a 'Rice Festival' appeared on the Calendar in Autumn. A 'Mining Festival' appeared in the second year in the Summer season.

Many of these Festivals include Contests and some are more difficult to win than others. The Mining Festival is an example of a Festival that requires a very high quality of gem or ore if you wish to win 1st Prize.

In Spring, Summer and Autumn, there are Crop Festivals with a different 'theme' each year. The theme is announced at the previous Crop Festival and will appear on the Calendar as well. Often, the theme will be a crop that you must unlock. If you have not unlocked the Crop by the time the Festival occurs, obviously you will have no chance whatsoever of winning the Contest.

Often the prize for winning 1st Place in any Festival Contest is a Wonderful. Players of HM DS and HM Cute DS will be familiar with 'Wonderfuls' but they are acquired differently and have quite different applications in Island of Happiness. In HM DS/Cute DS, one could mine for 'Wonderfuls' in the 4th Mine. They had no significant value as single stones. If you could collect a complete set, however, the Harvest Goddess would grant you a wish from a list of choices.

In Island of Happiness, 'Wonderfuls' can be set in slots in tools to augment their power in various ways. Each colour of Wonderful has a specific attribute. Some Wonderfuls allow a tool to operate on a wider area. Others enhance the quality of the item that is obtained through use of the tool. Another Wonderful creates additional slots when equipped to a Tool.

When you purchase a tool from Gannon or Mirabelle at the start of the game, it will have 1-4 slots for Wonderfuls. Gannon sells farm tools and Mirabelle sells ranch tools. A basic tool has only a single slot. Each additional slot raises the price of a tool by 1000G. A tool with four slots therefore will cost 4000G.

If you are a fanatical miner, you can obtain Wonderfuls from the Harvest Goddess when you reach the 255th floor of the Mine. She alternates Wonderfuls with Recipes for various coloured Curries, though, so it is only every other visit to the bottom of the Mine that will gain you another Wonderful as long as there are Recipes to dole out. (Have you noticed how valuable an item a Curry is in Harvest Moon games? Curries of various kinds are the key to Skye's heart and the heart of Keira, not to mention the delight of Flora...)

If you are not a dedicated Miner, you can obtain Wonderfuls in IoH by winning Contests at various Festivals.

The Wonderful that you obtain when you win a Contest is based on total Farming Degree points.

Finally, there is a possibility of finding a Wonderful for sale at Chen's Market in Winter as well.

Some Wonderfuls are more useful than others in the early years of the game. In the early stages of the game, a Wonderful that decreases the amount of Stamina that is lost with each use of the tool is far more useful than a Wonderful that expands the number of slots on a tool. Wonderfuls are not that plentiful, especially if you are not able or willing to descend to the 255th floor of the Mine. Unfortunately, in my own game, the first two Wonderfuls I obtained were Indigo, with the attribute of increasing the number of slots on any tool. I later discovered that the colour of Wonderful obtained at any Festival is based on the total of your Farming Degree Points so you can change the result by fishing or farming or performing any other action that will change your total. (Festivals end at a specific time, irrespective of the time of arrival. If you arrive at a Festival that ends at 6.00 p.m. at 5.50 p.m., you lose only 10 minutes of your day.)

In fact, you must obtain a Yellow Wonderful if you wish to unlock the area on the map where rice can be grown. A Yellow Wonderful augments the power of any Tool and you will not be able to smash the boulder that blocks the path north from your ranch unless you ask Charlie to set a Yellow Wonderful in your Hammer. Once you have unlocked the rice paddies, you must ask him to set a Yellow Wonderful in your Hoe if you wish to be able to plant rice. Finally, a Yellow Wonderful is required in your Sickle in order to harvest the ripened rice.

One Yellow Wonderful can serve the purpose if you go back and forth to Chen's Market to ask Charlie to remove the Wonderful from one tool and set it in another when required. It is inconvenient but better than not being able to grow rice at all!

The appearance of a Wonderful at Chen's Shop in Winter based on the last digit in your Farming Degree total.

Note on 18 August 2009: A player found this ancient post which had not been revised according to later information that IS included in my Guides... and he posted a comment here. Please always be aware that my posts on this site are not intended to be substitutes for my actual strategy guides. I seldom update posts on this site, sadly... I only discovered this one contained early erroneous findings because of a comment a player posted recently.

'Wonderfuls' cannot be set in any tool slot by your character. You must see Charlie, Chen's son, when he is at the counter, in order to equip any Wonderfuls that you own to a tool. There is no charge for this service.

Charlie actually is a very important character in Island of Happiness. He makes Accessories that are very similar to the Accessories in HM DS/Cute DS. Among others, you will find the Harvest Goddess Pendant, Harvest Goddess Earrings, Kappa Pendant, Kappa Earrings, Friendship Brooch and Turbo Shoes as well as a Pedometre.

As in HM DS/Cute DS, many of the Accessories are available in three different sizes. The larger sizes are unlocked usually when you order the smaller sizes. It appears that new accessories sometimes are unlocked when you have ordered a certain number of Accessories from Charlie after a set number of days pass. I wrote about Accessories in Island of Happiness in another post. Large amounts of orichalc are required to create Accessories, but there is no cost otherwise. A Large Harvest Goddess or Kappa Pendant, for example, requires 60 Orichalc. Orichalc can be found on the 50th floor of the Mine as well as on various lower floors. (You can find it on all floors between Floor 50 and Floor 74 randomly for example.) You can find almost EVERYTHING between Floors 250 and 254. More about the Mine later...

These posts are not intended to serve as a proper guide for Island of Happiness. My guides will be published when the game is released in August.

Requirements for Marriage in Island of Happiness

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In terms of the requirements for marriage, Harvest Moon tends to be very practical. Whether you are playing FoMT/MFoMT, HM DS/Cute DS or Island of Happiness, experiencing all heart events is NOT sufficient. You must be able to offer your spouse a BED. I suspected this was the case in Island of Happiness, but have confirmed it by experiencing all heart events with all bachelors and bringing most of them to deepest red heart level without expanding my house for the third time. A medium house is not large enough for a 'Husband Bed' apparently, as that option was not unlocked until Gannon completed the Large House. The 'Husband Bed' then became available at Chen's Shop for 10,000G. Until I actually bought the 'Husband Bed', the bachelors continued to reject my Blue Feather. As soon as I had the 'Husband Bed', they accepted... Naturally, I did not save the results as I am the one who really is not 'ready for that yet'.

It therefore is not sufficient if the guy is head over heels in love with you. If you cannot offer him a comfortable bed of his own, your proposal will be rejected.
The husband and wife do not share the same bed in many Harvest Moon games. The 'Big Bed' often is the place where spouse and child sleep, while you continue to sleep in your original narrow little bed. The beds tend to be pushed together though when this is the case. IoH actually is different in this respect as the photograph shows. The two beds are placed along the western wall of the large house with no semblance of closeness. It is very interesting. The Husband's Bed actually is the one in the topmost left corner of the house. I will be interested to discover if the Man's Bed always is the one in the top corner or if the 'Wife's Bed' would occupy the same position when your character is a boy... When I progress further in the Boy's version of the game, I'll be able to confirm this one way or another.

In some Harvest Moon games, the child will have a crib, but usually in the games made for the handheld systems, the child shares the 'Big Bed'. In IoH, there is a separate child's bed, making it more like the larger console Harvest Moon games.

In IoH, the marriage proposal will be accepted only when you have experienced all four heart events, brought the eligible girl/bachelor to fullest red heart level, upgraded your house to a Large House and after you have purchased the Spouse's Bed.

When you propose, you will experience a special proposal event under the title of 'Popping the Question'. One week later, you will experience a Wedding Event at the Church.

I did not marry Denny on a permanent basis, but I have to admit that the wedding ceremony was very amusing. Nathan was very formal and serious, asking the prospective groom if he would honour and love me as long as I lived. Denny simply responded: 'Heck yeah!'

The ceremony occurs inside the Church, but afterwards, the crowd will gather next to the Harvest Goddess Spring. As is traditional, the Harvest Goddess will bestow her blessing on the couple and will give her own gift by ringing the Bell. The credits then will roll, but any Harvest Moon fan knows this is NOT the end.

After the credits, you will experience another event: 'After the Wedding...' Your spouse, in a traditional Harvest Moon ritual, will ask you to choose a nickname.

Challenges in Island of Happiness

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Every Harvest Moon game is challenging and very few can be explored fully in less than five years (Harvest Moon time!) but I really have come to the conclusion that 'Island of Happiness' is by far the most challenging game of all. Imagine a game where you have to unlock many of the Eligible Girls/Bachelors... Imagine ordering a Bird Barn or Animal Barn that does not contain a full set of feeders or any shipping containers. Imagine a 'Maker' that requires 20 Adamantite instead of only one and a Maker Shed that must be expanded before you can order some of the 'Makers'. If you wish to order Accessories, you may need 10 to 60 pieces of Orichalc rather than 1.

Suffice it to say that I cannot imagine any player sighing regretfully that he/she completed all goals too quickly! Every aspect of this game is challenging. You have to unlock new areas on the map if you wish to meet vital characters and ever gain access to a Mine.

Festivals are unlocked as well. As you move forward in the game, you will be able to participate in new Festivals.

Items do not have a single value either. Each item has a Rank as well as a grade in terms of Quality, Size and Freshness. When you are mining or fishing, in particular, you need to be aware constantly of the number of empty slots in your rucksack. Unless the items are identical not only in type, but in Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness, they will occupy different slots. You can stack items of different ranks and grades but this must be done manually. The resulting 'stack' will contain items of rank and grades that represent an average of the original items.

New 'advanced Makers' that require an upgraded Maker Shed include a Thresher and a Flour Mill. In a previous post, I wrote about the New Year Festival, where my character actually participated in the ritual of pounding the rice for rice cakes. Little details like this astound me. The obvious time and energy that went into the creation of Island of Happiness make it a labour of love.

For fans of Harvest Moon, it is wonderful to be able to encounter characters from other games like Cliff, Trent, Karen and Popuri. (When they visit the Island in IoH, they are married to your old 'Rivals' from FoMT/MFoMT.)

The characters from Mineral Town speak of their spouses and of others as well. For example, Trent will tell you that Mayor Thomas arranged for his room at the Inn on the Island. Other characters play a role even when they are not present in the flesh. The Gourmet is an important character in one of Pierre's Heart Events.

As in most Harvest Moon games, you need not be the best farmer, rancher, miner or fisherman/woman in order to live a fairly decent life. You won't perish if you fail to meet all the goals in the game. Discussing some of the 'challenges' in IoH therefore should not discourage players who mainly play Harvest Moon games in order to marry and have a family. That goal can be one of the easier to attain, depending on the Eligible Girl/Bachelor you wish to court. There are Eligible Girls/Bachelors who will not appear on the Island if you do not attain specific goals but there are others who are available for courtship from the start of the game.

Without being too specific about Tree of Tranquility, the upcoming Harvest Moon game for the Wii, you will not be able to meet all the Eligible Girls/Bachelors at the start in that game either. At the very earliest, you will be able to unlock every possible character only halfway through your second year. In other respects, however, it is very different from Island of Happiness. It has a very detailed storyline and plot, casting your character in the role of hero/heroine. In that sense, it reminds me a little of Rune Factory, although there is no combat in ToT. In many Harvest Moon games, you are called upon to rescue the Harvest Goddess, but the plot in ToT is far more complex than that. There is a 'next generation' option in ToT that is rather wonderful. I certainly recommend that game as well wholeheartedly!

Heart Events and Rival Heart Events in Island of Happiness can be touching, dramatic or hilarious. Courting every possible candidate for marriage BEFORE you decide on a wife/husband is worth the effort because the Events are wonderful.

I think a player could spend six (real time) months on Island of Happiness without exhausting half of the possibiities. Through Harvest Moon, one can live more than one life but there always is that pesky problem of real time...

Choking on a Rice Cake

This Event was so hilarious that I had to share it. I often replay Events, including Festival Events in order to satisfy myself that I have experienced all possible variables.

In HM Cute DS as well as in other Harvest Moon games, characters attending the New Year's Day Rice Cake Festival often refer to the possibility that some one could choke on a rice cake. Here are some of these remarks:

Hardy: I was just worried that somebody might choke on something... But then, I may be the one who chokes on rice cakes...
Elli: If you eat rice cakes too fast, you might choke on them! Be careful.
Kassey: I almost died once, a long time agao. I choked on a rice cake!
Patrick: My older brother almost choked on a rice cake once.

In Island of Happiness, this sorry situation can occur to YOUR character randomly.

Sabrina warned me of the possibility, saying that: 'If you eat rice cake too fast, you could choke... So be careful.'

Even so, I never dreamed it could happen to ME.

The first couple of times I played through the Event, nothing untoward occurred. I took my 'share' of rice cakes home with me. The reason I replayed the event a couple of times actually was the realisation that the number of rice cakes given to you is random. One time I obtained only one; another time I received 12. I was trying to discover what the maximum number could be when I actually CHOKED on a rice cake at the Festival!

You can see my character doubled over in the centre of the group, choking on her rice cake while the Islanders watch. Another screenshot shows her actually pounding the rice cakes. I loved that detail.

What a wonderful game this is! Fans of Harvest Moon may be aware of the fact that there is more than one version of each of the Heart Events. The next Heart Event will vary depending on your response during any Heart Event. In other words, there are different 'paths' for the Heart Events for any Eligible Girl/Bachelor in Island of Happiness. You would be required to play a dozen games at least to experience all of them. The fact that you can play either as a girl or a boy means that Island of Happiness actually is TWO separate games in a single cartridge.

There are dozens of 'optional characters' that only will come to the Island if you complete specific goals. They tend to be linked to accomplishments in one of the activities such as mining, fishing or ranching. Some of them appear to be linked to Island improvements, such as paving another road.

My first Rice Paddy!

As a child, I lived in Nepal, in a valley below Mt. Everest where Rice Paddies dominated the landscape. I never imagined that I would be able to grow rice in a proper rice paddy in Harvest Moon. Island of Happiness gives a player the opportunity to grow rice in a rice paddy. You cannot use an ordinary basic hoe, however. Its power must be augmented if you wish to prepare the paddy for the rice.

The rice paddies will not be visible at the start of the game. A boulder has to be crushed, allowing access to a new screen in the northwestern corner of your field.

Island of Happiness is an amazingly complex Harvest Moon game. There is an incredible attention to details.

For example, at the New Year's Day Festival, where rice cakes traditionally are served and eaten, all the old warnings about choking on a rice cake in previous Harvest Moon games as well as Island of Happiness itself can be seen in action.
Remember how the Twins in HM DS and HM Cute DS talk about a childhood incident of choking on a rice cake? Well, your character in Island of Happiness, after being able to pound the rice cakes in an action sequence, actually may choke on one!
It is a random event that may or may not occur. I experienced it one time out of four. It was hilarious. This is the kind of detail that makes Harvest Moon unique. Half of the players of this game may not know even that this event could occur unless they continue to attend the New Year's Festival year after year... It is similar in this respect to the New Year's Eve Nightmares one can experience in other Harvest Moon games on a random basis.

N.B. Note that there are four equipment slots that can be used for Tools, Items or Accessories. In the screenshot displayed here, my character has equipped three Accessories. Accessories are similar in nature to those in HM DS and HM Cute DS, but one can equip more than one at any given moment.

The Bewitching Witch Princess

The Witch Princess in Island of Happiness lives in a wonderful little Hansel-and-Gretel styled cottage deep in the forest. She has the same vast library of books that she had in HM DS/Cute DS but her collection of bears now is visible to the casual visitor as you can see.

Note the map of the Island that appears on the upper screen. This is a wonderful resource that displays the current position of every important character on the Island.

Spring Thanksgiving with Mark, Vaughn and Elliot

As in many Harvest Moon games, the Spring Thanksgiving is the occasion on which boys give Cookies to girls they like. It actually is the 'second' of the Thanksgiving Festivals, oddly enough. The first is the 'Winter Thanksgiving' on 14 Winter, on which girls give Chocolate or Chocolate Cake to boys they like. The Spring Thanksgiving gift is considered to be a gift 'in return'. Many characters actually will refer to the original Winter Thanksgiving gift when they give the girl Cookies or Chocolate Cookies. It appeared to me that the bachelors with the highest Heart Levels gave Chocolate Cookies while the others gave Cookies. If this is the case, then it is a good strategy to have bachelors at different heart levels, as you then will be able to obtain a larger selection of items.

(In HM Boy & Girl, this certainly was the case. One could receive either Chocolate or the appropriate baked item. Ironically, Chocolate, the gift given at lowest heart levels, was the more difficult item to obtain in THAT game so one actually benefited if one did not have all eligible characters at the highest heart levels at the time of the Thanksgiving Festival.)

I received both Cookies and Chocolate Cookies in 'Island of Happiness' and the bachelors adhered to a regular schedule of visits as in 'More Friends of Mineral Town' and 'Harvest Moon Cute DS'. I had to re-enter my house each time to experience the visit, so could not wander far from home throughout the day on 14 Spring. It was worth the sacrifice, however, as I received gifts from ALL the bachelors.

I have to admit that I am torn between Vaughn and Mark for my final choice of Spouse.
Vaughn is difficult to court mainly because he visits the island only for a couple of days each week and is absent in the first year on the day of many of the Romantic Festivals. Very frustrating! I would have loved to have spent the Starry Night Festival with him, but he was absent on the day when the invitation would have had to have been made. I was thrilled when he came to my house bearing a gift on 14 Spring... it was not one of the days when he was scheduled to be on the Island!

In this post, I have included screenshots of the Thanksgiving visits of Elliot, Vaughn and Mark. Note the lovely 'picturebook' title on the upper screen. Every Event in IoH has its own screen title and many have their own signature music. The Romantic Heart Events title screen is particularly lovely.

Romance in Island of Happiness: Thanksgiving Festivals

Most Harvest Moon games include at least one Thanksgiving Festival in the course of the year, and Island of Happiness, like many other HM games, both has a Spring Thanksgiving Festival and a Winter Thanksgiving Festival. Playing as a girl, my character was able to give Chocolate to all the Eligible Bachelors in the first Winter and received Cookies or Chocolate Cookies in return on 14 Spring.

I was a little apprehensive as the Winter Thanksgiving Festival approached, actually, as Flour is not available at Chen's Market at the start of the game, unlike many other Harvest Moon games and there was no possibility, therefore, that I could make Cake or Chocolate Cake, the usual traditional Winter Thanksgiving Gift.
Fortunately, they all accepted a Chocolate bar, one of the few items that IS available from Chen ab initio.

From 6.00 a.m. through 4.00 p.m., therefore, I received visitors on 14 Spring... Even Shea, who ordinarily restricts his activities to age-old hunting and spear fishing, somehow managed to bake or buy a plate of Cookies for me! I have been able to experience most of the Heart Events now, but some of the Bachelors arrive later than others as their arrivals are linked to your character's accomplishments.

I have included screenshots of Denny, Pierre and Shea here. As Denny was one of the first eligible Bachelors to arrive on the island and loves fish, I was able to bring him to red heart level rather quickly. Pierre is an interesting character as he is related to The Gourmet in other Harvest Moon games, a descendant of that noble family with all the accompanying greed for fine cuisine, yet somehow able to keep a decent figure! Shea is kind of an intriguing 'wild child' who lives in the Jungle in the northeast area of the Island.

There is an interesting twist to this game. You can court your alter ego in the person of the character you would play if you had chosen the opposite gender! Mark, therefore, is the 'boy character' in this game and he will come to the Island only when you achieve 50% in terms of the 'Growth' of the Island. Furthermore, he is impressed more by your accomplishments than by any gifts.

Island of Happiness Preview

Island of Happiness, a new Harvest Moon game for the DS that will be released in August, promises the player excitement, new characters and a multitude of new challenges.

In this game, items, new options and characters, including some of the Eligible Girls/Bachelors are unlocked gradually, and in most cases, depend on your own achievement of goals.

The graphics are wonderful. Events are accompanied by a title screen on the upper screen of the DS that gives them a picturebook quality. Whenever you speak to characters, instead of a static portrait on the lower screen to accompany the dialogue, the eyes on the portrait actually blink!

In terms of farming, there is a new option to grow Rice in rice paddies in the northwest corner of your farm, but you must unlock this before you will be able to buy the seeds or enter the Rice Paddy area.

As in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl and the original Magical Melody for the Gamecube, you have an opportunity to play the game either as a boy or as a girl. There is a wide selection of eligible Girls/Bachelors in terms of courtship and marriage.

Most of the characters are new, but players of FoMT/MFoMT, HM Boy & Girl and HM DS/HM Cute DS will be delighted to find visitors from Mineral Town in this game! Karen and Popuri visit in certain seasons and when they return to Mineral Town, Cliff will arrive on the Island. None of these characters are eligible for marriage. In fact, they will have married your Rival in the Mineral Town/Forget-Me-Not Valley games and will speak of their spouses while visiting the Island.

There is a character from HM DS/HM Cute DS in Island of Happiness who is eligible for marriage if your character is a boy. The mischievous Witch Princess lives on the Island with her large collection of bears!

Much more to come in future posts...

Incidentally, I have been working on my guides for Island of Happiness and they should be published on IGN when the game is released in the U.S.

If you would like to know which Events you have experienced...

Players often become confused as to which Heart or Rival Heart Events they have experienced. This can occur because a player stops playing the game for awhile and then returns to it or it can occur simply because a player is unaware of the significance of an Event when it is experienced.

Whatever the reason for the confusion, I always include a section in my Courtship and Marriage Guides for the actual text of every Heart and Rival Heart Event in the game. Whether it is 'Friends of Mineral Town', 'More Friends of Mineral Town', 'Harvest Moon DS' or 'Harvest Moon Cute DS', you can find the text of all Romantic Events in the 'Heart Events and Rival Heart Events Guide'/'Courtship and Marriage Guide' for the game you are playing.

The section that gives the text of the Events therefore is not intended to be a 'spoiler' but rather an aid to gameplay. Much time and energy can be saved if you know which Events you have experienced and which you still need to trigger. Knowing which Events are Heart Events and which constitute Rival Heart Events is important as well. By including the text of the Events, heartache and heartbreak can be avoided! If you wish to marry the girl/bachelor yourself and have experienced three of the four Rival Heart Events without realising it, reading the Text section of the Guide can alert you to the situation, allowing you to avoid the 4th and Final Rival Heart Event that would deprive you of your intended spouse forever.

Separate sections in the Guides are devoted to each of the Eligible Girls or Bachelors in the game, giving the individual's birthday, schedule, likes and dislikes and a full schedule of each of his/her Heart and Rival Heart Events.

The Romance guides include detailed information on Courtship and Marriage in general, with all requirements for Marriage.

Links to ALL my Guides, including Courtship and Marriage Guides, are included on the right side of this page.

Why won't Kai come to the Valley in other seasons?

This is a response to a comment by a visitor to this site. The visitor asked why Kai won't visit the Valley in other seasons if you have unlocked the Mineral Town visitors by inserting FoMT/MFoMT into the GBA slot with HM DS or HM Cute DS.

Well, Kai is a guy who only loves Summer and refuses to work in any other season. In FoMT/MFoMT, his beach shack is open for business only during Summer. Likewise, in HM DS/HM Cute DS, he opens his stall on the beach in Forget-Me-Not Valley only during Summer. He may or may not open a stall or cafe on some tropical Island during the other Seasons... there isn't any Harvest Moon game at this point in time that features Kai working in Spring, Autumn or Winter in ANY location.

One does wonder sometimes how Kai manages to work BOTH at his seaside cafe in Mineral Town AND at his stall at the beach in Forget-Me-Not Valley simultaneously during the Summer seasons, but that is a problem in logic that is overwritten by the singular rules of magic embodied in Harvest Moon.

Incidentally, if you marry Kai in HM Cute DS, he will stay in the Valley with you, although he will maintain his philosophy of working only during the Summer season. One suspects therefore that he would not work ANYWHERE in Spring, Autumn and Winter, even in the hottest of climates, but who knows...? Harvest Moon is a saga that we hope never will come to an end.

Where all other visitors from Mineral Town are concerned, their patterns of movement follow ordinary logic: they visit Forget-Me-Not Valley on their 'Days Off'. Thus, Grey visits the Valley on Thursdays when the Smithy in Mineral Town is shut. Karen visits on Tuesday when the Supermarket in Mineral Town is closed. (The Supermarket is shut on Sunday as well, but Mineral Town visitors, apart from Kai, are allowed only one visit to Forget-Me-Not Valley per week.) And so on...

There is a game that may appear in the future where characters from Mineral Town visit an Island on a seasonal rather than weekly basis... but more about that in a month or so.