Harvest Moon Forever: Choking on a Rice Cake

Thursday, July 3, 2008

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.

2 comments:

Jadis said...: You... choke? On a rice cake? That is unheard of, and keeps it novel! Maybe I'll try reloading the game over and over again...

I truly envy you for being able to get your own copy of Island of Happiness before any of us have it! I hope your guide for the game went over fine :); July 5, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Freyashawk said...: Thanks, Kalypsocry. Actually, I didn't accept the IoH assignment for a printed guide mainly because I thought I would not be able to meet their deadline. The game is HUGE. The assignment I accepted was for the upcoming Wii Harvest Moon game. And thank you for your kind wishes. I hope they like the guide... I actually haven't heard yet. I couldn't make the original deadline for that one either, but at least I was able to finish it ultimately. If it had been IoH, I can't imagine being able to write a proper guide for THAT in less than three months!

And by the way, it's not my own copy, sad to say. It has to be returned ultimately and I'll have to start from the beginning like every one else with the retail version.

Even so, it is very exciting to be able to explore the game early. More than that, it will allow me to have a guide for the game on the internet when the game is released.; July 8, 2008 at 1:17 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!

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!
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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'.