Wednesday, July 2, 2008

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.

7 comments:

Mountain Gnome said...

Hi Freyashawk

I presumed you must have been busy playing IOH, It looks like a wonderful game. I am looking forward to reading more of your posts!

Hope you are keeping well!

Kind regards
Shaggy

Anonymous said...

haha, i've only been to the rice cake festival twice, and i choked both times. i thought it was normal. =/

i'm wondering though, how long does the rice take to sprout? do you have to water it?

because i just planted it and left it alone and it's not doing anything.

thanks for all your posts!

Freyashawk said...

Anon, these posts are only a small portion of the work I do. If you look at the right side of this page, you will see links to all my Guides. The Farming Guide for IoH gives the amount of time it takes for each crop to grow as well as all other information about Crops. Rice incidentally takes 3 seasons to mature. You have to plant it in Spring and harvest it in Autumn. You do not need to water it as it is grown in standing water.

Anonymous said...

Help! I have raised Rice Island and equiped my Hoe with a yellow wonderful but when I try to till the paddies, nothing happens. I can't plant anything because my hoe is not working - it won't break ground. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I worked long and hard to start planting rice, and now it's not working. Is it a glitch with my game? Thanks for any help you can give me!

Freyashawk said...

Anonymous, first of all, there is no need to post your comment twice. I moderate ALL comments which is why you did not see it posted on the site instantly.

The answer to your question is that it is NOT a glitch. You are not charging your Hoe. When you set Wonderfuls in any Tool, it gives you extra power only if you charge the Tool. When the controls are buttons, you hold down the button before releasing it and you actually will see the charge. You are playing SI, not IoH, right? Which means you do use button controls, so hold down the control rather than releasing it instantly.

Suzana said...

Freyashawk - I'm so sorry for posting it twice. I thought it didn't go through. And I can't believe I didn't think about charging it - arrgh... I've been using the tools with wonderfuls by charging it and it totally didn't occur to me. I don't know what I was thinking! Thanks so much for your help and prompt response. Much appreciated.

Freyashawk said...

No need to apologise, Suzana. I simply wanted you (and other readers) to know that, as I moderate all comments, your comment will not appear immediately and posting it twice will not cause it to appear any faster. The reason I moderate comments is because there are quite a few unscrupulous individuals who attempt to spam sites like this with advertising, sometimes for very unsavoury products! I therefore automatically reject any comments with links.

Anyway, glad to be of help!