Players who know me are aware of my strategy of raising all eligible bachelors or girls to deepest red heart, experiencing all of their heart events and even marriage and then and only then choosing a spouse and allowing the rival couples to marry.
In many Harvest Moon games, if you have raised the eligible party to deepest red heart level, you then must LOWER his/her heart level in order to be able to trigger the rival heart events. It can be quite a complicated and exhausting undertaking, but it is worth it if you want to experience as many events as possible in the game.
I am happy to report, however, that Island of Happiness is different in this respect. I brought all the bachelors to red heart level, made my choice and married one permanently and THEN, much to my delight, began to trigger the Rival Heart Events without lowering any heart level by one iota. At 10 hearts, I can trigger the Rival Heart Events now that I am married and there is no romantic link between me and the single bachelors. As I never triggered these events BEFORE marriage at this level, it is possible that my marriage may be the key to freeing the rival couples to marry at red heart level.
I had been dreading the long ordeal of feeding bachelors items they hated in order to lower their heart levels. I am delighted and relieved to discover that this is not necessary.
In Island of Happiness as in many other HM games, the second rival heart event cannot be triggered before the second year and the third cannot be experienced before the third year, giving the player an advantage if he/she wishes to marry the eligible girl/bachelor, but unlike games like FoMT/MFoMT, or HM DS/HM Cute DS, you will not even meet all the eligible characters in your first year if you do not progress sufficiently in the game. As it takes time to unlock all the characters, marriage in the first year, except to Elliot or Denny, if your character is a girl, is almost impossible. It definitely is impossible to experience ALL heart events with all eligible characters in the first year. I chose not to marry until I had experienced the Wedding Event with each of the bachelors. Your Blue Feather, incidentally, will be rejected if the eligible character is not at full 10 heart level. Orange heart level does not suffice.
N.B. A reader evidently misunderstood the point of this post and made a comment to the effect that she was able to trigger all Rival Heart Events before her marriage, as if I had stated otherwise. Of course, all Rival Heart Events can be triggered while you are single still, provided the heart level of the Eligible Girl or Bachelor does not EXCEED the maximum level. My point was that I was able to trigger ALL Rival Heart Events AFTER marriage with every Eligible Bachelor still at 10 hearts.
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10 comments:
asldfkjslfdj ahhhh! It makes me want to play IoH so badly - but I'm waiting for Kira Kira Taiyou to Nakama-tachi to be released, instead, as I believe everything is done by stylus in IoH. Gah, I say, gah.
Incandescence, first of all I wish to compliment you on your choice of name. It proves my theory that Harvest Moon fans ARE extremely articulate and literate. When I worked on a guide for print, I did argue that point, but unsuccessfully, I fear. Incandescence is a lovely word. More to the point, however, I do understand your reluctance to play a game where the stylus reigns supreme. I felt much the same when I began to play IoH. Furthermore, I was hopeless at it. My character would stumble about, halt unpredictably, and act generally like a physically challenged individual. One does improve, however, and it is rather nice to be able to toss fodder into four stalls without moving your character, simply with a flick of the stylus!
Finally, though, the stylus and touchscreen is the pivotal marketing point of the DS system and stylus use will become MORE universal in future games. Why not bow to the inevitable now by playing one of the great Harvest Moon games instead of waiting for the time when ALL DS games will demand use of the stylus in lieu of controls? IoH is too good to pass up, frankly. It is the most challenging Harvest Moon game to date and one of the most complex and satisfying. It does require more patience even from veteran players who are schooled in patience from having played countless other Harvest Moon games, but the rewards are worth the effort.
Freya,
Thank you. I've always been rather fond of it myself. It ranks on a list of favorite words such as malarkey, plethora, meritorious... Ah, fun words.
In any case, I usually have no issue with stylus play whatsoever, but I was driving myself crazy trying to play IoH with a stylus. Ahh! Some things are just easier with buttons. Though I'm sure I could get used to it, I think I'm just too inherently lazy to do so. We'll see, though - I'm so addicted to Harvest Moon I'll probably end up playing it anyway. Ack.
... Though I will be un-lazying myself for Tree of Tranquility, which looks simply amazing. Now if only Rune Factory would let you play a female!
In Rune Factory II, you can play as a girl, which will be very exciting. I wrote a guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames, so I cannot comment at length about that game on the internet, but it is wonderful. The fact that you can start a new game as your child from your first game is an incredible aspect of it. There are so many unusual animals to raise and keep as pets as well. My own personal preference in gameplay tends to be for the small handheld systems like the DS, however. I have to say that Island of Happiness is becoming one of my favourite Harvest Moon games. I absolutely love the idea that you can grow grains like Rice, Wheat and Soybeans. Well, I suppose Soybeans are not grains technically speaking. Actually, you can grow Rice and Buckwheat in ToT as well.
Oh, are you serious? I would LOVE to play Rune Factory as a girl! :D Now I'm like an excited eight year old on Christmas. Weee! And I am definitely buying the ToT strategy guide when I get ToT, by the way. I just probably won't be getting it for another paycheck or two...
In any case, I prefer handheld systems as well, but I absolutely adore the Wii, too. I suck at it, granted (I need to play Marble Mania and get better at my Wiimote control!) but it's really fun. Even mom loves to bowl on it, haha.
I really do love the idea of growing rice and soybeans, though! That sounds like it's going to be fun!! I remember seeing rice piled on half the road when I was younger in Korea, during the dry-out process. Ahh, memories. Too bad we won't be able to do that in HM...
I remember the rice paddies in Nepal when I lived there as a child and was thrilled when I found them in Island of Happiness. It's really quite realistic and there are many different rice products. First, there is the 'cut rice' from the harvest. Then you put it through the thresher to make Rice. That has to be Cooked to make Cooked Rice. Otherwise, put it through the Flour Mill to make Rice Flour. Rice Cakes put through the Mill make Sweet Rice Flour.
As I wrote in one of the posts, you actually can pound the rice on New Year's Day in IoH. That is another memory I have from Nepal, actually: they pounded the rice on the maidan in every village.
I want to comment on what you said in your first post Freyashawk: "As I never triggered these events BEFORE marriage at this level, it is possible that my marriage may be the key to freeing the rival couples to marry at red heart level."
You are able to trigger the Rival Heart Events before your marriage as I have triggered almost of them and am not married.
(Thanks for your guides.)
Peach, you left out the VITAL consideration in my post: were the bachelors at deepest red heart level when you triggered the rival events BEFORE marriage? That was my point. Of course, you can trigger ALL FOUR Rival Heart Events BEFORE marriage, but there is a maximum heart level that cannot be exceeded. It is only AFTER marriage that you can trigger ALL of them at 10 hearts.
Ah, yes, I understand. I misunderstood your post. Well, I tried to do a test on a second game. I was in the second year, Denny was in his deepest red, Lanna was my friend, and I was not married.
I wasn't able to trigger their first Rival Event though. It may be that you're correct, marriage is the key, or it may be that Denny left for a while, because I ignored him and his time on the island was reset. Meaning he only spent a couple days there.
I read that depending on the time the lovers have spent on the island determines when you're able to experiance the events. For example, if Denny didn't come to the island until the 2nd year then you won't be able to experiance the 2nd Rival event until the 3rd year, etc.
I'm going to continue testing some things out just to find out if I'm wrong. I won't bother you though. It just sparked my interest when I saw this blog.
I wasn't trying to contradict you, by the way, just trying to figure out some things. :)
Anon, you are welcome to contradict me if I am wrong and you are right! I am not the Harvest Goddess herself. On the other hand, I did test this myself.
Please do tell me the results of your own tests. Ordinarily, rival heart events DO depend on the heart level of the eligible Bachelor/Girl as well as the year. There is a certain level that can't be exceeded.
A big exception to this is to be found in Tree of Tranquility where Rival Heart Events depend exclusively on the heart level of the RIVAL! You really have to be careful if you wish to marry one of the Eligible characters with a Rival in the game. You can have the Bachelor/Girl at maximum level and the Rival Event still will trigger automatically if the Rival's heart level reaches the required level (only 2 and 3 hearts actually if I recall correctly).
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