False Perceptions.... the Bestiary in Rune Factory 2

This is not the first time I have omitted a Monster type simply because there was so much to cover and so many screens in a Cave/Dungeon. I would have thought that I had the Bestiary complete by now for Rune Factory 2 until I went to BF3 Room 8 of the Palermo Shrine this morning to collect some Platinum for yet another Heavy Shield. I am trying to boost my Ring Shield to Level 10. It is one of the more labour-intensive forging projects as the main ingredient for the upgrade is a Heavy Shield.

Actually, the process is interesting because it represents one of the few crossovers between the Forge and the Accessory Workbench. The Ring Shield is a Ring with the power of a Shield. To upgrade it, you need a Heavy Shield. You therefore need to move to the Forge to create the Heavy Shield, then move back to the Accessory Workbench to perform the upgrade.

A player might well ask why I am bothering to upgrade this difficult Accessory to Level 10. It is because Level 10 items are the only ones that can achieve transformation in a Trade. I believe there is one more Accessory that will transform in the course of a Trade at Level 10 and I am trying to find it. The only Accessories that are candidates at this point for any transformation are the Ring Shield, the Champion Belt and the Happy Ring. I believe I have traded every other Accessory and witnessed all other transformations. I suspect that the final Accessory with the power of transformation may be the Champion Belt, actually, but I will be thorough and trade all of them. I found the ART OF ATTACK, ART OF DEFENCE and ART OF MAGIC through transformation of Level 10 Accessories as well as PROOF OF WISDOM. (These scrolls can be created independently at the Workbench as well.)

This is another issue entirely, however. What occurred when I went to harvest PLATINUM from the chamber of Palermo Shrine was that, upon defeating the Monster there, I obtained a GIANT'S GLOVE. I realised instantly that my identification of the Monster in my Guide as a Minotauros patently was incorrect. I had not paid sufficient attention when writing the screen-by-screen walkthrough. I looked at the size of the Monster, saw the swinging Hammer and thought: Minotauros! The Monster actually doesn't even look like a Minotauros. It obviously is a member of the Troll family... In fact, it is a Monster I had neglected to catalogue. Its name is Gigantus.

Does it matter? It actually CAN matter. If you need a GIANT'S GLOVE in the middle of the night and do not wish to go through all 10 Levels of the Tropical Underground Shrine to obtain one, you can go directly to Room 8 on the 3rd Floor of Palermo Shrine. My erroneous classification of the Monster as a Minotauros would have meant that it would have provided a HAMMER PIECE as a War Trophy instead.

In any event, the omission has been corrected in my Guides and on the article on this site that lists the complete Bestiary. Finding errors of this sort is one of the reasons I feel any truly good Harvest Moon game guide takes about six months to complete.

I am making a little series of videos that will provide a visual Bestiary for Rune Factory 2. So far, only the Ranch Monster video, Part I of the Series, has been published. Part II will consist of 'Farmhand' Monsters. Part III will be Monsters who are useful only as Allies in Combat.