Friday, March 5, 2010

Exploiting Pets for Friendship Points in Harvest Moon







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Exploiting a Pet in order to gain Friendship or Affection Points with other Characters is an old Harvest Moon tactic. In games such as HM DS/Cute DS, even before you had decent Gifts to give to other Characters, you could show them your Cat or Dog in many instances to earn Friendship/Affection Points. Knowing which Characters liked a specific type of Animal and which ones disliked them was critical.

In Sunshine Islands, you can show your Pets as well as any Wild Animals to Characters in the same fashion. Although you cannot take any Wild Animals into buildings, your Dog or Cat can accompany you into any Building for the purpose of showing him/her to other Characters. There are two exceptions to this in the form of the two houses where other Cats and Dogs live. Unfortunately, this is not an exploitation that can be employed from the beginning as in some earlier Harvest Moon games as you will have no Pets when the game begins. You need to unlock your Horse, Dog, Cat and Pig.

Although he professes himself to be frightened by your Pets, Kirk nonetheless will allow them on his Ferry and you can travel with your Dog and Cat to any Island reached by boat.

Various responses to a Badger are shown in another post. I have included some screenshots of Responses to your Cat in this post. Where a Character's Response both to the Badger and to your Cat and/or Dog was negative, the Dialogue tends to be the same. There may be only one positive Response dialogue and one Negative Response dialogue for each Character to Wild Animals and Pets when shown them.

As you can see, Regis gives a positive response, albeit a potentially sinister one, when shown your Cat but his negative Response to your Dog is bloodcurdling. The shadow over his face reminds the player of those rumours about him being a Vampire...

Danny reacts in positive fashion when shown your Dog but is not enthusiastic about your Cat. This makes sense in a way, if you consider that his constant companion is a Bird named Popper. Cats traditionally perceive Birds as prey and although some Dogs view them in the same way, many breeds will not threaten them or at least be unable to reach a bird when it is not on the ground.

Both Chen and Charlie love dogs but are cold where Cats are concerned. It is the tribal responses to Dog and Cat by Wada that are a little puzzling, although he is very enthusiastic about your Pet Pig.

All Character responses to Dog, Cat and some of the Wild Animals have been added to my Characters Guide for Sunshine Islands.

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