Harvest Moon Forever: October 2011

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Review of Tides of Destiny

A number of players have asked for a review of this game, so I am going to oblige them with a brief note about it.

Tides of Destiny will not disappoint fans of Rune Factory who would like to see all of their favourite elements incorporated in every game in the series, yet it is different enough to satisfy those who want something new.

Instead of suffering from the traditional case of amnesia, your Character and his best friend are transported to another era and are forced to share one body. It is the body of the Male Character, but one of the goals in the game is to lift the curse that keeps the poor Female Character locked inside her best friend's body. Once this is accomplished, you can move forward in two different games if you so choose. You will be able to play as the Male Character and as the Female Character.

It is an interesting premise and one that can be by turns both amusing and annoying. The female Character does not remain mute even in the presence of others. The little dramatic exchange that occurs when a female Voice pipes up in an introduction to a new Character does become a little tedious although, after a point, even the protagonists become bored with the business and settle for a dialogue along the lines of: 'It's a long story and I'll tell you all about it later.'

As in every Rune Factory game, your Character must hone his combat Skills as fighting and taming Monsters is essential. Fishing is included in the game as well. As is usually the case in Rune Factory, most of your essential Tools (and your first Weapon) will be Gifts. They are sold at local shops, however, so if you are not patient enough to WAIT for the Gift Event, you can purchase them. You can find a Brush and a Harvester on the floor of your Barn and the Fishing Pole is a gift from Joe but Joe sells both Harvesters and Brushes and the local Smithy sells the Cheap Fishing Pole.

The biggest differences in terms of gameplay are the seafaring element, the enormous Earth Golem named Ymir who takes the place of a Ship and the way that farming is organised.

You cannot farm on your Home Island and indeed, your Character does not tend Crops himself but must instead tame Monsters in the Crop Group to tend them for him. He can 'find' sprouts on specific Islands through use of his Spirit Wand and then set Monsters ashore on that Island to tend them. It is an interesting change.

Seafaring is a big part of this game. Important Requests tend to deal with exploration of the Ocean and 'X Marks the Spot' is the way that it works. The Character who makes the Request will place an X on your Sea Chart and you then must control Ymir and 'set sail' for the location. Once the location is reached, Ymir must raise the Island for you.

There are Sea Monsters that appear randomly in the course of these expeditions. The location of the Sea Monsters is not random, but the actual type of Monster that appears on any given expedition will be chosen randomly in many cases. When fighting a Sea Monster, it is not your Character who performs the combat but rather Ymir, controlled by your Character.

Cooking, Forging, Crafting and Mixing Medicines are available from the start as your Character can use his Neighbours' facilities. Only simple Recipes that require a maximum of two Ingredients can be made in another Character's facility. To make Recipes that require more Ingredients, you first must expand your Cottage to include a second floor and then purchase the Crafting area. James sells Expansions and Crafting Areas. The House Expansion needed in this instance costs 10,000G.

You will not have any trouble making money in this game. Many of the early Requests have good monetary Rewards. Buffamoo and Woolies can be found on the first Island you explore and when tamed, yield Milk and Small Fleece respectively. You can sell Items to any local Merchant. There is a bargaining option in some cases and there are 'selling trends' that will boost the value of certain types of Items on specific days. The same Bulletin Board that posts Requests posts the Weather, Selling Trends and Local News.

There are a number of little mini-games that occur at specific Festivals or as Requests. This, too, is familiar to fans of the series.

There is another interesting aspect to Island exploration in that some Islands can be raised only temporarily. While Ymir holds them in the air, you can explore them but then must allow him to toss them back into the sea. They can be found again, however...

I will add to this review shortly but for now must return to actual guide-writing!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

New Rune Factory, Tides of Destiny Site

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Although Harvest Moon Forever is my primary site, in the past year or two, I have created separate sites for each Harvest Moon and Rune Factory game. You will find links to the new Harvest Moon Tale of Two Towns Site and Rune Factory Tides of Destiny Sites on the right side of this page.

Unfortunately, I stupidly mistyped the name of my Tides of Destiny Site yesterday when I created the link. It now DOES go to a real site!

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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!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

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'.