Harvest Moon Forever: Cherry Blossoms

Showing posts with label Cherry Blossoms. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

First Look at Rune Factory 2

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The original Rune Factory was an exceptionally beautiful game and I loved the combination of classical RPG combat and adventure with traditional Harvest Moon gameplay.

Rune Factory 2 is no less exquisite in its graphics. It is an intensely romantic vision of life in visual terms. As you enter the village for the first time, you are surrounded by a shower of pink cherry blossoms.

For all of its beauty, Rune Factory 2 has as much sly humour and wit as any other Harvest Moon game.

Here are some initial screenshots. I need to change settings on my camera somehow as the settings that worked for Island of Happiness are not producing the same quality of screenshot here.

In meeting some of the characters for the first time, I was delighted to discover that the blacksmith is a woman who has a fine understanding of the power and beauty of edged weapons. In fact, she waxes poetical about swords as her poor son practically begs her to cook dinner and be an ordinary Mum! Tanya is a woman after my own heart...

Here is the Introduction Event with Tanya and her son Roy:

Tanya: Look at this sword, Roy! Isn’t it beautiful?! Check out that edge! And the hilt is incredible!
Roy: Yeah, it’s… uh… great. Swords are nice and all, Mom, but can you make me some dinner?
Tanya: Dinner? A meal feeds your belly for a few hours, but a sword like this can feed your soul for a lifetime!
Roy: (with cross hurt): What?! I don’t even know what that means!
Tanya: Come on! Aren’t you glad you have a fun mother like me?
Roy: I’d rather have a normal mother *sigh*…
After:
Roy: Hey, who’re you?
Me: hey there! My name’s Frey. What’s yours?
Roy: I’m Roy. Where are you from?
Frey: Actually, I don’t know myself….
Roy: Hey, what kinda answer’s that? You have amnesia or something?
Frey: That's a big word for some one your age…
Roy: Well, you know… I pick up what I hear.
Frey: I’m tending to Mana’s farm at the moment.
Roy: That dried out piece of junk? Good luck growing anything there!
Frey: I know it won’t be easy. But I kinda like the challenge… That’s why I figure I’ll be staying around here for a while… Guess I’ll be seeing you around!
Roy: Well, if you ever have any questions about anything, you can always talk to me!

Tanya: Oh, I haven’t seen you around here before.
Yeah. I’m new here. My name is Frey. I’ll be living at the farm just outside of town.
Tanya: Ah, yes… Douglas was telling me about you. My name is Tanya. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too, Tanya!
Tanya; So, Freya, are you interested in swords? Blades? Sharp objects of any kind?
Me: Well, um, not obsessively…
Tanya: Oh, that’s a shame. I am! Obsessed, I mean. Just can’t get enough of them!
Frey; O-Okay… Whatever does it for you, I guess…
Tanya; Unfortunately, though, monsters never come into town, so I don’t have a chance to try my blades out on any of them… *sigh*…
Frey: Oh… That’s too bad… I guess.
Tanya: Indeed it is! Anyway, let’s talk about you, Frey! I feel every true man should own at least one sword!
Frey: Th-They should…?
Tanya: Yes, they should! Should you decide to become a real man yourself, come on by! I’ll show you all sorts of fine weaponry!
Frey; Uh, okay, thanks… I’ll keep that in mind…

N.B. The English version of this game has not been released yet. I am playing an advance build sent to me by Natsume.

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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'.