All Birthdays in Rune Factory Frontier

Here is an updated Calendar for Festivals and Birthdays in Rune Factory Frontier.

Spring:

Spring Crops:
Single Harvest Crops: Turnip, Cabbage, Potato
Multiple Harvest Crops: Strawberry, Cucumber
Spring Flowers: Moondrop Flower, Toy Herb, Emery Flower, Cherry Grass, Lamp Grass, Blue Crystal
Spring Fruits: Cherry
Spring Constellations:
Turnip Constellation: between 6.40 p.m. and 7.50 p.m. (Mist)
Serpent Constellation: between 9.00 p.m. and 10.50 p.m. (Rosetta, Intelligence Increase)
Crown Constellation: after 12.40 a.m. (Selphy, Constellation Books)
1 Spring: New Year’s Festival (after 1st year)
Celebrate the New year. Rice Cakes are the present of choice.
‘Rice Cakes’ are termed ‘Mochi’ in Rune Factory Frontier. New Mochi is smashed with a Hammer on a special platform at the Square after 9.00 a.m. You can obtain a ‘New Mochi’ from Rita after 9.00 a.m. at the Public Square on 30 Winter. Smash it at the Square on 1 Spring to create 5 Mochi. Give these as New Year Gifts to individuals. (Responses and value in terms of LP/FP will vary by individual). You can bring your own New Mochi if you wish as well to make more Mochi or you can make the Mochi in your Kitchen using a Steamer.
2 Spring: Kross’ Birthday (Cat’s Tail, Warrior’s Medal)
8 Spring: Nolan’s Birthday (Wine, Strawberry)
11 Spring: Melody’s Birthday (Relax Tea, Wild Coloured Grasses)
17 Spring: Brodik’s Birthday (Apple Pie)
19 Spring: Sainte-Coquille Festival
Hosted by Bianca. She orders, I cook. (Only after 1st year)
22 Spring: Turner’s Birthday (All Ores except Scrap Iron)
26 Spring: Cinnamon’s Birthday (Magic Crystal, any raw Fish)
27 Spring: Candy’s Birthday (All Fruit Juices, Apple Pie)
29 Spring: Foliage Festival Festival
Give flowers to those you’re indebted to. Found out when Eunice was distributing flowers. (only after 1st year)
Give Flowers to Eligible Girls

Summer:

Summer Crops:
Single Harvest Crops: Onion, Pumpkin
Multiple Harvest Crops: Tomato, Corn, Pineapple
Summer Flowers: Pink Cat, Fireflower, Ironleaf, Clover, Green Crystal
Summer Fruit: Orange
Summer Constellations:
Elephant Constellation: between 6.40 p.m. and 7.50 p.m. (Bianca, Diamond)
Wooly Constellation* between 9.00 p.m. and 10.50 p.m.(Tabatha, Monster FP)
*You must have a Monster with you when you ‘find’ it.
Buffamoo Constellation: after 12.40 a.m. (Anette, Tart Letters)
1 Summer: Beach Opening
Start your summer at the beach. Don’t forget your bathing suit!
Festival begins at 10.00 a.m. at the Beach with Melon Pinata. Before 10.00 a.m., you can experience Events in the Changing Room with the Eligible Girls. The Eligible Girls who attend the Festival and who are found in the Changing Room on 1 Summer varies from year to year and game to game. Eunice will not participate unless she has lost weight pursuant to your own character’s encouragement.
6 Summer: Danny’s Birthday (Silver, Quality Cloth)
8 Summer: Bianca’s Birthday (Jewelry such as Pendants, Rings)
Note that Bianca is not impressed with specific items but will accept certain‘decent’ Accessories. She will scorn knitted Accessories, however and will respond to the gift of a Fan in the same fashion.
13 Summer: Lute’s Birthday (Chocolate)
15 Summer: Uzuki’s Birthday (Golden Hairpin, most Sashimi)
23 Summer: Erik’s Birthday (Garlic, Dried Fish)
25 Summer: Ganesha Cup Boat Race
May the best sailor in town win.
The Boat Race is held at Lake Poli. You can ask any girl at high heart level to accompany you. Steer your gondola over items in the water for various effects. Hearts result in an increase of affection if and only if an Eligible Boat is with you.
27 Summer: Stella’s Birthday (Four-Leaf Clover, Toy Herb, Pickled Turnip)
30 Summer: Pumpkin Festival
Every one put on a pumpkin masque. Started by some one saved by a pumpkin-headed monster.
You will be able to buy a ‘Pumpkin-Head’ yourself from Rosetta in Summer to wear as headgear in combat. You may be able to forge your own Pumpkin Head once your Pumpkins mature.

Autumn:

Autumn Crops:
Single Harvest Crops: Spinach, Carrot
Multiple Harvest Crops: Yam, Eggplant, Bell Pepper
Autumn Flowers: Charm Blue, Pom-Pom, Noel Grass, Red Crystal
Autumn Fruit: Chestnut
Autumn Constellations:
Hat Constellation: between 8.00 p.m. and 8.50 p.m. (Melody, Magic Skill)
Broom Constellation: after 12.40 a.m. (Eunice, Cooking Skill)
1 Autumn: Mist’s Birthday (Emery Flower, Turnip)
3 Autumn: Selphy’s Birthday (Sandwich, Rice Ball)
8 Autumn: Kanno’s Birthday (Cake, Magic Powder)
12 Autumn: Tabatha’s Birthday (Oatmeal, Rice, Flour)
13 Autumn: Harvest Festival
A time of thanks. Give veggies to people you’re indebted to.
Give Vegetables to Eligible Girls for boost in heart level.
17 Autumn: Eunice’s Birthday (Mont Blanc, any Flower) *
*Do not give any Sweets, including her favourite Mont Blanc, if she is trying to lose weight!
21 Autumn: Rosetta’s Birthday (Roasted Yam, Strawberry, Hot Milk, Cherry Pie)
25 Autumn: Coming of Age Day
There is an annual treasure hunt to commemorate the day.
Many ‘false’ items will be located throughout Trampoli. See the Festivals section of this guide for details. Continue to look for the real item even if another individual pronounces himself/herself the winner. In the first year, you may wish to keep the Golden Turnip yourself to convert it into Seeds instead of taking 1st Place.
30 Autumn: Sea Surf Day
Official Holiday to celebrate the end of the Darkness on the last day of Autumn

Winter:

Winter Crops:
Single Harvest Crops: None
Multiple Harvest Crops: None
Winter Flowers: None
Winter Fruit: Apple
Other Seasonal Items: Dried Fish
Winter Constellations:
Hairpin Constellation: between 6.40 p.m. and 7.50 p.m. (Uzuki, Weapons Skill)
Cross Constellation: between 8.00 p.m. and 8.50 p.m. (Lara, HP Increase)
Fish Constellation: after 12.40 a.m. (Cinnamon, Fishing Skill)
1 Winter: Lara’s Birthday (Chocolate Cake, Strawberry, any Jam)
4 Winter: Anette’s Birthday (Pumpkin Tart, Strawberry, any Fruit, Boiled Egg, Milk)
7 Winter: Quiz Contest
Test your knowledge against others and come out on top!
There are ten questions, with a ‘commercial break’ in the middle of the Contest. It can be quite hilarious. There will be four contestants, including your character and each is represented by a different fruit. For each correct response, a piece of fruit will be placed on the ground. The winner ultimately will obtain all the fruit from each character’s correct responses.
8 Winter: Ganesha’s Birthday (Demon’s Blood, Any Ore)
19 Winter: Hotpot Convention
Every one in town brings an ingredient for one giant hotpot!
Some ingredients will result in a ‘good’ hotpot but others in a ‘bad’ one. Most Fish will have a good result. Many vegetables, however, will result in a ‘bad’ hotpot, including Carrots and Yams.
15 Winter: Minerva’s Birthday (Flop, Chestnut)
22 Winter: Rita’s Birthday (Wine, any Female Accessory)
23 Winter: Iris’ Birthday (both of them!) (Tomato Juice, Flowers)
29 Winter: Marco’s Birthday (Curry, Curry Powder)
30 Winter: Year End Festival
Reflect on the past year and prepare for the next.
Go to the Public Square after 9.00 a.m. to speak to Rita. She will give you a ‘New Mochi’. This is the item that you will need on the 1st of Spring if you wish to pound Rice Cakes at the Square. Rice Cakes are ‘Mochi’ in Rune Factory Frontier. They, like New Mochi can be made in your own kitchen or at the Public Square only on New Year’s Day.



I have created a preliminary Characters Guide which will include all Events, Requests, Letters and other vital dialogue for each character in Rune Factory Frontier. My game journal now is 800 pages... which means there is a lot of material that has not been added yet to any of my Rune Factory Frontier guides!

Unlocking Mark and Chelsea in Island of Happiness

To bring Mark/Chelsea to the Island, you need at least 50% completion and you need to have brought all main characters to the Island. You therefore need to have unlocked all areas on the map as well as having visited them. You need to have met all the Characters, including the Harvest Sprites who act as the guardians of each area. Some players had not been able to unlock Mark or Chelsea even when these conditions were met. A 'hidden' requirement does exist, and I suspected that it might be simply a requirement in terms of total Farming Degree points.

In Island of Happiness, new options usually are unlocked by one of the following:
1. the arrival of a new Main Character;
2. the arrival of a new subsidiary Character;
3. shipping a required number of specified Crops.

The basic requirements for bringing Mark or Chelsea to the Island are approximately 50% completion as well as having brought all Main Characters to the Island and to have met all of them, including the Harvest Goddess by throwing an offering into her Spring. You need to expand the Hotel as well because that is where Mark/Chelsea will live.

A player left a comment to the effect that it may be related to Festival attendance which made perfect sense, but in fact, was disproven by players who managed to unlock the arrival simply by completing the original requirements of bringing all main characters to the Island and unlocking all areas. Other players had thought it was related to the ownership of ranch animals, which was logical but now has been proven to the contrary. A player with no animals apart from the horse was able to bring Mark/Chelsea to Sunny Island.

I would like to thank all players who wrote about their Festival participation, by the way. It is only when many players write about their game experiences that hidden requirements can be proven or disproven.

Now, however, there have been so many different combinations of events that have served to unlock Mark or Chelsea that it is evident it can be only one true requirement: current Farming Degree points.

Everything else in Island of Happiness is based on that variable, after all. Farming Degree, Farming Degree, Farming Degree: whether it is the colour of a Wonderful, the appearance of a Wonderful or the 'hidden' requirement for an Event or arrival of a new character. It always is proven ultimately to be related to the player's Farming Degree total, a variable based on every aspect of life in Island of Happiness.

I therefore will strike ALL specific 'hidden' requirements for the arrival of Chelsea or Mark from my guides now. Every player fulfills the 'hidden' requirement differently, because it is nothing more than total Farming Degree points. What would be most useful now is for players to tell me what their Farming Degree titles were when Mark or Chelsea arrived for the first time. Although you cannot see your precise point total, you CAN see your current Farming Degree title in your Menu.

All aspects of life in Harvest Moon are vital. You need to farm, ranch, fish, mine AND make contact with every one but finally, ship items regularly in order to maximise your success. Unlocking new options, arrivals and Events is linked not only to farming, ranching, mining and fishing but to SHIPPING as well.

In terms of the final Rival Heart Event that will allow a Rival couple to marry, there evidently are specific aspects of life that are linked to this Event.

I was able to trigger Denny's 4th Rival Event only when I began to fish again after neglecting that aspect of my life for a season or so. Another player was able to trigger Vaughn's 4th Rival Event after mining again. Obviously, Elliot's 4th Rival Heart Event would be connected with farming. Rival marriages therefore are linked to specific activities. Vaughn is not involved with mining at all but Sabrina is. Both Lanna and Denny are involved with fishing. I wonder, though, if there is a ranching requirement to be met as well in terms of Vaughn's 4th Rival Event as he is connected with Animals. Julia likewise is connected with Ranching.

You don't have to be aware of these requirements if you are performing all activities and shipping items in every category regularly. I always ship a fair number of Ranch products processed through the Makers as they are linked to subsidiary characters... so I would not know if this were a requirement in the case of Elliot and Julia's 4th Rival Event or Vaughn and Sabrina's 4th Rival Event. I would be very interested to hear from any player who had shipped the required number of ores for Vaughn/Sabrina's 4th Rival Event and yet had no animals or had shipped no Ranch Products recently and therefore could NOT trigger the Event. I would be interested in the same situation with respect to Elliot/Julia's 4th Rival Event...
In other words, does the Event have requirements solely where one partner is concerned or for BOTH the Rival and the Eligible Bachelor/Girl?

Each day, I marvel at the complexity of Island of Happiness as new situations uncover another twist or turn in the game...

Note that many new options are linked to the Subsidiary Characters in Island of Happiness. These Characters often are referred to as members of different teams, such as the 'Farming Team', 'Ranching Team', 'Fishing Team' and so on, although they each come to the Island for different reasons and operate independently of one another.

In order to unlock new farming options, you need to bring members of the Farming Team to the Island and by completing farming goals, you will bring new Farming characters to the Island. The same holds true with respect to Ranching options and the Ranching Characters. For example, players who have been unable to unlock a Sheep will discover that bringing more Ranch Characters to the Island is the solution. Thus, all aspects of the game are connected.

The Colour of Wonderfuls Won at Festivals

Some one posted a comment to the effect that tool use may be the determining factor in the colour of Wonderful you will obtain as a prize at any Festival Contest in IoH. I am afraid that I misunderstood at the time. In Island of Happiness, experience with a tool does not lead to any upgrades. I therefore did not feel that your character's level of experience with any tool could be a determining factor.

According to comments posted here, as tool use does increase your Farming Degree points, it is relevant as the last two digits of your current Farming score determine the colour of the Wonderful.

Thus, tool use would have an effect. It seems to me that the system I employed is as good as any as there is no Accessory that displays points. Save your game before you enter the Meadow. If you do not receive the colour that you want, reload, use your Tools and then re-enter.

There is an order in which the colours will appear:
Lowest Score to Highest:
Blue Wonderful
Green Wonderful
Red Wonderful
Yellow Wonderful
Orange Wonderful
Purple Wonderful
Indigo Wonderful

Any one recognise the order? It's the same order as the Coloured Wild Grasses appear in your Farm Menu as well as the same order in which the Harvest Goddess will give you the Recipes for the Coloured Curries.

Thanks, guys, for your comments!

Incidentally, it does not require much tool use at all to change the colour of the Wonderful. A method that can profit you as well as changing the colour of the prize is to go to the entrance to the Meadow at 10.00 a.m. Stand on the near bank of the river, to the left of the bridge that leads to the Meadow and fish briefly. You should be able to judge how many casts of the Rod to cycle through each of the Wonderfuls with a little practice. With an ordinary tool, it varies between 10 and 15 uses for each change in colour.

New Calendar Guide for Island of Happiness

I sent a new mini-guide for Island of Happiness to IGN a few moments ago. It is a Calendar Guide and includes both a complete Calendar of all Birthdays and Festivals as well as a section that gives detailed information about all Festivals in the game.
Some players had emailed me asking for a Festival Guide. Although I have included much of this information now in my General Guide as well, I always find quick reference guides helpful in Harvest Moon.

The guide describes the requirements for winning each of the Contests as well as giving basic information about location and time. All the community festivals occur at the Meadow, so that information is not as useful as it might be in other Harvest Moon games, but there are a few Festivals that occur at night. As usual in Harvest Moon, the Cooking Festival is a festival in two parts. You need to go to the Meadow twice to experience both.

Meanwhile, I have been experimenting with the Wild Dog. I built a new improved Chicken Pen outside using Material Stone. In other Harvest Moon games, that and a trained dog would guarantee the safety of the Animals. Not in IoH. Furthermore, you don't witness any attack by the Wild Dog on a chicken or animal as you do in HM DS/Cute DS for example. The horrid creature slinks about silently and yet causes damage randomly.

He leaves the field always at 1.00 a.m. and yet that does not guarantee safety from stress either. My chickens were in the Coop while I was rebuilding the pen. None of them had suffered any stress. When I took them outside at 5.00 a.m. to place them in the new Pen, they were fine and the Wild Dog was nowhere to be found... (He never stays after 1.00 a.m.)

The next morning, 5 out of 8 chickens had suffered stress. It seems, therefore, that having them outside at any time between 8.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m. places them at a chance of risk of stress, irrespective of the actual time frame in which they are outside.

I cannot see any other reason for the stress. They all had been fed and when I went to bed, none had suffered any stress...

Patience and Island of Happiness... Tips for Saving

I am writing this post because of the many emails I have received from players who are finding that Island of Happiness is very different from previous Harvest Moon games in some ways.

In the past, my own fundamental strategy in Harvest Moon has been to push myself to find the earliest possible time to experience any Event or to unlock any new option. I told myself that I did this for the sake of my guides, but it was a personal challenge as well.

Although I have unlocked many options in IoH very early in the game, it is not a game that lends itself to quick completion in any of its aspects.

For a start, many players, including myself, found the necessity to use the stylus almost exclusively to be rather difficult. Many hours in realtime and game time have been spent simply trying to build a pen for the animals, for example. (It took me almost an entire HM night to build my first pen for my Chickens, by the way. It is not that easy to make the stone/lumber/Material Stone fall where you want it to be placed using the stylus. I thought I was particularly inept, but emails from other players have shown me that I am not alone in struggling with this.)

The Touchscreen and the stylus, however, are the future in DS games and I think there will be more games that require this kind of skill. Better to learn it playing a great Harvest Moon game now...

My fundamental strategy in terms of playing Harvest Moon has changed radically where Island of Happiness is concerned, and for players who are experiencing difficulty in the first year, it may help to know that you really cannot accomplish THAT much at the beginning of the game.

It is the Third Year that unlocks options that change your life radically. Make that your goal rather than thinking in terms of the first year in this game.

You cannot meet all the bachelors or eligible girls immediately, so that makes early marriage an impossibility in some cases. You cannot meet all the subsidiary characters in the first year. You cannot unlock all the crops, although you can unlock all the Ranch Animals if you are diligent in upgrading your Barn.

Making friends before you have a horse or a teleport stone is difficult simply because the territory is large and it takes time to go from one end to the other, especially where you are obliged to cross a bridge to arrive at another area. Climbing the mountain or exploring the Forest takes considerable time.

If you do not visit an individual almost every day, he/she will begin to reject your gifts. Don't let that disturb you. All you need to do is talk to individuals to keep them on the island in most cases. You will need to ship a few of every important item regularly to keep a few characters on the island, but in most cases, an individual who leaves automatically will return after a full season passes.

It is almost impossible to keep your field tidy in the first couple of years and in fact, my own instinct is to use the Greenhouse primarily for crops and reserve the field for fruit trees and animal pens. You really cannot control the weather effectively in Island of Happiness, because it is set 6 days in advance. So far, I never lost a Greenhouse to a typhoon or snowstorm. I need to confirm that there is NO chance of that, but I have weathered quite a few and the Greenhouse remains intact.

Where severe storms are concerned, the results are random in terms of the crops and trees destroyed. If there is a particularly valuable crop or fruit tree, do not save your game after the storm until you look at the field to see if it still remains standing. If it has been destroyed, reload and try again. That is the best I have been able to do where typhoons and snowstorms are concerned.

You only have one save slot for each game, although you can have 2 games on a cartridge. This leaves you little margin for error, but you can save ANYWHERE on the map at any time of the day or night.

The best times to save during the day are:
1. When fishing, before you catch a fish, especially at the Beach, where you can catch Large Fish, Pirate Treasures and Fossils of Fish; (Pirate Treasure can be caught only in Summer and Fish Fossils in Autumn, true to HM traditions);
2. In the mines, save as soon as you arrive on a new floor. The configuration of the items inside Rocks as well as the location of any pitfalls or stairs will change each time you reload and in fact, the configuration for an item inside a Rock is loaded at the moment you smash it. If you stand in front of a Rock, therefore, and save your game, you may find a different item in the Rock each time you smash it. This is useful on Floors with very valuable items, such as Floor 100, containing Mythic Stones. You can find a Mythic Stone inside ANY Rock, although there appears to be some limit as the the total number you can find on that floor... In any case, energy is so limited in this game that the more you can save BEFORE you perform an action with random results, the better;

In the Mine, you may wish to save immediately after you obtain any special item as well. The Mine contains pitfalls and their position is configured when you step on the square. You can lose significant stamina, (especially before you have increased total SR and FL with Accessories), when you fall through a Pitfall. Early in the game, it is best to reload if you fall through a pitfall that takes too much of your energy. Falling one or two floors at a time is best until you have decent recovery items in your Rucksack. So save BEFORE you move even a step in the Mine!

3. When you are standing at the counter at the Cafe or Diner and are about to give Madelynn or Luke an item to make a new recipe. The results in terms of success or failure are random. There is no point in wasting ingredients... Just reload if he/she fails and try again.
4. If you have the patience for it, save before you go to sleep on any night in Winter when the last digit of your Total Earnings equals 5. Go to Chen's Market to see if a Wonderful is being offered the next morning BEFORE YOU SAVE again. If there is no Wonderful, reload and try again. (This is very tedious though and you may not want to do it that often!)
5. In the first year when you are desperately poor, without any significant number of items in storage or cooking abilities, you can save before you go to bed and search West Town for Wild Grasses and other edible items BEFORE you save. If you don't find many, reload and try again. The configuration of items in the Wilds appears to change each time you reload BEFORE you go to sleep on the previous night. Mind you, it may change before you leave the house for the first time or enter a screen for the first time. I need to test this more. It's not worth the effort once you have some recipes and food in storage...
6. In the third year and afterwards, when you stand in front of Manfred near the Tower, save BEFORE you speak to him. The item he gives is utterly random. By reloading, you can obtain any crop you have not unlocked or any rare item that you may lack...

Tip: The longer you leave an item on the ground in the Wilds, the higher its Rank, Quality and Size becomes. This stands to reason, of course. An item that continues to grow in the soil will be larger and better than one harvested too quickly. You will need to weigh desperation and need with judicious planning early in the game, though, especially when you have no recourse to the Cafe or Diner to replenish your energy.

As I wrote before, the ray of light on the horizon is the start of the third year if you have been diligent in befriending Wada. If he is at least at 7 hearts, you can experience an event at his hut that unlocks the area with the 'Tower'. Manfred, the Jungle Sprite, will be found there henceforth and if you speak to him, he will give you a random item each day. If you have not been able to ship sufficient crops to unlock Wheat or Soybeans, for example, or all the Fruit Trees, obtain one from Manfred and use your Seedmaker to convert it to Seeds. I am ashamed to say that I had to obtain my first bag of Soybean Seeds that way!

Be patient and don't fret if you lose the Contests early in the game, even though the prizes are Wonderfuls that you need. By the way, you really need to have reached the bottom of the Mine and obtained gems or ores of the highest Quality and Size in order to win the Mining Contest. A Rank 'A' Gem or Ore, even if its size is 10 will not win the Contest. It is quality that counts.

The Fishing Contest, on the other hand, is easy to win. I won it in the first year with a Large Fish that was not a 10 either in Quality or Size.

I won the Cooking Contest as well with a similar Large Fish that had been Grilled the first time I entered. In subsequent years, though, I had to make the 'Best' of a Recipe to win. It is a combination of SR and FL (Stamina and Fullness) that determines the winning Recipe.

Where Courtship and Marriage are concerned, I suggest a strategy that differs from other games here as well. BEFORE you marry, the rival heart events depend on specific heart levels and year requirements as they do in other Harvest Moon games. In other words, if the Bachelor or Girl has a heart level that is too high or if you have not reached the required year yet, you won't be able to trigger them. AFTER marriage, however, unlike some other HM games, the equivalent of AP (Affection or Love Points) is transformed to FP (Friendship Points) in quality and the only requirement for triggering Rival Heart Events is the year.

For this, therefore, I recommend that you bring all Eligible Bachelors/Girls to full red heart level by the third year and then marry in the third year after experiencing ALL heart events for each of the Eligible Spouses. After this, you will be able to trigger all three of the 1st three Rival Heart Events effortlessly. The 4th and final Rival Heart Event then will trigger in the 4th year, causing the Rival Couple to marry and have a child.

You cannot achieve 100% completion of your Inhabitants List if you do not allow all four of the Rival Couples to marry. On the other hand, if you are truly in love with some one, you should follow your heart and forget about your Rival! 100% completion is not a primary aim in Harvest Moon. It is one of those subsidiary challenges. A decent life and success for you and your community is the primary goal.

Finally, if you really are struggling with the stylus, go ahead and practice with it to build a pen for example without saving the results. Take your time without being stressed and don't save the game while you are doing it. Once you have mastered the technique, you can play seriously again.

Food, food, Glorious Food in Harvest Moon DS

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Cooking and food in general are the subject of great interest in Harvest Moon games and Harvest Moon for the DS is no exception. There are a number of events, some quite hilarious, that deal with food either primarily or peripherally.

More than one Heart Event deals with food and/or cooking. Marlin's 3rd Heart Event occurs at the Blue Bar and results in your character drinking too much and having to be carried home, either by Marlin or by Griffin, depending on the response you give.
Skye's 2nd Heart Event involves a diversion created by the delicious odour of Curry... Curry Rice is the centre of Carter's 3rd Heart Event as he seeks to escape it. In Leia's 3rd Heart Event, you are asked to be her 'taster' for a new fish dish. Ruby's 150 FP Event involves a mistake in seasoning on her part. This is an event that occurs on Thursday in both the 'boy' and 'girl' versions of the game, by the way.

A number of Heart Events involve Ruby's kitchen. You will share a meal with Griffin in his 3rd Heart Event and with Carter in his, unless you fail to confirm his small deception.

Murrey, however, probably has the greatest number of events associated with food. There are events with the Gourmet, one of which is included in a previous post. In one event, Van will offer you a rare delicacy but Murrey will take your place at the counter and instead of giving it to you, Van mistakenly will hand it to Murrey. (That event is included both in the 'boy' and 'girl' versions of the game.

Too much food is the subject of an event between Van and Vesta. They will become quite rude to one another as they bicker over the subject of weight. The event will end with a challenge: they decide to participate in a contest to see who can lose the most weight before their next meeting.

Knowing how to cook greatly, whether your character is male or female, always increases your chances of winning the hearts of every one, but especially of any one you would like to marry. In many cases, an individual's 'Most Favourite' gift is a cooked dish. Completing your Recipe Book always is one of the subsidiary goals in any Harvest Moon game.

Knowing the dishes that each individual loves or detests is extremely important. Giving a character a cooked dish that he/she hates is as bad as giving an ordinary item that is disliked.

Knowing the value of food items in terms of Stamina and Fatigue is vital as well. Your character needs to know which items will restore the most energy... Every item, whether raw or cooked, has different effects in terms of Stamina and Fatigue. Some items actually will increase your Fatigue.

Kai is a character whose appearance is based on food. In the summers, he will open a stand on the beach.

Many of the Festivals in Harvest Moon games are centred on food. Special items such as Rice Cakes and Buckwheat Flour are obtained most easily at Festivals. In some Harvest Moon games, the only method by which to acquire these items is by attending the appropriate Festival. In Harvest Moon DS, the New Year Festival, the Cooking Festival, the Beach Festival, the Harvst Festival and the Year-End Festival all are devoted to Cooking and Eating.

Food and Cooking play an important part even in games like Rune Factory and 'An Innocent Life'. Part of the challenge and enjoyment of any Harvest Moon game is learning how to cook, finding rare ingredients and completing your Cookbook.