Harvest Moon Forever: HMDS

Showing posts with label HMDS. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Winning the Sheep Festival in Harvest Moon

Experienced players know that, in most Harvest Moon games, any Sheep who is not fully grown, is pregnant, sick or has been sheared will not be eligible for entry in the Sheep Contest.

In Island of Happiness, the Sheep Contest occurs on 19 Spring. Another difference between Island of Happiness and FoMT/MFoMT or HM DS/Cute DS is the fact that Sheep can be sheared every four days rather than only once each week.

Imagine my embarrassment and disgust when Mirabelle told me that the Sheep I had been grooming for the Sheep Festival, who had 10 Hearts and therefore definitely would win was INELIGIBLE for entry because I had miscounted the days when I last sheared her!

I was forced to enter a Sheep with only 2 Hearts. On the day of the Sheep Festival, my Sheep with 10 hearts had a full coat of wool, one day too late...

I had to listen to all the characters at the Festival as they advised me to 'try harder' and to 'take better care' of my animals in order to be able to win next year. So humiliating.

Just a brief note to players to make certain NOT to shear any Sheep he/she intends to enter in the Sheep Festival the week before the Contest. I do mark the date for 'last shearing' in all my Event Calendar Guides and will do so in my Island of Happiness Calendar Guide as well.

As only one slot is allotted to each game in IoH, I could not correct my error and will be forced to wait until next year to win the Sheep Contest. Oh well...

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Rival Heart Events in Cute... all the reasons why I didn't want to marry these guys

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Experiencing the 2nd or Blue Rival Heart events in Cute in my 2nd year (after taking a break to play Harvest Moon Boy & Girl), in some cases reminds me of all the reasons I really DIDN'T want to marry these guys. In particular, Marlin and Gustafa in their 2nd Blue Rival Heart Events, display their more unsympathetic personality traits.

The events occur in the original Harvest Moon DS (boy version) game as the 2nd Rival Heart Events for Celia and Nami. These events cannot be experienced before the beginning of the 2nd year and they will not trigger if the eligible girl or bachelor respectively are at Green Heart level or higher.

In my game, I had to LOWER the bachelors' heart levels from deepest red to experience the events, as I had raised them originally in order to experience all proposal and marriage events (without saving the results). As I wished to receive Spring Thanksgiving Cookies from all the bachelors, I did not begin to lower their heart levels seriously until after 14 Spring. I then used the 'Secret Weapon of Hate' item on each to bring them down to Blue Heart Level.

I will be able to raise them easily back to Green Heart Level in order to experience next year's 3rd Rival Heart Event... (Sometimes, in my eagerness to wed Skye, I tend to forget that, if I wish to contrive the marriages of all other couples, I must wait at least until the third year to marry, in order to experience the 3rd Rival Heart Event and then raise bachelor heart levels another level so that I will be able to experience the 4th Rival Heart Event in the fourth year. Once you are married, both in the original HM DS and in Cute, you no longer can affect ANY ONE's heart levels. You only can affect FP or Friendship levels after marriage. This applies to Keira and her Heart Events in both games as well. You must experience her heart events BEFORE you marry if you wish to gain all rewards. There is some evidence to the effect that the 4th Mine cannot be unlocked AFTER marriage, so make certain to unlock all 4 mines before you propose to some one and marry.)

In Marlin's 2nd Rival Heart Event, he is outraged on Celia's behalf by some comments a customer made about the quality of Vesta's vegetables. Celia is not particularly bothered and is more concerned to maintain goodwill with every one. Marlin tends to display excess machismo in his desire to balance his fragility or 'weakness' in physical terms. In the course of the event, Celia essentially is reduced to BEGGING him not to confront the customer.

I personally would not like this role...

In Gustafa's 2nd Rival Heart Event, he visits Nami as she stands at the shore of the ocean in the early afternoon. Bear in mind the fact that it is HE who visits her and that his own schedule 'requires' him to stand at the shore of Turtle Pond all afternoon meditating or drawing inspiration from the 'natural beauty' of the place.

He begins one of his usual self-centred rambling monologues about why he loves the Valley and always returns to it. He then solicits a question from Nami as to why he returns...

Here is the dialogue:

Gustafa: Even if I leave, I always end up coming back to Forget-Me-Not Valley. Do you know why?
Nami (obligingly): (?) Why?
Gustafa: Because I love this place. The air, the sea, and the people. That's why.
(This is such a general answer. It does not make any reference to Nami specifically as being a reason for his love of 'this place', nor it is particularly poetic or lyrical in nature.)
Nami (evidently NOT inspired by Gustafa's confession): Yeah.

At this point, Gustafa evidently realises he should bring Nami into the conversation a little more, so he asks her why she returns always to the Valley.

Gustafa: Nami, you've lived here a long time. What is it that keeps you here?
Nami: (...) I...

Gustafa has NO patience to wait for a proper response and now displays what I consider his indifference to any one apart from himself, except insofar as they act as 'inspiration' for his music.

Gustafa: Ah, I've gotta go. See you later.
Nami: Ah.....

Where on earth could he be going??? Only back to Turtle Pond to stand!!! He isn't the most handsome of men, but if he were sensitive and attentive, it would count for much. As it is, witnessing this event, I was reminded of all the reasons he would be my LAST choice of spouse in ANY world.

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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'.