'The 7 Brothers That Live in the Forest'

The history of the group of Sprites in Mineral Town who later become the 'Legendary Harvest Sprites' of Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon Cute DS is to be found in a book in the library in Mineral Town in 'Harvest Moon Boy & Girl' for the PSP.

In my first Heart Event with Mary at the Library, I afterwards was able to explore the books in the shelves, both upstairs and downstairs. Among them was a seven-volume set entitled 'The 7 Brothers That Live in the Forest'. One by one, I read the books to the accompaniment of a lovely little song that appears to be reserved solely for this particular event. (In fact, I have noticed that HM Boy & Girl has many delightful little melodies, far more than I expected.

For the sake of those HM fans who may not have this particular game but who may be interested in the story of the 7 Harvest Sprites, I am including the text of all seven books here.
These books were not written by Basil... It looks like they were written a long time ago. They're titled 'The 7 Brothers in the Forest' volumes 1 through 7...

'The 7 Brothers That Live in the Forest - 1'

A long time ago, there were 7 little brothers who lived all apart from each other. The brothers were not very friendly with the villagers because they were small and the villagers seemed big and scary. Each brother had a different favourite colour and liked a different favourite thing, so they figured they would always live apart.

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest -2'

One day Chef, whose favourite colour is red and who likes to cook, realised he had a problem.
'I love to cook, but there's nobody to eat my delicious food...'

Hoggy, whose favourite colour is yellow and who loves to sleep, also had a problem.
'I love to sleep so much I don't want to get up and cook, but then I just get hungrier and hungrier.'

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest -3'

You can hear the sound. Hoo Hooooo, at night. Something sparks in the darkness.
'Ahhhh!' Shiver-shiver-shiver... Timid likes the colour green because it's easy for him to hide in the forest. But even then he's scared. You can hear the sound, Hoo Hooo, at night. Something sparks in the darkness.
'Hai, Yaaaa!
'Crumble-crumble-crumble...
Bold loves purple because he can hide in the shadows and use his battle cry 'Hai, Yaaa!' to defeat large enemies.

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest -4'
Stylish Aqua loves the colour light blue.
'Sigh... I'm running out of provisions fast. I like being stylish, but when I work I don't have the time...
'Ughhh... That's as much as I can do... Ahh!'
Staid is very serious and a hard worker. He likes the colour blue and everything he wears is blue, so he is easy to spot.

'Staid, said Aqua, 'let's live together. It's got to be better than living alone.'
'Aqua', said Satiad, 'what brings you here, and with a story like that?'
'Well you see,' said Aqua, 'whisper...whisper... whisper...

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest - 5'

'Ha ha ha, so that's it,' said Staid. 'Sure, let's live together. But what's the point of everything being clean if you're still hungry?'
'Even when your stomach is fully, your heart remains hungry if things are not clean,' replied Aqua.
'OK, so you do the chores like the cleaning and the laundry.'
'So, all I have to do is eat?' asked Hoggy.
'Yes, all you have to do is eat. I enjoy watching you eat my food and being told it is delicious,' replied Chef.
'I don't understand, but that's fine by me.'
'Ha ha ha, what a mess you are,' laughed Bold.
'Oh, it's you Bold,' squeaked Timid.
'Who did you think I was?'
'I don't know, but I'm scared of everything in the forest.'
'Well then, you should stay with me. I 'm not afraid of anything.'
'OK, if that's what we do...'
'If we're going to live together...'
'We'll need a bigger house...'
'Let's leave the forest for a bit...'

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest -6'
So Chef and Hoggy, Staid & Aqua and Timid and Bold all decided to leave the forest for a while. The first one to find the house was Staid.
'Hey, I found a house that's just right for us.'
'Yes, it's a lot smaller than a human house, but it's just the right size for us.'
'But there's a light on inside.'
'Let's go in.'
'Hey, wait... Aqua'
... Crash!
'Oh...'

'The 7 Brothers in the Forest -7'
'Hello brother, long time no see.'
There in the house was the youngest brother, Nappy.
'Oh, it's you Nappy. You surprised me. How did you get this house?'
'The people of the village built it for me.'
'What?'
'I always thought there'd be a time when we would all live together, so I had them make 7 beds.'
'What made you think that?'
'Because look, all of you are here.'
'What?'
When Staid and Aqua turned around, they saw the rest of their brothers walking toward the house.

FINIS

The Secret Life of Harvest Sprites

We know quite about about Harvest Sprites, from the Sprites in 'Save the Homeland' and 'A Wonderful Life' to the Legendary Sprites of Mineral Town and the 101 Sprites of Forget-Me-Not Valley in Harvest Moon DS and Cute. We know, for example, that every Sprite is unique in his dreams, ambitions and taste, but ALL Sprites will respond positively to a gift of flour. The 101 Sprites of Forget-Me-Not Valley operate in Teams run by Team Leaders who are larger than they and not quite as cute in appearance. Each Team Leader has a very unique personality of his own. Some are friendlier than others. Some can be rather forbidding until you make friends with them.

We know from HM DS and Cute that Sprites are not created in adult form but begin their lives as babies. In fact, there appears to be an orphan Harvest Sprite baby living in the large jar on the left side of the Sprite Company Tree. Baby Sprites love sweets and many of the same dishes that appeal to human babies, but there is one significant difference: Baby Sprites have magical powers! When you have given 255 gifts to the Baby, he will offer to grant little wishes.

Harvest Sprites are addicted to catalogue shopping evidently and the items that they buy are extravagantly expensive and completely impractical. We know this from watching the Harvest Sprite Outlet on television. Sprites do not use Gold as currency. They have their own currency of Korobos... Human beings never will be able to acquire a single Korobo, no matter how friendly you have become with your local Sprite population.

Catalogue shopping is nothing new for Harvest Sprites. They have been shopping in this fashion for hundreds of years. You could watch the channel in 'A Wonderful Life', wishing sometimes that you could buy one of the preposterous items being offered there. 'Shocking, dismaying catalogue living' appeals to the Sprite mentality...

Harvest Sprites can be extremely lazy or very industrious, depending on their level of training and level of friendship with you. The Legendary Sprites could become adept at every type of farm activity, but the Forget-Me-Not Valley 101 Sprites are very specific in career choice and apart from some situations, will not work outside their area of expertise. There are Sprites outside the official Watering Team who will water your fields, for example, but that is one of the exceptions to the general rule.

What is the Secret Life of Harvest Sprites then? We know where some of them live, but we do not know HOW they live. Do they have wives?

Well, apparently, there are Sprites who marry and even share the human tradition of the Blue Feather in terms of Marriage Proposals.

Show the Blue Feather to Yacht and he will tell you: 'I hope some one special will give one to me someday.'

Sprites do not accept the Blue Feather from humans, however, so it must be another Harvest Sprite that offers it traditionally. If you attempt to show the Blue Feather to Rod, he will exclaim: 'You're giving it to me? Freya, you know I can't marry you. I can't take it. Freya, I understand what you're trying to say. Thank you!'

Perhaps the tradition of the Blue Feather is a fairly recent one for Harvest Sprites, as in 'A Wonderful Life', the three Sprites simply fought over it as a pretty trinket, without ever mentioning any potential use for them in terms of marriage...

Another aspect of Sprite life is television in general. Some Harvest Sprites in the Valley proclaim themselves addicted to regular weekly programmes... So there may be a few 'couch potatoes' among the Harvest Sprite population.

A Red Letter Day: Rescuing the Harvest Goddess

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The day when one is able to rescue the Harvest Goddess in Harvest Moon DS or Cute DS is one of the great 'red letter days' in the game. When you have rescued your 60th Sprite, the Harvest Goddess will appear and ask you to visit her at the Spring.

Go to the Goddess Spring and take an offering with you, preferably a Strawberry. She will appear and thank you for your offering. If it is a strawberry, she will tell you that she absolutely loved your gift.

After you have paid your respects to the newly returned Goddess, visit the Sprite Company Tree and press 'A' in front of the large Jar in the upper right corner of the outer chamber where the Sprite Teams have their postboxes.

A baby Sprite will poke his head out of the top of the jar. Guts then will tell you that he is a baby Harvest Sprite lost when all the Sprites disappeared. He has been so very busy that he completely forgot about the Baby's existence! He then will delegate the responsibility of caring for the Baby to you.

Bringing up Baby has its own rewards. When you have given the Baby 255 gifts, you may find him willing to grant you a wish from time to time...

The Baby loves Pudding and Ice Cream, incidentally. Each will raise his FP by 9 points.

It is Autumn now in Forget-Me-Not Valley and I discovered my second Giant Crop of the year this morning when I went into my field. I have a Giant Yam. My first Giant Crop was a giant Pumpkin in Summer. Actually, I could have had a Giant Turnip one day in Spring, but I had gone ahead a day temporarily simply to test an event and did not wish to save the results, so the Giant Turnip remains one of those parallel futures that never came to pass.

Harvest Moon games always include delightful little details that really are not that significant but which add richness to the tapestry of the game. Speaking to the Harvest Sprites who work for you often can elicit a remark that is hilarious or simply bizarre. Who would have thought, by the way, that Harvest Sprites are addicted to television programmes? Koto apparently is addicted to some weekly soap opera...

If you are fortunate, you may find an opportunity to do more than shop when you ring a business in Mineral Town. From time to time, both May and Pastor Carter will be willing to talk to you. When the option appears, you may wish to take advantage of it, because you never know where it might lead.

The 60th Sprite I rescued in this particular game was Vail who is rescued when you ship your first Green Pepper. My 101 Sprites Guide lists all 101 Sprites and the means by which each is rescued. There is a separate section that lists the 60 easiest Sprites to rescue. 60 is the magical number here as it results in the rescue of the Harvest Goddess.

I am surprised always by the number of players who send me emails, telling me that they have experienced all four heart events for a prospective spouse, have the individual at 60,000 AP (deep red heart level) but cannot understand why the person keeps rejecting the Blue Feather and the proposal of marriage it accompanies.

You MUST rescue the Harvest Goddess in HM DS or HM Cute DS before you can marry ANY ONE. The Harvest Goddess, after all, rings the bells at all weddings and her blessing upon any nuptials is a sine qua non in this game.

In my current game of Cute, I have experienced all four heart events for each of the 'ordinary' Valley bachelors but have experienced only 2 heart events for most of the Mineral Town bachelors. I have experienced two and a half heart events for Skye and am anxious to know if I can trigger the next one or not. Sad to say, although I now have Skye at Green Heart level, Part I of his next event only can be experienced on a sunny Friday. Tomorrow IS Friday but it is the Harvest Festival. It is very seldom indeed that any event can be experienced on a Festival Day. What this means effectively is that I have to wait another week before I will know whether or not I still can trigger Skye's heart events in this game.

Meanwhile, as soon as the first Valley bachelor reached Orange Heart level at 50,000 AP, I was able to buy the Blue Feather from Karen's Supermarket. It is in my rucksack now, awaiting the appropriate time for a marriage proposal.

There is one more requirement for marriage that needs to be met: the Big Bed. If you upgrade your house twice, the next item offered by the Shopping Network will be the Big Bed. I actually chose NOT to upgrade my house a second time at this point, as I am not ready to USE the Big Bed but I am ready to cook. As the Shopping Network offers only one item each week, I feel that a Kitchen and all kitchen utensils must take precedence over the Big Bed...

In a couple of weeks, I shall have all Kitchen implements AND my second house upgrade, allowing me to buy the Big Bed when it is offered. At this point, however, even though the Harvest Goddess has been rescued and two bachelors are about to reach red heart level, I am not ready to marry. Once you marry, you no longer can experience any more Heart Events for obvious reasons. I would like to experience the Heart Events for every bachelor before I finally pose the question to one of them.

The Legendary Harvest Sprites in HM DS and Cute

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Your first Giant Crop either in Havest Moon DS or Harvest Moon Cute DS will give you a chance to see the original Harvest Moon Sprites from Mineral Town, now known as the 'Legendary Harvest Sprites'.

Much to my disgust, I obtained my first Giant Crop in Cute in a file I had no intention of saving as I had jumped ahead by a day or two simply to discover if a specific event would trigger... I therefore had no benefit from it in my game.

Nonetheless, it was a pleasure to meet my favourite Harvest Sprites again. Here you will see the Giant Crop, a Turnip before it is harvested. Another photograph is of Hoggy, one of the Legendary Sprites, as he demands payment for his labours in the form of flour.

Each of the 'Legendary Harvest Sprites' in Mineral Town has a very distinct personality, as there are few of them, unlike the 101 Sprites in Forget-Me-Not Valley. The Valley Sprites each have their own individual responses to gifts and have little remarks that they will make in different seasons at different levels of friendship but they are not as clearly defined in personality as the Sprites of Mineral Town. 'Chef' always placed everything in the context of cooking. 'Timid' was as hesitant as his name would suggest and 'Bold' always was fearsome. Hoggy as one might imagine was greedy in every situation and 'Staid' was the most proper...

There are a number of new events in Cute involving your 'rivals' that did not exist in the original Harvest Moon DS. These events will trigger when you reach 200 FP with the girl. Lumina's 200 FP event makes a reference to the Legendary Harvest Sprites as she will serve you 'historical' tea that was given to your character long ago in FoMT or MFoMT!

Incidentally, when you give the 'correct' response to a situation in these events, you often can gain 20 FP with the girl involved. Giving the 'incorrect' response may or may not affect FP depending on the event.