A Striking Simiilarity in Sunshine Islands

The main plot in Sunshine Islands is founded on Sun Stones and raising Heart Levels is a method by which you can obtain many of the Sun Stones you need to raise islands from the bottom of the sea, but Friendship brings other rewards in the form of Event that occur at 6 Hearts between various Characters.

One of these subsidiary Events occurs at the Inn when Sabrina reaches 6 Hearts. It involves two of the Mineral Town characters, Karen and Popuri. It is a clever event that 'responds' I believe to some of the comments made by veteran Harvest Moon players when Characters in new Harvest Moon games resemble other Characters from the past. When Island of Happiness was released, a few players wrote that Sabrina was the 'Mary-look-alike' in the game. In 'A Striking Similarity', Karen and Popuri go so far as to mistake Sabrina for Mary! The creators of Island of Happiness and Sunshine Islands thereby used this resemblance to create an entertaining event.

A friend of mine who is playing Animal Parade complains that the game moves too slowly for his liking and that he grows weary once again of his daily chores. Ironically, he is an individual who is a creature of his habit in his own real life and does not really like to have his daily routine altered much. Nonetheless, if he cannot expect another major change in the near future in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game, his interest quickly wanes.

He asked me (again) why I do not become bored... I have written about this before, actually. For me, Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games offer endless delight in the details. Instead of waiting impatiently for the next major advance in the plot, I find myself surprised and delighted by a new bit of dialogue or a minor event that uncovers a secret from a character's past or a detail about his/her 'Most Favourite' Gifts. Any one who is not involved with the character studies in any Harvest Moon or Rune Factory game loses a great deal of the enjoyment that these series have to offer.

For me, experiencing an Event like 'A Striking Similarity' is as exciting as any major plot development. Similarly, I was delighted when Ray confided at 4 Hearts that he was a teacher before he became a fisherman, giving me a little window into his personal history. Yes, his official profile does mention that he was a 'former scholar' but it still made me happy to hear it from him... In Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town, I loved the subsidiary Events that dealt with Jeff's aspirations and accomplishments as an artist. It delighted me to find his paintings as well as references to him as an artist in OTHER Harvest Moon games.

These small but satisfying Events and dialogues are what give the daily routines their spice and allow one to continue to find fulfillment in a game even after the Main Plot has been completed. The general rule for most Harvest Moon games is that new Events will continue to occur for five years at least. Any one who lacks the patience to live the idyllic life of a farmer in any Harvest Moon setting for at least five years is missing half of the game.

Down Memory Lane... FoMT and MFoMT

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Thinking about marriage in Boy & Girl reminded me of Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town, two of the greatest games ever made. In the days when I played FoMT, it never occurred to me to take screenshots of my games. I captured events in words. In fact, that was the start of my first game guide. Unfortunately, I cannot find my original game where I was married to Karen. I did, however, manage to find two old games. In one I was married to Elli and had a child. In the other, I had married Mary quite recently.

You will see the infamous mouse-eared child in both FoMT and MFoMT I am including some scenes from an old MFoMT game. My husband is not in evidence... so you will have to guess which one of the guys fathered this particular mouse-eared child!

When I revisited my old lives, I took a quick peek into my Refrigerator and Shelf and was thrilled to find that all my sentimental treasures remained safe... I include a photograph of the 'treasures' from the Blue Heart Events in MFoMT. I have all the gifts from the girls in my Shelf in FoMT, naturally.

For those who never played FoMT or MFoMT but who have played 'Boy & Girl', I am including a photograph of the 'White Flower of Happiness'. In MFoMT, you can obtain this flower more than once.

Here is the ultimate proof as well of the hours I put into research for my guides, for better or worse. My mother would be horrified at what she would consider a colossal waste of time and energy but to me, a job worth doing at all is worth doing properly. A life worth living is worth living properly and I consider my Harvest Moon lives to be 'real' on some plane of existence.

Marriage to Mary in HM Boy & Girl

I promised some photographs of Mary's wedding to a fan of Harvest Moon. Here are photographs of my (temporary) wedding to Mary. Her behaviour after marriage has been included now in my Courtship and Marriage Guide. I'm rather sorry I didn't stay married long enough to record Ann's dialogue at night... Another time perhaps.

I have been married to all these girls before in FoMT. I was a little cross with Mary in FoMT as in the afternoon, she would talk about how much I ate, as though endless supplies of food was my sole interest in life. In HM Boy & Girl in the afternoon, her first remark is similarly about food but then she softens it a little by saying that a person who works as hard as I do needs food.

She does remark sweetly that no one understands her the way I do... I almost could have stayed married to her for that.

Incidentally, pregnancy in Boy & Girl is far less dramatic than in FoMT/MFoMT. Mary's conversation simply changed one day and a few days later, she told me she had visited the clinic and that I should expect a blessed event... Perhaps I missed something as I was rushing through the game at that point simply to experience rival heart events but probably not.

As I do not like to play Harvest Moon that way, I refused to experience the birth of a child until I had played properly... so in the middle of summer, I simply reloaded back to my single state.

Weddings occur about a week after a successful marriage proposal. You will awaken in Church and Carter will preside. As you can see, May and Stu often act as page and flower girl. Thomas lends the weight of his official presence to the ceremony.

At home, your wife will move back and forth through the main chamber of the farmhouse during the day but will be in the bedroom after 6.00 p.m. Her conversation will change after noon and at night. At night, Mary confessed that she was a night owl and that she often fell asleep in the Library after a late night. She expressed a wish that we both could stay up late together, but then said she realised farmers could not live that way...

Winter Thanksgiving in HM Boy & Girl

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The Thanksgiving Festivals in most Harvest Moon games are based on gender. There are two Thanksgiving Festivals each year. At the Spring Thanksgiving, boys give gifts to girls. At the Winter Thanksgiving, it is the girls who give gifts to boys.

In Harvest Moon Boy & Girl, as a boy at the Winter Thanksgiving, I would receive either chocolate or chocolate cake from every girl at blue heart level or higher. Chocolate is given only at Blue heart level. For Green heart level or higher, you will obtain Chocolate Cake.

The difficulty here is the fact that the Supermarket does not sell chocolate in this game. If you wish to complete your Cookbook, you need at least two pieces of chocolate. A married man no longer receives Thanksgiving gifts from any one but his wife and if you do not keep your wife at the highest red heart level, she will not become pregnant. Once you have a child, I expect you could decrease her level to the point where she would slip chocolate into your rucksack on the Winter Thanksgiving instead of Cake but that is long in the future in my game... In order to obtain chocolate NOW, I needed to bring at least two girls back down to Blue Heart level before they visited me on 14 Winter.

Thanksgiving visits adhere to a strict schedule in every game and knowing when a girl or bachelor is scheduled to visit is critical. If you are not on the farm at the right time, you will miss the visit and the gift.

The schedule of the visits of all the eligible girls in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl is as follows:

6.00 a.m. Popuri
8.00 a.m. Ann
10.00 a.m. Elli
1.00 p.m. Karen
3.00 p.m. Mary

If, therefore, you wish to receive gifts from ALL the girls and have them all at a high enough heart level to be able to expect to do so, you basically have to hover round your farm most of the day. This is the case in most Harvest Moon games. In fact, in HM DS and HM Cute DS, you actually have to exit your farmhouse each time at the right hour to experience the event. In Boy & Girl, you merely have to be standing in your field when the individual arrives.

Of all the girls, it is Mary's visit that is the most amusing. She either does not realise that it is the Winter Thanksgiving or pretends not to realise... she tells you that the Supermarket had a sale on chocolate and chocolate cake so she decided to buy some and to share it with you. She then remarks that it all must have been sold by now, to prevent you from having any remote hope that these items now will be available from the Supermarket... As she speaks, she suddenly realises that it is the Winter Thanksgiving or pretends to realise it. I suspect that she is pretending. Mary can be rather shy, so she may be too embarrassed to present her gift in a straightforward manner. After all, it is the equivalent of a Valentine.

Elli's presentation is rather amusing as well. I like Elli but when as her parting remark, she advised me to brush my teeth afterwards to prevent cavities, I realised once again how well she and the Doctor are suited to one another, far better a match than I ever could be for her.

Karen's parting remark to the effect that she will be expecting a return gift on the occasion of the Spring Thanksgiving is very characteristic of her forthright nature.
For all her undeniable femininity, she is a very dominant woman and this distinguishes her from some one like Muffy, equally feminine and flirtatious but rather incapable of getting what she wants in life.

As you can see, each girl has her own distinct personality and her own way of presenting a gift to a boy she likes. It is one of the reasons I like to experience all possible events in any Harvest Moon games.

Players often ask me which girl or bachelor is the 'best'. Interacting with some one always is the best way to find out what sort of person he/she is. You do this in Harvest Moon by experiencing events and by talking to the individual as often as possible. To me, the voyage of discovery is part of the fun of playing Harvest Moon. I would not want any one to tell me which girl or bachelor I should marry any more than in real life!

'The Woodcutter and the King' and a Power Berry

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In experiencing Mary's Blue Heart Event, you have the opportunity to read the legend inspired by the real magical tree in the middle of the meadow to the right of the lake.

Mary will give you a book and ask you to read it 'between tasks'. At first, I did not know how to read the book... I tried to set it down on a table, thinking that I then would be able to press X to read it, but in vain.

In fact, the first time I experienced the event, I became frustrated in the end and returned the book to Mary unread. When she asked me to choose which character I liked best, I simply guessed, but chose the 'Woodcutter' thinking that this character would be more sympathetic to village folk...

I then replayed the entire day, partly in order to add the information about Mary's response to the incorrect answer to my guide and partly to test something that had occurred to me with respect to a possible way to 'read' the book.

In fact my supposition was correct. It was possible to read the book by pressing Triangle when the book was in the rucksack. The Triangle Button orders the game to 'Explain Item'. Pressing Triangle unlocked the entire story, which is rather long and quite charming.

Furthermore, it gives the entire tale of the magical tree in the Meadow and the fact that a 'rare nut' in the form of a Power Berry will be given if you take pity on the tree and do not chop it down.

Here is the tale of the 'Woodcutter and the King':

Text of Book:
'The Woodcutter and the King'
Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who lives in a small country. One day the woodcutter were called before the king. The king ordered the woodcutter to go and find a special nut that was said to prolong life.

'The woodcutter finally found the rare nut way on the top of a tall tree in the forest. But as he prepared to cut the tree down...

The woodcutter suddenly heard a voice.

It was the tall tree, asking 'please don't cut me down'.

The woodcutter felt pity for the tree and decided to let it stand...

To his surprise, the tall tree gave him the nut in thanks. The woodcutter had never seen a nut of that colour before, but he dutifully sent the nut to the king.

The king ordered the woodcutter to chop down the tree down and bring it to the castle. But the woodcutter refused...

In anger, the king threw the woodcutter in the dungeon and set off himself to cut down the tree. But none of the trees had any nuts, and the king lost his way and never came out.

The woodcutter was saved.'

End of Story.

I never would have had the opportunity to read this tale had I not played Harvest Moon Boy & Girl. It is little delights like these that make EVERY Harvest Moon game worth the trouble...

'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 Villa is a Hive of Activity

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There are many events that occur at the Villa, apart from the constant stream of regular visitors who come and go on a weekly basis.

The event with Karen is described in another post. There is a rather hilarious event that involves Van and a 'pot' with a history that dates back to Won, another famous character from 'historical' Mineral Town. The premise of Harvest Moon DS (in both male and female versions) is that it occurs hundreds of years AFTER A Wonderful Life and Friends of Mineral Town. Although characters have the same names and same appearance as their predecessors, they supposedly are NOT the same individuals, but rather their descendants.

In the event with Van, he attempts to sell a rare 'pot' to Romana for 10000000G. Romana replies that the price is far too high and asks him to knock off 'three of the 0s'. Van's response is to reduct the price to 1000000G. In the original FoMT and MFoMT as well as AWL/AnWL, Won's rare item was described as a vase rather than a pot. I am not certain if it is simply a different translation of the original Japanese word or if they are two different items.

Other events that occur at the Villa are events with Sebastian in the kitchen and Romana in her bedroom. There are events between Kate and Lumina as well. All these events are based on your friendship level with the parties concerned. Some are triggered at 100 FP but others at 200 FP. Somee will be familiar to players of the original English boy version of HM DS but others are new to English players.

Many players wondered about Mary's movements. She alone of the young Mineral Town visitors never stayed at the Inner Inn. You could not find her in the guest bedroom at 6.00 a.m. nor could you find her on the road from Mineral Town at any hour. In Cute, she is kind enough to explain her whereabouts between 6.00 a.m. and 8.00 a.m. on Monday, the day of her weekly visit.

Although she claims that she works in the locked room, she will not allow you entry! Perhaps she is lost in her creative labours and will not even hear your attempts to enter...