Random Results at Festivals in Island of Happiness

I wrote previously about the random result that can occur at the New Year's Day Rice Cake Festival in Island of Happiness, wherein your character chokes on one of the Rice Cakes. This is not the only Festival that can surprise a player, however. The Snow Festival is another.

I discovered that the type of Snowman that you create is utterly random and Gannon will make a different response to each. It is not the number of characters who agree to build the Snowman with you either that determines the result. It is completely random. Whether two or ten characters build with you, the Snowman can be ordinary or extraordinary. If ordinary, Gannon will be unimpressed. If extraordinary, he will make a remark to that effect.

I have included screenshots from two different results at the very same Festival in the same year. The same characters built the snowman with me on each occasion. As you can see, the result on one occasion was 'Hmm, this is it?' On the other, Gannon exclaimed: 'Holy cow! This is a heckuva snowman!'

By the way, the Snow Festival is rather unique in terms of Harvest Moon Festivals. It is a Festival that allows your character to invite every one in attendance to participate with him/her in the building of a Snowman. It therefore celebrates Friendship rather than Romance. If your Friendship levels with every one at the Meadow are sufficiently high, you can build a snowman with every one. Those who lack sufficient heart levels will refuse to build with you. At 4 hearts, individuals refused in previous years. At 6 hearts or higher, every one accepted the invitation.

It reminded me a little of the Tomato Festival in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl in that respect, except that there is no competition here, no opposing teams and you are able to work with EVERY ONE rather than choosing to be part of one team.

At the end of the Snow Festival, your parting thoughts will differ according to the Snowman that you build as well. It is yet another example of the fine sense of detail that went into the creation of Island of Happiness.

Choking on a Rice Cake

This Event was so hilarious that I had to share it. I often replay Events, including Festival Events in order to satisfy myself that I have experienced all possible variables.

In HM Cute DS as well as in other Harvest Moon games, characters attending the New Year's Day Rice Cake Festival often refer to the possibility that some one could choke on a rice cake. Here are some of these remarks:

Hardy: I was just worried that somebody might choke on something... But then, I may be the one who chokes on rice cakes...
Elli: If you eat rice cakes too fast, you might choke on them! Be careful.
Kassey: I almost died once, a long time agao. I choked on a rice cake!
Patrick: My older brother almost choked on a rice cake once.

In Island of Happiness, this sorry situation can occur to YOUR character randomly.

Sabrina warned me of the possibility, saying that: 'If you eat rice cake too fast, you could choke... So be careful.'

Even so, I never dreamed it could happen to ME.

The first couple of times I played through the Event, nothing untoward occurred. I took my 'share' of rice cakes home with me. The reason I replayed the event a couple of times actually was the realisation that the number of rice cakes given to you is random. One time I obtained only one; another time I received 12. I was trying to discover what the maximum number could be when I actually CHOKED on a rice cake at the Festival!

You can see my character doubled over in the centre of the group, choking on her rice cake while the Islanders watch. Another screenshot shows her actually pounding the rice cakes. I loved that detail.

What a wonderful game this is! Fans of Harvest Moon may be aware of the fact that there is more than one version of each of the Heart Events. The next Heart Event will vary depending on your response during any Heart Event. In other words, there are different 'paths' for the Heart Events for any Eligible Girl/Bachelor in Island of Happiness. You would be required to play a dozen games at least to experience all of them. The fact that you can play either as a girl or a boy means that Island of Happiness actually is TWO separate games in a single cartridge.

There are dozens of 'optional characters' that only will come to the Island if you complete specific goals. They tend to be linked to accomplishments in one of the activities such as mining, fishing or ranching. Some of them appear to be linked to Island improvements, such as paving another road.

My first Rice Paddy!

As a child, I lived in Nepal, in a valley below Mt. Everest where Rice Paddies dominated the landscape. I never imagined that I would be able to grow rice in a proper rice paddy in Harvest Moon. Island of Happiness gives a player the opportunity to grow rice in a rice paddy. You cannot use an ordinary basic hoe, however. Its power must be augmented if you wish to prepare the paddy for the rice.

The rice paddies will not be visible at the start of the game. A boulder has to be crushed, allowing access to a new screen in the northwestern corner of your field.

Island of Happiness is an amazingly complex Harvest Moon game. There is an incredible attention to details.

For example, at the New Year's Day Festival, where rice cakes traditionally are served and eaten, all the old warnings about choking on a rice cake in previous Harvest Moon games as well as Island of Happiness itself can be seen in action.
Remember how the Twins in HM DS and HM Cute DS talk about a childhood incident of choking on a rice cake? Well, your character in Island of Happiness, after being able to pound the rice cakes in an action sequence, actually may choke on one!
It is a random event that may or may not occur. I experienced it one time out of four. It was hilarious. This is the kind of detail that makes Harvest Moon unique. Half of the players of this game may not know even that this event could occur unless they continue to attend the New Year's Festival year after year... It is similar in this respect to the New Year's Eve Nightmares one can experience in other Harvest Moon games on a random basis.

N.B. Note that there are four equipment slots that can be used for Tools, Items or Accessories. In the screenshot displayed here, my character has equipped three Accessories. Accessories are similar in nature to those in HM DS and HM Cute DS, but one can equip more than one at any given moment.