Harvest Moon Forever: Rival Couple's Child

Showing posts with label Rival Couple's Child. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Much Ado about Nothing: the Rival Couples Return!

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In an odd twist in Island of Happiness, after both husband and wife adjourn to Mineral Town for the birth of their child, the husband of any Rival Couple can be persuaded to return immediately afterwards by much the same actions that would encourage his return if he had left due to your neglect.

Pierre announced his return on the day after he left with Natalie. Denny returned a fortnight after he and Lanna went to Mineral Town for the delivery of their child. When Spring arrived, I began to grow crops in preparation for shipping to bring Elliot back...

I needn't have bothered. One full season after the departure of any Rival Couple to have the child in Mineral Town, husband, wife and child will appear on the Island.
The event will be announced by the husband at 6.00 a.m.

Here is the text of the return event for two of the Rival Couples:

15 Spring:

As soon as I awakened:

Pierre & Natalie, Back Again!

Long time no see, Freya!

Me: (!)

Pierre enters.

Pierre: Our child was born safely, so we’re back on the island.
Natalie and the baby are both here, so feel free to pay them a visit.
I’m cooking for three now!
See ya around.

When I visited Pierre's house, I did not experience an Event. In fact, neither Pierre nor Natalie referred to the child at all, but repeated the same statements as they had given before the blessed event.

I had to hunt for the child. The child is grown to the same age as Daria and others.

Jean: Are you Freya? I’m Jean. My dad and mom always talk about you.

Then: My dad is a great cooki! My mom is…

One day later, on 16 Spring:

Elliot & Julia, Back Again!

Long time no see, Freya.

Me: (!)

Elliot enters.

Elliot: Our baby was born, and we’ve just returned back from town.
Julia and the child are doing and doing well. Please come by and visit sometime.
All three of us are counting on you! See ya!

I promptly rushed to Mirabelle's House. Their child is dressed in blue.

Kelly: Who are you…?
You are a friend of Mommy and Daddy?
My name is… Kelly.

Then: My mommy and daddy are always mad at me.

Meanwhile, my own child, who now is a year old, born BEFORE any of the Rival Couples married, remains in his crib, a little peapod of an infant, while the children of the Rival Couples are walking and talking... My child only will be allowed to leave his crib (and share in his own birthday celebration) only when he reaches the age of 2.

Incidentally, perhaps I should caution players against giving Kelly any chocolate. When I gave her a piece as a sort of introductory gift, she turned on me, crying:
'You're mean! I'm gonna tell my daddy!'

Apparently, Elliot appears as a much stronger character now that he has fathered a child. I would have expected Julia's wrath to have been far more of a threat...
I was trying to be nice, of course, but as with any character in Harvest Moon, you cannot expect an item to be received well by every one.

Well, the mystery of the Harvest Goddess Festival this year is solved: the Rivals were NOT pregnant. They obviously had given birth to their children and were staying in Mineral Town awhile longer to allow their children to become toddlers at a prodigious rate.

In fact, the return of each Couple coincided with the anniversary of their Wedding a year ago. I can expect Denny and Lanna to return in about 10 more days.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Rival leaves the Island to have her Baby...

Two full seasons after you witness a Rival Pregnancy 'Big News' Event, you will experience an Event at 6.00 a.m. at your farmhouse. Your Rival (or his Wife) is about to have her baby and needs to travel to Mineral Town. Will you see her off?
You agree automatically and find yourself at the beach. At the last moment, the spouse decides to accompany his wife on this historic journey.

Here is the text of Natalie and Elliot's Event:

Good Luck, Natalie.

Good morning, Freya!

Me: (!)

Pierre enters.

Pierre: Natalie is leaving for the hospital in town today to prepare for our new arrival.
If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind coming to see her off, Freya?

I nod.

Pierre (with music): Freya, I knew I could count on you. Thank you!

Now we are at the beach with Natalie, Pierre, Dr. Trent and Felicia as well as Mirabelle.

Mirabelle: You’ll give birth to a healthy baby. I just know it. You can do it!

Felicia: Please be cautious and remember the advice I gave you, Natalie.

Natalie: I-It’s so nice to see you all care about me so much… I’ll be fine. Don’t worry!
Okay… Pierre! Make sure you plan an epic meal for our return!
Pierre: (…): Of course! There will be a grand return feast for the both of you upon arrival!

Trent: Now, let’s get going, shall we?

He walks away.

Natalie: Thanks for seeing me off, everybody! I’m actually excited… See you all soon!

She leaves.

Pierre (…)

He continues to think (…)

I shake my head.

Pierre: (…) Sigh… You’re right. I’ll be a nervous wreck waiting here while my child is being born!

A moment’s pause, then:

Pierre: I can’t miss this… I need to be by Natalie’s side.

Mirabelle: I knew you’d say something like that.

Felicia: … Pierre, I know you’ll take good care of Natalie.

Pierre: I most definitely will. Okay, I’m off! Upon my return, I’ll be known as Pierre,
cook and father extraordinaire!

He leaves. The event takes an hour as I find myself back at home at 7.00 a.m.

The very next morning, I experienced a similar Event with Elliot and Julia.
Pierre returned a day later.

It appears to me that the return of any Spouse in these circumstances probably is based on specific shipping requirements. In other words, if you have been shipping Cooked Dishes regularly, (or at least cooking), Pierre will return automatically but if you have not been cooking or shipping Cooked Dishes, he will remain absent until you do. There were requirements of this nature with respect to the 4th and Final Rival Heart Event. Players have written to me to ask when the Spouses of a Rival who has gone to Mineral Town to have her baby would return. Some of them have experienced delays. I suspect that you must have shipped crops in the current season to facilitate Elliot's return and to have shipped Ores if Vaughn and Sabrina are married and he is the Spouse who leaves with his wife. Denny would return only if you have shipped fish regularly.

SPOILER: Note that, even if you cannot persuade the husband to return to the Island immediately, the entire family will return a full season after the Rival Couple's departure for Mineral Town, now accompanied by their child. The child will be a toddler, interestingly enough.

I still am testing this in my own game.

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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'.