Challenges in Island of Happiness

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Every Harvest Moon game is challenging and very few can be explored fully in less than five years (Harvest Moon time!) but I really have come to the conclusion that 'Island of Happiness' is by far the most challenging game of all. Imagine a game where you have to unlock many of the Eligible Girls/Bachelors... Imagine ordering a Bird Barn or Animal Barn that does not contain a full set of feeders or any shipping containers. Imagine a 'Maker' that requires 20 Adamantite instead of only one and a Maker Shed that must be expanded before you can order some of the 'Makers'. If you wish to order Accessories, you may need 10 to 60 pieces of Orichalc rather than 1.

Suffice it to say that I cannot imagine any player sighing regretfully that he/she completed all goals too quickly! Every aspect of this game is challenging. You have to unlock new areas on the map if you wish to meet vital characters and ever gain access to a Mine.

Festivals are unlocked as well. As you move forward in the game, you will be able to participate in new Festivals.

Items do not have a single value either. Each item has a Rank as well as a grade in terms of Quality, Size and Freshness. When you are mining or fishing, in particular, you need to be aware constantly of the number of empty slots in your rucksack. Unless the items are identical not only in type, but in Rank, Quality, Size and Freshness, they will occupy different slots. You can stack items of different ranks and grades but this must be done manually. The resulting 'stack' will contain items of rank and grades that represent an average of the original items.

New 'advanced Makers' that require an upgraded Maker Shed include a Thresher and a Flour Mill. In a previous post, I wrote about the New Year Festival, where my character actually participated in the ritual of pounding the rice for rice cakes. Little details like this astound me. The obvious time and energy that went into the creation of Island of Happiness make it a labour of love.

For fans of Harvest Moon, it is wonderful to be able to encounter characters from other games like Cliff, Trent, Karen and Popuri. (When they visit the Island in IoH, they are married to your old 'Rivals' from FoMT/MFoMT.)

The characters from Mineral Town speak of their spouses and of others as well. For example, Trent will tell you that Mayor Thomas arranged for his room at the Inn on the Island. Other characters play a role even when they are not present in the flesh. The Gourmet is an important character in one of Pierre's Heart Events.

As in most Harvest Moon games, you need not be the best farmer, rancher, miner or fisherman/woman in order to live a fairly decent life. You won't perish if you fail to meet all the goals in the game. Discussing some of the 'challenges' in IoH therefore should not discourage players who mainly play Harvest Moon games in order to marry and have a family. That goal can be one of the easier to attain, depending on the Eligible Girl/Bachelor you wish to court. There are Eligible Girls/Bachelors who will not appear on the Island if you do not attain specific goals but there are others who are available for courtship from the start of the game.

Without being too specific about Tree of Tranquility, the upcoming Harvest Moon game for the Wii, you will not be able to meet all the Eligible Girls/Bachelors at the start in that game either. At the very earliest, you will be able to unlock every possible character only halfway through your second year. In other respects, however, it is very different from Island of Happiness. It has a very detailed storyline and plot, casting your character in the role of hero/heroine. In that sense, it reminds me a little of Rune Factory, although there is no combat in ToT. In many Harvest Moon games, you are called upon to rescue the Harvest Goddess, but the plot in ToT is far more complex than that. There is a 'next generation' option in ToT that is rather wonderful. I certainly recommend that game as well wholeheartedly!

Heart Events and Rival Heart Events in Island of Happiness can be touching, dramatic or hilarious. Courting every possible candidate for marriage BEFORE you decide on a wife/husband is worth the effort because the Events are wonderful.

I think a player could spend six (real time) months on Island of Happiness without exhausting half of the possibiities. Through Harvest Moon, one can live more than one life but there always is that pesky problem of real time...

Warning about Thomas' Winter Event on 2 Winter

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On 2 Winter, unless you are in the midst of a terrible snowstorm, Thomas will appear at your door at 6.00 a.m. to request a random item from you. He is an inveterate gambler, you will discover, and each year will wager that he can obtain a random item, proving to the Mayor of a neighbouring town that HIS village is better... The fact that he is NOT Mayor of Forget-Me-Not Valley does not bother him in the least. He is quite happy to obtain the item from you instead of the rancher of Mineral Town, who apparently turned him down...

Now, the item he requests will be random and will change each time you load the game, so I recommend that players save their games BEFORE they exit the farmhouse on 2 Winter. You might consider this to be cheating in a way, but the fact is that the game does not play fair here.

In HM DS (boy version), the Mayor actually may request a Golden Egg as the item he wishes you to provide. There is NO Golden Egg in HM DS, although it is an item that can be obtained from a Chicken who wins the Chicken Festival in Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town. If, therefore, the Mayor requests a Golden Egg, you are completely out of luck and it is beyond your power in ANY year to obtain a Golden Egg.

In Cute so far, the Mayor has asked me for Orange Marmalade (unobtainable in the first year), Green Pepper (cheap and easy if you stored some from Autumn), White Grass (I have it, but as if!!! I need it for Skye's Finest Curry), Diamond (too valuable), Bracelet (too valuable) and Matsutake (well, valuable, but I'll do it... I'm getting tired of this. It's worse than haggling with Van!)

If I had not saved my game before I left the house, I would not have been able to haggle with the Mayor by reloading the game over and over... Purists may be against it, but frankly, why should I be punished for not being able to give the man an Orange Marmalade in the first Winter? There is no way that your Orange Tree, even planted early in Spring, would yield an orange in the first year.

That legendary evil beast Mukumuku...

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Poor Mukumuku!!! Described as a 'legendary evil beast', he can be found in the Valley only during the Winter Season. He is a Yeti, an 'Abominable Snowman', but in fact is the sweetest, most innocent creature one ever could encounter... but Daryl doesn't think so! Daryl is determined to capture the evil beast...

This conflict between the two characters is nothing new. In 'A Wonderful Life', Daryl's greatest ambition was the capture of Mukumuku. There were a number of events in the game wherein Daryl tried one sort of bait after another in an attempt to lure Mukumuku into captivity. He never succeeded.

Your character, on the other hand, can establish a close relationship with the Yeti very easily. Simply give him a flower and you will raise his FP by 9 points. In fact, the 1st day of Winter is Mukumuku's birthday. It is your first opportunity to meet him as well. He will appear at a position near the Goddess Spring at 4.00 p.m. each day in Winter. Give him any sort of flower to raise his FP. On the 1st day of Winter, you will find him at 32 FP. Giving him one flower will raise his FP to 77FP as it is worth 5x its ordinary value. Give him two more to raise him above 100FP.

Even without raising his friendship level, you can experience his first event on 1 Winter by entering and exiting the Sprite Company Tree. You then will experience an event involving Daryl and Mukumuku...

It is the first installment in HM Cute of the historial conflict between the two... Daryl attempts to capture the 'legendary evil beast', determined to use his own strength rather than the bait his 'ancestor' used in 'A Wonderful Life'.

(There is a strange little twist in the game wherein all characters supposedly are the descendants of their identical 'ancestors' in previous games. I prefer to think of them as the same characters myself... after all, they have the same appearance, the same names, the same Likes and Dislikes and the same histories.)

It is a little laughable to consider Daryl in the role of strongman, especially if you have experienced his Goddess Spring event with Flora, and witnessed his utter defeat at her hands! As one might imagine, Daryl is no more successful in capturing Mukumuku than his 'ancestor'.

If you raise Mukumuku to 100 FP on 1 Winter by giving him flowers on his birthday, you will experience another event with him on 2 Winter when you exit your farmhouse.

You will experience the first of Thomas' Winter Request events as well... In the case of Thomas, he will come to your door requesting a random item in order to win a wager with the 'Mayor of a neighbouring town'. Give him the item he requests in order to obtain a piece of Golden Lumber AND rescue a Sprite.

In the case of Mukumuku, if you have raised his FP to 100, he will appear at your door with a gift: a Big Fish! It is a very brief encounter but rather sweet. If you are interested in experiencing all of Leia's events, give her the Big Fish, as it is her Most Favourite item. You should try to have her at Yellow Heart level at least by the end of Winter, as you then will be able to catch a Bottled Message for her with a mystrile fishing rod in Spring.

The Bottled Message can be caught only if you have a fishing rod at mystrile level and only if Leia is at Yellow Heart level or higher. If you have been visiting her regularly with gifts, you should have her at Orange Heart level by the beginning of Winter, well on her way to deepest red... Remember, even in Cute, you can 'propose' to any of the Magical Girls and have a 'Best Friend' instead of a spouse.

There are more events with Mukumuku, but they will be covered later...

N.B. The second photograph shows Mukumuku at his regular position near the Goddess Spring and at your first encounter with him, when he will be at 32FP. Freya gives him a Blue Magic Grass flower to raise his FP instantly to 77FP on his birthday.

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.