Harvest Moon Forever: Wada

Showing posts with label Wada. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Tribute to Yasuhiro Wada

Any one who has played Island of Happiness and/or Sunshine Islands is familiar with the rather laconic character, Wada. Wada is the only true 'native' of Sunny Island and is the repository of its ancient mysteries and traditions. Befriending Wada can lead to situations where the entire bounty of Sunny Island becomes available to your character. It is fitting that Wada bears the name of Harvest Moon's founder, Yasuhiro Wada.

Recently, Yasuhiro Wada announced that, for 'personal reasons', he no longer would be as active in directing operations at Marvelous. He will continue to act as an advisor, however.

The character of Wada is NOT that of a farmer, but he rather is part of a hunter and gatherer culture. Yasuhiro Wada confesses that he tried farming but has no expertise in farming in the real world. 'I tried it,' he told an interviewer a few years ago. 'It was hard work.'

Farming is hard work in Harvest Moon as well, lending versimilitude to the games. Under Wada's guidance and with the help of Natsume in North America, Harvest Moon has become an internationally-beloved alternative world.

Here are some photographs of the 'real' Wada and his namesake in Island of Happiness and Sunshine Islands. Many, many thanks to the creator of Harvest Moon for making it possible for us to enjoy over 10 years of a magical universe where hard work and loyalty to friends are rewarded and where we can interact with the seasons and the Earth to create a life in harmony with Nature. May the magic continue in the hands of those who have inherited the mantle of leadership from him...

I do have one question to ask of Wada, however. What is the REAL connnection between Wada and the mysterious 'Tower' behind his Hut in the Jungle? Will that 'ship' one day take off again to colonise new planets?

P.S. Pursuant to questions from readers, I need to make it very clear that neither the quality nor the quantity of Harvest Moon games will suffer from the real Wada's decision. His successor, Haruki Nakayama, actually is included in the credits for Harvest Moon games as far back as 2004 in 'A Wonderful Life' (and possibly other early games) and has been responsible for Island of Happiness, Sunshine Islands and Animal Parade, inter alia. The only reason I wrote about Wada's announcement is because he was very much part of the founding of the series and has been immortalised in the character of Wada in IoH and SI.

In fact, as CEO of Marvelous Entertainment, Haruki Nakayama made a statement recently about the Nintendo 3DS announcement. He believes that the device will succeed commercially when it launches, even though the system's retail price and development costs associated with it will be higher than previous systems. As he appears eager and excited as well as optimistic about its online capabilities, it hints at possible future Harvest Moon and Rune Factory titles for the system...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Questions I still have in IoH...

When Wada reaches 7 hearts or higher and you reach the third year in the game, you can experience an Event at his Hut, in which he will push aside the barrier to the side door, allowing you access to his secret garden, where the Tower is situated.

There you csn meet Manfred daily and obtain a random item from him...

Very useful indeed as it is a means by which you can obtain ANY item, including those you have not unlocked yet. Make certain you have a Seed Maker, so you can convert rare Crops into Seeds if you have not unlocked them at Chen's Market yet.

My question: If Wada's heart level somehow decreases below 7 hearts, will the door be barred again?

Remember Carter and the back door in the Church that led to the Secret Garden in FoMT and MFoMT? If you neglected him or upset him to the point where you no longer had his friendship, that door would be locked again.

As I have Wada at 10 hearts, it would be an awful struggle to lower his heart level sufficiently to discover the answer to this question... but if any one wishes to try in his/her game, I'd love to know what happens...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Marriage to Shea in Island of Happiness

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I feel that I have neglected one of the most colourful characters in Island of Happiness in the person of Shea, an eligible bachelor if your character is a girl.

If you are familiar with Peter Pan, you will understand what I mean when I say that Shea could be one of the 'lost boys'. Raised in the Jungle by a tribesman named Wada, he speaks a dialect of his own and his greatest interest in life is hunting.
Although you can find both Shea and Wada at a few of the festivals, on the whole, they live apart from the rest of the community.

It was when I decided to experience marriage to Shea that I discovered how different his ways were from those of the others. Marriage in Island of Happiness usually occurs at the Church in the Forest with the Harvest Goddess bestowing her usual blessing afterwards by tolling the bell. Marriage to Shea, on the other hand, occurs at Wada's hut. Wada presides and your character must drink a 'sacred drink' to become part of THEIR tribe before the marriage will be judged complete.

In the course of drinking the 'sacred drink', your character will display the skull that signifies poisoning and will fall to the ground briefly. She does recover, however, instantly and is able to assure Shea that she has not suffered any serious effects.

The proposal event is hilarious actually. Shea does not understand the significance of the 'Blue Feather' and asks if you can give one to Wada as well. Wada responds by smacking Shea! Once Shea realises that you are proposing marriage, he is thrilled and accepts with alacrity. As with other weddings, the marriage will occur a week later... In fact, Shea is proud of himself when he is able to tell Wada that the wedding should occur in a week's time. 'Oh, I know this one!' Shea exclaims happily, 'Will have ceremony in ... a week?' Wada then asks how long a week is, forcing Shea to admit that he too is ignorant of that little detail. Shea asks: 'Is it two tomorrows? Four tomorrows?'

Even if you do not wish to marry Shea on a permanent basis, every player should experience his events once.

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'.