Island of Happiness and Tree of Tranquility Guides

My Island of Happiness Guides should be available online at IGN on the day that the game is released in the States, but I will not be able to write online guides for Tree of Tranquility as I accepted an assignment to write the Official Strategy Guide for Brady Games. That printed guide, the Tree of Tranquility Official Strategy Guide is available now for pre-order at a number of sites, including Amazon.

New Harvest Moon Festivals and Wonderfuls

Although 'Island of Happiness', due now to be released in mid-August, includes most of the traditional Harvest Moon festivals from other games, it has some new festivals as well. In fact, the game differs from most other Harvest Moon games in that few of the Festivals will be celebrated or even displayed on the Calendar until your character 'unlocks' them through his/her accomplishments or the attainment of specific goals.

Areas of the map are 'unlocked' when your character pays for the construction of bridges and roads when those projects are made available at Gannon's shop. Once those areas are unlocked, your character will be able to expand his/her activities. In fact, the area where Festivals are held must be unlocked before any Festivals can be celebrated!

Island of Happiness therefore contains more 'surprises' for the player than most Harvest Moon games. Even an experienced Harvest Moon fan will not know what to expect in many cases.

For example, I was not surprised to discover a Cooking Contest in Spring but when I 'unlocked' the rice paddies and began to grow rice, a 'Rice Festival' appeared on the Calendar in Autumn. A 'Mining Festival' appeared in the second year in the Summer season.

Many of these Festivals include Contests and some are more difficult to win than others. The Mining Festival is an example of a Festival that requires a very high quality of gem or ore if you wish to win 1st Prize.

In Spring, Summer and Autumn, there are Crop Festivals with a different 'theme' each year. The theme is announced at the previous Crop Festival and will appear on the Calendar as well. Often, the theme will be a crop that you must unlock. If you have not unlocked the Crop by the time the Festival occurs, obviously you will have no chance whatsoever of winning the Contest.

Often the prize for winning 1st Place in any Festival Contest is a Wonderful. Players of HM DS and HM Cute DS will be familiar with 'Wonderfuls' but they are acquired differently and have quite different applications in Island of Happiness. In HM DS/Cute DS, one could mine for 'Wonderfuls' in the 4th Mine. They had no significant value as single stones. If you could collect a complete set, however, the Harvest Goddess would grant you a wish from a list of choices.

In Island of Happiness, 'Wonderfuls' can be set in slots in tools to augment their power in various ways. Each colour of Wonderful has a specific attribute. Some Wonderfuls allow a tool to operate on a wider area. Others enhance the quality of the item that is obtained through use of the tool. Another Wonderful creates additional slots when equipped to a Tool.

When you purchase a tool from Gannon or Mirabelle at the start of the game, it will have 1-4 slots for Wonderfuls. Gannon sells farm tools and Mirabelle sells ranch tools. A basic tool has only a single slot. Each additional slot raises the price of a tool by 1000G. A tool with four slots therefore will cost 4000G.

If you are a fanatical miner, you can obtain Wonderfuls from the Harvest Goddess when you reach the 255th floor of the Mine. She alternates Wonderfuls with Recipes for various coloured Curries, though, so it is only every other visit to the bottom of the Mine that will gain you another Wonderful as long as there are Recipes to dole out. (Have you noticed how valuable an item a Curry is in Harvest Moon games? Curries of various kinds are the key to Skye's heart and the heart of Keira, not to mention the delight of Flora...)

If you are not a dedicated Miner, you can obtain Wonderfuls in IoH by winning Contests at various Festivals.

The Wonderful that you obtain when you win a Contest is based on total Farming Degree points.

Finally, there is a possibility of finding a Wonderful for sale at Chen's Market in Winter as well.

Some Wonderfuls are more useful than others in the early years of the game. In the early stages of the game, a Wonderful that decreases the amount of Stamina that is lost with each use of the tool is far more useful than a Wonderful that expands the number of slots on a tool. Wonderfuls are not that plentiful, especially if you are not able or willing to descend to the 255th floor of the Mine. Unfortunately, in my own game, the first two Wonderfuls I obtained were Indigo, with the attribute of increasing the number of slots on any tool. I later discovered that the colour of Wonderful obtained at any Festival is based on the total of your Farming Degree Points so you can change the result by fishing or farming or performing any other action that will change your total. (Festivals end at a specific time, irrespective of the time of arrival. If you arrive at a Festival that ends at 6.00 p.m. at 5.50 p.m., you lose only 10 minutes of your day.)

In fact, you must obtain a Yellow Wonderful if you wish to unlock the area on the map where rice can be grown. A Yellow Wonderful augments the power of any Tool and you will not be able to smash the boulder that blocks the path north from your ranch unless you ask Charlie to set a Yellow Wonderful in your Hammer. Once you have unlocked the rice paddies, you must ask him to set a Yellow Wonderful in your Hoe if you wish to be able to plant rice. Finally, a Yellow Wonderful is required in your Sickle in order to harvest the ripened rice.

One Yellow Wonderful can serve the purpose if you go back and forth to Chen's Market to ask Charlie to remove the Wonderful from one tool and set it in another when required. It is inconvenient but better than not being able to grow rice at all!

The appearance of a Wonderful at Chen's Shop in Winter based on the last digit in your Farming Degree total.

Note on 18 August 2009: A player found this ancient post which had not been revised according to later information that IS included in my Guides... and he posted a comment here. Please always be aware that my posts on this site are not intended to be substitutes for my actual strategy guides. I seldom update posts on this site, sadly... I only discovered this one contained early erroneous findings because of a comment a player posted recently.

'Wonderfuls' cannot be set in any tool slot by your character. You must see Charlie, Chen's son, when he is at the counter, in order to equip any Wonderfuls that you own to a tool. There is no charge for this service.

Charlie actually is a very important character in Island of Happiness. He makes Accessories that are very similar to the Accessories in HM DS/Cute DS. Among others, you will find the Harvest Goddess Pendant, Harvest Goddess Earrings, Kappa Pendant, Kappa Earrings, Friendship Brooch and Turbo Shoes as well as a Pedometre.

As in HM DS/Cute DS, many of the Accessories are available in three different sizes. The larger sizes are unlocked usually when you order the smaller sizes. It appears that new accessories sometimes are unlocked when you have ordered a certain number of Accessories from Charlie after a set number of days pass. I wrote about Accessories in Island of Happiness in another post. Large amounts of orichalc are required to create Accessories, but there is no cost otherwise. A Large Harvest Goddess or Kappa Pendant, for example, requires 60 Orichalc. Orichalc can be found on the 50th floor of the Mine as well as on various lower floors. (You can find it on all floors between Floor 50 and Floor 74 randomly for example.) You can find almost EVERYTHING between Floors 250 and 254. More about the Mine later...

These posts are not intended to serve as a proper guide for Island of Happiness. My guides will be published when the game is released in August.

Requirements for Marriage in Island of Happiness

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In terms of the requirements for marriage, Harvest Moon tends to be very practical. Whether you are playing FoMT/MFoMT, HM DS/Cute DS or Island of Happiness, experiencing all heart events is NOT sufficient. You must be able to offer your spouse a BED. I suspected this was the case in Island of Happiness, but have confirmed it by experiencing all heart events with all bachelors and bringing most of them to deepest red heart level without expanding my house for the third time. A medium house is not large enough for a 'Husband Bed' apparently, as that option was not unlocked until Gannon completed the Large House. The 'Husband Bed' then became available at Chen's Shop for 10,000G. Until I actually bought the 'Husband Bed', the bachelors continued to reject my Blue Feather. As soon as I had the 'Husband Bed', they accepted... Naturally, I did not save the results as I am the one who really is not 'ready for that yet'.

It therefore is not sufficient if the guy is head over heels in love with you. If you cannot offer him a comfortable bed of his own, your proposal will be rejected.
The husband and wife do not share the same bed in many Harvest Moon games. The 'Big Bed' often is the place where spouse and child sleep, while you continue to sleep in your original narrow little bed. The beds tend to be pushed together though when this is the case. IoH actually is different in this respect as the photograph shows. The two beds are placed along the western wall of the large house with no semblance of closeness. It is very interesting. The Husband's Bed actually is the one in the topmost left corner of the house. I will be interested to discover if the Man's Bed always is the one in the top corner or if the 'Wife's Bed' would occupy the same position when your character is a boy... When I progress further in the Boy's version of the game, I'll be able to confirm this one way or another.

In some Harvest Moon games, the child will have a crib, but usually in the games made for the handheld systems, the child shares the 'Big Bed'. In IoH, there is a separate child's bed, making it more like the larger console Harvest Moon games.

In IoH, the marriage proposal will be accepted only when you have experienced all four heart events, brought the eligible girl/bachelor to fullest red heart level, upgraded your house to a Large House and after you have purchased the Spouse's Bed.

When you propose, you will experience a special proposal event under the title of 'Popping the Question'. One week later, you will experience a Wedding Event at the Church.

I did not marry Denny on a permanent basis, but I have to admit that the wedding ceremony was very amusing. Nathan was very formal and serious, asking the prospective groom if he would honour and love me as long as I lived. Denny simply responded: 'Heck yeah!'

The ceremony occurs inside the Church, but afterwards, the crowd will gather next to the Harvest Goddess Spring. As is traditional, the Harvest Goddess will bestow her blessing on the couple and will give her own gift by ringing the Bell. The credits then will roll, but any Harvest Moon fan knows this is NOT the end.

After the credits, you will experience another event: 'After the Wedding...' Your spouse, in a traditional Harvest Moon ritual, will ask you to choose a nickname.

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...

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.

The Bewitching Witch Princess

The Witch Princess in Island of Happiness lives in a wonderful little Hansel-and-Gretel styled cottage deep in the forest. She has the same vast library of books that she had in HM DS/Cute DS but her collection of bears now is visible to the casual visitor as you can see.

Note the map of the Island that appears on the upper screen. This is a wonderful resource that displays the current position of every important character on the Island.

Spring Thanksgiving with Mark, Vaughn and Elliot

As in many Harvest Moon games, the Spring Thanksgiving is the occasion on which boys give Cookies to girls they like. It actually is the 'second' of the Thanksgiving Festivals, oddly enough. The first is the 'Winter Thanksgiving' on 14 Winter, on which girls give Chocolate or Chocolate Cake to boys they like. The Spring Thanksgiving gift is considered to be a gift 'in return'. Many characters actually will refer to the original Winter Thanksgiving gift when they give the girl Cookies or Chocolate Cookies. It appeared to me that the bachelors with the highest Heart Levels gave Chocolate Cookies while the others gave Cookies. If this is the case, then it is a good strategy to have bachelors at different heart levels, as you then will be able to obtain a larger selection of items.

(In HM Boy & Girl, this certainly was the case. One could receive either Chocolate or the appropriate baked item. Ironically, Chocolate, the gift given at lowest heart levels, was the more difficult item to obtain in THAT game so one actually benefited if one did not have all eligible characters at the highest heart levels at the time of the Thanksgiving Festival.)

I received both Cookies and Chocolate Cookies in 'Island of Happiness' and the bachelors adhered to a regular schedule of visits as in 'More Friends of Mineral Town' and 'Harvest Moon Cute DS'. I had to re-enter my house each time to experience the visit, so could not wander far from home throughout the day on 14 Spring. It was worth the sacrifice, however, as I received gifts from ALL the bachelors.

I have to admit that I am torn between Vaughn and Mark for my final choice of Spouse.
Vaughn is difficult to court mainly because he visits the island only for a couple of days each week and is absent in the first year on the day of many of the Romantic Festivals. Very frustrating! I would have loved to have spent the Starry Night Festival with him, but he was absent on the day when the invitation would have had to have been made. I was thrilled when he came to my house bearing a gift on 14 Spring... it was not one of the days when he was scheduled to be on the Island!

In this post, I have included screenshots of the Thanksgiving visits of Elliot, Vaughn and Mark. Note the lovely 'picturebook' title on the upper screen. Every Event in IoH has its own screen title and many have their own signature music. The Romantic Heart Events title screen is particularly lovely.

Romance in Island of Happiness: Thanksgiving Festivals

Most Harvest Moon games include at least one Thanksgiving Festival in the course of the year, and Island of Happiness, like many other HM games, both has a Spring Thanksgiving Festival and a Winter Thanksgiving Festival. Playing as a girl, my character was able to give Chocolate to all the Eligible Bachelors in the first Winter and received Cookies or Chocolate Cookies in return on 14 Spring.

I was a little apprehensive as the Winter Thanksgiving Festival approached, actually, as Flour is not available at Chen's Market at the start of the game, unlike many other Harvest Moon games and there was no possibility, therefore, that I could make Cake or Chocolate Cake, the usual traditional Winter Thanksgiving Gift.
Fortunately, they all accepted a Chocolate bar, one of the few items that IS available from Chen ab initio.

From 6.00 a.m. through 4.00 p.m., therefore, I received visitors on 14 Spring... Even Shea, who ordinarily restricts his activities to age-old hunting and spear fishing, somehow managed to bake or buy a plate of Cookies for me! I have been able to experience most of the Heart Events now, but some of the Bachelors arrive later than others as their arrivals are linked to your character's accomplishments.

I have included screenshots of Denny, Pierre and Shea here. As Denny was one of the first eligible Bachelors to arrive on the island and loves fish, I was able to bring him to red heart level rather quickly. Pierre is an interesting character as he is related to The Gourmet in other Harvest Moon games, a descendant of that noble family with all the accompanying greed for fine cuisine, yet somehow able to keep a decent figure! Shea is kind of an intriguing 'wild child' who lives in the Jungle in the northeast area of the Island.

There is an interesting twist to this game. You can court your alter ego in the person of the character you would play if you had chosen the opposite gender! Mark, therefore, is the 'boy character' in this game and he will come to the Island only when you achieve 50% in terms of the 'Growth' of the Island. Furthermore, he is impressed more by your accomplishments than by any gifts.

Island of Happiness Preview

Island of Happiness, a new Harvest Moon game for the DS that will be released in August, promises the player excitement, new characters and a multitude of new challenges.

In this game, items, new options and characters, including some of the Eligible Girls/Bachelors are unlocked gradually, and in most cases, depend on your own achievement of goals.

The graphics are wonderful. Events are accompanied by a title screen on the upper screen of the DS that gives them a picturebook quality. Whenever you speak to characters, instead of a static portrait on the lower screen to accompany the dialogue, the eyes on the portrait actually blink!

In terms of farming, there is a new option to grow Rice in rice paddies in the northwest corner of your farm, but you must unlock this before you will be able to buy the seeds or enter the Rice Paddy area.

As in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl and the original Magical Melody for the Gamecube, you have an opportunity to play the game either as a boy or as a girl. There is a wide selection of eligible Girls/Bachelors in terms of courtship and marriage.

Most of the characters are new, but players of FoMT/MFoMT, HM Boy & Girl and HM DS/HM Cute DS will be delighted to find visitors from Mineral Town in this game! Karen and Popuri visit in certain seasons and when they return to Mineral Town, Cliff will arrive on the Island. None of these characters are eligible for marriage. In fact, they will have married your Rival in the Mineral Town/Forget-Me-Not Valley games and will speak of their spouses while visiting the Island.

There is a character from HM DS/HM Cute DS in Island of Happiness who is eligible for marriage if your character is a boy. The mischievous Witch Princess lives on the Island with her large collection of bears!

Much more to come in future posts...

Incidentally, I have been working on my guides for Island of Happiness and they should be published on IGN when the game is released in the U.S.

If you would like to know which Events you have experienced...

Players often become confused as to which Heart or Rival Heart Events they have experienced. This can occur because a player stops playing the game for awhile and then returns to it or it can occur simply because a player is unaware of the significance of an Event when it is experienced.

Whatever the reason for the confusion, I always include a section in my Courtship and Marriage Guides for the actual text of every Heart and Rival Heart Event in the game. Whether it is 'Friends of Mineral Town', 'More Friends of Mineral Town', 'Harvest Moon DS' or 'Harvest Moon Cute DS', you can find the text of all Romantic Events in the 'Heart Events and Rival Heart Events Guide'/'Courtship and Marriage Guide' for the game you are playing.

The section that gives the text of the Events therefore is not intended to be a 'spoiler' but rather an aid to gameplay. Much time and energy can be saved if you know which Events you have experienced and which you still need to trigger. Knowing which Events are Heart Events and which constitute Rival Heart Events is important as well. By including the text of the Events, heartache and heartbreak can be avoided! If you wish to marry the girl/bachelor yourself and have experienced three of the four Rival Heart Events without realising it, reading the Text section of the Guide can alert you to the situation, allowing you to avoid the 4th and Final Rival Heart Event that would deprive you of your intended spouse forever.

Separate sections in the Guides are devoted to each of the Eligible Girls or Bachelors in the game, giving the individual's birthday, schedule, likes and dislikes and a full schedule of each of his/her Heart and Rival Heart Events.

The Romance guides include detailed information on Courtship and Marriage in general, with all requirements for Marriage.

Links to ALL my Guides, including Courtship and Marriage Guides, are included on the right side of this page.

Why won't Kai come to the Valley in other seasons?

This is a response to a comment by a visitor to this site. The visitor asked why Kai won't visit the Valley in other seasons if you have unlocked the Mineral Town visitors by inserting FoMT/MFoMT into the GBA slot with HM DS or HM Cute DS.

Well, Kai is a guy who only loves Summer and refuses to work in any other season. In FoMT/MFoMT, his beach shack is open for business only during Summer. Likewise, in HM DS/HM Cute DS, he opens his stall on the beach in Forget-Me-Not Valley only during Summer. He may or may not open a stall or cafe on some tropical Island during the other Seasons... there isn't any Harvest Moon game at this point in time that features Kai working in Spring, Autumn or Winter in ANY location.

One does wonder sometimes how Kai manages to work BOTH at his seaside cafe in Mineral Town AND at his stall at the beach in Forget-Me-Not Valley simultaneously during the Summer seasons, but that is a problem in logic that is overwritten by the singular rules of magic embodied in Harvest Moon.

Incidentally, if you marry Kai in HM Cute DS, he will stay in the Valley with you, although he will maintain his philosophy of working only during the Summer season. One suspects therefore that he would not work ANYWHERE in Spring, Autumn and Winter, even in the hottest of climates, but who knows...? Harvest Moon is a saga that we hope never will come to an end.

Where all other visitors from Mineral Town are concerned, their patterns of movement follow ordinary logic: they visit Forget-Me-Not Valley on their 'Days Off'. Thus, Grey visits the Valley on Thursdays when the Smithy in Mineral Town is shut. Karen visits on Tuesday when the Supermarket in Mineral Town is closed. (The Supermarket is shut on Sunday as well, but Mineral Town visitors, apart from Kai, are allowed only one visit to Forget-Me-Not Valley per week.) And so on...

There is a game that may appear in the future where characters from Mineral Town visit an Island on a seasonal rather than weekly basis... but more about that in a month or so.

Once More, How to Marry Leia the Mermaid

In HM DS, you can marry Leia the Mermaid. In HM Cute DS, you cannot marry her, but you nonetheless can experience all four of her Heart Events (as well as those of other 'Magical Girls' in both games).

In order to experience Leia's 4th and Final Heart Event, aka the Yellow Heart Event, you must be aware of these requirements:

1. You must have experienced Leia's first 3 Heart Events and have Leia at Yellow Heart Level;

2. You must have a Mystrile Fishing Rod or Fishing Rod of a higher level than Mystrile;

3. You must catch the Bottled Message using any Fishing Rod at Mystrile Level which means, at least in the original HM DS, that you cannot have a Fishing Rod lower than Mystrile and, if it is higher than Mystrile, only charge it to Mystrile Level. (I think in Cute, you may be able to catch it with higher levels of Rod with a full Blessed or Mythic charge but I would have to look at my game journals to make certain).

4. YOU ONLY CAN CATCH THE BOTTLED MESSAGE IN SPRING.

In HM DS, you then had to go to Daryl's house with the Bottle in your hands to trigger the 4th Heart Event. In Cute, you can go there with the Bottled Message in your rucksack and it still will trigger. Either way, once the Event is experienced, Leia will return to the sea.

She will visit the Beach of Forget-Me-Not Valley after that each week. If you wish to marry her in HM DS and did not have her at full red heart level before her return to the sea, you can ply her with Big Fish then until she reaches red heart level.

Flora's Hot Spring Event in HM DS and Cute DS

I have had so many emails from players about this that I finally in desperation decided it merited a post of its own.

There are two ways to unlock the first Hot Springs in the original HM DS. The default method is by having a child. Most players prefer to unlock the option earlier, however, by experiencing Flora's 3rd Heart Event in HM DS and her 250FP event in HM Cute DS.

This event is one and the same in both games. Here is the schedule:

3rd Heart Event, aka Blue Heart Event: walking from Vesta's farm to Waterfall on any sunny day except Sunday, 11.20 p.m. to 12.00 a.m.

Note that you must enter the screen walking from the windmill area north towards the tent.

The prerequisite in the original HM DS actually has more requirements simply because you must experience all heart events in order and therefore must have experienced the first two before you can experience the third. In Cute, the only requirement is that Flora must be at 250FP.

Please pay careful attention to the time given in the schedule. A player once told me he could not experience Flora's Blue Heart Event even though he had been to the right location at 11.20 in the MORNING every day... The event occurs late at night, not in the morning. Go there between 11.20 p.m. and MIDNIGHT!

I had thought that one could unlock the first Hot Springs by having a baby both in the original HM DS and in Cute DS, but I personally never waited that long in either game. I always try to trigger all events as early as possible. It is possible that, because Flora's Event in Cute is based on FP rather than AP and therefore can be experienced both before and after your marriage, that it is the only means by which the 1st Hot Springs can be unlocked.

If I ever have a chance to play a new game of Cute again, I shall have to avoid raising Flora's FP to 250, have a baby and see if the first Hot Springs are unlocked by any other Event as in the original HM DS. Meanwhile, if any player would like to confirm to me that the 1st Hot Springs are NOT unlocked by an Event (apart from Flora's 250FP Event) at any point after having a baby in Cute, I will add the information to my Guide.

The Crisis of an inveterate Packrat...

Without being too specific, there is a game in the Harvest Moon series where one can own and place more than one Refrigerator and Cabinet in the house at any given time. Most players probably will not find this prospect particularly exciting, but I am the sort of person who collects items 'for a rainy day' (or the possibility of a Rainbow...) and I was delighted to be able virtually to double my storage capacity by using more than one Refrigerator. It is not pleasing aesthetically and I certainly wouldn't want to invite any guests to visit. It reminds me a little of my Animal Crossing home where I had the most magnificent Mansion and the rarest of items, but no floor space! I couldn't move for all the rare insects and fish cluttering my rooms, not to mention my own personal collection of rare art objects and souvenirs of alien visits.

The problem with having more than one Refrigerator and Cabinet, I am discovering, is much the same problem one has in real life. I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!!! I have to open each Refrigerator to search through the shelves, then open each Cabinet, often wasting my most valuable real life asset, which is TIME.

As I often warned players of HM DS and Cute who spent hours upon hours in the Casino winning Medals, you do have to spend REAL TIME doing it and that time is limited. If you spend all your real time gambling, even if you come out of it a virtual millionaire, what happens to your farm and your social life?

So here I am, spending far too much real time searching through my Refrigerators and Cabinets. I thought I was extremely clever to discover that the game would allow me not only to have more than one of each but to actually use them all at the same time. Like a miser who delights in his gold, I love to see my rare items... and actually am surprised sometimes to find an item that escaped my recollection in a slot somewhere, but it is slowing me down considerably.

A lesson here? Well, it's the same lesson I have tried to learn in vain in my real life. Clutter may be impractical but it appears to be a part of my intrinsic personality at this point. I often store items that are worth a considerable sum in Harvest Moon when I actually need money simply because they are rare and I like to be able to look at them. That is a minor form of insanity, I know.

So here

Harvest Moon and the Environment

Out of a hundred emails I receive containing questions about Harvest Moon, at least a quarter of these tend to be desperate appeals for help because the player gives gifts that an eligible girl or bachelor loves and yet, his/her AP keeps going back down to zero!

The reason for this, as I have stated again and again in my Guides, is because the Harvest Goddess who watches over the land is very strict with respect to littering. She has taught her people not to throw items recklessly into the roads, into the seas and rivers or anywhere else... In almost every Harvest Moon game, you will find rubbish or trash bins in the Village Square and in your own house. In some Harvest Moon games, you actually can ship rubbish items such as old boots and empty tins to obtain a little extra income. What you MUST NOT DO is throw the items on the ground or into any body of water.

If you 'catch' an old boot with your Fishing Rod, do not throw it back into the water. Take it to the nearest rubbish bin or ship it... or if you are playing a game that features the little girl May, you can give it to her as a gift and she will be thrilled with it. (She is one of the few individuals who actually LIKES rubbish, apart from the Witch Princess in HM DS and Cute who likes some rubbish items but not others. You can give the Witch Princess your empty tins and fishbones, for example.)

In some Harvest Moon games, you can pull weeds on your own land and toss them aside without incurring any penalties but in Harvest Moon DS and Cute DS, throwing even a weed onto your own field is considered littering. The Witch Princess may give you her own gift of rubbish if you toss 10 weeds, but although you have been given that dubious award from her, you will lose AP with eligible bachelors/girls! Do not drop or throw ANY item on the ground or water ANYWHERE in Harvest Moon DS or Cute DS. Affection WILL decrease when you do...

In some games, it is only the affection and/or friendship of individuals within a specific radius that will decrease when you litter. In others, the effect will be general.

It may be useful to add a note here about throwing a small fish into the ocean in order to catch the King Fish. You must do it if you wish to catch the King Fish in question, but it WILL be considered littering and you will lose affection/friendship in every Harvest Moon game when you do it. Make certain to remedy the loss as quickly as possible... that's the best you can do.

In some games, you actually can go to Confession at the local Church and be absolved for the 'sin' of littering. This is worth doing, actually, if you either have dropped an item by accident or have been forced to throw a small fish into the sea to catch the King Fish. Those players who, when trying to give a favourite item to an individual, have dropped it by accident when the intended recipient has moved away suddenly will lose not only the item and the benefit of the gift but be punished with a littering penalty! We've all experienced this, I expect... I usually reload in such cases, even if I am forced to relive an entire morning...

All Characters Events in Cute

I spent almost the entire morning today transferring the text of all Characters events from my own Cute game journals to my Characters Guide for Cute. The expanded guide should be uploaded by IGN shortly. I dislike the term 'random events' as events in Harvest Moon seldom are random in nature. Almost every event will depend on a variety of requirements which, once met, will allow the event to trigger. I therefore prefer to refer to these events as Character Events.

In Harvest Moon DS and Harvest Moon Cute DS, almost all Character Events are based on Friendship level or FP. There are events that will trigger when a character reaches 100 FP, 200 FP and 250 or 255 FP respectively. These events often have weather and seasonal requirements as well but once all requirements are met, the event WILL trigger.

Some events, like Galen's Fishing Rod Event, Flora's 250FP event and Nina's Stocking Event actually unlock new options. Others simply provide background information on the characters in the game. All events provide points towards your characters' Farming Degree.

The text of all Heart and Rival Heart Events is given in my Courtship and Marriage Guide for Cute and I therefore did not duplicate this information in the Characters Guide. The Characters Guide includes the text of all Events that are neither Heart nor Rival Heart Events.

I did not have sufficient time to cross-reference my 1st Year Events Calendar Guide to add information as to precise date and time of each event to the text section of the Characters Guide. For the date, time and location of any Event included in the Characters Guide, refer to the Calendar section of the 1st Year Events Calendar Guide.

Magical Melody for the Gamecube and the Wii

As more than one player has asked about this, I thought I had best write about it here.

In many respects, Magical Melody for the Gamecube and the Wii should be very similar and my guides for the original Gamecube version should be applicable in most situations but there is one very big difference between the two versions: you cannot play the game as a girl if you have the Wii version. If you wish to play as a girl, you need to purchase the original Gamecube version. Remember that Gamecube games can be played on the Wii, but you will need the 'classic controller'.

One more time: Rules for Heart Events and Rival Heart Events

This information is given in ALL my Courtship and Marriage Guides for every Harvest Moon games, but in the past month while I have been away from home, I received 1000 emails with game questions and many of them ask the same questions about Heart Events, so although this subject is covered both in my guides and in earlier posts on this site, I will deal with it once more.

There are two kinds of Heart Events in Harvest Moon games: Heart Events and Rival Heart Events.

Heart Events occur between your character and eligible girls or bachelors and when your character responds correctly, advance YOUR courtship. Rival Heart Events are events that occur between the eligible girl/bachelor and your rival. Your character is not involved in those events actively but simply witnesses them. When triggered, rival heart events advance the courtship of your RIVAL.

The usual number of Heart Events in a game is 4. The usual number of Rival Heart Events is 4 as well. In most cases, all four Heart Events can be experienced in the first year of gameplay, provided you have reached the minimum heart level required for each.

Heart Events usually occur at the following heart levels: Black, Purple, Blue and Yellow. The eligible girl or bachelor must be at least at the required heart level in order to trigger the Heart Event. If he/she is at a higher heart level, you still can trigger the Heart Events. In other words, you can have the eligible girl/bachelor at deepest red heart level (60,000 AP) and STILL experience all four of the heart events, including the Black Heart Event.

YOU MUST EXPERIENCE ALL FOUR HEART EVENTS IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO MARRY A GIRL/BACHELOR. You can propose to any girl/bachelor if you have the Blue Feather, but YOUR PROPOSAL WILL BE REJECTED EVEN AT RED HEART LEVEL IF YOU DID NOT EXPERIENCE ALL HEART EVENTS WITH THAT GIRL/BACHELOR.

All heart events must occur in the proper order. It is impossible to 'miss' any heart event! You can experience them in ANY year of the game. My guides tend to give the earliest possible date at which any Heart Event can be triggered but you can experience ALL of them later... No time limit for heart events.

All Rival Heart Events, on the other hand, cannot be experienced in the first year. Harvest Moon games tend to load the deck in favour of your character, giving you at least four years to win the hand of the girl/bachelor before there is any threat from a rival. The first Rival Heart Event can occur in the first year, even in the first week of the game, but the second Rival Heart Event cannot occur before the beginning of the second year. The third Rival Heart Event cannot occur before the beginning of the third year and the fourth and final Rival Heart Event cannot occur before the beginning of the fourth year.

It is only the Fourth Rival Heart Event that will kill your chance of marrying an eligible girl or bachelor. If you experience the Fourth Rival Heart Event of any eligible girl or bachelor, their marriage will occur a week later.

That is written in stone. Experiencing the first three Rival Heart Events, however, will not prevent you from marrying the eligible girl/bachelor. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO, TO PREVENT THE FOURTH RIVAL HEART EVENT FROM OCCURRING IS TO RAISE THE HEART LEVEL OF THE GIRL OR BACHELOR TO RED. ONCE ANY ELIGIBLE GIRL/BACHELOR IS AT RED HEART LEVEL, THE FOURTH RIVAL HEART EVENT WILL NOT TRIGGER.

Why should any player wish to experience rival heart events? Well, one reason is that every event gives the player points towards his/her Farming Degree level. Another reason is that you only can marry one eligible girl/bachelor in any Harvest Moon game. If you wish to allow the other couples to marry, you need to experience all four of the Rival Heart Events in order to trigger their wedding.

Remember: all four of the Heart Events can be triggered even if the eligible girl/bachelor has reached red heart level. The colour designation of any Heart Event simply represents the minimum level at which that event can be experienced. The colour designation of the Rival Heart Events, on the other hand, represents the MAXIMUM heart level at which that event can be triggered.

Heart Levels in Harvest Moon DS and Cute DS are:

Black Heart: 0 to 10,000 AP
Purple Heart: 10,000 to 20,000 AP
Blue Heart: 20,000 to 30,000 AP
Green Heart: 30,000 to 40,000 AP
Yellow Heart: 40,000 to 50,000 AP
Orange Heart: 50,000 to 60,000 AP
Red Heart: 60,000 AP and above

In most cases, the Four Heart Events correspond to the following levels: Black Heart or 1st Heart Event; Purple Heart or 2nd Heart Event; Blue Heart or 3rd Heart Event; and finally, Yellow Heart or 4th Heart Event.

There is one exception to this in Harvest Moon Cute DS: Skye, a maverick where any rules are concerned, is the only bachelor with five heart events. He therefore has a Green Heart Event that occurs at 30,000 AP. His Yellow Heart Event is his 5th and Final Heart Event.

The rules concerning the requirements for heart and rival heart events actually follow logic if you think about it. A Rival Heart Event shows that the eligible girl/bachelor is interested in the rival. If you have brought the girl or bachelor to deepest red heart level, he/she no longer will have ANY interest in your rival. You can sit back and relax, concentrating only fulfilling all the other marriage requirements and making certain that you experience all the Heart Events for the girl or bachelor you wish to marry. Red heart level simply means that the heart of the eligible girl/bachelor is yours exclusively. It does not mean that your proposal will be accepted.

For example, in most Harvest Moon games, you must have expanded your house twice, have the bachelor/girl at deepest red heart level, experienced all the Heart Events and have purchased the Big Bed as well as the Blue Feather in order to be able to propose successfully to the man/woman of your dreams. In Harvest Moon DS and Cute DS, there is an added requirement: you must have rescued 60 Harvest Sprites, thereby automatically rescuing the Harvest Goddess. Without the blessing of the Harvest Goddess, NO marriage can occur.

My Heart Event and Rival Heart Event Guides, otherwise known as the Courtship and Marriage Guides, include individual sections for each of the eligible girls/bachelors in any Harvest Moon game. In these sections, you will find a list of the likes and dislikes of that bachelor/girl, the Most Favourite Item (gift with the highest value in terms of boosting heart level) as well as a complete schedule of all Heart and Rival Heart Events for that girl/bachelor. A section at the end of each of these guides includes the text of every Heart and Rival Heart Event. The reason I do this is to allow a player to make certain that all the events have been experienced. Some players become confused between Heart Events and Rival Heart Events. If any doubt exists, all the player has to do is consult the text section of the guide.

One final point should be mentioned concerning the Blue Feather. In many Harvest Moon games, the Blue Feather usually becomes available when at least one eligible girl or bachelor reaches Orange Heart Level or 50,000 AP. This is not a high enough heart level for marriage, however. You still have to increase his/her level to red before your proposal will be accepted. If you have not experienced ALL Heart Events, your proposal will be rejected even at red heart level until you HAVE experienced all Heart Events for that girl or bachelor.

Skye is the only bachelor who has a Green Heart Event. For most eligible girls or bachelors, no event will be triggered upon attaining Green Heart level or 30,000 AP. This often is forgotten by players, as all other Heart Events simply require an increase of 10,000 AP. Going from Black to Purple is an increase of 10,000 AP. Going from Purple to Blue is another increase of 10,000 AP. Going from Blue to Yellow, however, represents an increase of 20,000 AP. Going afterwards to Red Heart level is another increase of 20,000 AP although, once again, there is no Orange Heart Event. What is triggered at Orange Heart Level is the ability to acquire a Blue Feather, a necessary accompaniment to any marriage proposal.

There are Harvest Moon games that do not follow this system strictly but most of them do. If you have any further questions, feel free to send me an email or post a comment here.

Good luck with your courtship of the girl or man of your dreams!

Freyashawk's Return

Good morning, every one! I returned home late last night to find 1000 emails containing game questions in my box (overflowing in fact, with AOL refusing to cram even one more into the postbox) but thought I had best publish a quick post here first to let every one know once more why your emails have NOT been answered during April. I had very little access to the internet during most of April. Now I hope to be able to answer all emails once again, while continuing to work on the upcoming Harvest Moon game for the DS and soon, the upcoming Wii game for Harvest Moon.

I missed my fellow Harvest Moon fanatics, but feel a bit overwhelmed by 1000 emails!

Announcement about Game Questions

I'm afraid I will have limited access to the internet for awhile and therefore will not be able to answer game questions for a couple of weeks perhaps. Links to all my guides are included on the right side of this page.

The Character you play in Cute

When you begin Harvest Moon Cute, DS, you have the option to choose between the Mineral Town character from 'More Friends of Mineral Town' and the girl character from Forget-Me-Not Valley in 'Another Wonderful Life'. Essentially, the game appears to choose your appearance according to the predominance of bias towards one or the other.

I tried many different permutations and here are the results of each from my own game journal:


Harvest Goddess: Dum-da-da-DAA! I'll be asking you some questions. Remember that your character's appearance will change depending on how you answer. Well, let's get started. Which do you primarily play, GameCube or Game Boy Advance?

Game Cube
Game Boy Advance
Both

GBA

Do you like blonde hair?

Love it.
It's okay, I guess.
Not really.

Love it

How about ponytails?
I guess I like them.
Pigtails are better.
Not really.

Not really.

Now be honest, which do you like the best?

Mineral Town character
Wonderful Life character
I don't really care.

Mineral Town character.

O.K. Your character's appearance has been determined.

You will get straight blonde hair with the character from MFoMT.

Which do you primarily play, GameCube or Game Boy Advance?
GameCube
Do you like blonde hair:
Love it
How about ponytails?
I guess I like them

Which do you like best?
I don't really care.

You will be the character from MFoMT with long blonde hair.



Which do you like best?
I don't really care.
Both
Not really
I guess I like them

You will be the character from Another Wonderful Life with red hair.

If you answer:

Both
Not really
Pigtails are better

Again, you will be the character from Forget-Me-Not Valley in Another Wonderful Life.

The Ultimate Walkthrough for Courtship of Skye

Here are the steps to take if you wish to court and marry Skye (and who wouldn't?):

1. Introduce yourself to EVERY character in the Valley even if you do not give them all gifts. (This is a necessary step in obtaining a Fishing Rod as well as you must introduce yourself both to Galen and Nina if you wish to experience that event.)
2. Go up the wide staircase towards Romana's Villa on any sunny night between 10.00 p.m. and 11.50 p.m. and Skye's 1st Heart Event will trigger, introducing you to Skye.
3. Do NOT expect to find him the next day as he never appears in the Valley on the day following any of his Heart Events.
4. Go to the Valley exit at 10.20 p.m. on the next sunny night to find him at the earliest time and give him any toiletry (sun block, lotion, whatever) from the Excavation Site to boost his AP by
+300 points and change your outfit daily to boost his AP by an additional +200 points, giving you an increase of +700 AP per day with Skye.

Once you have met Skye in his First Heart Event, he will be found in the Valley on any night when the weather is fine. He enters the Valley between 10.10 and 10.20 p.m. I usually entered Vesta's house at 10.10 p.m., equipped a toiletry in my items slot, then walked outside to waylay Skye as soon as he entered the Valley. His dialogue is romantic when he is on this screen and when he is on the screen with the Waterfalla and Goddess Spring. His path will take him west across the bridge and north to the Goddess Spring where he stands until dawn. His dialogue actually changes according to heart level when he is on the screen with the Waterfall and Goddess Spring and is heart-stopping in some cases.

All of his events, apart from the 1st heart Event are in two parts. You set up the event in the morning by going to the right location and agreeing to participate. If you do not agree to participate, you will lose FP with the villagers involved but you still can change your mind and participate in Part II of the Event.

Part II of every event occurs at Skye's usual time frame, between 10.00 p.m. and 11.50 p.m. but weather requirements are different where Skye's Heart Events are concerned. I experienced both his 2nd Heart Event and his 3rd Heart Event on rainy days. I experienced the 3rd on a sunny day as well, but I think the 2nd actually may require rain.

The most difficult event in terms of Part II is the Third Heart Event or Blue Heart Event because Part II requires the presence both of Flora and Carter in the tent between 10.00 p.m. and 11.50 p.m. On Tuesday, Flora will be out until late. On Sunday, Carter does not even enter the tent until midnight strikes, making it too late for Part II of the event to trigger. My advice: if you walk into the screen that contains the Excavation Site on Tuesday or Sunday at a time when it would trigger Part I of Skye's Blue Heart Event, reload your game without saving! Just wait until the next day... It is his most romantic heart event and it is sad if you miss it.

If you DO miss Part II of ANY of Skye's Heart Events, it will not prevent you from experiencing the next Heart Event or from marrying him. You only NEED to experience Part I but it is Part II that increases his AP.

Marrying Skye: You cannot propose to Skye in the ordinary way by flourishing the Blue Feather. There is NOTHING ordinary about this bachelor. You can show it to him but he will mutter something about your interest in other bachelors. Do not fret. Go home and go to bed with the Blue Feather in your rucksack. (If you are not ready for the marriage proposal because you wish to experience other bachelors' heart events first, just stow the Feather in your toolbox and the Proposal Event will not trigger.)

If the Blue Feather is in your rucksack, Skye will come to your house in the night and you will have the opportunity to give him your heart with the Blue Feather.

There are complete details about all aspects of courtship and marriage, including the schedule of all heart and rival heart events for every bachelor in my Courtship and Marriage Guide at:

[link=http://faqs.ign.com/articles/861/861637p1.html]Harvest Moon Cute Courtship and Marriage Guide[/link]

It includes the recipes of all the 'Most Favourite Items' for each of the bachelors. Skye's Most Favourite is Finest Curry, but you can make do with Toiletries from the Excavation Site instead until you have a Kitchen and a Pot (rather cruelly the last utensil offered by the Shopping Channel).
Skye is the only bachelor with five Heart Events. The additional Heart Event occurs at Green Heart level.


How to Make Skye's Most Favourite Dish:

Finest Curry

Ingredients:
Rainbow Curry
White Curry
Burnt Food Frying Pan
Burnt Food Pot
Burnt Food Oven
Burnt Food Mixer
Burnt Food Steamer
Burnt Food No Utensil
Utensil: Pot

N.B. Use a Weed to make any Burnt Food Dish rather than wasting good
ingredients.

To make Rainbow Curry:

Ingredients:
Curry Rice
Blue Curry
Green Curry
Red Curry
Yellow Curry
Orange Curry
Purple Curry
Indigo Curry
Utensil: Pot

To make White Curry:

Ingredients:
Rice Ball
Curry Powder
White Grass
Utensil: Pot

To make Curry Rice:

Ingredients:
Rice Ball
Curry Powder
Utensil: Pot



Schedule of Skye's Heart Events


1st Heart Event, aka Black Heart Event
Location: Walk from Main Path to Romana's Mansion
Time: 10.00 p.m. to midnight, any day
Requirement: must be sunny day

2nd Heart Event, aka Purple Heart Event
Location: Blue Bar
Time: 6.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. on Monday, Part I
10.00 p.m. to midnight, Part II
Requirements: Must be a rainy Monday, Skye must be at 10,000 AP or higher


3rd Heart Event, aka Blue Heart Event
Location: Go north along path from Vesta's farm towards Carter's Tent
Time: 8.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon, except Tuesday, Part I: DO NOT TRIGGER ON
SUNDAY!!!
10.00 p.m. (preferably 11.30 p.m.) to midnight, Part II, cannot experience on
Sunday night
Requirements: Skye must be at 20,000 AP or higher
Added requirement for Part II: Flora and Carter BOTH must be inside the Tent


4th Heart Event, aka Green Heart Event:
Location, Part I: Walk from crossroads across the bridge towards Vesta's farm
Time: 6.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. on Friday, except Winter Season, Part 1
Location, Part I: Vesta's Farmhouse on Friday, except Winter Season, 10.00
p.m. to midnight, Part II
Requirements: Must be a sunny Friday, not in Winter; Skye must be at 30,000
AP or higher

N.B. Heart Events usually are four in number. There is no Green Heart Event
for any other Bachelor

5th Heart Event, aka Yellow Heart Event:

Location: Lobby, Inner Inn
Time: 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. on sunny Wednesday, Part I
10.00 p.m. to midnight, Part II
Requirements: Must be sunny Wednesday, Skye must be at 40,000 AP or higher

The Incredible Potential in Rune Factory

I'm going to take a quick break from the Harvest Moon game I am playing at the moment to write briefly about Rune Factory as I have been receiving quite a few emails from players who have asked about the game.

Quite frankly, it is one of my very favourite games, inside or outside the Harvest Moon series. I studied sabre fencing and collect edged weapons in 'real life' and to be able to play a game in the Harvest Moon series that allowed me to forge and use my own weapons afterwards was the ultimate fantasy fulfillment for me. Furthermore, as some one who loves jewelry and designed some custom pieces at one time, it was very exciting to be able to make accessories at my forge in Rune Factory.

Rune Factory has incredibly beautiful graphics. The characters are some of the most attractive I ever have encountered in terms of their 'portraits'. The plot is compelling and you actually have the opportunity to become the 'saviour' of your country... but ultimately, it all works within the framework of the wonderful Harvest Moon philosophy: it is Nature who comes to your aid! When you defeat monsters in the mines, you do not slay them. Instead, you send them back to their original pure natural state, one that is not hostile. In essence, your sword frees them.

If you wish, you can tame the monsters and keep them on your farm instead of releasing them back to their original world. There are varieties of monsters who give you eggs, milk and wool. Other varieties can be ridden. I really loved being able to ride a monster who looked and acted like a wolf.

My General Guide as well as my Bestiary and Caves Guide gives detailed information about all the monsters and their precise location as well as the method by which each cave is unlocked.

My General Guide deals with all aspects of the game, including courtship, but as usual, I wrote little specialised mini-guides as well. Links to all my guides can be found on the right side of this page...

In the general excitement about Cute (which I share completely), it is good to remember that there are OTHER magnificent Harvest Moon games out there, and Rune Factory is one that was made for the DS, my own platform of choice.

N.B. The DS platform appears to allow games from any part of the world. Players in Europe CAN purchase the U.S. Natsume version of any Harvest Moon game and play it successfully. I am adding this note because Rune Factory has not been yet released in any European edition...

Always Meet All Characters in Harvest Moon!

There is a general requirement in Cute that you must introduce yourself to a character before you will be able to experience any events with him/her. Skye is one of the few exceptions as his First Heart Event introduces him. Even so, if you have not introduced yourself to Lumina, Skye's First Heart Event will not trigger.

In my own games, I always meet every character within the first or second day of the game, so I never had any problem triggering Skye's First Heart Event. It was only when a player wrote to me to say that the event would not occur for her that I realised a prior meeting with Lumina could be a requirement.

In fact, this was the case. When I suggested it and she tried it, the event occurred without any problems.

This information will be added to my guides for Cute, but for players who have had the same problem, I thought a post might be in order.

It does not really amaze me that most of the emails I am receiving about Cute ask about Skye. The Harvest Moon fan base is mad about Skye, but then, so am I.