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'.