Harvest Moon Forever: Chicken Sumo Contest

Showing posts with label Chicken Sumo Contest. Show all posts

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Contests in Harvest Moon inspire Excitement or Dread!

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Most Harvest Moon games include Contests and Games of various sorts. There are 'gambling games' such as Won's Apple Challenge and Won's Slot Machine game in More Friends of Mineral Town, and the Casino games in HM DS. These basically require an investment of time, but nothing more, as if you do not like the results, you can reload your game and try again... It is nothing more than a matter of luck.

Then there are the Contests... some, like the Cooking Contest, require knowledge of the game and how to fix a superior dish with the best ingredients. I personally enjoy these Contests. Animal Contests fall into one of two different categories, either requiring maximum heart level or actually requiring that one 'win' a physical contest. It is those that require one physically to win a contest that I sometimes dread...

In FoMT and MFoMT, I always will maintain that winning the Chicken Contest is a matter of luck. One can have maximum heart level with the Chicken, do everything RIGHT in terms of cheering on the bird and still LOSE one of the rounds... Yes, it is a particularly nasty business as one has to win THREE different battles in order to win the competition. In Harvest Moon Boy & Girl, it appears to be a little more within the player's power to win or lose than it was in FoMT and MFoMT. Even so, replaying the event is far more tiresome if you fail to win as you must replay the entire day. In FoMT and MFoMT, you could save your game at the point of entering the Square and then replay if your chicken did not win all three rounds.

Worse than the Chicken Contest, however, in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl is the Beach Contest on Opening Day. I expect that, if I wanted to replay the same day countless times, I possibly COULD win it in the first year, but frankly, two attempts was one too many for me. You do not have a chance to practice the technique, unless you replay the entire day again and again. The first year, you go into the ocean cold as it were, without sufficient energy levels (due to the fact that you would have only 3 Power Berries at the most at this point) and without any practice in the technique of alternating your swim stroke with your breathing. It is so humiliating. Every one else glides effortlessly to the finish line while your character keeps turning belly-up like a beached whale and then, finally manages to creep to the finish line where Rick waves his arms frantically. I expect it will be far easier in the 2nd year, when I have more Power Berries. It wasn't worth the effort of spending two REAL days replaying a single Harvest Moon day... I am stubborn by nature, but not quite THAT stubborn, particularly when it involves a Contest of this nature.

I did win the Chicken Festival in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl in my very first attempt, only to suffer the most crushiing blow AFTERWARDS. I had much experience with this Contest in one way, as I had played many games of Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town. The buttons may be different but the method is similar.
There IS an element of luck here, if your chicken is too close to the edge and simply moves without any encouragement on your part, but for the most part, if you cheer it at the right moments, and sit tight when it is in a dangerous spot, you can win all three rounds with a chicken with 8 hearts.

The crushing blow came when I completed the rest of the day and went to bed. I saved the game and awoke to a weather forecast of a terrible hurricane. I thought to myself: No way!!! Not on 8 Summer, when I finally had a decent number of crops in the ground...

Changing the weather, however, requires that you go back by a full day. I initially thought that going to bed before midnight potentially allowed a different forecast but, after experiencing the same forecast a multitude of times, I resigned myself to the awful prospect of replaying the Chicken Festival.

It was late at night and I was NOT enthusiastic. In one instance, I dropped my chicken when I spoke to Rick and he then simply assumed I was not going to participate! I left the chicken on the ground there and walked home to 'read' my diary in order to begin the day yet again... In another instance, I dropped the bird when I was trying to speak to Jeff and it got stuck between two people, under their feet literally. I could not pick up the chicken. Each time I tried, I spoke to the individuals instead... I had to wait for the chicken to wander away from the people so I could pick it up...

I did manage to win the Chicken Festival again finally, after a couple of losses in the THIRD round. At the end of the day, I saved my game before sleeping, praying for good weather... and this time obtained a good forecast, thank God!

Yes, controlling the weather may be cheating a little, but there is a point where I cannot face the loss of all my crops. After all, the weather forecast is random. Why should I be punished when I did not commit a crime? O.K. Life isn't fair, and Harvest Moon imitates Life, but...

If the game itself allows an exploitation or change in results, I will take advantage of that.

The sad thing about Golden Eggs in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl is that they are not worth any more than a plain white egg. Not one piece of gold more... It is only when you have the ability to make Mayonnaise from them that you will profit greatly. That day still is in the future for me...

Saturday, March 1, 2008

A very difficult life in HM Boy and Girl, but with rewards

Harvest Moon Log, Harvest Moon date: 3 Summer, Year 1. Earth time: Noon, 1 March 2008. I ask myself: 'Why bother with Harvest Moon Boy & Girl where the largest rucksack only gives me 8 slots and where at the beginning of Summer, I haven't been able to expand my house yet?'

Why indeed? There is a part of me that longs to spend my entire Harvest Moon life in the Forget-Me-Not Valley of HM DS/Cute DS, where each slot allows a stack of 99 items, where one can get rich on the first day of gameplay by digging in the Excavation Site, where my life at this point is rather easy and automatic...

Why did I have ANY interest in the PSP Harvest Moon Boy & Girl? My life is difficult there, far more so than in Friends of Mineral Town or More Friends of Mineral Town. The controls stick often, causing dreadful accidents where I throw away an item inadvertantly. Transportation is SLOW. In HM DS and HM Cute DS, one can buy a Teleport Stone in the second week of gameplay... Oh, for a Teleport Stone!!!

Having said all this, I still want to continue my life in Harvest Moon Boy & Girl. The graphics are wonderful, with vibrant colours and detail. Although it is very similar to FoMT/MFoMT in plot and even in terms of many events, there are new events to experience. In particular, the Blue Heart Events of the girls, hitherto the stuff of legend for me, now can be experienced firsthand.

When a game is difficult, moreover, the rewards are greatly appreciated once they are obtained. I have to say that I HATED the Swim Contest on Opening Day. I knew that I would. I did not win it. If I had been able to save my game immediately before I entered the Beach area (as one could do in FoMT and MFoMT), I would have replayed it again and again until I won it, but in the circumstances, where one must replay the entire day, I couldn't be bothered. I'll win it next year...

The most important motivation in continuing Harvest Moon Boy & Girl, though, may be the emotional attachment to characters. There is a real poignancy to some of the stories about characters in HMBG that does not exist in HM DS or HM Cute DS. These stories are included in FoMT and MFoMT, but I had forgotten how they tug at the heartstrings.

For example, there is the story of little May and her longing for her mother, Joanna. I just experienced the event where Barley asks me to help him find her, when she is missing... Finding her on the pier at last after 6.00 p.m., she told me: 'I hope Mom comes home soon... Then I can live with her and Grandpa, the three of us.' When I take her home to Barley, he asks her: 'Are you lonely living with me?'

Both children in Mineral Town are rather lonely. Stu lives with his disabled grandmother, Ellen. She is very loving, but cannot leave the house (apart from one incident in FoMT/MFoMT, where she manages to get to Kai's restaurant for a meal). Elli, his sister, spends most of her time at the Clinic. Until you engineer a regular babysitting job for Carter that includes both children, they wander about aimlessly alone, wishing for a playmate.

The story of Aja is another rather poignant tale of loss and longing. She is the daughter of Duke and Manna who ran off to the city. The Winery in fact was named after her, but she has not been willing to return and does not communicate enough with her parents. Duke's heavy drinking apparently started after her departure... Manna's loneliness is based on her longing for her daughter's return. Harris, the local police constable, is in love with Aja, but it is an unrequited affair.

For characters like these and for the excitement that new heart events brings, I am determined to continue my lives in Harvest Moon PSP Boy and Girl. Unfortunately, I now must gird my loins for the ordeal of the Sumo Chicken Contest. I hated that Contest in FoMT/MFoMT, although by being able to save at the point of entering the Square, I could replay it until I won. It was possible in those games to win even with a Chicken with only a single heart... but one had to be persistent. Even chickens with maximum heart levels could behave idiotically, again and again... I daresay it will be the same in this game.

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For all Harvest Moon fans and players

As Freyashawk, I have written about 150 guides for games, most of which have been guides for Harvest Moon games. These are published on IGN. IGN has given me the title of 'Mistress of Harvest Moon' and I strive daily to earn the right to maintain that title. Although there is a link page on IGN that lists all the guides published there, they are not organised by game, but rather given in alphabetical order. I therefore created this page in order to provide links to the guides I have created for each Harvest Moon game. If you access the General Guide for any game, links should be included to all other guides for that game in a section at the end. I will try to add links to ALL guides as time permits, but until I do, you always can refer to my user page at IGN for the complete list.

I wrote the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames as well.
Harvest Moon Forever!

How to Use my Guides

I write three different basic types of game guides. I usually write a General Guide for every game, which is fairly comprehensive and deals with all aspects of the game. It may or may not be in the form of a Walkthrough, dealing with game aspects as they occur. My Innocent Life General Guide is an example of a General Guide that is organised as a Walkthrough.

After writing a General Comprehensive Guide, I often write a Calendar Guide giving birthday and festival dates, with additional information that may be helpful, such as favourite gifts for each individual. For all Harvest Moon games, I usually write a number of 'mini-guides', such as Events Guides for each year of gameplay, or Recipe Guides that give all recipes one can make. Fishing, Mining, Shipping or Item Value Guides are other mini-guides that can be very useful when playing Harvest Moon. Character Guides give detailed information about every character in any specific game. My Courtship and Marriage Guide is devoted to all aspects of Courtship and Marriage, including schedules of Heart Events, Rival Heart Events and the likes and dislikes of every Eligible Girl and/or Bachelor.

Although this site is devoted to Harvest Moon, I have included links to game guides for other games. I created a separate link section for Animal Crossing Wild World as well, because I wrote more than one guide for that game.

N.B. All my game guides are published by IGN. This webpage has been created simply to allow players to find links to all my guides more easily.

Copyright Infringement Warning

It is really sad to discover that there are individuals who are willing to steal my guides and to attempt to publish them under their names. Fortunately, there are many players who recognise my guides when they see them anywhere on the internet and who are willing to alert me when some one tries to steal my material. I want to thank all those players for their help in these cases.

Some one stole one of my guides and tried to publish it on Gamefaqs under his/her name. The guide has been removed and the poster has been banned. I now have a contact in the Legal Department at CNet. I spend many months sometimes writing a guide. They are available for the private use of any individual without cost, but they are not available for theft!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town

You will notice that I wrote far more guides for More Friends of Mineral Town than I did for the original 'Friends of Mineral Town'. At some point, I would like to publish more specific Events Guides for Friends of Mineral Town, but players should be aware of the fact that ALL Calendar Events Guides for MFoMT can be used when playing the original FoMT. The Events are the same in most cases in both games. If, therefore, you are playing FoMT and you wish to know the events that can be experienced in the third year of gameplay, refer to the 'Third Year Calendar Events Guide' for 'More Friends of Mineral Town'.