Harvest Moon Forever: Harvest Sprite

Showing posts with label Harvest Sprite. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Frantic Farming Strategies and Request

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More than a week after Frantic Farming was released, I am beginning to hear from other players who have found the game challenging in Story Mode and have not had an easy time completing every Story.

I wrote a little General Guide for Frantic Farming. Ultimately, I would like to include the actual text from each Story in the Guide, but I haven't had the time to transcribe them yet.

As I believe I wrote previously, my Strategy would be as follows:

Complete the game in Story Mode for both Chelsea and Mark, thereby unlocking the other two 'Modes', the Music player, the Records and some of the Character and Endings art. In doing so, you will unlock two new characters in the form of Shea and Natalie as well.

I did not find it that difficult to complete either Natalie's Story or Shea's Story.
In doing so, I then unlocked two more characters in the form of Vaughn and Elliot. It was after this that I met with my first real defeat in the final Chapter of Vaughn's Story. I still haven't completed Vaughn's Story...

In fact, this took me to the alternative strategy of playing the game in Story Attack Mode to unlock the other six characters. Doing so gave me vital practice in seeing how the Harvest Sprite moves and waters Crops. The tutorials are excellent but there is no real substitute for actual gameplay.

My biggest problem in Story Mode is running out of time in the Puzzles with a time limit. I don't run out of mature Crops as often as I run out of time.

I believe that the key to success is being able to use the Special Skill of the Character you are playing effectively. You need to 'set up' your Grid so that use of the Special Skill will have the greatest effect.

Another vital element in successful strategy is setting up the grid so that the Harvest Sprite's watering ALWAYS has the greatest effect. Chains, for example, increase his field of influence. When you are in a Mode that includes Stone-dropping, you need to make certain that you are able to break apart all the stones that fall on your field quickly without using all the watering efforts to do only that.

My own Touchscreen is worn out, which means that my own speed in moving crops is impaired. I think speed in moving crops is another vital element... and avoiding unnecessary or ineffective movements of Crops would be important where there is a time limit to the puzzle.

Big Crops and Gold Crops must be utilised to the maximum effect. Remember that, whenever a Big Crop is harvested, the Sprite will water a far larger area than usual. Set up your field accordingly BEFORE you harvest the Big Crop. Knowing when the Big Crops are set to appear is important as well. Don't allow nearly ripe Crops to be caught within the highlighted area... I often move Stones into those spaces when the puzzle includes those.

Gold Crops have two separate uses: when harvested singly, all other Crops of that type will become ripe instantly and be harvested. When they are at the end of a Chain, you receive a point bonus. Whenever the puzzle has a time limit, you need to bring any Gold Crop to the ripe stage as quickly as possible in order to maximise the benefit it will bring. Many times when I have been defeated, I had Gold Crops ALMOST at ripe stage in my grid.

At least, these are elements that I perceive... any other strategy tips from players would be appreciated!

Bluebomr2 mentioned a facet of gameplay that I neglected to add to this post: Favourites. It is extremely important to take note of a character's 'Favourite' Crops BEFORE you begin any puzzle as his/her Special Skill oftens affects only 'favourites'. These are not the same as 'Most Favourite Gifts', by the way. They are favourites specifically designed for the purpose of the puzzles in Frantic Farming. Each playable character has two 'Favourites'.

Actually, I'd like to make a Request:

If any player(s) would be willing to help transcribe some of the Stories in Frantic Farming for me, I obviously would credit them in the Guide and they would earn my eternal gratitude. The Stories I definitely still need are:
Lanna's Story, Denny's Story, Julia's Story, Sabrina's Story, Pierre's Story, Witch Princess' Story.

The only part of Vaughn's Story I am missing is the Ending...

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

First Look at Frantic Farming by Natsume

Frantic Farming could be considered a 'sequel' to Island of Happiness as the game is set on Sunny Island AFTER you have made the island a prosperous and popular location and persuaded all main characters to live there.

Those of you (including myself) who were rather infatuated with the silver-haired Vaughn will be able to unlock him as a playable character in Frantic Farming. In fact, you begin the game with only two playable characters in the form of Mark and Chelsea but each time you complete the game in Story Mode using a character, it will unlock some one new.

The Story Mode is based on a recurring theme in Harvest Moon (and Rune Factory). You are called upon to save your community from impending disaster. The other fundamental basis of the game is FARMING, which should come as no surprise to veterans both of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory.

The graphics are wonderful and the music is great. In fact, one of the 'unlockables' is a music player where you can play all the themes from the game on vinyl records. (It is interesting how vinyl refuses to become obsolete in ANY world, despite IPods and Zunes...)

Frantic Farming is a puzzle game and it is precisely what its name suggests: a game wherein one must harvest crops as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to move forward in the Story. There are other Modes apart from the 'Story Mode' in which a player can compete against other players as well.

Those who have grumbled about DS games that do not exploit the 'Touchscreen' option should be thrilled with Frantic Farming. The stylus is used almost exclusively. Crops are displayed on a small grid in squares in various stages of growth. Outside the grid, the Harvest Sprite awaits your orders. When you touch him with the stylus, he will move into the grid and begin to harvest ripe crops. It may sound simple, but quite a lot of strategy is involved. Whenever the Harvest Sprite harvests a crop, he then will water a specific number of squares surrounding that crop. Chains can be created that allow him to harvest more quickly and earn special bonuses. The legendary Gold Crops and Big Crops appear in Frantic Farming as well.
The puzzles can be quite addictive in themselves.

Note that the actual Mode of solving the various puzzles will depend somewhat on the character you play, as each character has a 'Special Skill' that can be utilised when a gauge is filled. The Special Skills can be dramatic or amusing. For example, Shea's Special Skill is a 'Crop Dance' complete with fire juggling while Natalies' Special Skill is the 'Sandwich', wherein a large Sandwich is given to the tiny Harvest Sprite to empower him to greater efforts.

What will make this game particularly attractive to Harvest Moon players, however, are the dialogues of characters in Story Mode, as they often offer added insight into their lives and histories. For example, Popper, the black bird who sits on Denny's shoulder, actually SPEAKS in Frantic Farming!

When I first began to play Frantic Farming, I was reminded a little of 'Princess Debut', another game that offered stylus action with an ongoing Story. Instead of practicing ballroom dances, one harvests Crops but in other respects, the two games are rather similar. There is a gallery of 'Memory' photographs to be unlocked for each character by completing the game for each in Story Mode. Records of scores are kept and players can compete either against their own previous records or against other players in Multiplayer Mode. There are differences, of course. In Princess Debut, you played a single character and it was the partner that you chose who would create variations in the Story. In Frantic Farming, you actually can play different characters and the dialogues and even the Chapters change in EACH Story.

I certainly would recommend Frantic Farming to any one who loves puzzles, any one who loves Harvest Moon in general and any one who particularly loved Island of Happiness.

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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.

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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!
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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'.