Harvest Moon Forever: Seasonal Crops

Showing posts with label Seasonal Crops. Show all posts

Friday, December 5, 2008

Deceptive Harvest Moon Trivia Quiz

In Rune Factory 2, you can unlock new areas of each of the four seasonal Caves/Dungeons in the 2nd Generation either by simply slipping through the gates that were impassable in the 1st Generation or by satisfying the specific requirements given by each of the Altars/Stone Guardians that act as barriers.

The requirements for each Altar/Stone Guardian differ. In some cases, a request for a specified number of items will be made in the form of a riddle. In others, it is simply a matter of defeating a given number of Monsters at a certain location. In one case, though, you will be given a Rune Factory 2 trivia quiz.

The four trivia questions are deceptively simple but if you are a veteran Harvest Moon player, rather ironically, you will be more likely to give the wrong answers than a player who never played any game other than Rune Factory 2.

the first two questions are the trickiest. The third may give a little trouble if players have too many conflicting memories as well. The fourth is the only one that is straightforward.

Question 1. What is the name of the Event in the fourth week of Summer?
A. Dance Festival
B. Harvest Festival
C. Flower Festival
D. Fishing Festival

Question 2. This one is easy! Which none of thses cannot be grown in Summer?
A. Tomato
B. Corn
C. Onion
D. Eggplant

Question 3. Fireflies can be seen in Summer. What time do they normally come out?

A. 6 p.m.
B. 7 p.m.
C. 10 p.m.
D. 1 a.m.

Question 4. Two monsters can be found at Blessia Island - Clifftop during the day. They are Flower Lion and...?
A. Goblin Don
B. Chipsqueek
C. Troll
D. Goblin Gangster

For those who are unfamiliar with the Calendar in Rune Factory 2, the Festivals that are the choices in Question 1 occur as follows:
19 Summer: Dance Festival
13 Autumn: Harvest Festival
13 Spring: Flower Festival
25 Summer: Fishing Contest

Why then is this question tricky? If a player remembers the peculiarity of Rune Factory's Calendar, there won't be any problem. If, however, he/she thinks in terms of a 7 day Week, the answer will be wrong.

As for the second Question, I remarked upon this in a previous post when I first began to play Rune Factory 2. The traditional Harvest Moon seasons for Crops have been altered in Rune Factory 2. Two of the Crops given as choices here ARE Summer Crops in every Harvest Moon game, including Rune Factory 2. The other two are assigned to a different season in Rune Factory 2 from the one they ordinarily would be assigned in other Harvest Moon games. That is why the answer to Question 2 will be easier for some one who never played any other Harvest Moon game!

When you answer all four questions correctly, the barrier will dissolve and you will be given another fragment of the Stone Tablet.

Incidentally, for all those players who have asked why Barrett fails to react when you bring him all the fragments to any Stone Tablet, it is because you need to have all the fragments of ALL four Stone Tablets...

There is a section in my General Guide that deals with the Altars/Stone Guardians in each of the four Caves. It is incomplete but should be completed by tomorrow. There is so much information to add. Rune Factory 2 is one of the largest Harvest Moon games in terms of information. I am trying very hard to complete the Caves and Bestiary sections of the Guide now and I am adding a section that lists all War Trophies with the Monster(s) who provide them and their locations. I hope to add a detailed description of each screen, the Monsters and items found on each, as well as the locations of every Altar/Stone Guardian.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Farming in Rune Factory 2

For those Harvest Moon players who pride themselves on knowing the natural 'Harvest Moon' order of things in terms of crops and seasons, Rune Factory 2 will offer a challenge: the old natural order has been reversed in many cases, and you must be ever-vigilant of your own expertise. Some crops like Pineapples continue to be grown in the expected season, but others have been moved to different growing seasons. Onion is a Spring Crop, for example and Eggplant is a Summer Crop. Potato is an Autumn Crop. The flowers appear to be true to form. Moondrop and Toyflower belong to Spring; Pinkcat is grown in Summer and Blue Charm is grown in Autumn. I would have to consult my old Rune Factory Guides to see how the Crops differ in Rune Factory 2. All of the amazing magical plants in the original Rune Factory, such as Emery Flower and Lamp Grass, are available in the sequel.

Carelessness in neglecting to 'read the label' with respect to seeds can be extremely expensive. There are many crops that require more than a full season to grow to maturity. You therefore must limit the crops grown in your own field to those that can be harvested before the season changes. It would be a terrible pity to spend 54000G on a bag of Emery Flower Seeds and then sow them in your field. As they take a full year to mature, you will be saddened to discover they have become nothing more than Withered Grass when Spring changes to Summer...

A clever player will save money in anticipation of the 'monthly sale' announcement. A 30% discount on a bag of seeds that costs 54000G represents considerable savings.

In other ways, however, farming in Rune Factory 2 appears worry-free compared to Island of Happiness. Watering and Sunlight no longer are variable. In fact, you neither can over-water a crop nor waste any water in your watering can. If a plot has been watered previously, your watering can will remain full if you attempt to water it a second time in the course of a day.

Monster help is a great boon both on the farm and in caves/dungeons, but a player should be aware of the fact that any work done by monsters will not serve to increase your character's levels. You need to continue to use your tools and weapons if you wish to increase your levels in this game. A balance needs to be made between the advantages of monster service and those accruing from your own experience.

Something that may require mention is the manner in which seeds and other items are sold at the Pumpkin General Store. Most items are sold in stacks of 9. If your character wishes to purchase a single item, he must separate the item from the stack before he moves it into his rucksack. If you believe that you have sufficient funds for a bag of seeds but find that you are unable to purchase it, you probably have forgotten to separate it from the stack of 9.

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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'.