Harvest Moon DS

[illdog]

Started this on Saturday for no reason at all and now i'm addicted.

You certainly feel as though youve been dropped in the deep end, like the developers expected you to have played a previous outing. Luckily I played a bit of Friends Of Mineral Town on GBA so knew roughly what I was doing. A little exploration outside my Farm unearthed a dude selling a tutorial on DVD! After watching that im well away.

Ive heard this game is hugely rewarding but only after you put some real work on. I just sold my first load of turnips and got a decent pay for them so i blew that on a load of potato, cucumber and strawberry seeds. When they grow and i sell that lot i should be able to afford my first animals. But to contain em i think i need to build a shed. Obviously no-one wants to see me abuse them in broad daylight. At least this way I can charge for the show.

On other side plots I have to rescue 101 Harvest Sprites but im not at all bothered by this yet.

[illdog]

wiivo wrote:

Could you tell me IllDog, its unlikely but does it have more than 1 save slot?

It has 2. Girlfriend friendly!

[James]

Does it have a time limit? I remember the SNES version giving you a two year time limit to get your farm sorted out which was pants for a cityslicker like me.

[Noize]

I heard the DS version of Harvest Moon is too similar to the GBA one with useless touchscreen features added in...

[illdog]

Dunno about the time limit James, not that far into it yet.

And your right Noize, so far it is very similar to the GBA one and the touch screen controls are in no way revolutionising the game play.

Still kinda fun none the less.

[Noize]

illdog wrote:

And your right Noize, so far it is very similar to the GBA one and the touch screen controls are in no way revolutionising the game play.

Still kinda fun none the less.

It's just that I never feel spending money and investing time in a product that was obviously not taken seriously by the producer.

To me, a situation like this is exactly like EA churning out the same sports game year after year, only with an updated roster...

I'm not arguing that the game isn't fun, it might be, but I have a hard time paying FULL PRICE for something that seems only like a minor update or an expansion pack of an already existing product...

[illdog]

I totally agree, i wasnt popping when I said it was still kinda fun, just saying despite its similarity to its GBA predecessor its still Harvest Moon at the end of the day.

Luckily I got it for a present, i would only reccommend it to noobies. Its as good a place as any to start.

[Galactica]

I'm waiting for Rune Factory for my Harvest Moon fix, it won't just be a simple port with added controls.

[Sly Reflex]

So, I'm going through all the games that I bought and spent 5 minutes on before moving on to something new and shiny. After the smashed bag of arse that was Theme Park DS, I decided this game should be next up after a conversation with Bob about HM games.

Now I played The previous game HM: Friends of Mineral Town very lightly, as a companion to the NGC version of HM: A Wonderful Life which I did complete a few times. Like the other people said in back 2007, it's the GBA version with bells and whistles on. Originally I bought this game while I was working in the USA and gave up on it due to silly working hours and the fact that at the time I couldn't get on with its time heavy gameplay and quite frankly stupid control method that consists of a mix of buttons and touch screen at the same time, the touch screen stuff needs to be really accurate too as the menus and selection areas are really tiny so you can't just use your thumb. Hence it's one of those games where you have to hold the stylus constantly which as you can imagine is a pain in the arse. Still, I'm not going to let that get in the way, as if it's anything like the NGC version it will become quite addictive.

So far I have sat through all the crap at the start consisting of the Witch Princess making the Harvest Goddess and all her Sprites vanish with a misguided spell. I have no idea if I can actually get the Harvest Princess back and quite frankly, I couldn't give a monkeys about her. I'm in this to build up a farm and find a wife. I have seen all three of the women you could woo in HM:AWL. I already spent time with Celia the country girl and Muffy the bimbo, but the loner redhead with the bad attitude always evaded me and I never got to marry Nami. Other possible matches I have seen were Flora, the girl that works in the dig site, The Witch Princess and the Harvest Goddess. The little girl from the big house Lumina is also snagable, but that's just peado-tastic considering that your son from HM:AWL marries her when he grows up. I noticed some other women with hearts under there speech, but I don't remember any of them.

So far I have grown some turnips and done a bit of exploring and general tidying up on the farm, making lumber and stone from the usable materials scattered around which will be used for building the farms buildings. I also noticed that each time you use a tool it levels up a bit, I have no idea why as I seem to remember you could upgrade tools so that they could do more work with less effort, so the logic behind this evade me right at the time, maybe it will become apparent the more I level each tool up, who knows?

I'm kind of enjoying it, but I wish there was a bit more direction as the game really does throw you in in the deep end, there are bits that tell you how to do certain things, but it's nowhere near enough the amount of guidance that you should get in a game of this size. Hopefully I'll have the perseverance to work it all out eventually.

[Sly Reflex]

Another day, another update.

Played a bit more today on my breaks and so far so good. I found a gift that Nami likes so I'm spamming those her way everyday, although I think maybe something is going wrong somewhere because her heart is still empty. I'm finding those Sprite dudes all over the place and I've opened the casino they run, although I tried it and tbh, it wasn't that great. Basically you buy tokens which can be wagered on 3 different card games to win more tokens. These can be traded in to buy items from the Sprite store or you can make any Sprites you have rescued work for you at a daily cost. However, each Sprite you find has a speciality that they follow so some sprites can collect lumber for you, others can go fishing, basically there is a collection of Sprites that can do all the laborious stuff, which I guess might come in handy if I ever come into a insane amount of money and can afford the tokens to pay the little bastards. I won't be spending time playing the casino games as it's at the detriment to the farm and the relations I'm trying to carry off.

I spent a bit of time growing some veg, some of which I planted by accident because I wanted to put a load of grass down for when I eventually get some animals. Those plants died because spring turned into summer before they could come to fruitation, which was a hella waste of money, but totally my own fault for not checking what I was doing. I got the woodcutter guy to make a place for me to store all the wood I have harvested from stone as I didn't want to risk building it out of any lesser materials that would get destroyed when the bad weathers come. Next up will be a place to store my stone and a silo to store my fodder from the grass I am laying down now. Hopefully by the time winter comes I will have grassed all the area in the farm zone so I wont run out of free feed for any animals if I ever get that far.

I've knocked about town and met the trader Van and bought some shit off him while selling him all the crap I had cluttering up my backpack. I was hoping he would have a fishing rod so I could get some income from that, but all he had were potions and stuff for the house. I've also spent some time at the dig site but not really found anything of note, I am sure you get something from there that is important but I don't know what it is 100% yet, I think it may be ore to upgrade your tools but I really have no idea.

So far I'm enjoying it, I just wish I could get some feedback from Nami as I'm not sure what the hells going on with her. Maybe she is just ultra stubborn and you need to work extra hard on her.

Such a big game, it's hard to decide where to spend your time where every action you take means you get closer to wearing yourself out.

[Bob]

Sounds pretty deep.

[Sly Reflex]

Sounds pretty deep.

Yes. Deep like the sea.

[Sly Reflex]

Well, I have a fishing rod now. Not caught any fish, but at least I have something to catch them with now. I spent a bit more time at the dig site looking for anything interesting, but just turned up rubbish that I sell because Nami doesn't like any of it. Speaking of Nami, I am basically stalking her every move now, trying to figure out her routine. If this was real life, I'd have a restraining order by now.

[Hendo]

This brings me back to the old Animal Crossing days, every day there'd be a new tale to tell.

[Sly Reflex]

I don't think this game has even started yet tbh Hendo, I have plans, but they always seem to go out of the window because something distracts me. Tomorrow on my break I'm going to try and get some more grass down and maybe another building. Collecting the stone is a ball ache though. Also, I learnt that you can get 1 gold for each weed you pick, so instead of throwing them those mofo's are going in the shipping bin.

[illdog]

Its been so long since i played this i really cant remember how far ive got but i sure fancy picking it up again after reading Sly's Harvest Moon related tomfoolery.

Its quite a magical little game really, gives you the warm fuzzies in your heart/bum.

[Sly Reflex]

Today on Barry farm...

Takakura randomly brought me a horse that was following him about. It's the 1st big animal I have got and it makes travelling the town way faster. I think it stops me from getting tired faster too, although I have no way of measuring this. Still, if I want to get about town fast, hoofs are better than heels.

After visiting the dig site I was confronted by Flora who thought I was an intruder. After making the mistake of walking towards her she beat the living crap out of me. If you plan on romancing this nut case make sure you stand still when this scene comes up, otherwise you'll set your chances back a bit. At least I think it will, there is not really anyway of telling. Like you'd want to get married to a man beater anyway.

"I'll fucking deck you ya bastard!"

While were on the topic of the dig site, David Dickinson look a like Carter told me he had found a tunnel which lead to a mine but he couldn't enter it because he didn't have a hammer to smash it open. However, he did know I had one and he asked me to open it for him. Once it was open he allowed me to go dig in there for its treasures, which include ore ranging from useless ore, copper ore, silver ore, gold ore and some blue shit that I forget them name of. Once I had made it to the bottom of the mine I was greeted by one of the Sprites who told me this was the bottom and he didn't think I'd make it all way down here. The night after I went to the dig site again and Carter told me he had found another tunnel leading to another mine. Again I smashed it and entered it. This time the treasures were valuable stones which I am sure Van would buy for a high price. Either that or you could try giving them to the women you want to marry, it's bound to curry favour in the long run, as long as you don't turn into a cunt against them. The treasures in the 2nd mine are protected by flying insects and chickens though, and they will attack you and send you home all tired out and stuff.

"Come and hammer away in my dig site for 'special' ores young man!"

The Autumn came around and all my tomato plants died. I replaced them with some other plant, I think they were aubergines or something, I forget. I also kind of figured that because Nami likes the wild grapes that I have been feeding her to get her love that I'd risk growing some grape trees on my farm. In hindsight, I wish I had not put them on the farm land now, because they don't really need any care or attention. I should have cleared an area out out of the way such as the dig site plots to plant the trees as I think they only bear fruit every few days so are a bit of a wasted space on the farm land. If you are going to play I suggest you do the same. The never ending laying down of grass

Using the ores I found in the 1st set of mines, I sent both my axe and my hammer to Saibara who for a fee made them stronger and shizz. Now I have a golden axe and a golden hammer. Both are capable of taking down those large tree stumps and blocks of stone respectively. I used the hammer to break up all the big fuck off blocks that were making my farm look untidy and got Gotz the builder to make me a shed so I could store all the stones I collect from now on instead of lugging them round with me all the time. As soon as the winter comes, I think I wont be needed int he hoe, scythe or watering can so those mofo's will be given to the blacksmith to be pimped out and hopefully made less shit.

After what seems an eternity of stalking Nami in between all the usual farming business I seem to be making some progress. I have give her wild grapes everyday, as well has shown her my puppy (lol!) and give her my ball which she likes. Oddly even though I present my balls to her daily, the day after Thomas the Mayor brings it back to me saying I dropped it or something. She's an ungrateful sod. But...

...Her heart has gone from empty to been filled with pink. Romance is on the cards! Well, it will be if I can find the trigger to fire it into motion.

[Sly Reflex]

Well, another quiet day at work means I've been playing this again. Not decided if I'm finished yet, I might have another hour on it at home, but I'll post up what I did today when I have done. Quite a lot has happened.

Are you going to play through Illdog? It would be nice to compare experiences, especially if you go for a different woman. The start on this game has to be one of the most long winded intros I have ever seen in a game so if you do play make sure you put a lot of time to one side to get that stuff out of the way. Once that's done it can be playing in nice easy bite sized chunks.

[Sly Reflex]

I didn't play anymore today as I had a nap and then hammered L4D2, but here's what I did in Forget Me Not Valley today.

I started in the midst of the Autumn season, which probably has the most annoyingly shitty music I have heard in a game for a while. After harvesting my Aubergines (for some reason the Americans call them Eggplants ) which grew new veg every few days keeping me in a steady flow of cash. I spent a lot of time fishing and I now know why your tools level up every time you use them. Every time they level then colour goes from copper to silver, silver to gold and then from gold to the blue which signifies what ore you are allowed to use to upgrade them. Doesn't tell you this within the game, you just have to work it out. After spending ages landing as many fish as I could to ship away and make money I found out that Nami liked them as presents. An odd girl, she doesn't like diamonds or pearls or any beauty products, but will go weak at the knees when you give her some mackerel.

Going through the rest of the Autumn season, I went to a fireworks display. All the eligible women of the town were there, but not one of them were interested in spending the time with me to watch them get displayed on the beach. Not even the women I had been keeping in wet fish. I was sad. Later on in the month there was a sheep show, where there were a load of sheep on the beach being judged. Griffin, the guy who owns the bar and wants to sex up Muffy was stood near a sheep with his love interest. "This sheep has lovely eyes..." He said "...This is a nice sheep." I don't know if that was lost in translation or whether it was a sly nod that Griffin likes to partake in sexually abusing sheep. There is one thing for sure, when I get my sheep he isn't coming on the farm. The dirty old bastard.

"This sheep has lovely eyes. This is a nice sheep." - Griffin

Winter rolled around and the lousy Autumn music ceased. I was glad of this, mainly because the music that played in Autumn sucked a rancid cock covered in AIDS. The winter theme was nice. I stepped outside and everything was covered in snow. All the weeds had gone. In fact, the only thing left were the pieces of branch and uncut stone. More annoyingly, they are never replaced by more random stuff to collect for buildings, so I guess I'll have to wait until Spring comes around before I get enough materials to build anything. It looks like I'm just going to make do with spending the Winter time in the mines and fishing.

I made some huge leaps with Nami. I finally found her flirting events where I joked about sleeping with her in the Inn which she laughed off. At a later event I was left alone with her. She asked me to teach her a few tricks. Sadly they were all to do with farming. Still, it shows she is now interested full on. The little heart keeps changing colours so that probably means something good. I hope.

I'm 25/101 on the Harvest Sprites now, there is a channel that plays that gives me a hint what to do to find the missing ones and some of that shit is really cryptic. Some of it is really obvious though, so I guess I'll stick with those events it's asking me to do and those demonic little shits will be mine eventually.

On a side note the pedometer in game says I have walked over 52,000 steps, I actually think I got a Harvest Sprite for hitting 50,000 but tbh, it throws them dirty little mothers up seemingly random sometimes, so some event must be making them pop up.

More updates when I can be bothered to play again.

[Sly Reflex]

I might have to start playing this at home, because work has taken a turn for the better and I am actually busy now.