In which I babble about Harvest Moon a lot
So yeah, I play Harvest Moon a lot. Currently hooked on A Tale of Two Towns. It's a really good game, it's certainly the most fun I've had playing HM in a long while.
I'll give credit to whoever did character design and dialogue, the people in the towns are actually pretty interesting and make me want to talk to them, which tended to be a failing of the previous games. Also, I give credit to the bachelor designer - normally I play as a boy in the games, and even if there was a girl option I often didn't take it because usually the bachelor choice was complete shit (Another Wonderful Life, I'm looking at YOU) or there was only one worthy choice (hot Asian doctor yes marry me in every game you appear in).
However, in Two Towns, the girls are honestly really boring - only two have my interest, Reina the botanist and the Oracle (who you can't even meet until like year 2 anyways I think). The rest are all...kind of boring. But the BOYS. Three I had a hugely difficult time choosing between, and while I didn't particularly fall for the other three, they're still interesting and quite cute. In fact I had to delete my boy save for a second girl playthrough because I wanted to marry someone else. Being spoiled for cute bachelor choices is something new in Harvest Moon games, heh!
Getting married is ASS HARD though. Seriously, in a series that used to be a "game over" if you weren't married by the first year, I didn't get married in this one FOR THREE YEARS. Not for lack of trying - my chosen bachelor was at full hearts by the time the first year ended damn it! - but because I had no fucking clue what to do to get married. I got him to full affection, the blue feather appeared, I connected the towns, got the double bed, standard stuff you've seen in every HM game util now, blah blah...and then for the next TWO YEARS, ended up futiley waving the feather in his face screaming "MARRY ME YOU BASTARD I HAVE CATS" at the screen (Yeah I chose cat-loving florist Cam as bachelor #1). And he just. Wouldn't. Acknowledge. It.
So, I had to dig up a walkthrough. And here are the requirements to getting married:
-Six flowers (this game's hearts) or more
-Double bed (requires extremely rare Ore Stones, but otherwise okay)
-Year 2 or later
Standard stuff, right? Oh but there's more!
-Seen all "Flower Events"
-Be best friends WITH THE ENTIRE FAMILY
So. Flower Events are the special scenes you see with your potential spouse, that's been going on for every HM game ever, but in THIS game...mother of god. Okay, so, this game has a "date" system - on certain days, usually when the potential spouse is off work, you can talk to them and they'll suggest you go on a date if your affection's high enough. Yeah okay. Flower Events can occur on these dates as long as you have the required affection to see them. All right, nothing special.
But, get this, there are THREE POTENTIAL date days. Every date has a choice of three locations. And to top it all off, Flower Events require specific days, times, seasons, and weather requirements. So, to see these events, you either get REALLY LUCKY when you choose your date on a day with matching other requirements, or you have to be like me and look it up as to exactly when and where you're supposed to be going. And the fun thing is is that there are about five different date locations, and the three you chose from each day is brought up at random, so you might even get a day where everything else matches but you can't go to the location! And you have to see FOUR of these. Jesus! I had gone on dates faithfully with Cam three times a week and I did not see ONE of any of these events until I looked them up and aimed for them. IN FALL OF YEAR TWO. I basically went on over 100 dates and SAW NONE. That should tell you the probability of seeing these events on your own.
Jesus.
And then, if the potential spouse has family in town, you are required to befriend them. Which, while realistic, I've never encountered in an HM game before. And you have to get them AT LEAST to 4 flowers. Which is basically three or more seasons at the least of plying them with stuff they like (if you have a steady supply of their absolute favorite, this will go faster, but most absolute favorites are cooked items and cooking is a bitch in this game).
I tripped up on this not only because I didn't expect it, but Cam doesn't have actual family in town so I thought it was okay, but no. The people he lives with, Howard and his daughter-bachelorette Laney, are considered Cam's "family", so yes, you have to befriend both of them. Good thing there aren't romantic rivals in this game! So this actually makes both Cam and Ash bitches to court in that regard, as they both have two people you have to befriend to marry, as opposed to all other choices, which have only one or none. I guess it makes up for the fact that Cam is ridiculously easy to court himself, as a steady stream of mint, lavender, and other flowers foraged from the mountain will make him your best friend in short order - and if you have money, buying his flowers and then making them into bouquets to give back to him also hilariously works. (He doesn't like the third foraged herb, chamomile, though. Odd.)
So yeah, that was a gauntlet and a half to run. YEAR THREE. I WAS IN YEAR THREE WHEN WE FINALLY GOT MARRIED. Ffffuuuuu.
That's the thing with this game, as while it's a marvelous time-waster, it also takes damn forever to do anything in-game. Upgrades to your farm (or tunnel expansions to "beat" the game) only come once per SEASON through requests, so it takes FOR-EV-ER.
Oh, and speaking of upgrades, let's talk about crops and cooking. Oh yes. You bring the two villages closer together by participating and winning the Cooking Festivals held once a week. This wouldn't be bad if it weren't for the fact that GROWING THINGS IS A BITCH. The actual growing part is fine, oh yes, but to do anything worth anything with them, you'd better live in Konohana and have, like, at least five upgrades - to unlock the Seed Maker and...and whatever makes flour. Because yes, you need flour, and yes, you need a special upgrade to make it that you probably won't unlock to make until Year 2 if you've lived exclusively in Konohana from the beginning. The Seed Maker is especially important because ALL seeds you buy will be at the lowest quality possible. Always. You can use fertilizer in unique and obscure ways to raise the quality of the crop you get, but guess what! Once you harvest and use it, that's it. The seeds you buy to plant will always be shit. The only way to get better-quality seeds so you don't have to start from the beginning each time is by getting the Seed Maker, which will give you seeds of the same quality as the crop you put in. Of course, this requires being in at least Spring of Year 2 and having done nothing but expand your fields to open the option to get this. This is the ONLY way to get seeds yourself besides winning them in various festivals. So, you'll probably have beaten the game by the time you get seeds and crops truly worth your time.
Oh, but that "beating the game" bit. Requires winning in the Cooking Festivals, yeah? Thought you could use your homegrown crops to boost your winnings? Well, guess what! They're judged on quality. As in, the quality of the ingredients you used will determine how quality the result is. So the piss-poor crops you grow in Year 1 go into the dishes, and you get piss-poor results, which is shit because the fastest way to boost the town's friendliness is to WIN. And then there is finding the recipes, especially for salads, and that's just an exercise in frustration. Not to mention trying to make things that require shit like tofu, because soybeans take a MINIMUM of 44 days to grow, then you have to boil them to make tofu. (Mikhail, the bachelor I'm aiming for in playthrough 2, pretty much only likes tofu recipes - he HATES all other foods, only likes really rare bugs and items you only find in year 2 and beyond, and disappears all summer, and is generally a pain in the ass, but he's so pretty. I guess they had to make up for his prettiness by making him the single hardest bastard to court in the game).
Basically: start in Bluebell. Animals are more worth it. Life is more worth it. (By the way? The only way to get things like chocolate, butter, tea, and wine for cooking? Requires a Maker Shed expansion on the Bluebell farm. If you want to make cookies in Konohana hahaha fuck you because while flour occasionally appears in the general stores, butter NEVER does and has to be made. Of course you can use the other farm's facilities no matter where you live, but you can only open up and expand the farm you are currently living on, so yes, expect to either move a lot to be able to open up more facilities, or be prepared to live a long time without certain things if you're working exclusively on one farm to 100% before you move, like I am.)
One last gripe - I should have gotten the plain DS version instead of the 3DS one. Lags like a bitch on my farm and occasionally crashes when I go up the mountain if I've been playing too long in a row. The extra petting game isn't worth it, it's more of an annoyance because I want to just talk to the animal and move on, not indulge in a mini-petting game that wastes 30 seconds of my time.
And then, one last gripe - WHY DO ALL STORES CLOSE WHEN THE DAY IS COMPLETELY RAINY? They're open when it only rains half the day, but they won't open when it rains all day? And yet Cam, the FLORIST whose shop is OUTDOORS is the ONLY one who sells things when it rains all day! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SHIT! The guy standing out the rain continues to sell his flowers, but the people tucked into cozy buildings, completely dry, stand around with their thumbs up their asses if the sky is overcast all day? I don't get it.
But despite all these difficulties, it's fun! The characters are great, although slogging through the Cooking Festivals is a chore and the mystery requirements in marriage are painful. It's still a fun game, and the most fun I've had playing an HM game in a long time.
Edit: Wait, no, there's another issues. JEALOUSY POINTS. Whoever put this mechanic into the game, I hate you.
Yeah, so potentional spouses get jealousy points when you go on a date with a different one if they're high enough affection. That's fine. What's NOT fine is the fact that THIS CONTINUES WHEN YOU ARE MARRIED. As in, married. With a kid. And yet, when I go on a dat ewith my husband, it gives the others I didn't marry jealousy points! I wasn't even aware of this until Mikhail and Dirk occasionally started throwing bitchfits at me for no apparent reason and demanding I apologize. What the hell. I'm married! We have a kid! DIRK YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TWO FLOWERS WITH ME WHY ARE YOU JEALOUS. As opposed to Ash, who has five because I'm always talking to him and buying shit from his family, and I haven't had to apologize once to him. (But then, Cam and Ash are in-game BFFs, so maybe there's a hidden mechanic somewhere in that lawl).
Hilariously you can still go on dates with other people when you're married. This is more logical, however, as it'll piss off your spouse pretty quick. The points are reset if you apologize, I think, but still. Who made this mechanic still matter during marriage?
I'll give credit to whoever did character design and dialogue, the people in the towns are actually pretty interesting and make me want to talk to them, which tended to be a failing of the previous games. Also, I give credit to the bachelor designer - normally I play as a boy in the games, and even if there was a girl option I often didn't take it because usually the bachelor choice was complete shit (Another Wonderful Life, I'm looking at YOU) or there was only one worthy choice (hot Asian doctor yes marry me in every game you appear in).
However, in Two Towns, the girls are honestly really boring - only two have my interest, Reina the botanist and the Oracle (who you can't even meet until like year 2 anyways I think). The rest are all...kind of boring. But the BOYS. Three I had a hugely difficult time choosing between, and while I didn't particularly fall for the other three, they're still interesting and quite cute. In fact I had to delete my boy save for a second girl playthrough because I wanted to marry someone else. Being spoiled for cute bachelor choices is something new in Harvest Moon games, heh!
Getting married is ASS HARD though. Seriously, in a series that used to be a "game over" if you weren't married by the first year, I didn't get married in this one FOR THREE YEARS. Not for lack of trying - my chosen bachelor was at full hearts by the time the first year ended damn it! - but because I had no fucking clue what to do to get married. I got him to full affection, the blue feather appeared, I connected the towns, got the double bed, standard stuff you've seen in every HM game util now, blah blah...and then for the next TWO YEARS, ended up futiley waving the feather in his face screaming "MARRY ME YOU BASTARD I HAVE CATS" at the screen (Yeah I chose cat-loving florist Cam as bachelor #1). And he just. Wouldn't. Acknowledge. It.
So, I had to dig up a walkthrough. And here are the requirements to getting married:
-Six flowers (this game's hearts) or more
-Double bed (requires extremely rare Ore Stones, but otherwise okay)
-Year 2 or later
Standard stuff, right? Oh but there's more!
-Seen all "Flower Events"
-Be best friends WITH THE ENTIRE FAMILY
So. Flower Events are the special scenes you see with your potential spouse, that's been going on for every HM game ever, but in THIS game...mother of god. Okay, so, this game has a "date" system - on certain days, usually when the potential spouse is off work, you can talk to them and they'll suggest you go on a date if your affection's high enough. Yeah okay. Flower Events can occur on these dates as long as you have the required affection to see them. All right, nothing special.
But, get this, there are THREE POTENTIAL date days. Every date has a choice of three locations. And to top it all off, Flower Events require specific days, times, seasons, and weather requirements. So, to see these events, you either get REALLY LUCKY when you choose your date on a day with matching other requirements, or you have to be like me and look it up as to exactly when and where you're supposed to be going. And the fun thing is is that there are about five different date locations, and the three you chose from each day is brought up at random, so you might even get a day where everything else matches but you can't go to the location! And you have to see FOUR of these. Jesus! I had gone on dates faithfully with Cam three times a week and I did not see ONE of any of these events until I looked them up and aimed for them. IN FALL OF YEAR TWO. I basically went on over 100 dates and SAW NONE. That should tell you the probability of seeing these events on your own.
Jesus.
And then, if the potential spouse has family in town, you are required to befriend them. Which, while realistic, I've never encountered in an HM game before. And you have to get them AT LEAST to 4 flowers. Which is basically three or more seasons at the least of plying them with stuff they like (if you have a steady supply of their absolute favorite, this will go faster, but most absolute favorites are cooked items and cooking is a bitch in this game).
I tripped up on this not only because I didn't expect it, but Cam doesn't have actual family in town so I thought it was okay, but no. The people he lives with, Howard and his daughter-bachelorette Laney, are considered Cam's "family", so yes, you have to befriend both of them. Good thing there aren't romantic rivals in this game! So this actually makes both Cam and Ash bitches to court in that regard, as they both have two people you have to befriend to marry, as opposed to all other choices, which have only one or none. I guess it makes up for the fact that Cam is ridiculously easy to court himself, as a steady stream of mint, lavender, and other flowers foraged from the mountain will make him your best friend in short order - and if you have money, buying his flowers and then making them into bouquets to give back to him also hilariously works. (He doesn't like the third foraged herb, chamomile, though. Odd.)
So yeah, that was a gauntlet and a half to run. YEAR THREE. I WAS IN YEAR THREE WHEN WE FINALLY GOT MARRIED. Ffffuuuuu.
That's the thing with this game, as while it's a marvelous time-waster, it also takes damn forever to do anything in-game. Upgrades to your farm (or tunnel expansions to "beat" the game) only come once per SEASON through requests, so it takes FOR-EV-ER.
Oh, and speaking of upgrades, let's talk about crops and cooking. Oh yes. You bring the two villages closer together by participating and winning the Cooking Festivals held once a week. This wouldn't be bad if it weren't for the fact that GROWING THINGS IS A BITCH. The actual growing part is fine, oh yes, but to do anything worth anything with them, you'd better live in Konohana and have, like, at least five upgrades - to unlock the Seed Maker and...and whatever makes flour. Because yes, you need flour, and yes, you need a special upgrade to make it that you probably won't unlock to make until Year 2 if you've lived exclusively in Konohana from the beginning. The Seed Maker is especially important because ALL seeds you buy will be at the lowest quality possible. Always. You can use fertilizer in unique and obscure ways to raise the quality of the crop you get, but guess what! Once you harvest and use it, that's it. The seeds you buy to plant will always be shit. The only way to get better-quality seeds so you don't have to start from the beginning each time is by getting the Seed Maker, which will give you seeds of the same quality as the crop you put in. Of course, this requires being in at least Spring of Year 2 and having done nothing but expand your fields to open the option to get this. This is the ONLY way to get seeds yourself besides winning them in various festivals. So, you'll probably have beaten the game by the time you get seeds and crops truly worth your time.
Oh, but that "beating the game" bit. Requires winning in the Cooking Festivals, yeah? Thought you could use your homegrown crops to boost your winnings? Well, guess what! They're judged on quality. As in, the quality of the ingredients you used will determine how quality the result is. So the piss-poor crops you grow in Year 1 go into the dishes, and you get piss-poor results, which is shit because the fastest way to boost the town's friendliness is to WIN. And then there is finding the recipes, especially for salads, and that's just an exercise in frustration. Not to mention trying to make things that require shit like tofu, because soybeans take a MINIMUM of 44 days to grow, then you have to boil them to make tofu. (Mikhail, the bachelor I'm aiming for in playthrough 2, pretty much only likes tofu recipes - he HATES all other foods, only likes really rare bugs and items you only find in year 2 and beyond, and disappears all summer, and is generally a pain in the ass, but he's so pretty. I guess they had to make up for his prettiness by making him the single hardest bastard to court in the game).
Basically: start in Bluebell. Animals are more worth it. Life is more worth it. (By the way? The only way to get things like chocolate, butter, tea, and wine for cooking? Requires a Maker Shed expansion on the Bluebell farm. If you want to make cookies in Konohana hahaha fuck you because while flour occasionally appears in the general stores, butter NEVER does and has to be made. Of course you can use the other farm's facilities no matter where you live, but you can only open up and expand the farm you are currently living on, so yes, expect to either move a lot to be able to open up more facilities, or be prepared to live a long time without certain things if you're working exclusively on one farm to 100% before you move, like I am.)
One last gripe - I should have gotten the plain DS version instead of the 3DS one. Lags like a bitch on my farm and occasionally crashes when I go up the mountain if I've been playing too long in a row. The extra petting game isn't worth it, it's more of an annoyance because I want to just talk to the animal and move on, not indulge in a mini-petting game that wastes 30 seconds of my time.
And then, one last gripe - WHY DO ALL STORES CLOSE WHEN THE DAY IS COMPLETELY RAINY? They're open when it only rains half the day, but they won't open when it rains all day? And yet Cam, the FLORIST whose shop is OUTDOORS is the ONLY one who sells things when it rains all day! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SHIT! The guy standing out the rain continues to sell his flowers, but the people tucked into cozy buildings, completely dry, stand around with their thumbs up their asses if the sky is overcast all day? I don't get it.
But despite all these difficulties, it's fun! The characters are great, although slogging through the Cooking Festivals is a chore and the mystery requirements in marriage are painful. It's still a fun game, and the most fun I've had playing an HM game in a long time.
Edit: Wait, no, there's another issues. JEALOUSY POINTS. Whoever put this mechanic into the game, I hate you.
Yeah, so potentional spouses get jealousy points when you go on a date with a different one if they're high enough affection. That's fine. What's NOT fine is the fact that THIS CONTINUES WHEN YOU ARE MARRIED. As in, married. With a kid. And yet, when I go on a dat ewith my husband, it gives the others I didn't marry jealousy points! I wasn't even aware of this until Mikhail and Dirk occasionally started throwing bitchfits at me for no apparent reason and demanding I apologize. What the hell. I'm married! We have a kid! DIRK YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TWO FLOWERS WITH ME WHY ARE YOU JEALOUS. As opposed to Ash, who has five because I'm always talking to him and buying shit from his family, and I haven't had to apologize once to him. (But then, Cam and Ash are in-game BFFs, so maybe there's a hidden mechanic somewhere in that lawl).
Hilariously you can still go on dates with other people when you're married. This is more logical, however, as it'll piss off your spouse pretty quick. The points are reset if you apologize, I think, but still. Who made this mechanic still matter during marriage?