14.07.10 / Japanese, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, video game / Author: admin / Comments: (8)
Tags: bluebell, bokujou monogatari, farming, futago no mura, harvest moon, konohana, nintendo ds, twin villages
I’ve shelved TMGS3 for the time being while I decide which guy to go for next. I’m very satisfied after dating Konno-senpai, so to throw myself back in the dating game for an inferior guy is like, hmm… But I get the feeling Shitara’s route will be all kinds of awesome, so maybe I’ll do that. Thanks to all who wrote about how to change the picture on my desk. I thought for sure Fujiyama was stalking me, *brrr!*
Right now I’m playing Harvest Moon: Twin Villages (a.k.a Bokujou Monogatari: Futago no Mura)! I used to really love Harvest Moon games, but most of the recent ones have been iffy-to-okay, not great. Sunshine Islands would have been great if I hadn’t played it right after Island of Happiness. The similarities between the two made SI feel very stale and unoriginal. In the same way there are a lot of similarities between Twin Villages and Grand Bazaar, particularly in terms of the art style and controls, so it lacks a bit of freshness.
As far as the story goes, there are two villages you can live in: Bluebell Village and Konohana Village. Hundreds of years ago the two mayors had a falling out and the two villages have theoretically been on bad terms ever since. Theoretically. I came into the game expecting some real rivalry and hostility between the two villages, but everyone’s actually really friendly. Even the two mayors have more of a friendly rivalry, they say the funniest things when they compete in the cooking contest (taking part in which is the only way to reunite the villages, go figure). Plus you can go to any of the villages any time you want, shop there all you want, do quests for the other villages, talk to people, you might even be able to woo the girls on the other side with no real consequences, and basically have a good time with no restrictions.
Futhermore, Bluebell is supposed to be the “ranching” village and Konohana the “farming” village, but you can start 
keeping cows and chickens in Konohana right away (mine keep falling sick, though), and I’m pretty sure you can grow crops in Bluebell too. What that means is that apart from the decor, there’s not much to choose between the two. Even better, you can up and move to the other village between the 23rd and the 30th of every season if you want. I’m yet to figure out why this would be a good idea when you can travel there any time, but this is more evidence that the rivalry is practically non-existent.
As far as the game itself goes, I’m only on Year 1 Spring 26, so I don’t want to come down too hard on it just yet. I’ll limit myself to two complaints for now: One, the map is rubbish. Remember the map from Sunshine Islands, how you could see where everyone was with one glance? In Rune Factory 3 the map even tracked movements, which was really convenient. Yeah, well, say goodbye to all that. Twin Villages’ map is awful and lacks a lot of detail. You can only see where your character is at any point in time, nobody else. You get a slightly more indepth map when you’re in town, but when you’re exploring the mountains and other places, tough luck. It wasn’t so bad in Grand Bazaar because there weren’t that many places to go, but in Twin Villages it’s extremely annoying.
Second complaint, time still moves way too slowly. They brought back that system from Grand Bazaar where if you water the crops twice a day they grow faster, but the minutes pass so slowly that you’ll be done with all your watering, foraging and quests with game-hours to spare. Luckily I learned my lesson in the last game, so I don’t chase those extra days, I just go to bed. Unfortunately the time affects other things, particularly festivals. Most of them start in the afternoon, so you might have to wait up to five real-time minutes to progress with the game if you’re taking part in one. It sounds short, but there’s nothing to DO while you’re waiting, so you’re just sitting there staring at the screen…staring…staring…starinZzZzZz…
But still, I just started. After having to eat crow on my initial Atelier Lina review, I’m going to be as optimistic as possible about this game until I’ve finished at least one year. I’ll write a second post on the game then.
03.01.10 / RPGs, shin megami tensei, video game / Author: admin / Comments: (2)
Tags: angelique special 2, apollo, chaos, digital devil saga, dragon quest 9, harvest moon, shin megami tensei, shion, strange journey, twin villages, xenosaga iii
Finally finished Xenosaga III, and with it the whole series. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay in all three games, even the undoubtedly inferior II. I also liked most of the characters, except that stubborn, idiotic, moronic Shion. People talk about how fresh it is to have a female character as the lead, but Shion only makes girls look bad, being dumb, weak-willed, dishonest, helpless, only finding meaning in and being redeemed by the males in her life (Kevin, Allen, Jin). But apart from her I enjoyed all the other characters, especially chaos. Throughout the series I was hoping he had a really unique backstory and interesting powers, but we find out everything about him in the last 30 minutes of the entire series and it’s not that interesting either, so…yeah. I learned a lot more about him from reading wikis than I ever did from the game itself. That’s the sure sign of bad writing and an overly-complicated plot.
Real life kept me from playing a lot of games last year, so I’m going to be much less ambitious in my gaming plans this year. There are only a few major games I want to finish, and then I’ll leave the rest to chance, or to whenever something I just *have* to play comes out. Here’s what I want to get done, ASAP:
1. Saga 2. I just killed Apollo, I think I have just one more boss to go.
2. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – I’ve had it for a while but I haven’t even started it yet.
3. Harvest Moon: Twin Villages. When it comes out, I’m gonna be all over it!
4. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2: Almost done with 1, I just went back to kill a few side-bosses and now they’re kicking my ass.
5. Angelique Special 2: Old game for PSX, but it’s been on my mind lately.
6. Dragon Quest 9: I’m a few levels into this. It’s interesting, but not especially gripping. But I’ll get to it sometime.
7. Atelier Lina: Lise and Annie were pretty much fail as far as I’m concerned, so I haven’t been in a hurry to get to this one. I wish they’d go back to the pure alchemy-centrism of the older games.
If I manage to finish just these by the end of the year, it’ll be enough for me. Yeah, I’m that busy.
18.12.09 / RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Tags: harvest moon, island of happiness, nintendo ds, rpg
Island of Happiness cover
I’m doing a replay of this game, ever since I gave up on it back when it first came out, out of boredom. I’ve made it to Winter 1 and now I’m rediscovering why I quit the first time. Winter is boring! I’d forgotten how boring because the most recent HM games I played, RF2 and 3, had winter farming and lots of other stuff to do. In IoH it’s wake up, feed animals, wrangle wonderfuls out of Chen, mine if I want, sleep. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
Mining is kinda fun though, and this time round I definitely want to get married so I’m toughing things out. My goal now is to make a ton of money in the mines this season, buy as many town upgrades as I can in spring, get married, have a kid and then put at end to the game. I hate having unfinished business.
You might be wondering what’s happening with the more recent games I’ve been playing (Saga 2 DS, DQIX) and why I’m playing old stuff over them. Well, I’m wondering that myself. I guess it’s just the case that sometimes the old, familiar game is more fun to play than the newer, drier ones. But I’ll get back to them eventually.
08.12.09 / Japanese, RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Tags: ash, camille, harvest moon, kamil, leah, lia, nintendo ds, rpg, twin villages
As I said in an earlier post, I’m assuming Marvelous is going with 4 marriage candidates each for its main characters. Unless they announce any more, it looks like it’ll be 2 girls each from Bluebell and Konohana, and 2 guys each from Bluebell and Konohana. Of course I could be wrong… Anyway, time to compile the details I have so far on the potential partners from Bluebell.
GUYS
Ash
Ash (アーシェ)
“He runs a rival farm. He’s always kind to everyone because he believes it’s a man’s duty to protect weak people and small things. As such he’s especially kind to women, children and elderly people.” He looks and sounds pretty boring and generic to me. Next!
Camille
Camille (カミル)
“A quiet guy, doesn’t talk much about himself. Has a great sense for flower design (?) and stuff along those lines. His dream is to someday win a flower arranging contest (!). Likes cats.” Okay, not to perpetuate stereotypes or anything, but that doesn’t sound very manly to me. Flower arranging!? He’s even called “Camille!”
GIRLS
Lia
Lia (リア)
I’ve also seen the name romanized as Leah, but I think Lia is cuter. “She’s very popular in the village because she’s cheerful, considerate and organized. She likes to make tea and candy. She wants to open a shop in the city one day so that people can enjoy the sweets and tea she makes.” Not bad, not bad. She’s a bit bland, but not bad.
Raspberry (ラスベリー)
Raspberry
“Blunt, lighthearted, doesn’t discriminate against anyone. She’s usually optimistic, but she does get depressed sometimes. She can also be quick-tempered. She moved to this village as a child, but she still has the accent from her hometown.” Kyoooot! Even her name is cute, and I like her design and outfits. Looks like I’m playing as a boy this time round. Based on the one screenshot they showed of her, it looks like she speaks in a Kansai accent.
Looking good, Marvelous! Keep me posted!
06.12.09 / Japanese, RPGs, harvest moon, nintendo ds / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Tags: dragon quest 9, goddess of destiny, harvest moon, innocent life, rpg, square-enix
Cover art
Also known as Final Fantasy Legend II in the West, this game was remade for the Nintendo DS earlier this year. I never played the original but I’ve played some of the other Saga games and liked them a lot, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this game. I’ve got a team of two humans, a robot and an esper. The male human (Seamus) and the robot (Kannon) focus on power attacks while the female human (Liruka) and the esper (Mokochan) focus on magical attacks. It’s been working out great so far. I just beat Odin by the skin of my teeth but the random battles in that area are brutal!
The nice thing about this, and other Saga games is that stat ups are random, so you can just move on with the story without worrying too much about levelling up. You’ll get stronger when you get stronger, pretty much. Wikipedia claims that “unlike the original, where a character’s stat increases through gaining levels was largely randomized, characters now become stronger in a “less opaque” fashion, with more defined growth tables for each playable character,” but a casual player like me doesn’t want to mess with tables and figures and stuff like that. And of course if you run into an area where you’re having problems, you can always go back to the first town, equip your weakest items and grind a bit. You gain stats the same, whether you’re fighting in the final dungeon or the first dungeon. Money’s a bit tight in the early stages, but at this point I have 350,000g to play around with so I don’t have to suffer to get stronger.
The only thing that’s been bothering me is my defence. It’s terrible! I hear you can train it by using shields, but I’ve got to wonder about that. I haven’t had a single defence level up in my whole game,my only defence comes from the equipment and magi I put on. Will I be okay for the Final boss like this? ‘Cos all the boss battles so far have been reaming my buttocks, first Venus, then Odin, now who’s next? Hmm…to go back and grind a bit or not to go back and grind a bit? I think I’ll go a bit further till I hit the next boss and see what I’ll need to do to take him out. Hopefully I’l run into a store that has uber-equipment so I can buff up a bit more.
Anyway, that’s how it’s going. I think I’m almost done with this game, and then I’ll be able to concentrate more fully on Dragon Quest 9 and Harvest Moon: Innocent Life (PS2) and the other dozen games I’m playing right now. Go, go Seamus!
05.12.09 / RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, video game / Author: admin / Comments: (2)
Tags: dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, rpg, twin villages
By now everyone must have heard about the latest upcoming Harvest Moon game for the Nintendo DS: Twin Villages. You can pick either the Westernized village of Bluebell or the Japanese-style village of Konohana to farm in, and what you get to do depends on where you choose to live. Bluebell is more about ranching, and you get to raise alpacas and other creatures, and keep an apiary too. Konohana is farming-oriented, so you can grow and process all kinds of crops. The mayors of both towns try to woo you and get you to come to their villages. Long ago the two villages were friends, but now they’re rivals. I bet anything the main objective of the game is to make them friends again through farming/ranching.
Anyway, I found shots and descriptions of the main characters on the official site, so I thought I’d post them here.
The male hero
The Hero
His outfit on the left is what he wears in Konohana, the one of the right is what he’ll wear if you pick Bluebell. According to the website he loves natures and has dreamed of living in a place with lots of greenery since he was a child. He moves to the villages in order to fulfill this dream. He’s a curious person who never gives up or backs down from a challenge.
The Heroine
The heroine
Her Bluebell outfit is on the left and her Konohana outfit is on the right. Her description goes as follows: A cheerful girl who loves to grow plants and raise animals. She goes to the village to fulfill her dream of being a farm owner. She has a gentle nature who is good at taking care of people and can empathize with others’ feelings.
Normally I like to pick the guy in Harvest Moon games, but this time I like the girl’s design and outfit better. I won’t even complain that it’s sexist that the guy is all “bold” and the girl is all “gentle” in this kind of game.
So far only 6 marriage candidates have been introduced, but I’m thinking there’ll be a total of 4 for each hero(ine). I’m all for reducing the number of candidates, so long as there’s an accompanying increase in things to do in the game. None of the HM games have been able to avoid getting boring after a year or two, but maybe HM:TV will be the first. I’m looking forward to it!!
Harvest Moon: Twin Villages comes out February 25th in Japan!
02.12.09 / Japanese, RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, rune factory 3 / Author: admin / Comments: (1)
Tags: carlos, don charcos, eliza, gaji, harvest moon, hazel, marjorie, monica, ondolfar, rpg, rune factory 3, rusk, shinonome, zeze
Somewhere in my heart I’m not quite ready to let RF3 go yet, though I am looking forward to the upcoming “Twin Villages“. So while there’s still lingering affection in my heart for this game, I thought I’d do a quick write-up of the villagers in the game (excluding the marriage candidates) and their likes and dislikes. If I still feel up to it later I’ll do the marriage candidates as well.
Wells
Head of the village. Monica and Shia’s grandfather. Dislikes monsters but is generally a good guy.
Birthday: Winter 19
Favorites: Dango (だんご), expensive flowers (高級な花), mago no te (まごの手).
Also likes: Japanese food, grilled fish, sashimi, ordinary flowers.
Hates: Jams, cakes.
Monica
Wells’ granddaughter, Shia’s little sister. Cries easily and has a penchant for biting. Dislikes anyone who takes Shia’s attention away from her.
Birthday: Spring 26
Favorites: Expensive flowers (高級な花), rings, arm rings and other accessories.
Also likes: Jewels, knit items, ordinary flowers.
Hates: Fish, sashimi (刺身), grilled fish.
Gaji
Touna’s guardian/brother figure. Owns the weapon store. A quiet considerate guy who understands more than he usually lets on.
Birthday: Summer 12
Favorites: Curry udon (カレーうどん), gold (金), platina (プラチナ).
Also likes: Metal ore (including junk ore), udon dishes.
Hates: Sashimi (刺身).
Gluten
Father of Chocola and Rusk. Runs the town restaurant. His cooking is so good travelers come from far away to try it. Likes chocolate so much he named his daughter after it. No, seriously.
Birthday: Fall 10
Favorites: Chocolate cake (チョコレートケーキ), hot chocolate (ホットチョコレート), chocolate cookies (チョコクッキー).
Also likes: Sweet snacks, honey (ハチミツ), chocolate (チョコレート).
Hates: Wine (お酒).
Rusk
Gluten’s son, Chocola’s younger brother. A notoriously finicky eater who hates vegetables of all kinds but loves sweets.
Birthday: Spring 26
Favorites: Chocolate cake (チョコレートケーキ), hot chocolate (ホットチョコレート), chocolate cookies (チョコクッキー).
Also likes: Sweet snacks, honey (ハチミツ), chocolate (チョコレート).
Hates: Vegetables.
Marjorie
Marion’s wise grandma. A sensible old lady with a wealth of knowledge about magic and medicines. Will revive you if you pass out (for a healthy sum of money).
Birthday: Winter 11
Favorites: Relax tea leaves (リラックス茶の葉), relax tea (リラックスティー).
Also likes: Colored grasses.
Hates: Cheese (チーズ) and cheese dishes.
Hazel
Karin’s hot but sharp-tongued mother. She’s openly critical of her daughter but really loves her and wants what’s best for her.
Birthday: Spring 8
Favorites: Diamonds (ダイヤモンド), diamond ring (ダイヤモンドの指輪), diamond brooch (ダイヤモンドブローチ).
Also likes: Vegetables, cakes
Hates: Desert fish (砂漠の魚) and desert fish dishes.
Don Charcos
What’s Rune Factory without a fat, food-loving rich guy? Don Charcos is Eliza and Sophia’s dad. Like Sophia he has a habit of saying the opposite of whatever he means.
Birthday: Summer 8
Favorites: Fried sand flounder (焼き砂ヒラメ), boiled rockfish (岩石魚の煮付け).
Also likes: All cooked food.
Hates: Ores.
Eliza
Don Charcos’s daughter, Sophia’s older sister. A fashion designer with a very unique sense of fashion, Eliza also runs a store that sells home furniture and clothes. She’s got a very nice, mature personality, I really wish she was a marriage candidate.
Birthday: Spring 21
Favorites: High quality fur (上質の毛皮), ball of wool (毛糸玉).
Also likes: Sheep down (モコ綿), pretty spider silk (キレイなクモ糸), fish.
Hates: Mushrooms (きのこ).
Shinonome
Runs the local inn and bathhouse. Smiles a lot but is tougher than she looks.
Birthday: Winter 26
Favorites: All sashimi (刺身).
Also likes: Mushrooms (キノコ).
Hates: Fruits and fruit dishes.
Carlos
Aion’s overprotective, overloving big brother. Has a sunny, thoughtless personality. Loves fishing and runs the fishing hole with his sister.
Birthday: Summer 3
Favorites: Shining tai (カガヤキタイ), tokimeki tai (トキメキタイ) and all tai (sea bream) dishes.
Also likes: Fish.
Hates: Bread (パン) and bread dishes.
Ondolfar
One of the horned people. A bookish, knowledgeable guy who supports Cururufar from behind.
Birthday: Summer 30
Favorites: Premonition of love (恋の予感), gold juice (ゴールドジュース), rune staff (ルーンスタッフ), magic broom (魔法のほうき).
Also likes: All juices and staves.
Hates: Items dropped by monsters.
Zeze
Hyperactive dwarf who lives in the monster village. Kinda cute, really.
Birthday: Fall 26
Favorites: Tempura udon (天ぷらうどん).
Also likes: All udon dishes.
Hates: Sweet dishes.
26.11.09 / Japanese, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, rune factory 3, video game / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Tags: harvest moon, mais, RPGs, rune factory 3
Mais and girls
Phew, where do I begin? Because it’s not a bad game at all, by any means, but there’s all these little and not-so-little things that made me wonder, why do it this way? Why do that? Why didn’t they do this instead? Anyway, let’s get down to it, from major to minor.
1. Story: The story is whack. I don’t want to spoil, but they trotted out the same old same old “I have…amnesia!” story again. It was fun the first time. It was nostalgic the second time. Now it’s just old. But that’s not the worst part, the worst part is that you find out what your past is all about and it’s shallow, nearly-nonexistent and laaaaaame.
Fine I’ll spoil it: [SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
[SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
[SPOILERS FOLLOW, avert gaze!]
See, there’s these monster creatures and they’re at odds with humans. Luckily enough, Mais is half monster so a powerful being wipes out his memory and tosses him into a village to try and make peace. This will somehow make some magical tree bloom and magically save the land from destruction. What am I, a gardener? Geez. Seems the monsters and the humans had a huge falling out years ago, and, like, nobody remembers what it was about but they’re all still mad anyway. Then Mais shows up and he’s like “Let’s have a party!!” (no, srsly) and then they have a party and everyone’s happy. So anyway that was the boss’s plan and somehow he knew you could do it even without your memories, and whoopee, it all worked out, congratulations! See? I told you it was whack.
Woolly Mais
2. Transformation: The woolly transformation gimmick…wait, let me explain that. Since you’re half-monster you can turn into a woolly using a magical belt…wait, what kind of sick woman would have a baby with a sheep?! Ewww!? And if you’re half-woolly, why do you need a belt to transform? The whole thing is silly and useless. It was marketed as a cool option where you could get the girls to tell you secret things they wouldn’t tell your human self, etc etc. Puh-lease, we should be so lucky. They just make throwaway comments about what a cute woolly you are, and it plays a role in a few of the (lamer) quests, but it doesn’t add anything to the game. If anything it takes away from it. And the big reveal, when the townsfolk find out the cuddly golden woolly and Mais are one and the same? They’re all like, meh, cool, whatever, so what. Whaaat? That’s it!? I just told you guys my ultimate secret on which the whoooole game hinges! React a little, dammit! Faaaail!
3. Recipes: The system for learning new recipes SUCKS. It suckssssss!!!! First you buy “bread” from a store – it doesn’t fill you up but it’s still called bread. Cooking recipe bread, pharmacy recipe bread, forgery recipe bread, accessory recipe bread. Fine. But after you waste your money on this bread, you’re not guaranteed to learn a recipe. Nope, it’s all about your current level in that skill. Not high enough? Tough cookies, you just spent 2000-5000 on empty air. See you tomorrow.
4. Rune Points: You know how in previous games, after you run out of Rune Points your skills/magic starts taking up HP? And it takes it little by little? This time once you run out of Rune points, the very next move you make takes up HALF your HP. Next move you make, you pass out on the spot. I mean, eventually you learn your lesson and watch your RP like a hawk, but it’s an unreasonable and inconvenient system nonetheless, especially in the beginning before you get the hang of it.
5. Crop system: The soil in your garden has fertility levels. The more you grow something on the same spot, the lower the fertility gets. Lower fertility = greater chance of your crops dying. The theory is that you need to use fertilizers and practice crop rotation to keep optimum fertility. The theory is good. The practice is not. And that practice is, unless you pour buckets of fertilizer on your crops every round, they’re going to be dying left and right. Either you analyze every single square before you plant on it or you make fertilizers by the ton. Either way it’s tedious and unproductive. This is the second-fastest I’ve ever giving up on growing crops in a Harvest Moon game, next to Island of Happiness.
6. The dungeons are really small and simplistic. Maybe if I went back and compared the previous games I’d realize they aren’t so small, but I doubt it. The dungeons are small and boring, the enemy variety is very low (almost all recycled from previous games) and the bosses are all pushovers, including the final one. Get in, do whatever quests and errands it takes to get the boss to appear, fight the boss, move to next dungeon. Rinse, repeat. Oh, and try to stay awak….z…zzzz…
So there you have it, the minor and not so minor things that made RF3 a disappointment for me. I think what bothered me most of all was the weakness of the story though. Everything else I could live with, but when you battle, forge and woo your way through a game for a silly denouement: lol you were carrying out my plan all along, enjoy the lack of a proper backstory or afterstory, I can’t help being a leeetle bit peeved. Maybe they rushed this one out a little too fast. Take your time with the next one, Marvelous, and remember: an RPG is nothing without a good story.
Peace out.
25.11.09 / Japanese, RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, rune factory 3, video game / Author: admin / Comments: (3)
Tags: dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, RPGs, rune factory 3, touna
Mais
I finished Rune Factory 3 a few days ago! Well by finished I mean I killed the weaksauce last boss and got married, but I didn’t grow every crop or make every item or have kids or anything like that. The storyline of RF3 was the shallowest of all three, but for today’s post I’m going to focus on the good stuff.
1. The girls are pretty cute. They also have very different personalities, some better than others. It’s a nice variety. For the record I like Touna best.
2. There’s a lot of forging, pharmacy and cooking to do. Every game has more and more things recipes to play with. Unfortunately…well, we’ll get to the unfortunatelys in the next post.
3. The battles are easy, but not too easy. You can’t just tap A mindlessly, but you won’t be seeing the Game Over screen often either.
4. All the game characters have differing schedules and a range of things to day. They won’t be standing at the same spot at the same time every day, though you can predict where they’ll be from time to time. It livens things up a bit.
5. Growing and leveling up crops is much easier and faster this thing. You even get free seasonal seeds from the ground sometimes when you hoe, yay. Also fertilizers are cheap and easy to make in your workshop.
6. The animals on your farm are very helpful. This time even produce animals like woollies can help out on your farm, and they don’t just water. They’ll also clear the ground of weeds and debris and harvest your crops too. Nice!
7. You can find Runeys (or whatever they’re called) left behind occasionally when you harvest, and they’ll give you random stat ups. This makes levelling up even easier!
8. And this is a big one: Items you carry out can stack! Remember how in all the other Harvest Moon games you pick one turnip, put it in your rucksack, pick another turnip, put it in the sack? This time you can pick and hold 9 items in a row, pop pop pop, and then put them in the bag or the shipping bin together. You can even leave them on the ground and they’ll be neatly piled as one. Awesome!
9. As I said, you can put stuff on the ground and it won’t vanish. Not only won’t it vanish immediately, but it will stay on the ground for hours, or unless you leave more than 9 items lying around on the same screen. To the best of my knowledge only Wind’s Bazaar and RF3 have that ability (haven’t played RF:F). Double awesome!
10. Drop rates are way better in this game. Just about everything drops, and drops frequently from the monsters in the field, so there’s none of that killing 2000000 monsters just for a 1/90million chance drop. It was so bad in RF1, got better in RF2 and I think they’ve hit the right rates in RF3. Good show.
And other assorted little details. My next post will be on the not-so-fun parts of this game, but even if I get negative don’t let that discourage you. I still played and finished this game with glee, so it can’t be that bad, okay?
17.07.09 / Japanese, RPGs, dating sim, harvest moon, nintendo ds, rune factory 3 / Author: admin / Comments: (0)
Tags: harvest moon, mais, nintendo ds, rune factory 3, shia, shining force feather
Want! Want! Do want! Do so want!
Let’s see, it says a monster passes out in front of Shia’s door one night. When she treats it, it suddenly turns into a young boy named Mais, whom she persuades to start cultivating her farm. I guess Shia is going to be another of those weird main RF girls, since her first reaction to a transforming boy is to make a farmer out of him.
Mais makes an adorable wooly monster, but really…bestiality? In my harvest moon? It’s more likely than I thought, eh? 
I’m looking forward to hearing more details on this one. Based on the graphics it looks like a DS game, which is great for me. Speaking of which I’m still working on Devil Survivor, and the rest of that Shining Force Feather review is coming up soon.
I’ve shelved TMGS3 for the time being while I decide which guy to go for next. I’m very satisfied after dating Konno-senpai, so to throw myself back in the dating game for an inferior guy is like, hmm… But I get the feeling Shitara’s route will be all kinds of awesome, so maybe I’ll do that. Thanks to all who wrote about how to change the picture on my desk. I thought for sure Fujiyama was stalking me, *brrr!*