Ushi No Tane - Harvest Moon

Finally! A few days ago, my Wii showed up. I'm now playing Rune Factory Frontier! When I last saved, it was Spring 5, evening.

First, the negatives. The intro song/video is... odd. The music somehow doesn't feel like it fits the video. I'm used to Rune Factory having these soaring JPop ballads, and it's got this cool, but somehow misplaced jazz theme, instead. I got no problem with Jazz--Kids on the Slope is my favorite anime right now--but it feels like it was produced independently of the video. This is in spite of the fact that there is obvious timing between the two. Perhaps it's not the music that's the problem, but the video.

Secondly, it's embarrassing to play. I'm used to dealing with the sickly-sweet voice acting, the girly gameplay, and such with the privacy of a handheld device. It took some getting used to playing it on the big screen with my roomate present

The graphics and the controls took a bit of getting used to. There were a few parts of the town--part of the church, the second floor of the rune archive, and the clock tower--that it took me a few days before I stumbled across them. The art is more detailed than a handheld allows, which ironically makes it more difficult to interpret what it all means.

Oh, and I have to admit. Raguna, particularly in the game start menu screen, looks absolutely psychotic.

On to the positives.

I DID get used to the controls and the graphics. The graphics are reminiscent of Eternal Sonata--a good thing, as I really loved that game. The controls, I came to realize, are no worse than on the DS... except for the lack of stylus-controlled farming. It's handy... and in its absence, upgrading my tools is more important than in the past.

But I LOVE the feeling of the Wiimote-nunchuck setup. I just kind of recline, my hands as close together or far apart as I want them to be; no more claw-like grip. And insta-eating with the D-Pad is bound to be handy in battle.

I also got used to playing with my roomate present. It's really no worse than Eternal Sonata.

The village is really growing on me. For now, there aren't many people there, just Danny, Erik, Mist, Eunice, Rita, Ganesha, Stella, Marco, Kross, and Turner. I've also met Anette once (need to figure out when she shows up so I can give her a turnip, which should be ready for harvest tomorrow) and saw Rosetta for the first time today.

The folks at Marvelous are getting good at portraying the heroines. Mist's weirdness is simply delightful, though Eunice also seems sweet. So far nobody else has shown up (except Anette and Rosetta, briefly), but I have a feeling I'm going to have another case of "I can't decide!" It's always nice when that happens. RF2 did that to me as well... though in that case it was more "Meh, none of them really grab me". With RF1 and RF3, I had clear favorites from the start: Tori and Raven.

As to the guys (rivals?)... what is WRONG with these people? You've got lazy-« Mr.Gourmet's hat » Danny, girl-crazy arrogant Erik, and morose Kross. Of them, I'd say Kross is the only one growing on me... kind of.

I haven't yet figured out what the point is to the stuff outside the village. I'm particularly curious about the so-called "observatory", which seems to be nothing of the sort. I'm also wondering if it's somehow possible to harvest fruit from the trees. Maybe something to do with shaking the Wiimote? I didn't realize you could knock on doors until just today, when I was perusing the manual looking for what the D-Pad does (I kept trying to drag tools onto it).

Tell me nothing, give me no spoilers. I'm figuring it'll all reveal itself as time passes, friendship rises, and I hit certain production and exploration benchmarks (I've been on the whale, but I'll explore further once I can afford a weapon). I have only one question (unless it's also something I'll just have to wait on): when DOES Anette come around to deliver the mail (unless that's also something I'm not really supposed to know on Day 4)? I'd like to get her that turnip one of the others needs... can't recall if it was Danny or Erik.

Of course. I intend to befriend everyone. But are you saying that just because befriending him is vital to advancement, or because Kross is, I have little doubt, Mr. Smexy to you ladies?

PFFFT. Please. Kross isn't Mr. Smexy to us ladies. He's Mr. GODDAMN Smexy 8D

To answer your question, Annette comes between 6:20-40 AM, if I remember correctly. You'll see her when you're tending your crops

You can get harvest fruit with your hammer, once you get one. My advice is to talk to EVERYONE as much as possible. Like all other RF games, RFF takes some getting used to and there will be guide dang it moments if you don't know what to look for. Refer to the guides on ushi for help if you need it~

It's fun to read your impressions tho ^^ Nice to see it from a fresh perspective.

I agree with Rachel, I enjoyed reading your perspective on RFF. The only RF game I own is ToD, which I haven't really gotten into very much. Maybe I'll pick up RFF in the near future.

*Sigh* But be VERY afraid of the evil runey system. That's the one thing you must try to quickly understand, since it WILL mess you up, badly, if you're not careful to keep on top of it. Make learning about the runey system top priority.

Seconding this!

Oh and by the way, I'd suggest going through some of Selphy and Lara's "friendshippy" events because they're quite funny and their friendship is really nice and unique. Of course, you'll have to raise up Selphy and Lara's FP and LP in order to do so .

^ ^
THIS.

If you have an iphone or android you can download a Runey app that helps with the Runey system in RFF. Otherwise there're excellent guides on Gamefaqs and on ushi forum that can help manage runeys!

Also focus on your equips, not your level. You will die REALLY fast without equips in this game...

Thanks so much for the info, guys. I'll definently look into learning about the runey system before I play the game.

At the moment, I don't even have the ability to view or collect runeys yet. So I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

At any rate... what the hell just happened?

It's my first holiday in Trampoli (Spring 7). After I finish watering my crops, I decide to drop by Mist's place on the way to the church. Nobody home, so I continue on, and there she is. After some light banter about the weather, she mentions that the weeds in front of her house are getting pretty out of hand. I'm like, "Okay." The she does something I've never seen her do before (definitely not in RF1). She GLARES at me, clearly unhappy, and says "Take care of it." Then greenflashTELEPORT! and we're in front of her house, and she's thanking me, oh so happy, for taking care of her weeds for her.

I head back into her house to demand what that was about, and she's not there. Quite bemused, I take out my cheap sickle and start cutting away, and discover that yes, in fact, I can cut these weeds... uncovering the green dungeon in the process. Okay... cool... but since when does Mist have psycho powers?

Heh, I love how this game can throw me for a loop. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Mist at this point; I kind of feel like I've been violated.

People have someplace they go where I cannot find them, and I'm not talking about the area behind the locked door of their homes. I didn't find Ganesha anywhere today, nor did I find Stella until late evening. I somehow missed Anette. Sometimes, I think it's because they blend into the background too well (there have been several times when I walked right past Mist without realizing she was there). But I was looking around pretty carefully today. It makes me wish Alicia was around somewhere.

Feeling violated around Mist will become a regular occurrence. Just wait until a rainy day

Yeaaaa it's hard to find people sometimes in this game. I advise checking Gamefaqs, if I remember correctly some dedicated soul actually made a whole guide on where the hell to find everyone on any given day

I'm about three weeks into spring.

Runeys runeys runeys. It's actually kind of fun managing Runey populations. It's also extremely time consuming. The balance is a mess right now. After a few days watching populations move (my first priority was to balance the population at The Homestead), I soon realized there was a major imbalance between water and rock runeys. This was allowing an excess of tree runeys, which are eating up all the grass runeys.

The manual says tree and grass runeys reproduce pretty fast, so I'm more worried about fixing the water:rock ratio. After shifting population around a bit trying to rectify the issue, I came to realize that while I did need to substantially reduce water runey populations, I also need lots of rock runeys. So, after three days of runey collection, I've turned the town (business district and public square) into a rock runey breeding facility. I've dropped the water runey population down to five in each district. There are twice as many rock runeys right now, and plenty of tree runeys for them to munch on. I am concerned about grass runeys, but there is a district or two with a large enough reserve I can replenish them if necessary (and I can always go on a tree runey collection spree, if necessary). Having done so, I'll need to start collecting water runeys in other areas. Hopefully, I'll be able to start releasing rock runeys back into the wild after a while. Meanwhile, The Homestead is fine.

I'm looking forward to getting a handle on the runey population, so I can get back to focusing on other things. One thing's for sure: when all's said and done, I'm going to be having a lot of fishing days.

I've got a small forge, kitchen, and lab, though I've only got recipies for the forge. I'm trying to get my forging up to the point where I can give my tools a second upgrade. I'm also working on my mining and hunting for copper, since I'll need it to upgrade my tools. I'm also working on taming monsters. All my efforts are aimed at getting as much farming done in as little time as possible; harvesting is already being taken care of by my goblin. I may need to plant more grass, tomorrow I'm thinking.

I finally explored whale island a bit, which means I finally found Melody. I now have a hammer and access to the bath house, which I had been wondering about. Still haven't explored the Green Ruin much yet.

Mist continues to fascinate me... however, the game's shy meganekko (Cinnamon) has arrived since my previous update, and Shy Meganekko, no matter the circumstances, no matter the individual, is pretty much always and automatically in the running. Rosetta is pretty cool, too. I like her energy and ambition, and I was very pleased my expectation turned out to be correct: I was pretty sure, once I saw she was hanging around, that she would end up giving Danny some competition in the general store business. Melody is all right, but not really in the running. Neither is Eunice; she's kind of boring. Laura just feels too overbearing. And I'm not the least bit interested in Uzuki or Selphy.

I'm having a lot of fun, but with the weekend up, my play will now slow down considerably.

The best advise for getting runies under control is to make a grass factory, preferably in the area where Mist's house is. With a grass factory, controlling runies becomes MUCH easier. Look it up.