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Happy Farm'n Friday! The anemonies are starting to produce more bloom buds in anticipation for springtime. The peonies are beginning to pop up, as are the tulips and the alliums. Huzzah! Go away winter! It looks like we're about to get another overnight cold snap this weekend, as winter hasn't quite decided to buzz off for the year. There's a few outdoor plants that will need protection like the hydrangeas. A few years ago I neglected to cover the budding bushes with sheets at night, and the overnight early-spring frost destroyed some of the leaf buds on the bushes. The plants were okay of course, but just putting in a tiny bit of work would of prevented the damage in the first place.
Rune Factory 4 Special comes out on Nintendo Switch in North America, Europe, and Australia in less than a month! In Japan there is now a variety of special goods that Japan fans can purchase such as a new 2020 Calendar, a Woolie drink tumbler, a denim bag, a book cover, and a towel. Shipping appears to be Japan-only though.
Still waiting on news regarding a NA/EU release date for SoS:FoMT, so let's cover some more information from the latest release of Bokumono.
In the original version of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town a pet dog lived on the farm to keep you company. The little puppy was given to you at the beginning of the game and would take 2 seasons to grow to an adult dog. The adult dog would then scare off the wild dogs that randomly appeared on your farm at night. You could also participate in the Beach Opening Day festival on Summer 1 after your dog was full grown, where during hte contest your dog's ability to catch a far-flying frisbee disc would be judged.
Pets return in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, with changes of course. In the updated game for Nintendo Switch, you won't start your game with a pet dog. Players will have to purchase their pet, but now they can care for up to 5 pets on the farm. The types of pets to chose from have also been expanded:
Now players can choose from three types of dogs, two types of penguins, three types of cats, and two types of capybara. The pets are all functionally the same; there's no advantage or disadvantage to selecting one type of pet over another.
Van the traveling merchant must be unlocked in the game before pets are available to buy. Van will start appearing in Mineral Town after tossing one gift per day into the Goddess' pond for a total of 30 days. The merchant from Forget-Me-Not Valley will then set up a merchandise shop on the second floor of Doug's Inn on Wednesdays.
Interesting fact: in the original GBA game the outline of Forget-me-Not Valley could be viewed in the distance from the top of Mother's Hill, as Mineral Town was connected to the valley from the Gamecube game, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, via the Gamecube-to-GBA Link Cable accessory. In the new Switch remake, Doctor will still mention Forget-Me-Not Valley in his conversations, but the valley itself can no longer be seen in the distance from the top of Mother's Hill.
On the 15th of every season, Van will set up a pet shop in Rose Plaza. This is the only day each season that you have the option to buy a pet. Another point is that Van will only set up his shop if it is sunny weather. For example, if it happens to be raining on the 15th in your game, then you're out of luck with Van until next season - no pet for you! This restriction is also made more exasperating by the fact that Van only sells certain pets during specific seasons: cats on Spring 15, penguins on Summer 15, dogs on Fall 15, and capybara on Winter 15. If you wanted a cat, and it happens to be raining on Spring 15, then you've to wait a whole year for the opportunity to buy a cat again. I'm hoping this changes during localization (please XSeed?), but it may end up being this way when the game is released in English. To get around this issue, save your game on the 13th and go to bed for the evening. If the weather report on the TV in the morning says it will be raining the next day (15th), then reload your save game until the weather report on the 14th confirms that the 15th will be sunny.
If Van's Wednesday visit happens to land on the 15th, he'll start the day upstairs at Doug's Inn and then close shop at 1 PM to move to Rose Plaza to open his pet shop.
You can also only buy one of each pet. Unfortunately, the game doesn't permit a player to have a colony of five penguins. Players can buy one normal Penguin, one Navy Penguin, and three other pets for a total of five pets.
The pet you buy from Van will take 2 seasons to grow to adulthood. There are Pet Treats you can give to increase its friendship hearts. You can also talk to the pet and play ball with it.
A second pet can be obtained after the first pet reaches at least 8 hearts of friendship. The fastest you can earn 1 heart of friendship is 8 to 9 days, so at a minimum it will take 67 days to reach that level of friendship. Van will not allow you to buy another pet until you're super-friendly with the pet you already have. He also does not buy pets that you don't want anymore; you're stuck with what you pick as your pets.
Since there are no wild dogs in SoS:FoMT, the adult pets don't help out on the farm at all. They are still used for the Beach Opening Day contest on Summer 1. Practicing for the festival can be done by having the Frisbee toy in your rucksack and then activating the frisbee sign board next to Kai's Snack Shack; since the pets can't leave the farm area in SoS:FoMT, players don't have to physically bring the pet to the beach to play frisbee like in the GBA game. The pet you chose to play with will instantly appear on the beach to play fetch with you. The more hearts of friendship your pet has, the longer you can play frisbee until the pet wants to stop for the day.
Tomorrow is a new month and a new set of events in the online Bokujou Monogatari game on the Mobage game network. January's themed events were Year of the Rat (a harvest contest), Strawberry Cake Room (a big crop contest), and Snow Village (a bingo contest).
February's events are a Winter Flower and Chocolate Land harvest event (1st to 9th), a hungry animal contest (11th to 19th), and a big crop contest (21st to 29th - leap year).
Until next time!
- Cher
(Superbowl weekend! Yaay go commercials!)
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