Controls and Menus
One of the main changes from Island of Happiness is the use of the traditional Harvest Moon controls. The directional pad on your DS/DSi will control your character's movements, and the A button confirms selections. You can use the stylus controls if you wish, as they are also included in the game.
Button | Actions |
---|---|
Directional Pad | - Moves your character - Choose a menu to open - Scroll up and down when viewing categories in the Assets Menu |
A Button | - Confirm selections - Initiate talking - Pick up an item or animal off the ground |
B Button | - Cancel selections |
X Button | - Open the main menu - Eat a food item you currently have active in a tool slot |
Y Button | - Use the tool or item currently highlighted in the tool slot |
Start Button | - Quick access to the contents of your rucksack |
Select Button | - Change the top screen map to either world-view or island-view |
Right Shoulder Button | - Clockwise rotate through your 4 tool slots - Hold down Right Shoulder and use the directional pad to manually select a tool slot |
Left Shoulder Button | - Put the active tool slot item back in your rucksack - Hold down Left Shoulder and use the directional pad to insert a rucksack item into your tool slot |
Using the stylus-based controls are handy for certain tasks. For putting food in an animal feeding bin, using the stylus is more convenient than the A button. With the stylus, you just have to hold the food in one of your 4 tool slots and then slide the stylus to the food bin. If you used the button controls, you would have to press A in front of each bin, and then press A again when you are asked for confirmation.
Main Menu
To open the main menu, select MENU in the lower corner of the touch screen or press the X button. The four main menus are Diary, Rucksack, Assets, and MoveLeft/MoveRight.
- Diary: This is where you will save or load your game. You can only save on one save slot, although you have two save slots available. Once you start a new game on a save slot, you can only save to that same slot.
- Rucksack: All of the items you are carrying around can be found in your Rucksack. The starting Rucksack can hold 12 items, and you can buy larger versions at Chen's shop. The Rucksack also has an Eat button and Trash button, where you can slide items to the buttons to do those actions. You can press the Select button when in your Rucksack to automatically organize the items.
- Assets: The information about your farm, world, and relationships are all listed in the Assets menu.
- MoveLeft or MoveRight: This will move the menu from the left side of the touch screen to the right side, or from the right to the left.
Most of the menus are pretty simple to figure out, but the Assets menu is a bit more detailed compared to the other three. You can exit any of the menus by pressing the B button.
Assets Menu
The Assets menu covers all of the raw data about your life on the islands. When you first open the Assets, you will be on the Assets List screen. The Assets List gives you a general summary about your progress in the game, such as how much money you have, the percentage of farm construction completed, the unique number of items you've shipped, and even how many festivals you've placed in. On the top screen of the Assets List is your Farm Degree title, which is right below your character portrait and birthday.
The next category is the Balance Sheet. You can see how much money you've earned and spent per day, while the top screen gives you the previous season's money balances.
On the Animal List, you will see your chickens, cows, sheep, pets, and wild animals. Each animal will have green hearts that indicate its friendship towards you. The chickens, cows, and sheep also have a stress bar under their heart makers, which indicate how stressed the animal is. If the stress bar is high, then the animal will get sick.
The Recipe List is where all of your learned cooking recipes can be found. You have to use the kitchen to cook the recipes, but you can look at them all from your Assets menu. There are 238 cooking recipes in 6 categories.
In the Fish and Mushroom List you'll see all of the different fish and mushrooms you've collected. There are 143 fish species to catch and 40 mushrooms. You can catch fish by first purchasing a fishing pole from Gannon for 5000 G, and then using it at any body of water. The mushrooms can't be collected until you raise Mushroom Island. After you ship 100 mushrooms, you will unlock the pet pig.
Every item that you've shipped in the game will appear in the Shipped List. If you just keep the item in your Rucksack, it won't appear in the list. You have to put the item in a shipment bin for it to appear here; either the shipment bin by your house or the shipment bin by Taro's house. There are 366 items you can ship in the game.
The Inhabitants List details the villagers, Harvest Sprites, and the relationships you hold with them. Each person has a series of heart makers that represent the friendship points you have earned with that person. Marriage candidates have red hearts, while the other villagers have orange hearts. For the Harvest Sprites, more hearts means that you can unlock more sprites to hire for enchanting.
All of the items you find inside the mine are on the Ore List. Even if you don't ship the ore or jewel, the number that you've found will be listed here. The top screen of the Ore List will give you information on your mining progress, such as how many holes you've fallen down and the deepest floor you've been to.
Lastly, the Building List displays the construction level of your farm buildings. Some buildings have a lot of little projects that add to its percentage, but some others (like the Stable) only have a handful of upgrades needed before they reach 100% developed.