One last time, let's do a week in Harvest Moon's Forget-Me-Not Valley. So far it's been an interesting year-and-a-quarter, with events like small personal interactions with the villagers spicing up the everyday life of farming, fishing, and excavating. There have been festivals, despite persistent online grousing that they'd been removed from this version, and there has been marriage and a child. There's also been a serious crying need for maybe a word or two more explanation on how to do various things in the game, like set up shop, revive the Harvest Goddess, or get a better quality of seed than the base B-level you're given. But all told, it's a good, if busy and sometimes confusing, life.

Turns out this one is running a bit long, so rather than kill you with one mega-entry, I'll be just like Tarantino and divide it in half. I'm also planning on an extra 3-4 months in post-production, and maybe a guest appearance by Pai Mei.

April 15
It's springtime, but nearing the end, and this means my days are about to get busier. Not only are there a ton of things that grow in the coming summer months but you also have to water twice a day to combat the summer heat. Realizing that I've now effectively got twice as much work ahead, I do what any stupid farmer would do - plant twice as many crops, duh! Tomatoes, watermelon, plain old melon, and turnips are all growing in rows ten plants long. Yep, I'm clever. Nothing to do but pray for summer rains, which I actually manage to get in the evening of my first day. It's a special kind of game that makes you go "Rain! Woo-hoo!", and Harvest Moon is that game. As an added bonus, it's still sprinkling when I get up at 5:30AM, so that's one less thing to worry about on Summer, Day 2.

I've finally saved up enough for my first bull, but I'm holding out a bit longer. There are several different breeds of cattle to choose from and I think I'll save up that extra 1000 and get something a little fancier. I'm not really sure what good it'll do me, it just seems to make some kind of sense. After that, I'm planning on getting a goat. Baaahhh!!!

In the plotline department, mad-scientist Daryl is stalking archaeologist Carter's hot assistant, Flora. It's creepy but at least he has taste; if she'd been an available pick I'd have dropped Nami like a hot rock. On the negative side, Daryl seems to be working on a cannon and it looks like things may go horribly wrong for Carter, of whom Daryl is horribly jealous. Tune in next week on As the Valley Turns!

I'm probably going to give up and FAQ the cooking thing. The lack of a cookbook in the game means all these recipes I get aren't being used, seeing as I'm a firm believer in not having to write anything down for a video game. There's just no reason to add that extra layer of complexity to a process that's been made user-friendly in the GBA version, so I'm breaking my general rule against FAQs just for this one little bit.

Finally for today, I figured out how to do the selling-to-villagers thing. Turns out instructions were hidden in the in-game notes kept on the shelf at the front of your house. You go to the place Van sets up and sell stuff to passersby. Well, seeing as my first sale was of a fish I hadn't given away yet because it's descriptor said "rare" for 600 gold, you can bet I was pretty happy. Essentially, people walk up, and when you talk to them they express interest in what seems to be a random inventory item. You then have the options of refusing the sale if it's something you need to keep, selling it at market value, or selling it at a 10% discount. I'm guessing if you give them a price break they'll like you better, but you can try to soak them for all their worth and probably make it up later by giving them whatever it is that particular individual likes. Maybe.

New tool! I got a Strange Hoe, and though it's heavier than my regular Light Hoe, the description promises some kind of benefit. What kind? You guessed it, it's another mystery!

April 16
I'm incredibly clever. Yep, nothing but smart, me. I was saving and saving and saving for a bull, just knowing that it was 5000G, and then when I finally saved up enough (plus a bit extra for emergencies) and went to order it, I found out it's the cow that's 5000, the bull is only 4K. So I've been saving all this time for something I could have had days ago. And to top it off, Van isn't offering the goat for sale any more. I'll just have to wait for spring to order it, I guess.

But I did get a new pair of members for my rapidly-growing family - I got ducks! They just showed up at the pond one morning out of the blue, and they're quite possibly the cutest addition to the farm yet. So far all they've done is scarf down bird seed at an alarming rate, but I have hopes they'll eventually have their uses. At the moment, they at least make an amusing set of quacking noises.

Other than that, it's a quiet week on the farm, except for one thing. It's 4AM real-world time, I'm tired and want to sleep, but I figure I'll do one morning's worth of crops and critters before bed so that when I pick it up later I'm not diving into a load of chores. Well, I finish up a bit earlier in game time than usual so I wander around town just to see what's up, and the doctor is coming out of one of the houses. He stops to pay his respects at the gravestone in front so I decide to see what's up, and after the generic pleasantries (you have to talk to everyone 2-3 times sometimes to get the good stuff) he pops out with hearing a woman screaming the other night. O . . . kay . . . I've mentioned before how some mysteries in the game are aggravating, but this isn't one of them. This is a plot issue, and I've got to admit I'm curious as to where it's going to go. Sadly, it really is too late to be gaming so it's going to have to wait a day.

Continue to: Days 3 and 4