Let's fight...and farm! It's Rune Factory Frontier!

Episode 28: Pink Elephant in the Vestibule

Raguna has managed to grow his first summer crop of the year...some onions. He doesn't take much time to celebrate, though, because his yard still looks like crap.

A letter is delivered to his house from Cinnamon, saying that she caught "a big one", but all she did with the fish was make a mold of it and release it back into the sea. She challenges Raguna to try to outdo her, which he accepts, but doesn't know what to aim for since she never told him exactly how big her own fish was. His catch of the day is a 52cm mackerel, which she seems pleased with nonetheless. As an added bonus, Raguna gets to check out Cinnamon in her solid gold(-colored) swimsuit without her beating him up.

Later in the afternoon, he spends some time working alongside his animal friends tending to the crops. It looks like they've got a long job ahead of them. Rosetta swings by to pick up the produce in the afternoon. She compliments Raguna on his "nice body", but then takes it back, saying she didn't mean it. Uh-oh...someone's blushing!

The next day is a holiday, which means it's time to visit Lute to see what he can afford. The answer to that question seems to be "not much". He could go for upgraded cooking utensils, but he's got his eye on an internal forge upgrade, which costs 8,000 G, of which he only has half. Rather than save the money, he goes on to Selphy's and purchases a book called "More Fine Dining", which slightly expands his repertoire of oven-made dishes to include sandwiches! Before he leaves, Lute informs him that he saw a tree branch on one of the islands of Lake Poli while he was out painting. Raguna wonders if this could lead to another entry point on Whale Island.

He takes a break to visit Bianca's mansion, when the pink elephant that had been hiding in his barn all this time barges in ahead of him and walks up to Bianca, who is understandably freaked out by having a non-human intruder infiltrate her living quarters. Raguna admits that the elephant belongs to him, and Bianca decides that it's not quite as scary up close. She then asks him if she can keep it, to which he also agrees (sine he isn't quite sure how to take care of it himself). Bianca seems happy, and she names her new Loyal Animal Companion "Francoise". In one fell swoop, Bianca made a new friend, Tabatha gets to see one of Raguna's animals, and Francoise gets a new caretaker! Everyone wins!

"She compliments Raguna on his "nice body", but then takes it back, saying she didn't mean it. Uh-oh...someone's blushing!"

(Cackles)

Still, who can resist?

Kross, maybe?

Oh, even he breaks (spoilers ahead in that video).

Episode 29: He Gets Knocked Down, But He Gets Up Again

Raguna goes out to Lake Poli and takes the boat to the lone island where Lute says he saw the sapling. Luckily, there's just enough water to support it. It grows all the way to the fin of Whale Island. Unlike the beanstalk by the church, it seems this one is accessible on weekends. He makes a note of it, and then returns to the surface after practicing with the Storm Wand he had created a few days ago. After that, he goes off to the Lava Ruins to get in some more magic practice. He likes the fact that he can use the tornado generated by the Storm Wand to bump into enemies and hit them instead of the other way around. It doesn't work quite as well as a weapon against Fire Elementals, and he gets KO'd by them while mining. Whoops.

He wakes up the next day in the infirmary at 10 PM. After doing his daily chores, he goes back to the Ruins to try again and avenge his loss. He finds the stairs to B3, which aren't too far away from the shortcut door. He doesn't seem to get much further than that, as the Rocket Punch-ing golems get him before he can find the path back to the shortcut. His chances to score with Lara are decreasing by the second. When he awakens, he murmurs something about scorpions and silver. Lara has little idea what he's talking about, and asks him to drink an Energy Drink to get his strength back up before recommending bedrest.

edited 11th Mar '10 4:04:47 AM by WillyFourEyes

I can stand the sight of worms
And look at microscopic germs
But technicolor pachyderms
Is really too much for me!

The Storm Rod is awesome. It's amazing how it can hold its own with the "higher" canes.

It is surprisingly powerful. For a guy who's usually accustomed to fighting with swords and spears, I think this one might be a keeper.

Episode 30: Tear the Roof Off This Sucka

After getting out of bed, Raguna does a little bit of fishing to take his mind off the pain. He then visits Melody, who is having a problem running her hot spring because the hot water has stopped flowing from Whale Island, and she asks him to investigate.

[RV Note: Melody has apparently taken the lead away from Rosetta, since her Happiness/Love ratings are at 3/2, while Rosetta's are still at 2/2.]

That night, Raguna hears a voice calling out to him, saying that he's his father or something, and is "congratulating" him for being the first step in the artificial creation of monsters using the Spirit energy of Runes. (Dollars to donuts this person is gonna be our main villain, or working with him/her/it).

In addition to the investigation into the hot spring, Melody also wants Raguna to deliver her some Green Grass for a potion she's making. Luckily, Green Grass is plentiful this time of year, so acquiring one should be no problem. (Note to Self: Try to get the deliveries done on the same day by catching Anette while she's still out on her run.)

Raguna goes up to Whale Island to inspect the hot spring, and notices that there's a giant blocking the whole from which the water normally flows. He asks the giant to move out of the way of the path of the hot spring, but it refuses to budge unless Raguna brings it some ice cream. He rushes home (after a little running around) and prepares the ice cream, which only seems to require some milk and eggs. The giant is happy, and says that he "added some more water" to the spring because there wasn't enough of it. The spring flows free once again!

When Raguna goes back to the bath house, he notices a few significant..."changes" to the interior. Melody informs him that the giant took off the roof of the building and converted it to an outdoor bath house after it was given ice cream. The new building, christened "Neo Laga Springs", has larger facilities, but still only costs 10 gold for admission. Cool!

Episode 31: Dueling Shopkeepers

Getting a hot spring visual upgrade? Cool. Getting your ass handed to yourself by golems because you weren't paying attention when a rocket punch came flying at your head? Not cool. So once again, Raguna wakes up to Lara's worried face in the infirmary. This day, he does his best to stay out of trouble and not do any fighting in the dungeons. When he goes to sleep at night, he hears the voice again, and he/she/it wants Raguna to bring something to them. (Huh? Who? What? Where?)

The day after hearing the dream, it starts raining. This could be a precursor to another crop-destroying storm, so Raguna thinks to gather some more Runeys to wish for another Sunny Week.

A response to Raguna's initial letter from Tart/Tori came in (I'm gonna stick with Tori, because that's how I'm always gonna remember her). She now wants to know how the festivals are different from what Kaldia has. So far, there haven't been too many festivals (one for the New Year, which I'm contractually obligated to miss because it's always the "first day in the village" for the HM protagonist; and a day for celebrating the opening of the beach, which doesn't really count as a festival, because only Raguna and the young girls were invited), so Raguna writes to her and says "there'll be another festival here soon, too". By the look of the calendar, the next festival (or should I say, the first one Raguna will get to participate in) is the Ganesha Cup boat race on the 25th. This shouldn't be too hard to win, but it's likely that I won't.

But, joy of joys, we've got veggies growing once again. Tomatoes and corn on Rags' field, and onions fresh out of the Lava Ruins (soon to be replaced by pineapples). They're going to take quite a while to grow - about 18 days, says the item description - but they are guaranteed to taste awesome when they're finished.

He goes into the business district looking around for Candy, since she's not in the clock tower and it's raining outside. Turns out she's hanging out at Ganesha and Marco's place today. (That Toy Ship's still floating on, no matter how much they want to deny it.)

Meanwhile, over in Materia, Rosetta and Danny are engaged in a Cross-Popping Veins match. Danny straight-up accuses Rosie of using mind tricks to steal his customer base away. Rosie takes umbrage to these allegations, and shoves him out of the store. Between Rosetta's well-groomed shelves and Danny's cobweb-covered merchandise, it's pretty clear who the winner in this argument is. (No contest! What a waste of time!)

Raguna asks Rosetta later on about what happened between her and Danny, but she tells him it's no big deal, and these things are expected to happen when one starts their own business. Danny, meanwhile, is entertaining closing up shop. Somebody's pride was certainly bruised today...

Well, at least that giant didn't ask for bread. That... could have been messy.

Well, at least that giant didn't ask for bread. That... could have been messy.

How do you figure, Freezie?

'Fi fi foe fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman! Be he 'live, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!'

edited 14th Mar '10 9:45:14 AM by DrRockopolis

Ah, yes, of course!

Episode 32: Forging Ahead

It's Lutesday again! Raguna goes to the town square with a grin on his face. He asks Lute to set up a Great Forge for him, which he does in a jiffy (after Raguna forks over 8,000 gold, of course). The Forge comes with a larger furnace and a board for crafting bigger accessories (unlike the kitchen stuff, these thankfully don't come sold separately). Upon receiving his new tools, Raguna goes home to upgrade his axe (into a Lumber Axe) and watering can (into a Lion Can) with the silver he's mined from the Lava Ruins. The new tools prove to be a big boon to him. The Lumber Axe knocks out those annoying tree stumps in three powered strokes instead of six, and the Lion Can is capable of watering a 3x3 grid of crops with only one use of water. Talk about efficient! Just for the sake of extending his magic repertoire, Raguna puts together a Water Rod, which he finds shoots a stream of concentrated water (Aqua...HADOKEN!). He also puts together a generic Crest, which has the added benefit of boosting his defense. That'll serve him well down there in the Lava Ruins when he faces off against those golem-tanks while mining.

The very next day, Anette brings a letter of thanks from Melody for the green grass, and now she wants him to send some Red Grass...her favorite color. He has one tuft of the stuff left, so he rushes inside and grabs it from his fridge before Anette runs off to Mist and Rosetta's house to deliver their mail.

While milling around in his dungeons to get the crops he planted there, he obtains some cabbages from the Green Ruins and some Pink Cat flowers from the Lava Ruins. No one in the village seems too particularly impressed with them (I'm guessing that this may be Iris' thing). With more silver ore in hand, he returns home once again so that he can work on his hammer. The Silver hammer can break some of the harder rocks in the dungeons, opening up new pathways and getting higher-quality materials from mining. With the money he's made from his crop boom today, Raguna visits Selphy once again to purchase books on making accessories. They're mostly meant for girls (such as pendants, ribbons and headbands), but as long as they provide defense and attack buffs, Raguna sees no problem walking out in public wearing a katyusha or a self-knit woolen scarf.

Katyusha?

I prefer a matryoshka myself...but you can't wear those.

I don't know, having a rocket launcher hat might be pretty handy...

Nah. I don't think any of the girls in this world would go for that sort of thing.

Well, I'm female, and I can tell you right now, if a rocket launcher hat was in my budget range...

Raguna used Rocket Barrage; It's Super Effective!

Though, for some reason, I'm picturing the Predator's Shoulder Cannon.

Episode 33: Silver Standard

Since the next holiday is scheduled on the same day as the Ganesha Cup Boat Races, it's likely that Ivan Lute won't show up to give his goods away, but that doesn't mean Raguna can't save up money for the extension to his lab! Either that, or he could use the money to fill Selphy's coffers by buying up the books she isn't using.

Melody, happy from receiving the red and green grass, now wants some white and black grass. Must be Christmas time at Melody's place or something...

Speaking of Selphy and money, Lara tells Raguna that she lent Selphy some money (presumably to help her with the book that she was writing) a while ago, but still hasn't received it, so she sends Raguna to collect. Raguna agrees to help out, but a slip of the A button—erm, tongue, makes that come out as "She's got the money". Lara sees through his lie, and then decides to ask Selphy herself for the money.

Going down into the Lava Ruins isn't quite as perilous with Raguna's new girly headgear on. The scorpions that hang around the area where he normally mines for silver hardly do any damage to him. He decides to give one to Rosetta, who likes it so much that she puts it on right in front of him. Aww... Uzuki does the same thing with one of his spare pendants, but it's harder to see the changes on her, since the pendant is so thin.

After a few days of mining and selling things for gold, Raguna is able to upgrade all of his tools to silver, even the under-utilized hoe and sickle. He celebrates by getting some food at the tavern. When he bumps into Ganesha, she makes a head-scratching request for him. "If you have any minerals you don't need, bring them to me. Oh, and some Demon Blood would be nice, too."

(continued from above)

At this point, Raguna realizes that he can make a pretty penny selling the goods he's made through cooking. His Dumplings command a good price on the market...about 2,000 gold per dish. He's set to make over 15K gold thanks to the crops he's grown...the most he's made in a single day. This gives him enough money to spring for the lab upgrade from Kross, as well as get some extra books on the side. He looks into expanding his crafting abilities by purchasing manuals on rings (for the arms) and brooches (for the torso). With everyone hyped up for the Ganesha Boat Cup, there isn't much else for Raguna to do for the next two days except mine for silver and collect materials for his craft work. After the days are done, he walks away with a Wing Ring (which boosts wind-elemental attack) and a Ruby Brooch (which boosts fire defense).

The next big upgrade for Raguna's house is likely going to be a second bedroom, but that will cost him 75,000 gold and 900 lumber to put together. That's...going to take a while.

edited 21st Mar '10 2:50:31 PM by WillyFourEyes

I like how the second bedroom is worth about thirty or forty plates of dumplings.

It would probably be about the same price in pineapples, which I have growing in a patch in the Lava Ruins. They won't be finished growing for another 12 days or so (crops and flowers grown in dungeons aren't affected by seasonal changes - they have the same climate year-round, which is useful in winter when your field is buried in snow).