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

...you are supposed to place a Tree Runey in that plant outside the Observatory.

That makes sense.

Would I be correct in assuming that the Lava Ruins has a "summer-like" climate?

Stick it to the man!

...OW! What was that for?

Of course!

Speak softly and carry a thick stick?

There's something dirty in that statement somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is...

Hey, Theodore Roosevelt knows what they want.

And now, on with the show once more!

Episode 21: Blind Melon (a.k.a. the contractually-obligated Beach Episode)

Ah, the first day of summer. The bright sun, the hot sand, and the potential for...faaaanservice! Everyone except Raguna has taken the day off, but not for the reasons one would expect. Today's the grand opening of the Trampoli Beach, a time where everybody (actually a select few) are going to slip into something a little more comfortable and bask in its glory.

Before he even thinks of going down to the beach, Raguna looks around his farm and picks up as many bamboo shoots and tufts of green and blue grass that he sees, and then goes to the barn to take care of his animals. He gets some strawberry seeds from Spring, some wool from his Wooly (I really should have given it a different name), some milk from Momo, and an ordinary mushroom from Biggie. (Nope...can't figure out what kind of weird-ass recipe these are for, either.)

Lute, like Raguna, doesn't take days off, so he hangs out by the church to sell his wares, since it doesn't look like anyone's going to be visiting the town square today. Raguna takes all of the money he's saved up to purchase a mini-fridge for storing all of his food, and then buys every available maker (cheese, yogurt, yarn, seeds, you name it, Lute sells it) he can get his hands on.

While searching around town to see if anyone had gone on to the beach, he discovers a mansion near Kross and Erik's place that seemingly spawned overnight. He learns that it's the Villa de Saint-Coquille, home to Bianca and her half-elven maidservant, Tabitha. The door is locked, as presumably they're still moving in all of their belongings from Kaldia.

At around 10 AM, Raguna heads down to the beach, where Rosetta and a few others have changed into their summer best. Melody looks cute without her hat on, but feels uncomfortable about it. Uzuki does, too, as she's more used to wearing her battle-ready outfit. Rosetta wants to set up a game of "melon pinata", with Raguna as the test subject. She hands him a wooden hammer and ties a blindfold around him for use while she, Uzuki, Selphy and Anette bark orders at him. Even while ignoring Uzuki's poor attempts at lying, Raguna misses the blanket with the watermelon by that much.

Everyone is disappointed that Raguna didn't get to give the melon the Gallagher treatment, but they still get to chow down on it anyway, as Rosetta cuts it up and shares it with everybody...except Raguna. Better luck next year!

edited 21st Feb '10 7:10:21 AM by WillyFourEyes

It took me embarrassingly long to realize that "melon" wasn't a euphemism here.

Episode 22: I Lava You, Bianca

Though the disappointment of not being able to smash that melon, the day isn't over yet. He sees Kanno standing outside the ruins near the observatory. He notices the tree growing out of the ruins, and thinks that a Tree Rune Stone would fit nicely in the hole. It reminds Raguna of the pillar he saw up on Whale Island. He goes around town looking for Tree Runeys to convert into Tree Rune Stones (finding none in Lake Poli, which seems to be dry this season - where have all the Water Runeys gone?) After tracking down Candy, she created another Rune Stone for him, and he places it in the slot (after first trying a singular Runey, which does nothing). Nothing happens right away, so he goes to sleep and waits until morning.

He gets a letter of greeting from Tabitha, saying that she and Bianca are only staying for the summer, but she welcomes her to their mansion regardless. (Man...Kross must really have superhuman speed if he were able to get everything done that quickly...or maybe he used magic?)

Another letter came from Uzuki, who asks Raguna what she thought of her in her swimsuit. His choices are "You look cute" and "It was a feast for my eyes", and he responds with the former to avoid digging himself in a hole and her digging into him with her naginata.

After doing his daily chores, he checks on the tree, which has grown to full size and pushed the rubble out of the way, allowing access to the Lava Ruins. Hooray!

The interior looks like the Green Ruins, only hot. Raguna goes by himself to scout around before bringing any of his animal companions inside. He gets pitted against the likes of reapers, ants that look like they're made of stone, and elephants that squirt water from their trunks (a potential farm helper in the making...) Some of the walls have to be broken down by the fantastic equivalent of Exploding Barrels.

After fighting around in this new dungeon for several hours, he goes to talk to Rosetta, who tells him that moondrop flowers grow great in places with lots of moonlight. Since he doesn't have enough money to purchase summer crop seeds yet, he buys a bag of moondrop seeds from Rosetta in preparation to putting this theory to the test one day.

For his last stop of the day, he swings by the St-Coquille manor, where Tabitha greets him heartily. He searches around the place for Biance (it is a very big "place", of course), but is unable to locate her. Where exactly does he stumble upon Bianca? The changing room on the beach. Of course.

Talk about a bad start to a relationship. Not that it actually affects the in-game statistics, but it's amusing nonetheless.

Raguna clearly needs an Akira to explain things.

@Cliche: Even more so since it's, well...Bianca.

@Arilou: Not likely that it would have helped, though, but it would still be funny to watch. Because, again...Bianca.

The line of dialogue asking for you to stop peeping at her back and come to her front is...priceless.

Indeed. Sadly, if she actually showed "it", the ESRB would go nuts!

Considering some of the stuff that gets past the radar in these games, I'm surprised they haven't done so aready...

Episode 23: Fly Me To the Moon

Today, Raguna's picked up quite a bit of fan mail. Kanno imparts a little more information about the Lava Ruins for him. Uzuki is both flustered and flattered by Raguna's reaction to her swimsuit. Lara warns Raguna about staying up too late during the summer, or he might catch cold. And finally Tabatha writes and asks if she can see his monster friends one day. Raguna, of course, is open to the suggestion.

During his morning errands, he bumps into Cinnamon, who tells him to be on the lookout for snappers while fishing. Supposedly, they bring good luck. He treks over to Bianca house so that he can say hello to her in the flesh (and not "in the flesh", as it were). She seems to have gotten over Raguna walking in on her in the changing room, but her facial expression still says she's not all that interested in him. Tabatha's not in attendance at the moment, so chances are 3-to-1 that she's in the changing room.

A few hours later, he heads back to the small garden outside of the fin on Whale Island to plant his moondrop flowers in hopes that he'll actually get a chance to talk to that girl with the weird eyes. After doing this deed, he realizes that he has to grow some crops for the summer season, so he picks up some tomato and corn seeds from Erik, as well as some extra grass seeds to support the new monsters he'll undoubtedly be getting. To keep him cool during the summer, he knits himself a hat made of yarn and wool.

Episode 24: Warning: May Contain Snakes

The next day, he gets a response from Tabatha, who says she's excited to meet Raguna's monsters. She isn't actually there when he wakes up in the morning to check on them, but at least she's thinking about it. (I wonder what she'll have to say about the pink elephant hanging out there?)

Kanno sends him another letter regarding the Lava Ruins. He has heard that there's a monster that changes its colors in accordance with its surroundings. (I smell a boss preview!)

In non-letter-related developments, Rosetta has invited Raguna to be a test subject for a bowl of snake soup that she received from a regular customer of hers. She was told that it was supposed to be beneficial to one's health, but is wary of tasting it herself, because it has, you know...snakes and stuff. Raguna reluctantly agrees to try it for her, and though he doesn't like the taste, he gets a small boost to his intellect for it. Rosetta is thankful, and Raguna is slightly nauseous. Everybody's a winner!

He walks over to the inn to have a chat with Turner, who is looking for some ore that he can use to have Ganesha upgrade his tools for him. Raguna has a spare chunk of iron laying around, so he gives it to him. Copper and silver will have to be found another time (scrap iron is right out). Afterward, Raguna takes a quick trip inside the Lava Ruins to befriend a Ghost (the floating enemy with the scythe), and to break from his tradition of allowing the game to pick names for his tamed monsters, he christens his new mowing-ready friend "Sheets". He doesn't get a chance to tame one of the water-squirting elephants, though, and that brings a slightly uneventful end to his day. The rest of the time is spent staring at the stars (but still not finding the Buffamoo constellation Cinnamon was talking about), cooking, and whacking trees to get their sweet, sweet oranges.

Episode 25: Full Stable

The quest to draw the weird girl out of her tower continues today. The moondrop flowers that Raguna has planted on the fin of the great whale have grown halfway. Before he can get to that, he takes some time doing his chores on the surface, and then gives up one of his scraps of copper to Turner. (When Turner receives his ore, the first voice clip is way different - and wordier - from what's shown in his speech bubble. Must be another one of those "wonderful" Harvest Moon bugs that keep popping up.)

He takes a side trip to the Lava Ruins to tame one of the squirting elephants, which he names Aqua. Now, his barn is stuffed with a full stable of ten monsters, and he won't be able to carry anymore until he decides to trick Kross into building a new barn for him. Luckily, he has enough grown grass to feed them all (36 squares worth; since grass grows every two days, that amounts to an income of 48 bales of fodder per week once everything's fully grown.) In time, Aqua will be able to help out with watering, and Sheets can use his big-ass scythe to do some weeding in the garden. With gathering, lumbering, rock-breaking, watering and weeding done, this should cover most of his bases while he's out doing other stuff.

His next step is to shove his way past more monsters on Whale Island to tend to his flower garden up there. At that moment, he remembers that he still has the moondrop that he got from Eunice, so he waits until the evening to try and woo her with that. It doesn't work, as cutscene magic comes into play and she goes back into her tower after watering the grass for the Xth time.

In the bathhouse that evening, Ganesha teases her son Marco and coaxes him into taking a bath with her. He is embarrassed to do so, even with his own mother. She asked him if there was someone else he'd rather bathe with, and he blurts out that it's absolutely, positively, 110% not Candy. Sure it's not, kiddo.

The following day, Raguna receives a letter from someone named Tart, asking how he is adjusting to life in his new home. I don't recognize the name, so a quick Google-to-Gamestop search reveals that this person is actually Tori from the first game, as it matches up with Torte, her character's name in the Japanese version of the game.

Anxious to get the money he needs for his new house extensions (his monsters will take care of some of the lumber work for him, Raguna sells a lot of the dishes he's cooked, giving him a net income of about 8,000 gold for the day. Later on, he heads back into the Lava Ruins and makes his way down to the second sub-basement. New foes await him, such as chitters with black fur, golems that can throw rocket punches and transform into tanks, fire elementals, and even dancing ducks. Something tells me that this is going to be a long and weird trip through this particular dungeon...

Ahh, HM bugs. I knew you'd be in here somewhere!

Reminds me of all the lettery insanity from Friends/More Friends, where NP Cs seemed incapable of remembering my name and referred to me as "<P>" in most of their writings to me. There was also the time Lilia and Rick wished me and Popuri a "Happy New Year..." ...Leaving my husband Rick to wonder when he managed to sneak out of the house unawares (to even himself) and write a recursive letter home.

This one doesn't quite qualify as either a game-breaker or a "good" one, though. It's, just...weird.

Too Long; Didn't Dub, perhaps?

Just a weird one, I guess.

I had a problem like that in Animal Parade, too, where my older daughter (theoretically the Intellectual personality, since I chose what I was informed were the correct choices for that, though I'm actually not all that sure) kept having an issue where her speech was formatting below the text box...

Episode 26: Let Me Play Among the Stars

Holidays seem to be the least exciting time of year. With most of the shops closed, Raguna can't make any big purchases, and with Whale Island out of "orbit", he can't check on his moondrop flowers up on high. For now, Raguna decides that he'll take care of his earthly chores quickly so that he can relax. The three-day cycle for gathering resources from his animals has passed, and Raguna goes to check up on them. The pink elephant is still cowering in the corner but still seems perfectly fine, even though Raguna doesn't know what to feed it. He attends to the monsters that he does know how to take care of, and gets some cabbage seeds for Spring (those will be grown underground).

At the clock tower, he sees Candy and Marco pretending they're not doing anything that would make Kanno ashamed of her. Raguna asks Candy about the state of the Runeys on the island, and she shows him that the Business District is missing theirs (there are only 14 Grass Runeys, and nothing else). While he's there, he asks to check the "prices" for her services again, since it's been a while since he last asked for a miracle. She tells him that a Grass Day miracle (which would give his farm more grass for potion-making) would cost him 6 Grass Runeys, followed by two of something in Japanese. D'oh!

Weird translation aside, Raguna goes to the library to reacquaint himself with a language he can understand. He reads through Selphy's books and learns some more information on the Lava Ruins. It seems that a bomb and a seesaw will factor into his journey to the bottom of the ruins, but first, he had to go and find the way down from the second sub-basement. He spends a little bit of time in the ruins sharpening his sword (or rather, blunting it) on a pair of the transforming golems so that he can gain enough experience to move up a level and absolve himself of the crippling exhaustion he's suffered throughout the day (no, I don't know how that works, either.)

After he exits the dungeon and wipes his brow clean, he sells off most of the collected junk that he hasn't been using for quite a while, giving him enough money to order the forge extension when Kross gets around to it. Rosetta is happy, because Raguna's crop dump included more strawberries. (At two smileys and two hearts, she's now the "lead girl". Sorry, Selphy!)

The next day is a rainy one, so Raguna calls off the work for all of his monsters. Unfortunately, Kross has decided to take the day off, too, so that forge extension will have to wait. The good news, however, is that the moondrops on Whale Island have matured. If they hadn't, Raguna would have needed to water them for one more day, since the island is high above the clouds and it never rains up there. As soon as the clock strikes 6 PM, he goes out to the tower, where the girl with the weird eyes is finally ready to speak to him. She introduces herself as Iris, and invites Raguna into her tower to stay for a little while.

Her room has a bunch of plants in it, similar to the ones she had been watering outside. Raguna asks her what's behind the locked gate up ahead, and she tells him that she doesn't usually stray far away from her tower, so she doesn't know. She recommends that he visit the island from time to time to see if it "just might open". He gives her one of the moondrops as a parting gift, and keeps the rest for himself as he goes back to the surface, satisfied with his mission.

As for the next day? Farm's closed due to tornado. (And not even a warning beforehand, the bastards!)

edited 16th Mar '10 2:38:15 PM by WillyFourEyes

I had something like that happen to me in More Friends. Gray just started suddenly shouting off in Japanese!

I hope Sunshine Islands doesn't have anything like that. I got that game for my sister for Christmas...

Also, a(n invisible) cookie to the Troper who can spot the Continuity Nod in the above post!

100th post! Woo-hoo!

Episode 27: The Calm After the Storm

While there's a tornado going on outside, that doesn't mean Raguna's day is completely unproductive. He prepares some fish dishes so that he can see them once the storm stops, and increase his cooking skill a bit more.

The next day is somewhat rainy. His crops are mostly undamaged, but the storm dumped a lot of crap on the fields. Most of the "crap", though, is useful back and white grass, so he picks up as much as he can while they're still out there, and plans to handle the rest of it another day. The Runeys also appear to be hiding from something, so Raguna gathers up what he can so that he can wish for a Sunny Week the next time he sees Candy.

The new rumor in town is about a ghost lurking around town square. Everyone but Lara seems to subscribe to the theory, and she tells Raguna that the "ghost" they're seeing is only Kross, and she thinks they should be nicer to him when they see him. Kross murmurs something about wanting to be a monster, because they don't seem to want to hurt people. He also expresses the desire for a "Cat Tail".

Danny doesn't seem to care about the so-called "ghost". He's still mad at Rosetta for driving away all of his business, and complains that he can't get any good merchandise because he's far out in the country. (Perhaps he's just too lazy to want to do any real work?)

Later that night, he goes to the Clock Tower and gives Candy the Runeys she needs to make the sun come out.

The miracle works, and the next day is bright and sunny. Raguna tells all of the monsters he's befriended to get ready to go to work while he goes out dungeon hopping.

Before he does that, he visits Kross and asks him to expand his house so that he has room to buy extensions for his forge.

Erik isn't at his post, but Raguna does find Selphy there, who informs him that she's finally completed writing her first book, and has asked Lara to read it for her.

He heads up to Whale Island again, where a voice greets him and says that his adventure must be going well, and asks him to visit whenever he comes up. He surmises that the voice is actually Iris, and heads out to the tower to meet her, but she is sleeping when he gets there. He comes back later in the evening where she is wide awake and painting. She expresses the desire to grow more flowers, but Raguna planted turnips in the spot where he grew his moondrops. Oops!

And after all that, he returns to find his field in the same condition that he left it - a hot mess. Somebody's going to have to pay for all of this...