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

Wikipedia mentions "Another 48 Hours" is the sequel to the Nick Nolte&Eddie Murphy comedy police movie.

Yes, but sadly there's been no comedy to be had in the last few updates.

I've played approximately two whole days of this, and I'm barely a third of the way through the main story. *sigh*

Episode 47: Almost, But Not Quite

Melody now knows that Cinnamon used to be a wizard, and she wants Cinnamon to teach her how to use magic.

Raguna goes to visit Cinnamon at the tower to talk about magic. He doesn't think he's progressing quickly enough, so Cinnamon tells him to take it little by little. After a few hours of fishing to get himself in the mood, he goes down to the Green Ruins to get a little bit more work in with his Hell Branch.

The next morning comes, and Brodik's music kicks up. Raguna looks over his farm, but sees nothing unusual. Brodik does eventually show up later to mock Raguna's maze of tree stumps.

In an effort to get the plot moving forward again, he goes to Lara's place and stocks up on medicine, and goes home to cook plenty of food for his upcoming journey. His goal is to unlock the shortcut that leads to the boss room in the Lava Ruins.

The path to B5 is blocked by rubble, but there is no bomb to set it off. There is, however, a boulder at the top of the staircase. He digs the dirt away with a hoe and watches it roll into the rubble with a mighty CRASH!, allowing him to proceed. He's feeling quite good about himself right now, hacking his way through minotaurs, dark slimes, and other assorted monsters until he runs out of potions near the shortcut and has to return home.

BREAK THROUGH! The enemy has been routed!

Episode 48: It's Slime Time!

Autumn 19 is a do-it-yourself day for Raguna, as his monster allies are recovering from the rains of a few days ago. He decides against visiting Lute this week and snatches up the last of Selphy's regular books (Spear Studio) to complete his collection of weapon-making manuals. The only book Selphy has available now is a book on making Toys, and that won't be available until Tuesday. Just so that he has an excuse to continue visiting Iris, he plants some strawberries in a field near her house.

At the end of the day, he returns home to craft a katana, in order to protect him from the plants in the Lava Ruins that constantly bombard him with paralyzing spores. He also spends the next day doing more cooking, even trying out new dishes such as cheesecake and cheese fondue, foods that will hopefully give him the boost he needs to complete the Lava Ruins and get a much-deserved "big boost of confidence".

Raguna gets a survey from Melody in the mail, asking him what he thinks of the temperature of the bath house: too hot, too cold, or just right. Because Raguna is trying to maintain a decent Heart Level with Melody, he tells her that everything is "just right".

After loading up on potions, Raguna takes another stab at the Lava Ruins, taking his upgraded Katana (a Dancing Dicer) with him to prevent the paralyzing attacks from the plants on the 4th level. He doesn't have the proper equipment to guard against the stunning attacks of the minotaurs and giants/trolls, so he tries his best to fend them off. He successfully finds his way to the bottom of the dungeon with his health and sanity intact.

The familiar feeling of a foreboding foe finds our fighting farmer at a loss for words. What could be behind that gigantic door?

A swarm of...bees, perhaps?

These aren't your run-of-the-mill garden wasps...they're gold-tinted and primed to sting first and not bother asking questions (because bees can't talk, you see). His Luck Blade prevents them from poisoning him, so he is able to grin and bear all of their stingers as he cuts them down. They leave behind a bunch of glowing energy balls, which fuse together and morph into panther-like things that fire energy bolts (and completely fail at accuracy). They go down quickly as well, so the remaining energy balls merge again and transform into two giant trolls. Aside from a belly flop attack, they aren't that much tougher than the ones he's already faced earlier, and is able to hack them to death with little trouble. A third split produces golden golden slimes, and Raguna kills enough of them to receive a timely level-up recovery.

One more transformation later, and the energy balls combine into a slime with a big dopey smiley face. The slime's main method of attack are bursts of fire, and a very damaging belly flop attack, should Raguna stick around too long. He employs the usual dart-and-weave tactics that helped him beat the cockatrice in the Green Ruins, chugging on what's left of his food to keep his energy up, and washing them down with tasty potions to keep his health up. After some time, he defeats the vile beast, which sinks into the lava and gives up some jewels and a relic, which Raguna recalls seeing somewhere in the village. He returns to the surface to take his daily bath, and then examines the stone tablet outside the library. A large chunk of it is missing, and the relic he found from the slime monster looks to be just the same shape as the one of the missing hole. The entrance to the Snow Ruins has been discovered! He goes to the library to read a bit more on how this dungeon works, and then hurries off to bed, content that he's made Trampoli just a bit safer tonight.

edited 29th May '10 1:41:38 PM by WillyFourEyes

The giant lava slime was the funnest boss to fight, IMO. Maybe not the hardest or the most epic, but definitely the most fun.

Some even better news: Raguna found some Gold on the bottom floor of the dungeon, so now he can upgrade his weapons and tools even further!

Hooray hooray!

People should give him the gold, instead of him having to collect it himself. Lazy villagers not giving him their inventory items...

edited 27th May '10 8:13:13 PM by lccorp2

The only person I'd reasonably believe would give him gold would be Ganesha, but she doesn't seem to have a surplus of materials...

Episode 49: Undisturbed

A day following his triumph over the vile lava slime beast, Raguna drops most of his old accessories into the shipping bin, in hopes that he will save up enough money to receive the last forge upgrade (and maybe a lab upgrade) for maxing out his tools and putting to use some of the gold that he's mined.

Kanno writes Raguna a letter, congratulating him on discovering the Snow Ruins, but warning him that the monsters inside are going to be especially tough. Raguna decides to put off exploration of this new ruin until he procures the tools that he needs.

In town, Ganesha has some new base materials for sale, which include war hammers, a katana, and some level 5 elemental crystals. Selphy has the last in her series of cooking books for sale, and Danny...is left with his own sense of shame, as he appears to have given up on trying to beat Rosetta. Whether this means he'll actually leave Trampoli will remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, Raguna continues farming, using the plots of land deep under the Green Ruins to plant some of the Moondrop seeds given to him by Spring. The plots of land are right outside the door leading to the cockatrice's lair, but there are no enemies down here, meaning that nobody will disturb him as he farms. There's a similar field at the bottom of the Lava Ruins, which he plans to use for development later.

Spoiler: I believe that once Danny admits defeat, he closes shop and goes to work for Rosetta. It's been a while since I played, though...

That's right. I played the game this morning, and that's exactly what happened. I think Rosetta's still the one you have to talk to if you want to buy stuff, and Danny's just there for eye candy.

Episode 50: If You Can't Beat 'Em...

So it turns out that Danny, having lost his grudge match with Rosetta, has indeed closed his store down. The building and all of its dusty shelves are there, but none of Danny's goods are. It seems he's been courted by Rosetta, his Unknown Rival, to help her run Materia. Danny seemed pleased with this new development, since it means he doesn't have to leave town and go back to his family. Raguna can now get his flowers from either Rosetta or Danny (who sounds slightly less pushy than he did in his own store).

A letter from Stella arrives on the 24th, notifying Raguna of the Coming of Age Day treasure hunt on the 25th, which will start out in the public square. Lute, being the consummate house upgrade salesman, probably won't participate, so there's a slight chance Raguna could get his forge upgrade and participate in the festival. (Flowers appear to be very valuable in this part of the world...)

As Raguna enters the Snow Ruins for the first time, he sees a ball of swirling dark energy before him (a Dark Rune, he thinks). There's a block of ice obstructing his path to the left, so he uses a spell from his Hell Branch to melt it. There's even more ice on the floor beyond where he melted the ice block, and instead of running around like he normally does, Raguna tries walking on it to avoid slipping and falling. A very angry hornet makes sure he doesn't get much further than that. He doesn't die...he just beats a strategic retreat and spends the rest of the day fishing and logging, passing the time away until the start of Coming of Age day.

P.S. Does Raguna even have a birthday?

edited 31st May '10 7:57:02 PM by WillyFourEyes

He can't remember, most likely.

Apparently not, but in the later DS games the game reads your brithday off your DS settings and uses that as your brithday.

Wouldn't that be kinda hard to do due to the series' Alternative Calendar?

IIRC, if your birthday falls on a 31st, it's shifted to the 30th. Jan-Mar = spring, Apr-Jun = summer, and so forth. A birthday on, say, sept 12, would be translated as fall 12. It's quite useless for RF 2 1st gen, and 2nd gen, your child's b-day is determined by the date s/he was born in-game, so it's really only useful for RF 3, where villagers you have high Relationship Values with give you gifts.

edited 31st May '10 8:15:59 PM by lccorp2

Episode 51: Happy Vegetable Thievery Day!

The 25th day of Fall marks the advent of the Coming of Age Festival, where people around Trampoli follow the time-honored rite of passage of searching for treasure. Stella, the coordinator of the festival, hid some vegetables around town, one of which is a valuable Golden Turnip. The first to find it and return it to her before sunset wins. Raguna decides that he wants to join in on the fun, after taking care of his daily crop-watering in the dungeons.

Raguna thinks he spots the golden turnip outside of the library, but finds out that it's just a regular one. Ganesha teases him, saying that it's no use searching because she's already won. Undeterred, Raguna continues to search the town. He peeks behind the inn on a path he had no idea existed until today, but that too was a simple turnip. He tries checking behind his house (people do occasionally visit there, you know), which only yields a carrot. He eventually finds the Golden Turnip sticking out of Kross' front yard.

Back at town square, Ganesha returns with what she thinks is the golden turnip and gets ready to claim her prize, but is denied by Stella for using a fake. Raguna receives top honors over her, Melody and Erik, and a Straw Hat for his troubles (which isn't all that impressive compared to his pumpkin mask, but might make a decent present for a girl...)

After the contest ends, Raguna visits Lute (who had to set up shop outside the church while the festivities took place) and orders the Maestro Forge for his house. The remaining lab upgrade costs 14,000 gold, and storage for the forge and the lab are 10,000 each, which should be easy to get at the rate Raguna's been earning gold lately.

Since the bath house is closed, Raguna decides not to visit any of the dungeons, and instead work on making some new tools. He can't upgrade them all because he has a few ingredients missing, but he is able to craft a golden Mountain Axe (which is even cooler and more inefficient than the silver Lumber Axe) and a Rainbow Watering Can (holds 21 uses of water, and covers a 5x5 area). And because evey forge upgrade also comes with an upgrade to the crafting table, Raguna makes himself a Dew Pendant, to slightly boost his defense against waterdavian attacks.

IIRC, the vegetable spawn points are always the same, but the golden turnip point will change randomly amongst those.

And yeah, it's always hilarious to see the first guy get D Qed for cheating...

I always liked the way my birthday IRL translated well to Harvest Moon stuff. It's 30th August, so it comes at the end of Summer both in real life and in Harvest life!

I also share it with my good friend Leia the Mermaid.

Episode 52: Season Finale

The fall season is winding down, and Raguna is making a lot of money from the crops he's been harvesting this season. With winter fast approaching, he's already set his sights on expanding the fields in the nearby dungeons so that he can continue to make money while the fields are covered in snow. The axe and his watering can still feel weighty in his hands, but with some practice he's been able to keep himself from collapsing.

As the calendar approaches the 30th of fall, Raguna looks over his appliances and makes mental notes of what other things he needs to make everything complete...a new steamer, a new oven, a lab expansion, and a place to store items made from his forge and lab (for the dual purpose of extra money-making potential and leaving some room in his tool box for other items). He cuts down the last of his above-ground autumn crops on the 29th, and focuses on clearing the large field near the entrance to the Green Ruins while his animals get a well-deserved rest.

On the last day of the month, it starts to snow. Raguna finds it unusual that something like this would happen without it actually being winter, but the villagers say that this happens every year on this very day, like clockwork.

(My apologies for the brevity of this episode. Even while it covers five days of action, there really wasn't a whole lot going on in the game except getting Raguna prepped for winter.)

edited 11th Jun '10 5:26:50 AM by WillyFourEyes

And people say global warming is a problem.

Wow, creepy, that's one day away from my birthday.

Intermission 3: 1st Year Fall Progress Report

Combat

The victory against the morphing slime in the Lava Ruins has become Raguna's greatest triumph thus far, and has contributed somewhat heavily to his rise to level 44. His Weapon skill has gone up to 58, with his magic skill lagging behind at 31.

Farming

Now that he's upgraded some of his tools, he's forced to use them himself to lower his stamina consumption. (Apparently, gold has some sort of hidden poison that sucks away your stamina.) His farming ability stands at about 45, while his skill with the axe has gone up to 37, and 34 with the hammer.

Production

Raguna hasn't done much fishing since he's concentrated mostly on expanding his farm, so his fishing skill has languished at 27. His cooking ability continues to progress at an astounding pace (66), but the same can't be said for his other attempts at crafting yet (27 in lab skills, 30 in forging, and 27 in crafting).

Relationships: Rosetta and Melody are once again tied for the key to Raguna's heart, with five smileys and four hearts apiece. Selphy is close behind with 5 in Happiness and 3 in Love, followed by Mist with 5/2. The breakdown of the other bachelorettes is as follows:

Anette 4-2
Eunice 3-2
Bianca 2-2
Uzuki 4-1
Cinnamon 2-1
Tabatha 1-1
Lara 3-0
Iris 2-0

Among the other villagers, Turner, Stella and Kanno are the happiest to see him with 3 hearts apiece. Rita, Erik, Candy, Ganesha, Marco, Danny, Luke, Kross, Nolan are all tied with 2. Brodik gets nothing, because he's a "'dik".

Unsolved Mysteries

• Some of the new tools require jewels such as emeralds, aquamarines and sapphires to be made. Where can one find those?
• Who will occupy the three missing slots in Raguna's people finder?
• How many times will Raguna get KO'd in the Snow Ruins?

All these questions and Andy Mickey Rooney next time, on 60 Minutes!

My money's on at least three K Os, but not more than six.

Episode 53: Cold Hairpins Will Not Help Your Magic Ability

The first day of winter has arrived. The ground outside is covered in snow (magical snow from yesterday, perhaps?), so there is no land for Raguna to look after on the outside. There are a few stray stumps, rocks, and clumps of black grass, but nothing that really needs the animals' attention. Business continues as it normally does, so Raguna seeks out Lute to pay for the upgrade to his lab (result: an even bigger cauldron), and uses some of his extra cash to fund a storage box for the forge and lab, where he can store his extra materials. He also tries to buy some new books from Selphy, only to find that he already purchased most of the good stuff.

Somewhat disappointingly, Raguna can't go ice fishing, as the water around Trampoli still flows freely, even at sub-zero temperatures.

He bumps into Cinnamon outside of the Lava Ruins, which is piping hot all year round. She notifies him of a Hairpin constellation, which is visible in the night sky as soon as it gets dark.

Raguna takes a trip underground to the Snow Ruins, to see if he can get past the bees this time. The cold air is starting to sap his strength a bit. He eventually finds a room where he can plant some crops. Because he lacks any energy to plant seeds, he can't go much further, and has to return home. By the time he gets back, it's already dark, so he can't see the hairpin constellation.

He tries again the next day, and is somewhat more successful, as he is able to clear a bit of the field for planting carrots. Before that, he has to inch his way past a blistering cold wind, which also seems to be blocking the way to this dungeon's shortcut.

At around 6 PM, he actually manages to see the Hairpin constellation, which looks more like a kite, but eh...if Cinnamon says it's a hairpin, then it's a hairpin.

But does the constellation turn?