Part 21: Summertime Madness

Summertime Madness

Music: Spring



Raven is so unemotional, it makes her easy to understand. But that also actually makes it hard to understand her from from her reactions.

Raven's birthday? Hmm.


Fall 16, duh.

What?
Nevermind...


Believe it or not, Raven likes flowers.

Did you ask around....what I liked? I see...thank you.


How do you even break a waterpot?



My favorite waterpot broke. I'm borrowing Grandpa's right now, but...it's just not the same.
I see.
I need to find a new waterpot. Poor, poor Mr. Sprinkles.
And Mr. Sprinkles is...?
It was the name of my loyal and trusty Tin Waterpot You know, because it sprinkled water.
I...see.
*sob*
Don't cry.


Link's a little waterpot, short and stout.

Link...I'm being serious!
I-I'm sorry...



Don't worry about it. You've done so much for me.

Like break into my house to throw tutorials at me, or give me free cologne, or...uh...that's about it, really.

Are you sure...?
Yeah. Just think of it as rent for the Sharance Tree.


Pfft, that's chump change. What was Shara so worried about?

Thank you so much! I'm going to buy a new Mr. Sprinkles with this!
That sounds like a good plan. I'm happy I could help!
Hee hee!


More quests I can bribe my way out of, please.



... (I think it'd suit Link.)
W-What?




It's time for a bad quest.



What?! Wait, aren't Weeds available any--
Oh, I'm not in a hurry or anything. So please get it to me ASAP.
Oh, okay. (She's even more confusing today...)

Talk to her again, and...

So I just need to bring you a Weeds?
No.
Did I get that right?
No.
...

I hate a girl who knows what she wants.


Yoink.



Honestly, you can't do anything right!
You seem pretty happy with someone who can't do anything right!
Well, here's a reward for your troubles! Thank you, Link! I'll never ask you for help again. EVER! Hope to work together again soon!
Uh...sounds like a plan?





Oh, Evelyn.
From the looks of it, it seems like you passed her test.
Test?
She has such a strange habit. So she sometimes tests if people can understand that.
So she was stranger than normal because...?
I'm sorry if she upset you. She used to be such an honest girl...
No, that's okay. I don't dislike her for the way she is now.
Hee-hee. Actually, I thought you would say that. But you know, she only does this with people she's taken a liking to.
What?


Incidentally, I'm horrified to see the audience has received Sofia so well.


Our prize is a delicious jelly donut.


Hammer time. Charging the hammer is dubiously useful; you get multiple ores per charged hit, but it's not much of a time savings. It does seem to give you better stuff, but I'm not sure if that's confirmation bias or not.


Link's new sword cuts through desert enemies like butter. They're all getting one hit killed now!



That's a proverb from Shino and Sakuya's country! But...isn't their country in the east? Now that I think about it, that proverb is BIZARR-O!
Uh...maybe their country has two coasts?


I dunno, this hellish winter coast is pretty good right now. I'll finish that quest from Kuruna, I swear.


Last day of spring, last set of Pink Turnips.


The first day of summer is technically a festival, but there's no events or minigames associated with it. It's kind of weird.





Sherman would like us to cater a party. So...I thought that we could contribute a dish made with a vegetable you grew.
My vegetable? Okay. I'll bring something right back.
Please, wait. There's one more thing. I'd like you to make the dish yourself.
What?! Me?!
I must admit that I'm quite busy cooking the other dishes. And I'm sure you will do a fine job.
Okay. What should I make?
Let's see...Boiled Pumpkin, or Pickle Mix...Boiled Spinach, any one of these.
Okay. I'll give it a try.
Thank you.

Pumpkins grow in summer and also take a while, Pickle Mix requires both Pink Turnips and regular Turnips(which are a winter crop), and Spinach is a lightning-fast Fall crop. I'm going to go for the boiled spinach, but there's no point in leaving quests tied up while that grows.


So you get to endure Collette for now.



I...Actually, I...I want to get bigger!
Yeah, I know.
Of course. I still believe that I can get bigger some day, but I haven't changed at all. I asked Marian and all she told me was to "exercise, eat a lot and sleep!"
Why do you want to get bigger?
To become a good cook. I want to become a good cook!
I see...wait...what? Why?
Link! Please! It's to help make me bigger!
Y-Yes. Well, I'd be happy to help. (What does being bigger have to do with cooks?)
Thanks! But what should we do?
Well...for now...
I'll just try to do what Marian prescribed!
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
Alright! First is "exercise"! Well let's go get some Apples from Privera:Stoneway!


Collette's weapon is a lollipop. No, really.



Phase two: cooking! I can do that! Just make sure I don't scarf the ingredients beforehand!



Whoa! You made a ton!
Eat well, play well! I gotta get big! Now then...time to eat! Yum yum....Yum yum...
(She tries so hard. She runs around the forest, and looks so serious cooking here. Even now, she's eating with all...) Wait...what?
Yum yum....Yum yum...
Um, Collette?
Huh, what?
Well, it's um...really hard to say this, but...
What? Go ahead?
Isn't this...How you usually are?



Link...I'm a bit tired, I think. You can eat the rest.
Huh?!


Our reward is her leftovers. Yum!


Might as well complete the set of cooking gear while I'm here and thinking about it.


One more fish to go for Kuruna's quest.



W-what should I do?!
Let's calm down first.

You know, it's kind of interesting that for all the hubbub about humans and monsters never getting along, Pia can waltz around as a mermaid just fine.

Then again it's Pia, so I'm guessing everyone immediately realized she's harmless.


Fish set complete.


If you're really desperate to grind cooking skill, once you have an oven it's easy to make a shitton of bread(which just requires flour) and turn it into a shitton of toast(which requires one thing of bread in the oven).


And most fruits can be mad into jam using the pot, which is slightly more useful than turning them into juice.

Music: Monster Village


Let's do this.



Monsters usually deliver a diverse selection of food to the settlement. But they've recently stopped coming.
Could it be...HORNLESS?!
Oh, I don't think you can blame--
Hornless are NEVER without blame! Their hands are red with the blood of slaughter!
But don't you need some proof of--
It was the Hornless! Their race knows only sacking, slaughter, and subjugation!
I'm sorry. I, uh, didn't realize they were so vicious.
...No, it's my fault. I didn't explain the Hornless' malevolent nature clearly enough. I thought their misdeeds were obvious to all. You're still new here, comrade, so let me impart our settlement's most important knowledge. If you remember nothing else I tell you, I ask.that you remember this:
Hornless are the root of all evil. Even if the Hornless did not perpetrate this particular injustice, they are evil. Never forget that, comrade.
I...understand.
Your efforts will not go unrewarded. Here you are, comrade. You've fulfilled your patriotic duty today. But the struggle against the Hornless will not end in a day. I will have more trials for you at a later date, comrade.
I'll, uh, be sure to come back then.


I'd argue against her, but Link does spend a lot of time murdering monsters sending monsters back to the forest of beginnings.


Now to grab some spinach for Blaise's quest...


...and some summer seeds so I can get planting first thing tomorrow. Most summer crops keep producing after harvest; the big exception right now is pumpkins. That said, it's balanced out by a load of bullshit we'll see sooner or later.


Now that we're in Oddward Valley for non-quest purposes, we start getting clues about the boss.


And by clues I mean "Link hears more howling as he travels in a relatively straight line towards the boss room."




I'm not really sure what the point is. It'd make more sense if this was set up like the desert where there's a few different ways you could go, but here it's just one way with a couple side rooms.

Oh well. It's getting late, so let's deal with this later.

Music: Festival


Because it's summertime! Thanks to Beach Day technically being a festival, we don't get summer music yet, though.


Any spring crops we had left would have died, but I planned better than that. All this withered grass is from where the bamboo shoots were, and am I glad there's a ton of it! Plowing it into the ground rejuvinates the land, which is important since poor soil makes crops grow worse.


Summer crops are go. Lots of corn, eggplant, cucumber, and pumpkins.


The bigger question is: Why the hell are you heading into my house?



It's the day when all the girls in bikinis fall for me. Ha ha ha!
Is that it?
Oh, bro', you better not be staring at the ladies! Stare at me instead. Ha ha ha.
...

...I'll take it over him talking about how creepily close to Carmen he is.


Speaking of Carmen, it's been a while since I've done one of her quests. Let's fix that.



Oh, you! The atmosphere is really important...oh, well. I just need you to answer some simple questions.
Okay. (I wonder what this is?)
Well, here we go.


I guess I should go for the obvious correct answer.



My! You just get it!
???


Just keep picking the top option until it's done. That's what she wants, right?

Okay! You have a big heart.



What's wrong with the question? You say some funny things.
...



..Okay. Don't answer.
Really?


I could answer properly, but trolling her is more fun.

What are you fishing for?!
(I guess she didn't get the joke.)


Carlos said to look at him, so we're just following directions!


Screenshots provided so you'll believe this is the actual dialogue.

Uh huh...uh huh...All done! 15 percent match. But do not give up. There is always still a chance! ...I see. I got a good idea about you now. We're done here now. Good work!
Um, what are you using these answers for?
What? J-Just as reference. You know, it's good to learn about your enemy and stuff.
I'm the enemy?
Stop probing! Here's a present for taking the time to do this. Well, dismissed!
What was that about?


If Link was any denser he'd be a black hole.

Let's check out the beach, since it's Beach Day and all.


All that Beach Day means is that most characters on the lake screen will be in swimsuits now. Woo.

Hey! Hurry up and grow your fins out so we can hop in the lake together!
I...don't have fins, if you hadn't noticed?


A few are more than just putting a swimsuit on, like how Sakuya actually lets her hair down for once. But for the most part they're nothing special.


Despite all this & the fact that Evelyn actually has a swimsuit we can buy, we can't actually swim in the lake. Immersion.


Instead let's help Daria with a thing.


This time, I'm looking for--The perfect! Round! Stone! So could you find it?
Ummm?
Basically, I want a Round Stone! Now go! My assistant!
W-Wait a minute! Where do I find one of those?
I wonder.
She's...
Hmmm...what to do? A Round Stone...is it a gem? Maybe I'll ask someone who's an expert on them.

Round stones: Totally a gem and not a round rock. Link is super smart.


Off to Oddward Valley!


, but that's not why we're here. And it's not even the right place(although I do get that Spinach planted). Despite half the dungeon being in shallow riverbeds, where you actually go is...


...the waterfall. Poorly translated, or just ambiguous directions? Who knows. At least we got our rock.


Although this makes me lean towards poor translation.



...
Bingooooooooo! It's perfect, Link!
Oh, good.
Link, you have good instincts! I'm impressed, my dear assistant!
Fine...I guess I'm your assistant.
Link...I'm sorry...to ask so much of you...
...?! What's the matter?! Why are you suddenly so timid? What?! What?! Are you really Daria?!
You don't need to use so many "?!"s.
Besides, I'm grateful. I can finally finish my sculpture. I'm so happy.
Daria...
Now! I'm going to go take it to the Privera Forest! Oh, you can go home now. Here, take this with you. Now, you just wait! For my great stage!
Rainbow!
Daria...


How could anyone hate this ball of energy and happiness and rainbows?


More equipment from chests in the desert.


It's very slightly better than my current hat. Oh well, I'll take it.


Bonus Art
It's Shara, whose entire outfit is hitting you over the head with "she's a flower girl at the flower shop who loves taking care of flowers and FLOWERS FLOWERS FLOWERS"(and whose art is way bigger than everyone else's for some reason), and the terrible bachelorette Sofia.