Part 26: i hate this

Update 26: i hate this

Fair warning, I’m pretty down on the game in this update, because this is where a lot of the questionable mechanics come together to trip all over eachother and basically just make a total mess. This is the Wind Waker Triforce Hunt, the World of Warcraft Rep Grind, the Half Life Xen, the shitty part of that video game you like.

Anyway, we’re not to the bad part yet. Let’s just ease into it.



So last time Grimoire went down, not without some effort, and, as you’d expect, tilling tiles is necessary to get the pass for the next cave.




I just kinda dashed down the mountain and didn’t bother wasting RP killing the monsters, they don’t follow you very far. Here’s a pretty good spot.



I can tell you right now, about 30% of that HP loss was just from chopping the wood. Those stumps are ridiculous, and I should upgrade the Axe more.




I had to get rid of these squirrel things for the next farming spot, but they aren’t exactly a threat, just a minor RP sink.



Still, I don’t have enough to clear those stumps, so I guess I’ve got to till around them.



Good enough. And the setting sun means the Hot Spring is open, so I Escape’d out of there.



Sharron immediately seems to know we killed Grimoire. Speaking of…we do have his scales as an item now.



This seems like the kind of thing Sharron would be into.





She can’t even use punctuation, she’s so excited for those scales! That are light blue, somehow, when Grimoire was red. But we’ll have to take them to someone else first. If you’ve got a good memory, you might recall I’ve already gotten the hint for this sidequest, and Sharron’s providing another here.



I don’t know what you were expecting.



Sometimes other NPC’s will show up at the Hot Spring, instead of just Melody. Nicholas is here today.



Uh...huh.



: Zavier told me he doesn’t like baths, either. Bathing is too sissy for wild guys like us!

Wow, no wonder Zavier is a failure at all he attempts. He doesn’t even use the full heal!

: But there’s a difference between being wild and being dirty, you know.


: Huh? Really? Zavier didn’t tell me that part.

Before I head back into the caves, we’ve got another stop to make.



This is where you really need to take the Scales.




: Wait three days! I be ‘ammerin’ away, aye!



Thankfully, Leo can still forge for you while he’s making Grimoire’s Sword, it doesn’t override that mechanic.



He’s also very proud of Donnel.



Leo’s got a few new things in stock, but the most interesting is this Gaia Sword, the first Earth Elemental weapon we’ve seen. It’s 24k, though, which is fairly steep, though there are ways of making that less painful.

Well, time to check up on Godwin.



Why is everyone so hung up on that?

: The most widely held theory has been proved. However...I feel a little empty now.

Is everyone in town a fucking Grimoire enthusiast and they just never told Donnel?


: By the way, you have to plow 100 squares of the fields at Mt. Gigant to earn the next pass.

Oh, yeah. Should get back to that.



Remember this cave? It’s just west of that first save point, past the Big Mush spawner. It’s totally free of enemies and full of farmland, making it ideal for grinding out those last 60 or so tiles.



Levels in this feel pretty anemic, since tilling takes almost no RP anyway.

Anyway, I got all the tiles I needed, I’m not going to show it because I don’t want to bore you to death this early in the update.



Once I was done there, I decided to go hit up the rocks outside.

This might be just random luck, but I seemed to get better rewards from breaking the rocks in one charged swing, rather than two standard ones. This game doesn’t really explain that, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.

I am a font of Rune Factory pseudo-knowledge.



Anyway, ooh. This is new.



Another crafting ingredient. For now, it’s basically just free gold.



Clearing all those rocks got me quite the haul, and I left with a little HP left.



Not much to do now but enjoy the view.



And then pass out.



Who even found Donnel up there? Does he have a LifeAlert?



Really? It’s just full of cows.



Anyway, yeah, this was from like, one room of rocks. Mining is an insanely good moneymaker, and it kinda obsoletes farming entirely in this farming focused game.



Okay, no more putting it off.



GIMME THE BULLSHIT, MAYOR



Wait for it.



And there it is! Fuck this gimmick. Fuck it so much.




I don’t even want this.



Yeah, okay, so basically the game has now completely put a halt on our story progression until Winter. If you remember, the game started on Spring 1, each season has 30 days. After everything we’ve done so far, four caves, various sidequests, etc, it is Summer 9.

That’s not even HALF of the time it takes to get into Misty Bloom Cave. And it’s only open during Winter, so you effectively have a time limit in there. There’s an even worse potential thing that can happen there, but we will get to that.




This is today’s date.





Here’s when Misty Bloom opens. I hope you like downtime, because we’ve got a hell of a lot of it! I went through the caves at a pretty moderate pace, too. Maybe this is more timely if you're playing the way they seemed to intend, planting in each cave and such, but it's just so...unnecessary.

You could just chain sleep for about...2 months....but that's still a lot of time just watching that animation, and you miss out on festivals and lose animal happiness, if you've been working on that.

So, what to do in the meantime? Well, thankfully the game is still free with letting you farm, mine, etc., and if you remember, there was a pretty ridiculous goal we needed to accomplish...




The house upgrade from Neumann is essential to access almost all the game’s crafting mechanics (because ?????) and is generally a huge quality of life improvement. So, that’s what I’ll be spending the downtime doing. The money is easy. The wood requirement is not. That’s 200 Stumps.

This is where a lot of people quit Rune Factory. Don’t worry, I’ll offscreen most of it. There’ll still be festivals and sidequests and such to show off as well. The issue is that since I’m conserving Wood, I might not get to use many monster names for a while. Sorry.



Dropping by PARTS, I figured I might try the Grazing Grass for once, keep our livestock happy. So I bought two pouches, which is 18 squares. Not bad.



Oh, and by the way, THIS is the impassible barrier keeping us out of Misty Bloom Cave. Donnel could WALK over that gap!







You know? I don’t think it’s worth it anymore.



Flee, Donnel.



RUN! RUN FOR IT!



FUCK KARDIA!



Dammit donnel



If only we could mine a passport.



So, back to familiar territory. It’s Toros Cave!




I’ll be coming here a lot, because not only are there a lot of stumps…



This looks like a good place to plant the Grazing Grass.



Huh. It...it didn’t do anything. I guess Grazing Grass doesn’t grow in caves.

Oh wait, I forgot to till the soil.



I’m not having a good day.



At least these Sweet Potatoes are still here. My old friends.



I might use this. I really just wanted the wood.



At least I can try out the new Seed Maker.



Nice. That’s 9 potential potatoes for 1.



Now, here’s how upgrading crops works.

First, you plant a Level X seed. You can see the seed level in the top right there.

Next, you need to buy Greenifier from Edward, and use it on one planted seed. Keep in mind this only works on ONE tile, not all nine.

Then, harvest the crop, it’ll be level X+1 on the tile you Greenified.

Put the upgraded crop in the Seed Maker, and it’ll spit out Seeds that are that level.

You can repeat this up to Level 10, adding an extra 0 to the price of all those crops.

This is long, tedious, and while it’s a big moneymaker, it’s really nothing Mining can’t do way faster. Honestly, I’m kinda baffled that the farming is consistently the weakest part of this Harvest Moon spinoff.

Anyway, remember that sidequest from ages ago I said we’d need to talk to Sabrina to continue? Lets get on that.



I can get into the Shack after hours, because I have Sabrina’s key.



It was like, weeks ago, but we don’t have to tell her that.

: Yeah.

: Yeah, Neumann did that...eh?


: Well...what went on between you two?


: It’s an old story dating back to when Mother was carrying Nicholas.

I always thought Sabrina was supposed to be Nicholas’ mom, but I guess she’s like his older sister?

: Is...is it possible that you two…

Geez, Donnel, what happens in Toros stays in Toros.

: Yeah… We used to be married before we came to this town… We’ve been apart a year now.

This is probably the reason you can’t marry Sabrina. She’s practically an old crone by JRPG standards at this point. She’s been married!


: So, why did you split up?

: Well, we had different values and used to fight. We were both so young.

It was a year ago, Sabrina.



Typo aside, that’s a hint.



But it’s the only hint we’re getting. I’ll have to continue this quest later, it’s the longest sidequest in the game, by a long shot.



It’s late, Donnel’s tired, and we’re about to embark on a hell of a grind while we while away the time until the next cave opens.



I can’t think of a better time to pass out.



See you next time.