Part 2: It's Free Real Estate
Update 02: It's Free Real Estate
Results of the very short poll are in, and it's been decided that we are Bush of Shrub Farm.
I think it's a fitting name.
STELLA: Bush, huh? That's a wonderful name.
See, even the nun thinks so!
STELLA: By the way, Bush, was this missing girl your sweetheart?
BUSH: N-no! It's nothing like that at all!
BUSH: ...But, she is a very important person to me.
STELLA: I see. Well, let's just leave the matter be for now, eh? It's getting late, you should rest. Good night.
This will be a subject that comes up occasionally, but it's not nearly as prevalent as you might think.
We fade out as they head for the door on the left, and we finally get some rest. Hey, at least we didn't fall out half-conscious in front of some stranger's house this time!
Music: Goodnight(This is a callback to RF1's sleeping tune, being almost identical but just cleaner. It's typically remixed for reuse throughout the series, and it's always nostalgic hearing it again.)
Music: St. Poli Church(Being a new day, the Goodnight theme gives way to the church's dedicated music. It is sufficiently holy. I also don't remember if we ever learn who St. Poli even is.)
BUSH: Thank you for last night, Sister Stella. How can I repay you?
STELLA: We must all help each other out in times of need. I'll be praying your search goes well.
BUSH: Thank you.
With that, we cut to an FMV showing a light beginning to shine into the church. Are we about to become the chosen one, destined to save the world?
A voice calls out, and the first notes of the title theme start playing.
:UNKNOWN GIRL: Good morning!
Oh, hey, it's you. The one with the candle from the intro.
UNKNOWN GIRL: You are...
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1. Have we met?
2. Mi-Mist?!
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Dialogue choices! We get a number of these throughout the game, and they rarely matter, but I'll show off the branching dialogue anyways.
As the second option suggests, this is indeed Mist, the girl Bush has been looking for and the one whose house he passed out in front of in the first game. She's also got these odd, toe-less boots, and some sort of circlet on. It's never been easy to see, and it's basically defined by that one V between the part in her hair. We've also got some sort of circlet or thin headband that is also very hard to see.
Maybe if we act like we don't know her, we can escape our impending gift-of-garbage-farm.
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Have we met?
MIST: Of course, Bush.
MIST: It's me, Mist! Don't tell me you forgot.
MIST: Ooh, I get it! You must have amnesia again!
BUSH: No...
BUSH: I just couldn't believe it was really you because I never imagined I'd find you so easily, that's all.
Alas, the game doesn't let you escape your backstory.
MIST: Haha. Bush, you're still saying such silly things.
BUSH: ...
Moving to the other branch...
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M-Mist?!
MIST: Yes, I'm Mist. And you... You look just like Bush!
BUSH: That's 'cause I AM him!
MIST: Oh, what a coincidence to meet a place like this.
BUSH: I came looking for you, Mist!!
Just wanted to say, if you see weird punctuation or a typo, 99% of the time, it's the game's fault. This game's got it's fair share of translation mishaps, although it's usually good about it most of the time.
I'm not going to harp on them, but I am going to joke about them.
STELLA: Ahahaha! So Mist was the missing girl Bush was looking for!
That being said, Stella's just talking to nobody specific right now.
MIST: Sister Stella, I didn't know you knew Bush.
BUSH: I just happened to stop here for the night while I was looking for you.
BUSH: More importantly, What in the world are you doing here, Mist?! Everyone's worried about you because you left so suddenly.
I've found that the second choice in these situations usually ends up giving more dialogue than the first. The two branches meet up somewhere around this point.
MIST: Oh, I'm sorry. Well, then could you return to town and tell everyone I'm fine?
BUSH: Huh...? You're not coming with me?
MIST: I can't. Someone is calling for me.
BUSH: Again, with the nonsense...
MIST: I know! Bush, you should stay here!
Mist hears the call of the plot, and you're not escaping it, Bush.
BUSH: What?! I can't do that!
MIST: If I remember correctly, there's an empty house next to the one I live in.
STELLA: Well, yes, there is, but no one has lived there for so long, it's a mess. Not to mention the farm...
MIST: Don't worry. Bush is very skilled at tending to such things. I'm sure he'll clean this one right up!
BUSH: Um... I don't remember agreeing to stay here...
MIST: Come, Bush. It's this way!
As if by cruel fate, Bush is being roped into managing a run-down farm again. Some early Harvest Moon games would let you just say no and get a game over/ early credits sequence, but this is not one of them.
Music: Spring(This is our first seasonal theme! This one's quite relaxing, but the unfortunate truth of the seasonal themes in this game is that you'll be hearing way too much of them.
This game also doesn't remember track placement either, so there's a good chance the opening section will wear its welcome even thinner.
Even with all of that, I still, I do quite like this one. It has a feel to it that's rather unique to this game.)
MIST: Just down this path!
BUSH: Please wait!
STELLA: Bush, once you finish up some work, can you come to my place?
BUSH: Sure.
I mean, sure why not, we're basically going to be neighbors now.
Staring at the door, rendered still from shock, we can now actually control Bush. While movement in this game isn't as finely tuned as the games that would come after, it's a lot better than RF1 for sure.
It's also Spring 2nd, a Monday, as evidenced by the clock at the upper part of the screen. While that may seem arbitrary, this is done because the 1st would've been New Years and thus all the businesses would be closed on our first day as we explore town. This was a notable issue RF1 had.
Technically, we did get here on the 1st, but we did sleep at the church, so, uh, here we are.
Time doesn't move right now, and we can't enter any other buildings because we're not out of the tutorial yet. 3 seconds of movement down the hill, and we have control taken away from us again.
BUSH: What is that?
MIST: That's Whale Island. It's always in the sky above Trampoli village.
The name of the town hasn't been named up until this point, so yes, it's called Trampoli. Also there's a flying whale shaped island in the sky above it.
It's always flying whales.
What a strange island... I heard there's a cave inside it. Piques your interest doesn't it?
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1. Yeah...
2. Not really.
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Meh, I'm sure it'll be entirely irrelevant to the plot.
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Not really.
I'm not so sure.
Mist: Really? You always say things like that but still go out on adventures, Bush.
Okay fine, you got me, I do want to know about the rock whale.
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Yeah...
BUSH: Yeah. How does an island float above the clouds like that?
MIST: I'm sure you'll be able to find the answer to that, Bush. I just know it.
Surprisingly, the answer to this question is really quite easy to find.
MIST: Anyway, let's go. Follow me. It's this way.
With that, we head off across the bridge we came from last night.
We get many establishing shots of the surrounding area.
MIST: This is your new home, Bush. How do you like it? Isn't it great?
Well, it's a lot prettier than the old one.
BUSH: Um... Well... I guess so...
I can understand Bush's reluctance though-
-this field is pretty awful... and I mean that mechanically. We got some garbage RNG here- just terrible spawns.
My test run had a lot better field than this. Oh well, I guess it's got a decent bit of open space. Said open space won't last long, but it's there!
Not speaking mechanically, it's a free house with farmland in the front, Bush, what more could you want?
MIST: Feel free to use this house and the farm in front however you like.
MIST: You know what? We should give your farm a name.
"Mist" was the default name in the first game too. I'm sure you can guess why.
We'll be going with Shrub Farm, as per thread vote.
MIST: That's a great name. I think it suits the place.
BUSH: I hope you weren't planning on saying that no matter what I named it.
She in fact, was. She has this response to everything you name your farm, even Farm Farm. The only thing that nets a different response is the default:
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MIST: "Mist Farm"? Sounds like a name that could spread across town in a wink.
BUSH: Ahahaha... You think so?
It's not even your farm this time, Mist. Hell, I don't even know by what authority you're allowed to give this to us.
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MIST: It's gonna be great to have you here. See you later!
She then walks away for a second, visibly remembers something, then walks back. This was her main sort of quirk in the first game.
MIST: I almost forgot! You're going to need this.
You got Cheap Hoe!
You got Cheap Can!
Somehow, Mist has managed to find another batch of junk tools to bestow upon us as she once did before. They go well with our equally garbage farm.
We'll work on fixing it up in time, but it won't come quickly.
Bush shows us that he still knows what to do with these.
MIST: It looks good on you. Don't forget to fill the watering can with water before using it.
Common sense, and also the information that these junk tools are apparently a fashion statement. I'm sure Evelyn from RF3 would be happy to know about this.
MIST: You definitely have a knack for being an Earthmate, Bush. I can tell by just looking at you.
Probably gonna have to explain this as well, as I don't believe the game really ever covers what this means.
Earthmates are a plot point in most Rune Factory games as your protagonist is either one or has powers similar to one (RF3, ToD). You've got some deeper connection to the spirits of the world, which makes you good at farming and whatnot, alongside communicating to dragons. In practice, it means if there's some ancient device or ritual, we're probably needed to start or stop it.
And yeah, uh, that's pretty much it. The royal knights of Norad, (the kingdom we're in,) are all probably earthmates, and we also have some sort of secret language we made up but mostly forgot, as per RF2.
I wouldn't put it past this game to forget this plot point up until the end like the first game, or just entirely.
Oh, and another thing. I wanted to give this to you, Bush. It's a Turnip Seed.You got Turnip Seed!
MIST: I'll be looking forward to those turnips.
BUSH: ... Does this mean I have to give her some turnips later...?
Take a wild guess what items she likes.
With the clock starting to finally move, the game has finally started. That being said, this game opens up gradually and will play the majority of it's cards over the course of the next update or three.
If you've played a Rune Factory game before, you might notice something odd.
It's basically a given in these games that they throw you a tutorial on how to farm immediately, and with that, a random monster will show up to give you the barest understanding of combat. Frontier does neither of these.
In fact, I'm pretty sure it never even does the latter. Some characters will periodically offer farming advice and short tutorials in the early game as well as a step-by-step guide in your house, but mentions of combat are brief to nonexistent.
Just an observation.
We can also finally open our menu. We brought absolutely nothing with us aside from 500g, so all we've got is the stuff Mist gave us. This is gonna be an fixer-upper operation from the ground up.
And when I say Bush brought absolutely nothing with him, I mean even physically. He's go no skill in anything, even farming, which he's supposedly good at.
This is our status screen. There's a lot to cover here, and I've got more to get to in this update, so covering all of this will wait until later.
HP is HP, and RP is effectively our stamina & mana bar. You might be surprised to see that our RP is a massive 500 max which puts the two previous games to shame, with their 100 RP permanent maximums.
It is simultaneously both as good as it looks, and also not. You'll see soon enough that 500 does not last nearly as long as you might think it would.
We do not have a barn.
It will be quite some time before we get a barn, but when we do, we can check it any time from this menu.
Options! I can disable the motion controls if I want, but this is already on emulator, so uh
Had we any recipe books for crafting, they would be here.
"Stella- The very person that made Trampoli what it is today. Considered the town's mother."
And on this page, we can psychically check other people's opinions of us, as well as watch them spin slowly in our brainspace.
"Mist- The girl next door. A bit aloof and random but is very nice. Likes Turnips."
You can't zoom up or anything. Also, for as much a friend as Bush thinks Mist is, she doesn't really care about him. A flat 0/0 Friendship and Love.
But as I said earlier, this farm spawn is bad. Unlike RF1, the starting layout is random, and this one has no bamboo shoots. My test file had three, and they're worth 110g each when sold.
I guess we're gonna have to work a bit harder for our early money then.
All the non-rock, non-wood objects in our field can be picked up. The majority of what you see is weeds, but some of these are minorly useful herbs. They'll be better later if we get a pharmacy.
I pick the upper right part of the field to use for now as it's closer to a water source, and luckily somewhat clear already.
After tilling the wrong tile, and whiffing a blow against the impenetrable grass, I till the tile I meant to and become more skilled at farming. This reduces the cost of RP it takes to swing our farming implements, which means we are slightly more fit.
Our maximum RP will never improve from that 500, so skilling up is the only way to make farming more efficient in terms of personal growth.
These games are all about tilling 3x3s. You can see how our RP has already taken a hefty dent from just this.
One must have water in their watering can to water crops. Unfortunately, this can only holds up to 12 tiles of water, which is annoyingly little given that watering crops is the job you have to do nearly every day. Trying to keep my crops close to the water will lessen the length of the refill trips, but the refill trips will be many.
Rune Factory 3 would go on to alleviate a good amount of the garbage tool blues by allowing the hoe to chain up to three swings and letting the player keep using the watering can as you walk, but this game provides no such luxury.
This thing is first on the list to be upgraded, for sure.
This is why we farm in 3x3s. All the seeds in the series up until RF4 are just thrown in a big circle around you.
We can walk through all of our crops in this game, so there's no need to leave some tiles out like in other Harvest Moon games. I can't begin to tell you how nice that is.
Ah, idyllic. Nothing like the sight of freshly sown soil.
Anyways, let's go bug some people.
If we head down the right path from our farm, we find Mist's house. It's safe to say Bush was very close to just finding Mist from the start last night.
MIST: Bush, are you using the "Return Magic" spell?
Ah, yes, random tutorial.
BUSH: Return magic?
MIST: Yes. It's a spell that returns you to where you can be at peace. Using this will instantly bring you back to your home.
MIST: It's a very nice spell that also takes you back to the entrance when using it in the dungeons.
BUSH: That sounds pretty convenient... How do I use it?
MIST: It's very simple. Just press the 2 Button and select "Return".
MIST: As long as you have this, you can easily escape even when surrounded by monsters!
MIST: Plus, it doesn't use any RP. Isn't thast great?
Get used to a bit of fourth wall breaking for a while as the tutorials persist.
BUSH: That sounds incredible.
MIST: But, sometimes it's unavailable for some reason.
A.K.A.: Plot reasons.
BUSH: What?! What if that happens when I'm fighting monsters?
MIST: Well there's that saying, "Only God knows."
BUSH: Oh, come on...
To be fair, the effects of this spell was split into two different ones in Rune Factory 1, so it'd actually make some sense that Bush doesn't know what it is. It's not even really a spell though, just a menu function, and we just kinda innately have it without actively learning or anything, so I don't really know what to tell you.
Anyways, I'm going to keep talking until she runs out of new stuff to say.
MIST: Good morning, Bush.
MIST: It's so warm.
MIST: The other day, I dreamt of climbing a giant beanstalk to get to Whale Island.
MIST: It would be wonderful if such a beanstalk actually existed.
Ah, that'll never happen, I'm sure.
A good number of lines in this game are actually voiced. Mist always draws her words out a bit long, sounding as if she's slightly high, which is basically in character for her. It hasn't shown itself fully, but "aloof and random" from the Relationships page is a pretty effective description of how she is.
Whether or not she's just airheaded or is actually a social mastermind, manipulating us strategically is up to you to decide. I'm just partially convinced she's smoking those turnips. Uh, you'll see what I mean later.
(I'm going to be saying that a lot aren't I.)
MIST: I like seeing people who work by the sweat of their brow.
Is it truly coincidence she's given us two different farms? Or are we her unwitting supply of turnips?
This is also her generic line that lets you know she's out of fun stuff to say. We'll be seeing this even into the late game, as conversations work a bit differently in this game than in the adjacent releases.
Regardless of Mist's true form, Stella's got a job for us and it begins a short quest chain to meet the other folks of Trampoli.
BUSH: What is it?
STELLA: I'm glad you could come. Can you do me a favor and take this Bamboo Shoot to Turner at the inn?
BUSH: To Turner at the inn?
STELLA: The inn is all the way west. It's right around the corner. The fat man there is Turner.
I feel like there's a better identifier you could use than just calling him "the fat man", but okay, Stella.
BUSH: All right.
You got Bamboo Shoot!
STELLA: Oh, and if you don't know where the inn is, just look at the map.
: BUSH: The map?
STELLA: Press the 2 Button to look at the map at any time. It should help you a lot.
The map is useful at first, but mostly irrelevant once you know your way around town.
STELLA: There are maps in the village, too, so you should look at those, as well.
Lots of commas there. The maps in town just pull up the same map, so they're just slightly less convenient but more immersive I guess.
STELLA: I'm counting on you to get the "Bamboo Shoot" to Turner.
Here is said map. Finding your way around town isn't really hard in this game, it's finding the other people and memorizing their schedules that proves challenging.
To the left side of town we go! We'll fully explore everything later. I know I'm already going to have to cut this update a tad short thanks to all the dialogue and new content. Later updates will cover a lot more than this.
Music: Trampoli(Another new track! This plays, hilariously, in less areas of the town than the seasonal theme does. It's also unaffected by season, so you'll be hearing this throughout the entire game.)
We finally enter Trampoli proper, though you'll find that the living density is barely higher than the other places we've been. Such is life in a small hamlet like Trampoli.
[Danny's Groceries] - Closed for preparations.
[Damascus] - Closed for preparations.
There's some buildings, but they're closed until we do the next part of the questline. At least "Groceries" is a better name than "PARTS". I feel like the blacksmith's sign might be nigh unreadable on older televisions, as this is being done with 2x native resolution.
To the "INN" we go then.
Music: Business District Buildings
UNKNOWN GIRL: Oh! Are you a customer?
Oh, hey, a new face!
UNKNOWN GIRL: Dad! We have a customer! Where are you, Dad?!
She quickly runs down the stairs.
UNKNOWN GIRL: I'm sorry for being so hasty.
I'm still unsure of what this means.
UNKNOWN GIRL: Well, umm...
UNKNOWN GIRL: W-welcome! Will you be staying? You are staying, right?!
UNKNOWN GIRL: U-umm... That'll be 100 Gold. Will you be staying?
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1. No, I didn't come here fore that...
2. Yes, please.
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With a sales pitch like that, how could I say no?
Yes, please.
BUSH: Uh, yes, please.
UNKNOWN GIRL: Thank you very much. Enjoy your stay.
Music: Goodnight
UNKNOWN GIRL: G-good morning.
UNKNOWN GIRL: ...
UNKNOWN GIRL: Um... I heard this from Mist yesterday...
UNKNOWN GIRL: You just moved in next to her, right?
UNKNOWN GIRL: You could have said something! Y-you're horrible..
BUSH: Sorry... I just couldn't bring myself to say it. I'm Bush. I just moved in next to Mist. Nice to meet you.
EUNICE: I'm Eunice. My family runs the inn. Nice to meet you, too.
Apparently Bush must have went to sleep immediately because it was just noon when I got here yesterday. Somehow these two didn't communicate this in all that time.
Also, yes, the game does take the 100g from you and change the day over. That's commitment to the joke right there.
And that's that. This update is getting a bit long, so I'll cut it here and we'll finish off the, uh, first day and the proper timeline next time.
In hindsight, maybe I really should've just put the opening FMV in a separate update.
...Nah.
But before we go, a word from our esteemed guest on today's lesson of Amnesic Agriculture 102:
EUNICE: I love sweets!
You heard it here first, folks.