Part 4: Dirt Nap

Update 04: Dirt Nap



Music: Trampoli Daily Life

*Someone knocking on our door*

Welcome back! Apparently someone needs our help at 6AM in the morning. It's probably Mist or something, but who knows?



Music: Spring

Gotta finish putting those double layered gloves on first. Can't answer the door unless we look like we always do.



Oh, hey, mail.



I think it's entirely too early for Bush to be doing this, though part of it may just be him remembering that everything that happened yesterday was not an extended dream.




ANETTE: You have to fill out an application if you moved!


BUSH: I-I'm sorry.


By the way, those things next to her are woolies. They're like bipedal sheep with floppy ears and effectively the series mascot.




ANETTE: Never mind.


ANETTE: Here you go. I have some mail for you.




BUSH: Mail...?


Bush's only concept of mail is festival flyers stuffed in his mailbox from the town mayor sneaking out at midnight to advertise said festivals that everyone already knows about.

Kardia's an interesting place.




ANETTE: Yup. I'm Anette. I deliver the mail here in Trampoli.


ANETTE: And you?


BUSH: Oh... I'm Bush.


ANETTE: Oh. Nice to meet you, Bush.



And with that she runs off.




BUSH: Anette... So you're a mailman.


Wouldn't it be mailwoman?



BUSH: Oh right, I got some mail. Let's see...


-------------------------
Welcome.
Nice to meet you!
From Anette.
-------------------------




BUSH: ...Thanks very much, Anette.


Anette's the fourth of our potential romance options, and the answer to who actually delivers our mail. There's no post office in Trampoli, so she presumably comes from somewhere else.

This means she's only in town for a few hours after completing her mail route. That being said, she comes by our house at the same time (6:30 AM) every day, so it's really hard to miss a chance to talk to her. I will still somehow do this very often.

She won't start her route proper until tomorrow, so this is all we'll see of her today.



Our shrub farm has produced more natural bounty for us on this day. The colored herbs are a Harvest Moon staple "weed", but they happen to be useful for crafting medicines and what not. They heal really minor amounts of HP on their own if you're desperate.

That bright green plant is a Medicinal Herb which has sadly been nerfed from the strength of it's earlier incarnations. On it's own, it heals 7 HP, but they can be turned into much better potions later. Well... somewhat better potions later. They kinda nerfed medicine in general.

Stockpiling these will be beneficial in the long run, so I pick them up on sight.



As tilled ground just stays tilled, we only have to water our plants to maintain them. We shouldn't be as deathly tired today after handling our crops.

Right now, all of our crops are in the process of growing, as plants do, but the earliest visual state for any crop looks identical. So if you were applying fertilizer or something and forgot what was what, I guess it could be a problem.



Still got a number of seeds left over from yesterday, as I was barely able to get just the strawberries planted and watered without dying.

Farming is serious business.



Just as I finish planting the next set, it hits 9:00, so it's time to go chat up the town.




MIST: Good morning, Bush.


MIST: Growing crops in your fields and then shipping them out is one of the fundamentals of ranch life.


MIST: Good luck to you.


Alternatively, you can just ship other stuff. In previous games, there was a lot of money to be made that way. They did kinda nerf the hell out doing that for this game though. I guess making more money from mining in a farming sim partially defeats the purpose.

If you've been noticing all those weird floating lights everywhere, (and given how they photobomb half my screenshots you probably have,) well...




BUSH: Speaking of which...


BUSH: What are those red and yellow things floating around here?




MIST: Those are Runeys.


There aren't any Red runeys, so I don't know what Bush is on about. Maybe he means the purple ones?

It's likely another translation mishap, but if you want to headcanon that he's partially colorblind it's there.



BUSH: Runeys?


MIST: Yes. I don't understand it fully but they're supposed to gather around land that is thriving.


Don't worry, Mist, nobody does.




MIST: When crops become ripe, other lands produce "Rune Crystals," but here, they just turn into Runeys.


In all other RF games, crops produce these little floating blue or white spheres when fully grown. They're the actual 'runes' that the name of the series refers to, and restore RP when collected.

These runeys are part of the big controversial mechanic in this game, and as result didn't carry over to following games. Tides has sorta something like it, but it's different. Regardless, we won't have the means of doing anything with runeys until about Spring 10th.

For now, I'll just leave it at the mechanic is a weak analogue for soil fertility.



MIST: Some place that isn't part of the village, the dungeon for example, will yield Rune Crystals.


If you can tolerate heading into dungeons for all your farming, then I theorize you can just ignore these things. They'll still be turning every location into a crazy, smiley-faced lightshow though.




MIST: The Runeys look cute so I prefer them much more.


The majority of Frontier players disagree with this sentiment, I believe.

That's all she's got for us, so let's explore around a bit.



There is this field of overgrown jpeg grass to the south of her house. I'm sure this will never be relevant.



Up the path that runs north from her house is this little stream and a log bridge over it that doesn't look particularly stable.



If we keep following it, it leads to a spot somewhat behind the church and a path that links up with the main road..



Said spot behind the church has this giant tree that I'm sure will never be relevant.





BUSH: That's such a big clock tower. It doesn't seem to be working though.


To the right of the church and up the small hill is a broken clock tower.



We get a long, slowly panning shot of it to establish that it is indeed broken.

We're staring at this thing for half a minute, no joke.



Then Stella shows up.



STELLA: Isn't that a grand clock tower? This clock tower was here before I came to the village.


STELLA: But I've never seen it working, not even once. I had a lot of people look at it but it just won't work. You can't go inside right now, but it'll be opened after the cleanup is done.


----------------------------------
[Clock Tower]
Moving in on the 7th of spring.
Entrance is restricted at this time
due to move-in preparations.
----------------------------------


Well, at least they tell us when it opens.



There's also this completely ordinary plant nearby that I'm sure does nothing at all and will never be relevant.

Anyways, to the church!



Music: St. Poli Church


STELLA: Are you an acquaintance of Mist? Looks like she has you at her beck and call.


i mean, she ain't wrong

also we already told you we knew her



BUSH: Haha...


STELLA: Some weird plants have been growing in front of the clock tower recently.




STELLA: No one planted any seeds, so I wonder what it is... Give it some water and I bet it'll grow even more.


Hey, I've got enough watering work to do as it is.



STELLA: Ahahaha, I'm kidding.


I'm not.




STELLA: You can ask me any time if you need anything.


STELLA: It's my job to maintain a peaceful life for everyone.




STELLA: What's up? Did you come to listen to a sermon?


BUSH: N-no... Maybe another time.


Every RF protagonist tries their hardest to dodge religion, and Bush is no exception.




BUSH: What a splendid organ.


It is rather impressive.


It took a bit of work to get that, actually. Now it's just an old memory.

Unfortunately, that's all she has to say about that right now. If you were interested in the storied history of this organ, I'm sorry, I guess.



Still ignoring the library until it's relevant. Won't be too long.





There's a rising staircase on the path between the Church District and the Business District. Up here's this big... amphitheatre? It's basically the town's square. If you stand near that funny rock in the center, you can hear someone singing.

Yeah, doesn't sound very plot important to me either.



Music: Business District Buildings


DANNY: This is so far into the countryside.


Despite his incredibly talkative introduction, Danny rarely has much to say.



We can also go upstairs to his bedroom and he does not care. It's rather spartan, though it's not lacking in space.



Eunice is, uh, sweeping the pavement outside the inn.



EUNICE: Good morning, Bush.


EUNICE: The weather is good today so I hung the bedding out in the sun.


EUNICE: It feels really good to wash the laundry on days like this.


She doesn't have much going on in her life aside from housework.




EUNICE: We run an inn, but the bar is open at night so please come when you feel like it.


This line is voiced. There's your interesting bit of LP trivia for the day.



BUSH: Sure. I don't drink, but I'll take a look.


I'll remember to show it off eventually.




TURNER: Hey, Bush. Morning.


TURNER: Bush, why don't you stop over tonight? We'll drink until the sun comes up.


BUSH: Well...


I said I'd remember to show it off!




RITA: Good morning, Bush.


RITA: What's up? Is there something on my face?


Yeah, it's right underneath your eyes. Actually a lot of folks seem to have it, please explain




GANESHA: Good morning... You seem lively so early...


It's true, Bush wakes up with an unparalleled amount of energy every morning.




GANESHA: I wonder what weapon with what patten I should make this time...?


Generic lines!




BUSH: It's a weapons display case.


GANESHA: Whoa, hold on. I can't sell that one yet. It doesn't have Retornen cast on it. The weapon may be ready, but I can't sell something that doesn't have Retornen.


GANESHA: I'll move it back over to this shelf soon enough, so check back again later.


This is gonna get mentioned a decent bit, and explained more than once, so I'll go ahead and do it myself.

Retornen is a thing that keeps getting a slightly different name things due to translation, and it basically makes weapons not physically harm monsters. It just kinda boots them off this plane of existence and back to their world instead in a not really well explained manner. With this existing, monster slaying is family-friendly now.

Although, fun fact, previously established lore states that this handwavium magic has no effect on non-monsters and thus we can still beat each other up. I don't think it's ever said specifically what effect it has on half-monsters or mermaids, because this world has those. Also later lore establishes that everything made with materials in the place we live in has this automatically applied, so I guess Ganesha's got outsourced steel or something.

Rune Factory lore is massively convoluted!



Upstairs is kinda fancy.



Music: Kross' Theme

Kross has a lot going on is his place, so we'll investigate it all at a later date.



hey man, I'm talking to you, please stop hitting me with your hoe


KROSS: Oh, it's you. Good morning...




KROSS: Rumor says that you have no memory of your past.


KROSS: Heh... Being able to forget your past is a good thing. It's always about how you view things.


I've definitely got stuff I'd like to forget.

Bush's plot amnesia wasn't really voluntary. Here's the entire plot of RF1 in a spoiler: he was kidnapped by the neighboring evil empire and given memory loss inducing magic drugs so he could be manipulated into using his Earthmate powers to awaken one of the four Dragon Gods so that said empire could weaponize it. Said Earthmate powers was just, uh, farming and fighting. No, seriously.




BUSH: It's a note... There re memos about crops written in it...


Erik has a memo on crops. This is all we get, we can't actually read said memo and steal our rival farmer's secrets.




ERIK: It feels refreshing when it's this sunny!


I don't like overcast days much myself, so I agree. Although I'd prioritize having a mild breeze over the sun. A hot day with still air is awful.



I'm not going to write up all of Erik's tutorial dialogue unless someone wants me to, but he will give you a free bag of turnip seeds for asking about how to plant seeds.

(I've been cutting out a little bit of other redundant tutorial dialogue as well in these updates )



I guess I gotta get back to that farming thing, then.



Mist doesn't stare at you the entire time you're on the farm, sometimes she heads over here to do... something to these flowers in front of our house.



I get the rest of our seeds planted. Turnips sell for 210g a piece, so having this growing will be a big influx of cash.



Wait, no

Bush

don't do it



I...c-can't...


Bush? Bush?!

Buuuuuuush!





Oh hey, it's the infirmary so I guess we're fine. So, in early Rune Factory games there's no punishment for passing out-



You caught a cold.

Damn. I guess sleeping face first in the dirt isn't the best for health.




Not only does the Cold status effect triple RP usage, we start the day with half HP and RP and at 10:00 AM. It's real rough, but I guess when knocking yourself out cold to start the day late was such a prevalent strategy in the first game you have to balance it somehow.

You could just let us pick when to wake up, Neverland Marvelous, that'd also work.

Starting the day at 10:00 AM may have it's advantages in previous games and in this one, but it also means we're highly unlikely to meet Anette on days like these. The church presently isn't staffed with a nurse, so er, we can't do anything about the cold either.

Alas.




STELLA: I heard that Mist is ill.


Hey, so am I.



BUSH: Really? Now I'm worried...


STELLA: It's really nothing serious, but can you go check up on her?


BUSH: Sure!




STELLA: How is the field? Is it a bit prettier now?


BUSH: Just a bit.


BUSH: I don't know what to do with the twigs and branches that are all over the field.


Yeah, I mean, we used to be able to pick those up by hand.




STELLA: Chopping up branches with an axe automatically turns it into lumber and stores it in the Lumber Shed.


BUSH: But I don't have an axe...


STELLA: Oh, really? Well you can use my axe.



You got Cheap Axe!




STELLA: I used it when I was younger so it's a bit old, but I'm sure it can break twigs with no problems.


STELLA: But you probably won't be able to do anything about the tree stumps. You might be able to if you had a better axe, but just leave it be for now.


If you're questioning why the nun has an axe, I'd at least say it makes more sense than getting it from the short, spoiled, rich girl in the first game.

Actually neither really makes any sense, but some later dialogue kinda explains it, I guess?




BUSH: Thank you very much.


But yeah, this is a nice get. You have to talk to Stella a decent bit each day to trigger this, and it's best to get it as early as possible. It's also best to upgrade it quickly as well as we'll want to get started on lumber collection early.



Oh, hey, we finally got a bamboo shoot in our field! Took it long enough. They're worth 110g, (20g less than they were in RF1,) so they help for some real early game income.



Mist isn't watering her plants like usual, so I guess we'll have to go inside.

Music: Town Buildings




BUSH: A frying pan... I wonder if Mist cooks.


Don't know why you're getting red in the face about that, maybe it's just the cold.




Seems to be happening for her, at least.



BUSH: Mist, are you okay?


MIST: It's just a cold. I'll be fine with a little rest.


MIST: There's this old wives' tale that infecting someone with your cold will make you better.


1. please dont do this
2. Bush already has a cold.
3. Did you sleep face first on the ground like we did?




BUSH: Uh... Bye now...


Yeah, let's get out of here before she-




BUSH: This is Mist's bed...


-------------------------------
1. I should go to sleep.
2. I still have things to do.
---------------------------



what




MIST: Bush, you seem very interested in my stuff.


oh no





So, Bush can inspect the beds in everyone's house and get a yes/no prompt in a similar manner, but nothing ever happens regardless of choice. If the characters are in the area at the time, they'll react to you looking at it.

Mist's interaction trigger while in her bed isn't large enough to block you from interacting with it if you angle yourself right, creating this... suggestive situation.

Also, Mist is not a good role model.




Stunned by these events, Bush goes to investigate the empty plot of land to the upper right of his farm. This is where our barn goes when we make one. It's rather cheap to make, it's just that it's low priority right now since we haven't even seen a monster.

Since it's past 9:00 already, I head out to chat up the town. I'm not getting much farming done today.




DANNY: The weather is so nice. I want to go outside!


Then why don't you?




BUSH: Ganesha, do you do maintenance work on farming tools?


GANESHA: I do, but I don't recommend it.


BUSH: Why is that?


GANESHA: Farming tools are the tools of your own trade. I think it's best for you to maintain those things on your own.


GANESHA: Well, but there are people like Turner who get me to sharpen his kitchen knives.




GANESHA: But in truth, I want them to do it themselves.


BUSH: No... If that's the case, then I'll try to do it on my own.


GANESHA: Good boy! Then let me give a gift to our fledgling craftsman.

You got Farming Companion


BUSH: Thank you.




GANESHA: With this recipe, you can care for your farming tools easily.


GANESHA: And about forging... every week during holidays, a peddler called Lute comes to the square to sell things. You can buy some simple blacksmith equipment from Lute.


GANESHA: After you buy the equipment, just keep trying until you get it right.


BUSH: I'll try.


Ganesha's not in it for the money, she's in it to spread the trade

That being said, Ganesha obviously won't upgrade your tools for you, (an option that hasn't been available since RF1,) which is why obtaining a decent amount of cash to buy a forge is our top priority.




GANESHA: That one's used by Noradian Knights. I think it may be too heavy for you, Bush.


Norad is the name of the kingdom we live in, and it's suggested by RF1's ending that Bush was part of its high ranking group of knights or something.

No helmet for us for now though. I don't think we ever get any real armor



That's Marco down there on the lower center of the screen. I didn't notice I'd walked past him until I looked at this recording. Usually he's over at the stove if he's in the house.

Sorry, Marco. I meet you tomorrow, I think.




EUNICE: I'm thinking of some new dishes to make for the guests at the inn. I wonder what I should make.


Hey, new line. And it's fully voiced!

There's more to Eunice than this, but I'm not going to lie and say that housework isn't going to be a big part of her character.




TURNER: How do you like Trampoli? I hope you like it here.


TURNER: This is a nice village. I think you'll like this place a lot.


Well, I got sick when I took a nap in the dirt, but then again I think that'd happen anywhere so it's not really a point against the place.



TURNER: I guess the villagers have no use for an inn.


TURNER: But we can be the entrance of the village to welcome anyone from the outside.


It might help if you were a little closer to the actual entrance of the village, but sure.





TURNER: In order for the village to have a good impression of you, you have to keep communicating with the villagers.


Already on it, my man. Haven't got much else to do just yet, though I know that's going to change in a few updates.




RITA: Are you cooking on your own?


BUSH: No. I don't have any tools to cook at home...


In fact, Bush hasn't eaten anything since he came to Trampoli!



RITA: Oh, really? Why not buy some from Lute, then?




RITA: He's a travelling peddler that comes once a week. Why don't you try going to the square during the day on holidays.


RITA: He'll be a guy in weird clothes pushing a cart. Not only does he sell cooking utensils, there's a lot of other stuff that's worth a look.


BUSH: But I've never cooked before...


RITA: Perfect opportunity then. Take that as your chance to start. You can have this. There are some simple recipes in it.

You got Quick-step Cook!


Another early game recipe book for us!





RITA: Just stick with the recipe and you can make pretty good dishes.


BUSH: Thank you so much for everything.


RITA: Don't mention it.


Never gonna complain about free recipe books. Food is actually good in this game, even a mere pickled turnip can easily be made to restore 100 RP.



Music: Spring

Kross was on his rooftop as I passed by, so I didn't have the chance to talk to him. You just can't interact with him at all while he's up there.

It's highly serious work, I hope you understand.



Erik tells us how to use an axe, mostly saying the same stuff as Stella more or less. Running into repeat tutorials when you already know the game can be a bit annoying, but it's nice that they exist if I'm honest.



Communications with the Wii Remote have been interrupted.


The runeys are dead from lack of bluetooth signal, apparently.

I don't remember what I was doing here, but Dolphin got left idle long enough for this to happen.




ERIK: Young man! You seem to be tilling the fields with so much vigor. That's fine and dandy.


Yes, with so much vigor I fall unconscious!



ERIK: All right! In recognition of your effort, let me give you a farming tool as a gift!


ERIK: This "Cheap Sickle" will help you weed your fields without having to pluck them out one by one.


But if we do that, we can't sell the weeds for profit!

You got Cheap Sickle!




ERIK: No need to thank me! But I do understand if you want to tell all the girls in the village about what a nice guy I am!


There are two girls our age who live in the village, Erik. Two.

Anyways, getting the sickle here is the same deal as getting the axe from Stella, just talk to him a decent bit each day until he gives it to you.

The sickle's really only useful for cutting fodder, but it can make a decent weapon at some upgrade levels.



Well, time to do as much work as I can without passing out. It'd sure be nice if past me remembered that the bar exists and I could get some food from it, but spoiler, that doesn't happen.



Yep, that's all I can manage to do! Unfortunately, if the disorganized nature of my planting was bothering you, now we'll have to both deal with the fact that two strawberry plants will always be a day behind until the end of spring.



The bamboo shoots should make me some money though. It's not much, but it's something.



Later on, I won't need to do this as I'm going to be struggling to get done with everything before midnight on some days. The game does sound hilarious when sped up, but maybe I'm just easily entertained.

For now, I stand and look wistfully at the stream this impenentrable fence and double bush combo blocks me from, making my watering route longer.



"Rosetta: Her words may sting at times, but she is always hard at work."


At some point, I remembered to show off these profiles.

The pink loafers go with her pink... eyes? Is that normal? Should we be worried, or is that just something that happens when Capitalism runs through your veins?



"Anette: The ever energetic mail delivery girl. Has a problem of being chased by monsters."


I don't really know if the monster thing ever comes up again. Hell, we never see those three woolies again.



"Rita: Tavern Master. Rumored to be the biggest drinker in town."


Now that's a pose.

She's also one of the few characters that actually have one outside of the "generic stand"!



"Erik: A farmer in Trampoli. Always calls Bush a young man, but he is, too."


At first I was asking myself "what kind of weird shirt does he have tied around his waist" but then I realized it's actually overalls.

Dude, you're wearing a lot of layers for working by the sweat of your brow.



"Ganesha: The owner of Damascus Forge. A rare but skilled elven smithy, with many fans."


Still love that giant hammer.



"Ganesha- Runs a grocery store. There seems to be a deep reason why he came to this town."


As deep as the front cut in his shirt?



"Kross: You may not have noticed him, but he lives next door to Erik. A skilled carpenter."[/b]


No, I noticed him.



Around this time I realize I can just collect weeds while I wait.



Rosetta only shows up at 5, and if you want to see her daily event, you have to wait until 5:30 PM.

Believe it or not, this is not the latest in the day we'll have to wait just to talk to a girl.



Music: By the Ocean

(I don't remember ever hearing this theme at the beach, only here. It probably does play there.)


ROSETTA: Good evening!


ROSETTA: I'm here to pick up the items for today. If I didn't do this, neither of us would make any money.




ROSETTA: Omph.


She just throws that lid open.




ROSETTA: Let's see...



And digs around for a bit. Through the, um, 2 bamboo shoots.


ROSETTA: Oh...




ROSETTA: The items I'm picking up today really make my work worthwhile.


She has special responses for shipping certain items, this is just the line you'll see otherwise.

*kaching*


ROSETTA: *phew* Done. Now you, me, and my customers will all be happy.




ROSETTA: I'll be back tomorrow. Be sure to fill up the shipping box with crops before then.


That depends on what you consider a crop. Do you take random grass? I value it at 10g per handful.




ROSETTA: Mist and I are childhood friends, but I always feel like competing with her. I wonder why?


This is established in the first game, but never properly explained as to why. We'll get to see some of this later.

Mist is too oblivious to notice, or perhaps is just playing Rosetta like she's playing us all


ROSETTA: It's getting a lot warmer in the morning and night now. Thanks to that, doing my rounds is much easier.



Just screenshotted this to reiterate that it takes her 30 minutes to walk from the bridge to our shipping box.



ROSETTA: I'll come to pick up the merchandise at 5pm every day. Be sure fill up your shipping box before then.


ROSETTA: I recommend cabbage and strawberries during spring. Strawberries are good because they can bear multiple crops.


ROSETTA: All you need to do is wait a while after harvesting. After some time, you'll be able to harvest them again.


ROSETTA: You don't even have to sow seeds again so it's cost efficient.


They also happen to be a preferred gift of hers. Not favorite, that'd be too easy, but just a liked gift. In fact, 2 other candidates and another non-candidate also like strawberries so they're a good crop to grow.



Music: Trampoli Daily Life

With that done, I'd say Bush is bushed. Time to hit the hay.




Another day, but luckily our cold is cured and we're back at full.

Yes, I did spend most of yesterday talking to the town while sick, after telling Mist to not give her colds to other people. I'm sure this won't come back to bite me at all.

No, seriously. Colds aren't actually contagious in this world, and an instant remedy is already known.




Time for a brand new-

wait why is there a cutscene




BUSH: Huh...? Everything... is spinning...