Part 46: It's Yours, My Friend

Update 46: It's Yours, My Friend


by the book gods, you're absolutely right

how could we have missed this




We return!

If it looks like the game's a bit... blurry, that's because it is. I had some settings wrong when recording this, but I fixed them a few in-game days later. (A mix of internal resolution not being doubled and a small innaccuracy in the OBS setup.)

I haven't recorded this game in 8 months, this was bound to happen.

Also yes, this is recent recording!



Which is why I spend 15 minutes taking stock of the situation before hitting the kitchen as usual.


Music: Rune Factory 3 - Fall


We're in for another rainy day, so here's another rainy RF3 track.



Mail!


-----------------------------------------------------
~"Becoming Stronger" - Marco~

I think practicing diligently finally paid off.
I feel a little stronger.
I'm nothing compared to you, though, so
I better work even harder!

-----------------------------------------------------


Bush is stronk in arm and brain, but you can be the same one day too Marco. You got this



A reminder that Bush does brush his animals every day even though he'll never see mechanical benefit from it. He cares for all of them, even Gobbie, who's never done any work at all.

Pony is forever MVP ofc



Iris Noire hasn't had a lot of new dialogue recently, in part because she shares a large number of lines with Blanche. She'll have a few lines of her own, but we won't see most of them until the postgame.



Whoa, Anette's out delivering letters again today!




BUSH: Anette, are you still doing those group studies?


ANETTE: Of course! I love kids and I love teaching them stuff, too!


BUSH: You really do look happy when you're teaching them.


ANETTE: Oh, stop. You're embarrassing me.


ANETTE: They always give back such sweet smiles when I smile at them.


ANETTE: That itself makes me so happy.






ANETTE: But, I did notice one thing.


ANETTE: Those smiles are really similar to the kind I see when people receive their mail from me.


ANETTE: I love to see children smile so I wanted to become a teacher.


ANETTE: But maybe I already attained my dream when I became a mailman.


ANETTE: Say Bush, I think I can get out there and do the job again.


------------------------------------
1. Of course you can!
2. I don't know about that.
------------------------------------

We know the only answer here. This is Anette's calling.




BUSH: Of course you can, Anette!


BUSH: As long as you have your passion, you can always go back, and be better than before! I'm sure of it!


ANETTE: Haha... Just because you're sure of it doesn't mean anything though...




ANETTE: But, thanks.


Anette's not actually supposed to be delivering letters today, this conversation is what would trigger it. Still, Ann's very cool, she just likes seeing people smile.

Here's the other way the conversation could go:



It works out in the end either way.




ANETTE: Kanno! You've got mail!


ANETTE: That's a really old book. Is it a magical book that Kanno is researching? Now I'm getting kind of interested.


ANETTE: No no no! It's one thing to see the back of a postcard, but it's totally another to open up the envelope!


We haven't listened to the mail dialogue in a while.



Following this, we immediately head back into the magic mines again. Gotta get those crystals. All the powder just goes to Magic Grandpa who I think nearly already has max friendship with Bush.





Two crystal drops in the same spawn! I didn't even cheat with savestates!

This is it, this is the day. Our luck's gotta be off the charts.

That's enough for me to leave for now, covering today and tomorrow.



Come to think of it, Tabatha had something to tell us at 9:00 AM. We're an hour late, but we should see what she wants.



*Tabatha stands in the center of the main hall. Bianca descends the stairs as Bush and Minerva walk in.*




BIANCA: Bush... What do you want? Why did you call Minerva, too?


BIANCA: If it's something silly, I'm going back to my room.


TABATHA: I had everyone come together today for this.




TABATHA: You all will bear witness to the ceremony of the crowning of the queen.


MINERVA: W-what's going on?


TABATHA: This tiara is the proof of the one who sits on the throne of the elves.


MINERVA: I didn't come here for the tiara! I want you to come back home with me!


TABATHA: I know... But, I want to stay as the maid of Miss Bianca rather than be queen.


TABATHA: The queen of elves cannot stay absent forever.


The game never goes into why Tabatha is so attached to Bianca specifically, but it's evident that they're important to each other. You can draw your own conclusions there.

That and being the ruler of Elf-Land sounds like a hassle anyways, this job probably even pays better.

Minerva just wants her sister back.

(There is a model for the tiara, but the game waits to use it for some reason..)




TABATHA: That is why I am entrusting the tiara to you, Minerva.


TABATHA: Take this back to the nation of elves and hand it to the elder.


TABATHA: Grandma will choose someone much more fit to be queen than me.


MINERVA: But...


TABATHA: This is the path that I have chosen, Minerva.


MINERVA: ...



Music: Festival- Hotpot

(Well, I suppose we know where we'll hear this track again.)



TABATHA: We will now conduct the ceremony...


TABATHA: The ceremony will follow the legend where the elven hero gathered all of the goddess' lost jewels.


TABATHA: Bush ...


BUSH: Y-yes!


He's been waiting here awkwardly to see exactly what he was needed for.




TABATHA: Bush,, you'll play the role of the hero and find the 5 jewels of "Friendship, Harmony, Love, Nature and Life."


TABATHA: I've hidden them in the village. Find them and bring them to me.


BUSH: Right. So I just have to find those 5 stones that you've hidden somewhere...


TABATHA: Thank you.



*And so off she goes to hide those jewels.*





MINERVA: Well aren't you happy? My sister is going to stay as your maid.




BIANCA: Tabatha...


I'm sure happiness is in there somewhere, but Bianca seems like she's dealing with a big mix of emotions right now.





*After a fade-out, Tabatha comes back.*




TABATHA: Thank you. We will now begin the ceremony for the ascension to the elven throne.


TABATHA: Bush, if you will please...


And so ends the cutscene.




TABATHA: These are the 5 jewels which the goddess had lost and were rediscovered by the hero.


TABATHA: When these jewels come together, they are presented to the new owner that will become the new queen.


TABATHA: This is the ceremony of the ascension to the elven throne.


Tabatha explains what we need to do again. It seems like this ceremony is really prone to interference, I guess it's a good thing Elf-Land is chill.




MINERVA: She chose this herself, so I'll support you.


MINERVA: If this is what makes her happy, Bush, please find those jewels.


Minerva's calmed down a bit, it seems.




BIANCA: Tabatha... You did this...for me...?


Bianca is still understandably in shock. The person she's always regarded as her personal servant but also her closest thing to a friend was in fact a queen. And she'd give up that position just to stay here.



Music: Business District Buildings



EUNICE: I like my work at the inn, but it's bad how we never have a day off.


EUNICE: It's the same with the fields, isn't it? Let's both work hard.


Nobody tell Eunice that we just have monsters trained to do all the work for us now.

At least you get holidays off?




LARA: Bush, I had another dream.


BUSH: What kind of dream?


LARA: There was something shining that falls down in front of the mail box at the church.


LARA: Just thinking about how that will come true scares me...


BUSH: It's just a coincidence. It's not possible for so many dreams to come true consecutively.


LARA: I hope so...


Meanwhile, Lara is terrified of becoming a prophet/oracle. Does this have some precedent in the indistinct Noradian religion?

Being able to see the future is kind of a double-edged sword to begin with- you see all the good and the bad.

I'm sure it's all just coincidence though.



Here, I'll prove it. Nothing at the mailb-




BUSH: Hey... Something's on the ground... It's a wallet.


*cha-ching*



BUSH: It's just like the dream.


BUSH: I better keep this a secret from Lara...


...Okay, we are edging out of coincidence territory. Still, I don't know how much hiding it from Lara helps. Doesn't she deserve to know?

I guess she is a bit stressed out by it right now, but still.

Also:


...Huh, how about that?




LARA: Selphy is hopeless...


LARA: She really needs to fix that irresponsible personality of hers.


It's fine, she's just moved beyond the material realm through literary asceticism.

....But I won't deny the book hoarding is a bit concerning.




BUSH: What are you doing in a place like this, Selphy?


SELPHY: You sound like this is a terrible place.


SELPHY: But I guess I don't really fit here.


SELPHY: Well, I couldn't pay back the money I borrowed from Lara...


SELPHY: So, I ended up having to work here for it. I'm pathetic, aren't I?


BUSH: I don't think so at all. Working to repay your debts is a wonderful thing.


SELPHY: Really? Haha... Thanks.


As it turns out, she's not that far away. I'd say this is already a pretty responsible thing to be doing.

I forget exactly what it was she did. Lara just lent her a bit of cash, right?



As I drop by Cinnamon to gift magic crystals, there's an odd sparkle on the ground next to her.

Hey, Cinnamon, did you drop some magic glitter or something?



Oh, wow, it's a blue rupee!



Or rather, it's the Harmony Gem for the tiara, but it looks a lot like a rupee.



If we head to the back corner of the bar, we get the Charity Gem, which looks a lot like a red rupee.

I can't believe Elf-Land is just Hyrule.



The Nature Gem is down in Erik's kitchen. For some reason.



The Life Gem is in Mist's room. That makes 4, but the other... doesn't seem to be anywhere.

Hey, Anette, got any ideas?




BUSH: What's wrong, Anette? You look down.


ANETTE: Well, I lost my wallet...



ANETTE: I've been looking, but no luck. I wonder if someone picked it up.

------------------------------
1. Is this what you lost?
2. That's too bad.
------------------------------


Ah, it would figure that Anette's wallet would be the one by the mailbox. Bush would never steal, of course.




BUSH: Is this what you lost, Anette?


ANETTE: That's it! Thanks, Bush!


ANETTE: Hey, that's my wallet! I love you!


More localization oddities. Maybe she really just loves her wallet?

Still, life has really been mean to Anette recently.


Here's the other option, for those who want it:


It has been raining a lot recently, can't deny.



As we search for the other gem, it's time to get on with the rest of our day. Hitting the silver vein in Green Ruins is going to become a staple of our routine for a few days, although we don't really need silver all that much.

I just thought we might need it at the time



And while those Magic Crystals earlier weren't manipulated, these sure are. Might as well take out the rest of the day to never have to do this again.


(...yes i know this is the third time i've made this joke, whoops )



Music: Lava Ruins Gift Mine

Well, I been working in a gift mine
Going down, down
Working in a gift mine
Whew, about to pass out



Nine o'clock in the evenin'
I'm just getting powder
When my work day is over
I'm too tired for farmin' crops



Well, I been tired but I been
Working in a gift mine
Going down, down
Working in a gift mine
Whew, about to pass out



Axe, I am so tired-
How long can this go on?



Well, I been working in a gift mine
Swingin' down, down
Working in a gift mine
Whew, I'm off to a bath now



(*Brief psychedelic intermission of purchasing mass amounts of flour eggs and milk*)



Working



Going



Working



Whew, one's gotta drop now!


(As it so turns out, the higher tier anime super flying frontflip axe special attack can grind these Blazes really easily. Bush can stand in between them where they spawn and trigger it at the right moment to catch them both when they start casting- they seem to take more damage when that happens. This reliably one-shots both of them.)



Working, going, working
Whew, about to drop down



A- working,

Going,

A- working...



Whew, that's the last now!



That puts us at 10 Magic Crystals. We won't even need all of them, but it's also an agitatingly common crafting material at our skill level, so they won't go to waste.

Never did find Tabatha's other rupee. I hope she won't be too cross with us



With a long day of work done, Bush is bushed and bushes down for the night.





*KNOCK KNOCK*


We wake up in the morning to someone knocking on our door! It better not be that miscreant, Brodink!


Music: Rune Factory 2 - Fall

(It's also still raining )




BUSH: Who is it?



*So he asks, before just walking outside and opening the door himself.*




ANETTE: Morning!


BUSH: Oh, Anette... What are you doing up so early?


ANETTE: Early? What are you talking about? I always deliver mail at this time!


BUSH: Mail...? Hey!


BUSH: Anette, you went back to being a mailman again?


(ignore yesterday)




ANETTE: Yup. My vacation ended yesterday. Starting today, I do mail in the morning and teach during the day.


ANETTE: I want to do everything I want to do.


That's all we can ask for in life, really. Good for you, Anette!




ANETTE: Oh, I almost forgot.



*She reaches in her bag and hands Bush a letter.*



ANETTE: You have a letter. See you later.



And off she goes.




BUSH: Anette seems like she's back to her cheerful self.


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



"Thanks for cheering me up."

"I'll be staying at Mist's place from now on."

"I hope we'll get along, neighbor."



BUSH: ...




BUSH: Time to get back to work.


And so it ends and begins again, just how it first began. A knock on our door early in the morning and a letter from Anette.

And so truly ends Anette's storyline. She'll now be chilling around town or teaching the kids every day from now on, living her best life.


-----------------------------------------------------
~"Thing's I'm into lately." - Anette~

Recently, I've begun singing
while on my delivery route.
It just feels nice, you know?
I think it helps me deliver faster, too.

-----------------------------------------------------


A WORKIN' IN THE GIFT MINE, GOIN' DOWN-

*cough*

Seriously, it does help a lot for any kind of work- at least for me. Heck, a large portion of sea shanties and even folk songs exist for that reason.



We also get a full letter form of the letter Anette gave us just before she left.



That is Anette, maxed out completely. We never did learn why monsters like chasing her.



chores




KANNO: It's cool and comfortable. Yam mont blanc should be really good in this season.


I had to look up mont blanc because I assumed it was a cake. Outside expert Raitzeno tells us that it's actually a vermicelli pasta made of chestnut puree with cream on top, named thus after the white capped mountain Mont Blanc.

The name's pretty guessable at least.

Still, the thing Eunice likes looks far more like a cake, so I don't know anymore when it comes to this world.




KANNO: The magic that sealed the Tapir works in increments of centuries.


KANNO: You should be fine for now. After about 100 years, I'll come back to seal it again! Hahaha.


Magic Grandpa casually reveals he is immortal



RUNEYS

Pretty sure nobody cares, but I am still keeping this failing environment alive. I won't fuss you with the details, as I've been basically half ignoring it for now anyways. I've got enough to keep it alive until Winter starts.

At least until I never need to grow anything ever again.




LARA: Bush ...


BUSH: What is it? Is something bothering you?


LARA: Yes. I dream a lot about sunny days recently.


LARA: And all those dreams always come true so it is starting to get a little creepy...


BUSH: Is that so...? I wish I could do something for you...




LARA: It's all right. I feel much better just getting that off my chest.


LARA: Sorry for getting you all worked up.


BUSH: It's all right. Please tell me if there's anything I can do.


Don't worry, Lara, I think Candy overdid it with that Rainy Week request. We won't be seeing the sun for a long while it seems...




LARA: Selphy ended up working at the church.


LARA: I just hope this will straighten out her crooked personality a bit...


"Crooked" might be a bit far for Selphy.

...Then again, she does just kinda sell books she doesn't actually own, so er...

It's for the good of a healthy library?



See, she even cleaned it today! It'll be in shambles tomorrow, but still!




GANESHA: I never have enough ore. If...just IF you have any extra, do you mind giving some to me?


GANESHA: If you also have any extra "Demon Blood," I'd appreciate it if you shared it with me.


Wait wait wait wait, you take Demon Blood?

Lady, do I have a worryingly large amount of that in my box at home for you, free of charge!

(it's only like 3 vials, but we're about to have more)




TURNER: I heard Uzuki and Tsubute arguing for the first time in a while.


TURNER: It feels like something is missing unless I hear that.


TURNER: Wait, make sure you don't tell that to Uzuki!


Any two people will have a disagreement every once in a while, but I don't think it's a good thing their arguments are what you know them for...




UZUKI: It seems that you have started smithery, Bush. I have high hopes for you.


We won't really need to improve it much further. Just the next tier of axes should be good enough for us.




EUNICE: Bush, we're always enjoying the vegetables you grow.


If this is your subtle hint to get me to start farming again, don't worry, I have.

My job's just planting the seeds, mostly. I let the rain do the rest.



With enough of the morning spent, it's off to go give those rupees to Tabatha.



She always says there's only 1 left after every one. Ah, this translation...

Nothing will happen today with this, as we still have to find that last one. Where could it be?

Off to go ask more people, I suppose.




KROSS: Working for myself or a loved one all day, then sleep like a log...


KROSS: Don't you think that is wonderful?


Yeah, man.

I wish I could sleep like a log




STELLA: Are you expressing thanks for your life and the people around you?


STELLA: Act with humility and it will all come back to you.


Stella has good life advice, but no hint on where this darn last rupee is.



It's around this point I start looking into some armor upgrades for Bush. The red hat and cap ensemble rocks already, yeah, but stat-wise it's falling behind a bit already.

If we're gonna punch Gelwein in the teeth, we're gonna need to be strapped to the nines, probably.

There's 3 upgrades I'm looking to get before we finally face him: a Fluffy Hat, the Critical 7, and a Wristwatch.

The first is the only one we can get right now.



One trip to Lara later, and I've got 2 Toy Herbs. I use the first to make a Poison Ring. This is purely for skill- we'll never really need this. Seal Ring is so much better.



Next is the Fluffy Hat. It's a 15 MAG increase, but also +50 DEF at the cost of some fire resistance negated by our cape.




It's a hat that looks like a wooly head, ears and face too. It looks kinda goofy, but also really suits Bush for some reason.

It should also be quite warm, which is good as...



Music: Snow Ruins


Into Snow Ruins we go! The things we need for the other two desired accessories will have to come from here. There is over half this dungeon we haven't seen yet, mostly due to how it's locked off until we hit this point the Gelwein plot.

Breaking the cable in the room we enter by the ladder de-ices a ramp that we need to progress forward with.



Then take the warp back to the start as the minotaur is still annoyingly frozen in front of our way out...



Then take the shortcut back down to floor 3. To the north in this hallway is right back to the Gelwein room. If we keep going right...



There's a room with a ramp we can now access!

Also a treasure chest. It's always carrying gems or Para-cures.



A long north-south hallway follows. To the north leads further down, but we should check the south first.

There's also the upgraded Elefun here, Mamoo.



More Mamoo and Demons...



And as we get into the southern room, a LOT more Mamoo!



Smash the cable to open up the path past the frozen Minotaur King and off we go!

(There's a Unico dog spawn in the lower left too.)



This takes us to a hidden farming room with two treasure chests. These have a very high chance of dropping Gold, a material we'll want a good amount of soon. We can even get Platinum here, if lucky.

These also respawn after each entry and exit of the dungeon, so you can grind these boxes and all the other ones in the lower floors instead of actually mining for ore.



We finish grabbing the wood out of here and bail to get our bath.



♨ BATH TRIVIA TIME ♨

(reminder: i am no expert on this)

Traditionally, the eastern hot spring has something you'd bathe entirely nude in. Publicly. That'd be a bit much for most games' ratings (and this LP), and in the modern age, it's something being shifted away from. Most cultures already left their public bathing practices in the past as is.

From what I can find, it mostly just stems from cleanliness. Your clothes are going to carry some amount of funk with them, and there's frequent statements that it makes it harder to clean the bath overall although I can find little information on how exactly. Lint buildup? Heck, I can find little info on the concept of bath additives- what I do find claims they're rare because they're also hard to clean up after.

Anyways, there's arguments of community building and self-confidence involved too as reasons for it sticking around traditionally. No idea if that's actually true or not, mostly up to you, I suppose.

Anyways, I suppose next time we talk more cleanliness stuff.



We return to those ever cold ruins and enter the 4th floor. The dungeon was already confusing before, but now it just gets worse. So, so much worse.

I'll try to explain it, but I won't lie, I'm looking at a map.

There's a path left that inevitably curves around to the north. It'd be a shortcut if I had a higher level hammer. I don't end up getting that hammer until after finishing this so it's meaningless. We go south and down a ramp to the west.



There's a path west and south. We go south.



Pony is immediately comboed and defeated by Hunter Wolves, her recolor.



The ramp right runs up to a t-section- we destroy the two cables and progress south.



ow

ok then I warp time to be back in the same position with Pony still here.



o7

she got us this far again at least

To the right is just the spawners for these evil cows, to the left is where we want to go.



Those cables unfroze this Mini-Dragon from it's place blocking the door. It's the first time we see these guys, and they're pretty signature endgame enemies for early Rune Factory entries. Given how all the other plots revolve around true dragons, it's not surprising.



That door leads us to a hallway with a cannon. There's some farmland off to the left, but we don't need to go there.

Notably, Pony can't slide past the cannon like we can, so she wasn't getting much farther anyways without finding the right cable to break. No idea where it is.



Another t-section. Break a cable to the left...



Break this one too and continue up this unnecessarily looping around walkway.



Avoid bad ponies and go in door.



Be presented with a long path for panthers to snipe you on.

Here are Blood Panthers. I hate the normal ones enough, thank you!



Do this long up and down zig zag, ending with running up past the evil cow spawn gate.



Take the hallway to find more farmland, and...



The staircase, eventually. If we had the Golden Hammer, we could've skipped all that.

I'm just trying to get a shortcut so I don't have to do it again.



Floor 5!

It's also a nightmare.



You can go left or up and north. Left just leads to a single chest, some mining rocks and a lot of enemies.



At least I got more quality fur for my trouble. As it turns out, the Fire Rod also super destroys the Hunter Wolves just like it does the normal ones.

The chest just gave me a crummy second tier Energy Drink



The correct path meanders a bunch and is plastered in more bad ponies, until you run past an iced door.



We don't care about it (a single ore/gem chest is all that's there), go south and up and around a really long pathway. (There's another Para-cure/gem box here too.)



This leads to a room with ice blocking the way, destroyed with fire, plus a Hunter Wolf + Minotaur King spawn.



And that's as far as we get before I have to bail on time. 1 more hour and I could've made it to a shortcut.



That's just how the ice crumbles, I suppose.

Bush is off to sleep. Now that our route is scouted, Snow Ruins stands no chance.

We will reach it's bottom floor.

Look forward to that... next time!

Music: Goodnight