Rune Factory Frontier Part #10 - Questionable, Part 2

Part 10: Questionable, Part 2

Update 10: Questionable, Part 2

Music: Green Ruins

We resume today's lesson in medias res!

To the right of the entrance is a series of shortcut staircases we can use once we unlock them. Given that it takes much longer to traverse dungeons in this game than it does in others, this will be much appreciated.

My main goal for today is to unlock the first one.

One of the things I did not note last time we were here is this collection of rocks blocking this path. There's a secret area back here that can net us some better metals, but these rocks happen to be immune to our cheap hammer, (and also the iron hammer,) just like many of the rocks still on our farm.

Reaching the pathway to more farmland, we instead take a right for now and cut a vine to see more of this floor.

Hiding behind the gate it spawned from is a Spring. It's a very inventive name compared to the original name of Plant. They spit out balls of slow moving energy in a spread of three to five orbs each. These really don't hurt that much unless you get shotgunned by them, but their later palette swaps are immensely deadly.

Taking out those spawners for some experience, I then remember this path doesn't actually lead forward in the dungeon. Instead it's just this big stone plateau with some fancy engravings and such.

I honestly forgot what this is for, maybe it's a teleporter to the bottom floor or something.

Heading up to the farmlands and taking a somewhat easy to miss southern passage, we're back on track.

This takes us out and around the plateau in the center to some more rooms on the side.

As well as even more farmland. You could very much make it by with just dungeon farming and ignoring the Homestead if you wanted to.

It's not a good idea for a lot of reasons, the amount of time it consumes just coming down here for one, but you could do it.

There's also a staircase to a deeper floor here.

Down here is... you guessed it, even more farmland. Bush stops to gather up the free herbs and move on.

The second floor is a lot like the first, navigating around this big, cylindrical pit. We head south first, as I'm making a beeline for the shortcut.

Down here are also Slimes. Not of the cutesy Dragon Quest style, more of a sentient pile of muck. These are also in Whale Island's cave, just a bit further down than we've gone so far, so they're not particularly dangerous. They can either try to slap us, or burrow under ground to spike out from underneath us. They'll sometimes drop scrap metal when defeated, a rather meh reward.

The level up I net from fighting them is appreciated, as even though I wasn't very hurt, this next room is going to be... something.

There happens to be a giant feather on the ground over here near the other spawner, but we can't take it with us.

Still highly unlikely that there's some giant creature in this ruin, I assure you. I press on in to the southward room.

Spawning in quickly and trying to conceal themselves are Big Mucks, which are more of mushrooms than anything else.

Don't let their goofy smile decieve you, they move very fast...

...And they hit for way too much damage in a big AoE spore attack. Bush losing nearly a fifth of his HP from just one hit is very bad, and they're barely being hurt by our attacks, just to make it worse. That 5 damage is ours, it's dealing 18 to us.

The fact that they can also inflict status effects hammers home that this place is out of our equipment level right now.

The spores inflict Paralysis, which forces Bush to walk a slow pace instead of his normal jog.

In my desperate attempt to deal damage to them, one sneaks up behind me and hits me with a lick dealing over a quarter of Bush's max HP. It also inflicts Exhaustion, doubling RP use until it wears off.

Taking another hard hit to the back, Bush is on the verge of knockout and with me being unable to run away, I quickly bail out with the Return spell.

I wasn't far from unlocking the shortcut, but attempting to fight these things cost me that opportunity. Had I not bought that Pendant last update, this might've KOed us.

Yeah, 7 HP out of 109 was cutting it too close.

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with these debuffs for quite a while.

It took me a whole in-game hour to walk to the infirmary at a painfully slow pace just to have it wear off at the doorway. :rolldice:

Well, at least I didn't have to pay anything.

With nothing much left to do with the day, I remember the bar exists, and that I haven't been there yet. I kill some time until 6:00 PM and finally head in.

It's only been 8 updates of me saying I'd eventually remember.

Music: Snowstyle Tavern

(Hey, we finally get to hear this track! It's very chill, and I'll be honest, it's one of the tracks I've heard the least of in this game. Only opening after six makes this place easy to overlook.)

Just one more...

I guess it doesn't help profits much when you're drinking your own supply.

But I'm already here.

This is the first time we've seen any expression out of Rita that wasn't her usual smile.

The bar's main function is as a store, and is honestly a better general store than Danny's offerings. Of main note is the basic cooking materials such as Rice, Flour, Chocolate, Eggs, and more. As we get into making more complicated gifts for the townsfolk, we'll have to remember to come here often.

Rice is awfully expensive at 260g each, but the only gift that Selphy likes that we can even make right now is the Rice Ball. Her favorite gift, like the favorite of most bachelorettes in this game, is a cooking recipe needing a highly upgraded kitchen and around 70+ skill.

Ganesha evidently comes here to get hammered before going back to hammering.

Melody informs us that we could drink the water from the hot springs. I don't think this is that good of an idea.

To contemplate this matter, I leave Bush standing in the rain for 2 hours.

Seriously.

I told you last update I didn't forget :v:

To where did you go the other time? I had asked for your aid!

Bush isn't wrong though :colbert:

You be quiet. I suppose I have not introduced myself as yet.

This noisy little one is...

Graaagh! Milady, I am...

And now we've finally met this dynamic duo. Uzuki is odd in that as far as I know, this is the earliest you can properly meet her. Despite the game making it seem like you need to search for her, she's just not around. If there is a proper way to find her, I don't know it and I can't find any info on it.

Give it two days and she just shows up normally in town, or you can meet her 1 day earlier by waiting until 8:00 and finding her at the bathhouse.

You shall refrain from having impure thoughts of any sort about her. As long as I am alive I...

Old man...

That is... I am only doing this for you, milady...

I will be sure to give him a good scolding later so please forgive him.

I don't mind.

Being highly protective of Uzuki, and not liking Bush very much as result, is pretty much what Tsubute does.

You said you were looking for someone, correct?

That is correct.

Who are you looking for?

I see... Well, if I find out anything, I'll be sure to tell you about it.

You have my thanks.

That is certainly an admirable offer!

Haha...

Uzuki primarily likes sashimi. Because Fantasy Japan, I guess. It's usually an easy guess between the Rune Factory games which character likes sashimi, but it's usually not their favorite item. In our case, it's still a pretty easy gift to get in spite of not every fish having a sashimi recipe.

After her initial introduction, Uzuki's just kind of around without much fanfare. She is the 8th in our ever growing list of bachelorettes.

She does have a neat hat and a fancy naginata though.

Also Stella is just here in the corner. I almost couldn't tell she was there at first.

I don't really think this is the place for a sermon.

Though, Melody's always on about this cleaning our soul, so maybe...?

Anyways, time to grab a bath and swing my sword at the wall for a while before I hit the bed.

Nothing out of the ordinary happens.

I said, nothing out of the ordinary happens! :argh:

Being made in 2008, this game has bathhouse fanservice scenes it it. I don't really know why they thought this was necessary, but they're there.

There's no nudity or anything at least, it's just overhearing their often barely risque conversation through the wall because :japan:

Music: Confusion

I wasn't really a fan of these 7-8 years ago and that hasn't really changed, so I'll just briefly summarize them if they happen unless the thread really wants me to post these in full.

In the case of this one, it's probably the most tame. Uzuki just sings this little song, and then gets embarassed for some reason because Stella overheard her.

Music: Sadness/Resolve

Bush also passes out from this, from what I can only assume is overheating.

That's what I'm going with.

And we exit the bath with a slight reduction to our RP. It's so minimal, I don't understand the point of it.

I say this knowing I'd dislike these scenes more if the reduction was more severe,

Music: Summer

Changing topics, you can look at the sky while it's raining. That water Runey sure is having fun.

Enjoy it while it lasts, I'll be back to vaccuum you up eventually.

I also synthesize some Rice Balls. I still go for doing it with expertise because I may end up needing to eat one in a panic at some point, and I believe it's worth more cooking experience.

It's not just because I like the "woaaah" sound bite.

okay, it's mostly because i like the woaah

As I grind weapon skill across the house, I end up in this corner. The pharmacy and forge will end up here when I do get them.

And with that, it's time for a new day!

I entirely forgot Anette gets the weekends off.

Regardless, that gives me more time to collect all of these turnips. This will be a healthy profit.

Music: Trampoli

Now that Uzuki has been introduced to Trampoli, we'll find her spending from 6 AM to noon practicing her naginata in the square. It makes it rather easy to get gifts to her.

And yes, she is training with it for 6 hours straight. :black101:

How are you doing, Bush?

A good thing too, as her dialogue runs into default lines extremely quickly with low FP/LP numbers.

You can tell me if you ever tear your clothes, Bush.

As Bush's clothes are indestructible and we don't have anything else to wear, ever, I'll take your word for it.

I don't see anyone stopping you. Go for it.

It's the weekend and I don't see any customers and your husband said the same thing.

I'm sure you two can figure something out.

Even Ganesha's not working today.

There is one person working today, and he's what we've been waiting for.

I nab the first tier forge and first tier pharmacy, though our current finances are just too low to afford the Seed Maker and it's price tag of 5000g.

With all the turnips we'll have shipped out this afternoon, it won't be a problem to get it as well.

Selphy's also working today, just because. As I mentioned earlier in the update, this isn't actually her favorite gift, though it sure sounds like it.

Of note is this bookshelf, which is tricky to interact with given the proximity of the ladder.

-------------------------------------
~Runes and Runeys~
"What do you know about the Runes that have become a part of our daily lives?"

"Collectives of earth Spirits are also known as 'Crystallized Runes' or, Runes for short. These are seen mainly on farms and rich soil, and thanks to the power of the Spirits, touching one can restore your vigor."

"Runeys are yet another form of collective Spirits. They only appear in certain places but bless the land around them more assertively."

"However, Runeys and Runes cannot occupy the same space. Where Runeys are, Runes are not."

"If you want to see Runes where Runeys can be found, try growing crops in dungeons."

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

The things I transcribe in the search for KNOWLEDGE.

Also, I decided to read another book. Thanks, past me.

-------------------------------------
~Intro to Runey Research~

"It is well-known that in some parts of the world, Runes have altered in form and exist what are called 'Runeys'."

"Runeys come in 4 types and they make up a food chain in this order: water > rock > tree > grass.
In other words, more grass means more trees, which means more rocks, and so forth."

"The more Runeys there are in an area, the faster the crops in that area will grow. Since Runeys are bound in a food cycle, it's considered ideal to have a stable balance of all 4 types."

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

This isn't really accurate to mechanics, and calling it a "food cycle" is incorrect, as it's not. I'll go over the specifics more when I get around to trying my hand at managing them in the next update.

I will note that this food chain is direly unstable. The game does nothing to tell us that the ecosystem will eventually collapse on its own without our intervention.

Stella said that she used to live there before the church was built.

Mist once again shows her expertise at getting things for free.

~~That or she's got blackmail on the nun~~

There is a dungeon where it's always spring. Maybe I should move there...

It's right outside your house. You know, where the jpeg grass you asked me to cut was?

I'd rather she not drag Bush to live down there as well, so we continue paying the turnip dues.

Lara's just over here cleaning this desk. It's rather squeaky.

I would say I used that mysterious thing called the Internet, but this is one of the few I can claim I know from experience.

On RF1 I used to make most of my money through strawberries, so one day I just started handing out some low level ones to everybody in town.

I usually just look these things up though. Grinding FP/LP to the point of them telling you their preferred gifts takes forever when you don't know what they are.

Something I noticed while proofreading is that I keep screenshotting giving Lara something rather than any of her lines. I think it's that her conversations are just unfortunately not that interesting early on.

Random chatter aside, it's time for something far more important.

It is time...! :yeshaha:

Second tier tools! At last!

Never was there a more relieving sight!

Now when we approach our field, we get this zoomed out perspective.

The tin can holds 3 more tiles of water, which seems a pittance, but therein lies it's true power:

We can now use a special attack with it and water 3 tiles simultaneously, for the price of 1 unit of water. That means we can water 5 full 3x3 groups before going back to get water, a fantastic increase up from our original 1 1/3 groups from before.

It also saves time and RP overall, so it's an even better deal!

If you've played the older Rune Factory games, you know just how big a quality of life improvement this is.

Kross also came to check out our farm. What a cool dude. :unsmith:

On Holidays and festivals he's got other stuff to do, asking for house improvements only nets us a response telling us he's busy.

Cinnamon's up on the mountain road on Holidays.

Crowns? Like the kind that kings wear on their heads?

...Yes.

Oh. It must be a grand looking constellation then.

You can only see the Crown Constellation after midnight. Try to stay up for it.

This one's hard to do as it's late enough at night that we actually take penalties for being up that long. I'll still do it anyways.

Bathhouse Melody is also up here.

Yeah, I'm not really sure how the logistics on anything related to the bathhouse works. Does new hot water just rain down occasionally from Whale Island?

Try not to think about it too hard.

But I always come here.

Ah, this got translated well. This was a separate dialogue that just consisted of these two lines.

A few more cherries are obtained, for some extra pocket change.

It's a nice day to go out on the lake as well.

Or just collect even more cherries.

No chance, kid, now that I've got these upgrades :cool:

Well, given Bush only has about 15 HP right now after all that cherry gathering, he could probably take us out in one swing.

It's the first time I've ever seen an island floating in the sky.

One would think you could see Whale Island from far away, given it's height, but that honestly depends on this planet's curvature.

Although, in RF4 you can see it from a long distance through the telescopes, so it's really hard to say without an actual map of continent.

I tell you, Melody is a lifesaver for running this place on Holidays. And as long as I get here at 3:00 PM, there's not any :japan:

going on.

Except on Holidays, apparently. :sigh:

This one's between Eunice and her mother, Rita, and I guess actually leans on the more risque side somehow. At least it ends on the nice note of Rita telling Eunice to have more confidence in her looks.

It's not a very long conversation, none of these are, but this is likely the earliest way for you to find out that body image is a problem for her. :smith:

(Outside of this, we don't really see hints of it until Summer, and it doesn't really show up until her first event happens.)

So if you were wondering what Eunice's deal was outside of housework, here it is.

Unable to wash his soul thanks to the unbelievably thin walls and/or astounding acoustics of the bathhouse, Bush collects the last of the turnips and goes on a pickling spree.

He also eats for the first time since he got here, consuming the lower quality pickled turnips for the energy to keep making better pickled turnips.

It's a loss of profits, but these profits will be big regardless and I'm just trying to grind the cooking skill up.

18 level 2 Pickled Turnips, 9 cherries, and 10 normal turnips all go in the box for a profit of 8526g.

I've still got 34 turnips on hand and 2 lesser pickled ones for food later. I'll just not let Mist know that I'm carrying so many on me.

And now we prepare ourselves for a last minute sprint.

I'm making this harder on myself by bothering to wait for Rosetta, as the money just enters your pockets immediately if you don't wait for this scene, but I'm also gonna take any free LP points I can get.

yeah sure, hand me the money

here's a gift

Lute!

Luuuuuuuuuuute!

Don't close up just yeeeeeeeee-

Cool, thanks. See ya, Thursday, mate.

So, the Seed Maker. It does what Lute says. We put crops in...

We get a seed back. Pretty simple stuff.

Now, was this really all that important? Not at the moment, no.

The main use for the Seed Maker is with crops that have been fertilized, an act which increases their resulting level by 1. You can only fertilize a plant once though, (and we presently lack the means to do it), so the idea is that you put that leveled up crop in here and get leveled up seeds in return.

Repeat in a loop, and you'll eventually end up with level 10 crops. Or just level 9 crops, as you can get that level 10 through expert synthesizing.

For the time being, it'll eventually pay for itself in the form of not needing to re-buy seeds from Erik. The very expensive stuff we can buy just one seed of and just make our own seeds from the produce.

We'll also want this for a rare item we'll get months from now.

This however is a hilarious waste if they're not leveled up.

One turnip sells for 210g and a bag of seeds cost 10g. If you sold the turnip, you could buy 21 seed bags instead of just making one with a seed maker.

I'll let you ponder that ridiculous economy for a bit.