Part 32: Hey Nineteenth
Update 32: Hey Nineteenth
Salutations and a fine day to-
Egads! Precipitation from the cirrostratus layer! I must commemorate this occasion auditorially!
That's fancy talk for welcome back and have a guest track!
Music: Atelier Ayesha ~ Dance of a Water Drop
All of the grass is finally grown in on the same cycle now, and the rain means it's no hassle to go ahead and cut it for today.
We catch Anette right as she comes off the bridge today. I'm getting better at being right on time for this.
Now if I'd only remember to be at the farm by 5:00 to catch Rosetta's event.
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~"I'm so happy." - Tart~
I'm glad to hear... you're doing well.
We just had a festival here.
It was very lively and fun.
How are the festivals over there?
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Well, it sure took a while to get this reply! "Lively festival" and Kardia aren't two words I usually associate with one another, but maybe they've cut loose and started partying harder now Bush is gone.
Responses:
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1. It is very lively here, too.
2. There will be a festival soon here, too.
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I'm honestly not sure which she'd like to hear more, but only the first one answers the question. That one it is!
And it's not a lie, we do have a festival coming up in... roughly a week or so I think. I've never actually seen it, my original playthrough stopped about a day or two before it.
ANETTE: I'm low on cash this month because I spend so much on textbooks.
ANETTE: But I still feel okay about it since I'm using the money for what I love.
ANETTE: Bush, I think you should spend money on what you love, too. That way, you won't have any regrets.
Relatable, and I'd say Bush is already doing this. All of his money pretty much goes to gifts for other people or just food in general- these two things he does love.
Although, what's Anette studying with those textbooks?
As the morning continues on, Bush sets about clearing up even more of the fields. I'll have this place finally cleaned up before we hit Autumn.
Also yes, those few rocks to open up these 15 tiles of land cost over 2/3rds of our RP bar.
There's a reason why I didn't get this done sooner.
We're getting there, slowly!
cavecumbers
CINNAMON: ...Thank you. I need more "Magic Crystal."
First on our visits around town today is Cinnamon. Luckily we struck it good with those extra crystals yesterday.
For some reason her expression doesn't change while she's in a swimsuit, but here's us managing to get more out of her than the usual sleepy stare.
CINNAMON: That monster that's always with Uzuki...
BUSH: Oh, you mean Tsubute?
CINNAMON: Yes. I'm interested in it...
BUSH: (What does she mean by interested...?)
Angry Cicada Dad Guy is an enigma that must be solved, evidently.
CINNAMON: I'm reviewing magic right now. I can't use it, but I can still teach.
CINNAMON: But I forgot a lot. That's why I'm reviewing to relearn it.
I imagine it's pretty easy to forget all the details if you can't even use it anymore.
After an uneventful stop by the Church, it's off to the library!
A cutscene!?
SELPHY: Isn't it all nice and clean now?
SELPHY: I can get lots of reading done when it's so clean.
BUSH: If you really think that, you should clean more often...
Bush, you took the words right out of my mouth.
While she doesn't have anything new to say, it seems we've finally got access new books! The interaction placement for this one's a bit odd, I can only really find it if Bush stares at this chair at this angle.
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~The Ecology of Woolies~
"Woolies, popular on farms for their high quality fur, are very timid monsters."
"They are so shy in fact, that they can only be seen at night when other monsters are asleep."
"Woolies are also famous for their sensitivity to cold weather. Even in summer they shiver when their fur is shaved off."
"But don't worry. Their bodies are extremely strong and they won't even get sick if they're shorn in winter."
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Pff timid?! every game
They're really chill in every other game as far as I know though. That bit about coming out at night only applies to Rune Factory 2, where they do indeed only come out at night. They're also probably vulnerable to the Fatigue and Cold debuffs, so um...
This was disappointing. Off to the rest of town!
ROSETTA: How about giving points to people who make purchases? And after a certain amount, they get presents.
ROSETTA: I think it's a good idea.
And thus, the Materia General Store Member's Rosetta Stone was made to keep track of points. In roughly a decade from now, Yue would use this as the basis for her idea of the Yue Swap Ticket, probably.
In other more solidly factual news, Cinnamon's hit 4 LP and Rosetta's hit 5! They're catching up, although Melody has them beat by a long mile.
Speaking of Melody, here she is in her room today. She's still up here thanks to the rain, but-
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1. I just came to talk.
2. I came to ask you out.
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...Well, we at least gotta try, right?
Music: Romance(It's a new track! I've never heard this before.)
MELODY: Ask me out...? You mean on a date?
BUSH: Yeah. It's hot lately, so I was wondering if you wanted to cool off by the lake.
MELODY: The lake sounds nice.♪ Sure, let's go!
BUSH: Then let's meet up on the 19th of summer, at noon by the docks.
MELODY: Sounds good. Don't be late, okay!
Well, I guess we got a date, against all odds!
What do I mean by that? Well, it's a long explanation of things that just happened to align.
So, as it turns out, the Relax Tea we gave today was just enough to push Melody just into the 8 LP range- the requirement to ask a girl out on a date (while also being able to meet them in their room before or after hours).
Why is this such a big deal? Well, dating in Frontier is a bit different from the later games, the most important difference being that there's specific days that you can only have a date on. One per season, in fact.
Summer's date day is the 19th, which is literally tomorrow. Also, you can't schedule a date if it would be the same day.
Now, I haven't missed gifting Melody once, it's rather hard to do when we hit the springs every day. And as we just hit 8LP today, this means I somehow picked the second to last day I possibly could have to get this to line up.
I didn't plan this in the slightest, in fact, I didn't even know dating was a thing in this game up until the moment the prompt came up for Melody on this day.
The LP Blessing, I guess?
In high spirits after barely managing to get a date, Bush continues on with his day.
TABATHA: Miss Bianca seems to have become much more amicable lately.
TABATHA: I'm happy for her, seeing how there are many more villagers coming to speak with her now.
Aw, she's finally starting to get along with folks.
BUSH: Is there any food that you like, Bianca?
BIANCA: Anything that Tabatha makes, I will like. Aside from that... not much.
I could imagine Tabatha gets paid a lot for her job for this simple fact alone. Jasper's a guy who loves good food, and more than spoils his daughter, so this part of the job description just kinda writes itself.
Contemplation of the Noradian domestic workforce behind us, it's time to be too cool to look at explosions.
In other words, we're doing our usual raid on Molten Core today.
Our spoils from the treasure room are [Aquamarine] and [Copper Ore] this time around.
Off to go use some [Heroic Strike] on some Ignis! Can we get that lucky purple drop today?
Just more magic powder so far. Who keeps disenchanting all the greens and leaving the dust behind?!
Oh, hey! That makes 1 Magic Crystal so far, good work, Pony!
Also, I believe our Weapons skill is low enough from the stated requirement on our Crescent Axe that some of Bush's swings are actively missing.
I think I originally attributed these misses to status resistances when using the Alldale before, but this kinda proves that's not entirely the case.
We stay down in Fire Fire Rocks for a couple of hours, but the one crystal is all we get before our dynamic duo is too beat up to continue safely.
In other news, the pumpkins still aren't ready yet. If they're not ready by tomorrow, I might just suck it up and buy a pumpkin or two when we finally get that oven.
...Oh right, tomorrow's also the holiday! Man, a date and the long coveted oven, can tomorrow get any better?
All the shipping today amounts to a nice 16,000g, which sits nicely on the 41,000g we've already got in pocket.
Gotta start saving up for that second floor bedroom, after all.
MELODY: It'll be on the 19th of summer. I can't wait. ♪
With how fast today's going, it'll be part of today's update as well!
No Nolan today, so back to work it is.
Pony stares at the stream by our farm while Bush aggressively chops stumps. Take it as a reminder that he does, in fact, let out loud battle cries every time he uses a special attack, including the farm axe and farm hammer.
you must smash it
smash it good
Music: By the OceanAnd we're even around for Rosetta! It's only been... weeks since I did this!
It's interesting that the game uses a different, more static camera if Bush would be possibly in the shot.
ROSETTA: Oh...
ROSETTA: You're shipping out tomatoes? They're crucial for making those healthy salads.
ROSETTA: It's great how tomatoes sell pretty well.
Is that why everyone buys them? I assumed it was for tomato juice. Regardless, I can't deny the profitability- it's why we're so rich right now!
She doesn't have anything new to say aside from that, so she just watches as Bush leaps 6 feet into the air while smashing rocks with a solid metal sledgehammer.
An hour or so later and a lot of Udon, and we've got this whole corner of the field cleaned out.
A bit of fishin' n' cookin' happens to keep fueling our cleaning efforts. I burn through a ton of food just doing all the cleaning up you'll see this update. But who knows, perhaps us doing this will help Selphy stay inspired to keep at her cleaning work?
Then again she doesn't really care too much about our agricultural pursuits.
On other subjects, every upgrade to our utensils comes with a new animation. In practice, it's mostly the same one but a lot faster, (the blender is super aggressive now,) but the Legendary Frying Pan has Bush doing fancy pan flips with an arm behind his back.
A whole lot of tilling later and we finish the last tile of the lower left section of the fields with a skill up.
It's around 9:00 PM despite how dark it looks, so I still have time to go ride out to the Tower of Rest to visit Iris.
When we get to the top though...
Music: Whale Island EntranceWHALE: "Bush..."
BUSH: Whale... what happened?
WHALE: "There is something I would like you to do, Bush."
BUSH: What is it? I'll do anything I can.
WHALE: "Thank you..."
If it's about the monster in that tower, that place is way out of our depth right now, island buddy. We'll get it eventually.
WHALE: "I have swam these skies for a long time."
WHALE: "But since I am a whale, I would like to swim in the ocean just once."
WHALE: "But that is a dream that cannot be achieved."
Yeah, if we dropped you into the ocean to avoid the impending impact on the town, this place and every other shoreside town in the region would get obliterated by the resulting tsunami.
WHALE: "Bush, is there a way to be one with the ocean even while being adrift in the sky?"
BUSH: All right...
BUSH: It may be difficult, but I'll try to find a way so you can feel like you're swimming in the ocean.
WHALE: "Thank you..."
Unfortunately, it might be quite some time before we can resolve this sidequest, although we can obtain the item for it right now.
Ah, the truly final batch of turnips. I don't know what I'm planning on growing here just yet, eventually pumpkins, I guess. For now, I'll plant some more flowers, but I don't have the seeds on me.
IRIS: *yawn*
IRIS: Oh, excuse me! I thought that having a nocturnal lifestyle is bad so I'm trying to stay awake during the day, too.
IRIS: But I always end up falling asleep halfway through the day so I end up not getting enough sleep.
Nothing wrong with the nocturnal lifestyle as long as you've still got income and you don't mind the night. I've considered it before myself, I'm just generally not a morning person and I'm far more active at night.
We'll have to let Iris manage her sleep schedule on her own, we've got some flower seeds to make and our own sleep to get to.
No way I'm going to bungle this lucky date up, it's gotta go as well as possible.
But we've still got time, so I quickly backtrack up to the island and plant some Moondrop seeds. We've run out of them for gifts, and they're oddly common in forging/crafts recipes, so I want some more.
A bit of late night meal prep and it's time to rest our weary legs.
And like that, it's time for our big day!
The date is at noon, (or more specifically, 11:00 AM for some reason,) so we've still got time for our usual mornin' routine.
No Anette this morning, she must be down on the beach or something.
brush our animals for an hour each in this time vaccuum barn
Also it's a harvest day, so that means more milk and eggs. Good thing too, we're gonna need a lot of it for the pies and cakes we'll be making soon.
(Also this image of Bush saying "You got Milk!" is just good.)
I checked the beach for Anette, but it's just the usual disco party of Runeys. Don't know where she's gone today, maybe she's just on break somewhere outside of town.
Time to try something I haven't really attempted in all this time. Knocking on people's doors to get in before hours!
You do this by swinging the nunchuk while standing near the door, or in my case, the 8 or 9 key, which I can't remember.
CINNAMON: ...Enter.
We even got a smile out of her!
CINNAMON: Pale Carp are the best in the summer. Supposedly, there are no males in that species. It's a mystery.
Even more a mystery, I haven't caught a one since Summer started.
CINNAMON: You can get lots of different medicinal herbs during the summer. ...Good luck.
I just buy 'em from Lara anyways
CANDY: Just because I can sing the Spirit Song, the Spirits don't always listen.
CANDY: Sometimes, the Spirits are friends with someone and they will only listen to that person.
CANDY: I've never met anyone else that could be friends with the spirits so I feel like I'm all alone...
...Candy, you okay?
Sheesh, you'd think Kanno could take you to go meet Ventuswill or something. In the meantime, all I've got for you is tomato juice.
We've got a date to get ready for, and I don't think there's much we can do here, so on we go!
LUTE: Morning!
My man! Tell me you've got that one last utensil I need.
Oh. Yes.
Give me all of the ovens
render unto me unlimited baking power
Oh, and I'll take the rest of the steamers too, why not. They make a good conversation piece, I guess.
LUTE: I was born in this village called Iber.
LUTE: That village always had lots of goblins around. We didn't know what to do with them.
Speaking of conversation, finally a little bit of backstory on our favorite traveling merchant!
Now, that's an oven.
Bread Lv:1 was synthesized.
At last, we finally have Bush's Baked Breads. It was worth the wait.
Cherry Pie Lv:1 was synthesized.
First up, Cherry Pie. It's around 50 in skill or so, and takes 1 Cherry, 1 Flour, and 1 Butter (the latter of which we make in the blender from milk). This is Rosetta's favorite gift, and restores upwards of 200 RP. Pretty good stuff.
(I'm still missing one of the oven books somewhere, so I can't expert craft these.)
Next up is the Sandwich, made from a Cucumber, Tomato, Carrot, Boiled Egg, Bread, and Mayonnaise, for a food that heals nearly 300 HP and over 400 RP alongside a +85 Max HP buff. It's worth an insane 1820g that scales extremely fast with level, and happens to be Selphy's favorite food.
Sandwich Lv:2 was synthesized with expertise!
Good stuff.
I'll spare you the rest of this crafting, this one's gonna be a long update.
SELPHY: Hey, a sandwich! Did you get it just for me?
SELPHY: Thanks! I'm touched! I love you! ...Just kidding. Haha.
As a fan of sandwiches myself, this reaction is completely valid.
SELPHY: Do you ever want to spontaneously get out and run...
SELPHY: ...when you've been inside reading all day?
BUSH: Uh, I rarely ever stay all day indoors to read...
I'm more surprised at the fact that she would ever want to stop reading.
BUSH: Selphy, do you ever want to take a trip and just relax?
bush, no
we have a date today
SELPHY: Why? You get to feel like you're on a trip if you just read a book It's more cost efficient that way.
SELPHY: The book about the travels of someone I read the other day had a city that's on top of water.
BUSH: And you still don't feel like you want to go there yourself?
It seems we've reached the impasse known as the "traveler vs. homebody" situation.
...I don't think anyone calls it that, actually. Eh, onwards, to burning time until our date!
MIST: That whale in the sky should take a swim in the ocean once in a while.
He wants to!
Rosetta still has the same response to recieving the cherry pie as she does strawberries, but it does have the intended effect.
Everyone's down on the beach, should mean we'll have the lake all to ourselves today.
As an aside, Bianca sings surprisingly well when she's doing that idle singing thing the other bachelorettes sometimes do. I might've mentioned it before, I can't remember.
Well, it's almost time to be there, we'll probably meet Melody on the mountainside anyways.
Hi-ho, Pony! To the lake we ride!
And so we do find Melody up here, as per her usual schedule on weekends.
BUSH: Not only do you like baths, you really like magic, too, don't you, Melody?
MELODY: It's not that I like magic. I like wizards.
BUSH: There's a difference?
MELODY: There's a huge difference!
okay bush, we're not even at the date yet, don't drop it here
MELODY: This might sound weird to you, but do you have a minute?
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1. Go ahead.
2. I have to go somewhere...
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A choice! This conversation is just normally triggered by talking to Melody at 8 or higher LP while outside the bathhouse, I believe. It might have to be on the weekends, coincidentally.
Answering the second option only nets us:
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MELODY: Oh... Then I hope you can listen when you find the time...
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...But why would we ever opt for less content? Story time!
MELODY: Thanks.
MELODY: I didn't have parents for as long as I can remember.
MELODY: I went out searching for parents because I saw how everyone else had them.
MELODY: But I was still really small and that was the first time I went outside the town... I got lost right away.
MELODY: It was getting dark and I started hearing creepy sounds all around me. I thought I was monster food for sure.
MELODY: It was then that a wizard that was in town came and found me.
MELODY: After that, I started looking up to wizards.
MELODY: I wanted to become a wizard, too, and help people in need so that they can smile again.
BUSH: I'm sure you can do it, Melody. Become a great wizard, that is.
MELODY: Thanks, Bush.
So there's the bittersweet answer to why Melody's out to become a wizard: she wants to be like her childhood hero.
Her lack of parents is also why she became friends with Sharron back in Kardia, and was part of her "questline" back in that game.
MELODY: I make the bath a bit less hot during the summer. Now go inside so you can relax.
melody, we're nowhere near the bathhouse, what are you talking about
MELODY: You know what they say, when the wind blows, the coopers profit. Is that really true? I wanna make profit, too!
You'd have to charge more at the bathhouse to make profit, I think. Kross could probably teach you to be a cooper if you're just suddenly looking to change professions.
MELODY: Bush... You know... I...
BUSH: ?
MELODY: Nothing...
Anyways, this isn't even the date, so let's actually go to the docks and get this started.
Oh, and hearing Melody's backstory jumped her LP up by about 2/3rds the bar, amazingly. She'll probably hit LP 10 before Summer's even over.
Melody's not here yet, so we chat with Stella to pass the time.
BUSH: Do you prefer the heat or cold, Stella?
STELLA: I was born on the 27th of summer so I prefer the hot weather.
Meh, I'm usually a person for cool weather myself. Would rather freeze than sweat.
Uh, Melody? It's almost two hours since the time we were supposed to meet up.
melody
What follows is easily 40 minutes of real life time of looking the scarce information on dates in this game, as well as loading many, many savestates.
Every bachelorette has a different time they'll arrive, and it so happens that Melody is late to any date, every time. What I didn't know is that she's extremely late, only arriving nearly 2 hours behind the scheduled time. In the end I was just loading state too early thinking I missed it somehow.
MELODY: You're late! Well, I was late, too, so I guess it's okay.
Finally, we can start this thing. I'll just chalk it down to cold feet.
(we've been here for almost three hours and you were just up the road the whole time)
Music: To YouWe fade to a view of Melody waiting in the boat as Bush approaches. This theme starts up, which is not only the opening theme, but a remix of the first game's opening theme.
MELODY: It sure is hot today. We should go somewhere breezy... How about the island in the lake?
And so we row our way there!
Then we meet up with her at the tree, and...
MELODY: Wow! I had no idea it'd be so cool here! This feels nice...
BUSH: Going to the beach is nice, but I must say cooling off by the lake feels great.
A view of the two looking out over the lake...
Another view from the distant bridge...
A panning shot from the ground...
And yet another slowly zooming out shot, this time from the hillside we can't reach on the boat.
MELODY: Thank you for today. It's always hot in the springs, so the breeze was such a relief.
BUSH: It's gonna be hot for a while, so I hope we can do this again soon.
...And we're finally given back control. If you know Bush, then you know there's one thing he hasn't done yet.
A gift of a masterfully made Relax Tea is necessary here more than ever.
(This doesn't actually give any more LP than it usually would, but it fits.)
MELODY: It's kinda nice going on dates like this.
Indeed! We won't get a chance to do this again until halfway through Autumn, but by then we should have more girls at 8 LP.
uh
what now?
The music's still playing, so...
um, melody
are you gonna get back on the boat
*She waves at us from the island.*
MELODY: Bush, thanks for inviting me out.
MELODY: I hope we can do this again sometime.♪
*She waves one last time.*
BUSH: Of course!
...
i guess you'll just have to swim back
Well, seeing as Bush has just left his date stranded on an island, I'm not really sure what to make of today. I guess Bush is just so suave he can just leave his date to swim back to land and her not even get mad.
There's still some other going-ons today, but those will have to wait until next time, this update's long enough. I was already late putting this update out, after all.
See you next time folks, where we finally further plunge the depths of Fire Fire Rocks and collect that Runey Sprite, or whatever it is we're supposed to do at the bottom.
...It'll probably be another giant chicken or something.