Rune Factory Pt. 16

Now that I'm talking talking about the details of each game, let's go over all the Rune Factory stuff in general.

I'd kind of like to try playing the first RF game again, just because I never made it very far the first time I played. I remember what a few of the bachelorettes looked like, but I probably only remember three names total out of all the characters, one of whom shows up in RF2.

Rune Factory 4 has been released, and I sort of wonder if my brother has it or is expecting to get it sometime in the foreseeable future. I think that, other than the second generation of RF2, it's the first game where you can choose your protagonist's gender. So that would be interesting.

Then again, I might choose to have my protagonist still be a boy anyways just because of my bad experiences with female leads in the Harvest Moon games. There were never any good potential love interests in those games.

But you've heard that rant already. And who knows, maybe RF will succeed in the one area HM seems to have failed me.

Anyways, either way, it'll be interesting to see the plot of this fourth game. The first, of course, I didn't play enough to get a grasp on. The second focused on the child's adventures. The third had a half-monster for a protagonist. What next?

Some of you are probably just dying inside because you know the answer and my ignorance is annoying. To you, I apologize. And respectfully, I end this post here.

Rune Factory Pt. 15

This post should wrap up Rune Factory 3's bachelorettes, and maybe even wrap up my Rune Factory series that's been going strong for about three weeks by now.

Earlier, I completely forgot to mention Marian, who is also a bachelorette living in town. I'll talk a bit about her before going to Kuruna.

Marian is a crazy witch-in-training, granddaughter of the witch who runs the local apothecary. Marian is wild and, sadly, rather incompetent; but if you ask her, she's great at what she does and her few "mistakes" are nothing to be concerned about. Yes, even though she blows up her best friend at one point, she faces it all with an attitude of "whoops, sorry; but you'll be fine! 8D" She carries with her an over-sized syringe that controls her magic, and she absolutely adores giving people shots with it.

Okay, now Kuruna, finally. Kuruna is a univir, which means she pretty much looks human except for the horn on her forehead and her much-longer-than-humans lifespan. She's the leader of the settlement in the desert, which is a sanctuary for anyone not human, so she gets to know Micah through his Wooly half and is clueless about his human half. Although Kuruna actively despises all things human, she does have a very secret obsession: human food. She tends to lose her dignity anytime she has a cake craving, and she sends Micah on a couple missions to snag her some of the beloved dishes.

Alrighty, that should wrap this section up. For now, at least. I'll figure out later if I can continue any Rune Factory stuff, or if I should start something new.

Rune Factory Pt. 14

Let's continue to introduce the available bachelorettes from Rune Factory 3, starting with Sophia.

Sophia is one of the two daughters of the richest man in town. She has a very unusual quirk when speaking: Like her father, she always says the opposite of what she means. Well, that's what the game says, but she only says the opposite of some stuff, or her speech would get way too weird. To avoid confusion for the player on what she really means, any words that are part of her opposite-speak are red. Throughout the game, Micah eventually learns to sync up with the way she talks and interact with her with clarity.

I think I'll mention Evelyn now because even though Micah can't marry her, she technically is still a bachelorette. Evelyn is Sophia's older sister and the only member of their family who does not speak in opposites. She runs a store in her home's downstairs that "might" be open at certain times, and she sells different outfits that Micah can wear in the game. She also sells some decorative furniture objects which I feel just get in the way. Sometime after Micah gets married, Gaius will ask for your help to propose to Evelyn.

The last person in town who's a bachelorette is Carmen, sister of the man who runs the local artificial fishing area. She's a tanned tomboy fisher who quickly asserts herself as Micah's master in all things fishing. Over time, though, she makes it a point to step down as master and step up as official girlfriend, going so far as to arrange Micah to get her brother's blessing on their being together.

Last up will be Kuruna, who lives in the desert settlement. I'll talk about her tomorrow.

Rune Factory Pt. 13

Let's pick up where we left off yesterday, talking about the eligible bachelorettes in Rune Factory 3.

Next up is Pia, the sort-of adopted daughter of the local innkeeper. In other words, Pia and Sakuya are more or less sisters. Pia isn't human, though; she's a mermaid. You can discover this fact anytime Pia steps foot outside while the weather is rainy, since she transforms back into a mermaid whenever she comes into contact with water. Like most mermaids, Pia despises the thought of eating fish (which has lead to war between her and Sakuya at times, since Sakuya loves sashimi), but she absolutely adores eating mean old squids because they attack innocent fish.

Collette, daughter of the local professional chef, is also available for marriage, although it took me a while to figure that out, for some reason. She's an aspiring chef with an extremely fast metabolism, so she's always eating but she stays small. Because she looks so small/young, I didn't realize she was a potential wife until seeing the hearts next to her name in the list of all characters Micah has met. She'd probably be mad at me for that too, since her size is a very sore subject and she's constantly trying to have a growth spurt.

Let's go to my favorite now: Karina. Karina is a very lazy girl, the daughter of the woman who runs the general store in town. Karina has an obsession with the city because she thinks everyone in the city gets to be lazy all the time. Sometimes, her obsession can lead to her asking dangerous requests of Micah; at one point, she actually tries to catch a cold. But most of the time, her motivation fizzles out before any real progress is made.

Wow, only got to three girls again. o_O This is going to take a while... Well, on the upside, at least it means the girls in this game have the most character depth.

Rune Factory Pt. 12

In Rune Factory 3, there are ten girls Micah can choose a wife from.

The first girl is the classic girl-who-convinces-boy-to-live-on-local-farm. This game's model is named Shara, granddaughter of the mayor. She wears flowers as her outfit. I'm not even kidding; there are flowers in her hair and all over her clothing material. She works part-time in the flower shop and picks out cologne for Micah to use if he asks for it.

The next girl to be introduced to Micah is Raven, who comes across as quiet and rude and just generally antisocial. But when Micah got attacked in an opening scene, she ran to find Gaius (the dwarf she lives with who is like a father to her) to get Micah a decent weapon. She works sometimes in the forge's shop, and she enjoys making accessories. She also makes sure Gaius doesn't overwork himself.

After Shara and Raven, the other girls can be introduced in whatever order is most convenient, or whichever you choose. I'll start at the top left of the town and work my way through as if I'm reading. =P In that case, Pia and Sakuya would be up next.

Sakuya is the daughter of the town's innkeeper, and she has a very business-minded personality. She does what she can to turn out profits, and she runs a sort-of mini-shop within the inn wherein she sells items dropped by monsters. To an extent, you can control what items she carries by throwing the item you want to see in her shop into your shipping bin. (By the way, the same goes to the flower shop and perhaps a couple other stores.)

Whoops, looks like I'm out of space for this post. I'll begin with Pia next time. =3

Rune Factory Pt. 11

Just like in the previous game, courtship and eventually marriage is very important for the plot of Rune Factory 3 to be finished.

In order to talk the mayor into letting you hold a festival for humans and univir alike, you must first reveal your true half to at least one eligible bachelorette. To get Micah to work up the nerve, you must get the girl to fall in love with you and make a special request, during which Micah learns more about the girl and decides he wants the girl to know more about him too.

In order to meet the being that sent you to this town and stole your memories, you need to propose marriage to a girl. Right before your wedding, your fiancee will mysteriously vanish, and Micah will go crazy obsessed with trying to find her.

In order to get the Sharance flowers to bloom, you need to defeat the kidnapper and marry your wife. People will comment on the beauty of the blooming flowers that day.

After marriage, you can eventually have a total of three kids over time. But no matter how much time passes, I don't believe they will ever reach adulthood.

Your wife will also make you a lunch every day, depending on her own particular tastes. One girl will give you a baked riceball or toast; another girl will give you a variety of squid dishes over time.

So, seeing as how marriage is so important, I guess I should introduce you to the girls next time. =P

Rune Factory Pt. 10

In Rune Factory 3, taking advantage of your protagonist's monster form can be really fun!

Don't let the term 'monster' fool you; Micah turns into a golden Wooly, not some Orc or other scary and naturally mean-seeming monster. But Micah keeps this half of his identity a secret from the villagers anyways.

In which case, Micah can talk to each of the villagers while pretending to be just an average Wooly, and he'll receive varying reactions. Some people just look at him, some people want to hug him or sell his wool, and some people shoo him away.

It's when Micah meets the settlers out in the desert that his Wooly half really comes in handy. The settlement's leader, a univir, hates any and all humans, and she kicks Micah out on sight if he dares to show up in human form. So, opposite of what he does in the village (seeming fully human and all), Micah disguises himself as a full-blooded Wooly in order to meet the settlers and interact with them.

Later in the game, we players find out the reason Micah ended up in this town. At first, with Micah's partially restored memories, he thinks it was just because he was chasing the five monsters that, one by one, start terrorizing the village and/or the settlement.

However, he is eventually told that, because of his monster and human blood both, he was sent to be a bridge between the monsters and the humans. Only he could mend the rift and get the Sharance flowers to bloom.

Rune Factory Pt. 9

Okay, let's start talking about Rune Factory 3, the latest game in the series that I've played.

This time, the amnesiac has the default name of Micah, and he has a secret that he remembers partway through the game: He's only part human, and another part monster!

In monster form, Micah crashes unconscious in front of the mayor's house, where his granddaughter Shara finds the monster and brings him inside. When alone, Micah transforms back into a human, wakes up, and leaves. Commence normal girl-convinces-protagonist-to-stay-and-farm scene.

This game is unique in many ways from the first two games. First off, there's the whole half-monster situation.

Second, Micah slowly regains his memories throughout the game; each time he defeats the boss monster of one of the four monster-infested areas, Micah gets an orb that restores part of his memory.

Third, there are three characters that you won't meet until later in the game because they've been ostracized from human society for centuries. Micah has the difficult task of planning a party that will bring the two types of characters together.

Fourth, my conscience is somewhat settled regarding the marriage situation. I can't remember exactly how it was done, and maybe it's still lacking and irritating, but this game comes the closest to outright saying that Micah can marry a girl in this new town without worrying he's ditching some old wife/fiance from his previous home.

Rune Factory Pt. 8

*announcer's voice* Next up in Rune Factory 2: Kaiti describes the male mock marriage candidates for Kyle's daughter!

First up I guess would be Roy, son of the local weapons and armor dealer. Roy, like Cammy, was present in Kyle's day and was a real troublemaker, though he continuously claimed it wasn't on purpose. He would break something of his mom's and beg Kyle to find a replacement before she found out. In the second generation, he seems to have matured just a bit. Instead of breaking stuff, he complains about schoolwork while admitting he likes going to see his friends.

Next, let's introduce Leonel, son of Dorothy and Barrett. Not exactly sure how this odd couple produced such a different child, but I guess who am I to question? He's a super cute boy who is often mistaken for a girl, which annoys him. To which I say get a haircut! Anyways, he seems to enjoy cooking, and your protagonist will comment on how mature he seems when he tries to willingly eat stuff he doesn't like. And don't let my complaints fool you; I do like this kid.

Finally, there's Orland, son of Jake and Cecilia. He takes after his father in his serious, sometimes rude, mannerisms and convictions that elves are better than humans. He's serious about working hard in school, and he even tries to get the teachers to give harder lessons because he thinks the current ones are too easy!

Well. I suppose that about does it for the romance section of Rune Factory 2. Now I have to decide if I want to tell you more about the game itself and potentially give away spoilers (eek!), or if I want to just move on to the third RF game.

Rune Factory Pt. 7

As I've mentioned before, in the second generation of Rune Factory 2, a whole new world opens up for you as Kyle's child. But because I have already talked about it, I'll just for now talk about the mock marriage ceremonies.

Because our new protagonist is a child, you understandably cannot actually marry in this generation. But you can go through multiple wedding ceremonies that Gordon (resident priest) will obligingly perform for you. As a boy, you can "marry" Cammy, Leann, and Sera and Serena.

Cammy is actually a character Kyle has met; she was a child in the first generation and apparently has not grown up in the 7-9 years since you played as Kyle. She's Dorothy's sister, daughter of Gordon, and pretty wild. Her first generation requests whipped Kyle into a "capable man," if that tells you anything about her personality.

Leann is the daughter of Max and Julia, so she's grown up a rich kid - perhaps spoiled, but not bratty.

Sera and Serena are twins, the daughters of Ray and Rosalind. They're pretty much inseparable, and they go crazy anytime they do get separated. You can also "marry" these twins if your protagonist is a girl, due to the girls' confusion about the concept of marriage.

This seems like a rather short post, but I think I'll end it here anyways. Candidates for "marriage" if your (second generation) protagonist is a girl will be for tomorrow!

Rune Factory Pt. 6

Let's finish up with the Rune Factory 2 Generation 1 bachelorettes: Rosalind, Cecilia, and Dorothy.

Rosalind is the daughter of the richest man in town and siblings with Max, Julia's potential love interest. Somehow, she brings out a really serious side of Kyle. Your rival for her heart is Ray, the son of the town doctor (siblings with Alicia) and himself a doctor-in-training.

Cecilia is a half-elf who works as a maid for Rosalind's family. She actually was a character in the first Rune Factory game too; she appeared as a little girl who called herself Ceci. Because she knew Raguna (default name for RF1 protagonist) and now knows Kyle, she actually mentions their similar situations a couple of times. The guy Cecilia will marry should you choose not to marry her is Jake, also a half-elf, and he hates your guts just because you're human.

Dorothy is an extremely shy girl who is a nurse-in-training and daughter of the resident priest. Her withdrawn nature is starkly contrasted by her younger sister Cammy's extremely outgoing personality. In fact, you could play the entire game all the way through and only ever see what Dorothy's face looks like once. She pulls her hair back from her face for her wedding, and that's it. Aside from potentially Kyle, Dorothy's love interest is the mayor's son and resident bad boy Barrett.

So those are all the women Kyle could marry. It's possible to get the proposal item for each and every one of them, but of course, you can only propose to one girl. Giving the proposal item to anyone else after you're married will result in varying reactions. Some take it as a normal gift, and some bluntly point out that polygamy is illegal.

Rune Factory Pt. 5

In Rune Factory 2, when you play as Kyle, there are seven girls your protagonist could potentially marry, four of which have rival love interests.

The first bachelorette you meet in the game is Mana, the girl who gives you your farm and has the overprotective father. She's usually the girl I choose to have Kyle marry; I just like her personality the best. You do not have a rival for her heart.

Alicia is the town fortune-teller, also the disappointing daughter of the town doctor. Alicia dresses like a witch and has accurate weather predictions, but she makes sure to make any of her other predictions come true herself. Case in point: She once predicts for Kyle that he'll have money trouble, and then she charges him an unfair rate for that particular fortune. You have no rival for her heart.

Yue is a traveling merchant, sometimes found in town and sometimes found outside of town. She often talks about her travels to other towns, and most of her requests are business-oriented. There isn't a specific rival for Yue's heart, but if you marry a girl who does have a rival, Yue will marry that girl's other love interest so that the kids in the next generation are constant.

Julia runs the town's bathhouse and is obsessed with beauty. She's insecure and tries not to show her true self to anyone, but she also seems to have no problem letting her inner frustration loose on Kyle. Your rival for her heart is Max, son of the town's resident rich man.

Okay, four down and three to go. See you tomorrow for Rosalind, Cecilia, and Dorothy!

Rune Factory Pt. 4

In Rune Factory 2, after you take control of Kyle's child, the game takes on a new plotline.

With Kyle, your main goals were to get married and build a school, with side goals involving befriending other villagers plus monsters and planting a bunch of crops everywhere. (I still think it's really wrong for our amnesiac to be getting married; who's to say someone isn't waiting for him in his past...?)

With Kyle's kid, your main goal is to find Kyle again, or at least find out why he left. Side plots include going to school (which is optional, but I recommend it, unless you go online for all the recipes Mana will otherwise teach you), expanding the school, befriending all the villagers, and perhaps finding a few love interests among your classmates.

As a child, you can have multiple love interests and actually go through a marriage ceremony with all of them. After all, they're only about seven, so the ceremony is just a mock wedding.

Like I mentioned earlier, your child can expand the school Kyle built. When you do, you'll have a way to make your own food and weapons and medicine, you'll also be able to access many more magic books, and you'll also be able to fight monsters in a controlled and adult-approved environment.

Very few of the adults know that your child ventures into the monster-infested areas. All the kids eventually know, but they keep it secret for you because the adults would be upset if they knew.

Hmm, this post feels poorly organized. o_O' Sorry about that. But it's a great game, and I have great fun playing as Aria, Kyle's daughter's default name. (I played once as his son too, but I forget what the default name for him is.)

Rune Factory Pt. 3

Rune Factory 2 is probably my personal favorite out of the series so far; though admittedly, it could have something to do with the fact that it was the first in the series that I played.

This game's protagonist has the default name of Kyle. You can change it if you want when you play, but that's what I'm going to refer to him as. He's found wandering the cherry tree grove by Mana and, later, her father Douglas.

Upon learning of Kyle's amnesia, Mana offers Kyle the farm she and her father own. When Kyle protests, Douglas intimidates Kyle into taking it. But he makes it more than clear that, while Kyle is to do whatever Mana says, he is equally supposed to actively avoid getting any romantic ideas towards her because Mana (when she was six) had promised to stay Douglas's little girl forever and never get married.

So after this awkward welcome, Kyle is quickly integrated into village life. It's a smaller village than in RF1, and there are only four areas Kyle can go to that have monsters. Those four areas represent the four seasons, and you can grow crops in them year-round that correspond to their particular season. (Did I mention that caves, in the RF1 game, have a similar feature?)

Although Kyle is great fun to play, the game really begins after he has his first child. He'll want to build a school. When the building is finished and he sees it, you'll lose movement control for a while as Kyle discusses stuff with himself and others.

Kyle's memory returns one stormy night and he runs off, leaving behind his wife and child (whose gender you can choose or leave to chance). The game picks back up seven years later, I think; our protagonist now is Kyle's child, just beginning school.

Rune Factory Pt. 2

The first Rune Factory game is the one I played the least out of the three I've played so far, though I'm not entirely sure why.

The default name for this amnesiac protagonist is Raguna, and the farm he borrows belongs to Misty, I believe. Raguna was about to pass out in front of her house when she found him begging for food and water. So she gave him a hoe and a watering can. Yesterday's long story short, Raguna stays at her farm.

This game has a bunch of caves that Raguna can explore, but the town's authority (mayor, I think?) bans anyone from going there. Raguna has to get a special license each time he wants to visit a new cave. I believe each cave also has a boss monster that Raguna is expected to send back to the Forest of Beginnings.

Speaking of which, that forest is different world entirely, and it's mentioned in every RF game I've played. It's not explained very well in any of them, sadly - just that it's where all monsters comes from and where they return to upon being defeated in battle. There are also gates that bring monsters from that world into this one.

Aside from the whole cave situation, there are other activities that are found in each of the following games. Farming, of course, is one. Finding a wife is another (which, by the way, I find wrong, considering the possibility that maybe he's already married or betrothed but can't remember...). Raguna, I'm sure, can also eventually cook food and forge weapons and perhaps even make accessories and medicine, but I had yet to get to those parts before getting bored with the game for some reason I still can't identify.

So, yeah, there's what I remember from RF1. I know lots of people that really enjoyed that game, so don't let my review get you down. It could just be something as simple as the fact that I played RF2 before RF1, so I was a bit spoiled by all the new and improved stuff in the second game.

Rune Factory

I've talked to you a lot about the Harvest Moon games that I've played, but I don't think I've yet mentioned the spin-off series called Rune Factory, so here we go!

So far, I believe there are four Rune Factory games. I have played the first three, but I have not played the first one enough to remember much about it. I do remember that, so far, all three games have the same beginning, simply with different characters.

The games begin with the main character wandering into a small town. A girl (eligible maiden, actually) finds our protagonist and asks him what's going on. He responds that he doesn't know because he has lost his memory.

The girl gives our protagonist a name, which the player can choose but the game does offer a suggestion. Then she invites our hero to work on her farm, claiming it's just going to waste anyways and he'd be doing her a favor.

At some point during the girl's persuasion, our hero can tell he's being taken advantage of. However, it's either the girl or the girl's father that absolutely refuses to take no for an answer.

And so the game begins, with our protagonist living on a borrowed farm, expected to jump right in to the village life and have a blast.

There are variations between the games, of course. But I'll mention those when I come to each of them. Ciao!

PC Games Pt. 2

Continuing off of yesterday's topic, there are a couple other childhood games of mine that I've replayed this summer.

One of them was Freddi Fish: The Creature of Coral Cove, a point and click mystery game. Something I noticed as I was playing this time that I didn't notice as a kid were all of the objects throughout the game that I knew I needed without knowing why I needed them until later.

I also just now realized something else. The plotline of the game was to find the sea monster and figure out why he's been terrorizing the fish at Coral Cove Park. Why on earth - or under the sea - would Freddi and Luther just swim right up to the sea monster's new home? Did they just expect to ask politely and get an answer (which, turns out, that's how it happened)? But did they have any contingency plan in case the sea monster tried to eat them?

Oh well. It was a pretty fun game, at any rate. Maybe mostly because of the nostalgia, but still.

Another game I replayed was The Game of Life, kind of set up like a board game on your computer that directs you through life from college to marriage to your first kid to retirement with all the bumps along the way.

I remembered getting more fun out of it as a kid than I had when I played it recently. I wonder if part of my problem was that I was playing it myself against two computer characters. Maybe most of the fun comes from the real people you compete with.

Well, there you have it. Yay for kid games! =D

PC Games

So far this summer, I've gone over all my old computer games and reinstalled a few onto my laptop to play.

The first one I replayed was Oregon Trail. I'm sure you all are familiar with the game where you have a wagon and a family to get from one state to Oregon in one piece?

The first time I replayed, my captain leader guy seemed to constantly shoot himself "accidentally" when he went out hunting, and he finally died of either infection or blood loss. One time after a hunting trip, he got bit by a bear - and there weren't even any bears in the area! Sigh, but my second attempt proved much more successful, and my team made it to Oregon in one piece. =)

The second game I replayed was Cute Knight. The background is that you're an orphan girl who just turned 18 and has three years to find out who she really is.

There are multiple endings to this games, almost countless endings. There is only one true ending, however - even if there can be variations on that ending. So far, I have maybe about half of the endings gained, including the one true ending where my girl finds out who she really is.

Another game I replayed was a game of my dad's: Stronghold 2. It's a game set in the medieval age, and you're tasked with building a successful community, either for the peace or protection of your citizens and resources.

I played in the mostly stress-free free build for a while until my dad convinced me to try the peace campaign. So I did, and it was fun; but now that it's over, I'm wondering if there's anything else on that game aside from the war campaign.

Well, I guess that'll be all for this post. Au revoir!

Harvest Moon Pt. 9

Okay, so I think I've covered a lot if not most of the stuff in Harvest Moon: (More) Friends of Mineral Town and Harvest Moon DS, right? The only other Harvest Moon games I've played have been Sunshine Islands and Tale of Two Towns, and I only played them briefly.

Around the time I played Sunshine Islands, my brother got some thingamajig that enabled cheating. Idiot that I was, I borrowed it to help my game go smoother. Well, not only did it skyrocket my progress to where I couldn't even keep up, but it added bugs to my game. Sadly, I didn't play Sunshine Islands too much because of that.

As for Tale of Two Towns, my brother got that game for his 3DS, so the only way I could play it was by borrowing both his game and his 3DS. And that game had bugs in it just naturally, unfortunately. I maybe wouldn't have been as bothered by it if I could save my progress randomly throughout the day, but I think that game only allows you to save after you go to sleep, right?

So you can imagine my frustration when the game froze on me for the fifth time several hours into my day, forcing me to replay for goodness knows how long to get back to where I'd left off. And unlike the other two Harvest Moon games I talked about before, this game actually seemed to have some decent guys. But I never got to know any of them well enough to choose one before I gave up on starting, restarting, and restarting all over again. Pity. =/

So because I only played these two games very briefly, I suppose this post will probably mark the end of the Harvest Moon posting series I've had. It's been fun, though! And I wonder what I'll come up with to talk about next...

Harvest Moon Pt. 8

So, I think I promised to talk about Friends of Mineral Town bachelorettes today, right? Okay, let's again kick things off with my favorite.

Popuri. Pink hair, which is totally awesome in and of itself. But as daughter of the owner of the chicken farm, she loves chickens and her family, even if she complains about how protective that evil monster of a brother that she has is. She also has that certain quality that I never liked in Gray: childishness. Your rival for her heart is the only semi-decent guy in the entire town: Kai.

Karen. Very pretty, daughter of the owner of the local supermarket. No one can outdrink her, and there's only one person stupid enough to try. You even get to witness and referee this event one night at the inn. Your competition for her heart is that no-good, horrid, awful, lying, bossy Rick. (For those of you who actually like Rick, I'm so sorry for you.)

Ann. Gotta love these tomboys, and red hair is a bonus. She's the daughter of the innkeeper, super awesome and, if I remember correctly, sort of thrown into being mature beyond her years since her mother died. The object of her affections, if you don't get to her fast enough, is Cliff. However, if you're slow to woo Ann but you don't want Cliff getting ahead of you, all you have to do is be mean enough to not invite Cliff to the winery for a job; he'll run out of money and have to leave.

Mary. The sweet, shy, but tougher-than-she-looks bookworm. Daughter of a man who can't get enough of plants, she works in the library and is even writing her own book! Should you choose not to try to win her over, she'll end up marrying the blacksmith apprentice Gray.

Elli. Doctor's assistant and love interest, should you delay winning her heart yourself. She's pretty nice, and she has that pesky younger brother we all know and can't help but love. Also granddaughter of the woman who can no longer walk.

And there you go, the five girls from Mineral Town that you can marry in either Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town or Harvest Moon DS. Which girl out of all these mentioned in this post or previous ones is your favorite? Or, if you're less picky about your man than me, which boy is your favorite?