Harvest Moon check list.

I just bought a new Harvest Moon, Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar, and I am... disappointed. Like all fans of the original I am doomed to buy the new ones as they come out and rarely are they worth it. *sigh* But playing it has inspired me to come up with a list of the dos and don'ts of creating a HM game. This is is mostly for my own therapeutic benefit, and really, nobody reads my blog.

The List, in no particular order:

Stepping on Crops: YES.
Especially now that the farms are smaller each game, with such a limited planting space, you have to make each plot count.

End Game: YES.
You know what? I kinda liked these. Goals and conditions that once met, let you win. As much as I like Harvest Moon I do get bored with it after awhile, it would be nice to put it down because I finished it, not because I just didn't want to play anymore.

Time Limit: NO.
On the other hand, I don't like this. In the first game you had about two and a half years, then the game was over. I like being allowed to keep at my farm as long as I like.

Gay Marriage: YES.
I'm going to get shit for putting this on here, but it's my list and I will put what I like on it. The hell of it is, there is gay marriage in Harvest Moon... just not in the American releases. Some of the Japanese release will let you be "best friends" with someone of your gender and they will move in with you, after awhile you adopt a child to raise.

Time Stops While Inside: YES.
Um, yeah. I like it when the clock stops when I go inside. That way I don't have to stress about speeding through taking care of my animals, cooking, shopping or talking to townsfolk.

Mining: YES I like mining. I like having deep mines with strange things like temples on the lowest floor. Of course for this to be win, time needs to stop inside the mine too. You could literally spend days trying to reach the bottom of the mine in versions that kept the clock going.

Jumping: no?
Grand Bazaar lets you jump, and is the first HM to let you do so. I don't know, it's kinda fun, but I never thought of Harvest moon as a game that you needed to jump in. It doesn't help that jumping is needed for three things: jumping in the river hoping to catch stuff in your clothing, jumping up to catch butterflies, and jumping to reach cut off areas. These are stupid, hard and pointless, respectively.

Pick Up and Put Away are the Same Button: YES.
Seriously. I don't know if it was the addition of jumping in this game, but the button mapping is all fubar.

Harvest Sprites: YES.
I love the little guys, and when you get them to like you, they help you out. Of course some versions have way to many of the little fuckers that you have to get to like you. Alright, let me put in a qualifier: 1 - 5 Harvest Sprites = Good. 6 - 150 Harvest Sprites = Too Many.

Decaying Friendship: NO.
I hate decaying anything in any game. I work hard to build something up, and then I have to work just as hard to keep it that way? Bah. Harvest Moon makes you keep a lot of balls in the air, so this can be frustrating as hell.

Buying Basic Tools: NO.
Why? Why should I have to do this? I do I have to wait two weeks and make 8k before I get the goddamn starter hammer? I'm going to spend the rest of the game working to upgrade them, this is just silly.

Power Berries: YES.
These have kind of been phased out and I think that's too bad. I liked the joy of finding or earning one, and being able do so much more than I could at the beginning.

For that matter, Secret Garden: YES.
Flowers magically show up every time you find a power berry, as far as I remember, this was only in the first game. I miss it.

Visible Stamina Bar: YES.
Grand Bazaar is the first game to feature this, and really, I don't know why it took so long. It is VERY helpful.

Stacking Inventory: YES.
All of the games have this now. Good.

Quality of Crops: YES.
Sure, why not? If I water my crops twice a day, federalize them everyday, etc and my crops are better than if I didn't. And therefor, sell for more. Cool. Down side? Different qualities don't stack together. So if I have two star corn and three star corn, that's two spaces in my backpack.

Quality of Ores and Gems: NO.
The difference here is that there really is nothing that I can do to make sure I can get better quality stuff. I can't really water the rocks to get better copper. Also nothing would piss me off more than to smash a hundred rocks to look for a diamond and it turns out to be a half a star or some bull shit like that.

Quality of Random Shit I Pick Up: HELL NO.
I do not need to know the quality of the weeds, rocks and twigs I pick up off the ground. And I certainty don't need to have them taking up so much space in my pack. 4 one star weeds, 5 two star weeds, 2 three star weeds, 8 half star weeds. Really Harvest Moon? Really?

Sending Out and Bringing In Animals QUICKLY: YES.
You want me to put my animals in the sun before they will give me the best milk? Fine. But make it simple. I don't want to spend 3 in game hours pushing one damn cow back in the barn because it's storming outside. By the way it is funny as hell to watch the cows freak the fuck out in a storm.

Upgrading Your Farm: YES.
Of course! This is a core part of Harvest Moon! I want a crappy little farm that I build up into a plantation that is filled with slave sprites that do all the work. It makes no sense to me that Grand Bazaar starts you off in a perfectly serviceable farm.

Buying Furniture/ Stuff to Put in Your House: YES.
You can kinda do this in some of the games, and I have always like it. It adds to the feel of improving your farm and making it awesome.

Modular Farmhouse Design: YES.
This has never been true for a Harvest Moon game, but it should be. Yeah, I can add rooms and floors, but I don't get to pick what goes where, and frankly, I would like to. Then the farm would truly be mine.

Market Place: NO.
AKA, the Grand Brazaar. I don't like it. I have to wait to the end of the week to sell my shit, and even then, some times it doesn't sell. Gah! The point of this game is to grow/ find/ craft this shit, not beg people to buy it!

Changing The Look of the Main Character: NO.
Okay, something of a personal pet peeve, but why? Why keep changing him? In the latest game he looks like a pirate!


Look at him!

And the girl looks like a pink monstrosity herself. Goddamn it Natsume.

Stories from work, Part 1

Not that I know if part 2 will ever happen, but that was an easy title for now.

I don't like working for new security company as much as my original one. Not because of the company, because of the work. They guard things that damn well need guarding. Which means a lot of work for me. On the other hand, I do get a lot more stories out of this job.

Here's one now! =D

So I heard a loud party while I was patrolling. This is fairly unusual for this complex. The walls in this place are pretty thick, the people pretty quite and the damn thing isn't set up like an echo chamber like the last place. Ah well, telling a party to shut up always looks good on my report. Like I'm doin' work and stuff.

So I knock on the door and a tiny 20something woman answers, she is the lease holder so I let her know it's a little loud. She comes out onto the porch to talk to me. She has questions! Lots of them. They are all pretty reasonable honestly, she wanted to know about what was up with four or five of us gathering in front of the leasing office at night (because we're bored and like to shoot the shit there), and other questions like that.

She also wanted to tell me about the 'Crazy bitch who is totally going to get killed by her boyfriend. Really. She will murdered if she doesn't flip out and kill him first.' The whole thing upsets this woman because she has been in abusive relationships before and 'anyone with a vagina' would be upset by this.

Clearly she doesn't understand my distaste for all humanity.

My ability to rejoice in the suffering of others aside, yeah, that sounds important I should probably let my boss know. But she is not done! I get to learn about her feelings on abusive relationships, about how her last boyfriend put a whole in her wall, how the crazy bitch comes out at 6 in the morning to scream at her boyfriend. Honestly the whole thing was kind of fun to listen to.

Talking about relationships lead her to ask me about whether or not I was married. I tell her no. Am I engaged? No. Boyfriend? Nope. Why not? At this point, it's kinda late and I just don't care so I flat out tell her I'm gay, so marriage in Cally is out for me, but that I am in a relationship. This earns me a hug. I am the second gay person she has ever met and I am awesome. And she would totally make out with me.

She as also had about seven shots of tequila.

I learned that people who have had seven shots of tequila are very chatty. This is news to me as I had previously believed that people who have had seven shots of tequila were very unconscious. Honestly, more power to her. I wouldn't have been nearly as coherent after that much. I'm pretty sure I would be dead.

I promise that I will report the domestic and she promises to keep the party down and I go back to my evening. Looking at this I really haven't touched on how entertaining this whole thing was. Like how in the middle of talking to me the party starts to get loud again so she screams at the top of her lungs for them to shut the fuck up cause she is still talking to me.

Oh, and the people she reported? Totally a problem. My co-workers later regaled me with stories, they knew this couple well. I was instructed to call them and not engage either of them myself because they were both off their respective nuts.

Let someone else work? Consider it done!

Goddamnit!

Mood: Pissed Listening to: Gavin Rossdale - Love Remains the Same Reading: House of Leaves Playing: Chrono Trigger ADR B1 Word Count: 13,543

Okay, so it is Friday night and I went to work as normal. But the key wasn't there! Shit! And I forgot my cell phone! Double Shit! Oh well, someone is normally here before me, so I'll just walk around to the back where the door is always open for the other workers, let myself in and call from the inside phone!

Hmmmm- no one seems to be here! That's strange! Oh well, someone will be here soon.

ONE HOUR LATER:

fuck this shit, I am going home to get my cell. I call the office to complain. I am put on hold, okay fine, I have to drive back to work anyway. So around the El Camino exit I get someone on the line!

"Hello, Sharon? NC Times closed that office on the 7th and canceled their contract, didn't somebody call you?"

AAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!

I lost my job and nobody told me. I am this guy.

 

...

Okay, I didn't get fired or anything, but without a site to go to, I'm not going to get paid, which is the same damn thing basically.

The Traffic Court Saga

Mood: Ack Listening to: Rihanna - Disturbia Reading: Storm Surge - Melissa Good Playing: A ton of Big Fish games ADR B1 Word Count: 1,185

So I was able to take the day off (paid no less), to take care of my traffic ticket. I had forgotten to put the reg sticker on the back of my car, because I am a dork. And I had forgotten my wallet, because I am a bigger dork. And I got pulled over, because my dorkyness alerted the police. I got a ticket.

When I went to go get it taken care of, I learn that while the registration infraction was just a fix it ticket, the cop had marked down that I was an unlicensed driver as apposed to simply not having one on me. This required that I go into court and stand before an honest to god judge to get it fixed. It took all day.

On of the funny things about this is that each of these 'trails' lasts about 30 seconds. So they call in a whole room full of people and we line up before the judge.

"Alright, you are in here for registration/ insurance/ speeding/ red light/ sign infraction, do you have your paper work/ how do you plead?"
"yes/no/guilty/not guilty"
"This is good/ this doesn't work/ you owe [$$$] by [date]/this is dismissed. Please see the clerk. Next."

And so went my trail.

On another note, I started writing my story. Maybe if I get it down, it will leave me alone.

 

Go play some games, if you have so much free time.

What comes after 14?

Mood: Sleepy Listening to: Last Firstborn - Celldweller Reading: The Outlaw Demon Wails - Kim Harrison Playing: Chrono Trigger

My niece is so cute, she has learned to count to 14, only when she gets to 14 she just keeps repeating 14, until she is done. Every thing is 14 now!

Maybe you have to watch her do it to get the full effect. >.>;;

...

Okay. A dog, from somewhere, just wandered into my office.

And now has left. That was weird.

Anyway... I bought new fish for my tank. I think I should wait a week or two more before I buy my tetras, but for now I have three mini catfish and a sucker fish. The cat fish are spastic but the sucker fish hasn't move from it's hiding place in the last 12 hours. XD

Hopefully later today I can start working on those masks with my mom, if not today then this weekend. I need to get them done soon.

I don't think I've posted this yet.

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads.

Mood: Happy? Listening to: Last Firstborn - Celldweller Reading: The Outlaw Demon Wails - Kim Harrison Playing: Chrono Trigger

Holy shit, it's been almost a year since I posted here! The would be where I make promises about posting more, but because I wont keep it and no one really cares, I think I will skip that part.

I've started playing Chrono Trigger again... I never beat it the first time, and I am further now than I got the first time! Yay!

My fish have stopped hiding, but it was cute when they were all freaked out. XD I am hoping to get the sucker fish later this week. I think I might post a picture of the tank later now.

This guy is unreal.

So much hate.

Mood: Angry Listening to: The construction outside my window Reading: Nothing - Nobody

Right, so my family is poor. My mother is filing for bankruptcy, and we have no money for food. But my boss knows of a food bank! For a small donation, you can get a whole bunch of food! I am looking forward to eating again.

Or rather, I was.

Bruce was to go get the food, as my mother and I must work (cuz, ya know, we have jobs). But, when he got there, he learned that they didn't have as much food as they normally do, (like, no milk or something). So Bruce forgoes getting some of the food they do have, (mostly dry foods I guess) and instead goes to a grocery store to buy himself some fucking food.

So no food for me, no food for my mother, and much less food for Bruce.

Thanks a lot fucknut.

Also, it wasn't even his money. He has no goddamn money. It was my mother's money he misspent.

I am so, so very pissed off.

 

Oh yeah, and: Happy Birthday Woodson!