Ushi No Tane
Harvest Moon News
Issue 78
http://www.fogu.com/hm/

February 08, 2008

The latest version of Harvest Moon for the DS will be released in
about 2 weeks in Japan. Marvelous has updated the official site
<http://www.bokumono.com/series/kiranaka/>
 for "Shining Sun and Friends" with a few new tidbits of information:

 If you want to watch a gameplay video of Tarou explaining how to
till your farm soil, you can check out this page
<http://www.bokumono.com/series/kiranaka/susume/index.html>
 and click on the little movie picture at the top of the page.

 MMV has listed 3 mini games:

 Dog Frisbee (like in the GBA games) where you slide your stylus
across the touch screen to throw the disc.

 Horse Race, where you ride in a cart behind the horse and cheer it
on by using the DS built-in microphone.

 Cat-toy wave ("Neko Jyarashi"), where you slide the stylus left and
right to play with your kitty cat.

 You can download free desktop wallpaper
<http://www.bokumono.com/series/kiranaka/omake/index.html>

So what we know so far about Shining Sun and Friends:

 The main idea of the game is to collect Sun Stones and revive
submerged islands in the Sunflower Archipelago

 Release date is February 21st

 You can play as either Mark or Chelsea

 The main characters from Island of Happiness are in the game, along
with 2 new marriage candidates. Siren is an Asian treasure hunter for
the Mark character and Will is a wealthy blond fellow for those who
play as Chelsea. There hasn't been any mention of Popuri, Cliff,
Karen, or Dr. Trent yet.

 The Nintendo Wifi system can be used for item trading with 4 players
along with the voice chat system from Island of Happiness. You visit
the lighthouse in the game to activate the wifi system.

 You can befriend the wild animals that live on the islands and they
will help you with your farm. Known animals so far are ducks, tanuki
(raccoon dogs), rabbits, and mice.

 The cat and pig pets have returned. The pig helps to find wild
mushrooms and the cat does not have a known purpose so far.

 The livestock animals are your basic cows, sheep, and chickens. The
animals now come in different colors such as black chickens and
brown-spotted cows

 There are seasonal recipes to learn

 You can now buy flour and rice at Chen's shop (You have to grow it
yourself in Island of Happiness)

 Fishing is in the game

 New wallpaper and carpet combos can be purchased for your house from
Goran's shop

 The Harvest Sprites can be used for chores, called "Home Stay" in
Shining Sun

ATTENTION European HM FANS:

The resident German HM expert on the UNoT forum, Susa-Ann, noticed
that the Wii version of Magical Melody did not feature the Tina female
playable character on the game's box art. After an inquiry to RS, she
discovered that you can only play as the boy hero in the European
version of the Gamecube remake. Rising Star has removed the female
playable character. There is no other information on what other
features may have been stripped out, but with all of the different
languages that the European version has to contain there's bound to be
some changes.

At least the European Wii owners can play the SNES version of Harvest
Moon. The game hasn't even been released on the North American or
Japanese virtual console yet. Hopefully it will be out in N.A. within
the next few weeks.

FOR North Americans:

The Ps2 version of Innocent Life will start shipping out to stores
around the 12th of this month. There isn't a lot of updates compared
to the PSP version of the game, but the camera angle when talking to
someone is different (woo.), there is a dictionary/glossary of words
you can collect, and new events. 

Puzzle De Harvest Moon has had a price drop at EBGames.com - you can
now buy the game for $19.99 instead of $29.99, which is probably what
the game should have been at when it was first released  ;) 

Unfortunately EB is also listing Island of Happiness and HM Wii with
a May release date, which is not current. Both games are not expected
to be out until sometime this Summer. 

Harvest Moon DS Cute is currently set for sometime in March (Nintendo
says the 8th, Gamestop says the 25th). I don't believe Natsume has set
a finalized release date yet, but it will probably appear on their web
site once they make a decision.

Until next time!

- What do you get if you cross a duck with a firework ?
-- A firequaker !

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PAST POLL QUESTION

Q: How long do you think Shining Sun & Friends will take to localize?

42.2% = 2 years I bet  :'( 
34.4% = At least a reasonable year.
14.4% = Only 6 months because I WANT IT!
08.9% = VEGGIE YAKISOBAAAaaaa..... *slurp*
(Total votes: 90)

This issue's poll:

Q: Would you like to actually have a pet pig?
Vote at http://www.fogu.com/hm/hmlist/poll/

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