Saturday, November 1, 2014

Harvest Moon, A Wonderful Life: SE: Marriage, Dating and The Girls

In Harvest Moon, A Wonderful Life Special Edition there are four girls to marry; Celia, Muffy, Nami and Lumina and it’s an essential part of the game to pick one of them. If you haven’t married by the end of Year 1 then it’s game over for you. If you feel like you’re under pressure, then good, because you are. If you haven’t proposed to any of the girls by the end of the 10th day of Winter then the one who likes you the most will ask you. If you reject whomever comes to your door then you’ll leave the valley and be sent back to the main menu. There is no way out of it. 



Each girl has a diary and this is the way you check how they feel about you. Each girl starts out with one green heart, meaning they don’t like you. As you give them gifts and talk to them then that one heart will turn into a red heart, after that, it will gradually go up to a maximum of four red hearts meaning they will marry you if you ask. To gain more hearts you must continue to give them gifts, it won’t happen by itself, usually. Muffy and Celia may love you up to two hearts just for your continued existence. They can be fickle creatures though. Sometimes by proposing, then rejecting, one of the girls then it may make some of the other girls like you more. I wouldn’t advocate this approach though, you’ll just end up making people hate you and it’s not an efficient means of making a girl fall in love with you. Just like in real life.

To have a girl fall in love with you you should talk to them and give them the gifts they like. There are around five or six love cutscenes fo each girl and within these cutscenes you need to pick the right responses. You trigger cutscenes dependent on how much they girl likes you, although some can be random. You won’t actually be able to propose until you have the blue feather which you’ll be given on the first day of Summer. 


So, who are the girls, what do they like and how do you get the cutscenes? 


The Girls:


So we have four girls in this game: 





Nami: 28 years old, bright red hair, light blue eyes. She wears a pair of tan shorts and a blue vest top, she looks slightly boyish and stays at the Inner Inn. She can be found wandering all over the place. She wakes up at 9am and leaves her room at around 9:30am. Her diary is in her room on her desk.

Likes: Trick blue flowers, clay statues, fossils and curry

Muffy: 32 years old, long blonde hair, blue eyes. She wears a red dress and a red hairband. Muffy lives and works in the Blue Bar and can be found there most days. She will leave around 4pm for a quick walk to the Inner Inn before going back around 5:30pm for the evening shift. Muffy’s diary is in the flower arrangement at the back of the bar.

Likes: Flowers, moon ores,

Celia: 26 years old, long brown hair, dark brown eyes. She wears a dark green dress. Celia is a hired hand at Vesta’s farm who is also her aunt. Celia wakes up at 6am in the morning and can be found in Vesta’s house on the ground floor where she spends most of the day. Her diary can be found up the ladder in that house, beneath her bed.

Likes: Flowers, eggs, vegetables

Lumina: 18 years old, honey coloured hair tied back with a yellow hairband. Lumina wears a white top and blue trousers and has a very slight frame. Lumina lives with her grandmother, Romana, in the large Villa at the top of the hill. When she’s not playing the piano she can be found in her bedroom upstairs, outside in the garden or walking down the hill and at the base of the hill. Her diary is at the back of her room, upstairs in the mansion. 


Likes: Flowers, golden wool, strawberry cake 


Nami:


A trav
elling girl considered to be the most intelligent out of all of the girls, she’s a little quiet and very down to earth. She’s apparently hard to impress, but not really, she just likes specific things. Nami often has little observations about the world and the seasons, she prefers the winter. Nami is a law unto herself and her schedule is very unpredictable, she wanders around the place a lot and won’t be found staying at home all day. 



If you don’t marry Nami she will leave the valley at the end of chapter one. If you really like her and are sad to hear this then no worries, there’s a cutscene that means she’ll come back and resume her place in the Valley. You’ll hardly notice her missing.

If you marry Nami she’ll come live with you at the farm and will be generally disinterested in what you do. She’ll stubbornly maintain her original outfit, unlike every other bride, but will maintain a balance of being inside and outside the house. She’ll often stand in the pasture standing out with her arms held out, looking up at the sky.

Schedule: Wakes up at 9am, leaves room at 10am. She will then hang out around the back of the inn before wandering the valley. She may end up visiting the bar in the evening and will go to bed whenever she feels like it. This can range from 11pm to 2am.

Note:
If you speak to her repeatedly until she has nothing new to say, you will gain favour. I had 1 red heart, nothing to give her, spoke to her a lot in her room, checked her diary again and it had gone up to 2 hearts.

Nami cutscene 1: 

 
You'll trigger this at 1 red heart. Leave your house around 12pm to find that Nami is mooching around your farm, looking at all your stuff. You’ll automatically go and talk to her and she’ll tell you to get back to work. If you like Nami and want her to like you back, tell her she can do whatever she wants. With this new freedom Nami will stay a little longer at your farm to explore it further. She’ll then leave in good spirits.

Nami cutscene 2:

You need 2 hearts for this one, though it can trigger at 1 heart. Go into the Blue Bar at between 7pm – 8pm provided Nami is in the bar and not elsewhere. Nami will ask you what it is you want and you should ask her whether you can sit next to her. She’ll let you, the next conversation option will let you pick between talking about her or talking about yourself. Talk about her, she’ll be a little defensive but tell you some stuff. For the next option you have the choice between saying “hmmm” or nodding, you should turn and nod and Nami will go over all shy and embarrassed before escaping from the bar. You turn to leave, but it seems as though Nami has forgotten to pay her tab, as Muffy helpfully points out, you should pay for it which is 256g. Muffy will coo about how generous you are and you get to leave feeling like such a nice guy, though 256g poorer. 


Nami cutscene 3:

3 red hearts for this one. Go into your house and back out again at some time in the morning, around 8am. If you don’t get it first time, keep trying. You’ll see Tim and Ruby at your doorstop and they’ll inform you that Nami is missing and they want your help. It seems as though Nami has left her rent money and left the valley. You haven’t seen her either so you’ll have the option of helping to look for her. Agree to do this. Later on, you still haven’t found her and, dejected, you’ll all go back to the inn. Suddenly, Nami wanders in on the scene asking Ruby what’s for dinner. Everybody is ecstatic, Nami is confused, they all go to lunch. Afterwards, Nami will talk to you in private.

Nami cutscene 4: 

 
4 hearts for this one! To trigger this scene go into the inn sometime in the evening when Nami is in there. If you’re struggling to get it, try following Nami about and follow her into the Inn when she goes in. Tim will tell Nami she had a phonecall from her father, Nami isn’t best pleased and will ask if she has any mail. She’ll have a letter which will prompt her to ask Tim if she can work at the inn, he’ll agree but she’ll change her mind on the spot. Nami will then ask you if she can work at the farm; agree, but she’ll change her mind again. Apparently this girl doesn’t know what she wants. Nami will then leave.

Nami cutscene 5:


This cutscene is a kind of proposal event. During the winter go into the inn in the evening and Tim will tell you Nami is sad. At that moment, Nami will come down the stairs and leave the inn, on the verge of tears. You’ll follow her and she’ll confide in you telling you that she’s run out of money and can’t continue staying with Ruby and Tim. You can offer that she comes and lives with you instead, Nami will be over the moon and will agree to live with you instead.

Proposal: 

 
Even after you have received that last proposal event you can propose to Nami officially with the blue feather to suggest marriage. You may as well, since you’re not exactly going to be roommates but rather, you’ll be parents sharing a bed. Doing parenting things together. Propose to Nami at 4 hearts, she may or may not know what the feather is depending on how many cutscenes you have done thus far, either way she’ll accept. Congrats. You won’t marry immediately, it will happen after the 10th day of Winter. 


Lumina:


In the Special Edition version of the game you now have Lumina, previously a child in the original version of the game, available for marriage. She’s now 18 years old but the character model is the same for the first year of the game. After you marry her she will look a lot more mature so don’t worry too much about it. She lives with her rich grandmother and their butler. She starts out sweet but very restricted by her grandmother but turns rather strict by the time you have a child together. Lumina plays a lot of piano, she doesn’t really want to but she’s a very musical person and this will influence your kid later on. 



If you marry Lumina she will wear a blue dress with a pink headband during Chapter 2: A Birth and will spend a lot of time in the house, though can sometimes be found wandering around outside the farm. She will don a yellow tartan dress and orange neckscarf for any subsequent chapters.

If you don't marry Lumina she will wear a sort of yellow tartan dress with and orange neckscarf. She will continue to live at home with her grandmother and Sebastian and will never marry.

Schedule: Lumina will exit her bedroom in the upstairs area of the mansion at around 9am, go downstairs and play the piano until about midday, then leave the mansion and either spend time in the courtyard or walk down to visit the firework makers. On Van days Lumina will visit Vans store and will spend a lot more time outside around the valley.

Lumina cutscene 1:

To trigger this cutscene you need 1 red heart. Enter the Villa when Lumina is playing on the piano, between 10am and 12pm, I triggered it at almost dead on 10am. Upon entering the villa you’ll find Lumina playing on the piano with Romana and Rock watching her, you’ll join them and watch as Romana compliment Lumina’s piano playing. Romana encourages Lumina to play more creatively before leaving. As Rock hovers about in the background you’ll approach Lumina and she’ll confess that she’s not enjoying playing the piano as much as she used to, she asks you what it means to ‘play more freely’. You can either respond with ‘just work harder’ or ‘juts have more fun’. Pick ‘just have more fun’ and Rock will leave as Lumina asks if she can talk to you, privately. Lumina will tell you about how she started playing the piano when she was very young and about the pressure she feels to play perfectly and how she was constantly compared to her mother, who also played piano. Lumina became overly worried about making mistakes and disappointing Romana as she tried to live up to her mother’s memory, Lumina realizes that Romana wouldn’t want that and wants her to enjoy it. After the chat, Lumina will feel much better and thanks you for listening to her.

Lumina cutscene 2:

Triggered at 2 hearts, walk into her room whilst she is in there alone. This can be triggered either in the morning between 8am and 9am or after she has finished playing the piano after 12pm. I triggered this at 12:45pm. Upon entering the room Lumina will be thrilled to see you and tell you she was looking through an art book given to her by Romana, she’ll ask you if you want to talk, reply with ‘with pleasure’ and she’ll talk about how much she likes paintings before telling you they give her a warm feeling, you can reply with, ‘what kind of paintings are they’ or ‘are they paintings of fires?’ you can reply with either answer and she’ll go into detail about the paintings. There will be another option between asking whether she wants an older sister or somebody to play the piano with, you can pick either option for this one also and she’ll tell you that you feel like a big brother to her. I presume that this feeling changes when you eventually marry the girl. At the end of the scene she’ll thank you for the conversation and show you out of the mansion, mentioning she’ll go play with some random ‘Liz’ and ‘Tanya’ type characters who I can only assume are the cats.

Lumina cutscene 3:


3 red hearts are needed to trigger this cutscene and, oddly, it focuses on Sebastian. Enter the villa foyer after 7pm to be greeted by a surprised Sebastian. He wants to show you about a new dinner he’s been preparing and wants to hear you opinion on how it tastes. As you go to the kitchen you’ll hear Romana and Lumina talking in the next room about something that sounds suspiciously like you. Before you can hear too much, Sebastian ushers you into the kitchen and scolds you for listening at their door. In the kitchen, you’ll be presented with a dish and the option to tell Sebastian, “Delicious! Or ‘It’s… terrible!”, tell Sebastian it’s delicious and he’ll be overjoyed. He’ll explain why he’s come up with the new dish and tell you that Lumina has become beautiful recently and will hint that she’s in love with somebody. He’ll reminisce about Romana and his unrequited love, finally Sebastian will thank you and you’ll leave the kitchen.

Lumina cutscene 4:

At 4 red hearts you can access the final Lumina cutscene. Leave the mansion sometime after 7am to have Lumina stop you as you leave. She’ll invite you for a walk down to the ocean, you have the options to say ‘Sure…’ or, ‘Sorry, I’m busy…’ agree to go with her. You’ll go down to the beach together and talk, soon she’ll ask you about the first person you fell in love with. You can choose between ‘I haven’t fallen in love yet’ ‘I forget’ or ‘What about you?’ ask her about her first love by picking ‘what about you?’ and she’ll talk about a conversation between her and Romana. She’ll say she feels differently about you to other people before asking you that, if she had a big brother, would she feel the same. Reply with ‘I don’t think so’ and Lumina will realize that she’s fallen in love with you. At this point, 
Sebastian interrupts and Lumina will leave with a final invite for you to visit her at the mansion.

Proposal:



Celia: 

 
You’ve probably already met her; she lives at the neighbouring farm and is shy and childish. She talks to plants, which is a little odd, but sweet. She often comments on the surrounding nature of the valley and has a very appreciative, carefree attitude. Vesta often speaks for her but Celia does raise her voice against Marlin when necessary, so she’s not a complete pushover. Celia is often the obvious choice for a farmer’s wife because she knows everything there is about crops and trees. Don’t expect this to give you an advantage however because she won’t help with your farm, like all of the wives. She currently lives with her aunt, Vesta and Vesta’s younger brother, Marlin. There’s an odd thing going on here because Marlin and Celia are some kind of unofficial couple; so yeah, make of that what you will. 



If you don’t marry Celia she will continue to live with Vesta and Marlin and not much seems to come of Marlin’s infatuation with her. Celia gets a little stricter and sterner with him though. There’s a cutscene with Marlin concerning this change in her.

If you marry Celia she’ll adopt a red dress instead of the green one and will mostly stay inside the house. She will want your child to take over the farm. Celia will continue to wake up at 6am; the earliest of all the brides.

Schedule: Wakes up at 6am, leaves house at 9am. Sometimes Celia will walk to the shops, across the bridge, and on Van days she can often be found near Vans store or near the pond by the Harvest Sprites house.

Celia cutscene 1:

Celia’s first cutscene is a little odd. To trigger it you’ll need 1 or 2 red hearts and you should go into the house at Vesta’s farm then go back out again whilst Celia is outside. Celia will be out tending to the crops and you’ll walk over to her. She’ll tell you how much she loves working on the farm and ask you if you feel the time, tell her you do. Celia will then disclose that she thinks working in the field gives her extra strength, then she’ll laugh and ask if you if that sounds childish. You don’t have the chance to tell her it’s a little unusual because your character will automatically shake his head no.

Celia cutscene 2:

This cutscene can happen at any time between 2 to 4 hearts. When you leave your house sometime in the evening you’ll see Celia walking up to the Spring, she’ll call out and ask how everybody’s doing then continue on her way. You’ll automatically follow her and Celia invites you to spend some time with her, asking you not to move so as not to disturb the surrounding nature. You don’t want to annoy her so don’t move and wait for a minute. Celia will then ask you if you feel better now that you’ve relaxed a little. You should say that you do feel a little better and she’ll be pleased but go home anyway, leaving you standing there.

Celia cutscene 3:

Again, this cutscene can happen with either 2 or 3 hearts in the diary. Generally it seems as though Celia’s cutscenes are almost random. You can trigger this scene by trying to enter Vesta’s house when Celia is inside. Around about 10am works for me. Celia will exit the house before you have the chance to enter and will be startled to see you standing there. She’ll walk off and you’ll automatically follow her. Your first option is between ‘yep’ and asking her if she’s free right now. Ask her that and Marlin will come out the house and spy on your conversation. He’ll interrupt your plans for a date and will be rather unexpectedly angry.

Marlin will remind Celia that she’s supposed to be shopping today and Celia will apologize for forgetting. You should offer to go with her and Celia will be happy to hear that, Marlin will interrupt again saying you can’t go and imply that you’re a womanizing jerk. Celia will be, naturally, rather furious with him. At this point Vesta will come and join the party. Vesta will also want to know why Celia isn’t shopping and Marlin decides now is a good time to lay the blame on you. You can blame Marlin or apologize; apologize for delaying Celia and Celia will defend you then ask you to escort her partway to town. You do so, and she’ll apologize for Marlin’s behaviour and overall rudeness.

Celia cutscene 4:

3 hearts needed. Try to enter the house (not the produce room) in the morning when only Celia is inside. This worked for me at 8am just after Marlin had left and Vesta was already outside. Before you can enter Celia will leave the house and invite you to go with her on a walk. You can choose to go or not go, go with her and she’ll be super pleased. You’ll both go to the spring where Celia will appreciate nature for a bit before turning away, sad, you can tell her to cheer up or to confide in you. Ask her what’s wrong. Celia will reveal that Vesta wants her to have an arranged marriage but Celia doesn’t want to; she wants to marry for love. You can tell her to refuse the marriage or to try it out. You can actually pick either option; it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

Celia cutscene 5:

To trigger this one you need 4 red hearts in the diary and you must enter the house at the produce farm when Vesta, Marlin and Celia are all downstairs. This might be tricky to do but it triggered for me around 11:30am. Once you’ve got the event you’ll see Marlin shouting at Celia for meeting with the guy she’s supposed to be marrying without telling him. Vesta tells Marlin off, since it’s none of his business, and Marlin will continue demanding things of Celia. He wants to know whether she will marry him or not. Before Celia has a chance to answer, Vesta will answer for her; once again telling Marlin it’s none of his damn business. When they finally realize that you’re in the room you should pretend that you didn’t hear anything. Marlin will continue acting like a jerk and Vesta will explain what’s going on. Celia will hint that she likes you more than the man she is ‘engaged’ to.

Celia cutscene 6

At 4 hearts you should exit your house to trigger the event. This seems to come at any time as I’ve read people getting it in the evening whereas I got it on the 1st day of Fall at 6:30am. You’ll see Takakura and Vesta at the door. They’re extremely worried because Celia cannot be found, Marlin will show up and say he can’t find her either. Vesta will look really down and depressed whilst you go to the spring, her favourite spot, to look for her but she’s not there either. You’ll spin around some, looking sad and eventually shake your head before returning home. Upon turning the corner you’ll see Celia standing there, talking to your dog. She’ll turn and see you standing on the other side of the field, you smile at each other then you go over. You’ll talk to her and find out she turned down all the previous arranged marriages. She’ll then quite bluntly confess her love for you. If you say that you love her too then it’s essentially an unofficial proposal. You can still propose with the blue feather afterwards though, if you’d like. You can also say “I’m sorry…” if you want to reject her.

Proposal cut scene: Offer Celia the blue feather when you have four hearts. Celia will tell you that her Mum got a blue feather from her Dad and that she doesn’t know anyone else who’s ever got one. She’ll tell you how happy she is and agree to marry you. 




Muffy


She’s the eldest out of the four girls and wants a serious, committed relationship due to having a lot of bad experiences in the past. She works at the bar with Griffin, their relationship is strictly surrogate father-daughter. She’s often considered to be easy or ‘loose’ but it seems a little unfair as she’s about as easy to wed as any of the girls, if not harder than Celia. Muffy is flirty, very girly and bubbly and doesn’t know much about farming or animals. She used to live and work in the city and is struggling to adapt to the slow country life of the Valley. 


 
If you marry her she’ll place an emphasis on how she wants her child to be intelligent, change her outfit into a blue one and in later chapters will continue to work at the bar. Despite her original reservations, once married, you’ll often find her walking about your farm and exploring the rooms and field. Muffy will sleep in later than the other brides; until 9am.

If you don’t marry her you’ll watch her live out her life lonely and alone, slowly going grey whilst staring out at the ocean. She will often confide in you about how she was cheated on/dumped etc and in the final chapter of the game, when she's grey, she'll reflect on how she wished she'd married and had children like you did. But don’t let that influence your decision.

Muffy cutscene 1:

Exit out of your house sometime after midday but before 5pm. Takakura will come up to talk to you about shipping items but will be interrupted by your dog barking at something, or someone. Turns out, Muffy has just met your dog. She’ll be backed up against the barn and you’ll run over to help her. After you explain to her why the dog was getting so defensive she’ll freak out a little, Takakura will look kind of irritated and unimpressed, and Muffy will begin to feel self-conscious. She’ll apologize for interrupting your discussion and you can tell her not to worry about it or that Takakura’s always angry. Tell her not to worry about it then ask her if she’s hurt. She’ll make some flimsy excuse as to why she’s come along then ask if next time you can show her around the farm, you’ll automatically agree. She’ll then leave with a “bye bye”.

Muffy cutscene 2:

Try and enter the bar sometime in the evening whilst Muffy is working inside, I trigged the event just before 8pm. Before you get a chance to enter Muffy will exit and be surprised to see you, she’ll then confess that she broke some plates that day. She’ll condemn herself for being a clutz then hint that she’s thinking about something important; you’ll get the choice to go inside with her or talk to her out here. Talk to her and she’ll feel better but go inside with you anyway without actually talking.

Muffy cutscene 3: 


After Muffy has 3 red hearts, or more, exit your house after midday, around 2/3pm. It can be triggered surprisingly late; I triggered it after 8pm when it was dark. You will see Muffy standing on the bridge, looking rather depressed. When you go over to her to see what's wrong she'll explain that she went to a friend's wedding recently but that it wasn't very fun as everybody wanted to know what she was up to these days. When Muffy told them she was a barmaid in Forget-Me-Not valley they found it funny, despite living in the city for so long she no longer feels like she belongs there. Muffy is upset because she feels like she doesn't  belong here in the valley either. When she asks for your opinion, tell her you think she does belong here and this will cheer her up as she vows he'll stay here until she's an old woman and get married and be happy.

Muffy cutscene 4:

To trigger this cutscene try to go to bed between 6pm and 8pm, after achieving 4 hearts, rather than the usual sleeping scene y
ou'll be interrupted by a knock at the door. Upon answering it you'll find a very frightened Muffy and Takakura, who's not so frightened, Muffy will explain to you that she's being stalked by somebody. As she's so frightened she asks if she may stay the night at your house, agree to this and she'll join you inside your house. Inside you'll talk for a short while before there's another knock at the door which turns out to be Carter, Griffin and Kassey. They'll explain that the whole situation is one big misunderstanding and that it was actually Griffin who was following Muffy and not an actual stalker, once everything's calmed down Muffy goes back to the Blue Bar for the night, somewhat irritated at Griffin for scaring her.

Muffy cutscene 5:

This cutscene is also only available at 4 red hearts and is optional. Enter the Blue Bar between the hours of 12pm and 1pm, once inside Muffy will invite you to go into the back room of the bar with her. Go with her and Muffy will explain that she's been having a bad day today and doesn't really feel like working the rest of the day. You can choose between telling her you're going back into the bar or inviting her on a date; invite her out and she'll be thrilled. You'll go out for a date together and, upon returning, Muffy will thank you for taking her out and tell you that she had a lot of fun and hopes you'll invite her out again soon. 

Proposal: 

Depending on whether you've seen the date cutscene or not you will get a slightly different proposal scene. If you did then Muffy will not ask any questions upon being given the blue feather as she already knows how much you like her whereas if you did not take her out on the date she will ask you if the blue feather is for her. After telling Muffy that the feather is for her she will, presuming she accepted your proposal, take you to the back room of the bar for some privacy. Once there she will tell you how happy she is that you proposed even though she doesn't understand why you would want to be with her, despite this, she's incredibly glad about it. After you leave Muffy will look to the blue feather with intense joy, unable to believe that she's getting married. If any of the girls have confidence issues, it certainly seems to be Muffy.