Harvest Moon Mineral Town[]
I had a friend who was always talking about harvest moon saying how it is the best game ever. I decided I should check it out because it did look interesting, I mean growing crops and wooing a virtual girl (because I could never do ether in real life.)
So I drove to my nearest Game stop. It was a small one stuck between a speedy cash and Mexican restaurant. I asked the man at the front counter.
"Do you have Harvest moon Friends of Mineral Town?"
"I can check." He said.
I waited around for a few minutes, he came out and said.
"We sold the last one a while ago but we do have the one for the DS."
"No thank you, for the DS version but do you know where I could get a copy?" I asked him.
"Well you could get one off eBay, an emulator or that Retro gaming store." He said.
I raised my eyebrow at the suggestion of the retro gaming store, he must of saw that because he replied with
"They are not mutch of a retro gaming store, pretty sure they will stock Wii because the Wii U is out.
"Thank you." I said as I walked out the door.
Because I told my self that I would never get any electronics from eBay and that I thought emulators where illegal I drove to the Retro gaming store. There I saw that the store was huge and filled I noticed that the games that were good selling were at the very front of the store like Pokemon gen one-three although some games up there did not really look like retro games.(Pokemon Black is not retro, of corse Harvest Moon is not really retro either.) I walked up to the counter the girl behind it looked as thought she could care less about her job.
"Do you have Harvest moon Friends of mineral town." I asked.
"Yes" She said, sounding disappointing that she had to stop day dreaming.
"Here it is, it will be $12.99." She said.
I thought that that was a reasonable price so I bought it and took it home the pack that it was in was missing so it was put into a plastic GBA case. When I put it into my game boy everything loaded fine. Looking back on it the starting screen said HARVEST MOON Mineral Town, instead of HARVEST MOON Friends of Mineral Town. I loaded up a game and started playing, making money and trying to woo Ann, the innkeeper's daughter. About 2 months in game something strange happened.
The day started normally but when I went outside of my house Elli (the town nurse) was there crying. When I talked to her she said that her grandma had died of her hearth had just stoped, probably from old age and that she invited me to her grand mothers funeral. It was on the the Friday in three days.
I was interested in that since I thought people never died in harvest moon, only animals. The days went by and nothing happened. The day of the funeral the doctor Elli, Stu the mayor and I where around a funeral and Carter (The town Priest) Was talking, saying how she would always be remembered as a caring lady.
Latter the next month during Fall Karen came to my house looking very sad that Rick, his sister Popuri and mother Lillia were all ill and likely not going to make it to the end of the week. Again odd because Lillia was often sick a lot but never fatal also never contagious. The next day Karen came back and saying Lillia and Rick had passed and that was close. After he said that he ran away from the farm.
Again next time I looked on the calender I saw that Lillia's funeral was on Monday and Rick's funeral was on Wednesday. Again this time the Monday the Mayor and I were standing around the grave stone. Carter only was able to say:
"She was a- she was- she," then completing his sentence.
"She was a woman who was kindhearted, I can not imagine what her husband will do when he learns that his wife , daughter and son passed hopefully their souls make it to heaven."
After that my character walked over to the mayor and he said, "Noone has seen Karen in three days."
The Wednesday was Rick's funeral and almost just as depressing with the fact of it was carter who called the funeral short after he was unable to say anything about this. The graveyard had grown northward.
Things were starting to feel depressing but (and I have no idea why, I guess curiosity) I continued to play the game. The week latter I had worked myself almost to fainting so I went to the clinic to buy a turbo-jolt, but when I walked inside I saw Elli over the patients bed and on the bed the doctor was laying down on it.
When I talked to Elli she said that the doctor had become sick with what ever Lillia had gotten and that Elli herself was feeling the sickness. After that my character ran out of the room. Again the next day The mayor had came to my house and told me that the doctor had passed away during the night and Elli was almost gone so the hospital was closed off so do not work to hard.
The funeral happened on Thursday it was a combined funeral of Elli and the Doctor, Carter said:
"I can remember when ever I got sick Elli and the Doctor always would help me."
Then suddenly he spoke to the mayor:
"This town is falling apart I'm going to leave on Friday."
The mayor replied with, "Saibara, Gray (Blacksmith) and Gotz (lumberjack/Carpenter) left after they heard what happened to the hospital I can agree that this is bad but I will not leave."
Again a few days later the mayor came to my house saying Sasha went looking for Karen six days ago and has not been herd from.
The exact day later, my character was woke up by knocking at the door when he opened the door the mayor ran in exhausted he said that Stu (Elli's young (like 6 year old) brother) had locked himself in his house The screen faded to black and faded back in with my character banging on the door to Stu's house, but to no avail.
The Mayor and my character keep trying to open the door and the whole day went by and it never opened. later my character ave up and slid his back against the door he looked up at the mayor and then two text boxes appeared one said:
"How many people are left" and the other said "Say nothing".
I chose the first.
The mayor cried, "Not many, Ann, Doug, and Cliff. Most other people left , the supermarket is closed so are the winery chicken and cow farm. Why ... why is this happening to this town... why, Carter was right this town is done... but this is the only place I can be."
Then the mayor ran into his house my character ran after him. the screen faded to black as my character ran into the mayors house, a text box said:
"The mayor hung himself." There is a diary by the bed read? "yes" "No" I chose yes the text box said.
Summer 13th :Ellen died today I always knew she would with the age she was.
Fall 27th: Sasha died and Rick and Popuri are not looking well.
Fall 28th:4th death in half a year
Winter 3th: The Doctor and Elli are sick with the same disease how will I tell Stu that his sister is not going to be here he already lost his grand mother.
Spring 12th: I will try to help Stu in anyway, become a father the best father.
Spring 13th: I took my son out for a walk, Then we went fishing Stu loved fishing.
Spring: Stu did not want to come out and play today, so sad.
Stu locked himself in his room I have to go get help.
my son told me he did not want to leave but he has to I'm going to go get the farmer.
The screen faded back to my character sitting outside the house by this time the Mayor was my friend in game so my character was outside with his head bowed
The next day my character walked outside to see Ann (by this time she had red heart) she said:
"Stu Was not drinking or eating anything since his sister died so..." Then changing the subject
"My father ,cliff and I are leaving because with half the town dead and the other half left we need another place to go he would like to invite you to leave with us."
Again two options "Accept" the second "Decline" I chose the first.
After that a cut seen happened it showed them on a path next to a mountain as they were walking a avalanche of rocks sweep us off the path. Then the harvest goddess showed up on screen, looked around then twirled around. It Show the calender it said Summer 13th. The game faded to black. Then the title menu came up it said HARVEST MOON friends of mineral town.
I loaded up the save data and what showed up was the day before I had learned Ellen died when I went outside the game seemed fine there were no problems no deaths no suicides. Then I turned off the game because (You all know that you can only play harvest moon for 5 hours.) I will still play this game as long as it is normal.