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• General/
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• Introduction

Introduction: Island of Happiness is a traditional Harvest Moon game, based on the philosophy that hard work, determination and a strong sense of community are the keys to a good life. Although the primary activity in any Harvest Moon game is farming, ranching, fishing, mining and cooking are as important in Island of Happiness as they are in most other Harvest Moon games. You are introduced to your farm in Island of Happiness in a very dramatic fashion, via shipwreck. When your cruise ship sinks in a storm, you are washed ashore on an 'abandoned' island with a family consisting of a man named Taro, his daughter and her son and daughter. Taro, quite fortunately, is as much an expert in farming as Takakura was in other Harvest Moon games, and offfers a solution that will benefit every one. If you will undertake the business of creating and running a farm/ranch, his family will organise all the shipping. You agree to the proposal naturally and life on the Island commences... Within a day, a boat arrives on the island and you are introduced to a merchant named Chen and his son Charlie. Now you have the potential to buy seeds and basic ingredients for cooking as well as a Tool Box, Beauty Box and a Medium Rucksack. Later, as soon as your first House Upgrade is completed, Chen will sell a small Refrigerator and Cabinet. When you buy the Refrigerator, a Kitchen will be unlocked. With the Kitchen, you will be given two basic Recipes but will not be able to obtain any others until the Café and Diner are built in East Town. Other items will be unlocked at Chen's Market as you make progress in the game. His son Charlie ultimately will be in charge of making Accessories and upgrading your Tools. Explanation of Basic Initial Goals and Strategies In Island of Happiness, you will find that very little is supplied to you. Most items and upgrades need to be unlocked. You will find that many important characters are not on the Island at the start of the game and that it is only through your own efforts that they will be introduced into the community. Whether you play as a boy or as a girl, you will discover that some of the Eligible Girls/ Bachelors cannot be courted or even met immediately. You may not meet every potential spouse until the 2nd year if you are not diligent in upgrading your own Ranch and the Island in general. Players of other Harvest Moon games may expect basic ingredients to be available at the local Market as they are in FoMT/MFoMT or HM DS/Cute DS, but in Island of Happiness, the only ingredients you will find at the Market at the start of the game are Chocolate, Curry Powder and Oil. Even with a Kitchen, an item that you will be able to buy at Chen's Market once you have your first House Upgrade, you will be unable to cook until the Café and Diner have appeared in the East Town. The two basic Recipes that are given to you with your Kitchen require ingredients that cannot be unlocked until you have made substantial progress. Other recipes are obtained only by giving specific ingredients to Madelynn at the Café or Luke at the Diner. Without the Recipe, your efforts will result only in Failed Dishes. Much of the Island is off limit at the start of the game. As in Innocent Life, Bridges must be built to connect all areas so that you can visit them. You will not be able to visit the Mine until you unlock the Forest area by ordering a Bridge from Gannon. You will not even be able to celebrate Festivals until you build a Bridge to the Meadow, where all Festivals are held. Basic initial strategies therefore cannot be based solely on farming or ranching. You must be aware always of the need to improve your community by building the Bridges that will unlock new areas. When new areas are unlocked, new characters appear. Some of these characters are more vital than others. East Town is the site of The Diner, the Café and the Island Hotel. The homes of two of the Eligible Girls, Lanna and Sabrina are situated there, and Pierre, an Eligible Bachelor has his house in this area as well. If you have not unlocked East Town, you will not have any means of unlocking the Meadow where Festivals are held, as a Bridge must be built from East Town to the Meadow. Fortunately, the East Town area is unlocked automatically when Gannon arrives on the Island early in Spring in the first year. The Forest is the area that must be unlocked in order to meet both the Witch Princess and the Harvest Goddess. It is in the Forest that you will find the Church, a vital establishment, as it is where most Weddings are held. From the Forest, you can walk north to gain access to the Mountain area where the Mine is situated. You cannot order the Bridge from West Town to the Forest, however, until you have unlocked East Town and built the Bridge to the Meadow. The last Bridge to be built is the one that connects East Town to the Jungle. It is in the Jungle that one of the Eligible Bachelors, Shea, lives with his grandfather Wada. Wada is a key character as an Event involving him that can occur after the start of the 3rd year unlocks an option to obtain a random item each day from one of the Harvest Sprites. Any item that has not been unlocked yet can be obtained in this manner. As you will not be able to meet all prospective spouses at the start of the game, it would be a mistake to marry too hastily in Island of Happiness. In fact, you can raise all Bachelors or Eligible Girls to deepest Red Heart Level and still experience all Rival Heart Events as the years pass. Your life experience in any Harvest Moon game is enriched by the Events you trigger. In Island of Happiness, Heart Events are four in number but the actual Event that you experience at each level will depend on the responses that you made in the previous event. Rival Heart Events are four in number, but will not occur until the specified year. Following traditional Harvest Moon courtship rules, the first Rival Heart Event can be triggered in the first year, the 2nd in the 2nd year, the 3rd in the 3rd year and the 4th and final Rival Heart Event in the 4th year or later. This gives you four years in which to court any Eligible Bachelor or Girl without fear of being supplanted by a Rival, even if you have triggered Rival Heart Events along the way. It is only in the 4th year that there is any chance of Rival Weddings occurring. One of the most intriguing aspects of Island of Happiness is the fact that, whether you play as a girl or as a boy, you will meet your male/female counterpart in the person of Mark or Chelsea. They are eligible for marriage as well, but probably will be the very last Eligible Bachelor/Girl that you meet in the game, as the requirement for their arrival on the Island is more than 50% completion of upgrades to the Island. There are 6 Eligible Girls and 6 Eligible Bachelors in this game, but there are only 4 Rival Couples. This means that there are two Eligible Girls and two Eligible Bachelors for which no Rival exists. If you marry one of these, you will be able to experience all four Rival Weddings. As each Rival Marriage can produce a Child, it may be a good idea to choose a partner for whom no Rival exists. If you are playing as a Girl, the choice of partners without Rivals is between Shea and your male counterpart, Mark. If you are playing as a guy, your choice is between the Witch Princess and your female counterpart, Chelsea. The potential Rival Couples are Denny and Lanna, Elliot and Julia, Natalie and Pierre and Vaughn and Sabrina. Of course, part of the great beauty of any Harvest Moon game is the freedom to choose your own path. You need not allow all Rival Marriages to occur, especially if your heart is set on a girl or bachelor for whom a Rival exists. In terms of characters that you will encounter in Island of Happiness, they will fall into one of two basic categories and one of four sub-categories. The two basic categories are Main Characters and Subsidiary Characters. Main Characters include both Eligible partners and potential Rivals, as well as all the major business owners and Mineral Town characters. Sub-categories are the Eligible Bachelors/Girls, their Families and Islanders. Subsidiary characters for the most part are characters who are not fundamental to the plot and who will be unlocked when a specific goal or accomplishment is attained. In a sense, these characters represent your farming, ranching, fishing, mining, cooking and upgrade accomplishments on the Island. There is a separate requirement for the appearance of each of these characters. Once they arrive on the Island, you must meet them and pay attention to them fairly regularly or they will leave. When any subsidiary character leaves, often the requirements for that individual's return will be more stringent than the original requirements for their arrival. The term of neglect that will cause an individual to leave is a full season of 30 days. You therefore should try to speak to every individual on the Island at least once each season. Sometimes, the arrival and continuing presence of a character on the Island is predicated on a specific goal that must be achieved regularly in terms of shipping. It is best to ship items of every variety regularly if you wish to bring new arrivals to the Island and prevent current visitors and residents from leaving. You should be aware of these factors from the start of the game as the appearance of some of the Eligible Bachelors/Girls is based on such requirements. For example, in order to bring Denny to the Island, you must catch at least 50 Fish. To bring Lanna, you must catch more than 70 Fish. Sabrina will not arrive until you have shipped at least 20 Ore. You must obtain at least 5 Recipes from the Café or Diner if you wish to meet Pierre. Gannon will unlock East Town, bringing the owners of the Café and the Diner to the Island but you need to encourage the expansion of the Café and Diner before you will be able to obtain new Recipes. It is not only with respect to unlocking new Recipes or new arrivals that the Café and Diner are critical but in terms of Stamina and Fullness Recovery as well. Until you are able to cook, you will be limited to the few wild items and fish that you can catch to boost your Stamina and relieve your Hunger. Once East Town is unlocked, you will be able to buy Cooked Dishes at the Café and Diner. With their expansion, you will be able to obtain new Recipes at each. This will change your life radically, allowing you to achieve substantially more than you did in the beginning of the game.