Harvest Moon: A New Beginning Progress Topic, also for questions and stuff Options

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Character information:

Name: Jerome
Skin: White
Face: Normal
Hair: Wavy Perm
Color: Black
Eyes Gold
Gear: Boy's Overalls

Farm name: Beluga
Birthday: Summer 13th
Title: Egg-Stage Farmer

Current Date: Spring 15th
Money: 22329
Animals:
1 Cow, Manilo.

I think that's everything relevant... feel free to add anything I may've missed. Anyway, usually we have a similar topic when everyone's beginning to play a new game. s'fun to talk about experiences and have a place for quick questions to ask other players. Right now, I don't have too many people in town. After Neil showed up to give me my first cow, Iroha showed up a few days later. Hopefully since I have a blacksmith now I can start getting some actual work done instead of just gathering/farming stuff...

[Mizukithepanda]

Well, to start off with stats...

Name: Mizuki
Skin: Yellow
Face: Wide-eyed
Hair: Wavy Perm
Color: Pink
Eyes: Purple
Gear: Work Clothes (the white and green ones)

Farm name: Bastar(d) (Damn six letter limit. In Japanese 'Kurenaida' is only five. >:E)
Birthday: Summer 8th
Title(s): Chick-Stage Farmer
Super Catcher
Butterfly Beginner
Locust Beginner
Novice Cook

Current date: Spring 18th
Money: 23910g
Animals:
2 Cows, Saab and Volvo

Okay, so a few things... I'm really irritated about not being able to buy a chicken yet. The option, along with that tantalizing 5000g price (only in this game...) is just sitting there in Neil's shop, teasing me. B| I need a chicken coop (among many other things) stat. I would've bought a second cow, but I'm kind of hoping that someone new will show up and give me something else to spend my money on.

Iroha is surprisingly adorable. I wasn't sure that she would be, to be honest with you. I'm also a little surprised that they didn't change her name, since they even went so far as to change Nana's name to something stupid in Twin Villages. (But then again, there were a lot of stupid name changes in that game...)

And man, I finally have a hammer! Now I can go smack those musical tree stumps!

I'm also really goddamn sick and tired of catching bugs. I have all of their spawn locations memorized. For example, White Morphos? They only have two spawn locations (so far) - one is by the musical tree stumps and the other is in the Forest Area in the grass right in front of those huge tree roots. I need something else to do with my time. Fishing. Mining. Anything. @.@;

EDIT: Okay, so more things. The Harvest Sprites show up a few days after Iroha does, and completing the first task of one of the primary sidequests in the game opens up a completely useless mushroom springboard. Woo.

However, there is something present throughout this damn game that is raising my hackles so high it's unbelievable and that's the sheer lack of control you get over everything in this game. When can you cook? Only after you get a recipe. Can you mix ingredients and experiment to get new ones? NO. When can I use the magical stumps to open up new areas? Only after you find the proper sheet music. And when can I do that? After Alice hides it! And when is that, exactly? WHEN SHE FEELS LIKE IT, WHICH, GUESS WHAT? ISN'T NOW.

RAGH!

I dunno, man. I just feel like this game is trying to hold my hand and force me to play at its own predetermined pace. I've been playing Harvest Moon games since 1999. I don't need my hand held. >:E

That said, I feel like I should qualify all this bitching with the fact that the game itself is pretty fun. The gameplay's decent and I don't really feel like I'm struggling through the days. I just really wish they weren't handing me everything I need to start with on a silver platter and then forcing me to play at a much slower pace than I normally would. I'm hoping that after I gain the ability to improve the town this will change and it'll be like taking the training wheels off, but I'm not going to hold my breath.