25 October 2011

The Lantern Festival and the Wishes

This information is taken from my General Guide but as it is an interesting aspect of Tides of Destiny, albeit not terribly significant, I thought I would include it in a Post as well.

The Lantern Festival begins at 8.00 p.m. at the beach and ends at midnight. You can enter the Beach area at any time. If you enter before 8.00 p.m., there will be a flash of white light at 8.00 p.m. and the Festival then will begin.

Unlike some of the Lantern or Firefly Festivals in other games, the Lantern Festival in Tides of Destiny is not very dramatic. Very few Characters in fact will attend. Violet is in charge and you must speak to her to obtain the option to launch a Lantern. If you decline, you will be able to speak to her again at any point until midnight for the option to be renewed.

Violet will ask you to write down your wish and you will have a choice:

I wish I could use magic better.
I want to control the giant better.
I want to eat more.
I want to be rich.
I wish I was stronger.

In every result, Freyr's wish was granted upon awakening the next morning. The effects of the wishes are as follows:

I wish I could use magic better.
Your Wind Magic skill increased!
Note that this result can vary considerably in terms of the type of Magic that is affected by the Wish.

I want to control the giant better.
As you can see by the following results, the type of Control that improves can vary from result to result:
In one result:
Your Golem Stamina skill increased!
In another result:
Your Raising Islands skill increased!

I want to eat more.
This can be the most profitable wish by far as Freyr was given the following:
Croquettes x 9 at a value of 1330G each.
Cookie x 9 at a value of 420G each
Fried Love Snapper x 9 at a value of 580G each.

In a different result, however, he was less fortunate, having obtained the following three dishes:
Failed Dish x 9 at 5G each.
Popcorn x 9 at 180G each.
Sandwich x 9 at 970G each.

I want to be rich.
Freyr received Gold Ore x 3
Again, you may receive different Items in other results.

I wish I was stronger.
Freyr increased by a full Level. Note that even this is variable, however, as each time he went to bed and awakened, his stats were a little different. In other words, although your Character's general Level will increase to the next Level, his Strength, Stamina and Intelligence may increase a little more or a little less in each result.

17 October 2011

A Brief Note about Crafting

Tides of Destiny is different from other Rune Factory games in that you can use the Crafting Areas in your Neighbours' homes and shops from the start to Cook, Forge, Craft Accessories and Mix Medicines. Although there are Skill Levels attached to each Recipe, you can do quite a lot the first time you access the Crafting Area.

This information is included in my Crafting Recipes Guide as well as General Guide, but perhaps it is worth a mention here.

Freyr was able to craft a Wind Edge as his second Forge project on the first day he used the Forge at the Smithy. He was able to make a Cheap Hammer and a Cheap Axe and then upgrade them to the Chopping Axe and Iron Hammer almost immediately. You don't have to make the same Weapon again and again really in order to be able to make better ones.

There is a point where you will have 0% of success to make an Item when your Levels are low. For example, although Freyr could make the Straw Hat and Handknit Hat imemdiately, he couldn't make a Handknit Scarf at the Crafting Bench until his skill levels increased a little.

Cooking is a little different from Crafting and Forging because you will waste your ingredients if you fail, where in the other areas of crafting, you will be able to use them again. As Odette's Kitchen is virtually next to your Cottage, however, you can save your game BEFORE you cook and then reload if you fail.

These little parsimonious methods are important only at the start of the game when you have limited income. Freyr found that Hot Milk was the best Recipe both to make and to sell... With three Buffamoo in the Barn producing Milk daily before the second Week, he was able to keep a steady little income by making Hot Milk and selling it to the local shops. The large sums of money are earned by performing Lily's first two Requests and Electra's Boulder request.

15 October 2011

Cherry Blossom Festival

This information will be included in the General Guide as well as Calendar Guide, but I thought it might be useful for players who are beginning the game.

The Cherry Blossom Festival in Tides of Destiny follows the RFF tradition of including little mini-games in the celebration. If you do not know this, you may waste a day fruitlessly simply talking to all the Villagers about the flowers.

Although Odette will tell you early in the morning that there is 'something I need to do first' before the festival can begin, you will not be able to gain any more details until later in the day.

The actual Festival mini-game appears to begin at noon, when you must speak to James. Only James will offer the prompt to allow you to speak to Odette to obtain the list of ingredients you need.

You will find Odette again in her kitchen. She will give you a random list consisting of three ingredients she needs in order to be able to make the feast for the Festival. The ingredients appear to change from game to game, but the Characters who have them always were James, Electra and Bismark in my experiences.

You need to speak to each of these three Characters. James will be at his Stall in the Plaza Paviliion near the Church. Electra should be near her Mansion. It was Bismark who was annoyingly evasive in my game. Every time I reloaded, I failed to find him until it was close to 5.00 p.m. when he appeared again outside the Gemini General Store. If any one knows where he is between 1.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m., please share, simply for my own satisfaction as even at 4.45 p.m., you still have time to obtain his ingredient and give it to Odette across the road.

Odette then will make a Dish out of the Ingredients she requested. From Bread, Curry Powder and Oil, for example, she made Curry Bread. She then will give you the Cooked Dish.

That is the Cherry Blossom Festival. The actual Blossoms float through the air throughout the Village, but Villagers appeared to wander from screen to screen throughout the day speaking of them. I had expected some congregation of Villagers at some point, but this did not occur. The Festival appears to consist mainly of dialogues about flowers and the mini-game.

It is possible that I may have missed some grand event somewhere, but I did comb every screen at all times of the day rather religiously, so...

14 October 2011

Monster Care in Tides of Destiny

Even from the start, Monster Care is very different in this game from other games in the series. You do not have your Monsters on your own farm, for a start. Instead, at the beginning, they can be housed in a Monster Barn inside Ymir, the Plant Golem.

They do not appear to need Fodder. Instead, supply them with Monster Cookies that you purchase from the Gemini General Store. You don't feed them to the Monsters. They help themselves to these treats.

The most confusing difference for me was in terms of Monster Care and Harvesting. I was unable to Brush my Monsters once I had tamed them, until I finally decided to use the option to Take the Monster with me.

As soon as we touched land on Verde Island, I was able to use the Brush on my tame Monster and it responded with an outpouring of hearts. I was able to use a Harvester as well on Monsters I had tamed only a day or two previously.

Another difference is that you can have more than one Monster with you at any given time. I had both Monsters out with me for grooming and harvesting...

Tides of Destiny Characters Guide

Links to all Tides of Destiny Guides SHOULD appear as tabs above the Posts on this Home Page, but for some reason, the Characters Guide fails to appear, no matter what I do. If some one can help me with this, I'd be grateful.

Meanwhile, however, I have published a list of links to each Guide to the right of these Posts. You can find the link to the Characters Guide there for now, as well as the General Guide and Crafting Guide.

11 October 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to Freyashawk's Tides of Destiny site. This is where all my Guides for the new Rune Factory 'Tides of Destiny' for the Wii will appear. You will find links to the actual guides displayed as 'Tabs' above the Posts.

Evidently, IGN now favours a Wiki approach for Guides and I have given them permission to pull information from my site, but you always can find my actual Guides here. Much more detailed information always will be found in my Guides, so if any one likes my approach to guide-writing, I would suggest that you bookmark this site and return here for access to my 'real' Guides.