Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Getting Started Guide
By: Kari (kariohki@comcast.net)
Published: 3/21/2004
Last updated: 3/21/2004
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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I. Introduction
II. Disclaimer/Legal Stuff
III. About/Contact Me
IV. Version History
V. Controls
VI. About Your Farm
VII. About Town
VIII. Animals
IX. Crops and Trees
X. Selling items
XI. Girls
XII. Credits
--------------------------
I. INTRODUCTION
--------------------------
Welcome to the Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Getting Started Guide!  If you're
just beginning your game, this guide can help you get started with the game.
This guide gives you a jump start on the basics of the game.  If you've been
playing for a while and are looking for more advanced info (like crop mixing)
this guide doesn't have it. It's a beginner's guide to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful
Life! So, if you're a newbie and you want to learn more about this wonderful
(heh) game, read on!
--------------------------
II. DISCLAIMER/LEGAL STUFF
--------------------------
Copyright 2004, Kari
The following sites may post this work:
www.neoseeker.com
www.gamefaqs.com
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
place other than the ones listed above is strictly prohibited, and a violation
of copyright. You will be prosecuted to the full extent of the laws, and I shall
send my penguin army of doom to your house.
--------------------------
III. ABOUT/CONTACTING ME
--------------------------
I'm Kari, writer of this guide, and I frequent the Harvest Moon: A Wonderful
Life boards at Neoseeker and GameFAQs.
If you have any questions about this guide, email me at kariohki@comcast.net.
Please put "Harvest Moon: AWL Guide" in the subject line, or else you mail will
be deleted. Read this guide through before emailing me, because if the info is
in this guide, I'll mail you back saying that it's in here and that you need to
look for it. I usually check my email every other day, so if I don't get back to
you instantly, don't email over and over again. There's this thing called a
life, and I happen to have one.
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IV. VERSION HISTORY
--------------------------
3/21/04 - Version 1.00 - First completed version, includes information about
your farm, about town, about animals, about crops, how to sell items, and your
potential wives.
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V. CONTROLS
--------------------------
No fancy ASCII art here, just info. If you don't know what a Gamecube controller
looks like, go stare at one or a picture of one.
Control Stick - Moves your character, scrolls through menus
Control Pad - Scrolls through menus
L Button - Center camera behind your character, change pages in status screen
R Button - Whistle, change pages in status screen
Z Button - Perspective view
X Button - Bring up quick-item inventory
Y Button - Train dog, show item description
A Button - Talk, open, door, eat, and ton more other actions
B Button - Cancel
C Stick - Move camera
Start/Select - Pause, Status menu
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VI. ABOUT YOUR FARM
--------------------------
Your farm is where you live and spend a lot of your time, so you should learn
the locations of all the buildings!  At the beginning of the game, Takakura
gives you a tour of the farm.  There's also a map in your instruction booklet.
If you skipped the intro and don't have a booklet, just wander around the farm,
you'll see where everything is. This list starts at your house and moves in a
clockwise direction.
Your House - This is where you can check the weather, sleep, save the game, look
at your status, configure some options, read Takakura's notes, cook, and there's
even a calendar! Quite an important place. It gets more added onto it throughout
the game.  In chapter two, a kitchen, bathroom, and shower are added onto it.
Poor Soil Field - The field with the poorest soil and also the smallest.  Useful
for planting trees.
Chicken Coop - Where your chickens and, possibly, ducks are kept.
Water Spout - Fill your watering can here.
Medium Soil Field - The field with the middle type of soil, and is the middle
size.  Useful again for trees.
Locked Building - Has no use
Fertile Soil Field - The field with the best soil, and it's also the biggest.
It's the best for planting all types of crops.
Pasture - Where your cows, sheep, goats, and horse go when they're outside.
They eat the grass here.
Takakura's House - Your late father's friend lives here. Later in the game,
Tartan takes root here.  You can mix crops with him (explained later in the
guide)
Barn - Where your cows, sheep, goats, and horse are when it's precipitating.
You have to feed them fodder when they're inside.  There's also a chalkboard
showing the status of your barn animals here.
Food Storage - This is where you can store food, put dairy products to ship,
collect money from shipped items, see your money status for the day, season, and
entire game, and order items and animals.  Be warned, Murray the hobo will try
to steal food that you have stored here every so often.
Tool Shed - This is where your tools are stored.  There's also a cabinet here
where you can put items that don't go in a refrigerator. Also, your seed maker
is in here.
You can also buy two other buildings, the Food Processing Room, where you make
cheese and butter, and the Automatic Milking Room, which is helpful if you have
a lot of cows.
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VII. ABOUT TOWN
--------------------------
A Wonderful Life is different from other Harvest Moon games in that the scene
doesn't change when you go places.  So it's basically one huge map that you can
run around in.  Your farm is basically in the middle of the area.  If you press
Start, and then the X Button, you'll bring up a map of the area.  This list
starts at the top left corner of the map and moves to the top right corner.
Romana's Villa - Romana, Lumina, Sebastian, and two cats live here.  It's a big
mansion.
Private Houses - There are two houses here in chapter one, and three in chapter
two and onwards.  The one closest to where the Villa is belongs to Chris, Hugh,
and Wally.  The middle one, appearing in chapter two, belongs to Grant,
Samantha, and Kate.  The smallest one belongs to Nina and Galen in chapter one,
but Dr. Hardy moves in at the beginning of chapter two and turns it into a
clinic.
Pyrotechnical Twins' House - Kassey and Patrick live here. They make fireworks.
Cody's Studio - Obviously, Cody lives here.  He makes art out of metal.
Daryl's Lab - Daryl the (mad) scientist lives here.  He wants to capture
Mukumuku.  For some reason, he wanders around your farm a lot.
Blue Bar - A nice place to get a drink when your down or tired. Griffin and
Muffy live here.
Inner Inn - This place is run by Tim, Ruby, and their son Rock.  Nami also lives
here.
Gustafa's Yurt - Gustafa lives in this tent-like place.
Vesta's Farm - You can buy seeds and fertilizer here.  Vesta, Marlin, and Celia
live here.
Carter's Dig - Carter and Flora have a dig site here.  You can go here and dig
some stuff up to sell.
The Spring - This is where the Harvest Sprites, Nik, Nak, and Flak live.
Mukumuku hangs out in this area as well.
Near Vesta's Farm there is a mountain path that you see a lot of people walk up.
You can't walk up here, because it leads to Mineral Town.  If you try to walk up
this path, the Harvest Sprites will come and ask if you want to link up A
Wonderful Life and Friends of Mineral Town.  This is done by putting a GBA-GCN
link cable in the second slot, and having Friends of Mineral Town in the link
area (the Goddess Spring).  You can get special items if you link up!
--------------------------
VIII. ANIMALS
--------------------------
What would a farm be without animals?  In this game, you can buy the usual cows,
chickens, and sheep, but there are two new additions: ducks and goats.  Animals
can make a lot of money in the long run.
*******
A. COWS
*******
There are four types of cows, Normal, Brown, Marble, and Star. The Normal cow is
everyone's favorite standard cow.  The Brown cow produces milk that makes good
quality butter, and the Marble makes milk that can create good cheese.  The Star
cow gives milk that is good for both butter and cheese (that's why it's the most
expensive!) Cows produce three grades of milk: B, A, and S.  The type depends on
how happy the cow is.  Buying prices for cows are as follows:
Normal Female - 4000G
Normal Male - 3000G
Brown Female - 5000G
Brown Male - 4000G
Marble Female - 5000G
Marble Male - 4000G
Star Female - 7000G
Star Male - 6000G
You start out with a Normal cow in the beginning of the game.  She'll give milk
until the end of the first year.  After she stops giving milk (you'll know
because she'll get angry when you try to milk her) it's time to get a Miracle
Potion.  There are two ways to work them.  One, you can get a bull from town to
mate with your cow.  Secondly, you can take a full-grown bull from your farm and
mate it with the cow.  The breed of cow and bull doesn't matter (so you can
breed a Normal Cow with a Marble Bull, for example)  Near the end of the
pregnancy, your expecting cow will be moved to a separate area.  When she gives
birth after thirty days (three seasons), you'll set up a calf hut on your farm
for the newborn.  Feed the calf Mama's Milk twice a day for as long as the
mother produces it. Then feed the calf normal milk for a while, then it'll be
eating fodder.  It takes a total of 10 days (one season) for the calf to be
weaned. The mother cow will give normal milk for another year, then you will
have to breed her again.  The price to mate cows differs on what kind it is:
Normal - 2500G
Brown - 3500G
Marble - 3500G
Star - 5500G
When it's sunny, keep your cows outside in the pasture.  When it's raining or
snowing, bring them inside. Be sure to feed them twice a day when they're
inside!
The selling prices of milk differ between the types of cows as well. These are
the prices if you sell them through the dairy bin. You can haggle with Van to
sell at a slightly higher price:
Normal B - 75G
Normal A - 115G
Normal S - 150G
Brown B - 115G
Brown A - 175G
Brown S - 225G
Marble B - 115G
Marble A - 175G
Marble S - 225G
Star B - 270G
Star A - 450G
Star S - 540G
If you build the food processing room (cost 30,000G!) you can make cheese and
butter out of milk. The quality depends on what kind of milk was used (in order
of B, A, S ranks):
Normal butter - 225G, 225G, 300G
Normal cheese - 225G, 225G, 300G
Brown butter - 225G, 300G, 300G
Brown cheese - 225G, 225G, 300G
Marble butter - 225G, 225G, 300G
Marble cheese - 225G, 300G, 300G
Star butter - 300G, 300G, 300G
Star cheese - 300G, 300G, 300G
***********
B. CHICKENS
***********
Chickens are a good way of making some quick cash, but they're not as profitable
as they have been in past games.  Your chicken coop can hold a maximum of six
chickens, and if you want ducks you can only have five or less chickens. You can
sell full grown chickens for 450G, and chicks for 150G.
All chickens cost 900G, and you order them from the ledger in the food storage
building. The female chickens lay eggs, of course, but if you want to get
fertilized eggs, you have to buy a rooster.  You can only incubate fertilized
eggs. Also, the gender of the hatched chick is randomly decided, so you won't
know until it hatches. You only need one rooster. Getting a fertilized egg is
random.  I believe the chances are higher the happier the rooster and chickens
are. Also, if you're really lucky and your chicken is really happy, she might
lay a Golden Egg.  These non-fertilized shiny eggs sell for a lot!
Normal egg - 40G
Fertilized egg - 50G
Golden egg - 300G
A chicken egg will hatch after five days of being in the incubator, and it will
be full grown after another five days.
********
C. SHEEP
********
All sheep in this game are male, so you can't breed them like in Back to Nature.
A sheep costs 1500G, and you order it the same way as cows and chickens.  A
sheep will give wool once a season, and the quality depends on how happy it is.
You can sell sheep for 750G. The selling prices for wool are:
Regular - 75G
White (wash sheep before shearing) - 115G
Golden - 600G
You have to have shears to get wool off of a sheep, so make sure you buy some!
The sheep stay in the barn with the cows, goats, and horse, and eat the same
fodder.
********
D. GOATS
********
The newest barn animal to join the Harvest Moon family, goats are NOT worth your
money.  You can buy them from Van starting in chapter two for 4000G a pop.  They
give goat milk for about a year (same as cows) and then stop.  You can't breed
them to get more milk, and you CAN'T sell them.  So you're stuck with a useless
animal. Of course, you could be an evil, morbid person and starve the poor thing
to death.  Unless you're a big fan of goats, don't buy one. You can make goat
cheese and butter out of their milk as well. Selling prices are as follows:
Goat milk - 115G
Goat cheese - 155G
Goat butter - 150G
********
E. DUCKS
********
Here's the second new animal!  Getting ducks to come to your farm is relatively
easy.  Build a pond for 2500G in your first year, and if you have five or less
chickens, sometime in chapter 2 your wife will tell you that ducks have come to
the farm!  They're taken care of the same way as chickens, they eat the same
food, and sometimes if you put a fertilized egg in the incubator you may get a
duck instead of a chicken. Ducks can be sold for 500G, but if you sell your last
duck, you can't get anymore. Duck egg prices are:
Normal - 40G
Fertilized - 50G
Golden - 300G
A duck egg will hatch after five days of being in the incubator, and it will be
full grown after another five days.
********
F. HORSE
********
One of the easiest animals to take care of, you get your horse from Takakura
sometime in your first summer.  It lives in the barn with the cows, sheep, and
goats, and eats the same fodder as they do (yes, you have to feed your horse
now!) You can ride your horse all around town, cutting down on the time it takes
to get to places by a lot!
******
G. DOG
******
You automatically start with a dog at the beginning of the game.  You can choose
between a flop eared dog (the normal Harvest Moon dog) or a pointy eared one.
You can feed your dog by standing next to his food bowl with a food item and
pressing 'A' (the controller diagram should say 'Put').  Later in the game, when
Carter the archeologist is done with his dig site, and your friends with him, he
might give you an adorable Chihuahua! You can see it at his dig site sometimes.
******
H. CAT
******
If you become good friends with Romana (the old lady that lives at the villa)
she might give you a little kitty anytime during or after the first fall of
chapter two. It's probably taken care of the same way as the dog is.
--------------------------
IX. CROPS AND TREES
--------------------------
And what would a farm be without crops?  Crops are one of the best, if not the
best, way to earn money.  You can buy grade B (the lowest grade) seeds at
Vesta's Farm.  Note that you can scroll to the right and left on the menu to
access more seeds.
Your farm has three fields: Poor soil, medium soil, and rich soil. The poor soil
field is the smallest and closest to your house, and the rich soil field is the
largest and farthest away. It's best to plant crops in the rich soil and trees
in the poor or medium soil to save space, but some second and third generation
hybrid crops (explained later) need to be planted in the rich soil.
*************************
A. FIRST GENERATION CROPS
*************************
The easiest type of crop to grow and acquire, but also the kind that sells for
the least amount of money.  You can buy these seeds at Vesta's Farm, and they're
all grade B.  To upgrade the quality, buy fertilizer at 120G a bag. Fertilize
the plant 4 times to upgrade it to A rank, and 8 times to upgrade it to S rank.
Don't fertilize it all at once! Fertilize when you notice the little clumps of
the stuff have disappeared from the plant. Trees need to be fertilized 30 times
to upgrade to the next rank. The list of seeds and what they cost are:
Tomatoes - 30G
Watermelons - 60G
Melons - 50G
Strawberries - 30G
Turnips - 20G
Potatoes - 40G
Carrots - 30G
Sweet Potatoes - 40G
Peaches - 1120G
Oranges - 820G
Grapes - 900G
Bananas - 1500G
Apples - 820G
Certain crops can only be grown in certain seasons:
Spring - Tomatoes, watermelons, strawberries, potatoes
Summer - Tomatoes, watermelons, melons, turnips
Fall - Tomatoes, melons, strawberries, turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes
Winter - Turnips, potatoes, carrots
As for trees, they will bear fruit in their appropriate seasons:
Summer - Peaches, oranges, bananas
Fall - Grapes, apples
Selling prices for crops and tree fruits are (in order of B, A, S ranks):
Tomatoes - 35G, 45G, 55G
Watermelons - 75G, 85G, 95G
Melons - 70G, 80G, 90G
Strawberries - 35G, 45G, 55G
Turnips - 25G, 35G, 45G
Potatoes - 60G, 70G, 80G
Carrots - 45G, 55G, 65G
Sweet Potatoes - 60G, 70G, 80G
Peaches - 40G, 50G, 60G
Oranges - 30G, 40G, 50G
Grapes - 35G, 45G, 55G
Bananas - 35G, 45G, 55G
Apples - 25G, 35G, 45G
************************************
B. SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION CROPS
************************************
Since this is a getting started guide, I won't go into too much detail about the
higher level crops.  Sometime in or after chapter two, if you're good friends
with Takakura, a two-headed plant named Tartan will appear in his house.  Become
good friends with Tartan, and he'll let you mix crops together.  Tartan hates
carrots, so he'll only take those in seed form.
If you mix a higher grade plant or seed with a lower grade plant or seed, the
new crop that is created will be of the higher grade.  There are also ways to
upgrade crops by using flowers.  This will only work with crops, it won't work
with trees:
Happy Lamp - Found in summer, feeding this flower and a seed to Tartan will let
that seed be grown in any season.
Gemsoil - Found in fall, feeding this flower and a seed to Tartan will allow the
seed to be planted in any kind of soil (very useful for second and third
generation crops!)
Upseed - Found in winter, feeding this flower and a seed to Tartan will upgrade
that seed to S quality!
--------------------------
X. SELLING ITEMS
--------------------------
Selling items is a mix of how items were sold in Save the Homeland and the older
games.
-Dairy items (eggs, milk, cheese, etc.) can be sold by the box in the food
storage room.  Go up to the box in the middle of the room and press A.  You can
put your items here for Takakura to take.  The next day, check the ledger for
the money you got from selling the items.
-Animals are sold by going onto the order screen, going to the bottom and
selecting 'Sell'. You can choose which kind of animal you want to sell and also
which one to sell.
-All other items are a tad more difficult to sell. You can wait until Van the
merchant comes on the third and eighth of the month (sometimes he'll come on
other days, so keep an eye out for him!) or you can set up your own shop.  Go to
where Van normally has his stand, and the option to 'Sell' will appear on your
controller diagram.  When you set up a stand, press the 'R' button to whistle.
Townspeople will come buy and ask for one of the things you are carrying in your
rucksack.  You can sell it to them for a discounted price, normal price, or not
sell it to them at all.  If you don't want to make people angry, put all items
that you don't want to sell away before you set up your stand.
-Third generation crops, the ones you name yourself, can be sold the same way as
dairy products once Takakura gives you the option to.
--------------------------
XI. GIRLS
--------------------------
Unlike in past Harvest Moon games where you could spend the whole game as a
bachelor, you HAVE to get married by the end of your first year.  If you don't
give the Blue Feather to any of the girls, the one with the most hearts will
propose to you at the end of chapter one.  If you don't even bother wooing any
of them, you game will END at the of chapter one.
It's very easy to get married though.  Just give your girl something she likes
every day, see all of her heart events, and she should be at four hearts (the
max) by summer! Here are the three girls that you can marry:
********
A. CELIA
********
She's the brown haired girl that works and lives at Vesta's Farm.  She's always
cheerful and friendly, and she likes plants a lot.
Likes - Flowers, crystals, old coins, vegetables, eggs
Dislikes - Fossils
Hates - Being teased with the Blue Feather
Her diary is located in her room in her bed.  Her room is the top floor of
Vesta's house.
********
B. MUFFY
********
The blonde, ditzy one that works and lives at the bar, Muffy is probably the
easiest girl to get.  Just talking to her makes her like you more!
Likes - Flowers, crystals, sweets, old coins
Dislikes - Fossils, Colombo type fish
Hates - Nothing, really
Her diary is in the main room in the bar, in the top left corner in a plant.
*******
C. NAMI
*******
The anti-social, indifferent, red head that has no job and lives at the inn.
Her schedule is very random, but you'll usually see her wandering around the
town during the day.
Likes - Clay artifacts, fossils, home cooking, Trick Blue flowers
Dislikes - Any other flowers, crystals
Hates - Failed cooking
Her diary is really hard to access.  It's in her room at the inn near the
window. You have to follow her into her room at night to be able to see it.
The first or second day of summer the Harvest Sprites will bring you a Blue
Feather.  This is used to propose to the girl you like.  Once her diary has four
hearts you can propose.  You will get married at the end of the first chapter.
--------------------------
XII. CREDITS
--------------------------
*Victor Interactive Software, for creating such a great game!
*Natsume, for translating this game and bringing it to the US.
*LOD-squa, for helping me start this guide, telling me what info to put in it,
and being there while writing it ^^
*Kiko, for contributing some price info.
*xeroxmonks, for contributing a LOT of price info.
~Fin