Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - who is the best girl to marry?

Zanthzorn here.

This weird analysis came through my mind couple of months ago when I was feeling nostalgic and reminisced my green days of video gaming. One of those games was Harvest Moon: Back to Nature (HM:BTN), which I still played, albeit rarely, through an emulator.

I was infatuated with the game. This game offered an interesting concept of a semi-sandbox farming life with a balanced focus in farming and social (in-game, of course) life. And that concept was the one that made me hooked. There are more things to do than just farming. Interactions with villagers were there. Random skits and events were happening. Romance chances were created. Secrets were hidden and waiting to be found. Probably that was why most early teens back in the day were playing this game in my country. Sure, the game is repetitive, just like what people might expect from a farming simulation. But it was damn addictive, albeit most players got bored after the end of in-game first year. And that included me back then. I replayed this game at least half a dozen times before my current save file, just because I got bored after 1 or so in-game year.

Anyways, it seems like I might be able to finish this game. I really want to see when the mayor came to my farm on the beginning of year 4 and decide whether I can stay in the Mineral town or not. I had my save file currently on the beginning of year 3. I was married and had my son already. Boy I remembered that moment as if it was my IRL son. I had my character married already before, but I never went past having the wife pregnant and gave birth. I was proud of myself somehow. I achieved a new benchmark. Out of all playthroughs of HM:BTN in which I was able to get married, Elli was my choice, for efficiency reasons. She is the easiest to woo; just pick random flowers and she will love em. My favorite girl is still Karen, but she is hard to impress. Then again, visual and personality wise, Elli is my second pick, so..

Then, when I remembered about all of these again a couple of months ago, I considered who is the best girl to marry, in a social standpoint. There are 5 candidates: Elli, Karen, Ann, Popuri, and Mary, ranked based on my personal preferences btw. Marriage is purely based on personal interest, and no gameplay difference will appear if we compare the girls after we marry them. The skits and events that related to marriage will of course differ, but that's it.
However, there is something that we HM:BTN players forgot. The girl that we marry will leave her family and our love rival behind. And that is actually kind of sad if we think about it. The family members and our rival seems to care less, and gameplay wise, we are still doing similar things except for the fact that our girl is already in our house. But, for me, realizing that made me recheck what will happen to their families once they left. And with that being said, the best girl to marry is the girl with good family condition and with a rival with also good family condition. So, let's check one by one.

Let's start with Elli, my current wife. She is the sweet, caring, and motherly type. She only had her grandmother, Ellen, and little brother, Stu, left in her family. Which makes it actually bad, socially, to marry her. If Elli stayed with me, then who will take care of little Stu and granny? They are both too young and old to take care of themselves. Elli also worked for doctor Tim in the hospital, which is also the love rival. Doctor Tim is a quiet, loner guy who moved to the town alone, so he had no family members with him. If I take Elli from him, he will be working in the hospital alone, with no family there. It is kinda sad if you think about it. So, Mineral town social impact speaking, marrying Elli is actually a bad choice.

Next is Karen. She is the outspoken, mature-cool, pretty girl type. Family-wise, she still has her parents, Sasha and Jeff, working in the supermarket so it will be no problem marrying her in that regard. The dilemma comes when I check the love rival for her affection, Rick. Rick and Popuri live with their sickly mom, Lillia, while her husband is away looking for a cure. It is hard for Lillia to take care of their chicken farm alone, so at least either Rick or Popuri needs to stay at the farm, helping. I will discuss it later, but regardless of me marrying Popuri or not, she will not stay with Lillia anyways, so we have to see how Rick acted if I marry Karen or not. If I marry Karen, Rick will be staying with her mom. That's good. If I don't marry Karen, Rick will marry her and Karen will help in the chicken farm. That's better. Rick is also lonely because of her sister leaving, but at least he still has her mom. So, it will be fine whether the character marry Karen or not, because the social impact is not bad.

Third one is Ann. She is the tomboyish-yet-girly, innocent, and energetic type. She lives with her father Doug in that huge-ass Inn, so it is quite obvious that her dad will struggle if Ann is not there. So, marrying her in the family impact standpoint is a no-no. The love rival, Cliff, also definitely needs Ann quite a lot. Cliff is a loner, mellow newcomer, that has lots of struggle. Even after he had a job and a new extended family, mental-wise he is still weak. Also, considering he will always stay in the Inn regardless of my choice marrying Ann or not, it is actually good for the whole "ecosystem" if Cliff ends up with Ann, as the three of them will not go anywhere. The conclusion is: it is better socially to let Ann be with Cliff, not me. It is a pity though, because from what I saw on YouTube, after becoming a wife, she has the cutest and most innocent reactions out of them all.

Popuri is the fourth one. She is the cutesy, childish, and princess-like type. Although her father had left the village, she still has her brother Rick and mother Lillia. Also, Rick will not leave the poultry farm even if he is married, which justifies marrying Popuri even more. The love rival for her affection, Kai, is really an outsider considering he is only in the village once a year, AND he will bring Popuri along if they are married. So, regardless of me marrying Popuri or not, she will always leave the poultry farm. It is actually somewhat better if we marry her, because at least she will still be in the Mineral town vicinity and not somewhere else outside the map. Therefore, if we analyze all of these, it will be better for Popuri and her family if she marries the character and not Kai.

Last but not least is Mary. She is the quiet, reserved, kind bookworm type. She still has her family intact, so her parents won't be too lonely as they still have each other. I am not sure what will happen to the library though as she is the only one actually managing it, but I am sure it will still be open although it might be a justifiable reason not to marry her. I mean, I'm not sure whether an open library with noone to take care of it is better than a permanently closed library.. Then, we have to consider the love rival for Mary's affection, Gray. He lives with his grandpa, Saibara, while trying his best to follow Saibara's footsteps to be a blacksmith. He seems to be stressed a lot and his main way to relieve his stress is to visit the library and meet Mary. To add, if Mary marries Gray, she will move in with him and Saibara, which makes it even better for the three of them. With that being said, I'm gonna say that it might not be a very good idea to marry Mary. At least she will still manage the library if she marries Gary, but not if she marries the character.

To summarize, Karen and Popuri are the best girls to marry if we consider the social impact of the marriage to the whole Mineral town community. Of course, nothing will really happen if, but the fact that things will change really bugs my mind a lot.
Now, I'm feeling bad that I actually made the life of the doctor, grandma Ellen, and little Stu more miserable..

A volatile and contradicting mindset - Inside the minds of an INFJ, the advocate.

Zanthzorn here.

It's been almost 6 months since I wrote anything here, thanks to my short-term memory and other issues. Previously, I used the free internet provided from the hotel where I stayed for one and half weeks. However, when I moved to my current place, I didn't have any connection until December. Thanks to that and other stressful issues regarding work, I forgot about this until today, when I am feeling blue again. Well, better late than never.

So, I took an online personality test a month ago just because I was not satisfied with the most common personality typing, the four temperaments, that divided people into only 4 categories. As someone who have a complicated way of thinking and feeling, I honestly thought four types were not specific enough for my liking as I struggled to find a way to actually define myself; a model that can describe something a complex and fluid substance that is human personality. People around me never understood how my thinking process worked, or cared enough to actually understand.

Then, I came across this test that's based on Myers-Briggs personality classification, and I took it not once, not twice, but thrice. I got INFJ twice and INTJ once, by the way. For those of you who never heard of Myers-Briggs personality classification, a short way to describe it is that it is a convenient way to describe the order of each person’s Jungian preferences based on Carl Jung's theory of psychology types based on 4 acronym: Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E), Intuition (N) or Sensing (S), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). The first one determines how someone get their energy (Introvert or Extravert), the second one describes the dominant perceiving function (intuition or sensing), the third one analyzes the main judging function (thinking or feeling), and the last one determines which of the function is more dominant, judging or perceiving. It is very complicated, and I don't understand it fully yet, so I won't dwell any deeper.

Anyways, based on the test, I'm an advocate. The tagline for advocate type is "quiet and mystical, yet inspiring and tiring idealist." I really thought that it was something that described me, and I stand corrected even after I compared other personalities' taglines. Here's an excerpt from the definition:

"INFJs indeed share a very unique combination of traits: though soft-spoken, they have very strong opinions and will fight tirelessly for an idea they believe in. They are decisive and strong-willed, but will rarely use that energy for personal gain – INFJs will act with creativity, imagination, conviction and sensitivity not to create advantage, but to create balance. Egalitarianism and karma are very attractive ideas to INFJs, and they tend to believe that nothing would help the world so much as using love and compassion to soften the hearts of tyrants. INFJs find it easy to make connections with others, and have a talent for warm, sensitive language, speaking in human terms, rather than with pure logic and fact. It makes sense that their friends and colleagues will come to think of them as quiet Extroverted types, but they would all do well to remember that INFJs need time alone to decompress and recharge, and to not become too alarmed when they suddenly withdraw. INFJs take great care of other’s feelings, and they expect the favor to be returned – sometimes that means giving them the space they need for a few days."

Except for the quiet extroverted part, I agreed with this statement. I had this weird thinking that I need to find balance in my life. I had to see things in all directions. I prefer quiet, deeper talks with a friend rather than being loud with a bunch of people. I try to mind others' feelings much more than mine, and I like to help because people need my help, not because I just want to be seen by people.

I'm also sensitive with a volatile emotion, and although it is hard for me to be motivated, I will be extremely determined, able to follow through on ideas with conviction and willpower once I can get my mind on it.

It is also said that INFJ is the rarest of all types, which might explains why I felt so happy when I can find something that affirms on how I think, something that helps me understand how my complex mind works. There are lots of posts from fellow INFJ who had similar feelings and emotionally understanding too. Apparently, most of us also have something that I always struggle to make people understand as well: a complex and indecisive view in relationship and decision-making

When it comes to relationships, I think that I may become unsure about things due to my sensitive and analyzing nature. I will weigh in all the possibilities, which makes it hard for me to choose because I can see all of the good and bad aspects on it. Also, when it is time for me to speak, I sound disorganized or awkward informally because I already know that we have to explain each different piece of information before the person can understand my points, because the way I choose my decision is so complex that a simple sentence will not do it justice.

Now that I have an overview on how this weird mind of mine works, I realized that my current job is not for me. I am working in a marketing department with a workplace that requires everything needs to be decisive, quick, and based on ambiguous field findings and not quantitative data, so I'm feeling lost. I cannot take decisions quickly. I love data, and not field findings. I am marketing something that many people actually dislike due to health reasons. Basically, everything about this job screams "not for Zanthzorn who is quiet, introverted, data-cruncher that likes balance, goodwill and karma. How can I sell something that's not good for people? However, I have to stick because I have determined that I want to learn how this company do things so that I can use my knowledge in something better. Sometimes I forgot about this due to stressful feeling that I have to defy myself. Yes, I need to be more decisive and extraverted to balance myself, but it is too much sometimes.

So, here I am again, flowing my thoughts into this post. I hope that by doing this, I won't be able to forget who I am, and why I am here. I am an advocate that is learning how things work so that I can use it for a greater good later on. And I hope people can understand this, and give me some kind of motivation for me to keep on going.

Zanthzorn out.

Starting out.

Zanthzorn here.

I can't believe I'm actually starting a blog. I delayed this for almost a week thanks to crappy internet and other real life circumstances, but it's here.

Anyways, this blog/journal is meant as an outlet to let out my stupid rants and thoughts. It's gonna be about pathetic personal stuffs or stupid analysis on stupid topics that I'm too shy to discuss or admit in real life.

 

Why a blog if I'm too shy to talk about it, you ask? Why not just keep them in my mind? Writing my thoughts allow me to elaborate my thoughts in detail and I can pull them out again for future references, and that's important for me thanks to my personality. I'll elaborate them sometimes later.

Then, why don't I just keep my thoughts offline? Putting my rants in the internet technically means that I'm sharing my thoughts to someone, which gives me a similar but fake sense of satisfaction and liberation from sharing and discussing your problems with a good friend or a psychiatrist. It's like I want to shout to liberate my mind, but I want my shouts to be unheard by anyone. And this is THE MAIN REASON. Deep down inside my shy interior (and exterior), I want to talk about this to someone. I wanted to share and discuss these with someone who was on the same wavelength or someone who genuinely care. I actually know someone who has similar mindset, but I'm still feeling too embarrassed to talk about this in real life with that person. Hence, the birth of this blog.

 

With that being said, this blog will be full of what my weird brain's occupied with. It might be about my journey in my new work life. It might be about my friends. It might be about anime and manga. It might be about my overanalysis on some games, game theory style. Do not expect an excellent writing style, because I'm not good at composing literature in any kind.

So, even though I'm not gonna share this to anyone I know IRL, I'm acting like I am. Who knows I can meet people online who can understand this feeling.

That's enough for my first post. I still have other sharing to be made on different posts, so bye for now.