Theory #4: Who killed Ellen? (Harvest Moon: 64)

Due to the fact that I will be discussing one of the secret cutscenes in Harvest Moon: 64, I have an obligation to warn the readers of massive spoilers. If you are planning to play Harvest Moon: 64, please skip this theory until you’ve played the game.

In one of my earliest playthroughs of Harvest Moon: 64, I had my character marry Popuri. I completed the game and continued to play until year 8. The only reason I stopped playing is because Harvest Moon: Back to Nature came out and I was busy playing that game. In that game, I had my character marry Elli. She is so cute and lovable, I can’t help but to smile watching my character walk down the aisle with this bachelorette.

After completing the game, I went to a forum to look up some tips and other things I might have missed in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. Everything seems cool, until I found one of the most ominous posts I have ever seen related to a Harvest Moon game. “Can Ellen die in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature?” This question seemed so odd and random, why would anyone ask this question? So I clicked on the thread and learned one of the most disturbing facts about Harvest Moon: 64. Ellen can in fact die in Harvest Moon: 64.

At first, I didn’t believe it. I assumed that this person was just trolling the forums for clicks and likes. But several other players confirmed that this is real. Some people even posted several guides on how to activate the cutscene that causes Ellen to die in the game. I kept telling myself that this can’t be true, why would Harvest Moon add this to the game? I’ve played harvest Moon: 64 all the way to year 8, Ellen has never died. But my curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to find out for myself. (There was no YouTube at the time.)

I started a new file in Harvest Moon: 64, and started to follow the guide that I found in the forum. In a few hours, I’ve triggered this secret cutscene and found out that Ellen can in fact die in the game. I was in shock! Why would they add this to the game? Watching Elli in distress as she calls out to her grandmother just broke my heart.

Death is not unique to Harvest Moon: 64. In Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life: Nina passes away between chapters 1 and 2. Your character also passes away after chapter 6. In Story of Seasons, Eda dies during the first Winter. There is also a collection of characters who has dead relatives across all the games. But what makes this death unique is that most players do not trigger it. All other deaths in the Harvest Moon series are scripted and will happen regardless of your input. Ellen will stay alive unless something you do causes her death to happen.

According to the guide I’ve read, you can trigger this event by befriending Elli very early in the game. Then you must talk to Ellen at a very specific date outside the bakery. When done correctly, Ellen will tell you her final words before calling for her granddaughter to look at her one last time before departing to heaven. As Ellen speaks to you, she tells you about dreams of family and friends of those who passed on before her.

The guide also explains that Elli will be upset for some time. Looking at her portrait of tears and sad faces is heartbreaking to watch. You can speed up her recovery by giving her gifts and dancing with her. I did this, and watching Elli recover was very comforting. I had my character marry her so she can live happily ever after despite the tragedy. But then I began to wonder, what if this was part of someone’s plan? Something didn’t feel right to me. I think that someone in Flowerbud Village caused Ellen’s death.

Ellen’s death itself is the first clue. Most people will not see this event unless they get lucky or read about it in a guide. Then you have Elli’s reaction. Ellen may be old, but she was healthy enough to make Elli think she had plenty of years left in her. Ellen’s death came as a shock to her, because she was healthy until she was found outside unsupervised. These two clues tells me that Ellen didn’t die of old age, someone killed her. But who? And what for?

I continued to play the file to search for clues. I know Pete didn’t do it. His actions may have trigger the death, but he didn’t actually kill her. Something Pete did caused someone else to kill Ellen. At first, I suspected Elli. But after seeing her reaction to Ellen’s passing and the sheer effort I took to heal her makes me think otherwise. Not to mention that she gains nothing by killing her own grandmother. So I continued to look around for clues. Little did I know, the clue was staring at me the whole time.

I visited the bakery to buy cookies to gift to Elli, but then I took a long look at Jeff. The bakery belongs to Elli’s family all the way to Harvest Moon: SNES. I noticed that Jeff is now running the bakery by himself as if he owns it. That’s when it hit me, Jeff must have ended Ellen’s life to get rid of her and take over the bakery. He must have noticed that Pete and Elli were getting friendly. If they get married, then the only person who stays at the bakery is Ellen. So he hatched a plan so evil, that nobody could have see it coming.

We know that Elli and Ellen owns the bakery, while Jeff works for them. He dreams of owning the bakery someday, so he originally planned to marry Elli to inherit it. But after seeing Elli and Pete talk a but too much, he’ll have to take care of Ellen if they get married. Ellen is still healthy, so Pete and Elli will have a kid who will inherit the bakery in the future. His only choice if he wants to steal the bakery is to kill Ellen. So one day when everyone in Flowerbud Village is busy, he is left alone with Ellen outside. Jeff gave her some tea that was laced with poison, then leaves her there for someone else to find. Pete finds Ellen lifeless in the rocking chair, so he checks on her. Ellen believes that she is old, and her time has finally come to join her loved ones in heaven. She calls Elli so they can bond one last time before dying. Elli is upset and distressed, so Pete comes along to comfort her. Over the next few seasons, Pete and Elli get close and get married. Now that Elli and Ellen are out of the bakery, Jeff can take over as the new owner of the bakery. Nobody suspects anything, and he gets away with murder.

Now lets think about this a second, what would happen if Pete and Elli doesn’t get married after Ellen’s death? Jeff would marry Elli, but now he has a problem. What do you think would happen if after living with Jeff as his wife, she finds proof of what he did? Would Elli confront her husband? Would Elli report him to the mayor? Would anyone believe her if she told anyone? And most importantly, would Jeff be capable of killing again to keep his secret?

What we do know for sure is that Elli’s story continues in Waffle Town of Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. There, she is now a weather girl instead of a baker. But why? She clearly left her bakery in Flowerbud Village, but doesn’t explain why or what happened. Even though we never get a proper explanation, we can piece a story together by looking at what we do know.

We know that Elli is in Waffle town, but not Ellen. This tells me that Ellen is dead, most likely by the hands of Jeff.

She is now a weather girl. This tells me that she lost the bakery and she is too traumatized to bake again. So she took up a new career to start over desperately looking for peace.

She is not a marriage candidate. This tells me that she either still is or was legally married to Jeff. She must have ran away once she found out what Jeff did to her grandmother. She is now too scared to love again.

I also feel that she chose to live in Waffle Town because Gray is there. He is a familiar face in a new town where nobody knows her. Both people are running away from their past trying desperately to start a new life and live peacefully. And we continue playing Harvest Moon like if nothing happened, because nothing did to us.

And this ends my theories for Flowerbud Village. Next up, we’re going to be talking about the Mineral Town games and the secrets they are hiding. If you think the Flowerbud theories were shocking, I promise you that Mineral Town can get much worse.