Theory #6: The Predator of Mineral Town (Mineral Town Games)

There once lived a mysterious person in the small settlement of Mineral Town. A hated individual who strikes anxiety and fear to those who are unfortunate enough to remember him. Nobody dares speak his name, but his memory causes the residents of Mineral Town to lash out in anger. His actions will cause your stomach to turn with disgust. Even so, everyone tried their best to live as quiet and peaceful as possible. Each and every last resident of Mineral Town do their absolute best to heal and forget this individual.

Since his name is never mentioned, I will be calling this person; “The Predator”.

How do I know this person even exists in the Mineral Town lore? Based on the behavior and actions of the Mineral Town residents, I have noticed that they become hostile when looking into the past. All the evidence cannot be found in one single Mineral Town game. You can find clues hidden in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harvest Moon: Back to Nature for girl, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town. The clues are subtle and easy to miss. You might have seen them, but paid them no mind because you swore that nothing bad could have possibly happened to this cheerful and colorful town. But today I invite you to look closer at the behavior and dialogue of the Mineral Town residents.

The first clue that lead me through this shocking rabbit hole is the odd relationship between Elli and Stu. From the moment I’ve started my first Mineral Town game, I’ve always felt some sort of strange vibe coming from Elli and Stu. I could not put the pieces together until I’ve played Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. This is also the reason why I didn’t start the Dark Side of Harvest Moon series with this theory. I had to prove that Harvest Moon had some dark history with hidden stories. The previous games had encouraged me to open my mind and take a closer look at what was going on.

This theory is long and complicated to fully grasp what is going on. So I will start at the source and share my own personal experience with Mineral Town and all the odd clues that leads to this evil individual and Harvest Moon’s darkest lore of the series.

As I mentioned in the previous theory, I was not a fan of Popuri in Mineral Town. Of all the bachelorettes in Mineral Town, I took an interest in Elli. She is the town nurse with a big heart, kind personality, and mature dialect. I raised all the girls to red heart level before finally choosing Elli to be Pete’s bride in my game. My favorite thing about Elli is her blush portrait when you give her any flowers.

Once Elli gets to red heart level, something strange happens. All the other girls seem to be happy or excited to see your character when you speak to them at red heart level. But Elli seems to be more concerned than happy. When Pete talks to her, her portrait is looking to the side sadly. She can’t seem to make direct eye contact anymore. She then tells you, “I may quit the clinic after I get married. . . I don’t think I can work at both marriage and a job. . .” Two things seem off about this statement. First, why is she saying that she “may” quit her job? You are not obligating her to do so, and she never does in Friends of Mineral Town. So why bring it up? The other thing is that you have not given her the blue feather yet, so why make plans for marriage already? While neither of these facts are cause for concern, I’ve always have this odd thought in my head: why does it feel like Elli is doing something wrong? Why is Elli so concerned about getting married?

Time passed, and Friends of Mineral Town was released. Once again, I raised Elli’s heart level to red so I can have Pete marry her. But as I got to know Elli in this game, I found myself that I could not bring myself to let Pete marry her. Elli is practically identical in both Harvest Moon games, but something felt too odd about her story and I could not put my finger on why. Instead, I had Pete marry the Harvest Goddess instead. Even after moving on to later Harvest Moon games, Elli continued to bother me for the next 17 years.

When Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town was released, I once again raised all the bachelorette’s heart level to red before having Yuto marry Jennifer. This includes Elly. After nearly two decades, my mind has matured enough to finally understand why was Elli bothering me so much in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. So I dug up my old copy of the game, booted it up, and confirmed what my eyes were too young to notice. In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Elli’s brother Stu was rarely involved with her story. But in Friends of Mineral Town, Stu seems to be much more involved with Elli’s cutscenes. Elli seems to be Stu’s primary caretaker and provider in Friends of Mineral Town. If Pete marries Elli, who will care for and provide for Stu? Ellen can’t because she is unable to walk or work. This is the reason it felt weird to marry Elli in Friends of Mineral Town.

As I continue to take a deeper look into Elli and Stu’s storyline, I started to notice a few things. First thing is that Elli doesn’t seem to treat Stu like a younger brother. Stu does treat Elli like an older sister, but Elli acts more like a parent than anything. I tried to shrug it off and tell myself, “that makes sense, Elli does care for and provide for Stu as a guardian because their parents have passed away.” But then I started to ask myself, what happened to Elli’s parents? I normally would not ask this question in any Harvest Moon game. But the more I learn about Mineral Town, the less sense it makes.

In Harvest Moon: 64, nobody needed to ask what happened to Elli’s parents because Elli is an only child. Elli’s parents could have died anytime between Elli’s birth and the events of Harvest Moon: 64. Things get a bit messier when you add a much younger brother to the mix. The window that Elli’s parents could have died gets much smaller, and you start to ask a few questions about how they died. While Stu has no canon age, he appears to be about 6-8 years old. If you assume that Stu is 8 years old, both of Elli’s parents have a tiny window for them to die. You can also add in the fact that Stu doesn’t seem to remember neither of his parents, so they both died shortly after Stu’s birth. I also realized that if Elli’s parents have passed away, they must have done so while Elli was away from Mineral Town to study to be a nurse. We also know that Ellen was struck with an illness which disables her legs long before Stu was born (Elli mentions that she studied medicine to treat Ellen’s legs). This renders her unable to care for a baby/toddler. What could have possibly happened that could kill both of Elli’s parents at the same time, but not affect Stu?

Earlier in this series of theories, I’ve mentioned that we know a lot about the absent Mineral Town residents, some more than the ones that do live there. We even know precise details of those who have passed away! We never met Ann’s mother, but we know that she died shortly after giving birth to her daughter. We even know that the anniversary of the death of Ann’s mother is the fifth day of Summer. The Inn is closed that day, and Doug goes up to the mountains to mourn her death. Yet, we seem to know nothing about neither of Elli’s parents.

At this moment, you’re probably wondering, “what’s your point?” The point is that I don’t believe that Elli’s parents are dead at all, and Stu is not her brother. Based on what I’ve seen, I believe Elli’s parents are very much alive, and Elli is Stu’s mother. I believe that Ellen is Elli’s mother, and Elli’s father is (someone I’ll be discussing later in either fanfic or future theory).

I can already tell that some people who read this is rolling their eyes and saying, “this doesn’t make any sense.” Does it though? It only makes no sense if you believe what the people of Mineral Town tells you, despite their action telling a different story. After taking notes for months, this is what I’ve found.

First question I’ll ask you is how old do you think Elli is? Most people will answer 18, but that is Elli’s canon age in Harvest Moon: 64. In the Mineral Town games, none of the bachelorettes have a canon age. But even though we don’t know for sure how old is Elli, I’ve done some math and got an estimate.

Since Elli is a nurse, we can already rule out that she is 18 years old. We don’t know for sure what kind of nurse Elli is, we do know that Elli wanted to be a doctor to treat Ellen’s legs. She definitely had to go out to college and at least some medical school. Add in the fact that Elli has been a nurse for some time, and we can assume that Elli is about 28-30 years old. Still young enough to be a marriage candidate, but starting to get too old to have a younger brother with no living parents.

Next question I have is why is Elli never mourning the death of her parents. She might rarely mention them, but never seem depressed. Anytime she mentions her parents, it seems like a made up story. In Harvest Moon: 64, you can see a lot of tears and hurtful character portraits when Ellen dies, so Harvest Moon has no problems making these types of reactions. But in the Mineral Town games, Elli never seems to be too upset. Remember that Stu is very young, so if Elli did have parents that are dead, those feelings should be still fresh in her mind. This feels quite suspicious. In fact, nobody else in town seems to remember Elli’s dead parents either!

You are probably asking, “if you think Elli is Stu’s mother, then who is Stu’s father?” Believe it or not, Elli herself gives us a clue as to his identity.

In Friends of Mineral Town during Elli’s yellow heart cutscene, you can find Elli staring out to the ocean on a dock. Pete will talk to her, and she will once again vaguely mentions her parents. But she will then say, “I’ve tried to be like a mother to him [Stu], but I don’t think I’ve done a good job.” There is a lot to unpack about this sentence. First thing is, why is she saying this? There are two possible reasons. First is that she is either telling you that she is Stu’s guardian and is unable to marry because someone must care for him. This makes no sense because Elli still marries Pete later, and she doesn’t bother taking him with her to the farm once she does. The only other reason I can think of is that Elli is making a desperate confession that she is in fact Stu’s mother, but she is not allowed to tell Pete directly. Also remember that Elli claims to be at the pier to remember her parents, but why did she not bring Stu? The truth is that Elli is at the beach looking out to the ocean thinking about Stu’s father. Someone who lives outside of town, broke her heart, and left her with a baby to raise alone. She might even still be in love with him. This could explain why Elli feels so guilty once she is at red heart level with Pete.

Elli isn’t the only victim of this mysterious person who lurks outside the borders of Mineral Town. As I was playing the Mineral Town games looking for more clues, I noticed something eye opening. Stu looks awfully similar to May, enough that they can pass as siblings. But how can this be? Stu and May belong to different families. . . Right? To get our answer, let us remind ourselves of May’s story.

According to the Mineral Town games, May’s mother is Joanna. Joanna left Mineral Town for an unknown reason. One day, she came back to town with a baby and left it with her father Barley. Joanna then left Mineral Town again, leaving her daughter behind. Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it? Elli left town to study as a nurse, now she’s back with a “brother” she has to care for like a parent. Joanna left town, and came back with a baby she doesn’t want. This seems like a start of a pattern. Young women leaving Mineral Town, meeting some man outside the safe harbors, and coming back with kids. Both kids have black hair. If only there were more examples of women leaving Mineral Town to meet a guy. . . Wait, we do!

Aja, Duke and Manna’s adult daughter, has also left Mineral Town before Pete arrives. She apparently had a fight with Duke, and she left. Where is she now? During a cutscene with Harris, he admits that he is in love with Aja and wishes to communicate his feelings. You encourage him to do so, but he comes back later to inform you that Aja has a boyfriend outside of Mineral Town. This is a very specific and odd detail to add into the game. Aja could have said that she is happy living in the city and is not interested in Harris. But the game specifically tells you that she has met someone outside of town. I believe that these three women has all dated the same guy.

Popuri is the only other girl who has shown interest in leaving town. During one of her early cutscenes in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, she tells you that she is bored of Mineral Town and wants to leave. She is also attracted to Kai, and will leave town if she marries him. What an odd coincidence that this is the only bachelorette that the town actively tries to stop her from leaving. They don’t seem to be bothered about her marrying Kai specifically since nobody cares if Claire married Kai. They specifically have an issue with Popuri leaving town. If Popuri and Kai settled and remained in Mineral Town, Rick might not have such an issue.

Speaking of living in town, the residents of Mineral Town seem to have an odd issue with male outsiders. In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Mayor Thomas says this very confusing and telling line during the opening cutscene once you start a new game (and I will be quoting him directly), “But if the farm is neglected or you can’t get along with the villagers, then. . . you’ll have to leave.” When I first read this, I was very confused. The villagers don’t seem to trust you? But you are Tony’s grandson, and you have been there when you are a kid, But they have the nerve to say that they want to honor Tony’s wish, but will ask you to leave if you can’t get along with the other villagers. But in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature for girl, nobody says this to Claire. She is an absolute stranger, and they are more than happy to keep her in town without a three year test.

Pete is not the only Mineral Town character that the residents seem to have some level of mistrust. Early in Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harris comes to your farm looking for a stranger wearing funny clothes. He tells you that this stranger is “suspicious”, despite the fact that he did nothing wrong. It seems like Won entered Mineral Town without anyone knowing, and people called Harris to investigate. Quite excessive if you ask me.

Finally we have the massive elephant in the room. The male population in Mineral Town don’t seem to like Kai at all. They claim that they hate Kai because he’s popular with the ladies, but nobody has an issue with Pete being popular. The real reason they don’t like Kai is because he doesn’t actually live in town. He only comes by in the Summer, and leaves when Fall rolls around. Everyone hates the idea that they have no idea what Kai does outside of town. Even Rick says, “I like pretty much everyone in town except Kai. I can’t stand that no-good bum. He drifts in like a low tide in Summer, turns the town on it’s head, and then disappears whenever he pleases.” This line does not mention Popuri at all, which tell me that Ricks primary issue with Kai is the fact that he leaves town routinely. It feels like people of Mineral Town believes that Kai might be talking to someone outside of town. Giving information about the girls of Mineral Town and encouraging them to leave town?

So who is this person that I call the Predator? He is clearly someone who actively hunts and preys on the young women of Mineral Town. He makes sweet love to them, and leaves them with kids and throws them away. According to evidence I’ve found, he used to live in Mineral Town. He was removed after a series of crimes he committed against the people of Mineral Town that has left them traumatized. Similar to a Ted Bundy archetype. We don’t get any concrete evidence of what he did, but there are small details of his dark story.

In Friends of Mineral Town, there is an empty lot on the other side of the road near the chicken ranch. Someone must have lived there at some point. To rebuild the building, you’ll need to pay a hefty 100,000,000 gold. So the person who used to live here must have been disgustingly rich. Whatever the predator did not only got him kicked out of town, but the residents also demolished the building he lived in so that they never have to look at it ever again.

Then we have the Golden Lumber. This item is a building material worth 100,000 gold a piece. It is a very valuable material that strikes anger into the residents of Mineral Town. If you use it on your farm, all the Mineral Town residents will come to your farm and yell at you. Even Harris will threaten to arrest you for having it in your farm. I had no idea why were the residents so upset about a piece of golden wood for a while. That is until I played as Claire in Harvest Moon: More friends of Mineral Town. The same residents will come by and yell at you, but Doug says something slightly different: “Are you too dense to figure out why people are so mad!? Oh, that’s right, you’re not a man.” You’re not a man? That detail is way too specific and out of place. Clearly Doug is trying to tell you that the reason people are upset has some sort of link between the Golden Lumber and a man. Perhaps the old building that was demolished was made with Golden Lumber?

I believe that the predator lived in Mineral Town in an expensive cottage made of Golden Lumber. He seduces women and gets them pregnant. But what did he do that got him removed from town? While there is no direct evidence of his crimes, has anyone else noticed that there are very few young Mineral Town males native to town? We know that Rick was born and raised in Mineral Town, but what about everyone else? Gray’s father moved out of town before he was born. Cliff, Doctor, Kai, Won, and Gourmet also were not born in Mineral Town. Yet somehow all 8 young women are born and raised in Mineral Town. How can this be? This is quite a statistical impossibility, unless someone made it happen. What if I told you that another Mineral Town male has culled the competition? Used his money and power to kill off many of Mineral Town’s young male population so he can have the women all for himself?

This could explain why Mayor Thomas tries so hard to reintroduce new men to Mineral Town despite the trust issues the other residents have. Even Pete is part of this plan to repopulate Mineral Town after this Predator has ravaged the innocent town. Mayor Thomas brings in lots of men, then watch them. Those who do not pass the test or not interested in marriage are asked to leave. Ever wonder what happened to Louis and Kano? They were present in the Back to Nature games, but not the Friends of Mineral Town games. We will probably never learn what happened to Louis, but Thomas does say, “A guy named Kano used to live here. I loved taking pictures of Mineral Town. It’s certainly a nice place. But one day, he left a letter and took off. I wonder how he’s doing now. . .” So what we have here is the games does recognize the previous existence of the characters missing from Back to Nature. They were not forgotten about, the games left us obvious clues that they are no longer living in town. Thomas says that he left, but that is an obvious lie. Kano and Louis were asked to leave since either they had no interest in marriage or some other dark reason nobody talks about.

An odd piece of evidence that supports Mineral Town’s repopulation effort is Ann’s first cutscene. When you enter Doug’s inn for the first time, Doug will call Pete over to ask about how attractive you find his daughter Ann. If you don’t respond with interest, he quickly loses interest in you and move on to Cliff. I’ve always found it odd that a man who lost his wife would be so quick to marry off his only daughter to what seems like a total stranger. But if you have an idea that single men are a limited resource, it makes a little more sense that Doug might want someone interested in his tomboy daughter quickly.

Now you are probably saying, “cool theory, but it would be a little more credible if we have seen the Predator in game.” If that’s the case, I have some good news for you. Turns out, we may have actually seen him once! During the opening cutscene of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature for girl, Claire meets an unnamed man in a boat. He approaches Claire and attempts to seduce her several times. They do in fact become friendly as he continues to flirt with her and even dance together. But he loses interest once he realizes that she is not a Mineral Town resident. How odd that he tells Claire that he has no money, but soon starts treating her to meals in the boat. He may even own the boat they are cruising on. While the game does not show us how Claire ended up in the ocean or what happened to the boat, she did end up in the beaches of Mineral Town. This alone proves that the boat was near the borders of Mineral Town. Remember earlier I claimed that Elli was staring out of the dock thinking of Stu’s father?

Even after all that evidence that I have listed, some people might still think all this is a fantasy. An imagination spawned by playing way too much Harvest Moon games. None of this could possibly be true. Allow me to ask you one final question; why is it that of all the Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games, Mineral Town seems to be the only location in the whole series with a cop? Flowerbud Village, Forget-Me-Not Valley, Sunny Island, Waffle Town, and every other village seem to function well enough without law enforcement. For some reason, Mineral Town needs police? This fact alone proves that some type of crime was committed in Mineral Town’s past. We are also reminded that Harris can arrest people, but there is no police station in town. Meaning that if Harris did arrest someone, they would need to be transported outside the borders of Mineral Town. Thomas and Harris seem to go way out of their way to keep unwanted people out of Mineral Town. This is also the reason why Thomas can ask people to leave with little resistance. If anyone tries some funny business, Harris can call reinforcements and have anyone removed by force. And since the jail is outside of town, Harris can keep anyone locked up away from the rest of the residents living in town.

That is all I have to say about this theory. I know how crazy all this seems, but this is the only explanation I can come up with to explain all of Mineral Town’s odd behavior. Even if you don’t believe it, I hope it will help you to open your eyes and come up with your own ideas as to what is going on in town. Read the dialogue and maybe you’ll notice something a bit more concrete than my idea.

I know that I have been hard on Elli during the first half of this theory. Please know that I still have a soft spot for this lovely nurse. If I play Harvest Moon: Back to Nature in the future, I will have my character marry her again. I only wish that there was an option to adopt Stu and let him live in the farm with Elli.

For my final Mineral Town theory, I will be discussing the fate of one of the young women who was forgotten. Even though most players don’t remember her, the games do leave clues as to who she is and what role she plays in the Mineral Town lore.