Theory #7: Missing Maiden of Mineral Town (Mineral Town Games)

My favorite parts of the Mineral Town games are the stories behind the young maidens. No, I don’t mean the heart events and marriage. I am talking about the Festivals (Goddess Festival, Music Festival, Tomato Festival, etc.), the extra lore dialogue not directly tied to marriage, and the endings of the Back to Nature games. The Goddess Festival is one of my favorite festivals of all the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games, even beating out the Flower Festival of Harvest Moon: 64. The ending of Harvest Moon: Back to nature is my favorite event in all the games as well. In fact, my ending is a bit unique to others. Popuri came forward to tell Pete that she was the girl he met as a child, despite him being engaged to Elli at the time. This ending inspired many of my ideas for fanfics, including an old lost fanfic written a long time ago; Harvest Moon: Miracle of Life. Sadly, these fanfics no longer exists.

One huge reason why I was never a big fan of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is because many of my favorite events has been cut from the Back to Nature games. No Goddess Festival, no emotional ending that reveals the identity of Pete’s childhood friend. I was disappointed and found no real purpose to play the Friends of Mineral Town games. But after I grew older, I took another look at the game and found that there may be more to it than I first noticed. Besides the evidence I’ve used in previous theories, I’ve noticed things that my young mind could not see. What if I told you hat there is a lore in the game that explains why many of the events present in Back to Nature are absent in Friends of Mineral Town? Another hidden story that changes how we see Mineral Town and how the people who live there function.

In my previous theory, I mentioned that Mineral Town had 8 young maidens who were born there. The Harvest Goddess does not count, since she is a goddess and is not born at all. We have Popuri, Elli, Karen, Ann, Mary, Joanna, and Aja. That makes seven, so who is the eighth maiden? After playing the Back to Nature games, I found out that there is eight goddess dresses that is passed down from mother to daughter. Nobody in Mineral Town talks about the owner of the eighth dress. Even Manna who can’t seem to shut up, wont even touch the subject. But there is one person who does talk about it, our old friend Gotz!

Last time we talked about Gotz, I claimed that he is single as punishment for his actions of Harvest Moon: 64. But what I didn’t know in my early days of playing Harvest Moon that he was in fact married sometime in the past. Gotz is known as a lonely middle aged man who lives in a cabin behind Tony/Pete’s farm. He is quiet and rarely socializes with the other Mineral Town residents. He sometimes allows strangers to live with him, such as Louis (Harvest Moon: Back to Nature) and Brandon (Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town). But if you get to know Gotz a bit, he will tell you a story about loss, and a ghost that roams the forest behind the farm. His story may be the answer to the questions: Why doesn’t the girl Pete knew as a kid reveal herself in Friends of Mineral Town? Why is there no Goddess Festival in Friends of Mineral Town?

*Spoiler Warning*

In Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, there is a rare event that takes place during Winter. You will enter the map where Gotz lives, and he will warn you about a snowstorm that will happen later that evening. He will specifically ask you to avoid Mother’s Hill. Pete/Claire will then enter Mother’s Hill, and a snowstorm will immediately start. Your character will be stranded and would probably freeze to death. Gotz will save you and bring you back to the cabin. He will then yell at you, then say, “I’m sorry, I lost my family in a mountain snowstorm. . . But that was a long time ago. Don’t worry about it.” Pete/Claire will then go home so that they can farm another day. But what makes this event so odd is that Gotz claims that the snowstorm will hit that evening. But it only happens just as you enter the mountain regardless of the time. Please remember this, this will become important soon.

The next event I want to discuss only happens in Back to Nature for Girl. On the eighth of the first Spring, Gotz will come to the farm and give Claire a box with a goddess dress. He then explains, “my wife used to wear it. It should have been my daughter’s, but. . . They are no longer with us. So. . . I want you to use it.” This is a very nice event, but there is a lot to unpack from this dialogue. Not only we’ve figured out what happened to the dress worn by the missing maiden, we also learn that Gotz had a daughter. Considering that Gotz seems to be around the same age as any of the other middle aged Mineral Town men, that means his daughter must also be around the same age as Pete and any of the bachelors or bachelorettes.

Why is this so important? Let’s think about it. The story of Pete in the Mineral Town games states that he met a young girl when he was a kid and became best friends. Where did they meet? Up Mother’s Hill. Where does Gotz live? At the base of Mother’s Hill. It would only make sense that Pete and Gotz’ daughter would have met that day when Pete was a kid. This could explain why none of the girls comes forward to claim that they are the kid Pete met. Gotz daughter must have died shortly after Pete left back to the city. When Pete returned to Mineral Town, there was no happy reunion.

We have some evidence that the spirit of Gotz’ daughter haunts the mountain in the Mineral Town games. Remember that event where Gotz warns you about a snowstorm? How did he know? There was no weather forecast warning anyone about a snowstorm. And even if he has some type of talent to predict it himself, why does it happen anytime Pete/Claire enters the mountain instead of the evening like he said? I believe that the reason Gotz knew about the snowstorm is because the spirit of his daughter told him. She was lonely, and needed someone to play with her in the afterlife. Once Pete returned to Mineral Town, she planned to kick up a snowstorm when Pete enters the mountain. This way, Pete and that little girl can be together. Gotz tried to warn Pete/Claire against going up that mountain, and chose the evening as a way to keep them in the farm all day. Pete/Claire ignored his warning, and ended up going up there anyway. Gotz watched him/her, then rescued them just in time.

Now I can already hear someone say, “hold up! If the spirit of Gotz’ daughter tried to strand Pete in a snowstorm, why did she do the same to Claire? They don’t know each other!” Remember that event where Gotz gave Claire his wife’s goddess dress? Claire can easily fit the dress without any alterations. This means that Claire must have a body type similar to Gotz’s wife. Imagine Claire dancing in the Goddess Festival with a costume that used to belong to Gotz’ wife. Gotz’ daughter could have mistaken Claire for her own mother, so she tried to strand Claire in a snowstorm for a similar reason. She was lonely, and tried to take Claire’s life.

This could also explain why Friends of Mineral Town no longer host a Goddess Festival. There used to be eight young maidens. But one of them died, and two others left town. If Popuri marries Kai and leaves, then that only leaves four. At some point, there would be no purpose to host a festival with such a dwindling population.

In my opinion, Friends of Mineral Town is trying to tell a sadder story than the Back to Nature games. Pete meets a young girl, then promises that they will see each other again once they get older, Pete returns as an adult, but nobody in town wants to talk about the tragedy that took one of their young maidens. Pete is heartbroken once he finally learns the cruel fate of his childhood friend. One of the other five bachelorettes comforts Pete, falls in love, and gets married. Meanwhile, the spirit of the young maiden haunts the mountain still waiting for Pete to fulfill their promise.

This would have been the end of the theory, until Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town decided to give us another clue. Jennifer is a new lady that now lives in Mineral Town. She has a tent set up near the lake at the base of Mother’s Hill. What makes her unique is that she seems to have an ability to sense spiritual energy. I have taken a keen interest in the story of this new young maiden and what role she plays in any of my theories.

During one of her heart events, she will discuss with Pete/Yuto/Claire/Nomi about a so-called “town spiritual guardian”. She says that she can occasionally feel a distinct presence when she visits the lake. We can easily rule out Kappa, since Kappa is confirmed to be male and the spirit is female. We can also confirm that she is not talking about the Harvest Goddess, since she lives in the spring near the mine not the lake. Jennifer then goes on claiming that the lake has no name. (I thought the lake was Mother’s Lake? Where did she get the idea that the lake had no name?) So she decides to give the lake a name. Pete/Yuto/Claire/Naomi now has the option to choose a type of name. One of the options is an “Angelic” name. What an odd choice of word to use, angelic? As in angel, a common word used to represent a person who died and became an angel? If you choose this option, Jennifer will say, “your words. . . They have planted a seed of inspiration within me!” The word “inspiration” feels way too specific. She could have said that she came up with a name on her own. But to be inspired means that someone had to give her an idea. Almost as if a spirit just whispered a name in Jennifer’s ear, and she mistook that as inspiration. The name she heard was Isabella. I personally believe that this name belongs to Gotz’ daughter. She whispered that name to Jennifer, who is one of two people who can hear her.

I believe that Gotz’ daughter was named Isabella. She met Pete as children, but died shortly after by a horrible snowstorm. Her spirit lingers the area where she passed away. Only Gotz and Jennifer can hear her, but no one can see her. Pete came back looking for her, but learned of her death once Gotz saved his life from another snowstorm. A snowstorm Isabella kicked up so that Pete could die and reunite with his childhood friend.

And that is all I have to say about this theory. Next time, we will move on to Forget-Me-Not Valley where I will share a deep and dark story about one of the characters in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.