This is a legacy article and was originally published December 21st, 2019.
One of the biggest mysteries of Harvest Moon 64‘s unused content is Princess Vanilla. What if we told you she was the original “Special Bachelorette”?
There’s a few clues to this potential theory, which we’ve listed below.
First Clue: Why so many avatars?
Older Bokujou Monogatari (ie. “Bokumono”) games, especially the first, didn’t give many facial expressions to non-marriage candidates. In Harvest Moon 64, Maria has 9 expressions, Elli and Karen have 8 expressions, Popuri has 7 and Ann has 6. Princess Vanilla was earmarked to have a total of 7 expressions, one of which was a special sleeping expression that only the other bachelorettes were given. Even though all but one portrait were never finished, their codes were referenced to in her leftover dialogue. She also was given a full assembly of sprites, including one for dancing!
Second Clue: What was up with the turtle fiasco?
Have you heard about Princess Vanilla and the turtle before?
In summary, the event was described previously as such: Pete finds Princess Vanilla, who is cursed to be a turtle, after she has a heated conversation with the Harvest Sprites. Apparently this happened after she escaped the Prune Kingdom and was about to be the wife of a frog. She warns Pete to not touch her, because the curse would then fall on him as well. He does so anyways, and finds himself in turtle-form. The princess chastises Pete for ignoring her warning and tells him that only a true friend can reverse his curse now. Unless he wishes to remain a turtle forever, Pete must search around town for someone who is considered his best friend to help him turn back. It could be any of these 11 choices who had an undetermined high level of affection for Pete: Ann, Elli, Karen, Maria, Popuri, Cliff, Gray, Harris, Jeff, Kai, Stu and Kent. If the curse is lifted, Princess Vanilla comments after the event that Pete is lucky he has friends. There was indeed an option to not turn back, presumably if Pete wandered all day and didn’t get to his friend in time – whether the game ended after this outcome is unknown.
So why is this important? This event could have been Princess Vanilla’s equivalent to the bachelorette’s special event. It shares the same key elements: involves other villagers and ends with a comment from the girl.
Third Clue: Even more events…?
Here’s a definite check mark to the bachelorette argument. In Harvest Moon 64, every bachelorette has an interaction event with the other bachelorettes if they’re both at yellow hearts or above with the player. Coincidentally, Princess Vanilla was supposed to have an event with each of the girls – some where she asks the Player if she’s prettier than the girl. These events are very bare-boned; in fact, only Ann, Popuri and Elli have distinct lines even though these events appeared in each girl’s dialogue. Elli has a special event with Princess Vanilla, where Vanilla requests honey from her instead of comparing her beauty to Elli’s, similar to the other girls having a stronger friend preference for some of the girls over the others.
Fourth Clue: If she’s the special candidate, what about a rival?
The first Special Candidate in the series (the Harvest Goddess) didn’t have a rival, but we believe Princess Vanilla was meant to have one: Rick.
Isn’t it peculiar that Rick has several “friendship building” events, something usually unique only to the rivals? He asks the Player if he wants bread, he fixes the music box for you if you’re friends, you can help find his weather vane, and you can give him a rare metal to help him build a teleporter. It always seemed weird that for someone who’s around the same age as all the other rivals, he wasn’t actually a rival…Which is why it was also strange that he was grouped with the other rivals in terms of order of creation. Rick makes an appearance at the swimming festival and has a swimsuit like the other guys – was he originally meant to be in the water with the rest? He also mentions the following line in-game:
“Is there a girl? Well, a long time ago…and still now, actually… But she rejected me. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Continue the story? About me being rejected? Well, it was like…“I can’t follow you…” What could I say, eh?”
This could have been just a random unnamed girl or even one of the bachelorettes, but the phrase “I can’t follow you” while insinuating she’s still around and he still loves her is rather telling. Did Rick meet her in Moon Mountain when he went to the mines? Would Rick have used his teleporter to finally follow her? Maybe so.
At the two events Princess Vanilla attends (the Flower Festival and the Horse Race), she is coded to share them with Rick and doesn’t have much to say during them. (Too busy watching someone, maybe?) With the Princess’s formerly mentioned attitude, it wouldn’t be unthinkable for her to outright reject Rick. He never mentions any of the other bachelorettes beyond his cousin, Ann, so it seems unlikely that his crush is one of the other bachelorettes. So how would that have worked? Are there events they share? The answer to this is no, none were conceived before Princess Vanilla was scrapped altogether.
Whether or not she was intended to be a bachelorette, Princess Vanilla never made it to the final version and was cut before any of these suspicions could have been answered. It’s not a stretch to think she could’ve been intended to be a Special Bachelorette, as future special candidates included “Witch Princess” (possibly a later incarnate of Princess Vanilla). It wouldn’t be the first time unused content was later repurposed for another game and utilized fully…and it’s definitely fun to think about. As Rick said: “Snow… Have you looked at a snow flake? The world is so well- designed, even in the things we can’t really see. It made an impression on me.”
Sorry Rick, for your love interest being vetoed. At least you got Karen in Back to Nature.
(Made in collaboration with Ranchstory’s Discord members, Rick/Vanilla art by @ArtyCharmy. She takes commissions, so definitely check out her artwork!)
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