Wandering Willows

Start with a big, bubbling pot of Harvest Moon. Dice up the Animal Crossing and add it to the pot. Shake in generous portions of Pokémon. Just before finishing, turn down the heat and add several cups of Lost.

Yeah. It's like that.

It's a beautiful day above the big blue sea. An Adventurer Is You, and you and your trusty hot air balloon are soaring high above the waves. But a storm picks up, and while you navigate it bravely, a wayward seagull collides with your balloon. You steer yourself to a crash landing on a nearby island.

The bad news is, your hot air balloon is completely wrecked. The good news is, the island is inhabited! In fact, it has houses and shops--it's more of a tiny wayward village than anything else. The residents call it Wandering Willows. And they all have an unusual backstory: All of them came to the island in some type of crash or other disaster. They've all decided they're perfectly OK with living on the island; it isn't as if it isn't hospitable, after all. But you're a bit more Hot-Blooded than that, and you're determined to find your way home. The villagers agree to help you, if a bit skeptically. So you set off on your quest to fix your balloon.

Whether the people of the island will be more of a help than a hinderance remains to be seen!

Wandering Willows is a 2009 simulation/RPG released by Play First. And if you think it sounds strange from just our description alone, you don't know the half of it.


 * The Ace
 * Brain Bleach: In response to : "There are some things you just can't unsee."
 * Brilliant but Lazy: JJ's pretty smart, if not really, really dumb. ...ItMakesSenseInContext.
 * Broken Bridge: Landslides have closed off part of the world.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Heather for Silas.
 * Combinatorial Explosion: Averted, in a small way--you can't combine items unless you learn the recipe or pattern for an item first.
 * Deadpan Snarker: You are. Given how screwed up the rest of Wandering Willows is, it's probably deserved.
 * The Ditz: Bea, in contrast to her sister Evie.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything??: Art's furr--er, "fuzzie" party.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Debbie is probably the only person on the island who isn't majorly bizarre in some fashion. Nico comes off as fairly normal too, if not an insufferable egghead.
 * Everything's Better with Penguins: The Tooey pet (and its rare variant, Cooey).
 * Fuzzie Fandom: Art, apparently.
 * Genki Girl: Heather's genkitude is remarkable.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Oh, god. Let's see. There's Art's "fuzzie party" (and his later ), the PC reminding JJ that his "superior genetics" will mean nothing if he doesn't procreate, "The underwear is out the outside!", et cetra, et cetra...
 * Mad Scientist: Professor Meepole.
 * May-December Romance: Heather and Silas. Neither's age is explicitly stated, but Silas has graying hair and definitely seems to be more jaded. Heather, meanwhile, is... perky.
 * Mons: Your pets.
 * My Beloved Smother: Evie and Bea would like it if their mother got off their backs. It's a bit disturbing, because the implication is, she's a bit of a Sadist Teacher to JJ...
 * Nerd: JJ. Lord, JJ.
 * Palette Swap: Most pets have both a "normal" version and a "rare" version, which is a different color, has better stats, and appears less frequently. Some also have variants with different faces.
 * Pyromaniac: JJ, put. The fireworks. Down.
 * Rainbow Pimp Gear: All of your clothing is purely cosmetic, but townspeople will sometimes ask for clothing as part of quests, and you can give clothes to them as gifts. You also choose all the colors whenever you make clothes. So if they're wearing a heavy bomber jacket + butterfly tank-top + that cat-ear hat you made them for a quest and you chose some weird colors, well...
 * Randomly Drops: Getting a specific pet is generally a matter of "charming" one over and over again until you get lucky and one of them Randomly Drops an egg. There's also patterns/recipies.
 * Relationship Values
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Evie and Bea. Evie is the smart, focused artsy type, and Bea's... well, Bea. Their likes and dislikes are even exactly opposite to one another!
 * Team Mom: Debbie looks out for everyone on the island, but you especially, since you're new.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball:
 * Twenty Bear Asses: People love giving you quests in the form of, "Hey! You! Fetch me a bunch of this stuff!"
 * Virtual Paper Doll: You can make your own clothes, and even choose the colors for all the designs. ** You can give items to townspeople, too, and they'll wear them.
 * Whale Egg: Everything hatches from eggs. Including robots. No, don't ask us how that works.
 * White Dwarf Starlet
 * Wholesome Crossdresser: