[1989: pp. 93–97]
[2003: pp. 97–101]
18. VALENTINE
- Area: 12,062 m² (about 7.5 mi²)
- Pop.: 32
- Avg. Temp.: 16℃ (60.8℉)
- Main Industries: Manufacturing & Dairy Farming
[Photo: West Houston Street in Greenwich Village in New York City. At the very right is 490 LaGuardia Place.¹ Caption below:]▲A townscape that somehow brings to mind East Village in New York. Juvenile crime is high here, so keep a watchful eye on your wallet and other personal belongings.
[Jump links coming soon.]
Valentine Town
Valentine Map
The Townsfolk
The Department Store
The Valentine Police Station
The Live House
The Hotel
The Hospital
The Ocean-Viewing Platform
The Islet on the Open Sea
Jun Miura Cartoon
EVENT CHECK POINT
Valentine Town
A violent town that feels like
a time warp into the '50s
A city whose local industry thrived in the 1950s.
Through prosperity from the Korean War, the surrounding dairy farmers changed careers² and became laborers in manufacturing, turning the city into the commerce and industry giant it is today.
There was an automobile company that boasted the highest-ranked shares in the nation, and when it built a factory for weapons parts, the town flourished so much that the catchphrase was coined, "a building for every hectare³ of farmland sold". In the blink of an eye the north section was turned into one big commuter town, and the laborers who had gathered here had two-storied homes⁴, and they all assumed the role of the gentle, Father Knows Best dad.
But as soon as the war was over, the auto company closed the factory down and pulled up stakes, and since that day the town changed into a slum, the streets flooded with pompadour-sporting hoodlums.
Going into the '60s, those youth at prime age for labor disappeared from town, having been drafted for the Vietnam War, and in their place, boys too young for the draft, wasted with drugs and alcohol, began to stand out in the crowds. This is something that happened in every town in the country, but this town set the bar somehow.
In the '70s, a candidate for mayor used the slogan: "Let's Bring in a High-Tech, Japanese Factory on the Heels of the Weapons Factory!" The day after he was elected mayor, it was uncovered that he had taken a huge monetary bribe from a Japanese corporation, and in the end the town never did get back on its feet.
[Photo: Exterior of a ramshackle apartment building with graffiti on the ground floor.]▲A lot of buildings look like they're ready to collapse.
VALENTINE MAPOcean-Viewing PlatformChocolate Farms [farmland north of town.]Residential AreaTo Holy Loly MountainDept. StoreHamburger ShopPolice StationPresley (Main) Street [road that runs in front of the Dept. Store and Hamburger Shop.]HospitalHotelLive HouseTo Swamplands
The Townsfolk
Even the hoodlums who saunter around town
have a certain longing for days gone by
"Ah, the good ol' days." That's how the adults in this town say hello. Even the billboards you see everywhere for the chocolatier show Jack in his checkered, '50s-style button-down, and Betty with her '50s ponytail, both smiling with their heart-shaped chocolates. It looks like everyone has their hearts stuck in the '50s, just like the look of the town.
It's a wonder when you consider this even applies to the kids, and they weren't alive to see it! The hoodlum gangs sport enormous, well-greased pompadours on their heads, and their Japanese-made radio-cassette players belt out nothing but rock 'n' roll. Far and away the most popular music from the radio station is that of Presley and Ricky Nelson, and that fact should tell you this town has a grave case of '50s-itis.
Even in the residential area uptown the boys and girls sport the same Ivy League look. In fact it's immediately apparent, walking the streets, that this town gets picked a lot for Japanese commercial shoots. But — and this could be retaliation against Japanese corporations — applying to Town Hall for a shooting permit costs a fee of $10,000, so be wary if you're in photography.
The Department Store
6 stories, 4 employees; the 4th floor
ticket counter is popular
The biggest building facing North Main Street is the Department Store. The owner is a dairy farmer from way back who, even to this day, devotes himself to raising cows on a farm on the outskirts of town.
In the early '50s, he was one of the first to sell part of his farm. He then built the store, but left his son, who had just graduated college, to manage it, and to this day he looks forward to going to town to hear the monthly financial statements.
This is not something you get everyday in a suburban city, but there's also a department for a ticket agency that sells Concert Tickets before anyone else. They say the store put it in because the old owner is a Presley fanatic.
---------- Dept. Store Shopping List ----------
ITEM PRICES
4F Variety Goods Shop
Concert Tickets: $350.00
Knife: $580.00
Rope: $600.00
Survival Knife: $1,200.00
3F Food Court
Orange Juice: $5.00
Bread: $30.00
Sports Drink: $75.00
Strawberry Tofu: $975.00
2F Drugstore
Antidote: $20.00
Asthma Spray: $148.00
Ointment: $194.00
Bug Spray: $300.00
1F Customer Service-------------------------------------------------------------
[Photo: A large, clean-looking downtown building.]▲The Department Store is the neatest, cleanest building in town.
The Valentine Police Station
2 stories, 2 officers; the police can be bought off with money
Chief of Police Lucy, known for her good nature, has troubles. The source of her troubles isn't so much the juvenile crime she never puts up with as it is the disruption of public morals that goes on inside the department itself.
When it comes to murder cases, those happen maybe once every ten years. More than half of all arrests are of the shoplifting, purse-snatching, groping, underage smoking/drinking/marijuana ilk. Only a handful of these incidents can be taken to trial.
You'd think it would raise police morale. But there's a rumor that, perhaps because of this, a number of bad eggs are taking the weapons and marijuana the criminals had had in their possession and selling them on the black market. And this shifty trade is unfolding without shame inside the aforementioned department, so Chief Lucy's troubles are severe.
What brought this fact to the Chief's attention was when her own son, who was in his third year of middle school, was taken into custody at the Live House, which admits no one under the age of 18. His treasured Survival Knife should have been confiscated, but when he was released, the Chief heard the truth from her son, that he had had to buy back his knife off a different officer. Be seriously cautious of the police in this town.
[Photo: A no-nonsense cop.]▲Beware any officer with a look like this on his face.
The Live House
One night of rock 'n' roll and dance
can leave you intoxicated. ...
At the southeast end of the downtown area is the Live House, the most happening place in town. This being the hangout of the Black Blood Gang (who the police are having real trouble handling), not to mention rumors of minors having alcohol immediately pushed on them, I can't recommend admission either to women or to people going alone.
But the '50s rock 'n' roll that gets performed here has a reputation for being the real deal. Little wonder, too, as I hear the older man who runs the place, his hair now flecked with gray, wasn't always so mild-mannered: he was once a rock 'n' roll singer, showered in a storm of girls' kisses whenever he performed onstage.
Maybe he misses his old self, for whenever Pops here finds a boy who looks like he has some backbone, he has a funny quirk of greeting him with: "How 'bout getting up on stage and singing?"
---------------------------Tickets------------------------When bought from the Dept. Store: $350.00When bought from the scalper: $1,200.00---------------------------------------------------------------
[Photo: A building with an artistic mural on its façade, at 448 West Broadway in SoHo, Manhattan.⁵]▲You'll be charged for tank repairs by a familiar old pilot at the entrance.
[Photo: A jukebox.]▲This also comes from the good old '50s.
[Photo: A young woman in a bar. She's carrying several drinks and a cigarette.]▲Don't push alcohol on kids!!
[Photo: An onstage band in the middle of a performance.]▲You can enjoy real band performances at showtime.
The Hotel
A leisure hotel with no need to make
a reservation. No. of beds: 2.
At the west end of the downtown area is a hotel that uses the selling point: "Presley himself once stayed here". Given that the guest list amounts to fanciful Europeans, seasonal laborers or those involved with the Japanese commercials, this hotel is always empty and has nothing uncommon about it. When you consider that, it boggles the mind that it's so pricey.
----------------------------------------------Per Person Per Night: $165.00----------------------------------------------
[Photo: The exterior of another downtown building.]▲This bed's a bit too stiff!!
The Hospital
4 stories; no. of beds: 4;
1 doctor; 1 nurse
Right next to the hotel, on its east side, is the hospital. In recent years, there have been a lot of patients who have insomnia and say they saw aliens, or who come in for bruises of unknown origin, and there's a long waiting period for examination.
--------------------------------------Examination Fee: $92.00--------------------------------------
The Ocean-Viewing Platform
The view from the rooftop is an incredible one.
Take the nonstop elevator!
Leave the residential area that stretches away on the north side of town, and as if the devastation of the town had all been a lie, you'll come upon a belt of peaceful pastures going on as far as the eye can see.
This dairy farming area, the flip side of Valentine and the town's personal pantry, is richly blessed with crops. The independently-developed organic farming and greenhouse horticulture in this area sees good results, but whatever else you may say, the milk here is perfection. After all, the soil is fertile to begin with, but the wind continuously blowing over it from the sea weakens the pest insects (that unavoidable aspect of pastures), and that makes for some good-quality farmland.
Also, ever since the Farmers' Association succeeded in their aims to provide resources for years to come by perfecting their pasteurization technique, the deliciousness of Valentine Milk™ has become known the country over, so that, alongside the cheese, it's now shipped out to the whole nation. Using the returns, the Association acquired the old weapons factory, and as a modern Ocean-Viewing Platform, it's now a place for people to stretch their legs.
There's also the newest addition, a breakwater on the coast, where you can watch people enjoy a day's fishing. However, from time to time you'll glimpse a shade of Valentine's nuance, in a baffling character who occasionally comes here from town and makes a spectacle, mumbling to himself while he fishes.
The sight from the Ocean-Viewing Platform is recommended. The Islet on the Open Sea, viewable from the free telescopes, may prepare travelers for an unexpected encounter.
[Photo: Sunset on a beach.]▲Let yourself be hit by the sea breeze and you'll forget your travel fatigue.
[Photo: Green, wide-open farmland.]▲The dairy pastures spread out north of town. You won't find any hoodlums here, that's for sure.
The Islet on the Open Sea
Area: 120 m² ⁶; Residents: 3 ⁷; You can't go
until your welcome wagon arrives
There are rumors that on the Islet on the Open Sea, which you can see from the Ocean-Viewing Platform, there live a professor and his assistants, who have for a long time been deeply immersed in the research of something mysterious.
According to the testimony of a certain party of children, a red rocket will show up out of the blue and take you to the island. Then they'll treat you to a night's dinner before they make you go home. The professor apparently has a habit of asking: "You wouldn't have any Strawberry Tofu on you?"
- Maji Kanto
真面完人
[Photo: DEAD END sign on a desert road.]▲We're finally on our way to the end of the journey!!
[Cartoon: Ninten, Ana, Lloyd and Teddy, with caricaturized faces (made to look like the real people the cartoonist, Jun Miura, named them after). There are a bunch of random scribbles and doodles in the cartoon's margins.]
Okay! The Gang's All Here!!
[Ninten:]
JUN MIURA⁸
I'm the lead character!
[Ana:]
AYA SUGIMOTO⁹
For when push comes to shove!
[Lloyd:]
NAGISA¹⁰
Ram 'em headfirst with your loud voice!!
[Teddy:]
TOTTORI¹¹
This is one tough RPG!!
He's a kung fu fan
[In the margins:]
I'm still not finished with it. ...
[An arrow points to the kebab "Ninten" is holding.]
CHICKEN GIZZARD
Just eating this makes me happy!
[Next to a doodle of an Energy Robo blowing up:]
Those @#$& Energy Robos!
[Three charred-looking figures stand off to the side.]
Someone always comes along and makes burnt toast out of us when we try to Warp!
["Ninten" (Jun Miura) is at the bottom of the page, humming a tune. Another character, unidentified, is standing next to him, saying:]
You're tone deaf. ...
Illustration: Jun Miura
EVENT CHECK POINT
There are a few events to take care of here, but the one with a deep connection to the game's progression is meeting your third friend, Teddy. By going to the Live House and fighting him once, you can add him to your party.
Area's Main Enemies:
Starman, Bison, Mook, etc.
❏ Did you go to the Live House and add Teddy to your party?
To the Live House
[Screenshot dialogue box and caption:]Hey, I got Concert Tickets.They cost $1,200. Want some?▶YES NO▲To get in here, you need to pay both the tank repair charge and the ticket fee. Tickets are cheap when you buy them at the Dept. Store.
The Encounter with Teddy
[Screenshot: The battle with the "BB Gang Boss". Caption below:]▲Sing a song at the Live House and Teddy will make his appearance. Fight him and, impressed, he'll say "not bad", and become friends with you.
¹ Identified by Biozilla.
² The word used here is DODA, the name of an information magazine on changing careers that came out the same year as MOTHER. A social phenomenon came out of this (immediately, it would seem), wherein the name became synonymous with "career change", as is the case here, where it's presented like a verb, the way one might say "I Googled it" when speaking of a Web search.
³ Oxford Languages defines a hectare as: a metric unit of square measure, equal to 100 ares (2.471 acres or 10,000 square meters).
⁴ The literal translation is "two-storied My Homes", recalling the name of the protagonist's home in the original Japanese.
⁵ Identified through Biozilla's research. He found it thanks to help from the SoHo Memory Project and Reddit user Willygolightly. Biozilla adds: The mural sadly was taken down at some point during the 2000s.
⁶ About 394 ft².
⁷ Corrected from the book's claim of only two residents.
⁸ Jun Miura (みうらじゅん): Manga artist who had help from Shigesato Itoi breaking into the industry.
⁹ Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩): A J-pop singer who came on the scene in the late '80s.
¹⁰ Nagisa: Presumably Nagisa Ooshima (大島渚). A film director and screenwriter.
¹¹ Tottori: Presumably the same Tottori (とっとり or トットリ) who made the official MOTHER character models (which apparently aren't clay as is popularly thought, but papier-mâché).
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