Alexandra Ledermann 8 - Les Secrets Du Haras

Summary
Emma, aspiring veterinarian from California, ends up at a stud farm in Provence, France, led by Flora from the previous game.

Game Design
The game is in 3D, with photorealistic textures. Unlike its prequels, this game has an ongoing clock while on the stud farm or in the countryside, while story events as well as riding or fast-traveling take a pre-defined amount of time. There are time limitations for certain actions, like not doing horse care late at night, or competitions happening on fixed dates within a time frame. These time limits also come into effect for some of the story tasks. There is a daylight cycle, as well as seasons with different weather conditions (fog, rain, snow, sun, cloudy) that have an effect on horses when in the pasture. The daylight cycle is connected to the seasons (shorter days in winter). Snow on the ground changes the walking sound.

Controls
Arrow Keys for walking (no WASD) – Up = forward, Right/Left to steer (no function on Down). Hold Shift for running, or double press Up. Arrow Keys for riding, jump with shift (only at designated obstacles), quick start or stop with Shift + Up/Down. Space to interact with items/people/location gates.

Gameplay
Emma stays at the stud farm to help out, and soon learns about the mystery around the disappearance of Flora's friend Marie. While training horses and taking part in competitions are gameplay features, they take second place behind solving the mystery. While some story events involve riding, a lot of time is spent running on foot through the French village close to the stud farm. It's possible to almost completely ignore the horses and just pursue the main story, which does not require Emma to be a successful rider, or even to do the work at the stud farm she gets paid to do.

The day cycle has a lot of influence on game progress. Emma can set an alarm for 6am-10am, and choose to go to bed anytime from 8pm. Otherwise, Emma is teleported to bed at 4am, and a new day starts. When saving and reloading the game, Emma is always teleported to her bedroom, while the time is as it was saved. The village has market days (for tack) on thursdays and sundays 8 am to 6 pm.

Horse Customization
There are five horse breeds that differ slightly in their model (size, placement of tail). They are the same model and coat variations we get in the prequel.
 * “French” (Selle Français)
 * “Arabian”
 * “English” (English Thoroughbred)
 * “Conemara” (Connemara Pony)
 * “Appaloosa”

There are 9 coat variations, available for all the breeds (except Appaloosa, which only comes in leopard and piebald).

Horse Care
In the stable, you can access feeding, medication, mucking, brushing and hoof picking, which either gives you little cut scenes, or the usual grooming minigames. Brush (but not the head!), scrape hooves (but not the frog!), remove dirty straw and replace with fresh straw. This is meant to be done every day, but stats don't always decay over night (might be a bug). Only the energy stat requires regular care so it replenishes, allowing to ride the horse in training. If you neglect your horse, it's likely to get sick, which, if untreated, immobilizes the horse for some time, which means you can not train it. From the stable, you can also access the pasture with your horse, where you can hose down your horse (check for weather, or horse can get sick!), or train lunging or horse behaviour.

Illnesses
When you get a notification in the morning that your horse is sick, you can take care of that in the stable at the first aid box. You need to pick the correct remedy to cure the horse. You'll get a cutscene about the treatment, then your horse is fine again. If you pick the wrong one twice in a row, a vet will be called, cure your horse, but immobilize it for a day, meaning you can't ride training or competitions with it. You can still ride your horse for transport, though. The same applies if you don't treat your horse at all.

Horse Behaviour
Like in its prequel, there's a horse behaviour mode. You get three separate cutscenes where your horse expresses a certain behaviour. You need to pick the correct reaction from a menu to raise your skill in this. Hints on correct reactions are given when studying horse behaviour in Flora's office.

Lunging
New in this game is the lunging mode. This requires keyboard controls to control gait and direction, as well as simultaneous mouse control, following a marking on the floor and collecting bonus (or minus..) points.

Riding
There are three disciplines to train and compete in – dressage, show jumping, and cross-country. The mechanics have been slightly updated from the last game. Move with Arrow Keys, jump with space. When standing still, you can hold Shift when pressing Up, and immediately canter. The same way, Shift+Down does a complete stand still. If you run into obstacles of any kind (or invisible walls) at a rather straight angle, your horse will refuse and stand still. If the angle is slight enough, the horse will move aside (not like a horse, more like a billard ball) and keep going.

Cross Country
The next obstacle is lit up with a colorful circle that indicates whether the horse's speed is correct. Blue/Turquoise will be a perfect jump, green is a good one, and anything below yellow will lead to a refusal.

Show Jumping
In front of each obstacle, there is a colorful bar on the floor. Altering speed will change its color (same color coding as Cross Country), depending on horse's skills, it will be easier or harder (or impossible) to get the best colors.

Dressage
Dressage follows a line of dots on the floor, which indicate the path as well as the requested gait. Gaits come with extended/collected modifier keys. There are special figures like passage or pirouette etc that are executed by repeating a set of arrow keys in the right order. Dressage gives points (0-10) for each part of the course, which add up to and end grade.

Competitions
Competitions take part every wednesday and saturday, the time window closes at 4 pm. They can be in either discipline, or a combination of all three. Your horse can only take part if it has the required skill level in the respective discipline(s). Competitions take half a day off your daytime.

Trail Riding
The trail riding area links the different game locations. As you progress in the game, you unlock the gorges and the forest. On trail rides, you can not jump. The horse has no trot, it goes from walk right into canter, then gallop, then a faster gallop. You can dismount anywhere by pressing Ctrl(Right) (if there is space and the ground is even) and explore on foot. Your horse will wait where you left it, and be marked on the map.

Locations
While there is an option to fast-travel using the map, the intended way to travel from stud farm to village or other places is on horseback (which is odd, since Emma lives in the village, but her horses live on the farm...). Whenever Emma is in the countryside, it's basically open world for exploring the area and reaching the different locations. Fast-traveling between stud farm and village entrance takes 2 in-game hours (longer for deeper in the village), while taking a horse takes about 45 min.

Village Béléou
Béléou is a fictional village in the french countryside where Emma gets stranded at the beginning of the game. There are a bunch of NPCs she can talk to, some of them play a role in the storyline as well – including Hugo (a neuro-atypical character, potentially homeless? unclear.), artist Créon (Luigi in English version), Claudette (Hilda) the store owner, ... Most of the story tasks happen in Béléou, and in Chapter 3, Emma chooses an appartment in the village. All NPCs have a “standing schedule” of where they are standing in which time frame, depending on daytime or weekday. e.g. in the afternoons, the mayor plays chess with the taxi driver in the post office café; on sunday mornings, a lot of people are found in the church.

Village NPCs
Hugo - mornings at village entrance, evenings at church square Luigi (Créon) – his atelier on market street, or church square Father Luis – in church or in front of it Taxi Driver – at café on church square, or playing chess with mayor on town hall square Mayor – in front of townhall, or playing chess with taxi driver on town hall square (sunday morning in church) Chloe – from noon in front of café on town hall square, or in her house on town hall square Hilda (Claudette) – in her house (close to village entrance), or at her store (in the alley close to town hall square) Camille – Chloe's younger sister, sometimes in Chloe's house, mostly on church square, playing jumprope or hopscotch alone, or playing a game with another (unnamed) kid. In the daytime, often seen riding a pony at the stud farm. Thomas – has no backstory, just gives pickup lines when interacted with Nameless Person who constantly sweeps her balcony opposite of Hilda's house Nameless Person sitting in either of the cafés

Stud Farm
The farm officially belongs to Marie, who has mysteriously disappeared, potentially dead. It is currently run by Marie's friends and employees Flora, Miguel (Michael), Carol, and Raphael (Oliver), who is Flora's cousin, two of whom we've already met in the prequel.

Stud Farm NPCs
Flora – in her office morning, late afternoon (and asleep at her desk later at night), whole crew in the common room for lunch break Michael (Miguel) – on stud farm courtyard in daytime, some evenings in shady square watching birds Carol – on stud farm courtyard in daytime, some evenings in market square, and she lives in one of the apartments that Emma didn't move to Oliver (Raphael) – on stud farm courtyard in daytime, or in his house on little shady square

Breeding Center
This is not an accessible building, when you ride up to it, it just opens a menu where you can buy, sell, or breed horses.

Story
The game is separated into story chapters, starting with a tutorial chapter in which Emma arrives and learns about all the game mechanics, including the riding disciplines. After completing that, the player freely decides what to do with the day. When finishing a chapter, a popup will inform you on what day the next chapter starts. Every new chapter begins with a diary screen, showing a date to progress the time, and recounting what recently happened and how Emma feels about it. Then, you return to the game, and usually get a text message or call by a character, sending you onto the next quest. If not, try leaving your apartment, someone might be waiting outside. You may also choose to ignore the quest and go about your business, and pick up the story the next time the conditions are right (e.g. if a quest asks you to go somewhere at midnight, and you miss midnight by more than one hour, you can go again the next day when it's midnight). Emma and Oliver are determined to solve the mystery, as they do not believe that Marie is actually dead. Hint: If you want to make separate saves to play out every decision, you need to make a new save before the decision, because once the decision is taken, the game will auto-save your current save!

please use spoiler tags to hide big plot points!

Chapters
Chapter “The Adventure Begins“ – Tutorial chapter - get to know the stud farm - learn about horse care – Flora lends you one of her horses - try out the riding disciplines (no free play yet)

Chapter 1 “The Happy Event” Fetch quest:

Go to the stable at midnight (between 12 pm - 00.59 am). Big Choice: Stay or Leave

The game moves on to chapter 2 or 3, depending on choice.

Chapter 2 “A Brillant Career” This chapter only happens when Emma decides to go to her internship in Paris.

The game moves on to chapter 4.

Chapter 3 “Young Woman Seeks Apartment” This chapter only happens when Emma decides to ditch the internship and take the job at the stud farm right away. First of all, Emma gets to choose her first own horse. Emma is also responsible for Amelie, the newborn foal. Oliver invites Emma to his place, there is a cutscene. He then gives her the ads for available apartments in Béléou. You can also pick up a collectable figurine in his room.

The choice of apartment has influence on where in the village you start your day, but also has an influence on which chapter comes next:

Chapter 4 “Young Woman Seeks Apartment” This chapter only happens when Emma decided to go to her internship in Paris, and then came back to the stud farm. First of all, Emma gets to choose her first own horse. Emma is also responsible for Amelie, the newborn foal. Plot Piece:

Emma needs to decide for an apartment in Béléou.

You visit Oliver to get the key to the flat, so you can pick up the collectable figurine there in any case. Oliver is less excited than in chapter 3 with the cutscene. The choice of apartment has influence on where in the village you start your day, but also has an influence on which chapter comes next, because:

Chapter 5 “The Mystery of the Tape Recorder” This chapter only happens when Emma decided to rent Hilda's apartment. Action Cutscene:

The game moves on to chapter 6.

Chapter 6 “Business is going badly” This chapter happens after chapter 4 or 5.

Spying Quest:

Big Choice:

Chapter 7 “Infiltration” This chapter only happens when Emma decides to Emma finds a secret letter from Oliver on her doorstep declaring a meeting:

Next, meet Oliver at 10 pm by the mayor's house (the game says 10.30 pm, but the time frame is 10-11 pm).

Chapter 8 “Infiltration” This chapter only happens when Emma decides to Emma finds a secret letter from Oliver on her doorstep with a list of things she needs to aquire:

Next, meet Oliver at 10 pm by the mayor's house (the game says 10.30 pm, but the time frame is 10-11 pm), bring all the items.

Chapter 9 “The Mystery of the Pendant” This chapter only happens when Emma and Oliver Emma gets a phone call from Luigi The game moves on to chapter 11.

Chapter 10 “Mission Vegetable” This chapter happens after chapter 7 or 8, if Emma & Oliver didn't

Chloe asks Emma to meet her, and asks her for a favor. You'll find Chloe on the Town Hall Square in front of the café from 12 noon.

The game moves on to chapter 12.

Chapter 11 “Marie's Secret” This chapter happens after chapter 9. Oliver has a plan how to...

Meet Oliver at the right spot:

The game moves on to chapter 12.

Chapter 12 “The Photography Competition” This chapter happens after chapter 10 or 11. Emma finds a letter at her door, inviting to a photo competition.

Where to find them:

Chapter 13 “Hilda's Crush” This chapter happens after chapter 12 if Emma finished the photo competition. The results of the photo competition are in! Meet Hilda on Town Hall Square.

The game moves on to chapter 15.

Chapter 14 “The Meeting” This chapter happens after chapter 12 if Emma

Go see Oliver to talk about the plan

The stranger is...

In any case, the game moves on to chapter 15.

Chapter 15 “The End of a Dream?” This chapter happens after chapter 13 or 14. Oliver is calling – come to the stud farm right away!

Chapter 16 “A wacky idea” This chapter happens after chapter 15 if

Oliver asks Emma to come over for the “idea of the century –

The game moves on to chapter 18.

Chapter 17 “Trapped” This chapter happens after chapter 15 if

The chapter starts with a cutscene, Emma is sitting in the courtyard of the stud farm,

The game moves on to chapter 19.

Chapter 18 “Bad Publicity” This chapter happens after chapter 16. The television people arrived! Meet them at the village entrance, where the journalist will immediately request you to bring him a coffee...

The game moves on to an ending cutscene.

Chapter 19 “One Last Speech” This chapter happens after chapter 17. Oliver is calling Emma to his place for a good surprise:

The game moves on to chapter 20.

Chapter 20 “The Final Discovery” This chapter happens immediately after chapter 19. In a cutscene, Oliver and Emma are frustrated that they still have not solved the whole mystery of Marie's disappearance. While talking,

The game moves on to an ending cutscene.

Choices and Endings
Some of the player choices will affect flavor or even plot of the game (details in the chapter spoilers above!). Certain choices (including finishing a certain amount of side quests) will also affect what ending cutscenes you will get.

Chapter 1: Different flavor of one of the ending cutscenes.

Chapter 3 or 4:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7 or 8:

This affects the ending.

Chapter 10:

Chapter 12: This affects the ending.

Chapter 14: This affects the ending.

There are two parts to the ending sequence, combined depending on previous choices.

Part 1
Flora, Emma, and Oliver are meeting in Chloe's café.

Ending 1

You can get this ending by

Ending 2

You can get this ending by

Part 2
In the last scene, Emma is riding her horse through the countryside,

Ending A

You can get this ending by

Ending B

You can get this ending by

Ending C

You can get this ending by

Collectables
There are 10 hidden figurines in stud farm and village. The models in the world and the collection entries are mixed up.

These are the locations:

Finding all of them unlocks a bonus in the main menu:

Differences between Releases
Names of characters have been localized. Oddly, esp in the German version, names got changed to something french-sounding instead of keeping the original french ones. In the Dutch version, most of the names were changed to Dutch names.

Wasting Time
Want to pass time quickly so you can skip towards the next chapter? Fast-traveling uses up a set amount of time every time you move, depending on distance. This takes way more time than actually walking or riding between those places. Just travel back and forth via the map until it's bedtime or quest time. You can go to bed earliest at 8, but automatic bed time isn't until 4 am. Instead of walking into your house to go to bed, you can also fast travel around until it's close to 4 am, but you need to time that well, otherwise you'll be stuck with not enough time to use fast-travelling (game doesn't allow it!), but too much time to stand around waiting for 4 am.


 * Stud farm – Village Entrance: 2 hrs
 * Stud farm – North of Village: 2:38 hrs
 * Stud farm – South of Village: 3 hrs
 * Village Entrance – North: 38 min
 * Village Entrance – South: 1 hr
 * North – South: 23 min


 * Village Entrance – Countryside: 53 min
 * North – Countryside: 1:30 hrs
 * South – Countryside: 2:30 hrs
 * Stud Farm to Countryside: 1 hr


 * Village Entrance – Gorges: 1:23 hrs
 * North – Gorges: 2 hrs
 * South – Gorges: 2:23 hrs
 * Stud Farm to Gorges: 2:30 hrs


 * Village Entrance – Forest: 2:08 hrs
 * North – Forest: 2:46 hrs
 * South – Forest: 3:15 hrs
 * Stud Farm to Forest: 3 hrs


 * Countryside – Gorges: 2:30 hrs
 * Countryside – Forest: 1:53 hrs
 * Gorges – Forest: 1:15 hrs

Another option is using the fact that interacting with the stores consumes a lot of time, too – open the store menu, close it, you have spent X hours! You can do that until the shops close – market closes at 6 pm (but only happens on Thursday + Sunday!), Hilda's store closes at 7 pm. However, Hilda's store is several screens away from any fast-travel points, so if you want to use that, you need to walk there first, so using only the map solution tends to be less effort.

Market: 45 min per shopping trip

Tricks & Hacks
Want to lock the character to always running instead of walking? Hold Shift while leaving the game window (Alt + Tab), then return to the game. Character will run by default until you press Shift again.

Messing with Game Files
When looking into the save files, you can edit a bunch of little things! For sure way more things than I have tried to do, feel free to try out more, and edit this!

On my computer, the path is: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Petz Horsez 2\Save\ To mess with these, leave your save game, but you don't have to leave the whole game, just reload the save game from the main menu!

More Beds!
If you want to sleep in a different bed every night, go into your save game's files and open “Level_Doors”. The first few lines are these:

strDoorID	iIsActive	iIsVisible Entrance	1	       1 PFarmBedToBed	0	       0 PFlat1ToBed	0	       0 PFlat2ToBed	0	       0 PFlat3ToBed	1	       1

You might also want to change your access to collection, alarm clock, and wardrobe: PFarmBedToIGirl	 1	        1 PFarmBedToIAlarm 1	        1 PFarmOfficeToICom 1	       1 PFlat1ToICol	 0	        0 PFlat1ToIAlarm	 0	        0 PFlat1ToIGirl	 0	        0 ...

Set all the 0 to 1! You can now interact with every available bed, but you will wake up in your own bed. If you want to change which flat is yours to have your savepoint in, that's a different setting: In Sce_VarsStates

Change strCurrentBed	PFlat2 PFarmBed=Farm guest room, PFlat1=Chloe's flat (church square), PFlat2=Hilda's flat (shady square), PFlat3=Oliver's flat (village entrance)

The rest of the lines in Level_Doors are other “doors” (=interactable locations), for example PChurchNaveToPChurchCrypt - re-enables the church crypt, just cool PVillageAlleyToPMayorHouse - re-enables the mayor's house, useful for getting the collectible

Cat Content!
If you want to get Crokette the cat for your flat without unlocking her during the story, go into your save game's files and open “NPCMng_CharacterPlanningStates”. CatPFlat1	0 CatPFlat2	0 CatPFlat3	0 Pick your flat (or enable it for all three) and set value to 1.

Fulfill Secondary Objectives
ObjectifSec_List change all FALSE to TRUE

Acquire Things
Pla_Acquisitions Set 0 or -1 to 1 to unlock dressage gaits, or tack. (i have not tested yet)

Changing Player Character Values
Pla_General

Tokens	       2689 – just change to what you like (have not tested past 7 digits) SalaryValue	1000 – yay, payraise!

Unlock buyable horses
Sta_HorseStore Sta_SpecialHorses Change the last 0 of a line to 1 to make it available at the breeding center. Special Quest Horses are in an extra document. Untested: change the horse's coat, breed, stats, ...

Customize Horse Stats
Sta_Slots

This is an overview over your horses. You can have a maximum of 8 horses! To read this table more easily, you can use Tab to align it. You can save it that way without changing it back, game doesn't mind. You can change: Name (character limit: ?), Sex (Male/Female), Age (in months), Breed (will affect horse model - Arabian, French, Appaloosa, Conemara, English), Coat (if you change age from foal to grownup, make sure to change foal coat to horse coat) and stats: Ag = Agility = Dressage skill End = Endurance = CrossCountry skill Mus = Muscle Structure = Show Jumping skill Lvl Ag = Current training level in Agility. Horse rises 1 level per 100 points, so 500 points is the maximum. Lvl Train Ag = Current training level, but the purple / temporary bar ?? Pot Ag = The potential / maximum level the horse can reach – this is the stat to mess with to make a perfect horse. Confidence = Horse Behaviour Activity level 0-100 Learning = Lunging Activity level 0-100

'''The following data edits are not in a single save file, but in the game's settings. Make sure to make backup copies of the files before you change them, so you don't break your game!'''

Change Time Consumption
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Petz Horsez 2\Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\DayMng This folder contains two files with the time it takes to do activities. You can make them more realistic, or more convenient ;) This allows you to either do things without spending time on them, or you can crank the fast travel times up high to get to the next chapter faster... The numbers are in minutes. GameplayTime covers all activities, and MapTime covers the fast-travel times.

Change Daylight Cycle
Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\Level Level_SunCycle You can change the times when the sun rises and sets in each season.

Change Chapter Wait Time
.... or you can simply change that directly: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Petz Horsez 2\Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\Sce in “Sce_WaitingDays”, you can change how many days of waiting come in between chapters! (i have not tested yet)

Change Rewards for Training / Competitions
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Petz Horsez 2\Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\Eva & Event The file Eva_Rewards lists the benefits / rewards gained from completing competitions. You can use this to train your horse's skills faster or earn more token for it. (i did not test yet) The file Event_CircuitXP in folder “Event” lists the XP for training. (i did not test yet, i could even be wrong).

Change Competition Placement
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Petz Horsez 2\Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\Rank There's placement tables for the NPCs you need to beat. You can make that easier or harder for yourself. (i have not tested yet)

Change Stat Decay
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Petz Horsez 2\Asset\Standard\Database\Feature\Sta In “Sta_UpdateDayCoeff”, you can change the decay of your horses' stats overnight. (i have not tested yet)

Critical Comments
The character Hugo is depicted and described to have autism, but (spoiler tag for description of ableist comments/mechanics)

Trivia
The protagonist of My Horse & Me 2 is also called Emma, is also a red blonde girl (though seeming younger than this game's Emma) – AND is voiced by the same voice actor, Mirabelle Kirkland. Coincidence, or headcanon of how Emma used to ride at her uncle's farm in Pennsylvania before moving to California (presumably together with her dad, when her mother died), where she studied veterinary medicine before moving to France...?

Additional Media




System Requirements & Compatibility
Save Files Location: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Petz Horsez 2\Save