Draft:Shiren 5 Vita:Inori Village

Inori Village is a "rest area" (non-combat area, non-dungeon) where you begin the game. There are many NPCs to talk to, both inside and outside of buildings, some stationary and some moving. You'll need to speak to most if not all of these NPCs multiple times throughout your gameplay state in order to unlock everything. In particular, you must kick off the primary storyline about the star-crossed lovers Jirokichi and Oyu before you can leave this location at all. Later, after beating the Tower of Fortune for the first time, there is an ending cutscene that takes place here, and then you can begin accessing the enormous amounts of bonus content available in this game. (The story goes that you tried to leave but got lost in the jungle and returned to Inori Village.) Aside from your very first run and your first run after beating the Tower of Fortune, all other runs start in the hotel in Nekomaneki Village.

Talking to some NPCs is necessary to advance or unlock various aspects of the game. Others give you hints or tips. Some of the latter offer veritable libraries of reference information about how to play and master the game. There are also loads of secret things you can unlock here, sometimes by doing things elsewhere. Here are some of the more useful things you can do in Inori Village:

• After kicking off the main storyline with Jirokichi and Oyu, you can exit to the east to Ouma Shrine. After beating Ouma Shrine, the same exit just takes you directly to Nekomaneki Village.
• A lady in the Beginner House offers you access to the Training Facility.
• A hermit in the Beginner House offers you access to the Night Training Facility, though this needs to be unlocked by talking to a hermit in Hermit's Hermitage.
• After beating the Tower of Fortune for the first time and completing the main storyline, an exit opens up in the back of the Beginner House (building 4) to the Inori Cave bonus dungeon.
• An old woman in the 2nd building gives you catnip, which is necessary to unlock ally Gen in Nekomaneki Village.
• Kojirouta, the rich man's son, is an ally you can recruit here in building 1.
• If you escort Kojirouta to the top of the Tower of Fortune then return to building 1, it unlocks the entrance to the Pitfall of Life bonus dungeon at the back of that building.
• Lost/untagged equipment can sometimes show up in the field of crops. See this external webpage for more info.
• There's a suspicious-looking hot spring, which can be used to fill a special and hard-to-acquire pot. (See Pots for more info.)
• There's a suspicious-looking "ordinary" well, from which you can get a hard-to-acquire item as part of the Decchi Man side quest. (See Onigiri Hollow for more info.)
• Bonus dungeons Old Road and Onigiri Hollow can also be accessed here once they are unlocked.