Go to the Commerce Guild is the first mission you’ll obtain in My Time at Portia.
Characterization
At the start of the game, you’re able to customize your character. There are a variety of things you can do here, so allow me to touch base on some.
Choose your gender
You’re aiming to be either a boy or a girl. What you choose doesn’t really matter, as in this game you’re able to do same-sex marriages. Very interesting, really.
You’re also able to give your character a voice if you want. Typically in these types of games your character is mute, but here, we’re not. Unless you choose to be. I wasn’t a huge fan of all the female character’s voices, and I can’t say much about the male spectrum of things.
Hairstyle
Keep in mind you can rotate your character and look at them all around when choosing the hairstyle you like, but don’t forget there’s also a mirror. So if you don’t want to keep turning, then check out the reflection to see how you look from behind.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, when you put a mirror in your home, you don’t actually see your reflection.
Odd that they’d do it here and not in-game, but I guess it was never a necessity.
Anyway, you’ve got a variety of hairstyles to choose from (I prefer the female’s short faux-hawk type of style). You can mess with the front length as well as the back for you business up front, party in the back goers.
As for colors, there’s the main color, and then the highlights.
Face type
This and further down are the places where I didn’t fiddle too much with, since the generic stature of the character seemed perfect to me. But if you want to mess with it, then there are multiple facial structures to scroll through.
Then there’s the skin color. The main coloration and then…not highlights, but the next shade overlapping it.
No, you can’t peel your skin off and have another color underneath it.
Upper face
So many goofy things you could do in this area. I try to keep her normal-looking mind you. Remember you have to put up with looking at your character from time to time, so try not to make them too cringe-worthy.
Then again, someone has to love them.
I just change the coloration of the eyes. Again, the main color with an off-color highlight.
Lower face
While you can’t obsessively deform your character’s looks too much here like you can with the upper face section, you can still do some damage. I kept to changing the lips.
Decoration
The decorations are merely cosmetic. I didn’t find many of them to look too good. Even the eye shadow parts could make you look like a raccoon if you’re not careful.
Reset & Randomize
If you don’t like what you’ve done, or all this is too much work, you can either hit Reset or you could spam-click Randomize until you see what you like.
Choose your birthday
Like in the Harvest Moon games, you’re able to choose your birthday, in which people would come and bring you gifts, if they like you enough. Well, looks like things aren’t too different here, so pick a date and let’s move on.
Go to the Commerce Guild Guide
A new day. Go to the Commerce Guild to meet Presley.
After a short cutscene, you’ll meet up with Presley, who asks you to follow him to your new workshop, since your Pa’s passing. So do it!
There are some hints on the left side. In order to make them disappear, just do as the tutorials say.
Upon reaching your new home, Presley hands you a letter from your father.
Child,
When you read this letter, I will already be on the other side of the world. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry that I’m not the father you wanted me to be. This was all so sudden, so I didn’t have much time to tell you or figure out how to take care of you. Then I thoughts about this workshop! It might not look like much now, but it will brace you from the wind and cover you from the rain. I have left my Workshop Handbook that details how I created things in my workshop. The rest is up to you. Do your best and live a wonderful life! You will always be my pride and joy!
Pa
Presley hands you your father’s Workshop Handbook before telling you to head over to the Commerce Guild in Peach Plaza. Don’t worry, you can check out the map to see where things are–it’s easy enough to figure out.
As for the Handbook, you’ll be going through it constantly throughout the game.
Before you can obtain your Builder License, you need to go through some tests that Presley plans to put you through. I know, sweating bullets already. Unfortunately, despite it being the middle of the day, you won’t be able to do anything at all, because you decide to pass out until the next day.
After you wake up, head over to the Guild and speak with Presley.
Once your quest is complete, your first test begins with The Builder Test.
FAQ
Why is my stamina not full?
As the character suggests, you’ll need to fix all the floorboards in your home before you can wake up with a full stamina bar. You need 36 Wood to do so.
Why is the guild closed?
If you go to the Commerce Guild first thing, you won’t be able to head in, as it opens at 8:00. So instead, take the time to talk to some of the townsfolk. Do this day-by-day and your reputation with them will slowly go up. You can also try other things to boost your rep with them, stamina allowing.
