Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland/Gameplay

In Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, wallet and life are one. Tingle's health meter is his Rupee meter. If he has no Rupees left, he dies. The whole game revolves around losing and gaining money, making survival a delicate business.

The Rupee System
Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland has a payment system implemented to ensure people won't get stuff for the absolute lowest price by offering a low amount of money and then adding a small amount of Rupees to each new offer until the character or object accepts the offer. In most of the cases, if an offer is made that is too low, the character or object will just take the money offered without giving anything in return. The given money does not count towards a total and is simply lost. Similarly, there are situations in which you can ask what amount of Rupees you'd like to have. If you are able to choose what amount of money you want for an item (almost all items have a fixed price though) and you can ask too much, you get only 1 Rupee and the item is taken from you. If you are offered a reward for a good deed and you ask too much, you won't get anything at all.

Only a few exceptions exist. The guys repairing the bridges, dungeons, the Tower and a few others add what is given to a total.

Trading
In the whole game, you'll encounter only one person who won't ask for money for a certain service. In fact, most of the people of the town nearby Tingle's house won't even talk to him if he doesn't pay them first. And that is only the beginning. Those willing to talk to you usually want money for what they have to say (information). Depending on how much they are paid they will tell only a certain amount of what they know. The full message can still be obtained by paying the full amount of money. Messages are sorted under "Dialogue" in the rucksack. Tingle also has to pay for tools and other services. An interesting note is that the game never forces you to buy/pay for information. It's entirely up to you whether you try to figure out things on your own or need a little help. As for items, mostly those also can be ignored if you wish so, but it's not recommendable.

Tingle also has the option to sell items he acquires on his quest. Except for a few special "sidequest" items, none of these are worth much, but the supply is unlimited. For better money, Tingle can also attempt to cook new items out of the old ones (listed as "ingredients"). These new items (among which are healing potions) have to be carried in Bottles, but are worth significantly more than the ingredients they are made of and selling/giving them to the right person can unlock new stuff.

If you've played the other The Legend of Zelda-games in which Tingle appears, you know his speciality is maps. Naturally, creating maps is (an optional) part of the gameplay of Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. You are taught the arts of mapping early in the game. After that, it's up to you to find the Look-What-I-Found Kid on each island, buy the map from him, draw the various landmarks, show your progress to the Town Map-Seller and eventually sell the map to her for lots of cash. It's then up to you whether you want to buy the map back or try to find your way by memory.

Fighting
Fighting is an essential part of the gameplay, though for other reasons than in the regular The Legend of Zelda-games. Battles are fought by touching an enemy and are displayed as cartoony clouds with stars, awkward sounds and limbs coming out of it. The longer Tingle is in battle, the stronger enemies he fights and the more enemies he fights, the more Rupees (now specifically functioning as health) he loses. When Tingle's wallet reaches zero, he dies. But defeating an enemy gains you both Rupees (sometimes more, sometimes less than you've lost in battle) and items, which in turn can be used to get more Rupees. About 50% of all items have to be obtained this way. As such, fights have to be planned with a certain care as you'll most likely be only happy to fight an enemy who has wanted stuff on him.

Boss fights work differently. Boss fights are triggered by jumping into a dungeon's main treasure chest and the method of fighting differs greatly between the bosses. Tingle gets a "real" health bar or something of similar nature that displays how much more you can take. If the health bar hits zero before the boss dies, Tingle is thrown out of the chest and a certain amount of Rupees is taken from you as punishment.

To aid you in regular combat, you can also hire a bodyguard to come with you. There are 30 bodyguards in total, each with its own behaviour and skill-combination. You'll have to pay them and keep them alive by giving them healing potions, but you'll have a hard time surviving without them, as well as missing on some secrets.

Rewards
Once in a while, you'll get the chance to perform a good deed for someone. Shortly after, you'll be offered a reward for your good work. You'll be asked for what amount of Rupees you'd like to have. Ask too much and you won't get anything and the number of chances you have to ask for a proper reward are limited (1-4, and you can't leave in between two tries). In these cases, logic is the key. The three factors are:
 * 1) What did you do? Of course a person whose wife you cured from a terrible disease is more grateful and willing to pay than a person whose doll you returned. Always try to estimate a person's level of gratitude.
 * 2) At what point in the game did the (side)quest become available? Early in the game, 100 Rupees is a lot of money, while later in the game 1000 Rupees is peanuts. When asking the reward, stay in line with the other prices currently acceptable.
 * 3) What did you pay to complete the (side)quest? For example, one of the sidequests requires you to pay 20.000 Rupees first. Logically, you can ask for at least that amount when claiming your reward. Even if it's not a required investment (like paying for a tip on where to look), the reward always at least covers all possible expenses.