The Ushi No Tane websites specialize in information, FAQs, and guides about the Nintendo console versions of the Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Legend of the River King video games. These game genres are created and published in Japan by Marvelous. In other regions, you'll find Natsume, XSeed Games, Marvelous AQL of Europe, and Rising Star involved in the series' release.

The latest version of the mainstream farming series that have been released in various regions of the world are:

• Japan: Bokujou Monogatari: Return to Mineral Town (October 2019)
• North America: Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (May 2018 [Switch/Ps4]) and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns (February 2017)
• Europe: Harvest Moon: Light of Hope (June 2018 [Switch/Ps4]) and Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns (October 2017)

The latest version of River King, in all regions of the world, is River King: Mystic Valley (NA 2008, EU 2009).

Since 2000, Ushi no Tane has been run by a grouchy old lady who happens to be fond of video game agriculture along with two one feline intern. The website is not officially affiliated, sponsored, endorsed, or employed by the developers of Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, or River King. This is simply a fan site.

Latest Farming Video Game News

Happy Farm'n Friday! It's another week of stay-at-home, now with a state-wide facemask mandate. It's been interesting to see all the different designs of masks that everyone is coming up with. It's a mix of hand-made, construction, and surgical-style masks. Creativity is overflowing here!

Those in the USA who preordered Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town through Amazon.com have received email notification from the online retailer that the shipping date for the game + preorder plushie has been delayed. Instead of a July 14 release date delivery, the game is expected to ship from Amazon sometime between July 29 and August 28. The reason for the delay is unknown, though it may be a safe assumption that it is COVID related.

Recent Patches

This week, the patch to fix the invisible wall bug for the Nintendo Switch version of Stranded Sails: Explorers of the Cursed Islands was released. Roka Publishing apologized for the COVID-related delays with patching the game.

Also patched this week was the Japanese version of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town. The game update released a few weeks ago (version 1.1.4) introduced a bug that removed the text from the overhead thought bubble to indicate something eaten was delicious or unpleasant. For example, the text bubble that appears above the cooking festival's gourmet's head while he tastes contest entries, or the text bubble that appears after eating the community stew during the fall harvest festival. The 1.1.5 patch added the missing text bubble back into the game.

The Switch edition of Summer in Mara has also recently been patched to fix various bugs and hiccups that came about when the game was released. Another patch has been submitted to Nintendo to review that will add some quality-of-life improvements to the Switch edition such as fast travel to islands that have been previously discovered and enabling Koa to craft and cook while away from her home island.

Farming Simulator Contest Winners

Back in April, the team at Farming Simulator invited players to submit fun videos showcasing the Bourgault DLC farming equipment. Giants Software has now revealed the third, second, and first-place winners. You can check out the winning videos on the official Farming simulator website:

• Bourgault Video Contest: Winners + Reaction Video!

July BokuMobage Events

There's a new batch of events scheduled to take place this July in the online browser-based version of Bokujou Monogatari on the Mobage social community platform:

• A summer fireworks-themed competitive harvest festival started on July 1. Players try to earn as many points as they can by harvesting Dianthus firework flowers, Dianthus firework trees, goldfish-catching cats, and yukata-wearing rabbits. In-game prizes will be awarded based on the number of points a player earns. Throughout the festival, friendship hearts can be sent to other players that can be exchanged for more in-game prizes.
• A Big Crop event begins on the 11th. During this event, players grow special crops in a dedicated event field. Harvesting these crops will increase a level bar. Once the bar is filled, then a three-card monty game triggers where players pick one of three random cards. As you pick the right card, the pick-a-card chain continues until the wrong card is selected (a maximum of 5 hands are dealt), at which point players are awarded in-game nuts. These nuts will award prizes based on the amount collected during the event. There will also be a large crop in the middle of the dedicated event field that increases its size (i.e., becoming a big crop) as players trigger the three-card mini-game and earn their nuts.
• The fun Bingo event will be the final contest for the month. Starting on July 21, farmers will grow special bingo crop seeds and hope they get three of the same crop in a row or a full board of the same crop for a max bingo, which is worth more points. In-game prizes will be awarded based on the total number of bingo points collected during the event. Players can use their Sunshine Ability to increase the number of harvestable items on their friends' bingo cards, but bonus bingo points will only be awarded if the ability is used on an active three-in-a-row bingo. Typically it is best to wait until the board is full of the same crop to trigger a max bingo and then wait until a multiplier triggers to earn bingo points. This event often has time-based prizes that no longer become available for players to win once the availability time expires, so it's good to earn points as fast as possible before the prizes expire!

Until next time!

-Cher
(I think there's a game coming out next week...?)

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