Ushi No Tane | Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, and Legend of the River King Video Games

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 (JP). In other regions, you'll find Natsume, XSeed Games/Marvelous (USA), Marvelous (EU), 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: Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)
North America: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition (October 2025) and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)
Europe: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition (October 2025) and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)

The latest version of River King, in all regions of the world, is River King: Mystic Valley (JP 2007, 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 feline helpers: Intern Captain Bootu and Intern Hondo Mewnaka. 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

Solarpunk Release Date Announced, New Thriller Farm'n Game Revealed, and Indie Updates | Posted at 04:28 PM 10 April 2026

photograph Happy Farm'n Friday! The disappointment with tomatoes carries over another week, as the two seedlings haven't grown at all, while the two containers that were replanted have shown no growth. I'm assuming the seeds are okay (they're not too old), so the culprit may be the "organic" seedling soil I was using. Dumped it out and used my go-to starter soil for the third resowing of seeds, then replanted the two sprouts into containers of normal soil. If this doesn't improve my plants, it may be faster and easier to get some tomato starters from plant nurseries.

The resowing of the green snow peas was at least productive, so those will be planted soon. I have a packet of corn seeds that has been tempting me to plant, though my sister-in-law advised against growing corn (the squirrels ate all of theirs). It might be good for a small experiment to test squirrel deterrents.

I've been neck-deep in documenting cooking recipes for both Grand Bazaar and Home Sweet Home lately. Why are there so many recipes? Most of them aren't useful!

Coral Island looks to have fewer recipes, though I recently unlocked the ocean farm space. I haven't checked yet to see if that farm's kitchen has a unique cookbook...

Solarpunk Release Date

During the Triple-I Initiative showcase this morning, publisher Rokaplay (Sugardew Island, Stranded Sails, etc.) and two-person game developer Cyberware announced that their sustainable survival + farming game Solarpunk will be released for Steam, Epic Game Store, GOG, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on June 8.

According to the press release…

At launch, Solarpunk will feature a co-op mode where up to four players can embark on an adventure together (cross-play not supported). From strategically dividing up resource-gathering tasks to travelling together to explore different islands, to building one or many beautiful homes, the broad sky is only half as lonely when shared with friends.

Key Features:

Together or solo – A relaxed single-player experience or laid-back co-op gameplay with friends.
A home in the sky – Gather resources and design a floating sanctuary exactly the way you want it.
Cozy farming and crafting – Grow food, craft tools, and automate simple systems at your own pace.
Renewable Energy – Harness the sun, wind, and water to power your world sustainably and efficiently.
Airship exploration – Build your own airship and glide through the clouds between distant islands.

Solarpunk was initially a crowdfunded campaign in June 2023 that had a release window of 2024, but the features added via stretch goals and additional requested features from backers lengthened the development timeframe. The alpha test took place last fall, with more updates made to the game based on playtester feedback, followed by a beta test earlier this year. Overall, it should be a great game to play solo or with up to four friends on the same platform.

New Farm'n - Crop

Also revealed during Triple-I, from indie game studio Carbonara Games and publisher 11 Bit Studios, comes a new thrill-seeking farming game called Crop, a story-driven experience with an underlying theme of horror and gore.

Living in this strange town, disconnected from civilization for unknown reasons, the player is trapped on a decaying farm, tasked with harvesting crops for survival. You'll have to protect the crops from birds and apply pesticides to stave off pests. Digging through the field may yield clues as to why you've been trapped in this small town, which relies on the farm for food while its residents claim they're waiting for rescue from a storm that surrounds the village. The stressed townsfolk have mysteries of their own, of course, as they butt heads with each other while under duress caused by starvation.

It's up to you to figure out who brought you to this broken farm, who is watching from the shadows, and why nobody from the outside has made an attempt at rescuing the villagers.

The game is more gory than spooky, with corpses and intestines, so I'll simply link to the trailer below. The game will be released on Steam, though no release window has been announced yet:

Indie Updates

Seedlab announced late yesterday that while developing Starsand Island, assets from an existing game were utilized during the planning phase and carried over into production. Players noticed that one of the mini-games was very similar to classic Tetris. Starsand Island has been temporarily removed from the Steam store until the issue is resolved by Seedlab.

Starsand Island | Steam Store (when it comes back online)

Until next time

-Cher
(So many meal recipes in these farm'n games!)

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