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: A Wonderful Life (January 2023)
• North America: Harvest Moon: One World (March 2021) and Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town for Ps4 (July 2022)
• Europe: Harvest Moon: One World (March 2021) and Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town for Ps4 (July 2022)

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

Happy Farm'n Friday! The bulb garden at the end of the driveway has gone into full bazonkers mode, with blooming daffodils in various color combinations and arrangements showing off their happy faces. I tend to not keep track of what I plant in that area, as I just toss in any discounted or free bulbs in that space, which makes it a nice surprise whenever the flowers bloom. Coming up behind the daffodils are the tulips, then the alliums, and then... well, I need to find some summertime bulbs. Maybe some hosta or begonia? The area only gets a mix of sun and shade during summer because of the mature street trees, whereas right now, the trees are bare and let the sunlight through.

With the emergence of flowers also awakens my favorite garden pest - the slug. They have been terribly destructive for the giant orange tulips and the late-blooming peony. Remembering the slug beer-traps Mr.Fogu 3D printed last year, I put them out on Wednesday night and caught 37 little pests by the next morning. Pulled out another 20 slugs today! I should have scheduled a calendar reminder to put the slug traps out earlier.

As for my adventures through Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, I have reached the mid-way point of Chapter 6. Da-chan, the magical teddy bear, is in my kid's room. I negotiated the 1 million G price tag down to 900,000 G with Van, but the bear was still expensive. While you can tell Da-chan is breathing, the toy doesn't seem to do anything else. I've also been working on growing every type of hybrid crop I can get Tsurudan to mix up and collecting all the cooking recipes from the Harvest Sprites. Only a few more seasons until the end of the story.

SoS:AWL NS Channel

A new channel dedicated to SoS:AWL has appeared in the Nintendo Switch's News section in Europe and Oceania. Marv EU now has an in-console promotional outlet for sharing information about the game's upcoming June 27 release. The first entry in their channel is an overview of the game to promote digital preorders on the Nintendo eShop, along with the MukuMuku preorder costume bonus.

North America currently doesn't have an SoS:AWL news channel. NA didn't have one for Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (while Europe and Japan did), so there's a possibility we won't have one for AWL either.

SoS:AWL 1.0.2 Update

Marvelous released a patch yesterday to correct additional issues found with the Japanese version of the game. The 1.0.2 update adjusted the below mechanics:

• Fixed a bug with the in-game camera moving around quickly when the player was on the hill leading up to the mansion.
• Corrected an issue where sometimes ordering an expansion via the shipping notebook would cause a delay between when a facility was ordered and when it was delivered by Takakura. When ordering a farm facility, it is supposed to arrive the next morning, except for the cheese/butter building, which takes 5 days to arrive. Sometimes it took a few days for facilities to be delivered for no apparent reason. Guess it was a game bug!
• Fixed a bug where an egg under the grazing bell would remain there for days. Directing a chicken to where it will lay its egg outside is impossible. Sometimes a chicken sitting under the grazing bell outside the poultry barn will lay an egg RIGHT below the bell. Trying to pick up the egg ends up interacting with the grazing bell instead. Usually, I can get around it by nudging the movement stick in a direction that makes the interact-with-the-bell prompt turn into a pick-up-the-egg prompt, but it would be better if it didn't happen.
• Fixed a bug where all the animals will go to sleep on Spring 1. I've had this happen and assumed it was just bad luck! After placing all the animals in the pasture, they fell asleep before I could use my Goddess Milker to collect milk from the cows and goats. There's a negative hit to animal affection if you dare wake up an animal while it's asleep, so there was nothing I could do but move on with my day and try again after they woke up.
• Corrected an issue with Molly's 2nd romantic event that would prevent progress under certain circumstances. I haven't seen this one, but I'm glad it's fixed!
• Fixed an issue in Chapter 2 when sometimes progress froze after dropping the child the player was holding. I haven't seen this one either, but another player noted that they got stuck when the ZZZZ tired emoticon bubble popped up on their character while holding their child.
• During the Child's Treasure event in Chapter 3, the event played out the same, no matter the condition of the room. Not quite sure what Marv meant here. Ideally, this event should differ based on whether there's a large stick or a wooden chest in the room, so perhaps it was related to that. I've only seen the treasure chest version, as Edith doesn't have the large stick in her room.
• Fixed an issue where the protagonist could get stuck in a tree near the Harvest Sprites' house.
• Various unspecified bug fixes were implemented.

RF Wooly Rerelease

Pop culture and video game limited-edition merchandise shop EEO is accepting orders for the GraffArt Rune Factory 5 Wooly plushie the company previously sold in June 2021. This fuzzy monster is 22cm tall (about 8.5 inches) and sold directly from the EEO Store website for 3850円 (about $29 USD).

This Wooly plushie differs from the one produced by System Service for game arcades in Japan. The arcade prize machine XL RF5 Wooly released in May 2022, is about 42 cm tall (16.5 inches).

More Wooly?!

XSeed Games revealed details today about the Nintendo Switch physical edition of Rune Factory 3 Special, scheduled to be released on Switch and Steam on September 5, 2023. The North American special edition includes:

• A copy of the Nintendo Switch game,
• An acrylic standee of the protagonists from the past three RF games,
• A CD soundtrack of the game's music,
• A custom planner book printed with chibi versions of the game's heroines and Micah,
• The swimsuit DLC, and
• A commemorative box.

In comparison, the Marvelous EU special physical edition of RF3S contains a copy of the game, a poster, a blank notebook, a sticker sheet, a cloth patch, and two pin badges.

Those who preorder the special or normal edition directly from XSeed Games can add a golden Wooly plushie keychain to their order for an extra $5. While the Wooly plushie keychain you could buy from their store for RF5 was the normal white-furred monster, this one is themed after Micah and his golden-furred monster form. Looks like I'll have to buy RF3 after all...

XSeed will announce in the future via their social network accounts when their online store is open to accepting preorders for RF3 Special.

Until next time!

Cher
(Starting to plan the 1970s striped wall mural project for the home office!)

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