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: The Winds of Anthos (September 2023) and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (June 2023)
• Europe: Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos (October 2023) and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (June 2023)

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! I've a terrible problem with getting indoor-sprouted plants to get accustomed to outdoor living. In theory, gardeners are to take them outside for a few hours, bring them back inside, take them outside again for a longer time, then back inside, and so on until the plant can adjust to outdoor lighting conditions. The office work schedule makes this rather difficult to do for more than three days at a time, so inevitably I'll end up with plants with leaf burns because their chlorophyll can't absorb sunlight properly yet. This year the damage has killed three watermelon sprouts and almost killed off the Black Vernissage tomato plant; while it lost most of its leaves, it does have new growth on it. Whew, close call...

Last weekend I started some lotus seeds that will be planted in a container and submerged into the fish pond. I do not know what color the flowers will be, as the package label of the gifted seeds simply says "lotus seeds" in Hanzi, so hopefully they'll be pretty!

Now then, a bunch of farming stuff took place this week. Let's get started!

April Bokumono Mobile Events

The responses from the game's feedback survey a while back resulted in last month's Hungry Animal event supplying two fields in which to grow animal food, rather than just a single field. That extra field did make it easier to feed other farmers' random hungry animal and earn in-game rewards.

This month in the online Bokujou Monogatari for Mobage game platform, the events are:

• A strawberry shortcake Harvest event started on April 1st. During the Strawberry Fiesta events, players will harvest Strawberry Cream Puff flowers and Strawberry Cream Cake trees, while caring for Strawberry Roll Rabbits and Strawberry Cake Shiba Inu dogs on their farm plots. Awards are given at the end of the event for the amount of harvest points earned compared to all other players. During random special times, the number of points earned during harvest can be double or triple the normal amount, which can then award farmers with Friend Hearts to exchange with other social game users. These friendship hearts can then be exchanged for another group of prizes. There's also a third group of prizes based on the 10-person team that players join. This event is scheduled to end on the 9th.
• Starting on the 11th is a Big Crop Festival. During this event, players grow special crops on 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 with 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.
• Finally on the 21st is the Bingo Event. 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.

Doraemon Bokumono Release Date

This week Bandai Namco revealed that the Japan release of their Doraemon x Story of Seasons crossover game, Doraemon Bokujou Monogatari will be released on June 13 for Nintendo Switch, along with a new promo video for the game:

The story begins with Nobita and Doraemon finding a mysterious seed, which they plant ('cuz who wouldn't want to plant strange seeds?!). The seed developed into a tree, but a sudden storm whisked them away up into the sky! When they awoke, they found themselves at the base of a large tree and discovered that Doraemon's secret tools (gadgets) were lost during the storm, meaning they can't return to their home world. The group meets a fellow named Lunch, who shows them a strange village called Season Town. They'll live and help the residents of Season Town while trying to figure out a way to return to their home world. Shizuka takes up work at a clinic, Suneo helps out at the village restaurant, Gian assists at the carpenter's, and Doraemon goes to help the mayor. Nobita volunteers to help Lunch with the desolate ranch outside of town. And with that, Nobita starts his farming adventure!

Those who preorder the game will receive a downloadable Nobita Room furniture for the farm house, recreating the decor of Nobita's bedroom in the Doraemon series. There are also retailer specific preorder seed bundles available. For example, pre-orders at Amazon.jp will receive a Four Seasons seeds of Cucumber, Paprika, Carrot, and Daikon Radish; preorders at Joshin will receive a code to download a Spring Season seeds of Turnip, Potato, Lettuce, and Strawberry; and orders at HMV will get a download code for a Flower seeds of Red Carnation, Hibiscus, Red Rose, and Hilton Daisy.

Rune Factory 4S Live Event

A 2-hour live presentation took place on Thursday that promoted the upcoming release in Japan of Rune Factory 4S for Nintendo Switch. The event showed off the new Rune Factory 4 Special Memorial Box preorder, which includes a copy of the game, a digital download code for character swimsuits, a memorial book covering the whole series with character images, a love story 2-disc CD audio drama (one CD for the bachelors, and one CD for the bachelorettes), and a copy of the Switch game, all packaged together in a pretty collector's edition package for the price of 8800 Yen (about $78 USD). The price for the regular game is 4980 Yen (~$45 USD).

The presenters covered the HD graphic upgrades for the Special edition, the new romance story mode, the added difficulty mode, and a new opening movie. They also played through a bit of the game. At the end of the stream the latest trailer for the game was revealed:

At the end of the program they revealed that the save game data Rune Factory 4S will link to Rune Factory 5 when it is eventually released for Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Portia Physical Edition Delay in NA

The official Twitter @MyTimeAtPortia handle revealed this week that there has been an unfortunate delay in the North American physical retail console release of My Time at Portia. The digital version of the game will still be available on April 16th for Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Playstation 4, but the disc version won't be available until May 14. The European physical release is still scheduled for April 16.

Farm Folks Alpha Release

For Kickstarter backers who opted for a backing tier that contained Alpha Access, Overgrown has released a preliminary alpha build of their game as promised. To access the alpha, players have to log into the Crytivo account that was registered for them by Overgrown, then download the 582 MB zip file and extract its contents to their PC.