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! Last weekend we finished converting the flowerbed sprinkler heads into drip irrigation to direct water to where it's needed. It was a pretty simple process for anyone else who was considering doing the same. We had to buy a few new spray heads, some 8-port manifolds to cap the top of the spray heads, and some bubblers and spray stakes to direct the water to where it needs to go; we already had plenty of drip tubing with our setup in the front yard for watering dahlias and other crops. The downside is we have these octopus-like units sticking up here and there, but it saves me time and saves water.

We also harvested enough broccoli rabe to use in one of my favorite broccoli-based dishes, Beef and Broccoli with Fried Ramen. It's also a good recipe to use to upgrade packages of inexpensive instant ramen into something quite delicious.

I'm still tootling around in Rune Factory 3. I found the weird shadow monster in Oddward Valley, though it ran away and dropped a super-spoiled dish. I tried to give it back to Sakuya, but she didn't want it, so I carried it around for a few days. Eventually I tossed it into the shipping bin, and soon afterwards bumped into Blaise complaining that a shadow carried away his fried fish. I'll have to head back to the valley to see if the mysterious monster appears again. I've also taken an interest in Carmen the fisher woman. We almost went out together for a quaint day of fishing when suddenly her big brother barreled in like a hurricane to put a stop to it! Oh my, Carlos is a bit overprotective of his little sister! I think I reassured him that my intentions were not evil when I had to bring him two Lover Snapper. I can't dislike a guy who reminds me of Michaelangelo the Ninja Turtle, so whatever it takes to appease him is fine with me.

June BokuMobage Events

Mobage is still making adjustments to the social events in Bokujou Monogatari for Mobage, the browser-based online game with a Bokujou Monogatari theme. During the melon-milk themed Hungry Animal event, May 11th to May 20th, they had two special fields for players to grow their snacks to feed the random hungry animals, but this time the second field was restricted to only growing the special nuts that are used for gotcha pulls to win wigs, outfits, and other goodies. This limited the number of snacks players could grow to feed their animals, so the event prize tiers were harder to achieve. Then during the steampunk-themed Big Crop event, Mobage handed out prizes based on the players' ranking half-way through the event and then again at the end of the event.

During June, the events are:

• A Harvest event started on June 1st, themed as a dew drop fairy world. Players will harvest dew-drop clover flowers and dew-drop lotus trees, while caring for umbrella cats and dew-ball otters. 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.
• Then starting on June 11th is a 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.
• Finally starting June 21 is another Hungry Animal event. During this type of social competition each farmer will be assigned one of three random animals for a few hours. Each animal has a specific number of treats it wants before it will be full; the easiest is only 100 treats and the most difficult is 500 treats. If you don't feed the animal during their appearance time they'll go away and a new animal will appear in their place. Feed the animal to have it count towards unlocking in-game rewards. Your in-game friends can also feed the animal that you're assigned, helping to complete the feeding task for everyone who participates. The food is obtained by growing event crops on an event-specific field, with normal crops being worth 1 treat and rare crops being worth 2 treats. When everyone successfully feeds enough treats to an animal, those who feed the most snacks will be rewarded with mystery nut seeds. These seeds can be planted to harvest nuts that can be used in a random gotcha pull to win more in-game prizes.

Additional Games at E3 2019

E3 starts next Tuesday (wooo!) and XSeed Games has revealed the games they will be promoting on the show floor. In West Hall, XSeed will be showing:

• Rune Factory 4 Special (Switch) - Woo! Even listed with a "2019" planned launch!
• Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin (Switch/Ps4/PC) - The game includes rice harvesting, so it's farming! The game is in development by Edelweiss and planned to be published this Winter.
• HeroLand (Switch/Ps4) - Known as WORK x WORK in Japan, this cute RPG takes place in a theme park where two protagonists become friends as they tackle a demon king. There's a few videos at the official JP website if you want to see it in action.
• Akiba's Trip: Hellbound and Debriefed (Ps4/PC) - A modern-day remake of the first Akiba's Trip game released for PSP, now for PS4 and PC
• BurgerTime Party (Switch) - The burger-building arcade game with local multi player

The publisher also hinted that they have a secret "Grand New Title," revealed today to be GranBlue Fantasy Versus.

Bandai Namco hasn't revealed what they will be showing yet. Also, My Time at Portia publisher Pathea Games will be in attendance at their own table in South Hall.

Farming Simulator publisher Giants Software does not appear on this year's list of participating companies.

I'm REALLY hoping Keita Takahashi's Wattam will show up somewhere during E3, as the Ps4 totem-stacking game is finally scheduled to be released sometime this summer. He was just at BitSummit in Japan earlier this month though. We'll hope and see! I WANT TO STACK POO DANG IT!

Natsume revealed their E3 game lineup last week, and this week revealed their E3 promo goodie will be a squishy sheep keychain! In prior E3 events, show attendees could snag a Natsume E3 exclusive Harvest Moon promo item by playing all the games located at their booth.

Introducing the most adorable squishy sheep you've ever seen! This little lady will be our #E32019 booth giveaway~ Just one week to go! We can't wait for @E3 :D pic.twitter.com/ixLW1FsGyp

— Natsume Inc. (@Natsume_Inc) June 4, 2019

DoraeSoS New Commercial

With the new Doraemon Bokujou Monogatari being released NEXT WEEK (woo woo!), Bandai Namco has released a new television commercial to promote the game, featuring actress Hana Sugisaki. They released a making-of video too, showing the behind-the-scenes work the crew did to film the commercial.

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