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 hope you all had a lovely Christmas holiday! My relatives gifted me a variety of gardening stuff such as flower seeds, more felt pots, and even a new pair of clippers. Now to wait until springtime to utilize all these new goodies. At least we finally passed the Winter Solstice last week, so the days here will begin to have more light and less darkness.

Remember those Showa Radishes that were planted late last Summer? They still have green leaves and are growing very, very slowly. There has only been one overnight freeze so far this Winter and the radish sprouts weathered it wonderfully. Maybe they'll be ready for harvest in a few more months when the weather warms up.

The Chenice Chew recipe from grandma turned out poorly. The bottom portion baked okay, but after pouring on the topping and putting it back into the oven for the time stated on grandma's notes, the cookie burned and was not edible. Searching the internet resulted in a similar bar recipe, but not exactly the same. Internet cookie sleuths deduce that "chenice" may be a misspelling of "Chinese." There are a variety of bar cookie recipes called Chinese Chews, though none appear to have the same combination of ingredients as grandma's recipe. I'll have to give it another try someday.

Stardew Launches on Tesla Entertainment

Electric car manufacturer Tesla pushed a software update on Wednesday that added Stardew Valley to the in-car entertainment system. Farmers simply have to access the Entertainment menu in their car, go to the Arcade section, and then select the play button to start the game. The game doesn't have to be purchased; it's free for Tesla owners!

Tesla Stardew plays vertically and takes over the whole console screen. It's great for seeing a lot of the game, but the downside is the bag inventory bar only shows the first 10 inventory items when it is displayed horizontal across the bottom of the screen. So if you happen to have some Mixed Seeds in slot #12, you can't select them for planting unless you open the main menu and then move the seeds to slot #10 or earlier. There's an in-game option to switch the inventory bar to vertically along the left-side of the screen that will then show all 12 slots.

Navigating through the game is done by either by using the car's touch screen or by using a controller connected via USB to the car. To use the touch screen controls, just touch where you want the farmer to go, tap on villagers to talk to them, and touch the ground to till or water seeds. The tools can be manually selected from the inventory bar, but they also work as context-sensitive; tap on a tree to automatically use the axe, touch grass to use the sickle, and so on. For me, it eventually becomes uncomfortable leaning towards the center console to touch everywhere, so using a Ps4 controller plugged into the USB slot worked much better! The vehicle's steering wheel isn't a compatible controller for Stardew.

You also won't be able to play Stardew while driving down the freeway. For safety reasons the Tesla Arcade game options are unavailable while the car is shifted into Drive mode, even for a passenger who isn't steering the car. Basically the car must be in Park to play Stardew Valley.

While the new game selection has the Four Corners Farm for multiplayer use, only single-player mode is available in the Tesla version.

I'm hoping there will be a future correction for the bottom-inventory bar as well as correcting the size of the reel-in bar while catching a fish. Other then those two oddities I've noticed so far, it's the standard Stardew experience. Who would of though that someday there would be a farming game embedded in our cars? Farm'n for everyone!

Farm'n Discounts

The Japanese edition of Doraemon: Story of Seasons is on sale in the Nintendo eShop in Japan for 20% off. The sale ends January 13.

Over on Steam, Stranded Sails is 30% off until January 2nd. The Steam edition was recently updated to include fast travel via teleport portals, walking/rowing no longer uses energy, craft/cook multiple of the same items, as well as a lot of additional adjustments to the game based on player feedback. The home console versions and Apple Arcade version of Sails will be updated at a later date.

Additional Steam Winter Sale games include Stardew Valley (40% off), My Time at Portia (50% off), Doraemon: SoS (20% off), and Farming Simulator 19 (20% off); the Natsume Harvest Moon games are not discounted at this time. The sale also includes several early-access games such as Fantasy Farming: Orange Season (30% off), Pumpkin Days (33% off), and Kynseed (20% off).

Until next time!

- Cher
(Finally found the last Kappa Jewel in SoS:FoMT. That last jewel took foreveeeer to appear!)

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