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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:
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.
Happy farm'n Friday! Today is the 20th anniversary of the first Harvest Moon-related page created for the Fogu site. There was a Terranigma guide developed back in 1999 that came before the farm'n stuff (and it is still around). I couldn't find any online help for the farming Gameboy game or its sequel I played to help my Japanese studies. There were plenty of online guides for the N64 Harvest Moon 64 game back then, but nothing for the little handheld Harvest Moon GBC 2 game!
Naturally, I had no idea at the time that the guides would still be sprouting along 20 years later. I do remember giggling about naming the HM2 GBC guide after the cow pregnancy potion! The guides wouldn't have continued without your ongoing support and encouragement, so thank you! Wooooo you rock!
Though Fogu never worked out to be a full-time gig, it's kind of neat to look back at everything that's been written during my out-of-office hours. For the first couple of years, the job I had simply required me to be present at the office, and they didn't care so much what I did while waiting for work to come in. During that time, a lot of the older content was written. Sometime around Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands I got a job that required actual work while at the office (doh!), which meant guide work could only happen on the weekends. Despite that, there have still been many guide pages published to help everyone with their farm'n games, both Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons. Though I will admit that there are quite a few places that need to be completed, resulting from a lack of time on my part. I apologize for that. Maybe when I retire from the workforce in another 20 years I'll finally have the time to fix those incomplete pages.
I did manage to locate the first issue of the Harvest Moon News from 2003, part of an email newsletter that I used to send out before switching to the online Farm'n Friday format. The topic of the first news update? The upcoming releases for Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful Life in Japan. What a kwinkydink!
(__)
(@@) Ushi No Tane
/-------\/ Harvest Moon News
/ | || Issue 1
* ||----|| www.fogu.com/hm/
~~ ~~
February 13, 2003
Last month, VIS put up the websites for Friends of Mineral Town
and A Wonderful life, with a notice that the next update would be
on February 14th. AWL's page only contained a index page with a
picture, while FoMT's page had some content on how an average
game day would play out.
Today VIS has updated the AWL webpage (see link below) with some
new screen shots. Like the FoMT page, the AWL page has a section
about how a game day would play out. There's screen shots of the
sun rising (pretty!), the tomato crops, feeding a goat, walking
to the mansion, listening to music, walking through town (scary
person with 1 eye!), putting the animals in the barn because it's
going to rain the next day, a date with Sepiria, and the strange
white yeti-looking fellow.
VIS plans to update AWL's page again on March 20th. The FoMT page
is suppose to have some "bonus" page up on the 14th, but it
hasn't happened yet. Maybe it will be up later today or tomorrow.
A Wonderful Life:
- Release date:
-- Japan = Spring 2003
-- US = late Summer / early Fall 2003*
-- Europe = unknown
- Price: unknown
- http://www.vis.co.jp/bokumono/series/cube_gba/cube/
Friends of Mineral Town
- Release date:
-- Japan = April 18
-- US = September*
-- Europe = unknown
- Price: 4800 yen, approx. $39 usd / 36 euros
- http://www.vis.co.jp/bokumono/series/cube_gba/gba/
*dates subject to change
- What sound do you hear when a cow explodes?
-- Cowboom!
This week, White Owls revealed some more details about sheep racing in their farmy-style who-done-it game, The Good Life. There will be sheep of various colors in the meadows of Rainy Woods. When riding a sheep during the races, the sheep with larger horns will fair better against obstacles, while the sheep's body type will determine how easy it is to control the sheep on the obstacle course. You can read more about this month's updates on the game's Kickstarter page:
Also this week, the kitty farming game Snacko showed off the new Cultural Center being added to the game. The Cultural Center will house the Snacko Natural Artifacts Collection (SNAC). Players can submit items, such as furniture, fish, and cooked food, to the Center's collection for display. The SNAC exhibit is managed by Miss Curator, who is dedicated to preserving the island's history and culture. You can learn more about the new hoarding museum on the developer's Twitter feed:
Until next time!
- Cher
(Someday I'll get the chance to play through my game backlog...)
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