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! The autumn rains have started, making everything muddy and wet outside. And dark. I miss summertime already, but we've to get through autumn before we can get to Christmastime! Some more fresh lights and supplies arrived this week. Last year's display contained a little more than 14,000 lights, so that's the goal to exceed this year! Though I didn't like how the ground-cover lights turned out last year, so the plan this year is to repurpose the light strings in another way.

The chasing white/green/red combination in the terraces was a bit too obnoxious! I imagined it looking a bit smoother but could never quite get it to work the way I wanted it to. Then the strings became dirty because they were so close to the ground. I'm expecting that there will be a lot of rusted connectors to deal with as I start pulling the lights out of the attic.

As for my adventures through Rune Factory 4, I finally made it through the Delirium Lava Ruins. Was having a bit of trouble with all the fire located there, but a crafted Ruby Ring with 50% reduction to fire damage really helped. When I finally reached the plant boss at the end of the dungeon, I was level 70 and beat the leaves off that nasty carnivorous bush. My next task is to venture into the Forest of Beginnings, but first, I need to find a lot of Gold Ore to craft some better weapons and armor. I found some necessary ore in Maya Road, though I can only hit the monsters there for less than 20 damage per swing. Luckily, my wolf monster pet has twice as much attack power as my protagonist does!

Another Chibig Kickstarter - Deiland

From the folks that brought you the tropical adventure with farming aspects, Summer in Mara, comes a new Kickstarter to remake a similar game for Nintendo Switch. Deiland is already available on Playstation 4 and Steam/PC. Chibig's latest Kickstarter campaign is to improve their 2018 game and then publish it on Nintendo Switch.

Deiland: Pocket Planet Edition will include the already-released DLC from the Steam version, upgraded graphics and music, the addition of four seasons on the player's planet, and new content such as recipes and crops. The Kickstarter for the Pocket Planet edition met its funding goal within 24 hours of being launched early last week, and has since reached over 300% of its funding goal. The remaining crowdfunding period is for reaching stretch goals and adding more content to the Nintendo Switch game.

You can add some more funds to the pile on the Kickstarter page:

• Deiland: Pocket Planet Edition - Take care of your planet

FS19 Soil Quality

GIANTS Software has teamed up with John Deer and EIT Foods of Europe to develop a new way to manage farm crops in Farming Simulator 19. The initiative's goal is to educate consumers (in this case, FS19 players) on the farming technique called Precision Farming. This technique is used by real-life farms to grow high-quality and organic crops.

The first part of this initiative is to add soil quality functionality to FS19. Players need to have both a John Deer utility vehicle and an ISARIA SCOUT soil quality testing device. These can be used to detect which of the four field soil qualities their video game fields contain: loam, loamy sand, sandy loam, or silty clay. Fields can be made up of several soil types.

Players can read more about the upcoming soil detection system on the GIANTS Software blog:

• Precision Farming: First Look at Soil Types and Soil Sampling

Soil characteristics play an important part in efficiently growing your plants. As I discovered a few months ago, my front yard vegetable garden is sitting in very clay-like soil. This makes it difficult for plants to spread their roots and grow tall. The front yard cherry tomato plant is only about 18 inches (45 cm) tall, while the backyard cherry tomato plant grown in looser garden soil is about 4 feet (1.2 m) tall.

HM:OW Bachelorette #2

On their community blog last week, Natsume revealed the second of five bachelorettes from their upcoming game, Harvest Moon: One World:

Excellent, finally a character that just wants to be left alone with her cat! Gabrielle would be the ideal protagonist if she wasn't a marriage candidate. Rumor has it that she might be related to a past character in Natsume's Harvest Moon series. Her hair doesn't resemble the mighty Doc; hmm... who could it be...

New SV Goodies

Fangamer.com has a new collection of Stardew Valley goods for purchase. There is a new Pelican Town Community Center hoodie with a cute star zipper pull, a new brightly-colored t-shirt design, a group of four Jumino lapel pins, a Korbus plushie, and even a Joja Cola glass! You can see the new products on the fangamer.com website:

• New Stardew Valley Goods - Fangamer.com

Until next time!

- Cher
(Four pages remain before the SoS:FoMT guide is complete!)

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