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 was a flurry of planting flowers for summer. The porch flower boxes are now full of colorful coleus and blue wishbone torenia. The hanging baskets contain red/white petunias and purple lobelia, and the flowerpots hold new lantana (my favorite!), yellow begonia, and cheerful celosia. I even found younger versions of the fuzzy-leaf geranium that sustained frost damage earlier this year.

There is one flowerpot that remains empty, for now. The pot contains some marigold seeds I'm hoping will germinate soon. Though they were planted weeks ago, and nothing has come up yet...

And a few of the watermelon seeds have finally sprouted! Those little buggers were planted in the fancy new slug-proof garden box about the same time as the marigold seeds. I was going to give up on them! I had even tried sprouting a batch of new watermelon seeds using the wet paper towel method and was going to pick up some already-sprouted plants from the garden nursery this weekend if nothing popped up soon. Now that's one less thing to do! Huzzah!

Rune Factory 5 is now out in Japan! I've been avoiding all spoilers in anticipation of the game's inevitable EN release Someday, I need to get back to completing Rune Prana in Rune Factory 4 S; that dungeon is beating me up silly.

SoS:PoOT EN DLC #2

Next Thursday (May 27), the second DLC expansion pass for Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town will be released in North America and Europe. The Windswept Falls expansion will unlock the extra area accessible from the boat dock by your farmhouse. Windswept Fall is the home of the characters from Harvest Moon: A New Beginning: town leader Dunhill, little Hina, grouchy-yet-cool Neil, and foodie-fan Felicia. As expected, XSeed Games is translating her name directly from her Japanese name and not using Natsume's localized "Felicity."

This expansion also unlocks the school uniform outfits for the marriage candidates. Like the animal costumes from the last expansion, a title-screen setting will enable sporty brown blazer wear for everyone. Japan PoOT farmers already received Windswept Falls, but the school uniforms are being released as a separate part of their expansion pass next Thursday. Marvelous released a short promo video on their Twitter feed promoting the new school uniforms. Ralph lost his hat!

【牧場物語 オリーブタウンと希望の大地】
「エキスパンション・パス」第三弾
主人公＆恋愛候補10名用新衣装「学園セット」
配信日が5月27日(木)に決定しました！

本日は制服姿での牧場生活をお届けします！

⇒https://t.co/eYAaDD6qDM
#牧場物語 #オリーブタウン pic.twitter.com/8VoNapXjLS

— 『牧場物語』公式アカウント (@bokumono_PR) May 19, 2021

The Marvelous video's end segment hints at one of the improvements planned for the 1.0.5 update. Changing the appearance of meals when ordered at the bistro and cafe is a to-do update added to the game.

With everyone receiving the school uniforms on the 27th, all regions will be in sync with the expansion pass releases. The next expansion after the school uniform DLC will be released globally on June 24. The Terracotta Oasis will bring back familiar characters from the first Story of Seasons game: rival farmer Giorgio, Doctor Marian, novelist Iris, and Chef Raeger.

As for sales news, Famitsu's sales data for last week no longer has the game listed in their Top-30, meaning it sold less than 1400 copies for the week of May 10 to 16.

Bokumono Mobile Revealed

Tencent Game's conference took place on May 16, where the latest rendition of the farming collaboration between Marvelous and Tencent was revealed. Bokujou Monogatari Mobile is under the development of NExT Studios for Android and iOS mobile devices in China. No information was released regarding the mobile game in other regions such as Japan, North America, and Europe. The official release date for the game in China was also not announced, as the game is still a work-in-progress.

The game begins with the protagonist inheriting their grandfather's farm in rural Starfall Town, named after the shooting stars often seen in the night sky. Players will work on the farm to develop and expand it by growing crops and flowers and raising animals. Other normal BokuMono activities include cooking, mining, foraging for wild items, and fishing. There are also local villagers to meet and perhaps even make some new friends.

Taking actions appears to use power berry points (chopping a tree, milking a cow, and harvesting eggs take 2 berries). Chopping a tree also rewards players with lumber and gold coins.

The game does have some real-time elements. The trailer shows the player milking a cow, with a 30-minute timer that pops up after milking is complete. There is also a day/night cycle, though it is unknown whether that is a true-to-life day/night or if the in-game days are shorter than that.

Planting crops brings up a list of seeds, each with a time element to them. For example, fodder grass takes 10 minutes to grow, lettuce takes 20 minutes, tomatoes take 30 minutes, and turnips take 40 minutes. Crops require the payment of gold coins.

One China-based news site noted that the game has nighttime "carnivorous" animals that can upset the players' livestock. Sounds like wild dogs may make a return in BokuMono Mobile.

You can watch a trailer of the game on the official website:

• Tencent's Bokujou Monogatari Mobile official website

The official website address contains "sosm," so let's hope that utilizing "Story of Seasons" in its name hints that it may have a future English release!

New Kickstarter - Beasties

Roka Publishing (Stranded Sails, Castaway Paradise) has launched their latest farm-based game on Kickstarter. Beasties is a kind of unusual take on farming where players earn money from farming, process crops into food, mine for ore and craft items to sell, raise little monsters called Beasties, and then battle them in a match-3 puzzle battle.

The little Beasties live in harmony with humans, called Beastie Trainers. The Beasties like to participate in the match-3 Beastie Brawl puzzles against each other but will only join a Beastie Trainer's team after they form a friendship alliance with the human trainer. Beasties have special abilities that can trigger during a Beastie Brawl and become stronger after eating primordial dust.

The game is planned for PC and Nintendo Switch, though Roka is considering other platforms. If you're interested in helping to crowdfund Beasties, you can do so on their Kickstarter campaign page:

• Beasties an adorable Monster Trainer, Match-3 & Farming game

FarmCon 21

GIANTS Software announced this week that the annual Farming Simulator conference will take place July 21, 22, and 23. Like last year's FarmCon, this year's conference is a digital online event. The online conference will be served through GIANTS Twitch channel and will show off their upcoming Farming Simulator 22 game, allow digital farmers to chat with the game developers and other FS experts, and even have the chance to win some super prizes.

• FarmCon 21: FS22, Q&As, Raffles & more - Tune in July 21st - 23rd!

Until next time!

- Cher
(All plants done means more time for farming!)

RSS