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 weather has started to cool down as we roll into the autumn season. It's becoming dark outside earlier in the evening, despite my verbal encouragements directed at the sun to help it stay in the sky for more of the day. The dang thing isn't listening to a word I say!

Even though I'm lamenting the end of summer, it also means that the Christmas light season is fast approaching. This year, the plan is to design cone-shaped light trees using the support cages typically utilized for tomatoes and other crops. I have many icicle-style and matching string lights from the old multi-color design of the Christmas Light Extravaganza that have been cheering at me from the attic ("Use uuuss Use uuuus we're so pretttyyyy"). I even dreamed about my multi-color light trees last night; that's a good sign that it'll work! Or a least I expect that it will work. Imagination and reality don't always make good partners...

But, 'ya never know until you try, right? At least the dahlias are showing off their pretty colors, or at least the ones that have bloomed. There aren't as many flowers this year; perhaps it is caused by the 115-degree heat wave or there is still a nutrient missing from the soil. That heat wave did cause a huge mess for our local CSA. Their strawberry crop fried and they lost a third of their blueberries. The berry farm expects they won't recover well enough to offer a CSA next year

Garden Path Funded

The Kickstarter game I mentioned last week, The Garden Path, has completed its successful crowdfunding campaign. Developer Louis Durrant of the one-person game studio Carrotcake noted that the stretch goal to bring his artistic garden game to the Nintendo Switch was also cleared. The game's expected release for PC is by the end of this year, with Kickstarter backers getting a chance to play in October.

New Kickstarter - Spirit of the Island

A new life simulator with farming aspects is looking for supporters. Spirit of the Island (also known as SOTI) is a game from 1M Bits Horde about a young person who sets out from their home village to find their place in the world; in this case, a mysterious island in the middle of a tropical archipelago. The protagonist is then tasked with developing this wild land into a tourist destination while solving the riddle of the local legends.

Players will be taming their island by building their farms, raising crops and animals while fighting island pirates and wild creatures. They'll also develop a welcoming tourist attraction by building shops and museums, enticing them to spend money and possibly become permanent residents.

You can learn more about SOTI on the Kickstarter website:

• Spirit of the Island - a colorful life simulation RPG

Twilight Island Preview

Next Thursday (August 26), the last of the expansion pass features will be released for Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. Marvelous Japan created a short video summarizing the characters added along with the new Twilight Island.

【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」第六弾
恋愛候補パック「たそがれの島」
8月26日(木)に配信決定！

本日は『牧場物語 三つの里の大切な友だち』よりアノ4人が移住した様子を少しだけお届けします！

⇒https://t.co/eYAaDDo22m
#牧場物語 #オリーブタウン pic.twitter.com/g8MXVzkv8A

— 『牧場物語』公式アカウント (@bokumono_PR) 2021年8月19日

The characters being added to their remote area are from Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Marriage candidates Lisette and Ludus will live together on the island instead of in their separate villages of Westown and Lulukoko. The fighter-in-training Tigre has also tagged along with Ludus, and for some reason, Moriya from Tsuyukusa joined in on the adventure as well.

Though this is the end of the paid expansion bundles, the game is still being updated with bug fixes. Version 1.0.8 was released in Japan on Monday, fixing a major bug along with other unexplained corrections. After enabling the new Chat Camera added with the 1.0.7 update, Japan players where having their games lock up when talking to residents while wearing the Green Argyle Sweater and Skirt outfit. Absolutely bizarre situation, but glad that Marvelous and Three Rings were able to find a solution.

Version 1.0.7 is still planned for a end-of-month release in North America and Europe/Oceania. The Chat Camera does work pretty well in place of character portraits, so give the game another try once the new camera update has been patched into your games.

Sandrock Beta Update

A big update was added to the beta of My Time at Sandrock this week, optimizing things such as quests, NPC daily behaviors, and text descriptions. Pathea also made updates to several mini games such as whack-a-mole (wooo!), sandrun sledding (watch the video above for the changes), food ordering, and trade hall inspections.

The Dew Collector was also added to the game. The machines that run in the player's desert workshop need water to keep cool, so the Dew Collector is available to collect water for the players.

Pathea is still working to entice Steam players to add the game to their wishlists. The developer plans to add two more marriage candidates once 400,000 Steam players have added the game to their lists. One character is a writer from the far-away town of Atara, and the other is a school teacher who moves to Sandrock.

You can add Sandrock to your Steam wishlist from the game's store page:

• My Time at Sandrock on Steam

Until next time!

- Cher
(The counter is overflowing with squash; time to make more zuc' relish!)

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