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! There are only a few weeks left to wait before starting the annual Fogu Christmas Light Extravaganza installation. Beginning the first weekend in November, weather permitting, the exterior of Fogu HQ starts looking festive leading up to the day after Thanksgiving. That's when the big switch flips to OH BOY BLINDNESS as the whole place brightens up the neighborhood with 10,000+ lights.

Along with a few other changes to the display, the plan is to swap out the large plastic ornaments that hang from the interior of the wire orb lights that outline the yard. Needed something transparent to let the light shine through, yet colorful to add a splash of fun all day long, whether daytime or night. Turns out the perfect item for that role are inflatable beach balls. Now the dilemma is which size to use? I'm partial to the larger beach ball hanging from within the wireframe, while Mr.Fogu prefers the smaller beach ball ("It looks more like a Christmas ornament," in his opinion). Which do you think look best? Leave a comment below to help design the Extravaganza!

25th Aniv BIG Plushies

Recently in Japan, there have been several groups of farm animal plushies produced as part of Bokujou Monogatari's 25th-anniversary celebration. We just saw a five-character collection of plushies released last month: a chicken, chick, sheep, cow, and jersey cow. Now we have another group of merch coming out in a few weeks: the Big Plushies.

This group of three are smaller than the 40cm (~16 inches) XL cow and strawberry cow that were released earlier this summer, yet bigger than the 18cm (~7 inches) five-animals collection from September. The same cow design as before, along with a new horse and new alpaca product, are about 29 cm (~11.5 inches) in size. Like the previous assortment of goods, these three animals will be prizes to win at participating arcades in Japan. Several mobile-app controlled crane-game partners will also be awarding these Big Plushies while supplies last. These apps allow players to spend real money to remotely control the games at an arcade store. Some remote arcade retailers do ship prizes outside of Japan, but shipping overseas can be expensive ($40 to $50) plus the cost for playing the game until the prize can be captured. Egads!

AC Gets More Crops!

The next version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was revealed this morning to include a new cooking mechanic. This free DLC will be released next month. Island players will soon be able to cook new in-game recipes to eat and use as table decorations inside our houses.

New crops are being added to the game that can be harvested and used with the new cooking system! We can already grow Pumpkins, which are used for crafting the Spooky furniture style. Soon we'll get standard farm crops like Tomatoes, Corn, Potatoes, and Carrots. Even unique crops like Wheat and Sugarcane will be added. More farming? Yes, please! We'll also be able to decorate our crop with new fencing styles also being released on November 5.

SoS:FoMT out in EU

The latest edition of Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is now available for purchase in Europe and Oceania for the Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles. To celebrate the launch of the GBA remake in their region, Marvelous EU has made the optional DLC Cow Costume available for free, but it now has a different color scheme. The original Cow Costume available for purchase with the Nintendo Switch and Steam/PC version is a black-and-white cow with a yellow bandana. For the PS4 and XBox versions, the optional Cow Costume is a white-and-pink strawberry cow with a pink bandana.

In fact, all of the DLC animal costumes have been reskinned to a different color and/or style for the Ps4/Xbox release. The baby chick and chicken costumes are shades of warm brown to match the additional bird color in the game, and the dog costume has been changed from the floppy-ear Mineral Dog style to the pointy-ear Black Shibu style. The sheep costume was also changed from a pink-furred outfit with a purple bow tie to a white-furred outfit with a golden bell. Super cute! While the new strawberry-colored cow is currently free, the other animal costumes are paid DLC.

In North America (XSeed's region), the Ps4/Xbox version of SoS:FoMT is scheduled to be released on October 26.

Additional Farm'n Tidbits

In other news, Harvest Moon: Light of Hope SE and Harvest Moon: Mad Dash are on sale in the European and Oceania Nintendo eShops for 50% off, while Little Dragons Cafe is 60% off. This sale ends on November 13. The games are not on sale in North America at this moment.

The quirky English countryside mystery game The Good Life has been released on Steam/PC, XBox, Ps4, and Nintendo Switch. Physical rewards from the Kickstarter campaign are still on their way to backers. I'm looking forward to giving it a try, planting my garden, and racing my sheep.

Until next time!

Cher
(Wish the trees would clean up their own dropped leaves!)

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