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 week's all-night and all-day power outage caused a mess with things, not only with my office work schedule but the contents of our refrigerator too. All our tasty Christmas dinner leftovers had to be tossed, every dairy product, various other perishable things, and so on. On the bright side, our refrigerator is now amazingly clean! I look at it as a fresh start for a new year.

Today, Mr.Fogu recruited my help with a catio improvement project I've been asking for. It took a good chunk of the day, but we finished the raised platform for the catio. Now the Interns won't be in contact with the wet ground when they go outside into their outdoor enclosure. Even with the bamboo mat in place to stop the slugs from visiting Intern Hondo, there was a soggy connection with the backyard patio's wet concrete. The platform also raised the catio's height, so now Intern Captain has a higher birdwatching perch. And it's always nice to complete a long-wanted project, even if there's a delay with other projects like today's Farm'n Friday.

SoS:AWL Gameplay Video

Daiki Yamashita of the Bokujou Monogatari Radio Station, in collaboration with Marvelous, released a video on Youtube earlier today that highlights Story of Season: A Wonderful Life. Daiki's 90-minute video starts with him talking about the series, then jumps into him going through character creation and playing through the game. Most of the video is his first day in the valley, with a later section skipping ahead to Autumn of Chapter 2 with a cute little daughter with Cecilia.

A rundown of some info from Daiki's gameplay session:

• There are 4 eye options, 5 skin tones, and 12 eye colors to pick from. These cannot be changed after character creation. Name and gender also cannot be changed later.
• 15 hair styles, 12 hair colors, and 2 outfits to choose from. These CAN change after character creation by using the mirror in the farmhouse.
• The ordering ledger and shipping bin are outside the animal barn. The place where the shipping bin was in the 2003 game is now a general storage shed. Takakura will bring the sales profit to the blue bin next to the farmhouse, the same spot where villagers will send rewards for completing tasks they post on the new bulletin board.
• The JP version has an 8-character limit for names. We don't know if this is the case for the localized version.
• Takakura gives the camera after he shows the protagonist around the valley for the first time.
• Seasons are for sure 10 days long, with Van still visiting on the 3rd and 8th of every season.
• There's a Takakura Notebook in the house that explains how to do things in the game. That'll be very useful for new players to AWL.
• Rucksack holds 40 items (5 rows of 8 items)
• The pavers around tree seedlings automatically appear when the seedling is planted to prevent players from planting trees too close together.
• The path out of the valley is now a time-skip feature. Trying to exit the valley will display a description of the protagonist visiting a "distant town" that takes 6 hours to complete. You can then choose to travel (I doubt you see the actual traveling), or you can back away and return to the valley.
• The hunger sound still plays, but no more "Guuu~~~~". Now it is a knife and fork emoticon bubble.

If you're wondering, the dog plushie in Daiki's video is one of two dog lottery prizes given away by MMV and Nintendo back in 2004 to celebrate the release of Another Wonderful Life. There were 30 of each dog given away as a pair. The legendary MukuMuku plushie was the lottery prize given away for the 2003 release of A Wonderful Life. Ah someday MukuMuku, I will find you...

We've 20 days to go until the Nintendo Switch release of SoS: A Wonderful Life in Japan. The overseas version is scheduled for a release this summer.

There's an article about SoS:AWL in the latest edition of Dengeki Nintendo magazine in Japan, but there's nothing noteworthy or new to report there. The information given is the same as what we already know, as it is written as an introduction to the AWL game for new players.

Switch New Years Sale

Nintendo is having a New Year Sale across all regions. These deals end on January 15 in North America and January 8 in Europe. Not all games on sale in EU are on sale in NA:

• Deadcraft = (No NA) / £9.99 / €12,49
• Deiland: Pocket Planet = $8.99 / £8.99 / €9,99
• Disney Dreamlight Valley = $22.49 / £18.74 / €22,49
• Doraemon: Story of Seasons = $14.99 / £11.19 / €12,49
• Farm for Your Life = $5.99 / £5.39 / €5,99
• Monster Harvest = $5.99 / £4.49 / €5,99
• Rune Factory 4 Special = (No NA sale) / £12.49 / €14,99
• Rune Factory 5 = $29.99 / £26.99 / €29,99
• Stardew Valley = $9.99 (NA only, ends Jan 5)
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town = $19.99 / £17.49 / €19,99
• Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town = $23.99 / £17.49 / €19,99
• Summer in Mara = $9.99 / £8.99 / €9,99

Until next time!

Cher
(Come on Mega Millions, pick my winning numbers!)

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