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: Home Sweet Home (August 2024) and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (June 2023)
• Europe: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home (August 2024) 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

Steam NEXT Fest, Farm'n Crowdfunding Updates, and the Tales of Seikyu Beta | Posted at 03:35 PM 18 October 2024

Happy Farm'n Friday! I spent last week trying to meet up with Clarabelle the cow during my visit to Disneyland. While my niece reported she saw the cow on Monday, I didn't learn until the end of the week that she was spotted in a cavalcade. Since Disney does fireworks on the weekends and has no grand mid-day parades at the moment, they send out a few cars and costumed folks to walk through the park as a substitute. I had caught only the tail-end of the small caravan a few times (Curella de Ville was in the back seat of the last car) and didn't realize that's where Clarabelle was hiding the whole time.

I missed Clarabelle during the Oogie Boogie Halloween party too! The kids wanted to wait for the late-night parade, which was almost an hour overdue, cutting our party (and trick-or-treating) time short. She's a crafty cow to catch, that's for sure. However, dressing up in full Christmas attire and wishing the villains we did meet a "Merry Christmas" resulted in humorous responses. Plus we did manage to collect enough candy that we're still going through it a week later. Would have liked to keep getting candy, but everything was cut off at exactly 11:00 pm. Need more candy!

Mr.Fogu's sister already wants to go back. lol. I did manage to participate in some pin trading and collected smashed pennies, but I missed out on eating my way through the parks because of how hot it was outside. Opted to drink more water than chow down on churros and other tasty treats. Next time we'll pick a cooler time of year to visit.

Kickstarter Updates

A few crowdfunding campaigns updated while I was out of town:

The campaign for Artisan Story successfully concluded, receiving over $20,000 from their initial request of about $7,000. Adventroupe Studio released a preliminary gameplay video of their farming and monster care game. Huzzah for the ability to skip field tutorials!

• Artisan Story Official Gameplay Trailer | Youtube

The underwater farming game Forgotten Waters reached the campaign's first stretch goal and will be adding three more areas to explore in the game: the Glowing Caverns, the Abyssal Forest, and the Lost Citadel. Kickstarter backers will also receive a sea turtle mount for quickly traveling to areas outside of the underwater town. There are 4 days left in the campaign to help Ducktail Studios fund the development of additional features:

• Forgotten Waters | Kickstarter

Pathea's campaign for My Time at Evershine is getting close to wrapping up, with 5 days remaining. So far, over 24,000 farmers and crafters have pledged $2.1 million to fund the development of the next entry in the My Time series. The next stretch goal is at $2.5 million when they'll have the funding for developing a clothing customization system that allows you to keep the visual style of your preferred outfits while using stats from other gear. That's pretty neat because in Sandrock, I like the look of the Adventurer Goggles, but the next head equipment upgrade is the ugly Kitty Helmet, a visually awkward full-cover hat with cat ears.

Pathea also noted that they only anticipated between a half-million and $1.5 million for their campaign, not over $2 million! Along with the clothing customization goal, reaching $2.5 million would allow the developer to significantly shorten or possibly omit an Early Access period. The company point-of-contact wrote:

Early Access is a double edged sword, while we’re able to get funding and feedback from players well before the end product, it significantly affects our development schedule in a negative way. Each big update we put out will cost us up to a month of packaging, QA, and optimization time, forcing some development to literally stop for a few weeks as key developers work on the release build. If we don’t do Early Access, we will have 4-5 months of extra development time, allowing for a smoother and more traditional development schedule (which we will share later this year). We’ll still get our essential feedback from the numerous KS beta players (who have Alpha access ). It means less crunch for the team and a more polished product for the players. That’s a win for everybody.

There are still a few days to financially support the development of the next game:

• My Time at Evershine - The Next My Time Tale | Kickstarter

Speaking of My Time at Sandrock, the next free update for the game is now available on Steam/EGS and will be released on November 1 for PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox platforms. Version 1.4 adds a lot of smooching, a post-marriage quest associated with 10 of the marriage candidates, a follow-up story quest with Miguel that can trigger after the main story concludes, a Kickstarter backer-designed quest, a bus from the station that runs to Portia (I'm assuming player can't actually travel to Portia and it's just for show), more house floor options, and some home editing upgrades. Also on November 1 is the release of a paid Love Chronicles DLC, unlocking a romance quest for Fang, Logan, Mi-an, and Nia, along with more voiceover and additional interactive content for those four characters.

Sandrock is discounted 30% on Steam/EGS until October 30:

• My Time at Sandrock | Steam Store
• My Time at Sandrock | Epic Game Store

Steam Next Fest

The latest celebration of upcoming games, including plenty of farming games, is on Steam until October 21 (next Monday). Several in-development games have free demos available, showcasing interesting mixes of farming gameplay styles:

• Abyss: New Dawn (Free Demo, world exploration + farming)
• Ana's Farm (Free Demo, idle farming)
• Crop Chronicles (Free Demo, competitive farming, releases Nov 15)
• Cryptid Farm (Free Demo, multiplayer horror, releases Oct 25)
• Farming Isles (Free Demo, retro farming)
• Lucky Farm (Free Demo, strategy farming)
• Luma Island (Free Demo, multiplayer, releases Nov 20)
• Ooze Keeper (Free demo, tactical slime farming)
• Tiny Pasture (Free demo, idle ranching)
• Wind Story (Free Demo, ranch population revitalization)

Seikyu Beta

The playtest for monster-transformation farming game Tales of Seikyu starts next Friday, October 25, and runs through November 4. If you want to participate, select the Request Access button from the game's Steam Store page. Developer ACE Entertainment will be selecting 1000 participants to test out the game for 10 days, with a feedback survey required upon the playtest's conclusion.

• Tales of Seikyu | Steam Store

Until next time!

-Cher
(The repotted orchid only has one shriveled root left...)

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