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

Details About the Great Outdoors DLC For HM: The Winds of Anthos | Posted at 04:54 PM 25 October 2024

Happy Farm'n Friday! With one week to go before this year's Christmas Light extravaganza starts, I've been repurposing new strings on decorative wire orbs to place along the edge of the front yard. I can definitely say that nobody has lights like these! What I didn't calculate is how long it takes to set up each new light orb. Heh, but it will be worth it once all 30 are done!

This weekend is predicted to be rainy. Hopefully, next weekend will be sunny, so I can install the new roofline lights. Those are the first strings that go up because the weather becomes wetter as the weeks pass.

Will I surpass 2021's 30,100 bulb count this year? Possibly, since that year, I had put up strings of lights all over the front yard like a ground cover. It didn't look as cool as I had envisioned; won't be doing that again.

Echoes Update

The fall update for colonial farming game Echoes of the Plum Grove was released on Wednesday. This new content brings management options for the player's inventory and any storage boxes (including the cellar). Just select an option to magically organize the inventory.

You can now give sick villagers and family members medicine to heal their disease. Previously, doing so would just act as a normal gift. Luckily, the members of Clan Fogu tend to heal on their own, though it's always alarming when one of them becomes unwell. There should also be fewer family congregations next to the two-story house staircase. Players can now own up to 5 pets on their farm.

Plum Grove is currently 30% off until October 30.

• Echoes of the Plum Grove | Steam Store

Evershine Funded

The crowdfunding campaign for My Time at Evershine concluded this week, reaching a total of $2.8 million in 30 days. There is a lot of public support for this farming/crafting game, though this time, it is a settlement development game, too. With this much funding, the game will only have an alpha release (for Kickstarter backers who pledged at that level) and a final release; there will be no year-long early access period, which they've noted takes management time and resources that could be better used towards other tasks.

Pathea is still accepting late pledges if you want to support the game and haven't pledged any funds yet. Simply visit the Kickstarter campaign page and click the Back This Project button. The late campaign will be open until November 8.

Anthos DLC 5

The Great Outdoors download content for Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos released this week, adding more collectible content and a few QOL improvements.

The first addition is the Animal Tag Along Pet Permit, mailed to you by Judy's dad, Mathis. This new function lets players select a pet to tag along with them while they walk around Anthos; the pet won't enter buildings or go into the mines. The pet can also follow while using a mount.

One benefit for a tag-along pet is an expanded rucksack. Bringing a small pet unlocks an extra 10-slot bag in the game's inventory screen; larger pets have more extra space (e.g., the snow leopard has 20 extra bag slots). Transferring items is done by selecting the item in your inventory and pressing the R Shoulder button to activate the pet inventory. You can then move items to the extra bag. This is handy when hunting for Harvest Wisps during the Harvest Moon. You'll need a lot of bag space during this nighttime event to hold the bonus crop and flower seeds, so having an extra 10 slots helps!

Alas, the pet won't pick up "your bag is full" items left on the ground. The pet inventory isn't automatic, so you'll have to manually move items to the pet's inventory to make room for items left on the ground because of a full inventory message.

The tag-along pets also have abilities, which you can locate from the Animal Notebook, the Doc Pad Animal Encyclopedia, or the animal merchant inventory menu. For example, domestic dogs and bears are good at hunting down treasures, wild dogs and rabbits will restore a little stamina, cats and domestic birds restore bonus stamina while using camping gear, and so on. Sometimes, a pet will locate items or point you toward rare Harvest Wisps (and prevent the wisp from fleeing). Just listen for the chime indicating something good has happened.

The second is the new camping set. This new function comes from Dave, the lost camper. Camping allows players to sleep outside while exploring the world instead of having to go home to restore stamina and prevent exhaustion status. Simply press Left on the controller's directional pad to set up camp for the night. Cooking campfire meals, such as Corn on the Cob and Skewered Marshmallows, will restore stamina hearts. Some meals restore only a few hearts, but you can cook multiple meals when you have enough ingredients in the rucksack; the campfire cannot access ingredients stored in the farmhouse refrigerator.

There are 30 campfire recipes to collect, which are tracked in the Doc Pad Encyclopedia.

The campfire scene is cute, too. Any animals you have with you, such as a mount or a tag-along pet, will appear in the scene. Your family does not appear, though. They're stuck at home while you're out gallivanting around the world.

Dave sells more recipes and seasonings too. Simply track him down by looking for his icon on the Doc Pad world map.

The third addition is the treasure-hunting mechanism. Elena the researcher ask for help with retrieving mysterious treasures found around Anthos. She'll install a treasure-hunting mode on the Doc Pad, adding a little pick-axe icon above the on-screen mini-map. When this icon flashes blue, there's a treasure to be found nearby! Yaaarr! Simply press Right on the directional pad to activate the dowsing option. The area where the treasure is hidden appears within a smaller circle in the treasure-hunting area. If the pick-axe icon turns grey, you've gone too far from the hiding spot.

When you have a tag-along pet, and depending on the affection level of the pet, your little buddy might locate the treasure spot for you. The greater your friendship, the more likely this will happen. Once, I was hitting the ground to locate the treasure, and while I might have been getting closer, my alpaca buddy did a "Hold my beer" moment and beelined right to the spot where the treasure was buried. Au, thanks, little dude!

There are 52 treasures to collect. While hunting, you can find basic items, such as Bronze Ore and seed bags, common treasures, and rare treasures. Elena will send you on treasure-hunting quests to locate the rare treasures. When found, these are stored in the important items section of the rucksack and cannot be sold. You may find some special treasures from older Natsume games while helping Elena.

There are DLC achievements for going on all of Elena's treasure hunts, upgrading the camping tent to its maximum level, and having a pet tag along on your adventure. So there's plenty to do for completionist players.

One thing I noticed changed recently is that the sasquatch mounts no longer have a skill listed on their profile description. Previously, these DLC pets had the skill to make seasonal crops healthier. Now, their skill description reads "????", which makes sense since the skill didn't appear to influence crop health, as far as I could tell. Nevermind, the sasquatch skills are back to normal after a little bit and no longer display as "???". Guess it just needed some time or something...

Until next time!

-Cher
(The orchid still lives!)

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