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

Glitter Bow Wins, Farmagia Farming Anime Trailer, Indie Updates, and Holiday Game Discounts | Posted at 04:46 PM 22 November 2024

Happy Farm'n Friday! The farmers have cast their vote, making the glitter-blue bows the winner of last week's decor-election. The manufacturer had packaged each blue glitter bow individually, so opening each wrapper has spread glitter all over myself and the ground. It's been very sparkly and cheery!

All the wireframes went outside the other day, and the blue bows enhance the effect of the decor pretty well!

This year's display has been catching the eye of the neighborhood much more than last year when we first switched to the white, blue, and turquoise color scheme. My older neighbor across the street likes it a lot and described it as "wintery."

I'm getting close to wrapping up the main light install. Next will be accent-type lights, such as in the landscape shrubbery and flower boxes.

Farmagia Anime Trailer

This week, Marvelous revealed a promotional video for the new Farmagia monster-farming-themed anime, scheduled to air in Japan starting on January 10, 2025.

According to the description from the official website, the anime follows the same storyline as the video game; a group of monster-growing friends team up to save the world from Glaza, a powerful general who takes over their home underworld after the former governing demon lord suddenly dies.

The English website for the game has noted that an anime is "Coming Soon," implying that it will eventually be available outside of Japan as well. However, it makes you wonder if the video game was intended to sell the anime or if the anime was intended to sell the video game. First-week physical cartridge sales for the Nintendo Switch version of Farmagia showed up on the Famitsu Top-30 (4,296 copies) but have since dropped off the list. On Steam, according to steamdb.info, the highest active user count was on the game's November 1 release date at 128. Now, the game has fewer than 10 Farmagia players per day, with an estimated 1,000 Steam users who own the game. It feels like the game's missing popularity doesn't justify the expense of a companion anime series.

I'm going to guess that more information about Farmagia sales will pop up in the Q3 corporate report in January. Marv recently released their Q2 report, but it was fairly light in content regarding consumer game information. Sales income is about 22.1% less compared to this time last year (and profit is down 33.3%). That's expected due to the lack of core series video game releases in 2024, as last year we were all playing Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (June 2023) and Rune Factory 3 Special (September 2023). It's not a surprise to Marv corporate that the company's consumer game segment is down. Sales of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus and The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case remake have kept things positive for now, with Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma coming up in 2025.

Indie Game Updates

Stairway Games has released QOL update 1.1b on Steam for their ocean-cleanup farming game, Coral Islands. Other platform updates will be released after Stairway confirms this latest content update is stable enough for porting to home console.

This latest update to the game includes new reactions for giving high-quality gifts, an icon in the relationship section that indicates when a heart event can be triggered, plus how and where to trigger said event (very nice!), daily goddess blessings to boost luck, casting nets for catching fish, a cooking TV show to air on Fridays for learning recipes, and various balance and user interface improvements.

This update also includes post-marriage "whoohoo" implied event scenes that, well, um... when a mommy cow and a daddy cow love each other very much... achm... definitely a first for a farming game that I can recall.

• Coral Islands | Steam Store

Fantasy world farming and life sim game Sun Haven will be released digitally on Nintendo Switch eShop in North America, South America, and Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea) on November 29. The Switch version of the game will contain the same content as the current build of the Steam version, minus the multi-player support. There also is no cross-platform save support between Steam and Switch. Pixel Sprout Studios writes that the game will be available on that date; they don't have a pre-order function for their farming game on the eShop.

Speaking of Switch ports, Great Gretsuki Studios recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund additions and port development of their two romance-themed stories: the farming game Peachleaf Valley and their love-notebook game Love Spell. The campaign has earned enough support for a port of Love Spell but still needs support to fund the port of Peachleaf Valley. You can help support the Nintendo version over on the Kickstarter website:

• Cookies and Cream Campaign - Ports to Nintendo Switch | Kickstarter

Peachleaf Valley is currently available on Steam:

• Peachleaf Valley: Seeds of Love | Steam Store

Farm'n Game Discounts

With the upcoming jump into the holiday shopping season, several farming games are on sale. Below are some of the home console digital games that are on sale; the large Steam Autumn Sale starts next Wednesday (27th).

Nintendo eShop (sale ends December 1 or December 2, depending on the game and region)

• Doraemon: Story of Seasons = 70% off (all regions)
• Dreamland Farm deluxe edition = 84% off (AU only)
• Dreamland Farm classic edition = 80% off (NA only)
• Fae Farm = 33% off (NA only)
• Garden Life = 60% off (EU/AU only)
• Harvest Moon: Light of Hope SE = 50% off (NA only)
• Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos = 30% off (all regions)
• Harvestella = 50% off (NA only)
• Moonstone Island = 25% off (all regions)
• My Time at Sandrock = 30% off (EU/AU only), 25% off (NA)
• Ooblets = 20% off (NA only)
• Pretty Princess Magical Garden Island = 50% off (NA only)
• Roots of Pacha = 40% off (NA only)
• Wylde Flowers = 25% off (NA only)

PlayStation (sale ends December 2)

• Doraemon: Story of Seasons = 70% off

(Yep, only one that I could find, sorry)

XBox (sale ends December 2)

• Monster Harvest = 85% off
• No Place Like Home = 66% off

Until next time!

-Cher
(Might be close to the end of Farmagia. The game's story is still terrible, but the gameplay is strangely enjoyable...)

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