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: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)
• North America: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition (October 2025) and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)
• Europe: Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition (October 2025) and Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August 2025)

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

Piczle Cross: Rune Factory Released This Week and Farm'n Demos During Steam Next Fest | Posted at 04:09 PM 21 February 2025

Happy Farm'n Friday! We didn’t have much luck finding some nice flower pots for the two new rose bushes last week, so they’re now planted in some plastic ones I picked up en-mass from an estate sale a few weeks ago. It isn't the glazed flower pot season yet, I guess. The plants’ leaf shoots are waking up and will need better pots soon!

Piczle Cross: RF Release

The new nonogram game from Score Studio, Piczle Cross: Rune Factory, launched this week on Steam and Nintendo Switch. The game retails for $11.99 / 11.99€ / 9.99£. Nintendo Switch players who own the previous entry in the series, Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons will receive a 10% discount.

There are two main gameplay modes, which are selected at the start of the game:

• Adventure Mode has players clearing puzzles to unlock access to harder puzzles.
• Puzzle Mode is basically open access, with all puzzles unlocked from the beginning. You still play specific puzzles to unlock content in the game's encyclopedias, but there’s no set path to follow to unlock new puzzles.

While you can switch from Adventure Mode to Puzzle Mode at any time, changing from Puzzle Mode to Adventure Mode is not possible. The game does support up to three profiles. One profile can be going through the Adventure Mode path while another has access to every puzzle through Puzzle Mode.

Besides normal nonograms, Piczle Cross: RF has colorgrams, which requires players to fill in rows based on the color and quantity listed. Alternating colors can be placed in connecting blocks, while blocks of the same color must have an empty block between each grouping on the puzzle board.

All the puzzles can be cleared in black/white or color mode. You can clear it in b&w, then replay it again in color mode for a bit more challenge, or you can swap the other way, or only play one version. Essentially, playing both modes doubles the number of puzzles for players to attempt, though the puzzle only needs to be cleared one time to unlock surrounding puzzles when played during Adventure Mode. Because of this duplication, there are 300 regular black and white puzzles and 300 colorgram puzzles.

Playing a puzzle using colorgram mode takes my brain twice as long to solve as the normal black and white mode; perhaps due to my age and lack of brain-stimulating activities. Gotta build those neural pathways somehow!

Colorgrams don’t always have clear clues. Sometimes your only path forward is to guess where there is a color block to fill.

Challenge Mode, playable in either black/white or color, gives you a 1-hour time limit to clear the puzzle, with each incorrect mark on the board adding time to the clock. Some puzzles are forced into Challenge Mode, such as when battling a monster to tame the creature. These are marked with a dual-swords icon on the puzzle selection menu. The monster doesn’t attack during the battle, but the incorrect selections on the puzzle board gets you a bit closer to failing the challenge. This timed mode can also be activated when selecting a puzzle from the board by toggling the Normal Mode or Challenge Mode button on the puzzle's launch screen.

Boss battles are a collage of Challenge Mode smaller puzzles. Clear all the puzzles that make up the larger image to tame the monster. Collage puzzles also have the b&w/color duplication; there are 20 collages comprised of 150 puzzles, then the same 20/150 again for the other mode.

Clearing puzzles can unlock weapons and shields for the protagonist, along with crops and monsters that can be placed on the decorative farm. The equipment doesn’t have an influence on puzzle solving that I can tell, but you can see the hero wield the weapon during a monster taming puzzle encounter. Up to five monsters can be placed in the farm space. Seeds added to the field can be removed whenever you want (as they’re simply decorative), while placing four of the same seed together in a square will turn the whole group into a giant crop.

Later puzzles will unlock the Farm Dragon spaces from Rune Factory 5.

The SEED Outpost in the game contains the bestiary, character compendium, music player, and the journal of game progress. These menus contain information and artwork from Rune Factory 3 Special, Rune Factory 4 Special, and Rune Factory 5. Like with the Piczle Cross version of Story of Seasons, earlier series entries have been omitted.

Overall it’s a fun nonogram game, and the inclusion of the colorgrams are an interesting touch (Mr.Fogu calls it “brain training").

• Piczle Cross: Rune Factory | Nintendo Switch
• Piczle Cross: Rune Factory | Steam Store

Steam Next Fest

The next showcase of upcoming games, Steam Next Fest, will take place starting on Monday (Feb 24) and expire the following Monday (Mar 3). This week-long event gives indie developers a platform to promote their game with discounts and demos. Several farming game have announced plans to offer free demos during the week-long event, though you’ll have to wait until Monday to check out these goodies:

• Cattle Country
• Doloc Town (Current demo will be replaced with an updated version)
• Solar Punk
• Tales of Seikyu

The demo for Sugardew Island is already available, though Roka Play did send out a press release noting it would be available during Next Fest. Also currently available for demo is Faun Town, a farming + resource collecting + tower defense game.

Until next time

-Cher
(Maybe this year I’ll try growing tomatoes in the front yard…)

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