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

Happy Farm'n Friday! And happy first day of Summer! The neighborhood tree skeleton was dressed by its owner this week to celebrate the change of season. Now 'ol bones is wearing swim trunks, a pool noodle, and a pair of blue sunglasses. I'm assuming that sunscreen is not applicable at this point.

I'm now about 40 hours into Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and have reached the point where the four villages have been unlocked. Now I get to explore the areas outside the villages' astral space. All the exploring has come with a downside; I was greatly over-leveled for the "balanced" experience of the game. I had the same problem playing Rune Factory 5, where I spent so much time checking things out that the dungeons and boss battles became a cakewalk. Kicking Azuma up to "hard" difficulty helped to offset the current lack of battle challenge for now. I expect I'll reach level 50 easily enough, but if the challenge doesn't ramp up, trying to obtain the Level 100 achievement by taking out effortless enemies will be a chore I'm not terribly interested in. That doesn't seem like much fun...

HM:HSH SE

Somewhat hinted about during the Natsume livestream of HM: The Lost Valley/Skytree Village a few weeks ago, the publisher this week revealed that an updated version of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home will be coming out for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Steam, and XBox by the end of the year. Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition adds a few convenient improvements to the Android/iOS version, though it is unknown yet whether the OG game will also have these upgrades.

In the original game, Doc Jr is around as a town visitor. He is there to give encouragement to the protagonists, but he mainly stands around and looks cute. With this new Special Edition, Doc Jr will finally have a workshop to call home in Alba.

Home Sweet Home (pictured above) has the same animal farm component as earlier games like Winds of Anthos, where animals will leave debris on the ground to pick up daily. This golden brown stuff can then be converted into handy fertilizer to improve crop quality. The problem is when the farm has a lot of animals, it is a momentous task to clean the animal poo every day. The barn animals will lose their friendship when their barn is dirty.

In Anthos, ensuring the animals go outside every day helps to counteract the negative hit of having a barn floor covered in manure. That's how I handled it after I got tired of spending in-game hours picking up compost daily. The interesting thing is that it continues accumulating in Anthos' code, so even if you manage to pick up all the piles, exiting the barn and going back inside will make the poop reappear until the poop counter is cleared (it was about 100 piles max if I remember correctly).

With the introduction of The Great Outdoors DLC for Anthos, Doc Jr. installs a chicken-themed barn compost picker-upper to handle that mundane task automatically. Players still need to empty the robo-chicken's reservoir occasionally, but the new tool greatly improved the animal management aspect.

Home Sweet Home had the same problem as Anthos when it came to a dirty barn floor, though the same solution worked; mandatory pasture time to offset the negative hit on the animals' friendship level as a way to avoid spending hours picking up poop. Gratefully, Doc Jr.'s robo-chicken compost collector will be included in the SE version of Home Sweet Home. Huzzah!

Another oddity with HSH was traversing around the world. The horse was locked to the pasture, so heading up to the mountaintop from the farm took about two hours of hoofing it by foot through town, past the other farm, up the windy path, and across a bridge. The game's world map does include a feature where players can tap where they want to go, and the game would walk to that spot for them, but it would be super if there was a faster way to travel! The SE version of Home Sweet Home will bring a fancy hoverbike, another great invention from the magnificent Doc Jr, that will quickly zip players around the game's landscape. However, I doubt Hoverbike 5000 would be a valid entry for the Equestrian Challenge race.

The last improvement Natsume has revealed is two additional marriage candidates who move to Alba from their villages in Anthos. The artist Ella and herbal specialist Nikolai (now a full-fledged doctor) join the cast of the original Alba candidates in the Special Edition. Dr. Nikolai's reason for visiting Alba is to research the mysterious healing pond at the top of Mount Alba, while Ella is searching for creative inspiration while working part-time at Piemont Restaurant.

If you're curious about Home Sweet Home compared to other HM games, while the world of Alba is smaller than the island of Anthos and uses the same graphics, it does have improvements. The game's story - revitalizing the little town of Alba - is much clearer and integrated with all the town's main villagers. The character's dialog during story moments is charming, as the townsfolk move from their bleak attitudes to having a positive outlook for the future of their village. Gameplay-wise, there is a new field rotation aspect (something home gardeners are experienced with), a little farm booth for another way to sell goods, clearer hints on unlocking crop mutations, and more. The current rendition of the game also supports controller functionality, even though it is primarily a mobile, touch-screen game.

SoS:GB Updates

In this week's Zephyr Town Walker, Marvelous explains how foraged, wild items can be processed into other goods or given to villagers as gifts. Herbs, bamboo shoots, branches, rocks, etc., are free right off the ground. There are also goodies hidden in hard-to-reach locations around Zephyr Town.

One thing that stood out in the video is an unexplained spot by the bridge. Hmm, wonder what it could be?

A 30-minute prerecorded Let's Play was streamed in the wee hours of the morning today, with a replay of the presentation available on Youtube. Long-time BokuMono fan and Japanese voice actor Daiki Yamashita played through the first few days of the game, similar to his prerelease Let's Play of Pioneers of Olive Town and A Wonderful Life. In the Japanese audio of Grand Bazaar, Daiki played the voice role of the Harvest Sprites.

• At the beginning of the game, players select whether they want the portrait illustrations to appear on the right side of the conversation dialog box. This can be changed later in the game's settings.
• Players begin by filling out their moving-to-Zephyr-Town application by selecting their name, gender, birthday, and farm name. There are a plethora of face options to pick from (eye style, skin color, birthmarks, and so many hairstyle options!)
• After hearing Felix's sad tale of the town bazaar that is no longer grand, the mayor explains the bazaar is going on today and invites Daiki to participate. This begins the bazaar tutorial - setting objects onto the tables, using the bazaar bell, and so on. There's also an option to return home instead of participating in the tutorial.
• The game encourages quick sales at the bazaar. Press the sale button quickly to clear that customer from the booth and move on to the next waiting customer.
• Customers might want to purchase a specific item not out on the booth table. A thought bubble with an icon of what they want will appear, which can then be placed on the table for sale if that item is in the player's rucksack. If not available, then no sale!
• Nostalgia music. The revamped tunes sound nice.
• The bookshelf in the farmhouse acts as an encyclopedia of discovered goods. There are also shelves next to the bookcase to display goods, such as awarded trophies, and a handy calendar that keeps track of birthdays and Saturday bazaar days.
• Felix also offers a tutorial on the basics of farming, which can be rejected or accepted. Though, we're all experienced farmers at this point. Daiki also skipped over the farming basics tutorial.
• Felix points out that jumping and using tools have a wider area of use than standing and using the tools. This works for sowing seeds, too!
• The greeting button will trigger a response with main villagers and generic sub-villagers.
• Sophie stops by in the morning to hand over a sickle to cut overgrowth and weeds on the farm. She then requested Daiki to collect and bring her 20 weeds for 9 bags of radish seeds.

• Last week, the developer commentary noted that players often had difficulty knowing when or where to trigger an event once the event requirements were met. In response, the development team added an indicator to Grand Bazaar that makes it easier for farmers to know where to go to view a special cut scene. Daiki noticed on his world map that there were pink bubbles. Interacting with a pink-bubble villager triggers a cut scene.
• Daiki also shows off the world map at 26 minutes, 35 seconds. Some areas are hidden behind clouds, such as the race track, but it indicates where things are around the town.
• Lloyd shows up on day 4 to give the hatchet, an axe/hammer combo tool that lets players break up branches for lumber or smash rocks for material stone and ore. He'll also give a task to fetch stone and iron ore.

Daiki will have another adventure through Zephyr Town next week. He'll participate in a Harvest Festival, meet the Sprites, and do more bazaar activities. Wonder what else we'll see!

Until next time!

- Cher
(Nintendo, where's my email invite...)

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