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! I am now in spring year 2 and unlocked the Rank 6 bazaar in Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar this week. That wasn't so bad. How hard could getting to Rank 7 be? Aaah what, 2 million G?! It will take me some time to get through that goal. I just want to make Felix happy!

I've also almost documented everyone's 6-heart events. Just a few more to go. So far, I've enjoyed the dialogue in all of the events, whether romantic or simply a random cut scene. The English localization is really well done. Kinda wish Felipe was a marriage candidate, but there's always a character that folks wish were marriageable and are not...

Also, for those who might not know, you can keep mature fruit trees in the house storage if you need the field space. Just dig them up with your hatchet, put the plant in storage, and then take it back out when it's the fruiting season. Using fertilizer on the tree while it is growing - from seedling to maturity - will impact the Star Rank of the fruit. Once the tree is mature, applying fertilizer will impact the quantity of fruit you receive at harvest. If you need to continue to raise a tree's Star Rank, you'll need to use the yellow windmill to convert a fruit into a seedling, then plant and apply fertilizer again.

Selling the converted tree fruit into seedlings is a good way to make money at the bazaar, too. For example, while an Orange may have a base price of about 200 G, turning it into an Orange Seedling would get you 1200 G when sold. Alas, turning a Lumpy Orange into a seedling simply results in a normal Orange Seedling, though with a little higher Star Rank.

SoS:GB Sales

Week 3 physical sales estimates from Famitsu's top-30 trackers show Story of Season: Grand Bazaar at #4 for Switch (+8547, 68,638 total) and #14 for Switch 2 (+3420, 26,598 total).

Marvelous also published a press release noting that Grand Bazaar has sold over 500,000 units worldwide. With about 95,000 noted by Famitsu as being physical units in Japan, that leaves a looooot of sales for physical units in other regions, as well as digitally from Steam and the Nintendo eShop.

RFxSoS Collab

In a surprise nobody would have expected, Marvelous today announced plans to develop a free Grand Bazaar themed DLC for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma. More details about this bonus pack will be revealed later.

Marvelous also announced plans to make improvements to Azuma by making "adventure, daily life, and interactions even more enjoyable" with an upcoming update.

Azuma passed the 500,000 units sold threshold last month.

Fae Farm Update

A new owner has been found for the giggle-inducing farming game, Fae Farm. Indie publisher Gambit Digital, along with other industry groups (Game Cloud Network, Pure Wonder Interactive, and Phatty Acid), has acquired the IP rights. The intention is to bring the live service back online while exploring future possibilities with the game.

This farming game was initially released by Phoenix Labs in September 2023 and heavily promoted by Nintendo for the Switch console. The studio was acquired by a blockchain firm that year (Forte), which eventually resulted in two rounds of layoffs, the cancellation of a sandbox game in development, and the inevitable disabling of online multiplayer support for Fae Farm on September 10.

It was a bit sad to see such a cheery game rot away due to mismanagement by its parent company (it is a cute game), but hopeful to see what the future of Fae Farm turns out. The demo for the game is still available on Steam if you want to check it out.

• Fae Farm | Steam Store

Indie Farm'n Updates

The first major update for the solo-development world rebuilding and farming game Seeds of Calamity was released on Steam last weekend. This content release includes two new animals - the Sky Pheasant and Woolly Boar - along with the equipment needed to spin wool into yarn. There are new cooking recipes to process the Sky Pheasant eggs into tasty meals, the ability to track shrine offerings in the player's journal (which unlocks functionality like the greenhouse), and the option to have a Snowtop Sheep as your pet companion.

Seeds of Calamity is currently in Early Access on Steam. Wishlist the game from Laborious Lark Studios if it's a farming game you would be interested in playing:

• Seeds of Calamity | Steam Store

Pathea Games noted the other week that while development of their newest game, My Time at Evershine, was still ongoing, the studio hit a small setback when it came to fleshing out the gameplay. After they put together the city building and role-playing parts, they realized it didn't manifest the way they had envisioned. Pathea has now taken time to rework the main story and other components, which has delayed the release of the alpha build that was pledged to Kickstarter backers.

Until next time!

- Cher
(Trees, please stop dropping leaves 'k thks.)

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