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! The spooky season has started, as the owner of the year-round skeleton tree added a few upgrades to their yard display. Themed string lights, more skeletons, and a giant spider (that he crafted) are cheerfully playing throughout the front yard.

This means it's time for my shifty-eye spider to go up on the front porch rafters along with the cloth spider web. And right after that? CHRISTMAS LIGHT SEASON! Wooo! I'm upgrading the strings along the roofline from C7s to C9s this year; that's the plan, anyway. Considering the state of the global postal system, the new light strings cost less than the shipping/handling fee to mail them from overseas to Fogu HQ. There will be fewer lights this year due to time constraints, but at least the roofline will be more interesting.

I'm still playing Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and finished restoring the outdoor market this week. The storyline explaining why the prior Zephyr Town farmer abandoned the whole village was somewhat off-putting. I'm not a fan of how that was handled. Yet, I'm continuing to complete the rest of the encyclopedia, which has been a challenge due to random bad luck. Ramon offered a buffalo for sale one time eons ago and hasn't brought one to the bazaar since. And one of my missing insects is only available on rainy days during Summer 20 to 31, and of course it never rained during those 9 days.

Sales-wise, Grand Bazaar is still on the Famitsu Top 30 for last week. The Switch 1 version sold approximately 5,000 additional physical units in Japan, moving it from Rank 7 to Rank 11. The Switch 2 edition dropped to Rank 28 from Rank 21, moving about 1900 units. As we know, this doesn't include digital or overseas sales data.

RF: Azuma Update

The new (and free) content update for Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma was released yesterday. Version 1.1.0 of Azuma brings a new building area in Summer Village (much needed!), four post-game challenge dungeons, bug fixes, and the ability to move beyond bond level 10 with the important villagers.

Patch notes from Marvelous:

Adventuring

• Added four extremely difficult boss gauntlets, which you can challenge after completing the main quest "Guardians of Azuma."

Village Life

• Added a new development zone to Summer Village which you can access after reaching Village Level 8.
• Upon reaching Village Level 10, the maximum number of facilities you can place has increased by 5, and the maximum number of decorations you can place is now 256 across the board.
• Expanded the Storage Box capacity from 810 to 1,200.
• Expanded the Seeds & Such capacity from 300 to 400.
• Tsubame's Early Bird Boutique will now sell Chocolate after you reach a certain Village Level.
• Added sorting functionality to the Village Building menus, forging menus at blacksmiths, and building menus at carpenters.

Socializing

• Increased the maximum Bond Level to 100.
• You will earn various recipes and items at certain Bond Levels for each character.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where villagers tasked with farming would sometimes harvest crops even when the action was set to Off.
• Fixed bugs related to some NPC conversations during festivals and contests.
• Additional minor bug fixes.

The new area in the construction-restricted Summer Village is a large island in the southwest area. Players must use a wind jump portal next to Hisui's talisman shop to access it. Though it aligns right with the boat dock and looks like you could just walk over to the new village building space, but that's a no-go.

This 1.1.0 update is NOT the Azuma and Grand Bazaar collaboration. That's coming later.

Besides the new content for Azuma, the Rune Factory themed puzzle game, Piczle Cross: Rune Factory also updated yesterday to include Azuma themed puzzles, bringing the total nonogram puzzles in the game to 950, which is actually 475 in black/white mode and 475 in color mode of the same puzzles. The 50 new Azuma collage puzzles can be accessed from the game's title screen by selecting the Bonus Puzzles menu.

Steam Autumn Sale

From now until October 6 (next Monday), there are a lot of discounts on farming games during the annual Steam Autumn Sale. Grand Bazaar is NOT one of the many farming games on sale:

• Cattle Country - 20% off
• Coral Island - 33% off
• Cornucopia - 20% off (Early Access)
• Doraemon Story of Seasons - 50% off
• Doraemon Story of Seasons: Friends of the Great Kingdom - 50% off
• Echoes of the Plum Grove - 20% off
• Everafter Falls - 25% off
• Fae Farm - 50% off
• Farlands - 35% off (Early Access)
• Farming Simulator 25 - 20% off
• Fields of Mistria - 20% off (Early Access)
• G-Mode Archive: BokuMono Mobile - Life & Love - 30% off
• G-Mode Archive: BokuMono Mobile - Minori Island - 30% off
• Gaucho and the Grassland - 20% off
• Harvest Moon: Light of Hope SE
• Harvest Moon: One World - 60% off
• Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos - 50% off
• Little Known Galaxy - 50% off
• My Time at Sandrock - 50% off
• Paleo Pines - 70% off
• Pathless Woods - 20% off (Early Access)
• Piczle Cross: Rune Factory - 50% off
• Roots of Pacha - 40% off
• Rune Factory 3 Special - 60% off
• Rune Factory 4 Special - 70% off
• Rune Factory 5 - 50% off
• Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma - 20% off
• Rusty's Retirement - 33% off
• Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin - 50% off
• Seeds of Calamity - 20% off (Early Access)
• Snacko - 25% off
• Stardew Valley - 30% off
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - 50% off
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - 75% off
• Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - 50% off
• Summer in Mara - 70% off
• SunnySide - 60% off
• Tales of Seikyu - 25% off (Early Access)
• Wylde Flowers - 25% off

There are discounts available on the Nintendo eShop too!

• Cattle Country - 20% off (expires Oct 12, EU only)
• Doraemon: Story of Seasons - 70% off (expires Oct 16, EU only)
• Doraemon: Friends of the Great Kingdom - 70% off (expires Oct 5, NA only)
• Everafter Falls - 20% off (expires Oct 10, NA only)
• Everdream Valley - 68% off (expires Oct 18)
• Farmagia - 60% off (expires Oct 6)
• Harvest Moon: Light of Hope - 90% off (expires Oct 24, EU only)
• Paleo Pines - 70% off (expires Oct 6, NA only)
• Rune Factory 3 Special - 60% off (expires Oct 6)
• Rune Factory 4 Special - 70% off (expires Oct 6)
• Rune Factory 5 - 60% off (expires Oct 6)
• Shepherd's Crossing - 50% off (expires Oct 8)
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life - 50% off (expires Oct 6)
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - 75% off (expires Oct 6)
• Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town - 65% off (expires Oct 6)
• Summer in Mara + Koa and the 5 Pirates - 60% off (expires Oct 19)

Until next time!

- Cher
(Niece #2 figured out I was the sender of the mysterious postcards. She's sending me a letter in response, to practice her writing skills. Super cute!)

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