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! It is now the end of May, and per the instructions I left myself long ago, it's time to start the melons! There are two varieties I want to try this year: a variety from Japan (supposedly) and a seedless watermelon. The seedless watermelon seeds were a little costly, so I assumed it must mean the fruit is super tasty. Oh boy, turns out the seeds are costly for good reason; the first clue was a 2-page document that came with the seeds. Why would I need instructions to grow watermelons? Well, turns out the info was to prepare growers for this little bugger of a crop.

Besides being difficult to germinate, the flowers produced by a seedless watermelon vine do not generate enough pollen to set fruit. This means a secondary, normal watermelon must also be planted along with the seedless watermelons. So now I have to grow two varieties of watermelon. I did not know this when ordering the seeds. Hopefully Mr.Fogu's siblings like watermelon, because there may be a lot to share.

On the bright side, as I was pondering where or how I was supposed to grow all these melons, Mr.Fogu suggested I take over the backyard with this project. We'd rather grow edible stuff back there instead of simply mowing the grass, which has annoyingly creeped all over the place and under the blueberries as well (grr…). So we acquired additional grow bags and will be caring for a watermelon army in the backyard in a few months. If all goes well, of course. Video game farming skills don't guarantee a transfer to real-life farming.

The surprise potatoes growing in the backyard garden bed (the ones subject to the adventures in straw-ville) are beginning to flower, the shishito peppers are ready to be planted in the front yard garden bed, and the Disneyland roses are doing great in their new permanent flowerpots. I still need to start on the sunflowers for this year, which I should stop putting off now that the weather has warmed up. Sadly, our local ducks have stopped visiting the backyard. I'm assuming they have a nest somewhere that they're taking care of.

Marv Fiscal Year Repot

Marvelous released their end-of-year reports this week, covering the company's fiscal year from March 1, 2025, to April 31, 2026. Overall, things are doing quite well for the entertainment company, but there are some points to note.

For our interests, the video games segment ("digital contents") brought in over 20 billion yen in sales during the year, rallied by strong sales of Grand Bazaar and Guardians of Azuma, both of which exceeded sales estimates. The report also notes that some of the company's online titles, such as Dolphin Wave (i.e., bikini ba-donka-donks shooting guns while riding jet skis), performed well because of collaboration events and the addition of expanded payment methods. Marvelous subsidiary G-Mode also had success with the console and Steam/PC release of their pixel-based slow-life game, Japan Rural Life Adventure. On the flip side, sales of Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion did not meet expectations, while the browser-based Sangokushi Ten was a total letdown, resulting in the company recognizing that they won't recoup development costs but are expecting the game to stabilize and earn enough for the online service to continue.

Despite how awesome SoS:GB and RF: Azuma fared, because of high development costs and two poorly performing titles, the company notes that they experienced a 58 million yen loss in its digital content segment over the fiscal year. That's actually not a lot, as it's an equivalent of about $365,000 USD (as of today's exchange rate of $1 USD to ~159円).

Last fiscal year (2024-2025), the company only had 12 billion yen in sales and a positive profit of about 930 million yen, caused by steady sales of the discounted (Best) version of SoS: FOMT, a G-Mode remake (Okhotsuku ni Kiyu), and the release of their mobile app Bikkuriman Wonder Collection. Even with the disappointing Farmagia, the company's game segment was profitable that year.

While the digital content segment was at a loss, the amusement/arcade segment and music/video segment did great, resulting in the company being overall profitable over the fiscal year.

Now, as for plans for fiscal year 2026-2027 relating to video games, Marvelous plans to release three major titles. The first is an online app based on the Senran Kagura franchise, currently named "Project N", that will release during 2026. The second and third are unnamed console games to be revealed at a later date. The company plans to continue releasing earlier games on new platforms (e.g., SoS:GB comes out on PS5 and Xbox on May 28).

BIT Summit

As for smaller publications planned that weren't noted in the 2026-2027 plans, Marvelous and its subsidiaries, in partnership with IGI Indie Game Incubator Project, announced this week that they'll be promoting several indie-developed games at this weekend's BIT Summit PUNCH in Kyoto, Japan. The publisher's booth will include a variety of demos for visitors to play:

Marvelous Inc.

• No Door Can Not be Opened With a Non-black Key - a 2D puzzle game coming out sometime in 2027 on Steam
• Dr. Mememe Want to Sleep - a unique game about kicking sheep out the window of a doctor's laboratory, coming out on Steam sometime in 2027.
• Death the Guitar - a side-scrolling action game whereby a humanoid guitar seeks revenge for the death of its owner, planned for 2027 release on Steam

Marvelous USA/XSeed

• Moonlight Peaks - our highly-anticipated vampire farming simulator, coming out July 7, 2026 on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Google Play Games.
• The Big Catch - a 3D platform game where fishing for cooking ingredients is an adventure on its own, coming to Steam at some point.

IGI

• Dystopia VS Distortion - a musical card battle game coming to Steam
• Replica Club D - a visual novel with a thriller exploration side coming to Steam someday.
• The Nakano Laboratory - a mystery adventure game where players have to solve a murder onboard a ship, coming to Steam.
• Voyage Router - an ocean exploration roguelike strategy game coming to Steam later this year.
• Cross the C - a puzzle game of sliding a boat around a board, coming to Steam

G-Mode

• The Streamer's Alt Account Labyrinth - locate the traitor member in a rock band who may have contributed to the lead singer's death, coming to Steam this year.
• Kuukiyomi: Consider it World - a new entry in the Kuukiyomi social etiquette puzzle series, now on the Nintendo eShop in Japan and on Steam.
• The Commentator - a game about controlling what the daily news broadcast will discuss or ignore each day, coming to Nintendo Switch and Steam
• The Kendama Challenge - help 100 contestants successfully land a ball onto the kendama cup, coming to Steam.

While Marvelous may be planning three major titles, there are lots of smaller games the company will be publishing over the next fiscal year. I'm assuming one of the undisclosed console games is the Story of Seasons game Marvelous hinted at a few years ago that contained multiplayer aspects, if it hasn't been scrapped. Remember, the 2019 mobile app announced for the China market (Bokujou Monogatari Mobile) was quietly abandoned in early 2022 without any formal announcement from Marvelous' partner Tencent or the developer working on the game, NEXT Studios, leaving fans wondering what the heck happened. So pivoting to something else isn't unusual. We'll have to wait and see if the hinted-at multiplayer game resurfaces again, though Marvelous seems to be doing well selling nostalgia-heavy remakes of BokuMono games.

(Tencent is a major stockholder in Marvelous, owning 20% of available shares.)

HM3GBC Comic

It's been a while, so here's a newly-translated comic from the 2001 Sogakukan guidebook for Harvest Moon GBC 3!

During the HM GB2 days, Pete had a problem buying a golden chicken, which is what Sara was referencing.

Until next time

-Cher
(For those who have Monday off, enjoy your extra day! Go plant someth'n!)

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