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
Marv Schedules a BM/RF Presentation, New Anniversary Arcade Goods, Indie Game Updates, and Famitsu Interview with Wada and his Fishing Game | Posted at 04:36 PM 07 August 2026
Happy Farm'n Friday! This is a big one, so let's just jump right in!
Marvelous Anniversary Presentation
Now that we officially reached the anniversaries on August 6, Marvelous announced a streaming event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bokujou Monogatari and the 20th anniversary of Rune Factory, scheduled for Monday, August 24 at 8:00 pm Japan Time. That is 4:00 am on August 24 for the Pacific time zone, though an easier 11:00 am GMT/UTC for those in Europe.
Gotta get up at 3:45 am on a Monday, huh… I'll try my best… zzz…
This broadcast will be airing on YouTube. Marvelous is promoting the event as a look through the history of both series. They'll also announce the results of the popularity polls for BokuMono and Rune Factory from earlier, and present their favorite stories from Japan's version of the Memories submissions. Marv US is still promoting their version of the event until August 12.
The company is also hinting that there may be new information about the games. The presentation attendee list will be announced later.
I'm expecting some info on Rune Factory 6, but not sure about Story of Seasons. Zephyr Town is still fresh. We'll have to wait and see!
VitS Sales
Nippon Ichi Software's latest spooky farming video game, Village in the Shade, is selling like a hot potato in Japan. According to the game's official Twitter account, this recently release from the yomawari series has already sold over 100,000 copies in its first 4 days. This sales figure combines both digital and physical editions, though no details on which format sold more. The developer/publisher also apologized for stock shortages of physical copies, as the game has sold out at some retail stores.
Outside of Japan, the game will be released by NIS America later this autumn. The publisher has a limited edition console bundle available for preorder containing a copy of the game (FYI, the Switch 2 version is a "digital keycard"), an art book, CD soundtrack, an enamel pin set, sticker sheet, and an acrylic standee. The digital version on Steam is available to purchase now, though currently limited to Japanese, Korean, and Traditional Chinese. Additional languages (English, French, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish) will be released later as an update patch.
New Arcade Goods
This month, System Service will have two types of Bokujou Monogatari prizes available at participating game centers in Japan.
The first is a plushie cow wearing a royal crown. From the BIG series of cow plushies (30 cm or about 12 inches long) comes a normal black/white cow, a fruit cow, and a strawberry cow. Each version has a cute little yellow bow and a golden felt crown with a bubble cow head, "Bokujou Monogatari," and "30th Anniversary" printed along the crown's surface. And they finally updated the artwork from the Pioneers of Olive Town promotional graphic.
The second item that System Service has not socially promoted yet is a two-tier storage box set - one that is a blue/white cow theme, and the other is yellow with a variety of animals. The dimensions of the storage system or the date when they are available haven't been revealed yet:
Indie Updates
Kitty farming game Snacko was recently updated to version 1.2. Bluecurse Studios updated the game to have better romantic event dialog and pathways. Now, the characters have longer events and build upon character story moments. The event locations are also noted on the quest board instead of having to guess when and where the love event will trigger. Additionally, the town cultural center now has a guestbook where villagers will write notes in response to quests and events experienced by players.
A free demo of Snacko is available if you want to try before buying. The game is 10% off as part of the Cat Awareness Feline Sale, a Steam event that is all things cats.
Side scrolling farming game Doloc Town exited Early Access this week. The 1.0 edition of the post-apocalyptic survival game includes the complete storyline, more language support, an additional city ruins area, farming automations, and more events. Players will scavenge for resources, crops, fish, and recipes to build a little farm plot of their own. The game has a launch period 20% off until August 19.
Chinese seaside inspired farming game Starsand Island will launch digitally on August 18 on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Steam/PC, and XBox X|S for $40. Physical home console copies will become available around November 12. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam and XBox.
In this game, up to four players can enjoy a simpler island lifestyle. Grow crops, catch fish, explore the land, and even battle creatures in ancient ruins. There are 14 potential marriage candidates to choose, with dating activities such as flying kites and picnic lunches. Mmm… lunch; the best meal of the day.
Starsand Island has a free demo to check out on Steam, but not on home console platforms. The PS5 version isn't available to preorder yet.
The highly anticipated farming game, Fields of Mistria, exited Steam Early Access this week to a resounding success. NPC Studio's anime stylized video game has already made a dent in the farming game genre with over 1 million digital copies. That's, like, bonkers! Congrats!
Ok, so now it is finishing up Moonlight Peaks, then Farlands, and then Fields of Mistria. Or do I swap the last two? We have Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea coming up as well. THERE ARE TOO MANY AWESOME FARMING GAMES! If only I could get the Interns to play them for me…
Lifestyle building and farming game Kynseed launched on home console this week, now available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, XBox One, and XBox X|S. In this sandbox game made by a few Fable veterans, players begin their life building a farm, get married, raise a family, and then die. No worries; the player's offspring becomes the new protagonist, carrying over stats and knowledge to the next generation.
All updates released for the PC version are included in the home console editions, such as the tavern business opportunity, farm customization, and more. To celebrate the home console launch, the Steam/PC version is discounted 20% until August 11.
New Farm'n Game
As part of the Wholesome Games Celebration event, three-person game studio Redknot Games released a demo for their upcoming ranching game Little Sheep Valley. In this game, players build and decorate a sheep ranch dedicated to their fluffy friends. No chickens, cows, or crops; only sheep. Play with your flock and upgrade buildings to automate the manual labor associated with herd maintenance. Plus, you can give head rubs to some adorable creatures.
The demo is available now, with the game's Early Access to be announced later.
"Me and the Fishing Diary" Interview
Famistu published an interview today with Yasuhiro Wada about Imagineer's and Toybox Game's upcoming fishing game, Boku to Tsuri Nikki (roughly Me and the Fishing Diary, coming out for Nintendo Switch 1&2 on October 8 in Japan. In the interview, Wada points out a few bits of really good information:
- He confirms that this new game is a tribute to the magnificent Legend of the River King series.
- The original Famicom (NES) River King game was primarily programmed by a single person - Kazuhiro Arita - back in the Pack-In-Video days. Arita made the game based on the thought it would be fun to play. With this new game, Wada wished to create a fishing game in his own style and was careful to NOT create an imitation of the OG game.
- This game is not a similar "slow life" game like Bokujou Mongatari or Natsu-mon. It also doesn't contain animal battles like the original River King series, which contained the RPG elements such as character experience and leveling up. During the planning phases, they did consider a level-up mechanic, but eventually decided that obtaining better reels and lures would be how players expand the types of fish available. Boku to Tsuri Nikki is closer to an adventure game, whereby players must catch the map's boss fish to continue into the next region.
- Igusa Matsuyama is the character designer for this fishing game (Yea, I bet you too though the art looked familiar!). Wada explains that Igusa had wanted to collaborate on a picture book, but at the time, both of them were busy with Natsu-mon and the other Toybox Game, The Game of Life for Nintendo Switch (official EN website, though I can't find it for sale online). Eventually, the Showa-era book idea happened to align with the planning of this game. Putting the picture book concept with fishing resulted in something different from other fishing games available. So with Igusa on-board with illustrations, they got started with development of the homage to River King. Igusa was also the character designer for River King: Mystic Valley for Nintendo DS and River King: Wonderful Journey for PlayStation 2.
- The music for this game was produced by Noisycroak, the same group that did the music for Natsu-mon, Doraemon: Friends of the Great Kingdom, and other popular video games.
- The mischievous spirits in this game, the Ayakashi, have their curse lifted by the player catching fish in the regions. In return, the Ayakashi will then help the player, such as creating fish prints to decorate the protagonist's house.
- There are original fish in the game as well as fish inspired by real life creatures. Wada explains that Japan has a limited number of freshwater fish to document into a game, so they created 28 fictional, goofy-sounding fish (such as a "Swimming Taiyaki"), to make a total of 108 fish. These fictional fish were created by Igusa. They also included freshwater fish from outside of Japan to increase the number available (e.g., Bluegill).
- Wada wrote the game's scenario scenes and a portion of the picture book flavor text for each fish.
- There was a thought to have fish shadows in the water to direct players where to cast, but the decision was made to not include silhouettes to make the game a bit more realistic, requiring players to use tackle/location trial-and-error to successfully reel in the target fish. When Wada describes it as "authentic", he clarifies that he doesn't mean realistic tackle or fishing locations; rather, it is the excitement of fishing he wanted to capture. The game does include fish species hints in the picture book encyclopedia. Though the game encourages players to unlock the fish in the order they appear in the encyclopedia, players can catch them out of order if they go to the right location and use the proper equipment.
- For the fishing mechanic, players will have to control line tension to ensure the fish doesn't escape. An on-screen meter will indicate when the fish will jump out of the water, which can make the fish tired and easier to reel in. Different fish have varying strengths, so the player has to learn how to best manage the line tension to successfully reel in the catch. Larger fish naturally take longer to retrieve.
- Fish availability varies based on time of day, weather, and season. Wada explains the way that players can influence these factors, but for spoiler reasons I'll leave that out.
- There is no fly fishing mechanic; Wada explains it was considered for this game, but was deemed too complex. Perhaps if the game becomes popular he'll look into doing fly fishing, saltwater fishing, and fishing holes outside of Japan.
- Wada summarizes that there are about 20 fishing rods, 30 fishing lures, and 30 bait to collect, with some bait reserved for the fictional fish species. Equipment is obtained by trading fish with the cat spirit, Usugumo, who gives the player acorns in return. These acorns are then traded with the tea kettle spirit, Pokomi, for fishing gear.
- There are eight Japan-themed fishing locations. When asked by the interviewer why the Japan setting, Wada noted that it was part of the homage to River King as well as matched with the Akayashi spirits and folklore of the game.
- For completionists, each fish has a largest size that will be denoted as a golden crown on the picture book encyclopedia. Also, a caught fish reels in faster when the player has caught the size before, so players only have to go through the full tug-of-war fishing mechanic when catching larger sizes.
The game is estimated to take about 7 or 8 hours to complete the story, with about 40 hours to fill in the picture book encyclopedia. No word yet if the game will be localized outside of Japan; hopefully we hear about it in the future. Spike Chunsoft did handle the localization of Natsu-mon, so let's send good thoughts in that direction!
Until next time
-Cher
(Yes, we need more River King...)
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