https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=blogs&p=updates https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss PHP-Update https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1762559325 Happy Farm'n Friday! Made no progress with the Christmas lights this week due to the terrible weather, but I did manage to complete a bulb check on the icicle lights. I've two strings that are working 50%. That'll be a challenge to figure out what's going on! These are discontinued light strings, so it is either fix it or lose it. It may be time to replace them for next year.
The next Farm'n Friday will be on November 21, as Mr.Fogu is taking me on an adventure that will have me traveling and (hopefully) stuffing my face with all sorts of delicious treats for the next two Fridays. I'll still be around via Bluesky. Guide content updates and my availability on the Helper Chat will also be paused for a bit.

Marvelous Q2 Report
Last week, Marv corporate released their fiscal report covering the second quarter 2025 (July, August, and September). Marvelous' 2026 fiscal year started in April 2025 and ends on the last day of March 2026.
In general, things are doing quite well! Sales year-over-year have increased 157% and resulted in 32 million yen in overall operating profit so far, due to strong interest in the amusement sector (i.e., arcade machines) and the release of three core titles - Rune Factory: Azuma (June), Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (August), and Daemon X Machina: Titanic (September). While there were significant development costs, steady sales have resulted in reaching profit goals ahead of schedule. Marv notes that sales of Daemon x Machina were initially slow, but are still on track to reach its profit goal. As we already know, both RF and SoS have shipped over half-a-million units each.
In specific segments, their digital content sales increased 197% compared to Quarter 2 of last fiscal year. During that prior period, Marvelous had released two JP-region mobile games, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus (July 2024), and Hokkaido Seriel Murders (September 2024), with a big gamble on the upcoming Farmagia (November 2024). Not even the animated series spin-off could help that dud. So it's no surprise that their powerhouse genres in 2025 increased sales at such a high rate.
While sales in the digital content segment increased like crazy, the amount of profit during Quarter 2 was still negative, as Marv continues to recoup development costs associated with their major titles. It was also negative in Quarter 1 due to up-front development costs associated with Azuma, but it is improving. Marvelous' other segments (arcade and music) are doing well.
New games to increase digital content sales during this fiscal year include a new app for the company's existing Sangokushi online game and an RPG game for Nintendo Switch based on the mobile game, The Thousand Noble Musketeers: Rhodoknight, set 7 years after the events of the mobile phone game. The Musketeers game is by G-MODE (the Marvelous subsidiary that released the old Bokujou Monotagari phone games on Steam) with a February 2026 release date.
Marvelous' report also notes that the company plans to continue to support the three major titles released earlier by distributing new content to help boost sales (maybe more Grand Bazaar content updates?), while also increasing profits with their online games by having special, in-game events.

New Sakuna Game
This week, a new spin-off based on the rice farming anime series was announced for mobile and Steam/PC. Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin - Hinuka's Pilgrimage will be a free-to-play rice cultivation and RPG game in development by G2 Studios with an original concept supplied by Sakuna developer Edelweiss. Toho Games, a subsidiary of Toho Co. (the company behind the Sakuna anime series), will handle the publication and is currently accepting pre-registrations in Japan.
An online presentation aired yesterday, where several of the anime's voice actors showcased the gameplay along with the game's director. The first 10 minutes are just pre-stream content, so fast forward if you want to see the new game's content:

The storyline involves Sakuna-hime and her friends investigating an archipelago that mysteriously appeared for reasons unknown. There, they meet young Hinuka-hime, who is searching for her father based on her vague memories of him. Together, they grow rice and explore the archipelago to solve the mysteries.
The quality of rice will depend on the type of seeds the player selects, the environment and weather, as well as the members of the player's party, with the intent of trying different combinations to discover the 100 rice varieties in the game. It takes about 6 real-life hours to cultivate the rice into a harvestable crop.

Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin - Hinuka's Pilgrimage | Offical Website (JP)

While the Toho game registration appears to be region locked (at least, the Steam Store entry says it is unavailable outside of Japan), XSeed Games has announced there will be a Sakuna 5th-anniversary livestream on November 10 at 12:00 pm Pacific Time on their Twitch channel.

Indie Updates
After several years, slow-life farming game Peaceful Days has exited Steam Early access and is now available. Spend a quiet life in the village of Aurora, managing a farm, talking to the locals, doing part-time jobs, and so on. A free demo is also available:

Peaceful Days | Steam Store


Until next time!

- Cher(Varoom airplane varoooooom!) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1762559325 Fri, 07 Nov 2025 23:48:45 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1761954479 Happy Farm'n Friday, and Happy Halloween! The weather is predicted to be clear tonight, so I envision we'll have plenty of trick-or-treaters. I have all the good stuff - Reeses, Kit Kat, Snickers, Milk Duds, etc. - along with the fan favorite, Russet Potatoes. Last year, the multi-colored Masquerade potatoes were quite a hit with the kids. Unfortunately, this year's harvest was pretty dismal, so I had to switch to the standard Russet from the grocery store. I would rather have leftover potatoes than leftover candy, anyway.
Famitsu's Top-30 list still has the Nintendo Switch 1 edition of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar in its ranking, though we're now down to #28.

HM: Home Sweet Home SE
The upgraded version of last year's $20 mobile game, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home Special Edition (SE) is now available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, XBox, and Steam/PC, along with an upgraded price of about $40.

An obvious change compared to the older, mobile version is the inclusion of a permanent house and workshop for Doc Jr. In the original game, 'ol Doc simply stood around in Alba in various places as an unhoused visitor. In the SE, his metal-clad lab is directly north after crossing the second bridge to reach the Alba center area. He has friendship notes like the other Alba residents, and he can give fetch requests, but his profile entry in the Resident Encyclopedia is at the very bottom of the list and not at the top with the game's marriage candidates. Alas, once again, it doesn't appear that the silver fox can be married. Sad.
The game plays fine on a Steam Deck, including a smooth transition when the pop-up keyboard launches for naming newly purchased animals. The SE requires controller inputs on all platforms; no keyboard/mouse support.
The navigation interface for the main menu has moved from the bottom of the screen to the top and still contains the same options as the non-SE version of the game.
There is a new white-colored building between the Village Hall and Jeanne's newspaper shop/residence. I'm assuming this is a medical clinic that belongs to the new marriage candidate in HSHSE, Nikolai. Because of the new structure, the location of the Unmanned Store has shifted slightly to the right and is now closer to the bridge leading to central Alba.
Ella moves in at the end of Chapter 4, where she lives in a white tent just south of the new clinic. She also has an interest in working part-time at Hugo's Piemont restaurant, which happens to be the plot of Chapter 4.
Generally, movement is limited to the standard fast walk, controlled by using the left analog stick. Tilt slightly to slow walk, or push the stick in the movement direction to walk faster. In the SE, there is a new ability to run faster by holding down the R2/ZR button on the controller while tilting the left analog stick in the direction of movement. Sprinting takes more energy than the normal movement speed, but at least we can get around faster.
I double-checked the iOS mobile version, and there was no sprint option, whether using the touch-screen controls or a compatible Bluetooth controller.
There are probably more things in the game I haven't seen yet. So far, the SE game's story remains the same as the iOS/Android version, including the items required to advance the story.
On the opposite side, the animals inside the barn are still blocked from accessing open feed bins while another animal is in the way and eating fodder. Since there is no option to push the animals, and running against them does not make them budge, the best solution is to pet the animal that is eating to interrupt its hour-long feeding, and then hope it wanders off to make space for the patiently waiting hungry animal.
As in Winds of Anthos and earlier versions of the Natsume series, setting animals out to graze makes animals healthy, not full. The animals could graze in One World when there was fodder grass growing in a nearby crop field, but that hasn't been the case for games released afterward.
Another got-cha with the Steam/PC version is that while the game has the options to be played in full-screen or in a floating window, the windowed mode has no resolution settings in the game menus. The workaround is to manage the launch settings in Steam instead. Open your Steam client and browse to the game Library, then right-click on HSHSE to access the game's Properties. Under General > Launch Options, add in "-screen-width 1600 -screen-height 900 -screen-fullscreen 0" to the entry field. Feel free to adjust the width/height to your preferred window resolution size; the "0" at the end determines whether it is windowed or full-screen ("1"). The game does launch a little slower with the custom launch command.
The last oddity I noticed with the Steam edition is with the game's camera, which operates as a zoom in/out via the right analog stick. Regardless of the zoom level set when entering a building, it will always reset to the default middle-zoom level when exiting back outside. This zoom adjustment doesn't occur in the iOS/Android version, so it may be corrected in a future update.
So, is it worth $40? Honestly, it is a little overpriced. If I were in charge of marketing/publication at Natsume, I would have set the launch price at $30. The story writing and environment for Home Sweet Home (regular or SE) are a step-up from Winds of Anthos, visually more colorful and textually less stoic, but the storyline can be completed within a year (or even faster when you have a list of all required materials and can plan ahead). The supporting languages are currently limited to English and German, excluding other languages that have had prior Harvest Moon releases (sorry, Quebec). So if you've available funds and want to play now, go for it! But if your coin purse is a little short on turnips, hold off until it goes on sale for a more reasonable price.

Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home SE | Nintendo
Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home SE | PlayStation Store
Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home SE | Steam Store
Harvest Moon Home Sweet Home SE | Steam Store

Cattle Country Update
Publisher Playtonic and developer Castle Pixel's country-western farming game, Cattle Country, released a free update today that is currently live on Steam.

This new update brings a child into a married relationship. If the player manages to marry Sheriff Tom (widower, with daughter Grace) or Maggie (dead parents, with little brother Sam), the associated kids will move into the player's farmhouse.
Family members can be assigned chores, such as harvesting crops. They can also cook meals and light the indoor fireplace.
The seasonal Halloween event was also updated with a new spooky crypt maze to solve, along with new decor, a communal soup pot, and new cosmetics.
This update also includes general improvements, such as being able to craft/cook using ingredients stored in nearby chests, barn/coop upgrades, and new starting farm layouts.
Cattle Country | Steam Store

New Crowdfund Farm'n Games
It's a good week to support a couple of indie farm'n game crowdfunding campaigns that launched over at Kickstarter!
The first is a farming game called Delphinium by Australian studio CINNADEV.

In this "bittersweet cozy, story-driven farming simulator", the protagonist returns to her mountain village after a political conflict between countries and a squashed rebellion left her with nowhere else to go. You'll grow crops that can change depending on nearby plants, craft furniture for the farmhouse, tackle bulletin board requests, go fishing, and so on. Normal farm'n stuff.
The interesting part of Delphinium is its relationship building with the villagers. Interacting and helping the residents will branch the story, which is limited to one season in length. Not everything can be unraveled through a single playthrough, as solving problems and making decisions will change the protagonist's story.
CINNADEV started development back in 2021 and initially received funding from Screen Australia in 2023. The intent of the Kickstarter is to fund the final stage of development, leading up to its 2026 planned release.

Delphinium | Kickstarter

The second recently launched farming game looking for public financial support is called Farnia Village by ManaGames. The game's story begins with the amnesiac protagonist waking up in a strange village. Not remembering who they are, the villagers offer the protagonist a nearby farm. This isn't free, though! The villagers expect the protagonist to work the farm to pay off the costs of acquiring the ranch.

If this sounds like a familiar runey-like storyline, there is a very good reason for that! The developer for Farnia is the lead programmer for Rune Factory 3 and the director of Rune Factory 4, Shinichi Manabe. Along with the writer for RF3 and 4, Takanori Tsuji, and other collaborators, they aim to create a farming/life-simulation game in their own style.
Farming, fishing, crafting, taming monsters to live on the farm, festivals, adventures and battles, and a bit of romance; all of that is part of Farnia.
The game is planned for a Steam/PC release, with controller and keyboard/mouse support. They hope to eventually release their farming game on home consoles.

Farnia Village - Farming, Adventure, Romance, Life Game | Kickstarter


Until next time!

- Cher(grumble... another Christmas-blocking rainy weekend is forecasted...) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1761954479 Fri, 31 Oct 2025 23:47:59 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1761346521 Happy Farm'n Friday! Not much excitement here at FOGU HQ this week, other than Intern Captain pulled the little Haworthia plant out of its pot on my desk, presumably because I wasn't paying attention to him. I got the houseplant from a "free plants" box in the neighborhood, as the homeowner was sharing pups from her parent plant. Captain has been poking at it for a while until he got the great idea to grab hold and pull the whole thing up. After cleaning up the scattered soil and scolding him with finger shakes (if he even cares), the plant is now back in its Plantsio smart planter. Seems to have survived, so far.
The upgrade to Natsume's mobile game, Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home, will be released next Thursday (October 30) for PlayStation 5, XBox, and Steam. I expect the game's story will generally be the same as the original (full walkthrough here), though there will be some changes with the added character events, marriage candidates, and Doc Jr. upgrades. Has the silver fox become a secret marriage candidate? Here's hoping!
I'm still playing SoS: Grand Bazaar, trying to breed chickens to get all the colors. The issue I'm having is that my 4 chickens and 3 silkies have stopped producing other colors; I keep getting the same styles I already have. Wonder if each bird can only produce certain colors? The mega strategy guide comes out in Japan next week, so we'll get a definitive answer to many outstanding questions soon. The game continues to be on the Famitsu Top-30 for last week, though we're down to Rank 24.

Indie Updates
Though Steam Next Fest is over until the end of February 2026, developer Seed Lab received so much great feedback that they decided to keep the current Next Fest demo for Starsand Island available for a little while longer. You can still download the game's demo, regularly being updated and patched by Seed Lab, from the Steam store:
Starsand Island Demo | Steam Store
Starsand was one of the top-50 demos played by Steam gamers during last week's Next Fest.

Early access farming game Tales of the Seikyu was updated this week with some spooky-season cosmetic hats for the game's protagonist. The Cat-O'-Lantern hat is now for sale in Miss Ama's shop, with an upcoming update adding a Lantern Spirit Hat on October 31. Future updates will include matching cosmetic tails.
The upcoming December update from ACE Entertainment will bring new story content, companion pets, more relationship progress with the marriage candidates, a new ice-themed yokai form transformation, and more.
This in-development farming game is also part of Fireshine Games Publisher sale, with a 30% discount for early access until November 7.
Tales of Seikyu | Steam Store

Physical Game Sale
Marvelous USA is having a physical game $10 discount sale until October 27. Farmers can pick up physical editions of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma at various online retailers such as Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and more. You can get a list of participating retailers on the corresponding games' merchant location pages:

Rune Factory: GOA retailers
Story of Seasons: GB retailers

The $10-off sale includes standard and Premium editions of the games.

HM3 Comic
Since we're in a lull this week, let's pull up the old Harvest Moon Gameboy 3 guidebook and translate another comic!

For new readers, the Shogakukan guidebooks in Japan can feature comics drawn by the series' longtime illustrator, Igusa Matsuyama. We already went through the Harvest Moon GB 2 book (1999, ISBN 4-09-102812-8), which featured farmer Sara. She was tasked with revitalizing the Flower Bud Village farm with the help of the Ranch Rangers: Maru Sakura the horse, Momonosuke the dog, and bumbling farmer Pete (then named "Peat"). In the end, the farm was revived, and the Ranch Rangers left a grateful Sara to continue on to other ventures.
The adventures begin again in the Harvest Moon GB 3 book (2001, ISBN 4-09-102857-8), with Sara moving to a new island to revive her late uncle's farm before a corporation turns the whole area into a trash factory. The town mayor acquired some help for Sara, which turned out to be 'ol incompetent farmer Pete again, who was tricked by Maru Sakura into getting into a shipping crate to be delivered to the island. Now Sara's in charge of managing a farm and controlling Pete's chaos.


Until next time!

- Cher(A rainy weekends means I can't install the new roofline Christmas lights...) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1761346521 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 22:55:21 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1760740777 Happy Farm'n Friday! The package of missing Christmas strings finally arrived in the mail this week. Mr.Fogu has jumped into the project, setting up a controller and power supply for these new C9-style lights. Usually, he's not too keen on my holiday light madness, but since these ones tie into his non-holiday hobbies, he's actively participating in my light display plans for this year. We're printing out roof clips that work with these new lights and could possibly have them installed and lit up orange for Halloween, if we can print enough clips before the 31st and if the weather is clear. I'm not allowed to wander around on a wet roof!
I'm still enjoying my playthrough of Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. Reached year 3 this week and finally caught the Helena Morpho Butterfly this morning. I only have the Granti Beetle left to catch to complete the critter encyclopedia. The little bugger is only available Autumn 21-30 on rainy evenings, and my last Autumn season had no rain during that period. Blah!
Famitsu notes that the Switch 1 version of Grand Bazaar is still on the Top 30 Physical Game Sales for the 7th week, though the Switch 2 version dropped off the list last week. We'll have to see if Grand Bazaar can beat Pioneers of Olive Town's 11-week reign on the Famitsu Top 30.

Gaucho Mobile
Indie developer Epopeia Games announced this week that their South Brazil-themed farming game on Steam, Gaucho and the Grassland will be ported to mobile devices thanks to a grant from Google's Indie Game Fund. A partnership with Izyplay Studios will bring the Brazilian cowboy to handheld devices with a new touchscreen-optimized interface.
Gaucho is currently available on Steam, with a planned future home console launch:
Gaucho and the Grassland

HM: Home Sweet Home SE
The store entry for the PC version of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home (Special Edition) is now available on Steam. The Steam edition also includes the Welcome Care Package bonus items that are currently included as preorder gifts for the Switch, PlayStation 5, and XBox X versions: 10 seeds of Cabbage, Daisy, Marguerite, Onion, and Turnip, plus 3000 G. Instead of being a preorder item, the extra content will be given to any farmer who purchases the game on Steam between October 30 and November 20.
Like with the Steam version of Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos, the PC version of Home Sweet Home does not support keyboard/mouse controls. You'll need a controller to play the game on home consoles and Steam. The iOS/Android versions also have controller support.
The console/PC version of Home Sweet Home will be released on October 30.

Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home SE | Steam Store

Next Fest
There are a few cute farming game demos available during this week's Steam Next Fest, taking place between October 13 to October 20.

Cosmic Coop
Everdream Village
Outcity
Sky Harvest
Trade Tales
Wild Roots: Chef vs Critters
Your Big Monster Farm

The dominant farm'n game demo taking place during Steam Next Fest is for Starsand Island, a tropical farming and relationship game. In this game, the protagonist returns to their hometown after years of living in the city. Grow crops, take care of livestock, travel around the island (via car, skateboard, horse, deer, and even an ostrich), catch some fish, and decorate the farmhouse. A feature-rich protagonist appearance and outfit customization is included, with pet outfits too!
This game also plans to have online support. For example, players can make house layout designs and then share them with other Starsand players. Information about the planned multiplayer support will be released at a later date.
Starsand's developer, Seed Lab, and My Time series developer Pathea announced this week that a collaboration of the two series will occur, bringing Gust and Ginger from My Time at Portia as residents into Starsand.

Neither Portia character is romancable, but they will move into their own houses on the island, where players can befriend the brother and sister duo.
Starsand will be released in February 2026, for Steam/PC and home consoles.
Starsand Island | Steam Store
Speaking of the My Time series, the alpha test for the next entry in the series, My Time at Evershine, will begin on October 24 on Steam for crowdfund backers who supported the game at an alpha-access tier. Pathea intends to collect feedback from players during the alpha, and requests that alpha testers refrain from publicly sharing footage, screenshots, and other data. Discussing the alpha is fully welcomed on the company's Discord Channel.


Until next time!

- Cher(Ha! Just had to wait a little bit longer for the Crimson Clover covercrop to sprout. Now it looks good!) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1760740777 Fri, 17 Oct 2025 22:39:37 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1760142987 Happy Farm'n Friday! As I've been writing guide stuff for Grand Bazaar, I realized I kept having to remove my visual enhancement apparatus to read small text or my phone screen. It turns out my vision has changed a little since I got my last pair of glasses; it's less of a change "compared to others of your age," according to my optometrist, so... yay?
My new glasses arrived today with an old-lady enhancement: progressive lenses. I had been grudgingly avoiding them, but it seems technology has evolved over the years that I wasn't aware of. They don't manufacture progressive lenses with an awkward separation line in the middle of the lens to shift from far sight to near sight. With these new glasses, not having to look over the top of my glasses to read tiny text or my phone screen has been nice (lol).

New Ushi Keychains
Last month, a group of 5 plushie cow bag charms was released in Japan by System Service, exclusively for the Round One arcade/entertainment centers. Similarly, this month, System Service is releasing a set of four cow bag charms as prizes at participating arcade centers. This new group of plushie bovines has a ball-chain fastener instead of elastic and are 1 cm larger than the bag charms from last month. They are also omitting the orange fruit cow from the release. I guess fruity wasn't as popular as the other four.
These goodies will start appearing in Japan around the third week of October.

HM Switch Sale
While several Harvest Moon games were on sale last week during the Steam Autumn Sale, this week we have similar discounts on the Nintendo Switch platform. This sale expires October 19 in North America and October 24 in Europe, except the Cozy Bundle, which also expires October 19 in the EU:

Harvest Moon: Cozy Bundle (containing HM: The Lost Valley and HM: Skytree Village) = 30% off (Both NA and EU)
Harvest Moon: One World = 50% off (NA only)
Harvest Moon: Mad Dash = 50% off (NA) and 90% off (EU)
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope = 90% off (EU only)

While the Cozy Bundle is on sale, the 3DS remade games are NOT discounted; meaning, you can get both games ($27.99) for less than each game sold separately ($59.98 for both). Also, HM: The Winds of Anthos and its DLC are not discounted in either region, while the Oceania region doesn't have any HM games discounted.

Story of Seasons Bingooooo
In a move no farmer expected, Marvelous this week released a FREE content update for Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar. The new B-I-N-G-O game encourages players to complete mini goals to receive in-game rewards from the Nature Sprites. Happy, happy, happy!

After a player downloads the 1.1.0 update to the game and once they reach Rank 4 (City Bazaar), the Nature Sprites will visit the farmhouse to explain their new service. The happy little dudes will hand over bingo cards with a bunch of "fun stuff" stuck to them. These cards can be found in a dedicated area within the game's main menu. Completing the tasks noted on the card will initially earn Happy Energy. As the missions are cleared and 5 task boxes are marked off in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row, special BINGO rewards can be collected by bringing the card to Penny at the Happy Shoppe during the weekly bazaar. Clearing all 25 missions on the card will reward players with bigger goodies. Seems simple enough!
The bingo cards range in difficulty: easy (yellow) and hard (green). Easy cards have, naturally, easier tasks compared to the green cards. For example, easy tasks include harvesting mushrooms or honeycomb, utilizing at least 1 piece of decor from a specified series in your bazaar booth, or using the jump button a specified number of times. The sticker in the easy category seems to be the "Glide with your glider for 10 in-game minutes", which doesn't appear to be cumulative time, from what I can tell. Gotta do all 10 minutes at one time to unlock! This can be completed by jumping from a tall roof (Felix's, the Honeywood Hotel, etc.) and then forcing your character to go east, against the wind, instead of with the wind. This keeps the glider in the air for longer, hopefully for a total of 10 minutes or more if you jump from a high enough spot.
For the hard cards, the missions are a mix of easy tasks and those that require a little more effort. These include giving a favorite gift to villagers a specified number of times, cooking a 4-Star or greater quality meal, and breaking up 300 stones to collect Rock. They're all doable, but just take a little longer.

The third set of cards is the red deluxe cards, of which there are only 4 types: 1-A, 1-B, 1-C, and 1-D. The tasks on these cards are fairly simple because they give treasure rewards for a 5-square bingo and special rewards after all 25 missions on each card are cleared. These cards give two everyday outfits (the pirate-themed Captain's Attire and Seafarer's Dress) and two pirate glider skins (a black version and a green version). Since these red cards are categorized as "Deluxe Card 1", it may be a safe guess that we could see more deluxe cards and special rewards in the future.
Farmers can switch which card they want to tackle at any time from within the bingo bag menu, either an easy, hard, or deluxe card. Only the missions on the active card will be marked off once cleared, even if the same mission is on multiple cards.

Once you've filled a row and made a B-I-N-G-O, wait for the Saturday bazaar to receive the reward. Visit Penny at the Happy Shoppe and select the Collect Rewards option from her menu. The reward given will be from a category of goodies noted on the bingo cards. For example, suppose the horizontal prize is from the "Medals" category. In that case, you'll randomly receive either normal Medals or Bronze Medals as the horizontal rows are marked as completed, as those two items are noted as the reward category for that card. You can review the items included in the reward category by navigating to the Happy Bingo bag menu and selecting the Check Rewards option.
If you don't like the easy or hard card and would rather have a card with different missions, talk to Penny at the Happy Shoppe again and access her Exchange Card option. You can switch out your Easy or Hard cards for a fresh version. Any completed missions will be erased when you swap the old card for a fresh card, so make sure you have collected the rewards you wanted from the current bingo card before you swap. You can't exchange a deluxe (red) card.
The advantage of swapping cards is that you have some control over the rewards the bingo card offers. For example, if you don't like that completing all 25 missions on a Hard card only rewards the possibility of receiving a Meuniere Fish, Baked Apple, Apple Jam, or Apple Juice (the lame "Bazaar Agent's Gift" reward category), keep swapping the card until you get a better completion reward, such as the "Ore (Hard)" reward category, where you might receive an Iron, Copper, Silver, Gold, Orichalcum, Mithril, or a highly-coveted Adamantite. There's no limit to the number of times you trigger a card swap, and swapping doesn't cost Happy Energy.
It's nice that Marvelous added extra content to a pretty good game. Thank you, farming friends!


Until next time!

- Cher(No germination yet with this year's cover crop. Hopefully my seeds aren't expired...) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1760142987 Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:36:27 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1759533862 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!) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1759533862 Fri, 03 Oct 2025 23:24:22 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1758926860 Happy Farm'n Friday! This week, I cleaned out the front garden box where the zucchini did quite well this year. I grew potatoes in that area last year and clearly missed some, because there were potatoes to harvest as well! As I dug through the soil, pulling up Big Doug's fresh roots (sigh...) and uncovering potatoes, I found a little one to toss into the potato bucket. Of course, I miss the shot - I am terrible at basketball - so the potato hits the rim of the bucket and bounces out. And since daylight is fading earlier each day, I couldn't find this dang tiny potato because it's dark outside.
I did find it in the morning, my precious potato. The little guy's longevity could mean it will make great potatoes next year. Maybe.

HM: HSH SE Bonus
While the physical edition preorders of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home via Amazon, Gamestop, and the Natsume Online Store will receive an acrylic standee, Natsume announced this week that digital preorders on the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, Playstation 5, and XBox X will include a digital Welcome Care bonus package. Home console players can receive 3000 G and 50 bags of seeds: 10 each of Cabbage, Daisy, Marigold, Onion, and Turnip. This preorder bundle is currently not available for the Steam platform.
The upgraded version of the mobile game will be released on October 30. I'm assuming that the new functionality added to the Special Edition (+2 marriage candidates, Doc's hoverboard, more events, etc.) won't be added for free to the Android/iOS version that's out now on the applicable digital platforms.

SoS:GB Updates
Now out for about a month, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar is still on the Famitsu Top 30 physical sales chart in Japan. The Switch 1 edition dropped from rank 4 to rank 7 (+6000 unit sales, ~74,700 total), while the Switch 2 edition went from rank 14 to rank 21 (+2610 unit sales, ~29,200 total).
Marvelous announced that there have been almost 20,000 sales of the $1.99 Pine Hoverfly DLC outfits, a special in-game hat/outfit/glider set for the protagonist to wear in Grand Bazaar. Besides being a cute outfit, 100% of the proceeds will be used to help fund further restoration efforts for the rare little insect in Scotland, as supported by the Royal Zoological Society.
I've reached the summer of year 2 in my game, now a bazaar rank 6 and almost halfway to rank 7. There is still a lot to do, such as picking someone to marry! I know who I want to wed, but Diana has post-marriage rival events that I can only track/record if I do not marry her, so looks like it will be Kagetsu or Samir instead.

Starsand Release Date
The tropical farming and life sim game Starsand Island is available to check out at the Tokyo Game Show, open this weekend to the public. The hands-on demo of this cute game will be part of the XBox showcase in Makuhari Hall.
Developer Seed Lab also released a new promotional video and revealed that their game will be released on February 1, 2026, for Steam and home consoles.

A demo of the game will be released on Steam starting on October 8. If you're not familiar with this adorable farming game yet, Seed Labs describes their game as...

Available to wishlist on Steam, Starsand Island sees the player's character embark on a journey of personal healing, as they escape the hustle and bustle of city life and return to the island home of their childhood. As they settle into the calming, pastoral idyll, players will farm, fish, raise animals, explore the island's mysterious and ancient ruins, and build connections with quirky local characters.They'll also be able to unlock their full creativity and design and build the home of their dreams, with an extensive construction system allowing them to shape their dream life… and even invite friends to help craft their paradise together. Once their ideal residence has been built - whether that's a grand manor, mid-century bungalow, quaint cottage, or any other design they have in mind - players will be able to decorate and furnish the interior and exterior with a range of decor.Starsand Island also includes extensive customization for the player's character, such as the ability to finely tune them with a range of facial features, skin tones, makeup, and hairstyles, while choosing from a vast wardrobe of outfits and accessories to complete a fresh, edgy vibe ready for island life. Further customizable options will be expanded post-launch, along with additional social and collaborative gameplay, while more information on the Starsand Island's multiplayer functionality will be released in the coming months.

Palworld Farming
Based on player feedback, Pocketpair, Inc. announced this week that a cozy version of their monster-collecting and battling game Palworld will have a toned-down version for those who would rather farm than fight. The spin-off game, Palfarm, will put the player and their monster friends into a farming simulation game set on an island of Pals.

Players will use the special abilities of their Pals to tend to the fields, sow and water crops, and harvest the veggies for market. There is a little bit of battling, as Pocketpair explained that bad Pals may invade the player's farmstead, requiring defensive measures from the partner Pals.
While the game does not have a release date, Palworld: Palfarm is available to wishlist on Steam.
Palworld: Palfarm | Steam Store

Other Indie Updates
A HD-2D style farming game, Wind Story is now available on Steam. Move to a little homestead called Wind Chime Ranch and work the fields to expand the farm into a visitor destination. The two-person development group BluSped Studio has had its game available on Early Access since April and has a demo available:
Wind Story | Steam Store

Stairway Games revealed that their diverse and friendly farming game, Coral Island, has had over 1 million units sold/acquired on Steam. The next content update is version 1.2b, which was split off from version 1.3 due to its size and delivery time. The smaller 1.2b update will introduce more mini-games, improved fishing mechanics, the ability to receive gifts from pets, and a tattoo shop. Then, the big 1.3 update will bring child maturity, merfolk festivals and marriage ceremony, a candidate jealousy system, and family/kid hangout events.
Coral Island | Steam Store


Until next time!

- Cher(Time to plant the cover crops!) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1758926860 Fri, 26 Sep 2025 22:47:40 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1758319959 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.) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1758319959 Fri, 19 Sep 2025 22:12:39 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1757715800 Happy Farm'n Friday! I'm still making progress in SoS: Grand Bazaar, though during the work week, I'm only getting through a few in-game days per real-world day. Slow and steady, yea? I finally reached Rank 6 and unlocked Sherene, made some progress with marriage candidate events, unlocked all the fields, and now understand why everyone keeps asking about fishing up junk items. I do feel a bit behind, though; so many players are finding such cool things in the late game that I wish I knew more about!

New Amusement Prizes
A new group of Bokumono cow bag plushie charms will become available starting September 15 in Japan. These small bovines are about 3 inches long, have elastic straps, and are themed after the other styles of larger plushies that System Services has released previously. This time, these goodies are exclusive to the Round One entertainment locations as arcade prizes.
Round One offers a variety of activities, depending on location, such as bowling, arcade games, karaoke, table tennis, billiards, and more. Looks like fun!

SoS:GB Patch 1.04
Marvelous released an update to Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar this week that made adjustments and corrections to the game. Marvelous even released patch notes in English, which is nice and on par with their goal of expanding Marvelous' social recognition outside of Japan. A few of the corrections include reducing the amount of stamina lost after leaping into a waterway because we missed landing on firm ground, and fixing the hiccup where villager profiles disappear when talking to them, which happened to me after playing the game for hours. Apparently, that wasn't intended as a way to tell me to go take a game play break!
Second-week physical sales in Japan, according to Famitsu, still has the game on the Top-30 chart. The Switch 1 edition is at #4 (+13,500), while the Switch 2 edition is at #14 (+5000). Together, they are doing better than SoS:AWL in its second week of release (~9500).

New Farm'n - Cosmic Coop
A new indie farming game by developer Omnivorian will be released on November 6 for Steam/PC. Cosmic Coop is a farming sim inspired by the classic Xbox game, Viva Piñata. It would be awesome if a modern-day version of VP were made, but it is not likely to happen.

Players take on the role of a cosmic explorer who crash lands on a planet where there just happens to be a farm, whose last owner disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The local animal villagers need someone to revitalize the farm, which will attract Critterlings. Setting out combinations of decor will attract different creatures to the farmstead. Craft, farm, go fishing, attract, and try to collect all 50 Critterlings in this colorful pixel-style farming game.
A free demo is available on Steam if you want to check it out:
Cosmic Coop | Steam StoreCosmic Coop | Official Website

Indie Farm'n Updates
Historical and multi-generational life and farming sim Echoes of the Plum Grove will be launching on XBox X|S on September 30 for $19.99. Pre-orders are available now, with a free demo available as part of the ID@Xbox Indie Selects Demo Fest:
Echoes of the Plum Grove | XBox.com

Outback exploration game with crop farming Dinkum will be available on Nintendo Switch starting on November 6. This game is already available on Steam/PC, where fans have enjoyed growing crops, fighting off alligators (and they're so fast), terraforming, fishing, island exploration, designing their town, and more.
A Nintendo Switch demo is available from the eShop, with a 10% pre-order discount and a bonus Battlegrounds costume.

Dinkum | Steam Store
Dinkum | Nintendo eShop

Farming mega-game Stardew Valley will be released with updated features for the Nintendo Switch 2 later this autumn. Already available on the original Switch since 2017, the enhanced version for Switch 2 will support Joy-Con 2 mouse functionality and Game Share features. Developer Concerned Ape has noted that farmers who already have Stardew on Switch 1 will receive a free upgrade for Switch 2.
I haven't delved into the world of Junimos since the game was released for Switch, so it may be time to give the game another run! I'm expecting there have been a few changes over the past 8 years that I haven't seen yet.


Until next time!

- Cher(Now I kinda want to play Viva Piñata again...) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1757715800 Fri, 12 Sep 2025 22:23:20 +0000 https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1757109986 Happy Farm'n Friday! While tackling some yard duties this week, I inadvertently uncovered a local member of the wildlife community: a praying mantis. I've only seen them in pictures, and never in my backyard. Sure enough, the critter was letting me know my thistle-pulling chore was not appreciated as it was crawling out of the yard debris bin. Oops!
I have been making the backyard more bug-friendly with little cubbies, access to water, and so on. Glad to see that the bugs are finding a happy place here. Yaay, more bugs!
Except for non-native European Paper Wasps. Screw those guys...

HM: Home Sweet Home SE
This week, Natsume released a new introduction video showcasing the improvements made to the home console release of Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home.

Highlights include...

More cut scenes between the characters.
Introduction of new marriage candidates Nikolai and Ella.
The convenient barn pooper-scooper.
Doc Jr's lab.
Single-person conversation views with marriage candidates.
The hoverbike for quick movement around Alba.
Not enough Doc Jr.

The Special Edition of Home Sweet Home will be released for Nintendo Switch (1), PlayStation 5, Steam, and XBox X/S on October 30. Physical releases are available for Switch and PS. Digital on other platforms.

SoS: Grand Bazaar
I took time off from office work this week to play through Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, assuming that would be plenty of time to get through a chunk of the game and write lots of guide pages.
It's just Grand Bazaar, how complicated could it possibly be?
Pppssssssaaww... well, I'm pleasantly surprised at what we received from Marvelous. I expected it to be an easy walkthrough, casual-style game with a few new things thrown in for funsies, and boy was I wrong. Kurochi and Nakano weren't joking when they described Grand Bazaar as essentially a whole new game and not simply a remake. I haven't had to type up this much stuff in a long time; it's already Friday (where did the week go?!), and there is still a lot to do. Egads!
One thing, though, looking through the JP strategy guide, I don't see any mention of rival events. There is a return of negative-friendship disliked gifts, where a little squiggle mark appears above the villager's head when receiving a bad gift (sorry Diana and Kagetsu... my bad...) But I haven't seen or read anything related to events between the DS-era couples. It might just not be in the book, as it isn't super complete (e.g. it is missing all of Wilbur's expansion options beyond Bazaar Rank 1)
According to Famitsu's weekly physical sales data, SoS:GB has so far sold about 46,500 Switch 1 copies and 18,000 Switch 2 copies in Japan. That's more than the first-week physical sales of SoS: A Wonderful Life (~40,700) and SoS: Friends of Mineral Town (~66,000). It doesn't hold a candle to SoS: Pioneers of Olive Town though (~202,000), which was the first new (non-remake) game to be released since SoS: Trio of Towns 5 years earlier.
Famitsu doesn't track digital sales from the Nintendo eShop or the Steam Store. The closest we have is SteamDB's Top Selling Games list, which indicates how many farmers have been playing the game at the same time. So far, SoS:GB has a global peak player participation of almost 12,000 Steam users. Not too bad!

Indie Farm'n Updates
Vampire indie farming game Moonlight Peaks appeared at Gamescom the other week, courtesy of future publisher Marvelous EU and development studio Little Chicken Game Company:

In Moonlight Peaks, players take on the role of the child of Count Dracula, with sights of forging their own path through the afterlife. Grow magical crops and ship them via the ghoulish monster shipping bin, get romantic with werewolves, craft potions and cast spells, and have a scary time in the spooky town. This spooky-themed game is scheduled for a 2026 release date and has a free demo available:

Moonlight Peaks | Steam Store

The 2.5 update to fantasy farming game Sun Haven is now available on Nintendo Switch. Available on Steam since late June, this 2.5 update features new town festivals, expanded clothing and house customization options, the ability to wield great swords and hammers, additional world-building story lines, and more.
Sun Haven | Steam StoreSun Haven | Nintendo eShop


Until next time!

- Cher(Back to farm'n in Zephyr Town!) https://fogu.com/hm/index.php?s=news&p=updates&t=1757109986 Fri, 05 Sep 2025 22:06:26 +0000