I have kept my eye on Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game for quite a while. I looked at it during our time at Summer Game Fest in June. One thing I was hoping to accomplish with this game was to get my hands on it to have a better sense of the gameplay. I noted in the podcast after Summer Game Fest that I needed more time with the game to understand the mechanics better and clarify my thoughts.
Beginning Life In The Shire
The beginning of Tales of the Shire starts with a tall, long-bearded man finding an anonymous hobbit lying down. He helps this hobbit enter Bywater. Immediately, you are stopped by Orlo Proudfoot. Orlo takes you to your house, introduces you to the mailbox, and explains how to share meals with other hobbits.
Before you can share meals with your hobbit friends around Bywater, you need to cook them. You’ll require ingredients, and the way you prepare them can change the meal’s features. A meal has four different metrics that you can affect. When you chop ingredients, the more you chop, the smoother they become. Alternatively, you can do only a few chops to make it chunkier. You can also add seasoning and fry the ingredients in the pan to make them more tender or thicker. The longer you fry an ingredient, the more tender it becomes. Different hobbits have different taste preferences.
Once you are done with the first shared meal with Orlo, the game opens up. The first thing I did was go around and start talking to as many of the hobbits as I could, and I found a lot of them due to the tale or quest that was looking for the Book of Rules. Each quest in the game is known as a Tale, and these will include a variety of activities you can do. The first day in Bywater introduced me to tales of fishing, herb gathering, cooking meals, and gardening.
I got to experience a lot of the beginning of the game with a 90-minute hands-on session, and honestly, I am excited to see more of what happens with higher bonds with the hobbits in the full game.
The Good Tidings
One of my favorite things about Tales of the Shire is its game HUD. The game doesn’t require you to keep track of many things; most of it encourages you to focus on enjoying the town of Bywater. You can forage, farm, fish, become a shopkeeper, and more, while all you see is the main Tale you are finishing and the time of day. There is no mini-map. You know where to go either by memorizing Bywater or by following the birds. These birds instinctively know where you’re headed if you have a spot marked on the map or a Tale marked as a tracked objective in the main menu. They will show up on signposts, railings on bridges, and arches of walkways. It is quite easy to keep track of your location this way.
A significant amount of Hobbit culture is ingrained in the details of Tales of the Shire. The Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit trilogy don’t showcase much of Hobbit culture, but it is more implied through dialogue. The books provide a greater focus on what Hobbits are like, especially regarding their eating habits and their love for what they deem important. Each Hobbit you meet only cares about their specific interests. Some are focused on gardening, fishing, cooking, or foraging, and they only care about how those activities benefit them. Citizens of the city of Bree, from where our playable Hobbit hails, may get a tad frustrated by this. You’ll find yourself juggling topics in conversations, only to realize they won’t engage until something matters to them.
The Tale of Looking for the Book of Rules illustrates this quite well. You will be ping-ponged all over Bywater looking for it, and each Hobbit will only remember it if you mention something they care about. The developers show their love for this world and the accuracy of its dialogue. Granted, this can make some Hobbits feel a little too one-note.
The Grass Is Not Always Greener
Tales of the Shire does have some aspects that frustrated me a bit. The character creator is quite limited, with not much variety in body type or hairstyle. However, my favorite feature is the range of hair densities you can choose for your feet. I do wish there were more options for colors as well. I imagine this was done to keep the Hobbit characters true to the lore of the world, but at the same time, I can’t really create my idealized Hobbit self without a better selection of hairstyles for the head.
Reigning It In
Overall, I have a firmer grasp on Tales of the Shire now, and I appreciate all that it does for simplicity. It is about living in the Shire in its purest form. I do think that if you are not a cozy gamer, you might get frustrated with the game, but it is geared toward those who want an experience in the Shire. Part of me wishes there were more variety in the character models. If you are a cozy gamer looking for a casual experience of living in Middle-earth, this will be the game for you.
Tales of the Shire will be released March 25th, 2025 for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5, and PC.
