Tales Of The Shire Review - Fishing, Foraging, and Friendship
Let’s start by talking about my relationship with The Lord of the Rings franchise. I’ve read the books, but I loved The Hobbit more than the trilogy. I’ve watched the movies, but I didn’t enjoy them until I was introduced to the director’s cuts, where I got to spend more time with the characters in their downtime. Minus the hairy feet, I am essentially a hobbit—I’m very short, I love bread and potatoes, and my favourite part about going on adventures is returning home.
I tell you all of this because it colours my experience with Tales of the Shire. It’s impossible to disconnect this game from its source material, and I think many of the mixed reviews when this game first launched are due to that entanglement. Each person’s individual relationship with the books, the movies, and the overall franchise will change the way they feel about this game.
If you love The Lord of the Rings for the adventure, the action, and the political themes, then you may not enjoy Tales of the Shire. This game strips all of that away to focus on one key thing: the vibe. For some people, that might make them feel like this game doesn’t do the source material justice; however, I don’t remember anyone saying Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor focused too much on orc-slaying and not enough on second breakfast. Personally, I think Tales of the Shire does an amazing job of capturing part of the Lord of the Rings: an idyllic high fantasy world that didn’t exist before Tolkien imagined it.
If you ever wondered what the other hobbits got up to while Bilbo or Frodo were off exploring Middle-earth, Tales of the Shire answers that question. In this game, you essentially play a side character whose tasks involve gardening, fishing, and hosting meals to share with your neighbours. You live in Bywater—not Hobbiton—a familiar village but not the main village. You have things to do, but you don’t need to do them in a hurry. (In fact, if you try to sprint by holding shift, you skip instead, maintaining approximately the same pace you were already moving.) Tales of the Shire isn’t about adventuring in the Shire; it’s about relaxing there.
One of the main mechanics in Tales of the Shire is decorating your hobbit hole. You start out with a bunch of options for changing the floors, walls, windows, and rafters, and you can rearrange all of the furniture and trinkets. There also plenty more items and styles to unlock by improving your relationship with your neighbours and buying from their shops. When you’re in editing mode, the game’s clock pauses so you can easily lose hours moving around your knickknacks. The system is incredibly satisfying and even allows you to arrange meals on your table before hosting your dinner (or elevensies) parties.
If spending hours rearranging furniture, foraging for mushrooms, and doing fetch quests for your new hobbit friends doesn’t sound like fun to you, then Tales of the Shire might not be your game of the year. This game isn’t for everyone—and I don’t think it’s trying to be. Tales of the Shire offers its players a slow, cosy world to inhabit, and right now that’s exactly what I need to make myself feel better after a long day of work.
The fishing system is simple but effective, the gardening mechanics are fun, and I really enjoyed cooking meals and trying to balance flavours and textures to make my neighbours happy. The minigames are polished and offer a little challenge while still being very relaxing. As you befriend your neighbours, you also unlock more foraging locations and fishing holes, allowing Bywater to slowly open up to you over time. I enjoyed the routine of waking up each morning, choosing a cute new outfit for the day, sending letters to potential guests to invite them over for a meal, and then skipping off down the lane to collect blackberries and puffballs. The overall main narrative of the game is quite short, but not problematically so, and I thought there was plenty of self-directed enjoyment to keep me occupied after it was over.
Despite my generally positive feelings towards Tales of the Shire, it’s not without some game-breaking bugs—they just happen to mostly be on consoles and thankfully I’m playing on PC. If you’re looking to pick up a copy that you can play on your couch, I’d recommend waiting until some more patches are released to stabilise the console builds, as some people seem to be experiencing a lot of crashes or even the loss of save data, which certainly interrupts the cosy vibes.
Overall, if you love the aesthetic and slow pace of the Shire, and wish to live out your dreams of becoming a hobbit, Tales of the Shire will not let you down.
Tales Of The Shire was reviewed on PC with a code kindly provided by the developer.
