Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings™ Game

I wish this game was more interactive. It talks about life as a Hobbit, but you can't actually live it. There are no voices, not even for Gandalf. Just weird sighs. No singing, dancing, drinking, or pipe-smoking in a hobbit game? You can't buy anything at the Green Dragon, you can barely speak with NPCs (most just stand with awkward speech bubbles and glitch out), limited seasonal crops, can't sit on any chair, and you can't eat anything unless its at a meal party, I'm the most starved Hobbit in the game as I sometimes only eat once per day! It became incredibly repetitive within the first season, which was only 14 days long. The one best part is watching your pantry fill up with food and clapping at animals.

despite the fun i had with it, the negative aspects unfortunately outweigh the positives for me. it is far too overpriced for the amount of content it offers. the main story is finished very quickly, and afterwards you’re left with the same repetitive loop: gathering/fishing, cooking, and inviting people over to level up friendships. yes, leveling friendships unlocks additional small side quests, but those are always completed very quickly aswell and feel empty on top. if the main story already offers so little, i would at least have expected voiced characters (again, thinking about the price here). it feels lacking on all fronts. ps: the hours played are not very meaningful in my case, as i sometimes left the game running without actually playing.

Ahh, at long last. A documentary on the varying strands of pipe weed and their effect on the Shire’s market economy! Finally I can realize my lifelong dream of living in a hole in the ground. But not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: rather a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. Missed opportunity from the devs for not releasing a day 1 patch in which Saruman shows up with his horde of orcs, enslaves all the hobbits and it becomes an arpg combat game. My wife’s boyfriend says this game has the appearance of a Facebook cash grab and the heart of a Sims 4 expansion pack. When I bought it for the both of us he asked if this is what it felt like to grow up with the Star Wars prequel trilogy. What a terrible decade to be a Lord of the Rings fan he always says. At first glance when I realized I couldn’t get evicted from the Green Dragon for being drunk and disorderly and smoke pipe weed till I threw up I stopped being interested and felt the same. You see LOTR is my comfort place (my dog is named Elevenses and I read the entire trilogy plus hobbit every winter, like SUPER into it) but when I saw the reviews I panicked and didn’t get it at first. I was convinced the game was going to be ruined for me. However, after caving and finally playing it I quickly realized that my style of play and that of so many reviews couldn’t be more different. It seemed like many people were looking for some sort of forever game that would lure them into a dopamine loop that would have them hooked. In truth It’s really truly a hobbit role playing sim. Maybe with a little less eating (although plenty of cooking). It allows you to pretend to be a certain sort of hobbit. The Shire has hobbits of all sorts: some that are eager to climb the social ladder, others that want as much wealth as possible, and even some that want their hobbit hole to be the envy of all. My hobbit has a scowl and an upturned nose. As a 38 year old man I get to role play a snooty middle aged lady and it’s so unique in that respect, I love it. It is very easy to be a well loved lazy hobbit. I know it's been a bit hit-and-miss with people, but I actually love the artwork. I think it's charming and fits the tone. For me the art style is perfect, the stories are charming and simple, the cooking mechanics have enough to them that I feel some small satisfaction when things go very well. The birds and butterflies are a genius way to keep you in the fantasy instead of a cluttered UI. The size of Bywater feels just right. I genuinely think the neighbours in Tales of the Shire have one of the most distinct and well-fleshed out personalities of any cozy game. The devs really nailed the vibes and variety of hobbits and hobbit life. They're funny, grumpy, and cutesy at the same time. As a huge Tolkien fan I also love all the little references and nods to the setting and history of Middle Earth (as much as your typical Hobbit would know anyways). I also like the uniqueness of gardening. It’s like a real garden where you have companion plants and have to have proper space for everything. I think it’s great that they took inspiration from actual gardening instead of just coping Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley. I feel like there's quite a lot of content and incentive to level up relationships with the other hobbits. I like that I can put it down whenever. I like that I can choose to do the main quests or not, or just spend my days skipping around, hunting for mushrooms, ticking off club tasks, and getting all the gifts from my dinner guests and finding every item. I'm not worried that I'm going to forget what I was doing because even if I kept playing I'd probably get distracted. I enjoy seeing the little conversations hobbits have when I run past them. And that's what makes the game great! There's not a time limit on things! Not one that I have to pay attention to. So what if I end up sleeping in? I'm a hobbit! If I want to sleep until noon, who's going to stop me? My neighbors aren't going to hold grudges if I fail in hosting them for a meal, they'll get over it. I can spend a whole day fishing if I want. I won't, because I'll see a mushroom or something and go pick it up and end up on a trek through the woods, but I could! That's what makes the game great. You can do what you want, and there's not any real downside to not doing a ton of what you don't want. I already play a ton of games. Having one that doesn't require a lot of brainpower, that's just fun and pretty, that I can play for a short (or longer) amount of time to unwind is great. It's a lot like Animal Crossing I think. There's plenty to do at first, and eventually the loop turns into decorating... and then you can either start over or put it down. And I don't think there's anything wrong with putting a game down after you've gotten your joy out of it. Not every game needs to be a never-ending fount of gameplay. Basically, if you enjoy gathering recipes, chatting and getting to know your neighbors, cooking and gardening flowers and ingredients, and decorating your home, you'd probably also enjoy it! There’s plenty to do if you want, or you can ignore quests and story stuff and just walk around, forage and fish to your heart's content, you really get to take the pacing at your own level. So if you are looking for an amusing distraction from the fear and uncertainly in our world and like the idea of pretending to be a hairy-footed hippie, I think you’ll have a good time. NOW BUY, YOU FOOLS! 8/10

Playtime: 27.3 hrs Concise version: The game is really cute, and has cute character, but it is a very simple cozy game, so if that isn't what you're looking for this won't be for you. This game doesn't offer anything really unique to games of this space, but it lacks a ton of features when compared to other cozy games at similar price points. I wanted to love this game, but unfortunately I just don't. It had so much potential. The art style is really cute, the characters are fun and have cute stories (Nefi's my favorite). If you like the type of cozy game that is really simple without a lot of features, and very slow paced, then you might like this game. I just felt like in a space that is flooded with competition, this game just doesn't add anything unique and lacks a lot of features that other games have. You can only walk, the skipping is cosmetic, it is not faster. You have a hookup for a horse, but can never get one. This is more of a cooking simulator than anything else. The farming is really simplified compared to other games, you just plant and water. The cooking is well done, I just wish all the other things to do in the game were as well. The fishing again, super simple and no challenge to it. You can also do minimal foraging. I wish there was any sort of crafting, mining, exploring, combat (optional combat like other games in the cozy/simulator space), etc, in the game. Instead you have to buy or be gifted everything, which gets frustrating when garden boxes are expensive and you can't sell your cooked meals, those are only to "share" with friends. So, most of your time and energy is going into buying and farming ingredients to make meals you can't sell, and then you also have to try to do other things to make a little bit of money that just barely gets you by. I'm sure it gets easier with time and with upgrading the clubs, I just don't enjoy the game enough to put the time into it, and I've already put a good deal of time on it. The main story is almost non-existent, you get more story by just interacting with the other characters. Any missions you do have are 90% just trekking back and forth (slowly, because just walking, no fast travel, no horse, no sprint) between characters over and over again, I mean back and forth across the map 3-4 times and that's the entire quest. It really had potential, I just really wish it had more crafting, more challenge to the games (just a little, I shouldn't be able to fish the rare epic fish easily on my first try for example), story and quests that involved more than just walking all over the place to talk to someone across the map, more developed farming and fishing, ranching, just...more. There are decent upgrades for the cooking to make it more engaging, but not for anything else. The decorating feature is nice, although sometimes not the smoothest when trying to hang things on walls, sometimes they refuse to be straight. Also, it is a little weird that when you host meals your character makes a giant meal for each individual character, but then just stares at everyone as they eat because you yourself don't have food. A more communal table where everyone is eating together would probably feel more natural and less strange. Some of this could be user error, I definitely didn't fully investigate the game, but I did put almost 30 hours in. I also completely acknowledge that some, if not all, of the over simplifying was intentional because it's hobbits, but that honestly feels like an excuse not to add features to the game. I also know that some people really enjoy the simply cozy games, and that I am not the target gamer for this game. That being said, it wasn't clear until I played it that it would be this way. I do enjoy cozy games, but like them to still be a little challenging and full of features that keep the game fun for hours on end, so I only hope to help those who are like me and thought this game was going to be something that it wasn't. Also, super minor but might be frustrating for some people. Sometimes gifted items disappear out of your inventory, or if you pick furniture up sometimes it is just gone. I also noticed that sometimes the tasks for clubs don't check off even if you do them. The fish also don't stack like everything else if you have multiple of the same kind, so they take up a lot of inventory space. So again, more trekking back and forth, makes it frustrating to go to the further away fishing spots.

I played the hell out of this game. The loop is almost solid, but the game around it is buggy in ways that suggest the devs were not given enough time or money. The first 10 hours of the game are pretty well bug tested, but the further in you get (and the more time you invest to unlock checks), the more the bugs and bits of friction seem to become glaring. The pantry inventory is a pillar of the game, and it starts acting weird if I transfer 2 stacks of items from Pantry to Backpack -- like the whole pantry inventory appears to vanish, and only reappears if I scroll a little. Another pillar of the game is interacting with Bywater residents, which you will have to do over and over and over again. No problem there, that's the kind of game this is, BUT: nearly every primary hobbit has the same irritating habit of ending every conversation with an unskippable two-part dialogue where they acknowledge your departure, and then a second dialogue where they act confused as to why you are still standing there. This is cute the first few times, but as an unskippable part of EVERY conversation forever? "What are you still doing here, hobbit?" I'm literally trapped by the design of the dialogue. i already said goodbye. The game won't let me walk away until you get mad at me for not walking away. just one of many small things that suggest the people who made this game never played it. Delphinium's final friendship reward is access to her honeybees. When i completed her check, she sent me a letter telling me about the honey. Later, when I completed Rosie Cotton's friendship reward, the dialog box explaining Delphinium's bees popped up. Really underlines that the game you just played was just an arbitrary grind when the culminating achievements aren't even triggering at the correct time. "Oh, you're still here? Here's a dialog box. What do you mean it's the wrong one?" This kind of game often has rough edges, so I'm not trying to dunk on what feels like an earnest effort. A lot of the initial setup and presentation really clicked, which is ultimately why I stuck with it to see how it all came together, or not. I particularly loved how the physical Pantry (not the inventory) visually represented every item you put into it, slowly filling all of the shelves and slots with the specific food items you foraged, made or received. Similarly and so unnecessarily, the feeding trough for the chickens again physically represents the contents of what you put in it. if you put in walnuts and raspberries, it renders walnuts and raspberries. If the raspberries run out first, that gets rendered too. Gorgeous, loving detail was applied in the making of this game, which is what leads me to believe that the devs did what they could with what they had. They clearly started making a beautiful, peaceful little game with their whole hearts, but weren't given the time or resources to follow through. The producers shipped this as soon as the first 10 hours were coherent, leaving unforgivably messy loose ends from the early midpoint through to the bitter end.

I 100% the game and unfortunately it was NOT worth it at all, sadly this game is pretty disappointing. Pros and cons are down below) Check out my video here if you want a more in-depth analysis of the game: https://youtu.be/Z19zZWLur9g What I liked: 1. The core idea is innovative and fun! The cooking mechanic (even though it's confusing at first) is the best part about this game. It's fun trying to hit the perfect tender / crispy and smooth / chunky spot for the perfect dish using different cooking utensils. The only downside is that it takes like 20 hours to unlock said utensils and before that you just constantly feel limited. 2. Soundtrack is really nice (though you barely get to hear it in game, it likes staying silent pretty often for some reason) What I disliked: 1. Most of resource gathering activities are such a chore and get boring very fast. You also need to do these activities A TON to unlock stuff you want to unlock. The worst part is even if you hit the "master" rank (eg you're the master angler and know everything about fishing), it doesn't increase your probability (or at least it doesn't feel like it) to get higher-star ingredients meaning the activity starts like a chore and stays a chore till the very end. 2. Club boards get introduced like 5 hours into the game and basically everything you do before them doesn't matter. You need to do everything all over again to start progressing towards unlocks. 3. Buggy, there were A TON of minor bugs during my playtime. 4. No minimap. To me this is not such a big deal but if you get turned around easily and confused on where to go, you'll have a hard time following this game's creative solution on navigating around the Bywater. 5. Even though cooking is fun, it takes a setup of around 10 - 20 hours for it to start being fun (you achieve this point when you finish progressing the cooking club). 10 - 20 hours is already a lot but it gets so much worse when you learn that the game's story is only about 14 hours long (it took me 14 hours). Meaning if you're not planning to 100% the game to make a silly youtube video like me, you maybe won't even reach the "fun" part of cooking before you finish the game. 6. Story is mid at best. Overall: Sadly I really can't recommend the game. To me it's such a mystery why the reviews on steam are so positive whilst literally everywhere else you hardly can find a rating above 4/10. This game could have been great and the ideas are promising but unfortunately it didn't live up to the expectations. I'd say first 5 hours are ok, judge for yourself if the price tag is worth it.

What I like: (1) Feels like I'm a hobbit. (2) Looks like the Shire. (3) Very cozy. What I don't like: (1) Bugs (allll the time) when I'm decorating/gardening that freeze my game and remain bugged when I close and reload so that I have to go back to a prior load, making me constantly save. (2) Can't smoke or drink, can't grow pipeweed or brew ale. (FR they dropped the ball on this one) (3) Devs have dropped support already, game's only been out since 2024. That being said, it's fun. You can't fight, there's no health bar, and no jump scares. It's a lord of the rings skin for animal crossings with some less features and no dev support. I log in all the time and play, its a great destresser, but just know what you're buying. It's a dead game, and it is never going to get better or have new content.

It felt like an unfinished game. it's too easy to just blast through the main mission without doing any of the relationship building with characters which makes the game too fast. The winter season was garbage; it looked like they just grey scaled the screen instead of animating real snow. Earning money to decorate or expand the garden is painfully tedious. It had potential, they should have added a lot more to it (like pets at least) and I really tried to play it a lot to give it a fair go but it was not good. I could say a lot more but I will leave it there. As a an avid LOTR and stardew fan, I am disappointed. Thankfully I waited for a sale to buy it.