Tales of the Shire wasn't the game I wanted to play, but the game I needed to play

Digital Trends

4 days ago

This month has been an especially stressful one for me. Without getting into too many details, I had more on my plate than usual and had to be extra judicious about how I spent my time. This caused me to treat playing games more like a job than something to enjoy. Well, technically playing games has always been my job, but I never want to approach a game with that mindset. Unfortunately for Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, that was my mentality on first touch — get through it as fast as possible so I could write my article and move on to my next assignment.
That's a recipe for failure for any game, but especially so for a cozy game in which patience and the act of doing the more mundane tasks are the reward in and of themselves. Once I met the game on its own terms, it ended up being exactly what I needed to manage my stress.
A fine stew takes time
Tales of the Shire doesn't feature any epic quest or ancient evils, but focuses on simple Hobbits with simple problems. The closest you get to the wider Lord of the Rings world is a quick meeting with Gandalf and some references to other familiar areas within The Shire. Otherwise, this game is a far more accurate depiction of a Hobbit's life than Bilbo or Frodo's would have you believe.
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After creating my own unique Hobbit and arriving in the new village of Bywater, I was struck by the art direction Tales of the Shire chose. It evokes feelings of a watercolor or oil painting that creates an almost dreamlike look to the world. It feels like a concerted effort to evoke the tone of The Hobbit book rather than the darker, grittier tone of The Lord of the Rings, which is quite effective in stills and motion.
Sadly, I wasn't so receptive to the gameplay that morning.
The first few hours consist of some introductory quests that serve as small tutorials for things like cooking, using your map, planting crops, and all the other chores that make up any good cozy farming sim. This is all framed around the first major quest in the game, which is to settle an argument about whether or not Bywater fits the technical definition of a village according to a lost rulebook you need to find. Thrilling stuff, right? Finding the book is an excuse to give me a complete tour of Bywater to meet the main villagers I will be befriending. Each Hobbit that once had the book tells you they passed it along for one reason or another to someone else, again and again until I finally find it in the most obvious of spots.
It isn't the game's fault that this extended fetch-quest rubbed me the wrong way. I was too focused on treating the game like a task that every additional step felt like a waste of time. Bywater isn't a huge village, but my Hobbit isn't all that nimble, so trekking from one end to the other right off the bat was a poor first impression. Also, the cuteness of replacing a sprint with skipping only felt like salt in the wound when I was already on edge with the game.
I stopped playing after this first quest, unsure if I would go back.
Two days later, I did but only after reflecting on how I wasn't playing Tales of the Shire on its own terms. This isn't a game about the destination, but enjoying the journey and living life slowly — just like a Hobbit. I would need to put aside my stress and let the game move at its own pace to give it an honest shot.
When I stopped worrying about not knowing where to go to find the specific fish I needed, or where I could harvest berries for a pie and just enjoyed the process of fishing and foraging, I began to settle into the laid-back atmosphere Tales of the Shire wants to provide. Cooking has very few timed elements and is almost impossible to fully fail, there are no harsh time limits on just about anything I encountered. Even when I accidentally missed a dinner I had invited two Hobbits to, all I got was a mildly passive-aggressive letter in the mail. It was such a relief to have my biggest problem be a slightly grumpy Hobbit that could be won over with just a dinner or two.
Even with the tone and pace clicking for me, Tales of the Shire does have some niggles that detract from fully enjoying its world. The biggest was the very limited inventory at the start. Cooking is such a core feature that I wanted to stockpile every fruit, mushroom, fish, and vegetable I came across on a daily basis, but ran out of space frustratingly fast. Being forced to skip back home two or three times a day started to resurface my resentment for the overly saccharine animation. There's also no way to easily track what ingredients I need for a dish. Having a way to pin one or more recipes to the screen so I could easily reference what specific breed of fish or other ingredient I needed while out and about without having to dig through my menu feels like a missed opportunity.
Those issues aside, for my first true cozy game experience, Tales of the Shire came at just the right time to help me slow down and appreciate the journey and not focus on the destination.
Tales of the Shire is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC.