Right at the beginning of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit‘adventure’ is a bit of a dirty word.
When the wizard Gandalf first meets the timid Bilbo Baggins, a comforting hobbit and a smoker, he asks: “I’m looking for someone to share with me on an adventure I’m organizing and it’s very hard to find someone.” Bilbo’s response?
“I should think so—in these parts! We are quiet people, and have no use for adventure. Unpleasant disturbing unpleasant things! I make you late for dinner!”
So, at least at the beginning of their famous Middle-earth adventures, the Hobbits are not inclined to leave their comfortable and humble lives. Tales of the Shire from Wētā Workshop – which is best known for working on props and special effects for Peter Jackson lord of the rings AND The Hobbit movies – embraces this homey Hobbit vibe for the franchise’s first cozy life card. Despite spanning multiple genres over the years, from text-based adventures, turn-based RPGs, and action-adventures, The Hobbits have always been put in jeopardy in some way, but Wētā Workshop has seen fit to give relief to little boys and girls.
When we went to play the game at Summer Game Fest, we were very cautious about Tales of the Shire. The market, and in particular the Switch’s library, is saturated with cozy life-sim games where making friends and living life is The only aim. We’ve even demoed some similar games at Play Days. Fortunately, our doubts were cleared soon after we got hold of the controller.
Tales of the Shire can take place between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, but it’s all about warm colors, with an art style that feels like a watercolorist’s impression of an idealistic Middle Earth. And it looks great on PC, which is where we demoed the game, so insert your Switch caveat/warning here. But Hobbits bring their own identity and personality to the game I DO make her feel completely his.
While playing the game, we laughed out loud several times. Hobbits are utterly charming, with a sharp sense of humor and a great love of food. And that’s the heart of Tales of the Shire – the food. In the newly created Bywater, not yet recognized by Hobbiton, your job is to help build a community and relationships through the power of cooking and good food.
We played through two different parts of the game: the beginning, where we settled into our house and got to grips with the basics of cooking; and a mid-game sequence that involved helping a tavern develop some specific dishes. In the first, we were shown around our little Hobbit hut (you’ll be able to create your own Hobbit in the full game, with no restrictions on clothing or gender). There is a bedroom, a large kitchen and a small pantry where you can store ingredients. Plus, when you put your ingredients in the pantry, you’ll see those items reflected in the in-game storage.
This is also where our Hobbit character was taught how to cook, which is his low-pressure minigame. Centering a Hobbit life sim around food is so obvious, but it’s also quite appealing. You start with just a cutting board and a mixing bowl, and you can actually affect the food depending on how well you cut the ingredients: once or twice means the texture will be thick, but the more the more you wait, the finer and mushier it will get.
It’s not just about the cooking process. Sometimes you’ll need to put the plate on the table and join your diners for a sit-down meal. It adds to the hearty, family feel that Tales of the Shire is looking for. Getting the plate on the table was a little difficult, but we love the idea of waiting for the food we put all our love and care into.
All of these aspects of preparation and cooking play into the game’s quest system. Other hobbits living in the Bywater will ask you to make dishes in order to improve the town or build relationships, and these difficulties increase as you progress. Some Hobbits will specify the texture and flavor they require, and you have more chances to influence these things as you acquire more tools and ingredients.
Most of the game’s quests come in the form of letters, which you can pick up from the mailbox outside your house. But since this is a life sim, every single character in Bywater has their own schedule. In games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing it can sometimes be difficult to find each person or memorize their schedule, but in Tales of the Shire, you don’t have to. By opening the map, you can open a list of residents living in the city. Choosing the person you need, such as the search provider will mark his location on the map – even if he is moving. The game will then subtly guide you to that person with a bird that will perch on walls and lamps along the way, helping to keep the experience even more stress-free.
In terms of gathering ingredients, you can either forage around town or nearby forests, or harvest them from your own garden. In the second demo, we had multiple planters bursting with tomatoes, onions, potatoes, mushrooms and more. And we were told that, depending on the vegetables you plant together, you can actually affect the yield. This means that a degree of planning is needed to maximize your harvest. You can also move your planters around at any time, which allows you to customize your garden to your liking.
Going into our kitchen, we noticed a lot of extra tools now. There was a jar for pickles, which makes the food fresher; a pot to boil and soften; a pan to increase tenderness; and a pestle and mortar to grind certain foods. And we also had access to spices to affect the taste. From spicy, sour, sweet and salty, every single ingredient can be passed on individually.
One of our quests called for something spicy, so we checked our recipe book and ingredients to make sure we had the right spices – pepper and garlic worked here. With what we had available, we were able to make some spicy fish cakes to the taste of the tavern owner. Of course, it came along with a strange story about how an adventurer might have killed a dragon – or potentially asked someone else to do it for him. Lazy Hobbits, eh?
There was plenty we didn’t get a chance to try during our 30-minute demo, but Tales of the Shire wears its foodie identity on its sleeve, and we came away genuinely surprised by something that didn’t look all that enticing from the outside. . You can decorate your Hobbit house, go fishing and improve relations with other Hobbits. It is not felt THOROUGHLY unique, combining together many different elements from other life-sim games, but Tales of the Shire is at least trying to carve its own identity in the space by focusing on the cooking aspect.
We’ll have to see if the Hobbitses can cook up a storm when the game launches on Switch later this year. Is Tales of the Shire on your wishlist? Fire up the comments below.