Tales of the Shire review: A cozy, enjoyable dip into the world of Hobbits

Tales of the Shire is a title I was very much looking forward to as a long-time Lord of the Rings fan. But this isn’t a game set when the world is at war: No Sauron, Ring Wraiths, no Smaug or anything like that. It appears to be set between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, from my best guess, considering the NPCs that are in it. However, the more important thing is the actual gameplay.

What is it like to be a Hobbit? This is a cozy, casual game that’s all about building friendships, building a community, and finding a place to call your own. That’s something that I think will resonate well with a lot of people. Tales of the Shire is one of the most satisfying games I’ve played here. Let’s take a look at what it offers.

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Tales of the Shire puts you into the hairy feet of a Hobbit

Tales of the Shire is based on Tolkien’s legendarium, which ultimately forms the background of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It’s all the important information and writings that weren’t published until after J.R.R. Tolkien’s passing. Players settle into a little part of the Shire that’s not even considered a village: Bywater. Home to many familiar families of Hobbits, you settle there, determined to make a life for yourself.

Make your Hobbit, give them a Hobbity name, and then join the community! It's that simple (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

Given a rundown home and a little farmland, you’ll quickly begin to form bonds with others, the traditional Hobbit way: by cooking for them. Without spoiling the story, the primary goal is to build a community you can be proud to call home. At first, I wasn’t 100% sure when this took place in the series, but now I know it’s between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

However, this is not a LOTR game that relies on a bunch of cameos. Don’t expect to see Legolas, Samwise Gamgee, Gimli, or any of the other important characters. A few of them will come up by name, but this isn’t about those famous people. It’s about the regular lives of regular Hobbits.

There is a main story to Tales of the Shire as well as simple side quests that involve getting to know the other Hobbits. The primary drive of the game is to level up your relationships with the Hobbits and improve your in-game skills: Foraging, Fishing, Farming, and Cooking.

The only combat you'll be doing is fighting to figure out which crops go best together (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

All of these skills are very easy to use, but there’s a decent amount of depth to them all. Certain crops grow better together and have a better chance of having higher-quality versions harvested, and you can combine flavor types to generate bonuses when cooking. It’s as easy or as complex as you want it to be.

Your day-to-day activities are pretty easy, too. Other than your main story quests, you wake up, check the mail, water any plants that need it, and run around fishing, foraging, or cooking to set up a shared meal with friends. There’s never a rush to get things done, so do everything at a pace that suits you.

The fishing and cooking mini-games are both pretty easy to do, as well. Fishing is just a simple game of reeling in the fish, and cooking has you using more and more pots and pans in your kitchen to ensure ingredients are cooked to the proper consistency.

The cooking mini-game is incredibly easy to learn, and not especially hard to master (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

You need to dice things and then occasionally throw them in a frying pan to make them more tender; it’s also a way to throw in seasonings to change the flavor of a food. It’s very easy to do, and before you know it, you’ll be satisfying the cravings of Hobbits and be rolling in amazing furniture for your house, and even more recipes.

As you build bonds with the other Hobbits in Tales of the Shire, they will give you these kinds of rewards, as well as even more important things, such as more foraging locations and fishing spots. Check who rewards what, so you know who to prioritize your time with.

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Seasons come, and Seasons go in Tales of the Shire

Unlike many cozy games, Tales of the Shire doesn’t feel like it rushes you at all. Sure, there’s a rough timer to each day, which ticks down, and there are also four seasons that pass as the days go on. Don’t let that get to you, though. If you don’t grow enough of something in a season like Autumn, it will be back before you know it. None of the quests I took part in was timed, either.

Make sure you can cook a wide variety of flavors and foods; satisfying cravings is a surefire way to build friendships faster (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

One of the side quest chains in Tales of the Shire is a series of Riddles, and it didn’t matter when you finished them; only that you did. The closest thing to having something timed was the Shared Meals. The day before you want to share a meal with a group of Hobbits, you must send invites. As long as you have the meal the next day, everything’s fine.

The Seasons of Tales of the Shire were one of the things I really enjoyed. Certain types of fruits and vegetables are only available in certain seasons. You can still use them whenever in cooking, but if you want to find cranberries, for example, you can only find them in the seasons when they are out in the wild.

Certain foods also only grow well in certain seasons; otherwise, they just kind of take up space forever in your plot of land. Thankfully, you have a shovel to dig these out of the ground with, if you find you planted something too late.

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Tales of the Shire is an incredibly satisfying, cozy game with one minor fault

There was just one thing that infuriated me while playing through Tales of the Shire. This was the intense grind when trying to find higher-tier cooking ingredients in the wild. The higher your Club rating, the greater chance you have of success, but it didn’t really feel that good to me.

Just because you can find it on the map doesn't mean you'll find tier 2 or tier 3 versions of these items (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

I spent six in-game days trying to find Tier 2 or better Morel (Mushrooms) in Tales of the Shire, for example. I went to the spots they grew at every single day and picked all of them up, and after almost a full week, I finally had the few I needed to complete a Club Quest. Club Quests are side quests based on the various skills you use in the game: Fishing, Foraging, Farming, and Cooking.

These increase your reputation with that Club, and so they’re very important. The late game is all about leveling up bonds with Hobbits and the various Clubs you found in the story, so I desperately wish some of the better ingredients would show up just a little more often.

Now, this may not have bothered me as much if I weren’t on a time crunch to get this review out. The casual player, who has all the time in the world to play, may not be as bothered by this, but I most certainly was. It stalled out so much of my gameplay, and forced me to run around the Greater Bywater Area looking for the same things (usually mushrooms) over and over again.

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The look and feel of Tales of the Shire is picturesque and perfect

The look and soundtrack of this game are both incredible (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

I loved the graphics of Tales of the Shire. It really captures the cozy feel of The Shire and its inhabitants. The characters don’t really “speak”; it’s closer to something like Simlish. The character designs make sense, and the actual Bywater area itself is gorgeous, in all four seasons. I’m a fan of sound design as well. The game has a charming, relaxing soundtrack; even the little song that plays while fishing is enjoyable to listen to.

It’s very easy to immerse yourself in the world of the Hobbits and just find yourself exploring everywhere. Whether it’s looking for more foods to harvest, bartering with your fellow Hobbits (and Dwarves), or solving people’s problems, just wandering the map given to you by the developers just looks and feels good.

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Final thoughts

Hobbits may not especially like boats, but nothing is stopping us from fishing on a pier (Image via Take-Two Interactive)

Everything, from the presentation to the writing of Tales of the Shire, has been remarkably satisfying. Hobbits can be snippy and petty, prideful, but also warm and accepting, and you get the whole gamut of their personalities.

I think the only thing that really grated on me about the writing is how frequently they would say something to the extent of “Why are you still standing here?” after a conversation with someone was over.

I know there will be people who are upset that this game isn’t multiplayer or online, and I get that. But it’s more about building a community with the Hobbits that inhabit Bywater. I would love to see it as a co-op game, and I know so many people who would pick it up for that.

But even on its own merits as a cozy single-player game, it very much stands on its own. I feel like I’ve played this game every day for hours on end, and still haven’t found myself getting sick of it. It feels good to be a Hobbit.

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Tales of the Shire

Tales of the Shire is a relaxing, enjoyable look into the lives of Hobbits (Image via Take-Two & Sportskeeda)

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X|S
• Reviewed On: PC (Code provided by Take-Two Interactive)
• Developer: Weta Wetworkshop
• Publishers: Fictions, Take-Two Interactive
• Release Date: July 29, 2025