The Lord of the Rings franchise has had several high-profile misses in recent years. From the oft-criticized Prime Video series, The Rings of Power, to the illegible tragedy of Gollum and overhyped animated epic The War of Rohirrim. It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since The Two Towers and Return of the King released alongside their generationally outstanding videogame adaptations. Tolkienists are desperate for a win.
Cozy RPG-simulator Tales of the Shire released last year to middling reviews partly on account of its numerous technical issues and bugs; a Nintendo Switch 2 version was recently released on March 25, 2026. Has another nine months of development remedied those issues or will Tales remain yet another black mark against this struggling franchise?
Art of The Shire
Tales of the Shire, as you might expect, embraces the rolling hills and meadows of the original literature and films; wrapping those picturesque environments in whimsical cel-shading. The soundtrack also evokes those early moments in Fellowship of the Ring, such as the feel of that first meeting between Frodo and Gandalf. The art style is consistently the game’s strongest asset. Unfortunately, the technical visual quality is closer to a GameCube title; it’s as if Wētā Workshop have never heard of HD graphics. Fuzzy fidelity in a genre where tiny details matter is practically unforgivable, particularly on a screen as small as the handheld Switch 2. Tales of the Shire inexplicably succeeds on an artistic level whilst utterly failing on a technical one.
Wētā also make some glaring missteps in their character creator by removing a huge amount of choice from the player. There’s the requisite diversity of skin tones, hairstyles, and hobbit feet but Tales leaves a huge amount on the cutting room floor: a lack of gender, body shapes, and facial hair options stand out.
Put out to pasture
Tales of the Shire, like so many farming sims, comprises an ever-expanding catalogue of busywork such as planting, harvesting, cooking, fishing, and foraging; limited exploration, simplistic questing, and the absence of combat making for an exceedingly accessible simulator. However, the world map makes that exploration far more testing than necessary. No zoom function, indecipherably small text, and icons so large they cover other objectives left the map largely illegible. I only recommend playing in handheld mode as docked mode exacerbated existing screen resolution issues.
Though a slew of menus and hidden tutorials needlessly complicated the onboarding process, I remained somewhat charmed by the smaller stories that populated the Shire, ranging from preparing luncheons to rescuing runaway cows. Those quests may have been entertaining but rarely were they challenging or satisfying. Personally, I believe the game could have benefitted from some action, perhaps in the style of Rune Factory which smartly balanced life-sim gameplay and combat.
Couch Potatoes
Upon completing the day’s work, your Hobbit will literally collapse where they stand and require a wheelbarrow to help them into bed. A nice touch in keeping with the tone of the original text. In the daytime, the world is sizable and diverse – stuffed full of meadows, forest, streams, town squares, and pubs – but suffers from a lack of basic signposting. I lost count of how many times I checked the map for directions, and considering the frequency with which early objectives are marked on the other side of the game world, this became tiresome rather quickly. The true joy of the game comes from sharing a hearty meal, harvesting crops, or running errands; it’s a shame so much wandering about interrupted those intimate moments.
Tales of the Shire is an able farming simulator that does a mostly serviceable job of transporting the player to Middle-Earth in spite of numerous technical issues. A game that needed more time in the oven.
Tales of the Shire is out now on Switch 2. It was previously released on Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
