People have been drawn to the cozy and carefree lifestyle of Hobbits ever since Peter Jackson turned J.R.R Tolkien’s three-book fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings into three Oscar-winning films back in the early 2000s.
Luckily, this year people will be able to live out that cozy fantasy in video game form when Tales of the Shire releases! Weta Workshop, known for their work on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, will instead see them develop their first video game Tales of the Shire which has players create a Hobbit and assume the cozy and carefree life of one.
Life of a Hobbit in the Shire
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While most Lord of the Rings video games have players fight during the War of the Ring or in other conflicts that took place in Arda‘s history, Tales of the Shire will instead have players create their own Hobbit and, instead of going on any great quests, will allow them to fish, cook, forge friendships, decorate your Hobbit house, and much more.
On top of that, players will also be able to explore the village of Bywater within the Shire and hopefully be able to eat and drink at the Green Dragon Inn.
Cozy Gaming on the Rise
While games like Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons have always been popular, the release and utter success of Stardew Valley back in 2016 was a renaissance for the cozy gaming genre. Animal Crossing: New Horizons was another popular cozy game that was released during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons was especially a godsend when it came out. It helped people find a sense of normalcy when they needed to practice social isolation and quarantine due to the global pandemic of COVID-19.
Cozy Video games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Stardew Valley, and the upcoming Tales of the Shire have shown that gamers both old and young alike crave games where someone can just get comfortable and enjoy a low-stress session of farming, cooking, and fishing.
Food and Friendship
Food is an important aspect of life in the Shire both for sustenance and the cultural nature of Hobbits. A Hobbit typically eats up to seven meals: Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Luncheon, Afternoon Tea, Dinner, and Supper. Seeing as how Hobbits will eat all those meals in a day, it makes sense that a feature included in Tales of the Shire will be cooking.
While it’s not known at the moment how many dishes can be made, it stands to reason that a decent amount of recipes will be included at launch.
What’s the point of making food in a cozy game like Tales of the Shire if your character has no one to share it with? That’s why your Hobbit will be able to make friends with other members of the Shire. From what it seems like in the trailer, you get to invite them over to try out your Hobbit’s cooking. Whether romance will be in the game is yet to be seen.
Release Date and Platforms
While there is no set release date yet for Tales of the Shire, the game is expected to launch later this year, barring any delays. Tales of the Shire will be released on PC via Steam and on all video game consoles, including PlayStation 5, X-Box Series X/S, and the Nintendo Switch. PC players can add Tales of the Shire to their Steam Wishlist now.
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