Summary
- Critics have praised Tales of the Shire's art style and community focus but criticized its simplistic mini-games.
- The game has the potential to improve mini-games before its 2025 release to appeal to a wider audience.
- Ways to add depth to mini-games include adjustable difficulty settings and increasing complexity as player skill improves.
Despite the fact that it has not yet been released, Private Division and Weta Workshop's Tales of the Shire has garnered criticism from various outlets who have already spent some time with the game in hands-on previews. While many of the positive remarks have commented on Tales of the Shire's charming art style, its emphasis on community, and the fresh take on Middle-earth it offers, one of its biggest criticisms has been that its mini-games lack the depth that might make them more fulfilling to complete. Even so, there is still some time left for Tales of the Shire to meet this criticism head on and offer a bit more of what some players have already expressed an interest in.
Tales of the Shire is currently slated for a March 25, 2025 release date, potentially giving it more than enough time to make a few changes to its mini-games before it launches. Since Tales of the Shire's mini-games are likely to be a core part of its gameplay, improving them after the criticism they've been met with is all but necessary, and there are a few ways it could go about doing so that might not require too much work.
Tales of the Shire’s Hobbits Should Bow to No One
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, if nothing else, is another rare opportunity to display hobbits as the franchise's beating heart.
Tales of the Shire Can Still Give Its Mini-Games More Depth
Tales of the Shire Has Already Been Criticized for Having Simplistic Mini-Games
Since Tales of the Shire is technically a cozy game, that ultimately means it has been designed to appeal to a broad audience of players, offering a maximum-accessbility gameplay experience that even the most inexperienced gamers can get a firm grasp on. This design approach also allows games like Tales of the Shire to cater to a more relaxing experience than other games might be capable of doing, so it makes sense why its mini-games have been labeled "simplistic" by some critics ahead of its launch.
That being said, since Tales of the Shire is not just any cozy game and is set in one of the most beloved fantasy worlds ever created, The Lord of the Rings' Middle-earth, there remains a compelling argument for it to appeal to more serious gamers as well in order to broaden its demographic as much as possible. However, this would likely mean that its mini-games would need to require far more than a few successful QTEs (quick time events) or a simple button/key press here and there.
How Tales of the Shire Can Give Its Mini-Games More Challenge
The most obvious, and likely simplest, way Tales of the Shire could go about adding more depth to its mini-games is by allowing players to adjust the game's difficulty — a feature not common in cozy games. Presumably, in adjusting the game's difficulty, players would then see the challenge of its mini-games increased, possibly adding the depth that many critics said the game lacked at the time of their hands-on preview of Tales of the Shire.
Another way Tales of the Shire could add more depth to its mini-games is by allowing them to become progressively more difficult as the player's skill in that area increases. For example, fishing might begin with very simplified mechanics, thereby only allowing players to catch trivial fish. However, as players catch more fish and become more experienced, they are then granted access to much rarer fish, but catching those fish would also come at the cost of increased difficulty.
Tales of the Shire's cooking mini-game is something else that could benefit from a more dynamic, progressive difficulty system, especially considering how much cooking seems to be put front and center in the game.
Whether Tales of the Shire truly does have time to add more depth to what is likely going to be a core focus of its gameplay is impossible to know, but with around two more months before its release, it very well might have enough time to do so. This would not only likely please those critics who have already spent some time with the game, but it would also potentially avoid more backlash from the fans who have yet to play it. In any case, increasing the difficulty of Tales of the Shire's mini-games, whether by a simple difficulty slider or a more progressive difficulty system might be the ideal way to go about adding more depth in this area.
- Released
- July 29, 2025
- Developer(s)
- Wētā Workshop
- Publisher(s)
- Private Division
- Franchise
- The Lord of the Rings
- Number of Players
- 1
WHERE TO PLAY
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- July 29, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- July 29, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- July 29, 2025
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- July 29, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch, PC
