Tales of the Shire Has One Franchise Path to Rule Them All

Summary

Tales of the Shire stands out in the gaming industry with its unique Lord of the Rings cozy life sim concept.
The game's focus on Hobbits opens doors for future untraditional Lord of the Rings game ideas and potential success.
The potential success of Tales of the Shire suggests a promising future for more unique Lord of the Rings games.

Tales of the Shire may be one more game for cozy life sim fans to add to their already overflowing collection once it releases, but its well-established foundations are what make it unique when compared to all the rest. Tales of the Shire is, as its subtitle clearly states, a Lord of the Rings game. This automatically makes it much different from any cozy game that has ever been on the market, providing it with a competitive edge against the vast sea of games with comparable gameplay. Whether it succeeds, Tales of the Shire is undoubtedly a trailblazer in the gaming industry as well as the franchise it is adapted from.

As the first of its kind, Tales of the Shire paves the way for developers to experiment with other unconventional ideas involving the Lord of the Rings franchise, as the vast majority of games from the IP are action-adventure titles. Furthermore, since Tales of the Shire centers around Hobbits, the door is also opened for more Lord of the Rings games to feature the other races of Middle-earth in a context that defies expectations and departs from the norm. No one expected a cozy life sim featuring the Hobbits of the Shire, and that may very well be what leads to its success. In the same way, other races in Middle-earth could benefit from an unanticipated genre twist and a spotlight in the playable Lord of the Rings universe.

The Creatures of Middle-earth are a Double-Edged Sword For Tales of the Shire

Tales of the Shire will offer a new look at Middle-earth, but the franchise's animals and creatures may be difficult to pull off.

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By LB Beistad

The Lord of the Rings Needs More Games Like Tales of the Shire

Middle-earth's Dwarves Need Another Shot at Survival-crafting

Middle-earth's Dwarves are some of its most intriguing characters and therefore deserve their own game. Free Range Games and North Beach Games' The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria was released last year as a survival-crafting game featuring Dwarves, but it has largely failed to live up to expectations due to poor mechanics and the excellence of its competition in the genre. Arguably, survival-crafting is the right genre for a game featuring Dwarves, but with so many other polished survival-crafting games on the market, a Lord of the Rings competitor needs to be almost perfect to garner a significant following.

Middle-earth's Elves Would Be Perfect for a City Builder

Elves are another race in Middle-earth that is the perfect candidate for a city-building game. This is largely due to Elves' beautiful infrastructure and brilliant craftsmanship, which would be put on grand display in a city-building Lord of the Rings game. It wouldn't be the first Lord of the Rings city builder, but it would be far from what players have experienced before if it centered solely around Elves and was developed with modern technology.

Tower Defense and Real-time Strategy Would Fit Middle-earth's Orcs and Uruk-hai

While it might be a darker Lord of the Rings experience, a game featuring Middle-earth's Orcs and Uruk-hai would stand out as a real-time strategy game. Perhaps a game such as this would be set in an alternate version of Middle-earth where players work for the dark lord Sauron himself to raise an army of Orcs and Uruk-hai to invade and conquer the surrounding lands. When they aren't on the march, players could work hard toward building Mordor to be the world's most impenetrable fortress. Orcs and Uruk-hai would also work well in a tower defense game that might prevent the heroes of Middle-earth from breaching the gates of Mordor and destroying the Ring of Power.

Dwarves, Elves, and Orcs aren't the only races in The Lord of the Rings' Middle-earth, but the Tales of the Shire treatment would fit each of them really well while simultaneously giving players a wider variety of Lord of the Rings games to play outside the action-adventure genre. It remains to be seen whether more games like Tales of the Shire will be developed, but surely it has at least opened the door.

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