Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game

Genre: Action-RPG / Simulation

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Tales of the Shire, released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, and then ported in 2026 to Nintendo Switch 2, is a game with a formula so obvious I’m surprised it took this long to see release: it’s a “Cozy game” in the Action-RPG / Simulation mix of genres that many folks simply call a “Farming RPG” along the lines of Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons, and Harvest Moon, and set it within one of the more beloved cozy settings in all of popular fiction, The Lord of the Rings’ and The Hobbit’s pastoral green Shire.

This game sees players in the role of their own custom-created hobbit as they move from Bree to the rural town of Bywater, seemingly set sometime between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. You’ll see a few characters from the books and films here (Gandalf himself sets you on your course in the opening), as well as multiple hobbit family names mentioned in those mediums, but for the most part this game’s cast of characters are largely folks who we saw little of, if any, in the books and films. Which makes sense, since those films mostly take place away from The Shire on adventures, and this game’s setting is neither of The Shire’s two most-noteworthy settings from the books and films, Hobbiton and Bree.

Before going on, I’ll say that this game reputedly had a rough launch, especially on Nintendo Switch. I see reports of extreme bugginess and numerous other problems. As far as I can tell, the worst problems appear to have been patched out here by the time of this writing, though there is one issue that remains, at least in the Nintendo Switch version.

In short, the Nintendo Switch version of this game suffers from massive slowdown that really hurts this game’s lovely placid atmosphere, absolutely chugging at times. It’s understandable why this is – this game’s 3D visuals are wonderfully detailed, rendering Bywater and its surrounding areas in lush, beautiful, slightly-cartoony splendor that seems to have the Nintendo Switch struggling to keep up, and also comes with plenty of pop-in and ugly aliasing. It’s frustrating, because I feel like I see the effect this game was going for with its wonderful world design, but the toll it takes on the performance ends up having the opposite effect on the game. These visuals are backed by a lovely though unmemorable instrumental soundtrack befitting the game’s “Cozy game” vibe.

Another issue I’ve seen other reviewers complain about is that its mechanics are simple, repetitive, and grindy. And… honestly, that has me scratching my head, because in my view that’s pretty much the entire “Farming RPG” genre to a “T”. I don’t hear anyone saying they play Stardew Valley because they love the challenge, or Harvest Moon because of the deep, complex game mechanics.

In many ways, Tales of the Shire is par for the course when it comes to the genre. You have farming, fishing, buying and selling and other common activities from the genre here, as well as character-based quests to get specific items, perform specific tasks, or speak with some other specific character. There are also some interesting game mechanics here, such as a cooking system that has you blending different ingredients and aiming for a recipe that has the right balance of chunky/smooth and cooked/raw to hit a sweet spot for that dish. There’s also friendship mechanics built largely on top of the cooking system, where you build up relationships with other characters by inviting them to dinner with you, with your status improving based not only on the quality of the dish, but also on how well that dish fit within the taste preferences of that specific character.

When it comes to complaints about the gameplay, my main complaints are the game’s at times awkward controls, and how it isn’t clear about how to accomplish some goals, such as how to clear out the obstructions barring your gates and front door. As best I can tell, you just have to play through character quests to get through the game’s story, such as it were.

Personally, I don’t understand the hate Tales of the Shire seems to have gotten from a fair number of people, especially now that the most egregious bugs that plagued this game at launch are done with. Overall, this seems to be a fine entry in the “Farming RPG” genre, though one that suffers from clunky interface issues and some unclear goals. Well, and on the Nintendo Switch, the performance issues are bad enough that they hurt this game’s central “cozy” vibe. But while it may have its flaws, I think that fans of “Cozy Games” will find this well worth trying out, especially if they’re also fans of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

tl;dr – Tales of the Shire is an Action-RPG and Management Simulation squarely positioned in the “Farming RPG” style of game, set in The Lord of the Rings’ and The Hobbit’s charming pastoral Shire location. This is a decent entry in the genre, albeit one that has some issues with an awkward interface and unclear goals, and the framerates suffer so severely on the Nintendo Switch that it really hurts the game’s otherwise lovely “Cozy game” vibe. However, if you’re a fan of Farming RPGs, this is worth checking out, especially if you enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.

Grade: B-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Action-RPG / Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

I felt that the complaints many have had about Tales of the Shire are largely overblown, but one of those complaints still hit spot-on in my opinion, at least on Nintendo Switch – the framerates and overall performance are absolutely terrible. However, in 2026 this game received a free Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade, so you can imagine I was very curious to see how dramatic the difference is here.

Well, I can thankfully say that there is indeed quite a difference here, though it’s surprising where some of those differences are here. The game’s eShop page only mentions two improvements, to framerates and resolution. Let’s address the framerates first, because this was one of the biggest issues on Nintendo Switch. Perhaps a bit disappointingly, the biggest change to framerates here is stability – you no longer have the massive framerate drops the Nintendo Switch version suffered from. However, outside of those framerate drops, the overall framerate doesn’t appear much different, and I would guess it stays at a decent, stable, but not exactly impressive 30FPS.

It was actually the resolution bump that was more immediately-noticeable, making it easier to take in more of this game’s lovely detail, but also greatly reducing (but not eliminating) the ugly aliasing.

There are other improvements to the visuals as well – the amount of environmental detail seems increased, particularly when it comes to plant life, and the pop-in has been pushed farther back so it’s far less omnipresent here. All of this adds up to this game feeling like an even more lush, detailed world than was already present in the Nintendo Switch version.

I should note that this release doesn’t appear to add Mouse mode controls, even though it could benefit from them. And there’s no multiplayer so GameShare is out of the question. As far as features go, nothing new has been added here.

Finally, there has been an improvement to loading times – on Nintendo Switch, it took 32 seconds to load the game to the main menu, and another 44 seconds to load a game save. Meanwhile, on Nintendo Switch 2, that’s cut down to 18 seconds and 23 seconds, a solid improvement.

So, overall, is Tales of the Shire greatly improved on Nintendo Switch 2? Well, yes and no. It fixes the most egregious problems the Nintendo Switch version had, but players hoping for nice, smooth framerates may find themselves disappointed. What’s more, this version adds no new features. The focus instead seems to have been making this game’s world more gorgeous instead of making the performance the priority. Overall, it’s still absolutely a better version of the game, and for a free update that’s definitely worth checking out.

tl;dr – Tales of the Shire is an Action-RPG and Management Simulation squarely positioned in the “Farming RPG” style of game, set in The Lord of the Rings’ and The Hobbit’s charming pastoral Shire location. This is a decent entry in the genre, albeit one that has some issues with an awkward interface and unclear goals. However, if you’re a fan of Farming RPGs, this is worth checking out, especially if you enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.

Grade: B

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