Tales of the Shire Hands-On Preview: A Hobbit’s Life for Me

Hobbit Day is September 22, and to celebrate, Weta Workshop and Private Division have announced the release date for Tales of the Shire, a life simulation game set in the world of The Lord of the Rings.

Tales of the Shire will hit consoles, PC, and Netflix Games on March 25, 2025.

Ahead of the game’s release, Restart had the chance to go hands-on with Tales of the Shire in a limited demo, and we loved what we saw.

Welcome to Bywater

Tales of the Shire allows players to become a hobbit and personalize their character’s appearance by choosing from different body types, personality types, hair styles, eye colors, and much more, right down to choosing the type of hair growing on top of their hobbit’s feet. Players can also name their hobbit by choosing from a long list of preset names or entering their own.

Their character created, players are given a lift to the hobbit town of Bywater by a familiar gray wizard, where they can create a new life for themselves. A series of quests, or tales, guides players through the story, which at first focuses on meeting new neighbors, settling into town, and tracking down a book of rules that will help prove Bywater is an actual village.

A female hobbit stands in front of the cooking stations in the Tales of the Shire video game — ©Weta Workshop, Private Division

Let’s eat!

Staple features for the life sim genre, like fishing, gardening, and cooking, are all accounted for here, with cooking being one of the game’s major focuses (after all, Hobbits love to eat).

Players will collect a wide variety of recipes to prepare throughout their adventures, as well as the ingredients required to prepare them. Ingredients come in different qualities, and the more “delicious” the ingredients, the better the final recipe will taste.

Players start with only a few cooking tools at their disposal, which can be used to manipulate ingredients when necessary. For instance, players may need to chop rhubarb before including it in a porridge dish. Over time, additional cooking stations will unlock, giving aspiring chefs the ability to prepare more complex dishes.

To make cooking more of a true skill (as opposed to a mindless endeavor), meals can be shifted to certain tastes (like tangy or bitter) and textures (like smooth, chunky, or tender), based on the ingredients that are used and how they’re prepared. When chopping a vegetable, for instance, players can choose how finely to chop it, resulting in a chunky or smooth final texture. If players are trying to create a dish with a specific texture and they miss the mark, the dish won’t be a complete failure, but hitting the sweet spot will make the meal more delicious.

Tales of the Shire allows players to befriend the local townsfolk, with sharing a meal being a great way to earn a friendship boost. Players can invite their desired residents to a shared meal, with each invitee having different cravings related to meals and flavors. While players aren’t required to fulfill these cravings with the meal they prepare, doing so may earn them extra rewards from the attendees.

A menu showing some of the Seasonings players can use when cooking dishes the Tales of the Shire video game — ©Weta Workshop / Private Division

One day at a time

Tales of the Shire utilizes a day and night system, with players being encouraged to go to sleep once it becomes “nighttime” or risk sleeping in the next day.

Each day brings new opportunities and activities for players to complete. For one, players can and should water their crops each day, as this dedication will give the crops a better chance of being “delicious” once they’re harvested. Fishing spots will also refill and foragable items will respawn as in-game days pass.

The game also includes a Seasons system, allowing Bywater to experience the passing of time in a realistic way, with different ingredients (including fish) being available in specific seasons, such as lemons and hazelnuts, which are only available in summer and autumn.

The player edits the layout of furniture items in their home in the Tales of the Shire video game — ©Weta Workshop, Private Division

Home sweet home

When players first arrive in Bywater, they’ll move into a home once owned by a beloved former resident. The home has seen better days, with different rooms and outdoor areas being inaccessible when players move in (they can be unlocked over time).

Players can add their own personal touch to the space using the in-depth Home Decoration feature, which allows them to do everything from customizing the shapes of windows and doorways to moving and placing furniture. There’s a great attention to detail and overall quality of life here, as the game supports moving furniture that has items sitting on top of it. No need to dismantle your perfectly-decorated bookshelf if you decide to move it to another room.

While players have limited inventory space in their pockets, they can thankfully store hundreds of ingredients in their home’s pantry, no refrigeration required, with these items being pulled out automatically when they’re used in cooking. And if players ever do run out of space, or simply want to clear out some unwanted items, they can sell resources for coins, which can then be spent on new clothing, seeds, and other items.

A female hobbit viewed from behind as she fishes in a river with swans and ducks floating on the water's surface — ©Weta Workshop, Private Division

An idyllic, cozy escape

We only spent a couple of hours with Tales of the Shire, but we were immediately drawn in by the game’s cozy, wholesome vibe, lush graphics, and charming animal and character designs (sheep are just adorable).

The world feels alive with butterflies fluttering in the air, rippling streams, and wild animals (like swans and ducks) going about their daily lives. These butterflies serve a purpose, too, as following them will lead players to a foragable ingredient.

Further highlighting the hobbits’ connection to nature, Tales of the Shire utilizes a unique waypoint system that causes birds to land on road signs and other perches, guiding players to their chosen location. While a unique setup, and incredibly charming in theory, the feature falls a bit short in practice, as it takes a few seconds for birds to fly to each perch on the path in front of the player, and then an additional split second for players to recognize and react to the direction the bird is facing when approaching an intersection. A more traditional waypoint system, like a glittering path on the ground, would allow for faster navigation. Still, this is the only complaint we had from our limited time with the game, so it’s far from a deal breaker.

We can’t wait to dive into the complete Tales of the Shire experience when the game launches next spring.