Visit the Shire for second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper! Tales of the Shire welcomes fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved world—Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, and for the diehard fans, The Silmarillion and other appendices — to return to Middle-Earth for an unforgettable experience as a Hobbit.

The story takes place before the advent of the War of the Ring and Frodo’s quest to Mordor, so there are no Ringwraiths here, just cozy Shire-living and plenty of easter eggs, including a mysterious, gray-robed wizard.

But not to worry, whether this is your millionth or first time stepping into Middle-Earth, Tales of the Shire welcomes all players. As a Hobbit, you've just relocated to the hamlet of Bywater in West Farthing, west of the Brandywine River, and even further west of Bree.

Finding Your Feet - Mobility Accessibility

Role-playing as a Hobbit has never been easier with Tales of the Shire’s mobility accessibility! The game supports both keyboard-and-mouse and controller input and remapping, with tons of options for fine-tuning sensitivity and inputs. It's just shy of comprehensive (more on that later), but it is genuinely great and applies to most of the game.

The game feels wonderful to play, made all the sweeter by your adorable, player-created Hobbit! The controls themselves feel great overall, but we ran into challenges with cooking, gardening, and fishing phases of the game.

Tales of the Shire, in a true Hobbit fashion, asks you to prepare meals to increase your bond with other residents of Bywater, and unfortunately, cooking relies extensively on button mashing to chop ingredients. While there’s no timing to get the meal perfect, the button mashing becomes exhausting.

Thankfully, there’s an option in the Settings called Cooking Station Interactions that swaps button mashing for Auto Progress; however, the Auto Progress simply replaces button-mashing with a slow moving timer, which can still be a hurdle—and in our playthrough on Steam, it didn’t seem to work reliably.

The button mashing remained the only method available due to what appears to be a bug or saving issue with control preferences, so we have hope for improvements from the future updates.

Growing taters in your garden is true to the life of the little folk, but it requires precise aiming to plant seeds. Hovering a seed above an empty garden bed will turn the cursor green to confirm it’s a valid spot, and red for when it isn’t. You can choose between static aiming (center screen cursor) or free-aiming, but both expect a level of accuracy that may be difficult for some players.

Fishing lacks any direct accessibility support. You can remap the button, but the core mechanic still demands players to hold and release the button at the right time to catch fish. While it’s immersive, it can quickly become tiring when you’re repeatedly fishing for quests or recipes.

Tales of the Shire, while wonderful to skip and prance in, would benefit from further mobility updates like automated cooking and fishing, and the ability to disable toggle holds entirely.

A Far Green Country Under A Swift Sunrise - Visual Accessibility

Bywater may not be “the fairest of all the dwellings of my people,” as Legolas once said, but it is breathtaking, green and lush as far as the eye can see.

We appreciated contextual outlines on nearly everything important: bushes, NPCs, and interactable objects! And if contextual outlines aren’t enough, quest-related characters will have icons above their heads, and locations of interest will have sparkles in their environment.

The only frustrating part in an otherwise great visual accessibility was quest-tracking relies on following blue birds towards objectives. The birds can be incredibly hard to see against a rich backdrop. Many times, we found ourselves backtracking to see if we missed a bird or went the wrong way! A HUD with a compass or an update with better visual contrast on the birds would go a long way in making the journey through Bywater smoother.

What Do Your Hobbit Ears Hear? - Auditory Accessibility

Auditory accessibility doesn’t disappoint! Tales of the Shire comes with subtitles, backgrounds, and speaker indicators for both the main story and side quests. And if there was any concern about missing any environmental cues, not to worry! Even as you skip and stroll through the Shire, speech bubbles appear above residents’ heads, making the auditory experience clear and seamless.

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost - Cognitive Accessibility

Thankfully, there's no need to remember where Orlo Proudfoot is. Tales of the Shire provides a wealth of cognitive support! The in-game map is accessible at any time and clearly displays quest destinations and points of interest. And it offers a Tales Log to track your progress, re-prioritize objectives, and suggest things to do while waiting for crops to grow. You can also view profiles on Bywater’s residents and check your bond levels with them in the Tales Log, which helps with completing relationship-based tasks and quests.

The best part? There’s no rush! Tales of the Shire is a true cozy game that expects players to put up their feet, relax, explore, and wander. So feel free to take your time, explore, fish, chat with Farmer Cotton, bake pie, then eat that pie.

Roads Go Ever On And On

Tales of the Shire beautifully embodies Tolkien’s adage, “if more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” It invites you to savor a slower pace of life in Middle-Earth, long before the last elves depart.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised with the at-your-own-pace game design. We applaud thoughtful additions like the Tales Log, and the well-designed UI. We're hopeful for future updates to introduce fixes for the few stumbles we encountered, such as the mobility accessibility in fishing minigame.

With rich environments, charming characters, and low-pressure gameplay, it’s the perfect game for anyone seeking a break from epic quests in favor of warm bread, laughter, and community. So hop in a wagon with a familiar gray wizard, let the rolling hills of the Shire pass you by, and make yourself at home in Bywater, because this little corner of Middle-Earth has plenty of room for a new Hobbit.

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