Sure, here’s a rewritten version:
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You ever eat something that looks great on a plate, but, honestly, barely does anything for your hunger? That’s kind of how I feel about this Tales of the Shire game. If there’s anything that screams cozy, it’s Tolkien’s Hobbits. They’re like the poster kids for cleanliness, community, and a good meal. Honestly, the idea behind this game sounds pretty tasty, but ironically, it comes out half-baked.
So, picture this: you’ve got a little window of time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A mini-adventure with Gandalf making a cameo. You’re this custom hobbit, just rolled into Bywater. First task? Fix up an empty hole and make it Hobbiton official. Cool, right? You run around, chat with folks, get roped into cooking quests. But, wow, Bywater’s like a maze. I kept feeling like I was aimlessly running back and forth. Even so, I found myself just wanting to see how things wrapped up; there’s a certain quirky charm in the writing.
Cooking’s a big deal here. Growing your veggies, picking wild herbs, and then poof! You’re a culinary wizard, minus the hunger part. I love cooking centers in games like this, it just fits Hobbits, right? But every quest feels like you’re just whipping up a meal for a buddy, rinse and repeat. It’s not bad, just kinda…meh. And for a game that’s laid back, you could argue it’s the chillest of the chill. No drama, not much challenge.
Days roll by based on this time system—your usual farm sim drill. Cook, farm, shop, chitchat, yada yada. People got schedules and shops open and close whenever. Miss the memo and you might end up fishing aimlessly as I did sometimes, just waiting for the sun to set. No fast-forward button, by the way, so it’s like watching paint dry if you run out of things to do.
Here’s something wild: played it on both Switch and Switch 2. Visually? Eh, okay on both, but the hobbit designs, I don’t know—it’s like they’re trying too hard or something. Props for tossing in a bearded lady dwarf though. But then, you’ve got frame rate issues, especially on the first Switch. It’s like watching an old slideshow come alive. Even Switch 2 couldn’t fully smooth it out. Had this one sky glitch where everything turned red. Spooky, right? Maybe just a Switch 2 hiccup, who knows? But, oh boy, the game crashed. A lot. Every 20 minutes, bam, back to square one. I got so paranoid, I saved my game like a maniac.
In theory, Tales of the Shire should just click. It’s got some neat ideas and decent writing. Feels like we’re testing an early version of something that could be great—one day. But for now, it’s more a shell of potential layered with annoying bugs. Pair these with crashes all over, you can’t exactly say it’s worth the trouble. Really want to root for this game; maybe, hopefully, it’ll grow into its own with some patches. But in its present state? Eh, not quite there yet.
