Tales of the Shire Could Feel the Events of The Hobbit Even…

Lord of the Rings fans have been waiting a resurgence of games set in Middle-earth. The glory days of the Return of the King tie-in game and Lord of the Rings: Conquest are well and truly in the past now, and so it's up to games like Return to Moria to let players immerse themselves in Tolkein’s legendary world. Alongside this, Tales of the Shire aims to deliver a comfy, cozy, Shire simulator that stands in contrast to its LotR game peers.

Unlike gaming’s previous forays into Middle Earth, Tales of the Shire leans heavily into more Animal Crossing style gameplay, as opposed to the action-adventure games the franchise has gotten up to this point. In another shake up from the standard formula for Lord of the Rings games, it’s also eschewing the War of the Ring conflict entirely, instead favoring a story focused solely on events happening within the Shire itself. This means certain franchise favorites like Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn are unlikely to appear. Despite this, the shadow of one hobbit in particular will inevitably loom large over the little town of Bywater.

Months Ahead of Its Release, It’s Clear What Tales of the Shire’s Biggest Advantage Over Its Cozy Counterparts Is

Tales of the Shire releases July 29 and boasts one feature that many other cozy sims lack that is sure to become a staple moving forward.

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By Shayna Josi

Bilbo Baggins' Adventures Are Bound to Impact the Hobbits in Tales of the Shire

The Characters in the Shire Are Bound to Know of Bilbo Baggins' Exploits

Bilbo Baggins will be an unavoidable presence in Tales of the Shire with or without a cameo. As one of the most famous hobbits to ever live, the stories of his adventures and exploits became something of a local legend. The more traditional members of the community may not care much for him, but anyone who grew up in the Shire heard the stories of how Mr. Bilbo fought spiders, outsmarted trolls, and stared down one of the last great dragons in the world and lived to tell the tale. The long and short of it is that even if Bilbo himself fails to make an appearance in Tales of the Shire, the main character will almost certainly know as much about him as the players do.

This opens the doors to a lot of interesting storytelling opportunities. Most hobbits do not care for Bilbo since his stories seem to inspire troublesome adventurous attitudes in their youth and disturb the simpllicity and peace of the Shire. For a player character that’s grown up on the stories of Bilbo’s exploits, it might make room for some introspection; maybe once the game is complete, there’s room for the PC to start considering leaving the Shire themselves and going on their own adventures just like the now-folk hero Bilbo.

It doesn’t have to stop with player characters, however. Some of the most interesting character writing can come from the NPC players interact with throughout the course of the game. Because they’re not bound by the same restrictions as a PC, they can experience their own unique character arcs throughout the course of the game’s runtime. Maybe a number of the folks around town are having some second thoughts about their life choices. In light of Bilbo's recent time out of town, it might be possible that some hobbits are starting to consider that there’s more to life than the traditional hobbit way.

Tales of the Shire Can Show More Nuance in Hobbit Culture Through Bilbo's Adventures

In this way, Bilbo’s influence on Tales of the Shire can help subvert a very common genre trope: that all members of fantasy races are generally of the same mind on every little issue. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take great pains to describe hobbits as quiet, peaceful folks that have little use for the world outside their comfortable borders, but even Tolkien himself would probably agree that the hobbit culture is hardly a monolith.

It stretches credibility to assert that in the entire history of the Shire, Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merri, and Pippin were the only five hobbits who ever left the Shire in search of something greater. By expanding heavily on the Shire and the hobbits that live there, Tales of the Shire can provide some welcome nuance and greater context to the world. The game can show that hobbit culture isn’t as uniform as it might seem at a glance. Bilbo inspired his fair share of hobbits to go out and explore the greater world around them, and Tales of the Shire is the perfect place to explore that.

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