Tales of the Shire’s Cooking System Is a Good Omen for Its Sense of Ambition

In a world where cozy game after cozy game continues to show itself, Tales of the Shire stands tall. Despite including plenty of features most commonly associated with cozy games, Tales of the Shire is based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe, which automatically makes it an altogether different animal. Set in the charming village of the Shire’s Bywater, Tales of the Shire sees players living out their lives as a Hobbit with complete access to relaxing activities like fishing, exploration, decorating, and cooking. In fact, Tales of the Shire‘s cooking is at the heart of its gameplay, which makes sense from a lore standpoint, considering Hobbits have an unmatched love for food.

Tales of the Shire‘s cooking is one of its most prominent gameplay features. Based on what has been revealed so far, it seems to be much more complex and involved than cooking in other games that don’t wholly revolve around the activity. Fortunately, this bodes well for the rest of the game’s features, especially if the developer went just as far with everything else Tales of the Shire has to offer.

Tales of the Shire’s In-Depth Cooking Mechanics Are a Good Omen for the Game’s Other Features

Tales of the Shire’s Cooking Is Much More Involved Than the Simple Gathering and Combining of Ingredients

Whereas most games with cooking simply require players to have the correct ingredients available to prepare a particular dish, Tales of the Shire takes it several steps further by involving the player in almost every step of the cooking process. After learning a recipe (usually after receiving a letter from another villager), players can proceed to gather the ingredients for it. From there, they can combine the ingredients at their cooking table and begin to prepare the dish.

Some Tales of the Shire dishes call for very specific ingredients, while others might only call for something more general, like a “hearty vegetable” of the player’s choice. After selecting which ingredients will be used in the recipe, players can begin preparing them. They can then choose how chunky or how smooth an ingredient is by how many times they chop it, and even add spices to the dish to take it up a notch. This is where things can get tricky, however, as adding too much spice can throw off the entire recipe and lead to a lackluster response from the recipient.

Other Tales of the Shire Features May Be Just as Involved as Cooking

While cooking is undoubtedly going to be the highlight of Tales of the Shire’s gameplay, there are plenty of other features players can look forward to as well that might even be just as involved as cooking. Interior and exterior home decoration are a prominent feature of Tales of the Shire’s gameplay, and it already looks promising. Hobbit hole decoration in Tales of the Shire allows players to place various items on the inside and outside the house, even allowing them to place smaller items, like books and dishes, individually. This is already a sign of Tales of the Shire’s in-depth cooking mechanics leaking into other areas of the game as well.

Other features in Tales of the Shire, like fishing and foraging, may also take after this approach to gameplay by allowing players to be more involved every step of the way. Perhaps players will be given more agency over the quality of a herb they pick by how they pick it, similar to how foraging works in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The same could be said about Tales of the Shire’s fishing, maybe by going the usual route of changing the quality of the fish caught according to the bait used. At the very least, cooking in Tales of the Shire sounds like it will be one of the most involved aspects of its gameplay.

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

Tales of the Shire is a charming life sim set in the iconic and idyllic location from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. You’ll take part in gardening, fishing, and cooking, as well as decorating your home and getting to know the local Hobbits.