Tales of the Shire is set to be one of the most unorthodox entries in the Lord of the Rings franchise, and developer Weta Workshop has fully embraced that idea. With the level of care put into even the small details, Tales of the Shire has found a way to succeed where the latest Pokemon games have failed.
A Middle-earth life sim game was something that Lord of the Rings fans didn’t know they wanted, but Tales of the Shire gained high interest after its announcement. Despite the recent news that Tales of the Shire will be delayed until 2025, a lot of fans are still excited. The life of a hobbit fits right into the cozy nature of the life sim genre, and Weta Workshop has taken care to showcase that through gameplay. With cooking and serving meals set to be a major mechanic, plenty of care has gone into that part of the experience. When the player makes their feast and serves it, the animations show their guests eating each dish and savoring its flavors, underscoring how important the activity is in the hobbit lifestyle. This has drawn striking comparisons to the eating animations in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which were underwhelming.
Tales of the Shire Can Succeed Where Pokemon Didn’t
When thinking about Pokemon, cooking isn’t usually a topic that springs to mind, but in recent games, elements of creating food to share with Pokemon have been introduced. Pokemon Scarlet and Violet included a mechanic based around making sandwiches, which had various effects based on their ingredients. The reception of this mechanic was very mixed though. While the effects were useful, the sandwich animations in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet faced criticism. Some fans were upset that the presentation never showed the player or Pokemon taking a bite, but instead included a bizarre miming of eating. In a high-budget game, this oversight came off looking lazy compared to other inclusions.
This failure was only made more apparent by the role that sandwich-making played in the game’s story. One of the main narratives saw players assisting Arvin, a budding chef, hunt down rare ingredients in order to heal his sick Pokemon. Arvin’s passion for making sandwiches and the compassionate reason behind it struck a chord with players, leading some to be even more let down by the way their own character ate sandwiches. This shows that sandwich-making in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet got a lot right, but was still viewed by some as a failure because of the lackluster animation.
Eating Animations Delight in Tales of the Shire
In contrast to Pokemon, in Tales of the Shire, cooking is very important to the gameplay. It appears that gathering ingredients, creating dishes, and enjoying them with the community will be a major part of Tales of the Shire, leading it to demand a satisfying payoff. From what has been revealed so far, it’s clear that the animation team on Tales of the Shire understands that, and puts as much effort into the payoff as possible. The sneak peeks at the eating animations depict the hobbits carefully examining the food the player has made, judging the flavor, and giving their approval or disappointment, all in a simple, quick shot. Since cooking in Tales of the Shire will test the player’s skills as a major inclusion, this animation quality speaks volumes. It proves that Weta Workshop understands what it takes to make all the game’s systems feel unified and meaningful.
Just how in-depth these animations might get is yet to be seen though. While it appears they will vary depending on the player’s actions while cooking, the amount of that variation will be important. There are some hints that different hobbits will prefer different dishes or certain textures. This, coupled with the variety of ingredients in Tales of the Shire, means that many different animations should be present to indicate what each character does or doesn’t like in particular. Hopefully, there will be more stellar animations that remain to be seen when Tales of the Shire opens its doors to players sometime in 2025.
