Tales of the Shire is an upcoming game that is based on the legendary works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and, like Hello Kitty Island Adventure, it is an instance of an established IP throwing its hat into the ring of the life simulation genre. New simulation games with recognizable characters and settings are all well and good, but gameplay is what ultimately makes or breaks new titles. With Tales of the Shire’s release date being pushed back to July, it’s clear that developer Weta Workshop is aware of that fact and is working to improve the game further before launch.
If Tales of the Shire wants to find success when it releases, it may need to follow the age-old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” More specifically, Tales of the Shire needs to take lessons from established titles in the genre, including those that are based on iconic IPs, such as Disney Dreamlight Valley and the aforementioned Hello Kitty Island Adventure. In particular, the developers should look at one key element that is helping Hello Kitty Island Adventure stand out from other entries in the genre, like those from the behemoth Animal Crossing franchise.
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Hello Kitty Island Adventures Lets Players Craft Multiple Copies of Items
Like many simulation games, Hello Kitty Island Adventure requires players to craft certain items in order to raise friendship levels and unlock specific quests. Crafting items can oftentimes be one of the most tedious forms of gameplay. After all, in many simulation games, players are forced to craft the same item over and over if they need multiple copies of it. This can feel less like gameplay and more like a chore. Fortunately for Sanrio fans and veteran simulation gamers, Hello Kitty Island Adventure allows players to craft multiple copies of an item at once.
Hello Kitty Island Adventure hasn’t broken entirely new ground with this feature, as other games do allow for multiple copies of items to be crafted at the same time. However, considering that the feature is absent from many AAA simulation titles, like those in the Animal Crossing franchise, its inclusion in Hello Kitty Island Adventure still feels like a massive step in the right direction. Tales of the Shire should look to replicate that step by allowing players to craft multiple copies of an item at once.
How Tales of the Shire Could Add this HKIA Feature
Tales of the Shire’s demo primarily focused around farming, foraging, cooking, and a few story missions, and it revealed that the game’s cooking system needs the player’s input, requiring them to do things like click on items in order to chop vegetables. This is different from many simulation games, like Disney Dreamlight Valley, which, essentially, automate cooking as long as the player has the requisite ingredients on hand. Tales of the Shire does require players to have the necessary ingredients in their inventories for certain recipes, but the interactivity of the system adds a new layer to it. Therefore, the ability to craft multiple items at once, as can be done in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, would need to be tweaked for Tales of the Shire’s version of cooking.
Perhaps that tweaking could be as simple as increasing the number of inputs that a player must press if they want to simultaneously craft multiple copies of the same recipe. Of course, this increase could grow tedious for players booting up a cozy simulation game if it was taken too far, so it should be slight. This would make Tales of the Shire’s take on multi-item crafting distinct from Hello Kitty Island Adventure‘s, but it would ultimately allow players to reap the same benefits.
Life Simulation
RPG
Adventure
- Released
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July 29, 2025
- Developer(s)
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Wētā Workshop