Players and the press are calling Tales of the Shire for Nintendo Switch a technical disaster due to massive performance issues, bugs, and “horrible” graphics.
The cozy Hobbit adventure Tales of the Shire has been launched, but for players on the Nintendo Switch, the journey to the Shire seems to be anything but relaxing.
Numerous tests and disappointed voices from the community paint a picture of a technically sloppy port plagued by massive performance issues, crashes, and desolate graphics quality.
The reports about the shortcomings of the Switch version are clear: The website Nintendo Life finds in its review uses harsh words and describes the game as plagued by lag and stuttering. Worse still are the frequent crashes that ruin progress in the game. The review talks about “more bugs than in Shelob’s pantry.”
This expert criticism is reflected one-to-one in player feedback on social media. There, many vent their anger about the state of the game. User Chrissy sums up her disappointment succinctly on X (formerly Twitter):
“I don’t usually care about graphics, but Tales of the Shire on Switch is horrible and I feel cheated.”
usually idc about graphics but tales of the shire on the switch is horrendous and i feel scammed >< pic.twitter.com/stip9H1xfq
— chrissy 🦇 (@chrissyxchi) July 29, 2025
User Miss Bubbles goes even further in her review, listing a whole series of problems. She describes the game as “an absolute disaster on the Switch” and gives details: “Horrible motion sickness camera movement, bugs, terrible navigation, a bland atmosphere that looks like mush, and the fetch quests were a snooze fest.”
Tales of the Shire is an absolute disaster on Switch. Horrible motion sickness camera movement, bugs, terrible navigation, dull atmosphere that looks like mush and the fetch quests were a snooze fest. I knew from the trailers that gameplay might be bland BUT I remained cautiously… pic.twitter.com/9mWs5Y9oXI
— 🇱🇧 Miss Bubbles 🔜 Gamescom (@_missbubbles) July 30, 2025
Despite muted expectations, she hoped the game would be fun, but now describes it as one of the worst games she has played in the last five years. So if you’re thinking about buying Tales of the Shire for the Switch, be prepared for a potentially frustrating experience.
Problems also on other platforms
Although the sharpest criticism is directed at the Switch version, the game does not seem to run completely smoothly on other systems either. In the Steam forums, PC gamers report unexpectedly high hardware usage and occasional stuttering, even on powerful computers.
This could indicate that the game’s fundamental optimization is in need of improvement – which is naturally more important on the Nintendo Switch.
Tales of the Shire was developed by New Zealand studio Wētā Workshop, known for its world-famous visual effects for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. It is being published by Private Division, a label of Take-Two Interactive. So far, there has been no official statement regarding the reported technical issues or plans for future patches that could fix them.
