Apparently, the company that made this had the rights to make a game based on the books, not the new line cinema films. So it was more directly inspired by the books. I remember borrowing it in high school for the GBA and thinking it wasn’t bad. Wandering in Moria for ages. There’s something charming about it and the graphics are more fairytale inspired which is interesting. If you google the PC version there’s a lot of that early 2000s charm. Obviously most people would have played the EA published two towers game which featured events from the fellowship.

  • MystValkyrie@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    I kind of love the GBA Fellowship of the Ring game. My parents got me a GBA SP when I was very young, and this was the first game I ever had on it. The beautifully crafted world, especially in the early part of the game, sucked me in. I’d find out later that every NPC’s name is based on an actual book characer in Tolkien’s lore. I loved the riddles, I loved the puzzles, I loved having to play music on stumps to summon Tom Bombadil and the elves. I figured out the money duplication glitch all on my own, without the internet or guides.

    The SNES and GBA eras of games were a wonderful era where games were text-heavy without voice acting, and this game along with any others jump-started learning to read, and actually really helped me out in school. Eventually this game would get me to read the Lord of the Rings books, which is to this day my favorite book series ever.

    I wouldn’t have gotten into turned-based RPGs without this game. It’s a little janky, sure, but I really like how the minimalist mechanics encouraged an almost Resident Evil-style resource management mindset. And, especially by the time you got to the Barrow Downs, every encounter was a serious threat and you would want to avoid them whenever possible, unless they were blocking where you needed to go. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this game is one of the better-executed, um, horror RPGs that I’ve played, and it did a wonderful job of invoking the same dread the Hobbits felt in the books when they left the shire.