J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 (SNES) Playthrough

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Published on May 15, 2024 7:09:42 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmCnkF3GZAc

Game:

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I (1994)

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Let's Play

Duration: 3:38:49

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A playthrough of Interplay's 1994 license-based action-RPG for the Super Nintendo, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Volume 1.

JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 was Interplay's attempt to adapt The Fellowship of the Ring as an RPG for the SNES.

It's an action-RPG that takes the same multiplayer approach as The Secret of Mana did. You end up with the majority of the fellowship in your party over the course of the game, and you can assign control of your characters to up to five different players with a multitap. I've never played this as a multiplayer title, but the AI for the NPC-party members can be a real headache. They love to go exactly the way that you aren't, and while you can sometimes wrangle them (tapping R will call them to you, and holding R gives you control of the whole mob), they'll usually just ignore the command and instead make a beeline for some shiny thing that has commanded their attention off-screen.

For those who would prefer a more traditional PC-style experience, the game features support for the SNES Mouse, but unless you love struggling to do even the simplest of things, I would recommend against using one.

The graphics can be charming. The small characters lack detail, but they're well animated, and the pastoral backdrops paint a pretty picture, though the game recycles its assets to a ridiculous degree. The same tilesets are used again and again, so nowhere feels unique.

What's worse is that this repetition isn't limited to the visuals. Many of the larger areas are made up of a handful of maps that are repeated again and again with nothing to differentiate them but the placement of items, and progress requires meticulous mapping of these copy/pasted layouts. The manual provides basic maps of several areas, but without any meaningful landmarks to navigate by, it's way too easy to become hopelessly lost, and since the game is essentially one giant string of fetch quests, you'll be backtracking constantly. The lengthy load times don't help matters much, either.

But the game's worst sin is how it squanders its license. It's easy to get excited at the thought of an RPG based on LotR, but the game doesn't make use of the material, nor does it make any attempt to channel the spirit of the story. The main characters are flavorless, nigh mute caricatures of their former selves, and the tasks they hand you feel like pointless filler. With the fate of Middle Earth hanging in the balance, why does Sam refuse to join up until we find him a pair of glasses? Or Aragorn, a plant? Or Legolas, his bow? It's absurd, and it feels incredibly lazy given how short the game is.

There are also the bugs to contend with - Legolas can't attack and merely stands around absorbing hits, and equipping the best weapons on your characters will glitch their strength stat, rendering them utterly useless in battle - and the save system is awful. The game gives you two passwords to record your progress (one for your inventory, and one for your characters and story progress), which together amount to a string of 48 characters. Seriously.

The soundtrack is the lone highlight. The music is beautiful, and the sound quality is extraordinary for an SNES game. It would've been nice to have a few more tunes, though, as the ones that are here are reused even more often than the map layouts.

I loved the books, but I can't help but think that Tolkien would roll over in his grave if he could see his work being parodied in such a banal and soulless game.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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