The latest spot-on TikTok game parody is Lord of the Rings in the style of Life is Strange

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Life is strange when Lord of the Rings is an indie game

Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(Image credit: New Line Cinema)

A creative TikTok user has released a hilariously spot-on video that imagines Lord of the Rings as a narrative-driven indie game with Life is Strange-esque music and inner monologues.

To our utter delight, we've seen a rise in TikTok videos parodying those unique qualities of video games which are recognizable to anyone who's ever held a controller - videogameness, if you will. There was the one with the college students behaving like Skyrim NPCs, and more recently a group of TikTokkers brought 2006-era Wii Bowling to life to hilarious result. Now, we have perhaps the most jarring juxtaposition of them all, setting the epic scale of The Lord of the Rings series to the distinctly intimate mood of the Life is Strange games. Check it out:

"Bilbo's old ring," the person behind the camera says as they pick up and examine a replica of the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. "He got it on his adventures, but he won't tell me how. It's oddly cold and heavy to the touch. Gandalf said to keep it secret, keep it safe," they say with an unmistakably video gamey cadence as they return the ring to its spot on a shelf.

The video is captioned, "POV: Lord of the Rings was turned into an indie game," but the music is straight from the Life is Strange soundtrack. Regardless, plenty of smaller narrative-heavy games like to trigger lines of inner dialogue when you interact with objects, and this little video just nails that whole vibe perfectly.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.