Hogwarts Legacy (2023)

Pros:

• They did the IP right. The world feels very alive with all the harry potter whimsy and magic we remember from the movies and imagined from the books
• The banter and teen energy is strong in hogwarts. Feels perfect for the target audience and some of the cut scenes from the class is great

Cons: Here's where the game really struggles

• The combat is pretty underwhelming for a few reasons. My biggest issue with the combat is its really hard to effectively use the many spells in the same engagement. This game has you put spells on different sets of 4 that you can activate whenever. It gets really hard to swap them while you are mid combat since there is no time slow down or other tool to let you move to other spells while the action is happening. As a result you create one set of 4 spells that you will mostly rely on, and it destroys build diversity and fun diversity
• There feels like there's 4 different types of enemies throughout the game. It destroys the fun once you know who you are going to fight AGAIN and AGAIN. The world is big enough to include way more folks but nope you are going to fight ALOT of goblins and animated knights with the occasional troll.
• For such a well written and memorable story, the writing feels very Game of Thrones seasons 7 and 8. Lazy writing, taking lots of liberal opportunities to cut corners. Why are the goblins bad??? Who cares, you are just told that from the start with no clear convincing seemingly needed. Why are 5th year students so rare? Why is Professor Fig your buddy outside the lands??? All of this and more so poorly explained
• The NPC acting is so bad. Character forms are so lazy outside of cutscenes (which admittedly are good). Hurts that there wasn't a more dynamic feel to the dialogue because it makes it feel more skippable. Equally, your character gets a choice of one of two dialogues but which you choose never matters

There's more not to like but don't want to hate endlessly. Either way, if you are into harry potter, you will enjoy a lot fo the callbacks, but i would try speed running mainly thorugh the main story and some choice side quests because the rest of the gameplay is pretty underwhelming and combat is meh.

3/5

I wanted to find wonder and mystery in this game, but I found an open world game painted in Harry Potter.

I was simultaneously blown away and disappointed to find such a perfectly created Harry Potter game, with gameplay I did not like.

The World

The game is beautiful, and if I was able to play on high end hardware I expect that might have carried me through the game. But given I'm on entry level gaming hardware (a $800 laptop....) the game is just a poor experience. The load times especially are cruel, due to the sheer number of fast travels required for certain quests.

The story

I can't really comment on the story, as I played almost non of it, instead I was buried in a stream of random tasks. The extended 10 hour tutorial is perhaps the biggest reason for me quitting the game. I never quite felt the rails fall away.

Combat

In most RPG's you are given a choice, a way to specialize and really make a game your own.

• Talents are half baked, each spell has one improvement option. There is no option to build or spec into a character type.

• All spells function within a auto aiming combat system. If feels a little like playing a fighting game. As the ranged combat is more like melee combat with a block and counter system.

• I think my fundamental issue is that 90% of the damage you do comes from the basic spell slinging. The spells are limited to force bolt A or force bolt B. No snakes. No turning into a dragon. No defense orientated gameplay. I felt a little disappointed I couldn't build a fire based combat character.

Outside of it: stone is moving into a door, tree's are growing into buildings and all sorts of madness is happening. That would have been nice in the combat system.

Crafting

The process for making and using your potions, items and upgrades is unbelievably clunky. I expect that these systems will end up paying off. But for the early part of the game they feel like a confusing mess that made me not want to play.

Gear

Why is there a looter shooter gear system. No. Seriously, what is this doing in my Harry Potter game...

The emotive structure of yur engagement in the world

I expect that the meaningful stories are in there, but why are they hidden? Drama, love, romance, excitement, adventure and companionship are the emotions of the Harry Potter films. Why do I feel so lonely and isolated playing this game.

The music

Great as to be expected.

Ancient magic

I don't like how ancient magic is the theme of this game. It is fundamentally disrespectful to the magical system of harry potter and what could be done with it. I'm not the biggest fan of "I am chosen" narratives. I actually like Harry Potter because that narrative thread is so deeply buried that you hardly ever see it. Here it is the central premise of your engagement in the world and interaction with characters.

Overall

A great game that is not for me.

J'ai adoré le jeu, les VeaudeLunes m'ont volé mon cœur.

On retrouve par contre quelques maladresses de gameplay ici et là. L'excuse pour récupérer des animaux dans la nature pour les mettre dans des jardins magiques est bancale, je pense qu'ils auraient pu trouver clairement mieux comme excuse.

J'ai pleuré lors du premier donjon, les Accromentulas en sont plus effrayantes que dans les films. Il manque aussi de Triggers Warnings à certains moments du jeu, ne pensez pas que c'est un jeu pour enfant, l'univers est sombre et on parle de guerre, de mort, de torture, de braconnage, de discriminations, racisme...

Je me doute que bien que ce jeu soit développé par un petit studio, j'aurais bien aimé avoir une meilleure balance entre le côté de la lumière et des ténèbres, d'avoir une vrai possibilité de choisir et faire bouger la balance réellement.

J'applaudis par contre l'effort immense qui a été fait sur le côté exploration, la carte est immense et même en finissant l'histoire principale on a encore de quoi exploré et de découvrir des choses, la création de Poudlard et les alentours est incroyable.

Au début du jeu, on passe notre temps à explorer Poudlard mais très vite on se trouve dans la campagne à se balader pour les quêtes. J'ai appris, mais j'en pas sûre, que certaines quêtes secondaires différent selon la maison du début.

J'ai été un pigeon en achetant la version deluxe, le sombral et l'hippogriphe sont magnifique. Ce jeu est vraiment basé sur tout ce qui est exploration plus que autre chose, tout a été donné sur les graphismes, c'est un vrai plaisir de s'y balader !

Les points négatifs sont : Poudlard est trop complexe, je m'y retrouve absolument pas du tout et certaines maladresses scénaristiques et une véritable difficulté à voler sur balai. J'aurai adoré voir un vrai match de Quidditch