Hogwarts Legacy (2023)

I got the game for free before Christmas from the Epic Store.

The game felt amazing at first then I had to do fetch quests etc. Less quests that are more meaningful would have been better. I didn't care about the characters, I barely spent time with them. Choices mostly don't matter. I remember using invisibility the first few times when I broke into a house, but even when NPCs are there, they don't react.

The world is amazing, but why is there a train station I can't use? Why am I forced to go through a tunnel full of goblins to get to Sebastian? The map is full with enemies to clear, it got boring fast. I didn't find it fun to explore 10-20 caves with spiders, goblins, and sometimes zombies. There is a magical world, and the story is mostly kill this, get that... doing classes would have been more fun!

Chest, gold, loot, level, gear, potions, plants etc. I checked the quest that explains how to open the chests with eye "It's All Gobbledegook" is a level 21 quest T-T That's too late, I won't go back getting those chests, by the time I did that quest, I didn't need the gold. I recommend buying potion recipes, and do everything your own, shops are too expensive. The wheel was extremely bad to use, I often used potions or throw plants when I just wanted to get the broom. When in battle I had to hold tab and pick what I wanted to use, then again... I hated it! Getting potions, plants, gear enhance material was pretty easy. I often switched gear until maybe level 25-27 and it was very bothersome to change appearance each time, I wish I could have just changed it once! Later I barely got good gear, and I kept my enhanced gear pieces longer, but I gave up by then.

I am sick of revelio.

Good game, even if you are not a fan, but it has faults.

Well, as a huge fan of Harry Potter's world and its magical universe and as a devoted fan to RPG games, I must say that this game could have been better, but just a little bit.

The game is very good, indeed and I really liked the RPG tone to it, but sometimes the game gets a little bit boring and repetitive. Of course, it has the castle, which is lively enough and very complex, of course it has its own mistery, but quests and character development wise, could have been much better. Besides of this, you don't really have so many things to do, in the world, besides of puzzles and looting camps. Also the story is very linear, it's not something spectacular, but it's interesting enough.

As for the good parts, I've really enjoyed the gameplay and the fighting mechanics, it was very good. I've also enjoyed the setting, especially the Hogwarts castle, which is enormous and it also has some mysteries in it, for us to explore. Also, the best thing of this game is the addition of the vivariums. I remember myself spending a lot of hours, searching for all the little different creatures, breeding them and customizing their environment, as I see fit. This was the best thing.

The best thing in regards to quests and character development, it was the Sebastian Sallow storyline arc. It was dark, it was tragic and it's a great way for the player to learn the Dark Arts. Definitely Sebastian Sallow is one of the greatest character in the game and it would be nice to see in the sequel.

It has been nice playing Hogwarts Legacy and I look forward in playing the sequel, after it launches, of course. It would be nice to just continue to play with the same character, years after the event of the first game, but now to work for the Ministry of Magic, as an auror.

I went into this expecting that a video game based on a popular IP would be as bad as many of the movies, shows, and books based on video games have been. This was better than I expected. Still, a very standard action RPG that doesn't innovate the genre but decent mechanics, a good story, lots of quests, plenty of customizable features for the MC, and plenty of challenge. The final boss, especially, was pretty brutal and I ended up lowering the difficulty for him after he killed me a dozen times or so.

The game features a trans character, which is a good move on the devs part given JK Rowlings' positions lately. She's not a major character but has her moments. If I recall, I think the character creation also allows the MC to be trans if the player wants.

I enjoyed the book series quite a bit many years ago and this was a decent exploration of that world. I'm happy to have something fun rather than controversy, anger, and hatred be associated with this franchise I really adored once upon a time.

I ended Hogwarts Legacy yesterday afternoon. And it was a satisfying end. I liked this game a lot, it was super fun to run errands in Hogwarts, to meet students, to fight spiders and trolls, and just go about with your broom, or with highwig. To find a lot of magical creatures, to use the unforgivable curses on everyone (I know you were all eager to learn avada kedavra, I mean who wasn't?). All of this was pretty awesome, it felt super nostalgic. I liked the story as well.

My favorite side quest has got to be the Poltergeist one, what a fun and different quest was that?! I actually felt scared! But it was so awesome!

Altho it had a lot of cool stuff, the main quests, the trials felt super repetitive, except the last two, Niahm's and Sankar's quests, hers was super interesting, to be in the deathly hallows tale, and to flee death, to USE the deathly hallows, I felt invincible.

So yea, I don't give it 5 starts because of the repetitiveness, sometimes I felt bored, I didn't want to continue fighting the same enemies again and again, I felt I had explored and gone all over, and I was getting bored.

I decided to end then the final quest, to defeat ranrok and it was pretty awesome, the boss fight was cool. Beat him the 2nd time, because at first I was super lost to what I had to do to him and lost a lot of life. Went back a second time and it was "easier" to see his pattern and beat him.

Anyway, the game still can go on, as you can keep finding collections and etc, to win all the trophies (in ps5 we can win the platinum, dunno if ill do it tho). Overall I enjoyed my journey as a wizard, and in the future I may do another run in another house.

(PS4 VERSION!!)

I won't hold any of the poor performance against the game because I played on PS4 and it only crashed once in 40hrs. Pop-in was awful and loading was slow for both fast travel and just walking through Hogwarts. Sorta expected that though.

That being said, good lord was this a huge disappointment. I'll start with the good, which was how gorgeous the game is. Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest made me super nostalgic and were rendered in beautiful detail. Combat was a little repetitive after a while, but the core system is awesome and I'd love to see it iterated on.

Now the bad. This game doesn't like to spend time in Hogwarts, you never really feel like a student at the wizarding school. This game could have made you an Auror or a Hogwarts Professor and very little would change. The story is pretty bad, it makes some pretty basic errors, like three main characters having super similar names (Rookwood, Ranrock, and Rackham). The main story characters were all so bland, I forgot about them whenever they weren't on screen and by the end of the game I found myself reaching for my phone whenever a cutscene started to play and I had to force myself to pay attention in case the story got good.

The Map was way too big. Felt empty, everything south of Hogwarts was indistinguishable from each other. I stopped going south of the Black Lake after I beat the main story because I never had fun doing anything down there. Clearing Hogsmeade and Hogwarts was fun, the collection pages were fun to read, but obnoxious to gather because I could never see the scroll - I always just heard that ding and went insane trying to find it by spamming Revelio.

Speaking of Revelio, there has to have been a better way. The longer I played the less I actually looked at anything and I just spammed Revelio until I saw something I could interact with. The collectibles got really repetitive, but I didn't mind too much because it gave me a reason to explore every inch of the castle.

I've already written too much, but in short I think they overdeveloped the map and underdeveloped gameplay mechanics. So much got cut and they chose to focus on things that were more achievable. It's easier to make a big map full of repetitive collectables than implementing Relationships, Character Backgrounds, Followers, and Stealth Mechanics, but I would've traded everything south of the Black Lake for one of those. Honestly I'd trade everything south of the Black Lake for 20 more duels in Crossed Wands.

Also why the hell is this set in 1890? It never once felt like 1890, just set it in like 2005 or something.

I grew up during the right time to be a part of the Harry Potter craze of the early 2000s. I read through the books, watched the movies, and played the games all throughout grade school. While I kinda fell off the wagon after the final movie came out, I was interested in Hogwarts Legacy when it was announced. I just waited till I had a PS5 to try it out.

Starting this game up, I was curious how much of the Harry Potter movie material would make it into this game. Mainly if they would try to mimic the iconic music of the films or if they’d have to make it legally distinct. Luckily, since WB published this game, the music score does take cues from the movie soundtrack and the Hogwarts castle in-game mimics the one from the films with a few changes. Hogwarts Legacy, however, is set in the 1880s. That is one benefit of the Harry Potter universe. The wizarding world has always had this established look of being a bit out of time and archaic, so there’s not a huge shift in aesthetics from the 1880s to the 1990s. The only noticeable change is some of the civilian clothes being a little extra dated looking. Setting it 100 years prior to the Harry Potter saga lets the developers tell their own Wizarding World story that still closely resembles the Hogwarts we all know without having to deal with all of the lore around Harry & Voldemort. And I give the developers props for avoiding including a bunch of references to Harry Potter or shoehorning it into the plot. There are a few, understated and tasteful references to the Potter saga without being annoyingly “wink, wink, nod, nod”.

The gameplay is simple but engaging. Trying to balance all the different spells of the Wizarding World in your game is quite the task I imagine. You use R2 to ready your wand and you start off with four spells on a quick select you can cast, each mapped to a face button. As you level up, you unlock more quick select sets so you can switch between sets of four spells on the fly. In total, that gives you 16 spells you can switch between in combat. It keeps combat moving and makes you feel like a wizarding master as you switch in between different spells that have different effects depending on the enemy you’re fighting. You can also learn the Unforgivable Curses, which I was hoping would create a tradeoff for the player. Sure, they are very useful spells, but if you use them in front of another wizard maybe they’ll make a shocked remark or not trust you going forward, closing off certain paths. Unfortunately, this is one of those games that use spongier enemies to create ‘difficulty’. It led to a lot of the late game fights being endurance tests that quizzed you on how well you can dodge and block, especially since most of your spells had little to no effect on the tougher enemies. You have the option to avoid fights sometimes using a stealth mechanic in the game. Though it does confuse the game sometimes when I’d stealth around what is meant to be a combat encounter. Outside of combat, you can fly around on a broom, grow magical plants, brew potions, and solve puzzles in the world. The game has a dialogue choice system, but from what I could tell there’s no Mass Effect style choice/consequence system, you just get to choose the flavor of your response. There’s also a basic skill tree where you can upgrade your spells, potions, and general magic abilities.

You also get access to the Room of Requirements to use as your personal space you can customize to your heart’s content. It reminded me how much I really dig that dark academia style that Harry Potter excels at. I designed it to be a cool, moonlit, hangout spot full of dusty books and gothic architecture. Unfortunately, this game has a system for capturing and taking care of magical beasts, and this is done by having a bunch of different doors appear in the Room of Requirement for different habitats. It makes the main entrance hall look like a tacked together mess of conflicting styles that I don’t care for. I wasn’t interested in the beast caretaking content at all. It felt tacked on because they wanted to cover as many different parts of the Harry Potter world as they could. So, I had all these doors in the RoR that led to content I didn’t care about. I’d rather they found a way to work the customization aspects of the RoR into my House Common Room. Let me customize that space so I have a reason to spend more time there and give me more opportunities to engage with students from my house.

The story is where I feel the game falters. Basically, you’re a kid who starts Hogwarts as a 5th year, I imagine they made that choice because it’d be awkward playing through this story as a 10 year-old, who can use the super special ancient magic no one else can. As to what your character was doing before this, why weren’t they already attending Hogwarts, were they living a Muggle life, is all left unexplored, which to me makes the blank slate character a little too blank. I get for meta reasons you want the character to be experiencing Hogwarts for the first time just like the player is, but it still annoyed me I couldn’t at least pick from a list of backgrounds that might’ve given my character a little more flavor. Turns out the goblins are rebelling and you have to work with a Doc Brown type, Professor Fig, to stop them, while also discovering the history of your ancient magic powers. This also leads to you meeting the 4 original keepers of the ancient magic via their portraits. Because they give you the quests that progress the storyline, the developers had to come up with excuses for why you had to wait between each trial. In the writing, it makes the keepers come off as kinda pompous idiots stalling for time. In the end, you fight the goblin rebellion’s leader and save Hogwarts from the evil ancient magic. With how they tell the story, I never felt invested in any of these characters or plot points. It all felt very much like the writers just used tried and true storytelling cliches and we are just supposed to care about these characters beyond their surface level personalities. Professor Fig dies at the end of the game and there’s a wake for him in the great hall, but when the professors stand up to give speeches about how good a person he was, it rings hollow, because I never got much of a personality from him besides, a bit of a “kooky professor” vibe.

Poor characterization plagues this game. There’s a group of professors you take classes with, namely Charms, Herbology, DADA, & Potions. You get one or two interactions with them, enough to establish a general character trait, then you don’t see them at all unless you talk to them while exploring the castle. The headmaster, Headmaster Black, is the polar opposite of Dumbledore, which is nice they didn’t just make him “another Dumbledore type”. He’s remarked as being vain, uppity, & out of touch. The problem is that’s mostly all conveyed to us through “tell” not “show”. The few scenes he’s in, he’s a bit pompous, but nothing egregious. Black is also voiced by Simon Pegg, the biggest name in the cast, so I imagine they didn’t have a lot of time to record with him.

The goblin leader, Ranrok, is just “the big, scary bad guy”. I want to avoid re-opening the can of worms that was cracked opened at this game’s release as much as I can, but not giving more characterization to your main bad guy and his rebellion made me feel a bit “off” trying to stop him. Like, Ranrok claims he’s rebelling against the wizardkind that’s oppressed the goblin people and wants to reclaim goblin property. That seems like a legitimate cause, the only reason given to why we have to stop him is “because he’s evil”. I can respect a game that goes against the “plucky rebels” trope that I think is overused; history has proven rebellions are rarely led by a group of ragtag do-gooders. But we need more info on Ranrok’s rebellion besides they want goblins treated as equals, which shouldn’t be something we as players would want to stop. Maybe the rebellion is like the South during the American Civil War in that they are rebelling to keep a practice that’s outdated and inhumane, maybe we see Ranrok using tactics that are barbaric and indiscriminate, or we learn that he’s only paying lip service to wanting goblin equality, but is really just trying to set himself up as a king. That last one I think the game hints at, but again the story is so surface level. And I realize, it’s Harry Potter, the stories have always had the premise of good vs evil, but you need to add more nuance if you’re applying that to a story about stamping out a rebellion.

You also have several side quests they run parallel to the main story. These involve you helping out a fellow Hogwarts student with their mission. Again, these fall flat, mostly, due to bland characters. There was a main mission early on where you can pick a friend to take with you to Hogsmeade. I thought this meant we’d have that option with future quests, but no. I’m not saying they needed to make it a BioWare-esque system where you choose two companions to take with you, but having an option to interact with them more outside of their side quests was sorely needed. I want to go on adventures with my classmates, not a professor. One plot has you helping Poppy the Hufflepuff to save some animals from poachers, another is helping Natsai the Gryffindor take down a wizard crime boss. I think the problem is, it’s always just you and them on any mission you partake with them and they never show up in any other story missions. They never felt like they were my most trusted friends, just some quest givers I visited occasionally. The one exception to that is the Slytherin student quest line. Here you are helping Sebastian to heal his sister of a particularly nasty curse. Over the course of his missions, you are usually with Sebastian and another Slytherin, Ominis. You both watch as Sebastian becomes more desperate to heal his sister, resorting to dark magic to find a cure. Since there’s more people involved in his story to work off of, you get more characterization and I felt more invested in this story of trying to help a friend, then attempting to pull him back from the brink, than I did in the main story line helping the stuffy keepers.

I also may’ve had the wrong expectations going into this game. I was hoping for something of a Hogwarts Simulator. Sure, you can still have your main adventure plotline, but I wanted to also worry about attending classes, winning house points, making friends, etc. I was hoping for something like Bully, where I’d have a class schedule I’d have to keep while doing my extracurricular activities. Build a rapport with my friends, maybe have a romance option where instead of a fade to black, because they are children, it culminates in sharing a first kiss. There were some dialogues that felt like my character was awkwardly flirting with Natsai in the way high schoolers do. The world map includes both the school of Hogwarts, the village of Hogsmeade, and a large swath of the surrounding area, including lots of little villages. Most of the quests take you out into the surrounding area & I barely set foot in Hogwarts after the first act. I think the game was trying to have its cake and eat it. There was a moment during a quest in Hogsmeade that I thought, “Hey a game set in the Wizarding World where you play as just a wizard in the wider world, not a Hogwarts student, could work.” Either give me that or a Hogwarts adventure, don’t try to do both. I think they could’ve cut the map in half. Keep a few villages and countryside to put your goblin rebels but make most of the game focus on the castle of Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, & Hogsmeade.

When the game does do the standard Hogwarts stuff, it nails it. The first act was by far my favorite. You get to sit through the Sorting Ceremony, explore the castle, attend classes, study for your OWLS, fly a broom, learn “flick and swish” for Wingardem Leviosa. Playing through those moments brought back warm memories I thought long dead and gone of just the pure joy I had watching the Harry Potter films. When I got on a broom for the first time and the game played the big swelling orchestral score, I had a big dumb smile on my face and I got a little teary eyed. I forgot just how much of a Potterhead I used to be. I remembered all the House ghosts, recognized the hallway to the Potions class from the film, and remembered some of the stories of the artifacts hanging around the school. I wanted the game to capitalize on that. My favorite Harry Potter book/film is Chamber of Secrets, because I liked that it was still set in the school, doing your normal school stuff, but you also had to solve a mystery. The game also ends with the awarding of the House Cup, and that did bring back some of that childhood nostalgia and whimsy, but it would’ve meant more if I actually had to earn points throughout the game. The game also doesn’t feature Quidditch. I don’t know if they just ran out of time, couldn’t make it work with their broom control, or removed it to encourage people to buy Harry Potter Quidditch Legends instead, but I did miss its inclusion to add one more thing to that Hogwarts experience.

All in all, Hogwarts Legacy had potential that I feel got squandered. The first act brought back a lot of that nostalgia for me as I explored Hogwarts, but missions constantly pulling me away from the school, poor character development, and a by-the-books unambitious story slowly started taking their toll on me. Exploring Hogwarts was a treat as I recognized locations and people from the books and films, and the magic system is handled well. If you were someone who grew up with Harry Potter or enjoy the Wizarding World, I can recommend this game at a sale price because your mileage may vary.

EDIT: Been watching the Harry Potter movies again, naturally I was like "oh I really should try the game out again... So I restarted it, 2 years after the initial appointment of a first playthrough. Can confirm it's still a huge disappointment. It's another open-world asset flipped with Harry Potter stuff, and nothing especially interesting is going on. Even as a lifelong HP fan, it's not even excusable...

(2024) Played for a while on release and took a break to come back to it later and I must confirm that there is absolutely nothing interesting to see here and the absolute slog of a game is not worth playing for the long run.

I love running around in the caslte and enjoy the academia vibes but that's about it.

The ludo-narrative mass murderer student scenario is beyond jarring.

Game #50/200 I have been simultaneously busy with work, preparing for my daughter's birth, and playing multiple lengthy RPGs (among other hobbies and tasks), which means I have not been able to complete anything recently on my 200-game journey. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to sharing some of my thoughts on Hogwarts Legacy (which happens to be the 25% progress checkpoint of my goal to complete 200 games). Hogwarts Legacy was a surprising experience for me. I have a decent grasp of Harry Potter lore and have engaged with plenty of its media (although I am far from an expert), so for me to be incredibly impressed by the game world must pale in comparison to how Harry Potter super fans must feel about the game. Let me quickly add that I truly believe anybody could pick this game up and have an awesome time with it, especially if you're a fan of open world games, but familiarity with -- or better yet, appreciation for -- the IP will enhance your experience. I rank this game among Marvel's Spider-Man and Ghost of Tsushima as far as quality open world games go, and that is meant as a major compliment. The game is very "open-worlded," with Hogwarts being a large area packed with secrets, and Hogsmeade being a fairly big area with plenty of activities, but the overall map encompasses so much more of the world. I would estimate that the overall map is at least twice as large as Spider-Man's map and maybe roughly equal to Tsushima's (I am trying to Google this to confirm, but finding that HL's is actually smaller than both? I am not really sure.).

Either way, the map feels sizable with numerous different activities to do like Merlin Trials (usually fairly easy but decently fun mini puzzles), camps/dungeons, side quests, mini games, races, etc. There's plenty of variety. It's like many other open-world games where you'll be tracking one quest or activity but there will be so much nearby that you'll sidetrack, and then sidetrack again, and then again. It can be addicting to keep going. I had around 56% total completion around 25 hours and had not completed the main quest yet, so the game is a solid length without feeling overwhelming. I played on PS5 and the world was beautifully designed and rendered. The sound effects and music fit perfectly with Hogwarts' world and the voice acting was actually some of the best I've heard in an English language video game. I can't overstate how gorgeous the world looked. Even for a AAA title, the variety of environments and assets is tremendous. Everything and everyone is uniquely designed. The magical elements fit the aesthetics of the books and visuals of the movies and it's clearly respectful to the source material. The ease of traversal is one of the game's biggest strengths. In seconds, from nearly anywhere, you can get on your broom and fly significantly faster than on a horse in Skyrim or Witcher. Of course, you can always fast travel as well and the game makes it easy to get anywhere you need with it floo flames system. I was rarely if ever frustrated with getting around (much improvement has been made since the days of Fallout 3, for example, where you're sometimes forced to wander through various subway stations to get around impassable mountains).

As far as gameplay, the battle system is one-of-a-kind. You have a large array of spells at your disposal, most of which can be used uniquely for varying effects in both combat and puzzles, and you can basically prepare 4 loadouts of 4 spells each to switch among as you fight or travel. It can be a lot of mental overload while you're in the middle of a fight to switch to a spell you want to select, but I found that to be a seemingly purposeful element of the combat system that is meant to challenge rather than frustrate. Healing potions are abundant and there are some special attacks that make things pretty easy. I would say that the combat is overall fairly easy-to-medium difficulty, although maintaining a large combo can be quite a task (and a lot of fun -- not unlike Spider-Man). You definitely do "feel like a wizard" and I was honestly a bit amazed that they made a battle system like this one work so smoothly and flawlessly. It's not really like anything else to my knowledge (closest thing is maybe Arkham series?).

Besides that, you are getting a lot of side quests, some of which have interesting dialogue or stories, but they are more-or-less just checklist items to keep you busy and fighting or exploring -- nothing wrong with that on my end. There are a ton of progression markers and milestones and the game will keep you in a trance as you hunt down various activities. The map also has a nice (but somewhat hidden) key that allows you to see what you're missing so you can hunt down the specific tasks you require. Overall, HL is one of my favorite open-world titles. I am accumulating a ton of experience in the genre as of late, but this one will stand out for its gorgeous world, fantastic sounds design, and smooth battle mechanics. Go Slytherin.

I mean... Hell yes, am I right? Why the actually fuck not? I read books, I watched movies, I reread, I rewatched.... I'm absolutely PRIMED to play this game. I AM the target audience. I couldn't be more pleased at this opportunity to wrap myself in this universe even further.

I had a lot of fun exploring, solving puzzles, and unraveling mysteries. I saved critters and caged them and fed them. I joined Ravenclaw, participated in trials, saved people, meted out justice, and generally got a reputation for helping people. I absolutely could have gotten a dark side reputation of extortion and blackmail but I played it the way I live.

In a replay I might hit it Slytherin all the way and see just how dark the game can get, though I doubt it will vary at all fundamentally. I doubt I will replay, though. I've already put an obscene amount of time into this game and I'm at 92% of the Field Guide. Thankfully the story allows completion without unlocking everything, otherwise I might not have completed it.

I only have the game on the Switch. I love beautiful graphics as much as the next girl BUT 99% of my gameplay is on a 42" T. V. From 12' away and the other 1% is handheld. I think you can catch my drift here. It mattered more to me to play with a controller I was comfortable with on my most convenient system than to get the absolute best graphical performance. I will say the Run of Requirement probably didn't port super well, since everything you could modify usually had a thin white outline. Since you can change nearly everything in the Room, the outline really detracted from any potential beauty.

There are some sandbox things available for people who enjoy that stuff but I never have so I left it all alone after a certain point.

But do I recommend the game? ABSOLUTELY yes to fans of the "Wizarding World", enthusiastic yes to RPG/actin adventure fans, and maybe not to anyone else. I mean, I love all of these things but eventually decided I wanted to cash out with a story completion and let the rest of the game go.

Went into the game expecting nothing and was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it. That said, the main character is probably one of the worst I've ever played, they're as dull as cardboard. I feel like it's both due to the voice acting and the writing for the character. I get that they're supposed to be an awkward teenager but then why do the other students act like actual people?

Most other areas of the game are well done I think, especially broom flying. It's SO satisfying. Exploring Hogwarts for the first time was amazing, and it still is 26 hours into the game. I liked the difficulty of the game, it's not too hard on the normal setting.

As for some other cons, I had a few crashes that made me lose progress as the game doesn't auto-save sometimes even if the icon pops up. I also wish there were more dialogue choices and the lack of romance options made me feel as if something was missing. Also, very lame to not implement quidditch.

Almost perfect game. In terms of overall vibe, environment and gameplay, it's spot on.

A few things that I was missing (on PC):

More or bigger spell slots. It is absolutely inexplicable that I have to adjust my spell slots when I need light for a moment or when I want to take care of the beasts for example

I didn't really feel like the conversation choices I made really affected my environment.

It's missing something,

Games that treat you as the messiah, where every event is built around you, make the world feel unreal. Reality is a world where your place and goals overlap in interesting ways. The gravity given to the protagonist breaks my immersion in the game consistently.

The need to add "ancient magic" fundamentally takes away from the base magic of the world. Is real magic not enough?

The devs fundamentally misunderstood what was cool about harry potter magic. It was the few times where the fights were interesting, giant snakes and dragons, not expelliarmus and avardacadavra.

The game is rendered well, but feels more like a tour than a game. The storytelling is... lacking heart and engaging character dynamics. You play a nothing person.

I feel like the open world genre is a trap, it limits the quality of story, I really wish it would go and die in a hole and we can go back to getting good games again.

It doesn't grab me, or pull me into the world. I really want to like this game, but I feel like the gameplay loop was just really poorly imagined.

Why is harry potter of all series using the following as it's loop:

• destiny's gear system - thus rendering all item collection meaningless
• Fetch quests
• what on earth is this half assed talent system, in 2004 Fable released with an engaging and imaginative magic system. Where is that in this game. Why am I playing rock paper scissors instead of casting spells
• Let me say that again: why, in a game about magic, is magic the least developed aspect of the game.
• the fundamental point of an open world game is that I have a clear motive to increase my power, and augment my character. If that system is not developed, the progress in the world has no tangible effect on me.

It's like the dev was like, yes, we need every trope mechanic from the past 10 years. Let's ram them in there. Coming from playing chained echo's to this feels really bad. Why is a solo dev game so much better than a triple-A title from one of my most beloved IP's.

Third-person action RPG set in the Harry Potter universe.

You follow the story of your own protagonist who learns that he can see traces of ancient magic and set on a journey to uncover its secrets of it. The main story is very linear and the choices don't do anything. It's not very interesting IMO and sometimes illogical. It's very underwhelming to say at least. Side stories/quests aren't better either, although Sebastian's side story is where the game really shines; Natty's and Poppy's were ok at best (Why didn't any Ravenclaw student get a side story? Did they count Amit's stargazing collectibles & one trip to the goblin mine as his whole story? If yes than SMH...). The open world is very big, detailed, and beautiful (especially Hogwarts and Hogsmeade) but it has that Ubisoft's dullness and emptiness. I mean first time exploring stuff you'll be amazed at the details (especially after unlocking broom), but later you'll realize that most activities there are just collect-a-thons with little effect on gameplay (NO quidditch and magic chess?!). Is it just me or UI isn't very intuitive? (gameplay elements are fine, but the main menu stuff feels just slow and requires way too many clicks - Hogwarts map especially: without fast travel and tracking figuring out which floor is it or pinpointing the exact location is a nightmare). The combat system feels fun at the begging but gets repetitive way too easily. I mean it has some depth like spell combos, enemy has a certain weakness, etc. but it feels like different concepts put together and they don't mix well together. Worth pointing out is: the bad keybind system (only 4 slots in 1 bar?!), dodging (especially during troll fights, 2nd hit always hits me even after teleport dodge), also (I don't know if that's PS5 fault) I sometimes felt input lag, especially when trying to cast shield between attacks.

I don't know if I overhyped myself for this or expected way too much from it. Maybe choosing action RPG as the main genre was the biggest mistake. It just felt too casual/simple.

This feels like Elden Ring: Harry Potter Edition. The comparisons between the two didn't do this game any favors.

For the record, I am not a HP fan. I read the first book and saw a few of the early movies, but I'm fairly clueless on the lore and the characters.

I mean, this game is fine. If you like open world games, you'll probably find something that appeals to you. If you love HP, I'm sure you'll appreciate all the touches this game has.

But after playing the masterpiece that is Elden Ring, I think I'm going to have to hold out on open world games until the next Zelda comes out in May, because I think nothing else is going to live up to it.

If I could, I would give it about 2.5 stars. It has a pretty equal balance of amazing design choices with some really lousy design.

I really loved Hogwarts castle, how it feels alive and there's whimsical secrets around every corner. The combat is quite fun, as well as the variety in activities. There's mini games, combat, exploration, management, environmental puzzles, etc.

But there's an equal amount of aspects I found very underwhelming. The characters are totally 1-dimensional. The story - nothing new and extremely unengaging. The dialogue is almost always skippable. And, if you are a completionist like me, you'll find the gameplay gets extremely repetitive around the halfway point. They made a trade-off; a big WOW factor with the size of the world, yet it is filled with constantly recycled puzzles, assets, and ideas. This is always an issue in open world games, but it really drags in this one.

If they had lowered the scope and actually written some memorable characters, the game would have been perfect. If anything, I just wouldn't recommend going for 100%. If you can play more organically, doing whatever interests you and focusing on the exploration, it will likely be a great time.

Done for now with Hogwarts Legacy. If I could do it over again, I think I would have completed the story as quickly as possible. Then I would have completed all the side quests and highlands exploration and finish off with the castle exploration. Because while the highlands/open world general area is fascinating, it pales in comparison to the majesty of the castle itself and its immediate surrounding areas (Hogsmeade as well, couldn't get enough of that idyllic town).

I had completed most of the castle exploration by the time I finished the main story, so the collectathon after that ventured very close to the realm of tedium since most of it was in the highlands and the various caves and hamlets. I was missing just a few items by the end and I was close to getting frustrated at wondering which ones were missing and where they could possibly have been; I ended up having to consult a few guides, which I was really hoping to not have to do for this game. I don't like having to consult guides in general and think that if a player needs to use a guide, it's probably because the user experience is lacking (of course, there are always exceptions to that idea, and that idea is just my opinion).

Now that I've spent enough time with it, the charm has worn off a bit and I have no trouble telling what things I loved and what things I didn't. The sheer number of Merlin trials is a little ridiculous (I think there are like 95 if I'm not mistaken) and feels as though they were carpeted across the open world to create points of interest. After that many occurrences, the puzzles lose their novelty. I also didn't really see the point of the Ancient Magic traces. It's another thing that felt like it was put into ruins to give you a reason to explore them.

But sometimes, it's fun to explore things and there just not be anything. I don't know, just not every single thing in a game needs to reward you with loot or coins or something. If your world is interesting enough - and Hogwarts Legacy very much is - then the sheer act of exploration is inherently rewarding and satisfies all on its own. Loading the open world with relatively meaningless collectibles and junk gear, for the sake of nothing much other than to tick a box really takes away from the novelty of exploration and makes it arduous. I think a better approach would have been to rework the gear system such that there are unique items with unique individual properties, pretty much exactly how FromSoftware does it, and then stick those in various places throughout the world.

The boss battle at the end was tedious, inexcusably so. Just not well designed.

Sebastian's quest got to be really tedious too. I understood the gravity of it but it really felt like it was starting to drag about halfway through. Or maybe I just didn't care enough.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts about what I didn't like about the game. It's still solid as hell, and one of the better gaming experiences I've had in the last few years. And again, from a sheer games development perspective, Hogwarts Legacy is a triumph. There were so few bugs or glitches and the ability to travel seamlessly throughout the castle and open world is still astonishing when I think about it.

Hogwarts Legacy gets a 9 out of 10 for me. It deserves no less and would deserve more, if it weren't for some of the collectables and puzzles.

50% in.. enjoying the storyline and the quests... but there are little things that just don't gel with me:

1. why can't i rotate the "world map"?
2. can't skip conversations! that's so simple. every game has this function
3. very aggravating that the "open lock" spell is not available until almost mid-way.... logically/narrative-wise, that doesn't make sense
4. shitty camera during battles
5. why do we need both joystick to control separate things while flying??