It’s an easy recommendation to anyone who’s into the whole Harry Potter/Hogwarts world. As long as you know what to expect I don’t think anyone could be really disappointed with it.
With that said, I was disappointed with many aspects of this game. I’ll first start with the positives I got out of it, and I can say that I mostly had a positive experience playing it. It’s pretty spectacular in terms of art design. It’s a very pretty game that nails the aesthetics parameters set by the movies, with some of the wackier elements of the books mixed in as well.
As it stands right now it’s the definitive Hogwarts exploration experience. The castle is recreated to perfection, inch by inch of what was shown in previous material with some much-needed connective tissue included. Same goes for Hogsmeade and other areas that are recreated here.
In terms of its combat, I feel like they did well in going for a hack n slash combo-based approach to the magic spells. It’s simple enough to not alienate possible players and complex enough to not get extremely stale immediately, allowing you to shake up combat encounters a bit if needed.
The story has some nice sequences and set pieces, a few of which border on breathtaking, and some compelling characters and side quests. Players could appreciate the adventure they are being set upon, Harry Potter fans might enjoy the soy face “remember that” moments, but I felt that it lacked the friendship and teen hijinks element that I always enjoyed the most in Harry Potter books.
Maybe the single biggest issue I have with the game’s story is how bland the protagonist is. I get that the fantasy of making your own character is key for a Hogwarts game to succeed, and I agree that the option should be present, but here there is no real roleplay opportunities to make your character interesting on your own and the narrative doesn’t do the issue any favors. What makes rpg narratives in videogames where you create your own character truly memorable is mostly the strength of its side characters and the possibility of shaping your experience, and Hogwarts Leagacy has neither. I don´t think I´ll remember the names of the main cast in a week.
The problem with Hogwarts Legacy is that it is a shallow game. A game that so clearly tried to cram everything that is remotely popular in mainstream western open world rpg-lite games that it forgot to actually develop and dive deep into any of its parts. It’s a game that looks pretty but doesn´t have much underneath.
The castle, that looks great and is huge, has virtually nothing to do in it. Yes, there are hidden collectibles, tiny puzzles that allow you to get some gear or a micro lore page to tick off the box, but you’ll never do anything more interesting than following the marker to the next quest. The castle doesn´t change, there´s no interaction with it, no real reason to explore or spend time there, it’s set dressing. I can only imagine what that space could have been if not for the inclusion of a humongous open world that feels even duller to explore than the castle is.
This open world environment is filled with tiny map markers, comprised of repetitive activities that I’m sure not even the developers have any interest in completing. I can understand wanting to include Hogsmeade or other iconic locations in the game, but there really is no further justification for it otherwise. It’s crystal-clear padding. Padding for runtime, padding to give players something to do, padding to easily justify the AAA tag, because bigger is better always, right?
Pretty much the whole story could have taken place in Hogwarts and its immediate surroundings. You just go to a place that you’ve seen before, enter a cave, fight some baddies, rinse and repeat. There’s no real sense of exploration nor wonder here, and for a game about magic this kinda sucks.
I’m convinced that this would have been a much better game if it were a more linear experience and the whole open world fluff was cut out of it.
In terms of its combat, the basic spell mechanics are fun enough and don’t get old all that fast, but the rest of the adjacent systems are superfluous. At least while playing in normal difficulty, I never felt the need to engage with the potions or combat plants at all. The whole gear system is also truly unnecessary and unengaging, it feels like it’s only there to give players something to loot when going out into the world or solving puzzles to get to chests. You can technically improve the gear, but once again, never felt the need to do it and I doubt most players even touched that possibility. Some talent upgrades have cool effects, but they never shake up the gameplay loop enough to actually become invested in leveling your character up. It’s another underbaked and underdeveloped system that in its current form has no reason for being there at all.
The Room of Requirement also falls under the same umbrella. Several of these underbaked gameplay systems are connected to it. The only real ‘magical’ and interactable place in Hogwarts really gives you no reason to spend time in it and interact with it. Everything you can do here is completely pointless and disconnected from the rest of the game both in terms of gameplay and narrative.
It's hard to separate what the games is and what I hope it was. I really wish that the devs looked more towards games like Persona or Fire Emblem Three Houses for inspiration rather than to The Witcher 3 if they wanted to produce a rpg experience. I would have been fine with a bombastic AAA linear experience if that meant not getting this middle of the road, meandering attempt at a fully-fledged AAA rpg. For a Hogwarts themed game, I would assume that the magical high-school experience that most kids actually fantasized with when reading those books would have been their north star. It clearly wasn´t and I don’t really understand why.
I’m pretty negative about the game, but it’s mostly because I expected something more out of it. There’s plenty of hours of entertainment here, in a beautifully detailed setting, with some compelling story beats sprinkled about and fun combo-based combat. Just focus on the main quest and you’ll have a nice time. There’s a strong core here that I hope can be further developed once sequels or spinoffs start coming out. As it stands it´s an average game with potential. And now it doesn´t run all that bad on PC.
With that said, I was disappointed with many aspects of this game. I’ll first start with the positives I got out of it, and I can say that I mostly had a positive experience playing it. It’s pretty spectacular in terms of art design. It’s a very pretty game that nails the aesthetics parameters set by the movies, with some of the wackier elements of the books mixed in as well.
As it stands right now it’s the definitive Hogwarts exploration experience. The castle is recreated to perfection, inch by inch of what was shown in previous material with some much-needed connective tissue included. Same goes for Hogsmeade and other areas that are recreated here.
In terms of its combat, I feel like they did well in going for a hack n slash combo-based approach to the magic spells. It’s simple enough to not alienate possible players and complex enough to not get extremely stale immediately, allowing you to shake up combat encounters a bit if needed.
The story has some nice sequences and set pieces, a few of which border on breathtaking, and some compelling characters and side quests. Players could appreciate the adventure they are being set upon, Harry Potter fans might enjoy the soy face “remember that” moments, but I felt that it lacked the friendship and teen hijinks element that I always enjoyed the most in Harry Potter books.
Maybe the single biggest issue I have with the game’s story is how bland the protagonist is. I get that the fantasy of making your own character is key for a Hogwarts game to succeed, and I agree that the option should be present, but here there is no real roleplay opportunities to make your character interesting on your own and the narrative doesn’t do the issue any favors. What makes rpg narratives in videogames where you create your own character truly memorable is mostly the strength of its side characters and the possibility of shaping your experience, and Hogwarts Leagacy has neither. I don´t think I´ll remember the names of the main cast in a week.
The problem with Hogwarts Legacy is that it is a shallow game. A game that so clearly tried to cram everything that is remotely popular in mainstream western open world rpg-lite games that it forgot to actually develop and dive deep into any of its parts. It’s a game that looks pretty but doesn´t have much underneath.
The castle, that looks great and is huge, has virtually nothing to do in it. Yes, there are hidden collectibles, tiny puzzles that allow you to get some gear or a micro lore page to tick off the box, but you’ll never do anything more interesting than following the marker to the next quest. The castle doesn´t change, there´s no interaction with it, no real reason to explore or spend time there, it’s set dressing. I can only imagine what that space could have been if not for the inclusion of a humongous open world that feels even duller to explore than the castle is.
This open world environment is filled with tiny map markers, comprised of repetitive activities that I’m sure not even the developers have any interest in completing. I can understand wanting to include Hogsmeade or other iconic locations in the game, but there really is no further justification for it otherwise. It’s crystal-clear padding. Padding for runtime, padding to give players something to do, padding to easily justify the AAA tag, because bigger is better always, right?
Pretty much the whole story could have taken place in Hogwarts and its immediate surroundings. You just go to a place that you’ve seen before, enter a cave, fight some baddies, rinse and repeat. There’s no real sense of exploration nor wonder here, and for a game about magic this kinda sucks.
I’m convinced that this would have been a much better game if it were a more linear experience and the whole open world fluff was cut out of it.
In terms of its combat, the basic spell mechanics are fun enough and don’t get old all that fast, but the rest of the adjacent systems are superfluous. At least while playing in normal difficulty, I never felt the need to engage with the potions or combat plants at all. The whole gear system is also truly unnecessary and unengaging, it feels like it’s only there to give players something to loot when going out into the world or solving puzzles to get to chests. You can technically improve the gear, but once again, never felt the need to do it and I doubt most players even touched that possibility. Some talent upgrades have cool effects, but they never shake up the gameplay loop enough to actually become invested in leveling your character up. It’s another underbaked and underdeveloped system that in its current form has no reason for being there at all.
The Room of Requirement also falls under the same umbrella. Several of these underbaked gameplay systems are connected to it. The only real ‘magical’ and interactable place in Hogwarts really gives you no reason to spend time in it and interact with it. Everything you can do here is completely pointless and disconnected from the rest of the game both in terms of gameplay and narrative.
It's hard to separate what the games is and what I hope it was. I really wish that the devs looked more towards games like Persona or Fire Emblem Three Houses for inspiration rather than to The Witcher 3 if they wanted to produce a rpg experience. I would have been fine with a bombastic AAA linear experience if that meant not getting this middle of the road, meandering attempt at a fully-fledged AAA rpg. For a Hogwarts themed game, I would assume that the magical high-school experience that most kids actually fantasized with when reading those books would have been their north star. It clearly wasn´t and I don’t really understand why.
I’m pretty negative about the game, but it’s mostly because I expected something more out of it. There’s plenty of hours of entertainment here, in a beautifully detailed setting, with some compelling story beats sprinkled about and fun combo-based combat. Just focus on the main quest and you’ll have a nice time. There’s a strong core here that I hope can be further developed once sequels or spinoffs start coming out. As it stands it´s an average game with potential. And now it doesn´t run all that bad on PC.