First of all, fuck J.K Rowling.
This game was super ambitious and had a lot going for it. I remember the general public being pumped for this, even non-Harry Potter fans. When it came out I was disappointed to learn switch users were gonna have to wait longer and for the most part, it was worth the wait. The open world is beautiful with a lot of exploration to do with secrets around every corner. I was hooked to the story from the beginning but I soon found myself putting the main quest on the backburner for a long time because of the amount of side content. But I pulled through and finished the main quest and I was very happy with it.
This game has many faults though and it wasn't stuff I could overlook most of the time. This game has TOO much content first and foremost. As a completionist, this game hurt me. There are way too many collections, for example; landing pads, balloons, demiguise statues, field guide pages, Merlin Trials, collection chests, SOOOO MANY COLLECTION CHESTS. And for the outcome and lack of new "treasure" it felt like a chore to do it do I chose not to (and that's unusual for me). The only thing I 100% completed was the challenges and there was no reward for completing all of that (just saying), but it didn't bother me too much as by that point in my playthrough I was SO READY to put this game down. The Room of Requirement was fun in theory and I'm sure it could have been better if I messed around with it but it just wasn't worth it in my opinion, the creature care was actually one of the strong points of this game and could have been a lot more fun if they had the offsprings grow up instead of them staying little forever. It doesn't give you any reason to come back to it. Combining genetics to get different creatures after generations and generations could have been super fun and satisfying but they just.... didn't? It felt like a dead end and kind of annoyed me.
The voice lines also get super repetitive because there just isn't a lot of variants. Every enemy camp you came across had the same voice lines, it just got annoying after awhile. I did enjoy the combat and I after I realized that you can set 4 different spell sets, it was even better. The Ancient magic meter was super fun to use and I loved the variety of different attacks.
I had heard horror stories about how laggy this game is and I found it to run surprisingly well on the switch, but one of my complaints that was hard to ignore (and I'm not sure if it's like this on other platforms, let me know) is the fact that there are so many loading screens, I don't mind if it needs to buffer a second while you're walking through the door but Hogsmeade was especially super annoying to navigate because every single building had a loading screen, it made it hard to collect pages or finding treasure because Revelio wouldn't show what was inside buildings behind loading screens. Hamlets and Hogwarts didn't have this problem but I hated going to Hogsmeade for this reason.
The last point I'm going to talk about is the MC being insufferable, I wish they had different varieties or points of personality that you build up with your reputation over time but I know this was a large game and there was a lot going into it, I just wish they made them feel less stuck-up.
Overall, while I had a lot of fun with this game, it's not worth it to 100% it and I probably won't be going back to it ever.

Alright, so I tried this game years ago, played for a few hours and then put it down because I was really turned off by it being a roguelike game. Just picked it up again after all this time and I’m so glad I did. The characters are so likeable and the art style is absolutely gorgeous. Took me a little while to get hooked at first because I really don’t like the idea of roguelikes (just personal preference, just not my style of game) but I pushed through and started finding my build and once I figured out something that worked for me, I absolutely loved it. I found the gameplay frustratingly addicting and the story was such an incredible use of the game style. The dialogue was hilarious at times, I found myself saving videos of interactions all the time. I know to fully “beat” the game you have to complete it 10 times and I MIGHT do that in the future but right now, I don’t have any urge to. I beat it once and that was enough for me, but the story does make me want to see more eventually.

This game was a perfect choice for the beginning of spooky season! This was a fun, short and utterly terrifying experience to say the least. This went from playing hide and seek with cute little gnomes to swimming through piles of rotting meat real fast. The story itself was incredible , something that I will be thinking about a lot and looking more into. The environment, soundtrack, and monster design are this games strengths. Where this game falls short, is the animation, frame rate, and wonky controls. At some points, it ran completely fine but there were multiple instances where the frame rate just couldn’t keep up with the action and caused me to mess up what I was doing. But the frequent checkpoints made this not a huge issue. While some might be turned off by the gameplay, I personally think it’s worth pushing through it simply because of the wonderful narrative and visuals this game has to offer.

I really enjoyed playing through this, I had so much fun with it. For a fps from the 90's, it has surprisingly held up very well. The levels were short and sweet with the perfect amount of challenge. The only issue that I had was keeping track of what switches did what. I found myself running around in circles for a few minutes a couple of times because I couldn't figure out what the switch I hit just did. Though I wasn't around to experience what it was like to play this game at the time it came out (I was born in 1998 lol), I can imagine how iconic this was when it came out. I can definitely see myself playing this as a relaxing game in the future if I'm bored.

I really really enjoyed this game and am already planning a second playthrough. Though at first, I couldn't get hooked, mainly because the game is heavily story based and it takes a good amount of time for it to get set up, so there is A LOT of cutscenes towards the beginning and I just felt like I was playing through a narrative. But as the plot starts to unfold, this set-up is absolutely justified. This is a very emotional, politically driven story with heartbreak around every corner. I really appreciate how the decisions of the player significantly impact the direction of the story. I for one, can't stand games where they give you a dialogue decision and no matter how you answer, it doesn't change anything. This game absolutely makes you live with the consequences of your actions, making every decision a hard one. The characters are extremely well written, Frederica being on of my personal favorites. The fact that each character plays completely different then one another is so fun to mess around with. There are no identical classes so it gives you an excuse to use each and every character and find what works best for you as the player. Overall, the narration, voice acting, gameplay, and story make this a real treasure of a game, one that I can certainly go back to since there are so many other paths to take.

Now that I beat the main story, I feel like I can finally review this. After the feeling of wonder and awe that I felt with Breath of the Wild, I had high expectations for this game. For the most part, this exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. But I must say, this game didn't give me the same feeling when I began it, it was a good feeling but very different. Maybe it was the beginning sky island or the vibe of the story but it didn't feel the same and that may be no fault of the game; in all honesty, I don't think any game will make me feel the way that BOTW felt. But besides that impossible expectation, this game is near perfect. It is everything I would want in a sequel game. The controls frustrated me to no-end at the beginning but after awhile of playing, it became very familiar. I applaud the amount of new content this game gave with the addition of the sky islands and the depths (it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to discover the depths by the way) and even the new content and flow of the surface. They left a good amount to discover with the additions of the caves and wells. I loved the sages and their powers. They all proved to be very helpful at times, I mostly had Tulin and Yonobo out at all times. As for the story, while it wasn't perfect, I feel satisfied with it. I don't feel like there were any loose ends and there were no questions that went unanswered. I'm planning on returning it to 100% it, I'm at about 70% as of finishing it. (Just need to finish side quests).

Okay so, there's a lot to say about this game and not a lot of words to say it. If you're into games like this, consider this a masterpiece. The environment, the characters, the story, the visuals, everything is beautiful. This game had me by the throat for awhile, its hard to stop playing once you get in a rhythm. The mines were compelling and kept me coming back again and again, well after I finished them. I have very few complaints about this game. One being the way the characters don't change over time with dialogue. I figured when I married Shane that Marnie and Jas would treat me a little more like family or at least have a few dialogues that acknowledge the fact that we were married. Whenever I kept seeing Marnie, she would always say something like "Oh my nephew Shane has been living with me for the passed few months-" that never changes. Another complaint I have is the GRIND for perfection. I was at the point where I had everything but the golden clock and I was so desperate by the end, I was just selling my accumulation of materials over the years to get the 10,000,000 I needed for it. It was actually painful but I got really desperate. But eventually I got it and the satisfaction was indescribable. I highly recommend everyone who even has a hint of interest give this a try. It had so much charm and I consider it a real treasure of a game.