The game in its core is a rehash of every open world mechanic and if not for the setting we all would probably drop it after a couple of hours in. The world building really saves this from a disaster and my millennial heart just can't help myself. Flying on a broom around Hogwarts is just too pure.

The story is too long, the collectibles are too varied and not much fun. The combat system is actually really well made from the start, but it's kinda ruined by omega boring enemies who are just repeated to death. Every dungeon is just so boringly similar, it's probably the worst part of the game.

But again, the world is just too fun for me not to engage with it. It is just enticing enough not to drop the game because of its other flaws.

And fuck JKR of course :)

My first souls-like (apart from Hollow Knight), I wanted to do them chronologically and this game does indeed seem like a first attempt at something good. The concept "So hard that makes you become a better player" is sorta genius, but otherwise the gamedesign is at least underwhelming here.

Having to get all the info about stats/weapons from the internet, because the game itself just doesn't tell much - that alone is a very bad sign. To add to that, difficulty is totally unbalanced, game gets super easy after Flamelurker, some bosses are weirdly simple and that not even counting final bosses of the worlds, who are just glorified normal units. RPG element isn't very variative, most of the weapon upgrades are objectively weak. And the idea "Hey, let's make the player go through the whole level to get another attempt at a boss" is pure garbage. If devs are being edgy, and this is all for the sake of difficulty and getting good, then let's make all the games permadeath, then it's be sooo rewarding, right?

All in all, I definetely had my fun with the game, but hoping for something better in the next installments