#Hogwarts Legacy Game Review | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ikahnik-gaming · 1 year

Text

What I like and dislike about Hogwarts Legacy

Hey there, I'm Jace. I've been playing Hogwarts Legacy recently and here are some of my thoughts. This is similar to a review, but instead of doing a typical review, I'm going to list a few things that I like and dislike about the game. To keep it short and spoiler free, I won't go into too much detail.

Likes

Environment - I think the environment is one of the best things about Hogwarts Legacy. As much as the movies tried, they never did Hogwarts, the great school of witchcraft and wizardry, justice. And that's where the game shines the most. It's an incredible experience to walk into the Great Hall with its many tables sitting under the bare sky in between countless floating candles. The movies pale in comparison. And to be able to not only walk down the streets of Hogsmeade but to be allowed to go into its many enchanted stores is simply amazing. And it's not just the castle that is impressive, but there are also many nooks and crannies around the map that have been created with just as much detail.

Spells - Casting a summoning spell like Accio to bring a floating page straight into the palm is always fascinating. And the other spells are just as magical in their own ways. Whether you're lobbing a fireball at a goblin with Confrindo, or making an enemy float with Levioso, it is always fun. My favorite spell to use is Expelliarmus. It inflicts damage and disarms the enemy which sets the perfect opening to smack the enemy with their own weapon. And the way we acquire most spells by attending classes is also a delight. I'm always looking forward to new classes. Although the astronomy class was a let down.

Side missions - I've honestly had more fun doing side missions than the main mission. The side missions are great ways to discover more of the world. And no, I'm not talking about those Merlin trial puzzles. Those are not my favorites. But I loved the missions to help out classmates or NPCs about the world. They're always interesting. Which brings us to the next topic...

NPCs - There are many cool NPCs in Hogwarts Legacy, from a traveling musician that accepts tips with a delightful surprise the next time you run into him, to some lady being afraid of traveling without invisibility potion. Not to mention the well defined classmates that have their own backstories to discover. Or the teachers that have their own secrets to discover in letters among their belongings. The NPCs give as much life to the world as the amazing details in the environment.

Music - I think the music is well made for the game. It captures the spirit of the wizarding world perfectly. And I can't remember a moment during my playthrough where I thought the music was distracting or that it didn't fit.

These were the things that I like in Hogwarts Legacy, and now for the hard part, the things that I did not like.

Dislikes

Loot - I thought the loot system was pretty bad most of the time. Occasionally I would get excited when I open a chest and get an augment to upgrade my clothing. But most of the time I find myself not looking forward to opening chests. Almost all loot I found was just a similar version of a robe or a different color scarf that I already own. And to make things worse, unless you do the Merlin challenges, your inventory is pretty limited. So I spent most of my time opening chests to be told that I can't pick something up, or going through my inventory and deleting some of the things that I was carrying and was hoping to sell. Thank God for the transmog system. The mechanic that allows one set of clothing to take the appearance of another clothing item that had been discovered. Without that, there would be no redeeming quality for the loot system. No matter what I found, my character almost always looked the same, and getting a new color for a pair of glasses or a scarf is never exciting.

Spell Arrangements - As much as I loved using the spells, I found the inventory system to swap between them cumbersome. It got to the point where as much as I was looking forward to new spells, I was also hating the idea of having to shuffle and rearrange the spells to be usable. I honestly don't know how to fix that problem. At first I thought that a wheel system like in Red Dead or GTA would help, but then I realized how much it would slow down the snappy rhythm of battles. I think the best I've seen is a modder-created system that allows spells to be cast through mouse gestures. But even that has its own challenges. I don't know how to fix it, but I know the current system is inconvenient. Especially when certain enemy shields need a specific color to break. And if that color isn't in your current selections then the whole combat flow is thrown off.

Enemy variety - thanks to reviewers, I already knew before going into Hogwarts Legacy that there was a lacking in enemy variety. But it still wasn't fun to discover for myself. I spent most of my time fighting the same group of bandits. The same ancient statues or the same spiders. And it gets a little old. The only thing that kept it fresh were the spells. Whenever I got a new spell, I was excited and looking forward to putting it into practice.

NPC Emotions - for this one, I don't want to go into too much detail so as to not spoil any of the plot. But there were many, and I mean many, occasions where an NPC was sad and crying, and only to switch it off in like a second later, like turning off a faucet or flipping a light switch. It broke the immersion for me many times to see an NPC crying over the loss of a loved one and then to just immediately change the subject to a light-hearted conversation, or for their face to crack a smile. I think the devs could fix that by putting a longer delay after any crying or sad interactions. And to block that NPC from saying their usual NPC lines until the player returns at a later time. They could even just end the conversation entirely while the NPC is crying and not allow any interactions until a certain amount of in-game time. But the way it is currently is not working.

Alohomora spell - I know I said a couple times already how I love the spells, but anyone who played the game knows that the Alohomora spell is different from all the others. In my experience, it seems like it's also the only spell that requires the player to go back to an NPC to level it up. All the other ones are done through the menu. The leveling up is not my problem, however, but it's the mini-game. It's a complete immersion breaking system. It's like using a lockpick after pressing the unlock button on your car's key fob. Then it's like, what's the point? I'm not casting a spell, I'm just a thief in Tamriel who's pretending to cast a spell, only to end up using my lockpick. Not only did I have to earn the spell by collecting a bunch of pointless things, but I also had to unlock the doors myself. Makes no sense. And to make the matter worse, the loot behind that locked door is, you guessed it, another scarf. Great!

Consequences - I was bummed that my actions in the game had few consequences. I'll use an example to explain this, without spoilers. So, at some point in the game, I was tasked with going into a certain off-limit zone in the school at night. Okay. That's not a problem. I also got to learn a new cool invisibility spell. Even better. The problem is that after that mission, I found out that there is no such security in that area. And that I could waltz right in, day or night, no matter what, without sneaking or using my invisibility spell. That was such a bummer. And it's not just in that situation. There's no consequences for using those forbidden spells either. It's all smoke and mirrors with the vague appearance of a deeper system. And it's honestly my biggest let down for a role playing game. Voldermort would be so happy in Hogwarts Legacy because he could Adava Kedavra anyone he likes and the teachers would just give him a good tongue lashing, or not even that.

Story - without going into too much detail and to keep it spoiler free. I'll simply say that I didn't enjoy the main story as I was hoping to. There were too many things that weren't explained properly or glossed over. I want to know more about The Ancient Power. I want to know why the goblins are not allowed to use wands and their magic, and how everyone in the world is okay with this obvious injustice.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my list. I'm sure your likes and dislikes are probably completely different from mine. So let me know yours in the comments. And As always, like and subscribe if you haven't. It's free for you and does wonders for me and the channel. See you next time. Peace.

#hogwarts legacy #video games #videogame review #review

10 notes · View notes

sweetrollbakery292 · 1 year

Text

Hogwarts Legacy. My thoughts.

First of all let me say that i did not pre order this game, a friend let me use his account for the time being because he wanted me to know what my thoughts were about it.

Overall gameplay

The open world aspect was a pleasant surprise because i thought it was going to be another ubislog title with hundreds of side activities sprinkled across the map without any real substance

But it isn’t. It’s beautifully crafted and feels alive

Everything else however it falls short. In my opinion, most of it ranges from Ok (mid) to aggressively mediocre (INCREDIBLY mid)

The combat, holy fuck the combat is boring! The magic system somehow almost managed to convince me to get forspoken instead. There are like 3 unforgivable curses and like 26 in total spells. If you have Expalliarmus, Confringo and stupefy then fuck, you’re set for life. Just go ham.

The RPG mechanics are underwhelming. No sense of character building or any of the sort at all. At the very least your choices do have some effect on the stories but the RPG mechanics are more underwhelming than fallout 4. To start with the “Talent” or “Perk” system is very barebones. Most of them are either damage modifiers for your spells, makes them AOE attacks, makes you more stealthy or to improve the room of requirement.

The story? I thought it was okay. No more, no less. It is absolutely nothing special. It’s just not for me. There were no memorable characters imo. And the trans character they put in is just there to tick boxes. Which is not a good thing. It feels like they just put her in because of the backlash. Look, i thought this game was going to be worse than it actually is but thankfully it’s not. It’s still pretty mediocre, and mediocre this days basically means a masterpiece now. I think it could have been better with the RPG mechanics and magic system expanded instead of what fucking barebones shit we have now. Bravo avalanche, you managed to make a decent game. It wasn’t anything special but at least it was something that wasn’t shit. You can’t blame me for being skeptic. I’ve seen your catalogue, most of them are bad movie games and literally not even a decade ago you guys made the worst toys to life games to ever exist. Disney Infinity. Oh and your collector’s edition is still dogshit.

Verdict: 4.5/10. Mediocre. To buy, or not to buy: Don’t buy. Wait for sale. Don’t pay 70-80 dollarinos for this. Wait until it’s like 30-40.

now for a rant. Anyone who pre ordered multiple copies of this game just to “own the libs” need to get the fuck off the hobby for good. You guys have never learned from cyberpunk and 2042 and it shows.

#hp #harry potter #hogwarts #hogwarts legacy #review #game review #gaming #rpg #roleplaying game #wrpg

12 notes · View notes

lmaverick123 · 1 year

Text

Trans "Allies" Attack Hogwarts Legacy Streamer Until She Cries

One of the things that I heard a LOT of, back in my anti-religious shit-kicking days, was that the bigoted religious people aren’t the MAJORITY of religious people. It’s just this ugly, mean-spirited minority. Which always had me thinking – where is this silent majority in calling these people out? If they are so diametrically opposed to them, then where are they in calling them out? But I…

View On WordPress

#Gaming #Girlfriend Reviews #Hogwarts Legacy #LGBT #Trans #Video Games

8 notes · View notes

notsopersonalcharlie · 1 year

Text

the way i didn’t know anything about the hogwarts legacy conflict till i looked up how the primary release was (i was intentionally going in blind because i wanted to get a full experience - i looked up in case of bugs etc) saw all of the controversy and bad shit and IMMEDIATELY decided not to buy this game despite my unending excitement over it for the week before speaks volumes to the fact that you don’t have to get a fucking game if it’s causing intentional harm

#hogwarts legacy #y’all seriously it’s a ducking game #like there are others #and this one doesn’t even appear to be all that good based on actual reviews #I’m going to be putting money into the star wars games

8 notes · View notes

frostehburr · 9 months

Text

I Platinumed Hogwarts Legacy and Here's What I Have to Say About the Game

Alright.... So....

Yes, I am a trans woman.

No, I do not support JK or her views.

Hogwarts Legacy was given to me as a gift for my birthday. The person who gave me the gift was not aware of JK... in general. Like, they have zero idea who she even is.

We're well pass the point of harassing people over the franchise so please remain chill or move on to a different post, please.

Now, Hogwarts Legacy as a game is... mid at best. It's average and does well occupying your time. Majority of the trophies were collection based which my 1990s neuron activated on. What can I say? Everyone who played games in the 90s were hooked on collectathons like Banjo Kazooie, Sly Cooper, and Kirby.

Unless you enjoy obsessively collecting everything and the kitchen sink, you're probably not going to enjoy the game much less going for the platinum trophy.

Really, this is a game made for a very specific target audience and it's a target audience I'm a part of. That being fans of the Harry Potter books and movies. Mostly movies.

See, back in the era where everyone got along because politics was boring old people sitting around smelling their own farts (little changed since then) and no one wanted to get into that bull. Kids to teenagers enjoyed a magical series of stories adapted to the silver screen. And it was in this era collectathon platformers were king of the game industry... until Halo happened.

I think Portkey games figured out what people who enjoyed Harry Potter would have played when JK actually kept her fat mouth shut.

Collectathons! Where the player goes out to gather a set number of items for an award. Which is why a large portion of the trophies are "collect all the _____"

There must've been good foresight at Portkey because the Revelio spell saved me a lot of time gathering all of the stuff. From spells to chests to flying pieces of paper. I had a lot of fun exploring the castle and area outside. But I absolutely recognize not many people will enjoy that.

Exploring the castle and grounds is something the target audience (aka Wizarding World fans) really wanted most out of the game. We wanted to be immersed in the world and point to the screen like Leo whenever we notice a reference to the movies or books. We actively log in to pottermore to get our house colors and shiny new wand with glee. Completely ignorant of the world outside the fantasy. Be honest, you don't want to deal with the crisis the last few years have been. Portkey tailored the game to be our escape for just the few hours we needed.

Adding more to that. We also wanted to see all the Hogwarts houses on the inside... except Griffindore. Gryffindoor sucks.

Personally, the Ravenclaw dorm room was everything I ever wanted. The blue and bronze mixed with marble pillars and statues made me happy. It gave me a few decorating ideas for my own room!

The other houses had to be seen... except Gryffendorm. I was extremely reluctant to go in Gryfindorm. And incentive was given in the form of four separate trophies for each Hogwarts house.

You see, there's one quest that changes for each house. Ravenclaw gets an owl puzzle. I very much enjoyed it, Slytherin feeds toast to a kraken mosaic. Hufflepuff gets sent to Azkaban. and the last one parties with a bunch of ghosts. Three of them were quite enjoyable but my enjoyment came from walking around the other dorms.

While walking around Slytherin's aquatic scenery and Hufflepuff's cozy cottage were delights, I still preferred Ravenclaw's sky view tower with starry ceilings. I'm a true blue Ravenclaw.

Even though I loved exploring the castle and everything, it was quite painful to collect every single item for the collector trophy.

I had finished all side quests, all revelio pages, even the trials and demiguise statues! Yet I was still missing a single collection chest. Really did not help the map showed all chests had been found. The butterfly chests are hidden from the map. So I ended up wiping the entire map clean and tripled check back and forth only to discover that the single chest I was missing was in the back of the swamp terrarium in the Room of Requirement.

That was the biggest frustration out of the entire game. Not a bad trade off for all the fun I had. However, not many people will feel the same. Particularly if they were never invested in the Wizarding World.

Hogwarts Legacy is definitely a great game for a specific target audience. For everyone else, it's an easy passable mild distraction. Whoever wanted to play this game already got it. Despite the hell storm that followed it.

Portkey games did a fantastic job with a hot button title but it's only good if you actually want it. If you're no fan of collectathons, Wizarding World, or wondering around for hours then do yourself a favor and avoid this game. If you do like those three things then go ahead! Just try to be patient if you're going to go for platinum.

#hogwarts legacy #wizarding world #portkey games #platinum #trophy #platinum trophy #opinion not a review

4 notes · View notes

gambit-blogs · 6 months

Text

This just dropped 😯😯😯

But I definitely think this is the last book of the series.

Because the first book is The Inheritance Games

Games as in plural meaning the series continues and the next book is The Grandest Game

Singular meaning the one last book

Totally going to be sad when this series is over but at least us team Grayson girls get more content. Looking forward to his happy ending.🫶🏻

28 notes · View notes

darth-boob · 11 months

Text

ANOTHA ONE ANOTHA ONE

youtube

I did a tier list video oh no

#funny #youtube #youtuber #review #small youtuber #video games #harry potter hogwarts game #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry #sebastian sallow #poppy sweeting #ominus gaunt #anne sallow #natsai onai #harry potter

3 notes · View notes

goingrampant · 11 months

Text

youtube

I reviewed the plot of Hogwarts Legacy (not a gameplay review) through a feminist lens. To some extent, it panders to progressives but also caters to toxic reactionaries in the gaming community. I discuss its key features of ethnic diversity, disability representation, flawed trans representation, and rampant antisemitism that appears to nod to far-right memes demonizing Anita Sarkeesian.

#hogwarts legacy #harry potter #feminism #anita sarkeesian #disability representation #trans representation #antisemitism #game review #video review #queue and i are one forever #Youtube

2 notes · View notes

hardcoregamer · 1 year

Text

Review: Hogwarts Legacy

Avalanche Software had a mighty challenge when it came to adapting the Wizarding World into a game. Unshackled from the books and films, the studio needed to craft a compelling story, engaging combat and recapture the magic that captured people’s attention in the first place. For the most part, the studio has succeeded with Hogwarts Legacy.

Read more!

#review #game review #hogwarts legacy #good games

3 notes · View notes

kvicka · 1 year

Text

Hogwarts Legacy - game review

I don’t have this one in my Steam library, so I cannot review there. But I want to get my disappointment with killed potential out. Therefore I decided to post one very long review on my Tumblr.

(Doing my best to write this without any spoiler. Also I am not taking in account anything regarding the author of this universe)

Hogwarts legacy is „not bad“ game but I am not sure if it’s really worth the money they want for it. It could have been great game. There is clearly huge potential but I suspect there were few (revenue-driven) decisions to make this accessible to as many people as possible, that killed this potential thoroughly and it makes me angry, seeing how great it could be otherwise.

What are the main issues? The game pretends to be RPG but you will soon find out that your choices have no impact on anything beyond next sentence. The world doesn’t react to you at all. Characters are just unresponsive scripted background unless they are enemy, vendor or you have a mission with them. That means you can also walk whenever you want, no matter how much restricted it is.

I still managed to play through the game. Took me about week and half. I see the appeal and the potential, but it honestly makes me that much angrier for the decisions that were made to bastardise this. After you finish with the main story, you will find out there is zero reasons to replay again.

But because nothing can stop me roleplaying in my head even if the game is not helping, I am also going to publish one more post full of spoilers explaining my character story.

So let’s look into this in detail and as I like to do, start with positives:

Graphic is nice and the music is nice.

The world is nice or at least at first glance. You get big open word plus Hogwarts castle to explore and at first you will feel really charmed. Your fellow students (during day) got some scripted situations that will run, which makes very nice background and gives you the feeling the Hogwarts are really alive. (Some involving ghosts, some howler from angry parent or just some study-troubles).

You can create customized character and give them their own name, that the game will use in subtitles. Through the game you can even adjust some parts of your look (hair, details on face etc.). You have lot of freedom in outfits (equipment) to the extent where you can give the equipment totally different appearance. I was for example regularly updating to equipment with best stats, but in the end my character was wearing almost the same outfit whole game because I just changed the appearance of it.

The story and side stories (with your friends) maybe not mind-blowing but still good. They are simple (in sense that you will not get 12 plot-twists and you can predict where it is leading) but they are not boring. Side quests are sometimes questionable (like sending student to forbidden forest to investigate?? Really lady??…I am underaged student…) but at least they do not feel repetitive.

If you are fan of the universe with deep knowledge of it, you will probably enjoy the references. I personally liked the “follow the butterflies”.

Combat: Because you can combine whatever spells you have learned, in addition to throwing objects or disarmed weapons on the opponent and with ancient magic ability in the mix, every fight can be completely unique.

Yes, the room of requirement that you can “furnish” and the vivarium’s with magical beasts are quite “magical”, I have to admit that. When you get them, it’s very exciting. So is, ridding Hippogryph, at least the first time or other similar things when you get to them in the story.

Now to the ISSUES and in my opinion what made from could-be-great game the not-bad game:

YOUR CHOICES DOESN’T MATTER AT ALL. This is the biggest issue especially as the game tries to look as RPG game. It gives you choices but (beside ending choices) they do not go beyond next sentence or two. The “behaviour” of your character is heavily scripted, which doesn’t have to be bad thing if the game doesn’t pretend you have the choice. And maybe they originally intended for the choices to impact something but they removed it from the game so some poor lazy player would not f**k-up something by wrong choice and cry about it. Or something like that I imagine happened. It gets even worse in some part where the script just reverts your choice completely. Like you decide to keep secret but the game will make your character spill by next opportunity without any good reason to do so…..

THE WORLD DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOU OR REACT TO YOUR ACTIONS. At first you think how beautiful the world is. How the Hogwarts feel alive as some scripted actions run in background when you access the corridor etc. To give them credit some characters have scripted commenting on something you did in the story so far, so you can be fooled at the beginning. It is nice background. And then you find out that these are actually not characters (NPCs) but really just background. Background that doesn’t react to anything you do unless you are in specific quest that triggers that (there are exactly 2 through whole game….). Meaning nobody cares if you wander into restricted section. Nobody cares that you wander the school at night (plus at night all students will disappear….but to where stays the ultimate mystery because dormitories are always and forever empty). Nobody cares that you wander forbidden forest. Nobody cares that you break-into houses. Not even the family that sits on sofa and watches you while you loot their treasure chest. Nor the professor which cabinet you are looting and ruining with blasting spell. Hell, if you get attacked by enemy close to these characters, they do not care. First time I went on some quest outside a castle, I was quite worried if it’s safe to wander the forest. And then I saw some guy on the rode walking in front of me. So, I though, ok, it will be safe… Then big spider attacked me and the guy just glitched through the spider and continued walking while it tried to eat me….. I can understand if the developers do not want the NPCs to engage in player fights but they could at least make them run……. But what is even worse, is that the same applies to the side characters that should be your friends. You have no chance to interact with your “friends” outside the quests. You cannot even talk to them after class. It’s ridiculous. And this could be fixed by simple stupid 2 or 3 generic dialogues that could be given to them. Like “hey, any news on blablabla?” with answer like “hey, sorry. Nothing yet. I will let you know by owl, once I find something new”….. Or “hey, really thanks for last time…….” even with answer like “let’s not talk about this here” or some s**t like that… would make you feel less angry with the whole game. I honestly had HUGE problem with this, because with some “friends”, I had this issue where I was not perceiving them as friend at all and seeing zero fucking reason why I should spill my secrets to them (yes, I talk about you Natty…)

The fact that you can just go anywhere (outside the two mentioned missions) where you can get at that point in game (restriction is basically only learning Alohomora levels) and you don’t need to try and sneak or be careful that you will get caught or reported, that takes lot of fun out of the game

Combat doesn’t have any mechanic for lethal or non-lethal approach. Neither it will anyhow recognize if you were or were not seen. No matter if you use Avada Kedavra or “Petrificus Totalus” on unaware enemy, the result is the same. They turn to dust. Then there is question why to use the stealth approach at all. Honestly it is only useful, if you want to take them down one by one and not fight all at once. I personally prefer to change one of them into explosive barrel and throw him in the face of their friend. That is at least fun.

Open world yes…..but the content it was filled with, beside the story and quests, is very repetitive and often not rewarding sufficiently. From my point of view, I did the things like Merlin trials only up to the point where I was getting at least some benefits from them ( like inventory space) and then I stopped. Because what is really the point of doing them anymore? The treasure vaults are just jokes…there is not even anything valuable in them. You will find just some random equipment (very often not even good one) – and I am not kidding. Killed enemies often drop better things then you can get from treasure chests.

I don’t honestly even see the motivation to keep exploring the word after the main story and side quests are done as whatever is left it is extremely repetitive and unless you are really enjoy brushing your unicorn mane for another 16 or 30 hours, there is nothing more to do after you finish main and side stories.

No point to replay the game. Especially due to fact that your choices don’t matter you will very quickly find out there is no fun in replaying. You cannot really make the character come out much different than the first play. Not even by picking different house. Beside one main story quest that differs based on the house you picked, it will be the exact same script.

Last point I wanted to mention. But first let’s get this absolutely clear!, I am not complaining in this part about any queer characters, disability characters or other nationalities being included in the game. I am not racist, and I am myself part of LGBTQ+. I am just trying to point out that these topics should not be just check-boxes on developers or marketers list. Because then it comes out unnatural as in this case. I understand that this is sensitive topic in current world, but I still think it could have been handled with more delicate approach, then just: “Disability – check, gay – check, trans – check, now throw random mix of nationalities in without any care for location or time period - check. Great and now nobody can complain that we are not inclusive.” I don’t think this is how this shoudl be done.

Reasons behind the bad decisions that killed the game?

This is just my speculation, but I strongly believe that future-revenue-based-decisions were made here. Because they wanted to aim for as much audience as possible. For example the casual players that don’t actually care much about any story. Unfortunately, my suspicion was further strengthened when I stumbled upon one ridiculous post on Reddit, where the user complained that he missed learning one spell because “they are just clicking through all dialogues as quickly as possible to get through and by that selected the answer, where you will not learn the spell”…. well WHY THE HELL DO YOU PLAY DIALOGUE-HEAVY RPG GAME IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO LISTEN TO THESE. The answer is easy. Because the game allows for that. You don’t have to read/listen to the dialogues or even to what you are actually selecting to answer. You cannot spoil anything with your choices and it will have no impact on anything whatsoever. Even in this example case, you can learn the spell straight after the mission anyway. So no matter what you click it will not impact the game or your character or anything. (There are about 2 exceptions. Ending decision for main story. And kinda “ending” decision for one of the side stories. But even with these, they do not affect actually the word after anyway. You will just get different cut-scene let’s say…

I can admit this can be really charming, but it still doesn’t make the game worth 60€ ...

#hogwarts legacy #game review #hogwarts legacy game #fandom

4 notes · View notes