Maybe a Bit of a Pessimistic Take on Hogwarts Legacy
I was bitterly disappointed when I turned thirteen and didn’t receive my admission letter to Hogwarts. Instead, I had to attend regular school and do maths and science and heaps of boring stuff like that. So the idea of an open world RPG set in the wizarding world of Harry Potter fascinated me. Although my Harry Potter fanboy days have since died out; the thought of this game really did bring me back to the times when I would daydream about riding around on a broomstick playing quidditch; or practising my patronus charm. This was a game where I could journey through Hogwarts, honing my magic skills, exploring the wizarding world, forging a path that was entirely my own; and leaving my mark on the Harry Potter universe. My Hogwarts admission letter had finally arrived. Or so I thought.
I went out and bought this game pretty much straight away. Not quite day one, but within the first week. I’d been following this game since the early leak, and as things moved along in its development, and more and more information was revealed to us about the game, I was overwhelmed with excitement and anticipation. I think though, if there was one thing that ruined the game for me, it was this: expectations. And I’m not saying it was a bad game, all I’m saying is there was much less to this game than I’d always thought there would be. But I’ll get into that.
From the early trailers of this game, all the way up to its release, this game was made out to be massive. Incredibly vast and dense. One developer claimed that there were over a thousand people working on this game all over the world – and that they were essentially working on it twenty-four seven (the video has since been taken down, but I’ll leave links to the videos that explained it and the reddit post where the video was originally premiered). Other trailers teased the idea of playing out your adventure through your choices, either choosing a darker path, a well-meaning heroic path or maybe somewhere in between (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O6Qstncpnc&t=27s). They used phrases like “the choices you make now will define the legacy of Hogwarts.”
But what we got was far less than that. In fact much of the story seems to be quite linear with maybe a few slight deviations in quest and dialogue. In terms of hidden abilities, valuable treasure, legendary items and learnt skills, well… there really isn’t much. I don’t mean there’s nothing to discover – there are collectables strewn throughout the world, but in terms of items that ultimately change the way the game is played; everything is revealed to us pretty early on, the spells, the crafting materials, the potions and even all of the skills you can possibly acquire in the game (it doesn’t take too long to unlock them either). The side quests are nice, but most of them are ingrained into the story, and those that you do encounter by wandering off the beaten path don’t offer much of a reward, well not enough to incentivise you to complete them. All of this sounds very pessimistic. But it isn’t a bad game overall, it actually is quite enjoyable; and I found myself having fun with it. The battle system is great, the graphics are phenomenal, and the spellcasting mechanics really did make me feel like a wizard. I just thought this game would stand alongside games like Skyrim, The Witcher and even Elden Ring: again, the problem was expectations.
The World
When the developers said that they’d been working on this game around the clock, it’s really not hard to see what they meant. The world itself is impressive. There are NPCs walking around everywhere, portraits that speak, statues that move, buildings that you can almost always walk into. I saw two students get thrown out of Zonko’s joke shop for shoplifting, I found a dragon statue made out of leaves that breathed out flower petals if you shot it with a spell, and a suit of armour that got into a fight with another suit of armour (seemingly quite randomly too). These among many of hundreds of other things that made the world beautiful and immersive. The problem with all this was that it didn’t really contribute to any of the gameplay elements; it was all just nice to look at. Sure, you can walk into almost every building in the game, but there isn’t much to see in them unless you want to look through all the chests in their bedrooms and then you kind of feel bad about robbing them. Even then though, the chests will really only give you clothes and cosmetic decorations. Nothing that will alter the gameplay. Overall, the world was grand, but it was really only aesthetically pleasing. After all, the hedge dragons that you find are just pretty, sure you can drink tea, but it doesn’t really give you any buffs. Skimming rocks across the lake is cool the first two or three times you do it, but it gets really boring after that. You can find centaurs in the forbidden forest; but you can’t interact with them and they don’t really do anything. Wand handles do nothing. Your wand specifications (core, wood and length) do nothing. Your choices do nothing. Your house has only a minimal effect on the game and you’ll barely ever be in the common rooms.
Instead of putting so much effort into these intricate details of the world, I just wish that the developers had directed more effort into things that might change the way you play the game. A morality system for example would not only have been welcome, but extremely fitting for the game, especially with the dialogue choices that are available. There are a lot of cool potions they could have added, such as Polyjuice potion and Veritasyrim (just to name a few). I imagined a scene where you get caught by another student doing the wrong thing, and have the morality choices between obliviating them, talking your way out of the situation or just admitting you were wrong and apologising. I expected to be able to find hidden questlines that would reward me with cool spells; use my Patronus charm against dementors and put in the long grinding hours that it would probably take to become an Animagus. I thought that maybe I could lead a guild; make friends and convince them to come on quests with me. Terrorise or befriend dark magic users. Find the legendary invisibility cloak, elder wand and resurrection stone. And obviously I expected quidditch to be a playable game.
Combat
The combat system is quite basic, but really fun and it actually works really well. You have a basic spell, a red shot that you can use as much as you want. Then you’ll have rechargeable spells. These are the classic spells, like expelliarmus, incendio, confringo ect; basically all the spells you know and love. These spells usually take around 5 – 10 seconds to recharge (depending on the power of the spell), with avada kedavra taking somewhere close to a minute. Although you’ll only have quick access to about four spells at a time, your quickselect menu is really easy to customise and if you know what enemies you’re going to face, you can change the spells around to suit that battle and change them back in seconds. I found myself doing this on multiple occasions.
Controls and quality of life
The controls work really well. When I first started playing I was a little disappointed to find out that you can’t zoom in and out on your character to adjust how far back the camera is. I thought this was going to be a problem; especially when I first started playing it – but it turned out that it actually wasn’t a problem. I got used to it pretty quickly. There are many controls, and you’ll get buttons confused at first, but it won’t take you long to get used to it and soon everything will feel completely natural. From rolling, to jumping, to casting spells both and out of combat.
Story
The story is pretty good. It is quite generic. Heroes, villains. Fight for justice. But it does have some twists and turns and at times I found that I really got into it. You’ll make friends, go on adventures with different characters and obviously set out to accomplish a series of tasks, missions and side quests that lead you towards your goal of ridding the land of evil. The story is quite hard to talk about without spoiling, but I’ll do my best. You’re a student who’s starting at Hogwarts as a fifth-year students. There isn’t really an explanation as to why you’re starting school so late; this could be seen as a flaw – but I used to as an opportunity for creativity and developed my own backstory (in my head ofcourse). For me, I pretended that I was seemingly a squib, and my magical powers took much longer than usual to reveal themselves. You can invent your own backstory though – maybe you transferred in from another school.
You also have an innate gift, the ability to sense and use an ancient form of magic. Early on it will be revealed that there have been goblin rebellions going on around London; and in the very first cutscenes you’ll meet Ragnarok, the main villain, a goblin that has extraordinary and unexplainable magical abilities. Even your gifted professors can’t best him. But the reason for this is… I can’t say. You’ll just have to play the game and find out.
To Finish Off
Well, this has probably been one of the longest reviews I’ve ever written. To wrap this up; I think this could be a solid foundation for future games. They have a vast and detailed world developed, if they could add some depth to the combat, items and side quests I think this has the potential to be a game that unlike any other, a game vast and dense that will bring plunge the player into the depths of the wizarding world. I look forward to what this studio has to offer players in the future.
Bye for now.
The Everyday Writer.
Video explaining development of Hogwarts legacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1tz7Do1ijY
Subreddit video was posted on: https://www.reddit.com/r/HarryPotterGame/comments/ngut81/an_interview_with_a_current_game_designer_for/
