What I did find highly disappointing was the character creator. As someone who has long waited for a game of this nature, I was expecting it to be extremely robust and detailed, something like the character creator in Fallout 4, but what the game does have is something more in line with Cyberpunk 2077. It isn’t bad by any stretch of the word, allowing you to customize your hair, face shape, eyes, and more but the addition of sliders to really fine-tune your preferences would have been a much-welcome addition. In saying that however, I was able to get my character to look how I wanted him to but it could have been much better.

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The Characters are the Real Standouts

The reason why Hogwarts Legacy works so well is because of the game’s cast of well-rounded and diverse characters that carry it through. Each character you meet, whether that’s in the main quest line or the side quests has their own unique voice, problems, and motivations, what really stood out to me was the fact that characters weren’t as one-dimensional as some characters in Harry Potter tended to be, often times house assignment would devoid certain characters of more robust traits and would assign them to a set personality type, with most villains being from Slytherin and most protagonists originating from Gryffindor, and while some characters do exhibit the archetypal house behavior (as one would expect) it isn’t nearly as black and white as it was in the books/movies.

Sebastian Swallow, who I thought would be the resident antagonistic Slytherin ended up being the character I sympathized with the most, while he does lead you down a rather dark questline (which I won’t spoil here) it’s his motivation to help his sister recover from a curse that really shines through. Natsai “Natty” Onai is another character that I instantly developed a strong bond with, her insight into the world meant that I always stopped and completed all optional dialogues with her, while Poppy Sweeting’s love for animals is something I found incredibly heartwarming. Completing character side quests is something I cannot recommend enough because it’s these stories that will net you the most memorable moments in the game.

Hogwarts Legacy is the Perfect Hogwarts Experience

Hogwarts Legacy does a good job of making you feel like a Hogwarts student by having you attend classes, complete class assignments, and by having you converse with your teachers and classmates. It isn’t a school simulator mind you and I think this was necessary because employing the very strict school rules (as they were seen in the movies and books) would have made the overall experience a bit too tedious. You can enter and exit the castle as you please. Making a trip down to Hogsmeade in the middle of the night to purchase a new article of clothing or to get fertilizers for your plants feels wrong but the alternative would have been rather unenjoyable. The game doesn’t need to replicate the Hogwarts experience to a T in order to make it fun and exciting it just needs to throw in enough activities that make it so.

Attending classes not only grants you new spells but also pushes the story forward and it’s in these classes you get to meet your wonderfully diverse and eclectic professors, whether that’s the brooding and mysterious Professor Sharp or the calming yet excitable Professor Garlick. It’s these professors that assign you class assignments that you can complete to unlock additional spells. While assignments aren’t mandatory, they’re absolutely worth it if you want to get the most out of the game as some story quests and some side quests require you to have a specific spell unlocked. The game also constantly throws you into situations where you have to make use of these spells whether that’s to sneak around a restricted area, unlock chests, complete puzzles, or unlock locked doors.

The Room of Requirement Acts as a Quick Respite From The Frantic World

Perhaps the biggest and most pleasant surprise about the entire game was the inclusion of the Room of Requirement, which is a space that transforms according to the needs of an individual. The room serves as your home base once you unlock it, complete with your very own house elf, Deek. The Room of Requirement employs a Sims-like customization system allowing you to place down furniture and decorations (all with different shapes, sizes, and colors) letting you truly turn the space into your own. It also allows you to place potions and herbology stations which can be used to craft potions and plants to aid you in combat.

I often found myself going back to the room, not only to collect my prepared plants and potions but also to customize them whenever I unlocked a new piece of décor. The Room of Requirement definitely works well as a distraction from the often times frantic world of the game, almost acting as a sort of respite after long stretches of questing and dueling, by allowing you to break off into the rather mundane yet equally as enjoyable task of creating the perfect home base.

Hogwarts is a Living, Breathing Character Unto Itself

Hogwarts and its surrounding areas are full of fun little activities to keep you occupied. Exploring the castle and discovering all the little Easter eggs and areas (including hidden passages) mentioned in the books, as a longtime Harry Potter fan was extremely gratifying. I found the attention to detail to be very intricate and meticulous. The inclusion of little details that did not translate over to the movies are also present and long-time fans will be sure to pick up on them. Hogwarts is a living breathing character unto itself with talking portraits adorning the walls, students huddled outside classes, and random events breaking out every now and then, there is never a dull moment when you’re in the castle, and when you’re outside of it too.

The game map is huge, Incorporating the castle, Hogsmeade, the forbidden forest, the Hogsmeade train station, and several little wizard hamlets each teaming with colorful NPCs, shops, and activities to do. The team managed to capture the essence and nature of the wizarding world extremely well and given this was their first attempt at creating something like this I was pleasantly surprised. This is all further accentuated by an incredible score that captures the tone and mystery of the world and the story. Catching fantastic beasts, clearing out enemy hoards, and exploring caves and old ruins are just some of the activities you can expect to encounter as you journey across the world.

The Open World is Livley With Tonnes to do

In my time with the game, there wasn’t a dull moment and I found myself constantly wanting to explore the world. A standout activity for me (apart from combat) was solving merlin trials which are intricate little puzzles littered throughout the world that grant you additional gear slots. They’re fairly simple in their setup but can be challenging in certain situations. The best thing about the open world however is the fact that nothing feels inconsequential. Every activity you complete progresses a challenges tab which once you complete a set number of certain activities nets you gear modifications, cosmetics, and more. Often times games fall into a pit of meaningless side content that nets you no overall benefit and having the incentive to complete these activities in addition to them being very enjoyable makes Hogwarts Legacy’s open world feel fresh, fun, and inventive (in addition to being magical!)

The game also has a fairly robust gear system in place, allowing you to switch out pretty much every part of your look and with a proper transmog system already in place at launch it just makes collecting cosmetics and appearances that much more rewarding! Each gear has its own standard stats that you can enhance or increase by upgrading them or by applying gear modifications, although the frequency at which you level up and pick up new gear is rather quick which meant that I only started making use of this once I was in the end game, it almost felt kind of redundant to apply a gear modification only to pick up another piece that was better than what I currently had equipped.

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The Combat is Exhilarating, Frantic, and Fun

As someone who always admired how the Harry Potter movies incorporated the tension of a well-written action sequence with the almost ballerina-like wand whipping and swishing (particularly in the latter four movies), the game does extremely well to contextualize that feeling within the confines of a video game. The combat is exhilarating, frantic, deep, and extremely fun. There is a definite learning curve involved here but one that is not too hard to master, the staggered rate at which you earn your spells definitely helps with you getting used to the combat system. The combat spells are broken into three categories, namely, damage (denoted with red color) control (yellow), and force (purple).

Instead of firing off one spell after another, the game encourages you to engage in stylistic and long-drawn-out combos using a number of spells. For example, you can pull several enemies towards you using the Accio spell and then set them all ablaze with the Incendio spell. Additionally, you can freeze enemies with the Glacius spell and then lay down large amounts of damage with the Difindo spell. The combo potential is insane, to say the least, and it only increases the more spells you unlock. Once you unlock talents (skill points used to enhance your spells and magic) the combo potential increases doubly so. Combat is accentuated by your character’s use of Ancient Magic. Once you charge up your Ancient Magic meter you can inflict a large damage move which can be handy in hairy situations.

The Combat Keeps You on Your Toes Throughout the Course of the Game

The game does a good job of keeping you on your toes during combat as well. As you progress through the game you start going up against more difficult enemies. Some enemies shield themselves and you have to break them down using a certain spell type (enemies with purple shields for example can only have their defense broken with a force spell, while red-shielded enemies require you to cast a damage spell) Some enemies, like the Inferi require you to first lay down a fire spell before you can even start to inflict damage on them.

This definitely kept me on my feet during most of the game. there were rarely any moments where I felt like I could cheese my way out of a combat scenario, instead a close methodical understanding of my enemies, how they work and their weaknesses were essential to my victory. In many ways, the combat of Hogwarts Legacy feels like its best asset. Between the arenas and the several enemies you encounter on your journeys, I could spend hours upon hours engaged in combat because it’s just that fun.

Verdict

Hogwarts Legacy conjures up a near-unparalleled wizarding world experience complete with a colorful cast of characters, a beautifully detailed open world, and riveting gameplay. The game pushes the Harry Potter universe into uncharted territories while retaining the heart and magic that has endured for over two decades.

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