I've been waiting for a game like this since I was 10 years old, and it was well worth the wait. Hogwarts Legacy is a fantastic game, that will appease both movie fans and book fans alike. It's a magical game with great characters, an engaging story and a stunning open world. There are some issues that I have with the game, which I will note below, but they do not take away from the enjoyment this game. This is still a game aimed at children, so if anyone is expecting some Elden Ring craziness, you will be disappointed.
The game starts with us getting our Hogwarts acceptance letter and the character creation, with a pretty interesting prologue soon-after. Right off the bat the game throws you in, and you then spend the next 1-2 hours figuring out the controls before you reach the good stuff. I spent more than 30+ hours just on the main story, plus the companion side quests, and barely scratched the surface of the open world.
But first, the bad stuff:
The biggest, major issue I had with the game is the controller hotkeys. I played this on Xbox, so I am not sure how this fares on the PC, but the right arrow on the depad brings up your spell selection screen. This was a very poor choice on the creators part, as you also use that same key to scroll through different ability profiles, when you hold down the right trigger. This caused several frustrating moments, especially when you are in some epic boss battle, and are taken out by the spell screen.... They should have changed it to the right bumper, since you only use that for one option, an option you barely use. That's it, thats the biggest issue I found with the game.
The minor/major issues I found is that your character, isn't your own. If you were expecting to have your own personal Harry Potter story, you will be disappointed here. The main character is mostly scripted, and you only control some of their dialogue. Also, on the character screen, you are asked if you are a witch or a wizard, but this means nothing, as you are always referred to as *They or *Them. This is rather annoying since they aren't taking into account that you are a witch or wizard but referring to you as binary. They may have done this to prevent some select minorities from complaining, but this is in the 18th century, those groups did not exist. But those moments are sparse and didn't affect the overall enjoyment. I was also disappointed you only got to choose from 2 voices, male and female in the English accent. Since Hogwarts takes place in the UK, we should have had options for a Scottish, Welsh and Irish accent. But like I said, this isn't your own personal character. Even you try to be a ruthless Slytherin, like myself, the character always acts nicely, and politely. No. I did not want this. I want to shape the personallity, to choose to be cruel. It takes away from the immersion, when you are being all kind and caring, then blasting people with the killing curse. So I just told myself, my character is just putting on a show, that he actually hates everyone. Apart from Sebastian, but more on that later.
Some of the characters have very stiff movments and facial animations. While the character models themselves are fantastic, often when in conversation, the mouth is the only thing that moves. This could be a bug. There are some bugs here and there, but the bugs are very, very minor and I had a perfectly smooth playthrough.
The main villain. The goblin central villian is very underwhelming. He only appears several times througthout the entire game, and only interacts with your character a few times. This is not very compelling for the main threat to the school and wizardkind. I was expecting way more. While the scenes he appears in are pretty good, they never leave any kind of impact.
Lastly, the loot. Oh God the loot. What happened? You could be in an ancient tomb, filled with spiders and all sorts, fight your way through mobs, solve puzzles and what do you get...... clothing. Really, no joke, clothing. You telling me I fough a troll to the death for gloves?! There should have been so much more than that.
Now for the good stuff.
The puzzles are very well done, as well as exploration. The puzzles aren't irritating to solve, thankfully, since I hate puzzles in video games.
The flying controls are great, as well as other creature controls (no spoiler).
Graphically, this game is breathtaking. Wow. As someone who lives in Scotland, they nailed the look of the highlands. The open world, everything looks remarkable.
The music is also brilliant. It is so good, that if you told me it was composed by John Willians, I would have believed you. It is just perfect.
The story is also really, really good. The story is surprisingly long, longer than I was expecting. There are 4 total acts, and each act is roughly 10 hours long, if you decide to do the main side quests as well, which I would encourage everyone to do.
The characters. The big one. There are several central characters, and 4 companions. One of them, a Ravenclaw, is very underused and only comes with you on a few missions. The Hufflepuff and Griffindor companions are both great, and their missions are also very well done. But the highlight comes from the Slytherin companion (and my house). Sebastian is the best character in the game, and his side missions are some of the best in the entire game. They are fantastic, and often take away from the main story, because they are that good. I hope we see more of him in future installments.
I know this was a very long review, and I apologise, but this was a game 10 years in the making. While it has some problems, it was well worth it. It's one of the best games in years, with great characters, story and everything magical. If you see anyone getting bullied for playing this game (if you know why, you know), I encourage you to purchase and play this game. It is the perfect prequel to Harry Potter, the one we wanted. Can't wait for my second playthrough, to explore more of this world.
9.5/10.
