Topic: Hogwarts Legacy

@Bentleyma I saw that you compared the open world to those in "TW3" and "RDR2" - high praise indeed considering I regard those as two of the best I've ever seen. Having to wait until tomorrow is a royal pain as I purposely set aside today to play the bloody thing - turns out the dispatch/shipment updates were in my spam folder for whatever reason. Very annoying.

Need help on my tv/ps5. I have a roku tcl 55r625. It has been enabled for vrr as has my ps5. Max is 60z on the tv. I'm trying to get Hogwarts to show balanced option for graphics mode, but I currently only see 3 options; fidelity, fidelity raytracing, and performance. Any ideas?

Wow, I wasn’t expecting all these personalization and accessibility options. It’s a bit overwhelming. It took me an hour to arrange all my settings and then do the character creator. 😅

Anyone else have the issue of not receiving their cosmetic award for completing challenges? I have received most of them but a few I claimed late, but they never showed up. I also had my first game freeze. Hopefully this doesn't continue.

Edit: figured it out via reddit. It's a cosmetic item and can be changed by hovering over the item slot and "push square".

For what it's worth, I've just blitzed an entire controller charge in a single sitting for the first time since "Elden Ring". It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but the devs have done a really good job here - they deserve a pat on the back.

@LN78 Very recognisable. Usually i play 2 to 3 games at the same time, but this weekend 90% of my gaming time i spent on Hogwarts Legacy. I only did 2 hours of my replay of Yakuza 6, but the rest of weekend i was running around in Hogwarts. It's clearly visible these developers put a lot of hard work and their passion into this game. The world feels very alive. The RPG setting fits the school setting as well. By attending classes and doing assigments you're unlocking spells, so it feels real. It really makes me feel like I'm the main character myself, instead of just playing as him.
I already played around 25 hours since tuesday and can tell this one is going to end high on my game of the year list. And i am almost certain that this will be on my replay games list as well.

@Lavalera Yeah. It'll be a real shame if the dev's achievements end up getting sidelined because of the controversy surrounding the game. At the end of the day, they had a job of work to do and they've delivered something far, far better than I was expecting. I mean compare it to something like "Gotham Knights' and the contrasting standards are pretty starkly apparent.

I’ve enjoyed the small amount of the game that I’ve played so far. Between life commitments and the blasted SuperBowl, I didn’t get as much time in as i wanted, but I can definitely feel the draw of the game to keep playing. It’s got the familiar open world, checklist marking, “just one more quest” type of setup that fans of the genre will appreciate.

It’s funny because I have seen that several more “casual” gamers have been playing this because of the allure of the HP franchise, and some have expressed that the combat is quite difficult. So far it’s been straightforward for me, barely taking damage during the fights since the protego and stupify defense spells are fairly OP. I’m early in the game though so perhaps things get tough later on.

The game is quite complex too, with all the different kinds of side activities and the large map. I suspect this will be a very engrossing 60-80 hour jaunt for me and really scratch that open-world itch. It probably means that I’ll have to delay Horizon Forbidden West, Witcher 3, and a few others on my list because I don’t want to get fatigued on the open world genre, and we have Spider-Man 2 later this year. Spoilt for choice, indeed.

@LN78 Yeah that's why I'm happy to see the sales figures. Despite the controversy it still sold very well. I think it might even end up being the best sold game of the year. I think the biggest difference compared to Gotham Knights is, Hogwarts feels like a game they knew from the start what they wanted to do. Gotham Knights feels like they switched between a live service and a single player game back and forth and ending up with a mess of a game.

@Th3solution I'm generally a player who plays on easy mode and strays away from Fromsoft games, but i don't think the combat in Hogwarts is very difficult. I play it on normal and the indicators when you're about to get hit really help. With those indicators i can see when i need to dodge or press protego (i prefer dodging, somehow i get the timing on that better). The arsenal of spells they give you is very diverse. Only thing I'm really missing is an AOE spell, with a large group of enemies it can get a bit hectic to keep track on all enemies.

So I'm trying to play this without a minimap, but the castle is just a maze. Maybe one day I'll get it, but I just keep getting lost. It's also annoying when quests expect you to meet a certain character, but then when you go to said character, the quest doesn't start, because you were expected to meet up with said character in a random location that isn't mentioned in the quest description. That's bad game design.

Also slightly disappointed that you can't go underwater, especially after one quest had me to retrieve something from the bottom of the great lake. I got me all excited, thinking of all the ways I could reach it (gillyweed, bubble spell?), then I learned I merely had to interact with bubbles on the water's surface.

In terms of world design and effects it's perfect. Characters look a little too cartoon-y sometimes. Story is not bad so far. I'm only a little disappointed that the devs prioritised stuff like the Sims build-a-home in the room of requirements over integral gameplay mechanics like swimming underwater.

Also, most of the "secret" passages in the castle are of the push-a-button-and-teleport type. I wish it were actual passageways.

I'd say a good 7/10.

@Octane Although I usually don’t forego using a game’s mini-map when it has one, I do often try to avoid using the ‘magical highlighted trail’ that games sometimes have as an option to follow to the next point of interest, but in this game I’m just spamming that pixie dust breadcrumb trail to run through Hogwarts because of the complex layout. It does take some of the fun away from naturally exploring to chart your path, but so far it is a godsend for me. It also makes a lot more narrative sense in this game where magic is the core concept, versus other games where the arrows and trials to get you around are more obviously a sheer gameplay mechanic included to avoid the frustration of navigating the game world.

@Th3solution Yeah, I use it as a last resort. The castle is definitely based on the one in the films. But I don't think a layout was ever realised. The outside could be seen in the films, and individual locations, but the devs had to come up with ways to connect them within the castle template. I do wonder if the layout they created is the most logical one considering the limitations, but sometimes I feel like it could've been more intuitive.

@Octane Isn't one of the quirks of Hogwarts Caste that the layout (staircases and corridors etc) are constantly shifting? That's why I haven't turned the mini-map off - and I typically detest any and all HUD elements!

@LN78 I guess, but the game doesn't really do that. The grand stairway has shifting staircases, but they always appear in the same spot. I'm kinda glad they don't move like in the films lol.