OT: Hogwarts Legacy

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OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by TCrouch »

Rather than continuing to clutter up the "what are you playing?" thread, figured the game might as well have its own thread...even if it's only me posting about it :lol:

After a few days with it, I think it's got one of the best representations of magic in an RPG that I've played. I've never been the type to play a mage character in an RPG--always a tanky warrior type. But the combat has such "punch" and the animations are so good that I'm REALLY digging it in HL. I've been playing a lot on PS5 and also PC, and the haptic triggers on PS5 add quite a bit. There's a 'soft stopper' about halfway down on the right trigger that's a normal cast (just throwing blaster bolts, basically), and the animations will chain BEAUTIFULLY from all sorts of angles. It's a little like a trick shooter in RDR or something. He'll fire from the hip, shoulder, spin around, go behind his back, underhanded. Sometimes forward, other times sideways or something as it's going to fire the direction the CAMERA is facing, not the CHARACTER. The more I play it, the more impressed I am with the game's ability to chain animations together as you're in hectic fights with things everywhere. It's quite beautiful to behold.

That being said, the world is just incredible. It's not Elden Ring-level massive, but it's big. It also doesn't open up for quite some time, and I've been literally plodding through every area, every room, every zone checking out every nook and cranny. And the absolute immersion looking around is quite the trick. It's not a Ubisoft Open World (TM) with icons absolutely everywhere. You can use your "pulse" spell, but for some stupid reason it's a lot less immersion breaking in a game about magic with a kid flicking a wand around to do it. You can see outlines of objects around you and you'll hear a "ping" when something is detected--but you won't know if it's above or below, so what it does is really make me LOOK around me, rather than just run to an icon. Old school exploration everywhere, and so many secrets to uncover. Lots of stuff are just "hidden" until you reveal them with your Revelio spell, and the way they tie it all together is pretty cool (not gonna comment on potential spoilers though).

Once you unlock enough spells, you can actually have different "banks" of configurations. So you can have a combat loadout, an exploration loadout, etc. Very cool to switch between them on the fly. Since that Revelio spell cancels your Lumos (your wand becomes a torch, basically), and Lumos takes a spell slot--basically it's relegated to my "exploration" loadout, with light, Repair, and other spells that I don't want taking up slots when I could have stuff to burn people up or throw them around.

And the combat...chaining spells, mixing them together. Lifting guys off the ground, hammering them with wand bolts, pulling them to you, hitting them some more, slamming them to the ground or throwing them against walls. Seeing objects in the arena that you can use to hit THEM with. It becomes a very Arkham-esque dance with a bunch of enemies. But they did something very cool--they put the "danger" tell over your head, and not over your target. So you have to have more awareness when fighting and not just staring down your target. You also have the ability to block with your "magical shield" at any time--but if you hold that button, you will release that energy in the direction you're looking as a sort of counter-attack stun. So this leads to blocking, aiming the camera where you want, stunning somebody to take them out of the fight...spinning it around, choosing another enemy, lifting them, going to the next, etc. It's actually quite a ballet of target switching and juggling to avoid just getting pummeled by spells non stop.

Once you get in a zone, you feel like you're super powerful--and then you get a new spell that makes you feel even MORESO. I dunno...I'm not into Harry Potter at all. Don't know a thing about it, couldn't tell you the first thing about the lore or the world. And it's got me completely hooked because the world is so immersive, and the combat is DAMNED good.

On PC, it has a bit of a stutter problem on my rig, but I'll accept that. I'm running it at 5120x1440 with ultra everything and ultra ray tracing and it stutters a little with a lot of reflections, but it looks so good it's not a big deal...and there's supposed to be a day 1 patch today.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by Diablo25 »

Sounds nice. The load out switching sounds like the stances in Ghosts of Tsushima. I am not a HP guy either. I never saw any of the films so when I hear people say the same thing and that they are sucked in it intrigues me. I have been thinking about pulling the trigger but I have a few other games I have been working on and this would add to the backlog. Plus Starfield is coming “soon”. I plan on diving into that as soon as it drops. Perhaps I will finish The Last of Us 2 and then make a decision. I have maybe 10 hours left in that game.
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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by Sudz »

Thanks for the review! I was a fan of the series so I'm interested in giving this one a go.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by sportdan30 »

Purchased the game this evening. Played about three hours and I had an absolute incredible experience. There is so much to discover and do. The game just seems so magical. I don’t think I’ve played a game that has grabbed me such as this in a long time. I cannot wait to spend more time with this.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by Sudz »

Picked it up. So far my 8 year old has been hogging it. I need to make my own save and play on my own!

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by RobVarak »

Appreciate the short summary, Terry.

I've sort of played it alongside my daughter so far, and only for about an hour or so. It is pretty slow to open up, for sure. But I'm excited to start my own game and get to the point where things open up. It's undeniably beautiful and immersive.
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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by TCrouch »

I spent almost all weekend in it non-stop, and it opens up so much more. Every time you think you've seen most of the game, they throw an entirely new system at you.

I got sick of not being able to open up locks, so I went on a full sweep everywhere just gathering the things to max out the unlock spell. Then got sick of running out of gear space, so went on another sweep doing nothing but trials to double my gear capacity.

After a week or so, I will reiterate the balance they have in combat is just incredible. It's less like an action RPG, and more like being a conductor in an orchestra. I know it's a strange analogy, but it is what it is. Maybe it's the waving wand.

But being able to selectively choose "OK I want you to levitate...now I want you to get thrown backwards. Next, pull this guy toward me---cast an AoE Incendio to burn them all up. Throw some objects at other guys. Disarm another, pull them closer, send them flying. Like, you have so many tools at your disposal, and the matching of spell type vs. shield color gives it a really balanced, thoughtful approach to what you want to do.

Add to that that you can full-on Assassin's Creed it...sneak into a camp, stealthily take down a guy (or multiple guys if you make that spell an AoE via Talent Points), clear an entire camp without anybody knowing you were there. Then if anything goes wrong, absolutely rain down hell on anything and everything in range.

Really looking forward to digging into this some more...couldn't play yesterday because of racing commitments, but it's pretty much the only game I play when I'm not in the race rig now.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by sportdan30 »

Loving this game more and more. It will likely end up being in my top 10 games of all time.

Terry, good to know there's some sort of "lock" spell. Maybe you can answer this question. I'm only about 5-6 hours in to the game. I believe I'm at level 6 or 7. I don't understand why I can't open doors that specifically state that it's a level 1 lock. Do I need that specific spell you referred to?

Also, I came upon a side quest that I have to attach two bells, but holy bleep, it's a frustrating struggle. I have the Levioso and Accio spell, but I assume I need Windgardium leviosa?

Is there any benefit to petting all the cats? :lol: I'm guessing not.

I'm trying to balance the side quests and the story, but perhaps I need to focus more on the story to acquire more skills and spells.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by TCrouch »

Yeah, here's my single biggest piece of advice--if you get stuck on a puzzle, move on and do story quests.

Almost EVERY puzzle I've run across that has been sort of a stumper has been explained by a later story quest (your lock question is, specifically). Some of the puzzles definitely require pretty precise control of your spells, but those are few and far between. In most cases, they're pretty lenient. But yeah...MOST of the time, that I've seen at least, the quest will not be available until you have the spell you need. But I'm not sure if side quests lock you out. I know the quest you're referring to, though...and your instincts are pretty good :wink:

I have sort of gone through different stages. Blast through story stuff, then rip through a bunch of tasks/side quests, go back and gather items that my spells unlocked...start working on the ...well, on second thought, could venture into spoiler territory so I won't say. There are so many systems in this game that it's mind-boggling, though.

I think I just barely hit level 30, so not like I'm at end game or anything. But when in doubt, do some story quests. I haven't had to look anything up on Google or a YT video, even. It's magnificent at explaining things through classes/school environments. Go figure!

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by AcemanPR »

The environment is so completely immersive for sure! I'm still relatively early in the game, as my wife wants to enjoy the experience with me since she is a Harry Potter fan. I agree about some of the quests, some of them unlock early where you don't have the necessary tools to complete it at that time. Continue on with the story and come back to those quests later. I'm having a great time with the game so far and I am only level 7.

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Re: OT: Hogwarts Legacy

Post by Lancer »

saw a lot of good reviews for this game. some say it's better than spiderman 2. I got this on ps5 before BF ended. will give it a try this week.

update - played about 30 min and so far i am really liking this game. I have never seen any of the harry potter movies or read any of the books. all i know is it was a school of magic. Thus far the fantasy aspect of the game is off the charts.

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