Ever since we read our first Harry Potter book or saw our first Harry Potter movie, we wanted to be a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We wanted to be part of the action and not just read about it or watch it on the big screen. How cool would it be if we can be a student and participate in classes or battle dark Lords? You can sort of play Quidditch even though you really can’t ride in the air on a broom, but let’s face it, it’s not as fun as the real thing. There have been Harry Potter games that have allowed us to play the story from the movies. From some of the earlier PlayStation 2 and Xbox games to Harry Potter Lego games. They’re fun in their own way. However, there has never been a video game with its own unique story where we could create our own character, be sorted into our own house, and play out the adventures of a student at Hogwarts until now. That’s what Hogwarts Legacy has given Harry Potter fans. If we’re being honest, it’s the best experience in the world of Harry Potter. While the stories of Harry Potter are good and they were fun to play through, this particular story is set 100 years before those events. We get to see Hogwarts in the 1890s. We get to experience the lore of Hogwarts before there was a Dark Lord who was trying to build a master race and kill “the boy who lived.: Of course, that’s a great story and to be able to play it was fun, but a unique story set within this world is even better and Hogwarts Legacy gives us that experience.
The story itself is very interesting, but it wouldn’t be a typical story in the wizarding world unless you dealt with evil wizards or dark Lords. There are evil wizards who are helping goblins with an uprising against the magical community and as you play the story, you find out their true motives. We won’t spoil the entire story because it’s fun to discover it on your own. As the player and the main protagonist, you start off as a 5th Year student at Hogwarts along with a mentor, Professor Fig. The story starts as you are on your way to Hogwarts and then suddenly your journey gets derailed as you discover an agent secret that will tear the Wizarding World apart. Your character can see and feel ancient Magic. The origins of this magic will become clearer as you play the game and its connection to the alliance between the Dark Lords in this story and the Goblin uprising as they both seek the use of this ancient Magic for their own sinister motives. While the main bad guys are goblins, they are sympathetic villains in their own way because you understand their motives since goblins have typically been mistreated within the Wizarding World for hundreds of years. Of course, not much has changed in Harry Potter’s story as evidenced by the character of Doby that gets introduced in the third book, the Prisoner of Azkaban. But essentially the evil wizards within this story want to use this ancient magic to control everything. The story might seem predictable but aren’t most fantasy stories dealing with ultimate powers and those who want to use it for themselves to control the world or make a master race of sorts. Evil characters always want tyranny and the power to control the rest of the world. However, the secrets behind this ancient magic add some very interesting lore within the wizarding world. You could say that part of this story is connected to the story of the Deathly Hallows because that dealt with ancient Magic. All in all, there are two different storylines going on in Hogwarts Legacy and both of them are connected. As your character is on a journey to solve the mystery of this ancient magic and repel the goblin Rebellion backed by evil wizards, you also have the storyline of a student at Hogwarts. You have to be a student while also doing the other storyline.
The best part of the game is the fact that you have to be a student and learn new abilities as you are playing the other storyline. The developers of Hogwarts Legacy seem to make both storylines just as important as they are intertwined in order to complete the game. You can’t just solve the mystery of the main storyline without going to school. Just like in the Harry Potter books, the classroom scenes were just as good as the scenes that deal with the main storyline of each book. It’s not hard to make a wizard story that doesn’t really have anything to do with Hogwarts, some of those might be fun and we definitely saw that in the Fantastic Beasts movies, but getting to play as a student throughout a school year makes the game a lot more fun. There are a lot of side quests that aren’t pertinent to the main storyline, but at the same time as a player, you want to do all those side quests because they’re just as fun. It feels as if you have two different video games in one because you’re playing this main storyline and helping to stop dark wizards and a goblin rebellion, and then you play the storyline of a Hogwarts student participating in classes and competing for the House Cup. For example, defeating the evil wizards and the Goblins is just as cathartic as the Polyjuice Plot Quest because it gives you a chance to make fun of Headmaster Black. He’s an awful character and nowhere in the same league as Albus Dumbledore when it comes to being Headmaster of Hogwarts. The quest offers great dialogue and I think we can all agree that making fun of him within this quest will definitely make your day better. I bet even Simon Pegg who voiced the character would agree. There’s just so much to do in this game outside of the main storyline that as gamers, we are treated to this huge open-world RPG that’s worth the retail price of this game. There’s so much to do as a student over the course of a school year that, that in it itself makes for a great video game.
At Hogwarts there’s always something to see and always something to do. The castle is never dull like the feature that allows you to see the changes in the castle based on the seasons. If you’re experiencing Hogwarts as a student, you experience it over the course of a year throughout the various seasons just like in the movies. While we all have a tendency to jump into a main storyline of a good RPG and in some games doing classroom work would seem like a negative, it’s all built as a positive in this game because each class is interesting along with the personalities of each professor. All of this is well developed to give you the feel of being a student at Hogwarts. If this game didn’t have a main storyline and all you were as a student, the game would still be fantastic because as we mentioned before, we’ve all wanted to be a student in Hogwarts after reading or seeing Harry Potter for the first time. It’s this game that gives us that experience so of course there have to be tons of things to do inside the castle. One of our favorite things is the Dueling Club. It’s a secret dueling cub, but it gives you a chance to hone your dueling skills as a student. You can spend an entire afternoon just doing other students and that would be just as fun as completing the main story. Then again, the Defense Against the Dark arts Arenas as you fend off waves of monsters, goblins, and dark wizards is equally as fun and cathartic. We can’t compliment enough the attention to detail, but the developers put into the Hogwarts School. From frog statues that transport you to areas you can’t just walk into, that’s a nice surprise to changing Pratt’s portrait frame to the alternate version with him on fire. For those that like to explore when playing games, you’ll always find something to explore in Hogwarts Legacy. That’s what makes this one of the most beautiful games ever created. Plus, depending on which house you’re sorted in you get a unique perspective of each of the common rooms. And then of course there’s always the Room of Requirements where you can practice Transfiguration.
Exploring outside of Hogwarts is just as fun. Going to Hogsmeade is never dull and you’ll have to keep going back there to buy stuff for potions and other supplies as well as being able to sell some of the loot to earn money. One of the most fascinating parts of this game was discovering the Hedge mazes. There are about five types and the only time we really got to see that in the books or movies was during the Goblet of Fire. When playing this game, it’s easy to compare it to Minecraft with your ability to build and explore. That game and its many versions became popular for those who want to build an explorer, well take that to the next level with being a student at Hogwarts. Talk about another great perk of this game. The side quests will keep you busy. While they’re not necessary to the main storyline, you can’t help but deviate and do all these wonderful side quests. There’s the main storyline and then there’s the story within the story which unfolds in the side quests. We found ourselves playing this game where we didn’t even play the main storyline, but just explored and did side quests much like a real-life student would do at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry,
So, if we have to be critical of this game, there is some room for improvement. Not much, but not every game can be absolutely perfect. Our biggest complaint is Sebastian’s story and his side quests. It’s underwhelming and doesn’t feel like it’s really necessary to the overall plot. It should be more than what it is and everything could be affected more by the dialogue choices with Sebastian. His story feels more important than others, but it’s also lacking. Every great storyteller and director has to make choices on what’s going to end up in the final project and maybe in order to play the main story something had to be sacrificed so it’s Sebastian’s story and side quests. Okay, but don’t make him feel like he’s more important to the overall story. As gamers, it’s like we were tricked. The other criticism is things on the map can be hard to find. We really need to have drop pins to help us as players relocate places we’ve been to before like the battle arenas. We’re all for mystery, but not so much mystery that we keep going over and over the same place just trying to find someplace we once visited. It’s tedious and time-consuming. And we also think there should be more space for beasts in Vivariums. maybe it’s not really that big of a deal compared to the overall story, but it’s annoying. The developer should have allowed for players to create more space by buying it with gold or maybe we’ll get that if there’s some really good DLC.
They’re certainly room for DLC. The developers missed a great opportunity to have a multiplayer part of the game. If there was ever a perfect game to be able to do split screen or play online with your friends whether it was doing battle or literally, playing Quidditch then this would be the perfect game. Again, we understand that you have to make choices especially when you’re meeting a deadline for a game release, but just like Red Dead Redemption 2, which had a multiplayer aspect to it that you didn’t even need the overall game you could just buy that and play online with your friends, Hogwarts Legacy should use the same idea. This is a world where we want to be online with our friends. If you took the concept of Fortnite but with wizards from the wizarding world of Harry Potter. For an all-out wizarding battle Royale, I don’t know if people would be playing Fortnite anymore. Well maybe that’s a stretch, but it would definitely be popular as well as getting to play Quidditch. Hopefully, we’ll get some DLC and a multiplayer component to the game down the road because there’s a golden opportunity for it.
With everything there is to do in Hogwarts legacy, the main storyline is still the most fun. Good RPG games are meant to have a cinematic feel. When we play a game and even though it will be a different experience, we want to play as if we’re watching a movie. That’s why the best RPGs are very cinematic. The Last of Us, Jedi Fallen order, Red Dead Redemption 2, all the Uncharted and Tomb Raider games. They’re all masterpieces in their own way. This story feels like we’re playing a Harry Potter or a Fantastic Beasts movie. The epicenter of this story is a young wizard rising up to fight the ultimate Evil. Feels familiar, doesn’t it? And while the Goblins are considered villains, they’re sympathetic villains. They’re not really that bad and you understand their motives. But you also come to find that they have been conned by dark Wizards who want power over themselves.
The main story is engaging in one of the best Harry Potter stories out there. In some ways, it’s better than some of the Fantastic Beasts movies and even some of the books or movies themselves. Maybe it feels that way because we experience the story by playing it, but it’s a very engaging story regardless and would make for a great movie. Of course, there’s controversy surrounding the story. Some may claim that there are anti-semitic themes when it comes to the goblins. We can’t necessarily say that’s true, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Unfortunately, that leads to a bigger argument about the perception of goblins within the world of fantasy and their origins. The controversy surrounding this game, especially with JK Rowling’s views is unfortunate from the overall greatness of the game and from a well-crafted story. Gamers have the right to choose whether they want to play this game or not and if you do play it that doesn’t make you anti-semitic or anti-trans or support JK Rowling’s views in any way. She didn’t create the story. There are many developers who worked on this game, some Jewish, some transsexuals. Port key would have to be unbelievably stupid to make a game that supported anti-semitic views and anti-trans views considering the culture that we live in. The first developer of the game, Troy Leavitt came under fire for posting on social media his support of cultural appropriation and gamergate. He was quickly asked to resign. So, it’s not like Avalanche software, the company that made the game or Warner media who published the game is going to back controversial figures. Sure, JK Rowling will always make money for owning the intellectual property of Harry Potter and everything created under the umbrella, but that doesn’t mean she has to be involved in anything relating to Harry Potter going forward. The world is not here anymore, it belongs to the fans. However, despite the controversy, there is one area where gamers who support Trans rights and fight against antisemitism can get behind. There are places where you can buy this game and the profits will go to support trans rights as well as the LGBTQ community. We can fight back against discriminatory views and still love this wonderful fantasy world. We can still enjoy Harry Potter but hate its creator. After all, that’s not like Walt Disney didn’t have his fair share of controversy or was accused of antisemitism, and we all still watch stuff created by Disney.
Overall, this is the Harry Potter game we’ve been waiting for, for 20 years. It’s a Monumental achievement in gaming. it’s one of the best RPGs ever created in a rich and imaginative world that people of all ages can enjoy. To create a Harry Potter game that has its own unique story where you get to play as your own unique character is nothing short of fantastic. It’s a game that gives us the true student experience of Hogwarts while getting to play a well-crafted story that literally could be a movie. And the best part, it’s a game truly designed for the next generation of consoles. It is absolutely gorgeous! Even if you’re not a Harry Potter fan but just like a good RPG, it’s still worth the money. Plus, there are a lot more stories to tell within this world that can be considered a prequel to Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter. Hogwarts Legacy is a defining moment in gaming! We get to play a unique story in the world of Harry Potter, which is something that has never been done before. It’s too early to tell if this is 2023’s Game of the Year, but it’s definitely right up there and if nothing else, it may just be the best Harry Potter story we’ve ever experienced because we get to play the story instead of watching it. Hogwarts Legacy proves that the best stories are the ones we play. That Nerd Show’s Final Grade: 9/10
When you purchase a copy of Hogwarts Legacy, purchase it here and the proceeds will go to supporting the GBTQ community.
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