Hogwarts Legacy - One Year Later

Open world game devs need to ditch the collectibles and add more secrets in their place

One thing I find weird is NPCs, you literally get in or break in their home and start stealing their stuff and they’re just like « ok, help yourself! ».

It's a fairly linear game, but apart from that it hits all the right notes. A sequel should focus a lot more on the story and include other locations from the movies. I also hope the success of this game has made Warner Bros think about a Lord of the Rings RPG.

The story definitely needed to be more grounded and not so big and massive. Honestly if they fleshed the sabastien quest line out a little more to be the main story and make more school school based quested the game would have been a lot better.

This game ended up being a Gateway for me into the Harry Potter Series in General. I went from Playing the Game to Watching The Movies and now Reading the Books.

My only gripe with Hogwarts is that, outside of spells, your choice doesn’t really matter. I wanted to be a dark wizard when I started and while I wasn’t expecting to be on the level of a BG3 level menace. The world doesn’t even react to you picking malicious text in important instances. For example, at the end of the game my wizard flat out says he plans to use the power of ancient magic himself and nobody says anything, not even a worried expression

If there is a sequel, I think their focus should be excelling at their strengths: Hogwarts, the castle grounds, the forbidden forest, and Hogsmeade. A point system (as an honor/faction system), a routine for students and professors, curfews, sleeping, sitting, and eating, a studying system for learning and upgrading spells, the ability to be friendly or antagonize your fellow students and teachers would increase the RPG feel and immersion. Some feuds between students and some side missions to intervene in a bullying situation would go a long way. Also, more secret rooms, corridors, and dungeon basements because Hogwarts exploration is one of the most fun things to do in the game. I think Hogwarts has some leeway for some danger as well: fire-breathing gargoyles as a trap for protected rooms (like the devil's snare in the hidden herbology corridor), etc. I think competitions like crossed wands and summoner's court should have more rounds and be playable throughout the whole game. Adding a professor or two as bosses would be cool imho. Maybe even mini games like wizard's chess or gobstones. I understand why they didn't add quidditch, as it would be hard to make an entire sport's game within another game. But they could square this if they program it like a mini game where you are the seeker and the other NPCs just fly around playing the other positions. The mini game is essentially only to catch the snitch. A similar system to the older Harry Potter games. l also think there should be aurors and dementors deployed in the Highlands if they give you the option to use the unforgivable curses and you choose to use them, and add patronuses so MC can fend them off. Add consequences, make the combat a bit harder and exploration in the highlands a bit riskier if we choose to use the OP spells.

I’m not a gamer, just a 66 year old Mom who read the Harry Potter series to her kids and fell in love with the story, and play Animal Crossing on her switch. Hogwarts Legacy is a fantasy come nearly true as it takes me to a place that’s always been in my imagination of where I’d like to be in real life. I’m on my second play through in a different house and can’t wait to play it nearly every day. I really enjoyed your views on the game.

Totally agree with you on all points. Missing some huge things for me. Biggest are the lack of character development, lack of character reactions from NPCs, pointless dialogue choices that have no influence on the outcome… etc. I was totally thinking during the story section about TLOU and then you said it… ND is the king of narrative.

These retrospective 'one year later' or '.....in 2024' reviews are my favorite style of game reviews at the moment, probably ever. They're incredibly underrated. So many outlets are no doubt pressured to have their reviews out by release and most certainly don't take the time to actually soak in and enjoy the game due to deadlines and timing for uploads to squeeze the most out of views due to a game being hot at release. Your type of reviews have no type of pressure whatsoever and are thorough and informatively delivered with several months of experience to really flesh out the game to someone like me who likes to backlog games. Thank you for your hard work and will continue to support channels like yours, more especially those uploading in 4k!

To all who haven’t finished the game there is a mayor spoiler @10:35

Honestly the story was the biggest let down for me in the game. Which is surprising because I thought making the world and gameplay would’ve been the hardest to develop but they absolutely nailed those parts imo. I felt like we didn’t really need to be this “special” one in the story and they could’ve made it better by trying something different because it feels far to like the book story imo. Amazing game tho for me.

Did no one else find it incredibly boring once they had explored all of the castle?

I have so much nostalgia for the old Harry Potter games, I loved them

The first 10-15 hours are absolutely game of the year material, if not more. But at some point it just falls off so immensely.. :/

definitely didn't have the replayability I wished it did, and I'm dying for a HP game of old where you actually GO TO SCHOOL (there was a little of that), but as a standalone it had a just complex enough combat system, plenty of side systems and puzzles to dig around with and most importantly it was fucking gorgeous. I loved every inch of that world. Love love loved it.

Im really thankful that you can pet the cats in the game but i kind of hoped for more interaction? Like actually taking care of your pet (owl,rat,rat) and the bedroom where kind if boring too. It wouldve been so cool if you actually received the important messages with an owl.

Also I would have liked more interactions with some characters, for instance at the end I really wanted to invite Poppy over to my room of requirement to visit Highwing. Or play wizard chess with someone.

I think it's kind of strange there has been no DLC yet. The game sold very well, and there are some obvious "hooks" left to build upon, as some very notable aspects of the franchise have been left untouched in the game. Namely, some iconic locations (Diagon Alley, the Minstry of Magic), enemies (Dementors, any dangerous creature that isn't a spider), spells (Expecto Patronum, tying into the aforementioned dementors) and magical creatures (take your pick among the pages of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"). And of course, Quidditch. There is a lot left for a post-game stand-alone episode that adds a bit more content to the game in a new location, but for some reason there doesn't seem to be any news in that regard. I'd have expected them to strike while the iron was hot and announce it within months of the game's release, but here we are one year later and there's only silence.

I want Backgrounds for your character, like can I be a pure blood slytherin. Or a muggle born hufflepuff. I think having most quest be done with your classmates from your house. My first playthrough was Ravenclaw and it felt awkward having a griffindor and hufflepuff be my main interactions. Like I you could easily switch natty and poppy with any other house member and most of the quests could make sense.