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It’s honestly amazing how well this game sold considering how mid the gameplay actually is. Having a popular IP really helped.
Eh, people don’t buy for the gameplay mechanics most of the time, they buy for what they see in the trailers and read in the descriptions. Being the only videogame available for this IP, having the WB marketing juggernaut behind it, releasing at a time of the year without much competition, coming out on every single platform - it would have been weird if this game wasn’t the best selling one in 2023.
Are you saying that marketing works?!
My wife, whose entire history with video games is Sims 3, Animal Crossing: NH, and Pokémon Go, played through this game start to finish and loved it. It wasn’t really made for “gamers”, it was made for Harry Potter fans that wanted to play a Hogwarts game. It didn’t succeed as a gaming revolution, it succeeded in bringing non-gamers to buy it.
Personally, I love that she got into it whether it’s mid or not, because it introduced her to a lot of the mechanics necessary to play “real” games in the future. And she had a lot of fun.
I’m both a gamer and HP fan.
I thought the game was great, and I didn’t really realize the depths of people’s distaste for it, I guess.
Was it crazy revolutionary? No, but it was fun.
Fellow HP fan, I was kinda weirded out by the whole “free access to unforgivable curses” and “canonically killing people” and the honestly kinda disheartening stance on goblin personhood but man flying around the grounds is so fun
Oh yeah me too. There are a lot of moments in the writing that make me go “wait… what? are you sure about that?” and some of the game design was iffy here and there but the main attraction is just the fact that they’ve given us a “full-scale” Hogwarts and surroundings.
Oh no kidding, I loved how they handled the curses. For the most part at least. Like, I would’ve been pretty disappointed if they weren’t usable in-game at all, but was never sure how they could introduce them in a realistic way. So HL literally having entire side quests devoted to you discovering the curses and learning how to use them honestly blew away my expectations.
My only issue with them is being able to use them in front of others so casually. They should’ve just made them unusable if you had another character accompanying you.
the last video game my mom played before hogwarts legacy was like…pac man in the arcades. it was amazing to share our progress together and bond
Haha! That sounds like so much fun!
I thought the gameplay was awesome. To me, a really impressive entry to a potential series. What did you feel were the weak points in the gameplay?
I found the combat to be serviceable, and at some points I had fun with it. But it kind of got repetitive really quick. Like once you learn the core mechanics, they didn’t really introduce a lot after that to keep you on your toes. But the main problem I had with the game came from the quests, they just felt so monotonous. I love exploring the castle, but finding every little collectible just felt tedious and didn’t really seem to have any payoff.
All things I hope can be improved with an eventual sequel, I’m definitely glad I picked up the game. But it’s not something I’ve ever considered revisiting once I beat it.
Yeah, agree with these points. It had that first entry vibe to it, similar to the Outer Worlds. Lack of enemy variety was a pretty big one, once you were a few hours in.
Just seen they’ve uploaded this pretty funny video 😂: https://youtu.be/gwyHqXMSkAw?si=7REw4Cgj2lEpbAc0
The IP was my only interest. Games like this I get bored with so I generally avoid. But the views of the school looked great and I’ve always wanted to walk around it, like the fantasy version of it. I’ve been to the real set and walked around that which is cool. My only complaint is I bought it on PC so I didn’t get to see Azkaban.
What do you mean? I played on pc and went to Azkaban, what very little there was to see anyway
Azkaban is not based on platform but house, join Hufflepuff to see it.
I thought that was a PlayStation exclusive
What can you say gamers love anti-Semitism.
I’m playing this game right now and it’s honestly a six out of 10. The only reason to launch the game at all is because of the world design which is top notch. So top notch it scores all of those six points, because the plot characters story and gameplay are all a let down otherwise. This is the type of game that will disable the controls for your magical flying broom and then tell you that you need to climb a wall. I wish it wasn’t so successful so they didn’t think this formula was so good, because if they made the game actually good AND a Harry Potter property, that would have really been something special. But as it is now, it’s just an uninspired video game painted in a pretty coat of a popular franchise. I’m sure we’ll get a sequel.
I would have loved to have this game as a kid. It may be a 6 out of 10 but most of the other harry potter shovelware they shit out when the movies were coming was at best a 0.2 out of 10. The only arguably not that bad one was the prisoner of azkaban movie based game.
IDK. Most of the early games were actually pretty entertaining. I fairly recently played sorcerer’s stone on the gbc, and it was still pretty fantastic.
I’m curious, what open world games do you rate as a 9 or 10? I’m not saying Hogwarts did anything revolutionary, but it did most things pretty solidly. It’s been a while since Ive played an open world game that does a good job on making the world actually feel alive.
Witcher 3 I’d rate 9/10.
Subnautica gets a 9/10. Fallout 2 and 3, if we’re specifically going RPGs. NieR: Automata for action RPGs. Look at Persona for school influenced RPGs. I’d have geeked out so hard if we got even Persona-style class experiences in Hogwarts Legacy. Instead, all we get is completely contextless montage cutscenes.
Yeah I wish Hogwarts Legacy had taken more inspiration from Persona. Having a schedule, working on social links, engaging in fun activities outside of school, it all lends itself incredibly well to a Hogwarts game.
Unfortunately it sounds like the creators haven’t ever even touched a Persona game. I remember before the game launched they were asked if there’d be romance options, and they seemed almost offended by the thought since the characters are kids, despite Persona doing the same for literal decades.
Going to a ball in Hogwarts Legacy, or going on a date in Hogsmeade, would’ve been so much fun too.
Imagine that, teens dating… What a wild concept, they didn’t even had to play Persona, our own culture is filled with teen drama series, even DC made gotham academy.
Not the person you asked, but for me personally to rate some open world games:
- Hogwarts: 4-5/10. It’s pretty damn bad IMO, beyond the fan pandering.
- Avatar Frontiers of Pandora: 5-7/10, it’s a slightly worse Far Cry (which is already damn tepid) but looks insanely pretty which makes it a good braindead time waster.
- Cyberpunk 2077: Originally 2/10, laughably underdesigned and so buggy it felt like industry-criticizing sarcasm. Nowadays 7/10 if including the expansion, still quite buggy but not in a bad way, and the redesigned combat and character systems feel artificial but pretty fun. City still too dead and underdesigned, sadly.
- Skyrim: 6-7/10, damn impressive at the time, but only briefly as the game was shallow as all hell, even in its best moments. Still impressive but it’s all on the mods and hence the players, not the game designers.
- Witcher 3: 8-9/10, essentially same design flaws as modern CP2077, but given its fantasy world suffers much less from it, of course the empty countryside is, well, empty.
- Subnautica: 10/10, amazing horror vibes, good progression, not too open and not too confined, focus on exploration.
- Outer Wilds: 10/10, completely open and pure exploration, reductive game design done perfectly right.
the redesigned combat and character systems feel artificial but pretty fun
What do you even mean by this? Artificial gameplay?
No like… it feels pretty obvious they weren’t that way originally, if that makes sense? That this got changed after the game was already out for a while, this wasn’t how it was designed at first?
Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 are both up there for me.
It’s multi-platform, uses one of the biggest IPs of an entire generation and seems to do it quite well too. Everything else would have been more surprising to me.
I’m shocked the online outrage from gamingcirlclejerk didn’t work
It’s like the sub made for taking the piss out of gaming criticism and critique did what it was supposed to do.
Not really, they were often really serious about it which made it all the more ridiculous. Sometimes it’s a fun circlejerk sub, sometimes it’s presenting their slacktivism almost as being some gaming vanguard and fighting a war against the game.
It was pretty funny.
I wonder it’s because it attracted a bunch of people who weren’t into games, but are huge Harry Potter fans.
It’s also on every platform, including the Switch, while TotK is just on the Switch.
Yeah this feels like a Look What They Have to Do (release on every system) to Mimic a Fraction of Our Power (be Zelda) meme.
I think you just nailed it, this is exactly why.
Zelda was more fun though
Genuinely curious which game has more “Hours Played”. I’m willing to put money down on it being Zelda.
I only played the unpatched version with the dupe glitches, that was super fun.
I guess all the twitter drama around the author matters less to the real world. It’s impressive to see how a vocal minority can completely distort what is happening offline.
It happens every time. Pokémon Sword/Shield and Scarlett/Violet had the biggest launch in the franchise’s history despite being (justifiably so) heavily criticized by pretty much everyone online.
People shit on microtransactions and always-online games but the top charts always show online multiplayer games are among the most played.
It doesn’t make the criticisms any less valid; it just means that the general public is usually ignorant of them.
Or just don’t care that much
I think that the masses are mostly disengaged with terminally-online type discourse. The only reason I knew JK Rowling was TERF was because of reading it on here, so if you are only on social media to follow your old high school classmates on facebook, you’d probably never find out
The masses are largely disengaged with LGBT rights in general, but the declining rights of transgender people in the UK (and the US) shows this is not just a “terminally-online” kind of issue. She is not the only one responsible, of course, but her outspoken antagonism towards transgender people is influencing people.
It concerns me when people can’t differentiate “this issue does not affect me” from “this issue does not exist”. Even calling matters “terminally-online” in general is a bit questionable when whole ass presidents get elected by meme campaigns these days.
JKR is a very vocal TERF that basically wants trans people to dissappear. A lot of people dont want to financially support her because of that. That most people seemingly either dont care about trans erasure or even worse, bought the game specifically because theyre the type to do shit just because people with a conscience told them they shouldn’t, says more about most people than it does that “vocal minority”
Oh pipe down, I read the entire thing when it was recent and in no way does she want what you claim. She has an open letter on her own website outlining her views.
Over the course of the years since this happened it has grown, morphed and people are now probably also saying she would be the one herding the trans people into the gas Chambers.
This right here is why Lemmy is often a shitshow. You’re absolutely right, but since you’re going against the hive mind it’s nothing but downvotes. No one’s even bothered to reply because there’s nothing to argue against in good faith. Just angry downvotes because your facts are getting in the way of fake outrage.
It’s OK, people can read the content themselves. I have a lot of (maybe misplaced) confidence in most people.
And I personally don’t see a lot of hivemind but plurality of opinion luckily. The angry downvotes without response is usually telling enough, although someone did reply to tell me to “fuck off” this time.
Nah. Both of you just haven’t kept up with her history of equating trans women with sexual predators and trans men with poor brainwashed little girls, some of which was hinted, if disguised in polite words, in the article where she talked about the situation and defended how she totally didn’t mean any harm to anybody.
Did you see when she said she’d march with trans people if they truly were persecuted? Their rights have been challenged and undermined many times since, and she didn’t show any sign of that.
Because, you know, sometimes people aren’t completely honest and taking them at their word is not the ultimate measure of their characters.
So don’t confuse disagreeing with people here and getting downvoted with being the one clear-minded contrarian. However much internet bandwagons are a thing, you won’t get the clear picture unless you go look into it. Sometimes you might get that reaction because you are wrong and that’s it.
Seriously! If I say something stupid, others are supposed to show up and educate me on why what I said is stupid! That is how public discourse is supposed to works!
Wait, why aren’t the people tired of my ignorant shit jumping to help me learn? Oh I know, that means I’m actually super smart, totally correct and fully informed. Everyone else is just being stupid and mean to me for no valid reason.
Honest feedback (for honest ppl): there are ways to ask people what they think so they’ll be inclined to reply earnestly. Starting with “pipe down” ain’t it… ya fuckin dingus. lol
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The game has a minor character who is trans too. It uses the world she invented but does not borrow her real world views
Just because a minority is depicted in a work of art does not mean that depiction was made in good faith. Americans are familiar with that concept because of our dark history of minstrel shows and blackface performances.
When the trans woman character’s name is Sirona Ryan, it calls into question whether she is meant to be a character or a caricature.
If you have nothing else to play and want a simple open world game set in and around Hogwarts, it’s perfectly servicable as long as you pirate it. Don’t expect to be blown away by it though.
I assumed that after literally nobody or any media outlets have talked about it since release. Telltale sign of bang on average game. Probably great for potter fans and boring for those who don’t care or haven’t seen the films/read the books.
I would - and I hate my saying this - rather recommend Avatar then. Yeah it’s a Ubisoft game. I know. Yeah, it needs a beefier machine to actually look really pretty.
But oh my fucking hell is it pretty when cranked up. And it helps the generic open world gameplay a lot to be this awesome looking. Fun to just wander around and take in the scenery, even when you leave the jungle areas and go to the plains and see the wind-swept grass and all.
Has anyone played both? Im loving zelda at the moment and wouldn’t mind moving onto this next
Hogwarts is fun for about 30 hours roleplaying as a wizard, as a casual potter fan. I got really bored of it after that and never finished the game. At its core it really is very generic, it’s really propped up by the IP. That’s not to say it’s bad by any means but its not got the depth of Zelda.
I think the biggest issue for me was how large the map was. They did the castle and hogsmede very well, but then threw in a bunch of filler content in the other towns. If they had stuck to the more core areas only, the game wouldn’t have gotten so stale later on.
That’s because they needed somewhere for you to fly your broomstick since it was the most fun part of the game.
Sure, more room is nice, but the map could have been 1/3rd the size and still have a good sense of speed with it. A better option would have been to put in some fun mini games with the broom, but that would have been required then to make flying the broom more engaging.
I’m kinda curious in what way Zelda (assuming TOTK) has more depth. Combat wise HP has stealth, an attack typing system, comboing, special moves, and more if I recall correctly. TOTK does have a variety of weapons and you can craft weapons, but it generally boils down to just whacking away at things. You could also mention the ability to make vehicles/automaton, but the time to build things (until you find ultra hand?) mixed with limited resources made that more of a pain/chore than fun.
I could go into other mechanics, but ultimately I think TOTK would be rated worse if it wasn’t for the Zelda branding carrying it.
You aren’t wrong, there was an unpopular opinion thread some weeks ago and several zelda fans called both BOTW and TOTK just ubisoft open worlds with a zelda skin. They are both carried by their IP (even though I love these 2 zeldas), the worst Zelda (Skyward Sword) still sold 4.15 million units, just counting the HD version, the Wii version sold 3.67 million.
Haha I appreciate the comment and the ability to call them out even though you like them.
I just wish I felt the same. The longer they’ve been out the more I realize that we probably won’t get a more traditional zelda ever again. I think the thing I liked about zelda up to BOTW was that the world itself was a puzzle. Figuring out how to navigate and open up new areas was part of the fun and challenge to me. Not to mention dungeons being larger and more intricate puzzles than anything you come across in BOTW and TOTK.
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Eh I dunno, I got bored of it before I finished the story or explored the other half of the map. Feels like a bit of a failing there. 30 hours would be fine if it was a fully contained experience.
I played both. Both are excellent games, and both also have flaws.
I think Zelda was by far the better game - HL isn’t really on the same level as it at all, design-wise, story-wise, or or in terms of things to do.
HL’s strength is definitely the world itself - the Hogwarts and Hogsmeade areas in particular are both incredibly well done and very faithful to the source material. The other areas are just alright.
I’d say HL’s weaknesses become most apparent if you’re a completionist. Things can get very repetitive if you’re going for 100%. I did, and I honestly think you’ll like it a lot more if you just don’t.
It’s still lots of fun though. Zelda was my most played game in 2023 and HL was kind of far behind, and everything else combined would still probably be a distant third.
I absolutely agree with the other people saying HL is generic and propped up by the IP. But for me that was enough.
I have. Hogwarts Legacy has really good graphics but it’s honestly pretty generic, it only sold so well because there are millions of harry potter fans out there.
I mean clearly that’s not the only reason, right? If it were, every previous Harry Potter video game would’ve sold just as well.
Zelda has tighter gameplay and holds your attention longer.
HL is decent.
I pirated it and played for maybe two hours. It was boring and the controls didn’t feel good. Uninstalled shortly after.
Very curious. I played for about 10-15 hours and was just bored, but I’ve never been a huge potter head. Glad people like it though
I bought it and was hoping for more leveling up and more RPG elements but it wasn’t.
I really liked the side quests though. It felt like every single one involved going to a cave, finding out the NPC’s friend/relative was dead, and then report back. It definitely didn’t get old after the first dozen or so.
Also, the Merlin trials were great. Hundreds of locations, but only like 6 different puzzles.
I haven’t played a game where the devs copy/pasted that much in a while.
where do we find the stats for zelda?
I thought it was a great game that captured the spirit of the books & movies so well. Thankfully all the mock outrage and virtue signaling didn’t affect its sales and probably boosted them.
The open world Zeldazes were over hyped but still, really? I haven’t played it myself but watching others play, it didn’t seem all that great.
It really isn’t. They want you to play through each house but it’s literally the same story regardless of which house you choose.
The game is only fun until the hype of exploring Hogwarts fades. Then it’s just your average mid tier adventure game.
It only survived because it’s Harry Potter.
Edit: The broom flying was cool af though I’ll give them that
Edit 2: Something I’ve always brought up about this game is, once you get petrificus totalus it turns into Harry Potter and the Assassin’s Creed
Edit 2 is what I needed to hear to know that this is definitely not for me.
I only say that because it’s like the stealth archer build from Skyrim. Once you unlock the ability you just naturally move to a stealthy approach.
That and you can unlock an upgrade that allows you to take out a bunch of people at once if they’re grouped up
Serious question. Who’d win, wizard trying to cast a spell or sovereign citizen with a gun?
