I pirated the game. The first part in the actual school was really fun. But once you get out into the world, you quickly realise that it’s just another generic open world game with outposts, collectibles, and general busywork that you’ve seen in every other open world game. It got boring very quickly for me and I never finished it.
I also pirated it, and yeah, I definitely got my money’s worth from it. I tried to have fun, but it’s the poster child for “mile wide, inch deep.”
Maybe they can reuse the environment for a better game in the future.
I was very interested in mods for this game, people found all kinds of fun cut stuff that would’ve elevated this game so much like companions having commentary for several quests when you used a mod to bring them, and having actual consequences for using the dark arts. But it’s impossible to implement.
I agree. The magical feeling of being a student at Hogwarts soon evaporated as soon as you got a broom and didn’t really need to visit Hogwarts again and instead just fight endless random enemies, which gets pretty easy as you level up.
I was also disappointed by the endless voice acting. There was so much pointless talking and you couldn’t really control the outcome, all options seemed to result in a positive outcome when I just wanted to be a badass Malfoy but you’re not allowed, you jave to be a goody goody Hermione, juat in Slytherin clothes.
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.
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?
I got Subnautica for free twice (PlayStation and Epic), I should really look at giving it a proper try. I have the feeling it’d be really good in VR, played No Man’s Sky in VR recently and I immediately loved it while on flatscreen it didn’t click with me as much.
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.
Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 are both up there for me.
If you are WB, I can’t see how you compare the performance of this game vs the performance of Suicide Squad (which had similar development time) and not rethink your approach to future licensed titles
Oh no, but what about the boycott…
What about it? None of us are surprised that people chose a childhood memory over respect for trans people as human beings.
Tons of people worked on the game who aren’t bigots. Artists, programmers, designers etc. Buying the game supports them, too.
Also, someone decided to make the owner of the Three Broomsticks trans.
Ah yes the “I cant be racist, I have a black friend” defense. JKR is still a TERF and she still financially benefits from hogarts legacy and no amount of tokenism is going to change that.
What a ridiculous take. First of, outside of certain parts of the internet most people aren’t even aware of the issues surrounding Rowling, secondly you can very much acknowledge that she’s a terrible excuse for a human being while still enjoying a game she had nothing to do with (yes, she gets royalties, but she has the kind of fuck you money that multiplies by merely existing anyway).
Your profile has “Nazis can fuck off”, but you’re here calling out people who have issues with Rowling, a bigot who stans Nazis like Kellie-Jay Keen
I’m not. I’m calling out people who call me a bigot for not living up to their standards on ethical consumption. Personally I avoid Nestlé and their billion subsidiaries wherever humanly possible, but I am not calling everyone who doesn’t pro-slavery. That’s my issue, not the warranted labelling of Rowling as a bigoted piece of shit.
It’s genuinely amazing to me how some people are obsessed with the idea that buying a videogame based on the works of an author that wasn’t even involved in making the project makes you transphobic.
Would it shock you that 99% of corporate officials are bad people? I guess we should stop buying anything ever because some percentage of money can go to people I don’t like.
She’s literally said that people buying her shit proves she’s right.
I’m sorry people have some more morals with their money and have trouble giving it to people who have made it their entire focus to shit on them and be called rapists by their former childhood heroes.
Why care about what a writer has to say about gender politics? I don’t. I don’t even know what she said specifically because it means nothing.
Because she’s actively using her money to make trans people’s lives worse, and she’s influencing people by spreading her hateful views. It absolutely doesn’t mean nothing - she’s literally lobbying with the money you gave her!
Ok, but I mentioned this above, it’s literally impossible to live in society and not have your money funneling into a billionaire’s pockets who’s lobbying against your best interest.
Just in the realm of video games, probably buying the majority of games results in your money going to an objectively bad cause. Most rich people are scum.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Sure, some of your money will probably always end up with bad people, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to prevent that. There are different kinds of bad, and those who try to hurt minorities have to be broadly pushed back against by broader society, or it will have negative effects on those who often already face undue hardships.
Your morals are fine, what isn’t fine is that most of the people boycotting the game are harassing people that buy it.
She’s literally said that people buying her shit proves she’s right.
So what? Why is everyone giving some dumbass writer that hasn’t been relevant in 10 years so much attention? Who cares what she says? Tons of people say terrible, stupid things on the internet.
My girlfriend literally was bullied by coworkers for playing the game. And she is the absolute sweetest. It is completely ridiculous
If I cared, I could easily go into the above dude’s post history to find an example of his money going towards some bigot to prove he’s a hypocrite. It doesn’t matter what you buy, your money is supporting bigotry, because at the top of the human social hierarchy are bigots. Welcome to the world. Picking on fellow peasants for something out of their hands is wrong.
I don’t even have to dig come to think of it, dude is typing to us on a device assembled by slaves or maybe even child slaves.
They may not be bigots themselves but they happily give their money to a person well known for being bigoted that also actively tries to make the world a worse place for trans people. It is like buying a burzum album; you don’t have to be a nazi to do it but the nazi still profits.
If you stand by what you preach you should basically stop buying anything. No matter what, a billionaire is getting your money, and they are all pieces of shit I promise.
When has a boycott ever worked? For the most part people don’t have principals unless their very livelihoods are directly threatened.
Never, it is just free advertising
Nooooooooo!
I mean both were good games, but Zelda is just legendary status and on another level. It holds a special place for me, and they somehow nailed it out of the park yet again with TOTK. I don’t know how they keep doing it! They have some geniuses over there.
Completed both 100% and they’re such great fun games.
Hogwarts was awesome to walk through the wizardry world. Battling wizards, poachers, spiders, etc. Finding all the secrets and going through the story. Finished the game in a week, I just couldn’t put the controller down.
Never got into Harry Potter since I was too old. This game was really fun to just explore and I constantly felt a forward momentum. Some of the stories were good, and some were awful.
I would absolutely play a sequel just based on the well done sense of discovery alone. I just wish more of what you found was impactful instead of cosmetic.
On the one hand, I agree about wishing there was more to find than a new color cloak, but on the other hand I think it’s a neat way to keep the game approachable to more casual gamers (and to try and get as many Harry Potter fans to get it as possible). That being said, I would have liked if there were more challenge, and something other than just flat stat improvements could have been a way to keep that interesting if they had higher difficulties.
I get it, but it doesn’t have to be just pure stats. Could have been mild ability improvements or something or maybe changed some of the effects or visual things that occurred around you. Hell, even walking speed improvement or something like a tone to help you locate hidden items.
There’s a lot they could have done considering we’re dealing with magical items! Still had a pretty good time with it overall though.
Serious question. Who’d win, wizard trying to cast a spell or sovereign citizen with a gun?
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
where do we find the stats for zelda?
Culture wars sell games. If not for all of the noise surrounding JK Rowling, the right wing contingent of the internet probably would have passed it over as “a game for kids”. If comment sections are any metric to go by, everyone that played it either thought it was completely mid or bought it to own the libs.
I don’t get the whole “this game isn’t even good, there’s no way it was the best selling game of the year without rightoids overwhelmingly buying it simply to own the libs” idea when year after year after year the best selling games are Call of Duty X+1, Madden X+1, and FIFA X+1
A game doesn’t need to be good to be popular, and I’d bet probably 99% of the owners are just normal people who aren’t even aware of the controversy
Right, but COD is good. Good in the sense that it’s been refined over the years to give gamers the ultimate fast paced arcade FPS experience. The controls are tight and responsive, and the game is easy to understand. It’s essentially one of the hallmarks of the genre. But yes, the political controversy surrounding the game was above and beyond the controversy surrounding yearly COD releases. The sales numbers speak for themselves.
Correct. I’ve never bought a video game in my life and I ain’t about to start but everyone had a take on that shit it was so tiresome, I imagine for a lot of babytrans/babylgbt it might’ve been a shock that people will choose a game of their beloved childhood property over being allies and that being allies was to a lot of people always virtue signaling but I was far too cynical to let that bother me at that point.
Why you downvoted? You’re right. They’re mean fucking trolls with the character of a child. They’re obsessed with triggering others. This is their MO.
I came here to write something along the lines of “fuck that Nazi terf piece of shit” but saw your comment first.
What’s hilarious to me is that, while the downvotes mean nothing in the long run, I’m hardly sharing a unique opinion, even on this thread.
Correct. I’ve never bought a video game in my life and I ain’t about to start but everyone had a take on that shit, it was so tiresome, I imagine for a lot of babytrans/babylgbt it might’ve been a shock that people will choose a game of their beloved childhood corporate intellectual property over being allies and that being allies was to a lot of people always virtue signaling, but I was far too cynical to let that bother me at that point.
The people who tried cancelling the game are the reason it sold so well and that is hilarious. Everyone was talking about it, any advertising is good advertising
Brain dead contrarians that have no thoughts and opinions of their own beyond “how do I piss people off?”
The boycotters or the people who played the game?
Millions of people have bad taste. Shocker
Smug gamer thinks what others like is wrong. Shocker.
Supporting transphobes is wrong. Millions of people supported a transphobe. For me, that’s not being smug, it’s being terrified
We just have different ideas of what it means to be transphobic.
The developer and people that worked on the game aren’t transphobes. Get a new bit.
No smugness here, just disappointment.
Why does it matter to you what others play?
Financially supporting a crusade against a minority group (trans folks) is one of my pet peeves
So. You’re saying the developer and everyone that worked on the game are part of a crusade against a minority group?
Or is it just that you’re delusional enough to think that because the creator or the IP is a blowhard hag of a human being, everyone associated with her IP should be thoroughly punished?
Nah thats not what im saying. But the millions raked in by harry potter enterprises goes in to Rowlings pockets. Also, i dont weep for the devs, they were paid already…
So? People like the game. They’ll play it. It’s not for you to decide what they spend their money on.
She gets paid or not. Shouldn’t matter to you. Maybe find something to occupy your time better.
The game allowed you to create a trans protagonist (male voice/female body, pronouns, …). It isn’t a crusade against them at all, it is empowering them. No matter what the author said.
Zelda was more fun though
Zelda would have been even more fun if it was available on every platform instead of just Nintendo.
It’s available on PC.
PC gamers even got it before nintendo ones.
That’s it, I never played Nintendo games because I never had their hardware. For me personally it’s just not worth getting into their closed ecosystem. Basically same reason I never had anything apple.
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.
deleted by creator
its not insane unless you’re doing completionist stuff, you can easily cap a few sets of armor for key purposes just with chest loot and some monster mashing.
deleted by creator
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.
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.
Sounds exactly like Skyrim tbh…
