Editor's Note: Express Games provided a review copy of Hogwarts Legacy for PlayStation 5 to IGN India.
Hogwarts Legacy, a game that Harry Potter fans and gamers have been anticipating since its announcement back in 2020, has finally arrived. Before I dive deeper into the review, I can easily say that Warner Bros Games-owned Portkey Games and Avalanche Software have met the expectations.
Hogwarts Legacy is an absolute delight right out of the box, providing players with a mystical experience in a world that has been so close to them. Hogwarts Legacy ends up finding the right blend of nostalgia and new introductions, providing players with an optimum gaming experience in this universe.
IGN India has already provided you with a brief glimpse of the title last month with our first impressions of the game from 6-7 hours of gameplay. We ended up touching slightly on all areas that we were able to explore in that short amount of time, but the game has felt promising ever since.
Hogwarts Castle and the requirements
We spoke a bit about Hogwarts Castle earlier, but that did not justify its actual scale. The Hogwarts Legacy castle in the game is an exact replica of how it has been described in the books. Players would have to take out at least a day or two just to explore the castle in its entirety. There are many areas that are unlocked at a later point in the game, which provides even more areas to explore.
The game also provides you with incentives to explore Hogwarts Castle thoroughly by giving you a quest to find a full range of items and treasures hidden all over. These also lead you to find many secrets and hidden easter eggs in the castle, making the effort much more fruitful. The castle is always lively, with students discussing spells, spirits roaming corridors, paintings talking, Peeves pranking students and so much more from the Harry Potter lore.
The castle is surely a remarkable sight, but the open world the game gives you takes the game to the next level. Hogwarts Legacy has a gigantic open world. In the truest RPG sense, the game motivates players to explore this massive world to find missions, more secrets, treasures, missions, beasts, and the list goes on. The areas have a medieval vibe, and the terrain and people you interact with change according to separate regions in the game.
The Room of Requirement is its own entity and, just as the name suggests, it has something for all your needs. You can really customise it to your liking, not just adding furniture or changing its colour, but even changing the flooring and architecture of the room or changing its ambience with the help of your trusty elf, Deek. The Room of Requirement also gives you a couple of biomes where you can care for the beasts you have saved along the journey, and you guessed it, the biomes are also customisable.
All about the beyond in Hogwarts Legacy
Moving to Hogsmeade, it is the main hub for the players in the open world. Here, you will find everything you would need to support your journey for the whole game. This includes conjuration spells to potions, ingredients, brooms, clothes, haircuts, and missions. If the players fancy it, they could also get a snack or down a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. The area also has many locked doors filled with treasure boxes for you to loot.
When it comes to the open world, Hogwarts Legacy includes Hogwarts Valley, Hogsmeade Valley, Feldecroft, North Ford Bog, Forbidden Forest, South See Bog, Poidsear Coast, Marunweem Lake, Cragcroftshire, Manor Cape and Clagmar Coast. These are all distinct regions in the game, with vast lands filled with flora and fauna for you to see. The design of the world is mesmerising, and the game always manages to hit the sweet spot along with the musical score.
The game also includes encampments that are filled with dark wizards or factions of evil goblins that you need to take down. The developers have also added a complete range of dungeons and caves, spider nests, challenges, poachers for players to defeat, beasts to save and more across all these regions. Therefore, players will end up spending 70-75 hours in the game if they wish to reach 100% completion.
Fortunately, there are many ways to traverse this gigantic world. Firstly, you have a broom that can be upgraded to fly faster for longer amounts of time. You also have two other types of mounts: One is the Hippogriff, which allows you to fly through the world from a distinct perspective. The other mount is a way of traversing on land, but I will not spoil it for you. Luckily, the game also has many fast travel points for you, as you will end up feeling tired while flying such long distances after spending a certain number of hours doing so.
Professors, villains, and strangers
The characters of Hogwarts Legacy have been fleshed out well with good dialogues. All professors in Hogwarts have distinct personalities, which you learn about by interacting with them throughout your school year. They all have a different outlook towards things, and a perspective that you would like to learn about. In fact, they even have different opinions about each other, and the things taught in other classes too.
Ranrok, an evil goblin and Rookwood, a dark wizard, the main villains of the story are people that you learn to hate as you go along the way. Ranrok has been written exceptionally well and his design provides him with the perfect evil goblin look you’d expect. He also has the right motivation for his actions, one that you can relate to at a certain level. Rookwood, on the other hand, has fewer interactions, but you get the scum of the earth vibe from him as soon as you cross paths with him.
Hogwarts Legacy has not left the side mission characters behind. Instead, the developers have planned these characters with different personalities. Side missions also give you a chance to interact with other students that are attending the school and ones who are trying to leave their mark on this world. You also interact with a lot of strangers that you need to help with the problems they are facing.
In all this, the game has not left you, the player, and the personality of your character behind. However, you choose the personality of your character according to the dialogue options you select when interacting with other characters. You could go for whatever type you want, from the sweet and kind-hearted to shrewd and co*cky to even downright evil and rude. The options you choose do not have a significant impact on the broader story, but they do change how interactive situations play out.
Ancient Magic and the troubles of Hogsmeade
The main storyline of Hogwarts Legacy teaches you the secrets of Ancient Magic and the trouble it could create once one could harness it. It's your task to stop Ranrok and the lot from getting their hands on this frightening power. Later, you can choose what you wish to do with this Ancient Magic. Through the storyline, the title of the game is justified, as you really do end up creating your own legacy at Hogwarts.
Through the dialogues, exhilarating combat and a vast variety of characters and enemies, players will continue to be immersed in the game for the whole journey. Every mission ends up teaching you something new, and your curiosity for power and knowledge will keep motivating you to spend more time in this universe. Players also end up interacting with memorable characters and visiting iconic locations from the films and the books during the main storyline.
During the story, players need to unlock certain skills or spells to progress in the game. Overall, one can complete the main story within 30-35 hours. But it will take significantly longer to complete the rest of the other parts of the game, including all the side missions. Digging deeper, the side missions in Hogwarts Legacy have a life of their own. Some of them can be repetitive, but most have a certain charm to them. One side mission called “Minding Your Own Business” was one of the most exciting missions in the game, which really shows you the thought that the developers put in while creating this game. The Unforgivable Curses are also taught to you through Sebastian Sallow’s relationship quest line.
Hogwarts Legacy has also added Assignments as a different category of side missions. Instead of the normal side missions, only the Professors at Hogwarts can give you Assignments. These are the ones that you will be highly motivated to complete as you learn spells from these side missions. Going about these side missions is easy, but some might require spending money. This is worth mentioning as earning money can be a challenge in the first half of the game.
Spells and Unforgivable Curses
The aspect of Spells and Unforgivable curses is the area where Hogwarts Legacy shines the brightest. Players can wield almost all the spells they have heard of in the Harry Potter books and films, except for Expecto Patronum. This is because there are no Dementors in the game. These spells are used for everything you wish to do in the game, including combat, exploration, customising the Room of Requirement or puzzle solving. The final one being something that you would desire to do from such a title.
There are more spells available in the game than the slots you can unlock. This results in players forgetting about some spells and prioritising on their favourites. There are many enemies for you to practice these spells on in the game. Players can take on Dark Wizards, Poachers, Ranrok Loyalists which are evil Goblins, Spiders, Trolls and other beasts that are spread across the world. Combat does not feature a hack and slash styled experience, as players will have to strategically use spells to take down their enemies.
Using Unforgivable Curses is a delight in the game. Though, they can make the game too easy at times. The Unforgivable Curses consist of Avada Kedavra, Crucio and Imperio. It is worth noting that it is optional for players to learn these Unforgivable Curses. However, with the right build, players can turn defeating enemies into a breeze. Avada Kedavra one-shots any enemy, Cruico tortures them and spreads a curse mark to other enemies, and Imperio makes the enemy your ally for a few moments.
RPG nature and the final chapter of Hogwarts Legacy's story
Hogwarts Legacy also shows its RPG nature through the combat, as players can customise their build and spread their skill points according to their play style. The only issue is that players can only spend these skill points once, so they cannot try out different builds through the same playthrough. They will have to start a brand-new game from scratch to do so.
The game developers have also directed the conclusion of the game well. Firstly, Hogwarts Legacy ends with dramatic flair and the wins do not come without the losses. Finally, the game has plenty of twists and turns that you would not expect.
Hogwarts Legacy has been priced at the same level as any AAA console title that has released in the recent years. Shelving out INR 4,399 for a game needs to be considered by many players as it is a steep amount. However, players will not feel that the price is unjustified when they get to playing the game.
In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours. It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.
