Hogwarts Legacy - Harry Potter open world action RPG prequel set in the late 1800s

[Viata]

Yes, this is the best selling series of forest-killing books in human history, outside of the holy Bible (which is an anthology, but semantics).

I'm pretty sure Agatha Christie has the second place.

Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

 

[Tyranicon]

Yes, this is the best selling series of forest-killing books in human history, outside of the holy Bible (which is an anthology, but semantics).

I'm pretty sure Agatha Christie has the second place.

Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

Emphasis added, although I have no idea how well the Poirot or Miss Marple books sold. I'm simply going off wikipedia.

 

[Lambach]

Yes, this is the best selling series of forest-killing books in human history, outside of the holy Bible (which is an anthology, but semantics).

I'm pretty sure Agatha Christie has the second place.

Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

HP is the highest-selling single book series, you're referring to the total number of book copies sold from all of Agatha's several book series combined.

 

[cigaretteEnjoyer_despirit]

Why do normies flock to open-world shit? I'm pretty sure a lot of people who bought this didn't even care about Harry Potter and jumped on the OMG AAA OPEN-WORLD hype train

Its a good game formula. You can mark territory, get the feeling of achievement and competence via solving little tasks, which are varied. You're in control of the pace because you pick activities on your own while exploring. There's a greater sense of ownership and control than in linear games. All the activities slowly add up to your overall power which unlocks new challenges and areas. Arguably, a "default" game should lean towards this, at least by having an overworld, to pick missions and buy upgrades from. The normies are not wrong when flocking to this kind of games. Unfortunately, the formula is so good that even when the game itself falls short, it can still be enjoyable. So lots of mediocre releases, that eventually make people turn away from the formula, but that revulsion is misplaced.

 

[Axioms]

I think we can reach a rational conclusion that depending on your tolerance for and exposure to common open world game padding mechanics H:L is a 7-8/10. It absolutely could have been much better. That doesn't mean it is junk. They could have provided far more of a "school sim" experience. Could you play multiple years of Hogwarts: Legacy? Probably not. There's not enough underlying structure mechanically. Can they get away with it because the plot resolves in a single year? Probably yes.

You could have way more meaningful classes, possibly a combination of Academagia, theory not necessarily how it actually worked in that game, and earlier Harry Potter games. I'm partial to the Gameboy Potter games personally though I did play one of the Gamecube ones? One thing Academagia put a lot of work into and would probably have been meaningful if they ever put out the other 4 years, was the clique system and the character interactions therein. Also the companion adventures. Easier to do the latter in a menu game of course. They had cool holidays with long sequences of events and choices much like a real boarding school, magical or otherwise.

I do think that having a clique could be hard in some sense in a Potter game because you couldn't just pick any set of characters and expect to succeed. Perhaps a core set of mandated friends with some flexibility to the relationship interactions and then picking 2 or 3 secondary characters as well?

Academagia actually had a decent method for handling classes and tests, even if they could have deepened it a bit. Studying and casting spells to help you and going to cool locations for special actions was good fun.

 

[S.torch]

And yeah JK is not a good world builder and there's tons of reasons why.

It starts to be annoying that this is currently being parroted. Rowling may not have many fans in the Codex but the fact is the people who made this game couldn't even keep it up with the fairly straightforward world she made. I watched an hour of gameplay or so to see a bit of what the game was up to, and just from the top of my head:

- In the beginning of the game 2 people are killed. In matter of minutes later the characters who see these people getting killed, which includes the protagonist, acts like nothing happened and that's like everyday occurrence. For those who don't know, the world of Harry Potter is a fairly civilized, people don't get routinely killed and, in the books, not many people die, and every time it happens characters don't take it lightly, precisely because is not common.

- Main character travels to a place and is given like 3 spells without he's making anything. No studying, no nothing, just given these spells. It's a bit too little effort for someone that is just recently joining Hogwarts.

- There are supposed to be certain restrictions on the magic that students can use outside of school. But the protagonist uses them quite deliberately.

- The teacher who accompanies us does not hesitate to put himself and us in danger. While the teachers at Hogwarts used to take a certain amount of paternal care with the students in dangerous situations.

- At a certain point in the beginning, enemies appear, and without first making an overtly hostile move, our protagonist and the professor draw their wands with the intention of attacking, jumping in a dangerous situation again very quickly. But when these same enemies then show every intention of harming a neutral bystander, the characters do nothing to prevent it.

- Again, little mention of a person being harmed by events. With that would be three people injured or killed just at the beginning.

- One of the sensations that stick with me the most when reading the books or watching the films is the first time the Hogwarts dining room appears. Ever since I was a child, that room has been etched in my mind, both for the food and for how alive it felt (it helps that I'm a hobo who barely eats, so the fact that there was so much food left me dazed). But here you walk into the Hogwarts dining room and... it just doesn't feel as lively.

About the conversation regarding Purebloods and Muggles. Bloodlines DO have some effect on the type of magic characters use. With one or more wizard parents, their offspring will have magical abilities. Whereas when the parents are Muggles, it is very uncertain or unlikely that the children will acquire magical abilities. This also states that wizarding bloodlines take precedence over non-magical bloodlines, so it only takes one wizarding parent for a child to acquire them.

Very simple but quite concrete details which the book respects. Which I think Rowling deserves merit for.

 

[Delterius]

While the teachers at Hogwarts used to take a certain amount of paternal care with the students in dangerous situations.

this isn't your genx aunt's harry potter its more radical and besides the wizards hadn't invented the magic CIA spell tracking service in 18XX

besides didn't hogwarts send students to detention in the nearby death forest

 

[Viata]

Told ya guys they didn't even used the book as sources:

it's questionable if they even used the books as inspiration

 

[Roguey]

Very simple but quite concrete details which the book respects. Which I think Rowling deserves merit for.

Rowling through The Blair Partnership rubberstamped all of this.

 

[Lambach]

this isn't your genx aunt's harry potter its more radical and besides the wizards hadn't invented the magic CIA spell tracking service in 18XX

Fucking snowflake libruls totally pussified this generation of Wizards.

Back in my day, in the good ol' 1890's, men were allowed to be men and no one cared when a 15-year-old student just whipped out his 9mm Wand and started spamming Avada Kedavra like a motherfucker in full view of his school professors.

 

[Axioms]

I mean again this is all an artifact of the original middle grade target audience. Of course when you operate in any sort of "realpolitik" world the various rules make no sense. Realistically the smart play for a Potter game is to go much harder on the school sim aspect and focus on the prank spells and stuff. Making a dumb save the world from murder wizards plotline was a huge whiff from the devs and whoever had creative control.

This is another area where for all the limitations and missteps Academagia really excelled. The various levels of morality in general and use of dark or darker magic in general were much more well done than in Hogwarts: Legacy. I mean it isn't like you can even study dark magic or do much besides immediately cast the killing curse. Being "evil" is so simplistic and shallow.

 

[Axioms]

Unrelated so a separate post, they abused the hell out of the Room Of Requirement. Totally immersion breaking. I suppose Potterheads will be so excited to engage with key lore elements that they will ironically not care about how little sense some of these story decisions make.

 

[Zombra]

This game has some crazy level scaling. I was out killing all manner of wild critters and every single one of them was level 16 which just so happens to be the level I am at. What kind of lazy shit is that.

Hey, on the subject of meaningless flying numbers, how much of the UI can you turn off in this game?

 

[S.torch]

this isn't your genx aunt's harry potter its more radical and besides the wizards hadn't invented the magic CIA spell tracking service in 18XX

They don't need any tracking spell. The teacher just saw the character casting those before his eyes.

 

[Delterius]

this isn't your genx aunt's harry potter its more radical and besides the wizards hadn't invented the magic CIA spell tracking service in 18XX

They don't need any tracking spell. The teacher just saw the character casting those before his eyes.

it was before your time. back then the ministry of magic didn't have the incredibly fungible worldwide surveillance machine so people just didn't tell on each other (pinky promise)

 

[cigaretteEnjoyer_despirit]

I mean again this is all an artifact of the original middle grade target audience. Of course when you operate in any sort of "realpolitik" world the various rules make no sense. Realistically the smart play for a Potter game is to go much harder on the school sim aspect and focus on the prank spells and stuff. Making a dumb save the world from murder wizards plotline was a huge whiff from the devs and whoever had creative control.

This is my complaint as well. On the other hand, one has to admit that what they're doing here is closer to capturing the spirit of the books and movies. Which are also not about attending classes and passing exams, but about the special student who's supposed to save the school from whatever trouble its in at the time(while occasionally attending classes, just like in the game). The proportions of learning/adventuring are probably closer to the source material here than they'd be in our perfect Persona/Bully/Academagia vision.

 

[BrotherFrank]

 

[Axioms]

I mean again this is all an artifact of the original middle grade target audience. Of course when you operate in any sort of "realpolitik" world the various rules make no sense. Realistically the smart play for a Potter game is to go much harder on the school sim aspect and focus on the prank spells and stuff. Making a dumb save the world from murder wizards plotline was a huge whiff from the devs and whoever had creative control.

This is my complaint as well. On the other hand, one has to admit that what they're doing here is closer to capturing the spirit of the books and movies. Which are also not about attending classes and passing exams, but about the special student who's supposed to save the school from whatever trouble its in at the time(while occasionally attending classes, just like in the game). The proportions of learning/adventuring are probably closer to the source material here than they'd be in our perfect Persona/Bully/Academagia vision.

I mean in the sense that the books and movies gloss over the time Harry spends doing non-plot relevant stuff, sure. But a lot of value comes from *knowing* that he actually did do that stuff. Which in the game is not the case.

 

[cigaretteEnjoyer_despirit]

I mean in the sense that the books and movies gloss over the time Harry spends doing non-plot relevant stuff, sure. But a lot of value comes from *knowing* that he actually did do that stuff. Which in the game is not the case.

Yeah, thats what I mean. But how much value would come from *knowing* your character studies or attends classes off-screen? Not much, I think. At least all the complaints so far have been about the lack of school sim elements that you can participate in, not about the fact its not hinted enough that your guy studies in-between adventures.

 

[Axioms]

I mean in the sense that the books and movies gloss over the time Harry spends doing non-plot relevant stuff, sure. But a lot of value comes from *knowing* that he actually did do that stuff. Which in the game is not the case.

Yeah, thats what I mean. But how much value would come from *knowing* your character studies or attends classes off-screen? Not much, I think. At least all the complaints so far have been about the lack of school sim elements that you can participate in, not about the fact its not hinted enough that your guy studies in-between adventures.

No I mean in the books and movie we know that Harry did all the stuff that wasn't included in the story but that the author/director removed it to keep things at a fast pace. In the game we don't get the same feeling because the character is *us* and not some other person who we get the cliff notes for. So you feel like all that happens is the combat grind and maybe grabbing some exploration flags or w/e. Moreover in the game the other characters don't actually do anything. H:L doesn't simulate anything that is out of your notice.

 

[Nano]

This is something I don't get.

Why does every square inch of a game world need some bespoke content?

maybe it's because of my upbringing in which I was dragged, begrudgingly, to the great outdoors and made to appreciate nature for its own sake, but part of what I loved about Breadth of the Wild was how much of its world felt like natural wilderness- devoid of necessity for the player.

Because walking outside IRL is relaxing and good for you while doing it in a video game is a boring fucking waste of time, especially when developers add collectibles and fetch quests all over the place (which they always do).

I'd rather have a pretty vista than be forced to fight the same Watch-Dog monster 21 times (or Hippogryff as the case may be.)

You don't think having some actual fun content would be better than both?

 

[Harthwain]

I'll try to rephrase it again. You acknowledge that there is people that are exerting their influence, you just disagree that this "influence usage" is about mass immigration and cultural war, and dismiss it as a matter of happenstance. I think this is a naïve take on things.

It may be naive, but I just don't think we need a reason to link the two together. The "cultural war" (or the political correctness) alone is enough to explain why Hogwarts from 1800 is so different from the one in the first Harry Potter books. Less is more.

Activsion-Blizzard was bought for 69 billions dollars. Just like for rpg, there is threshold where it's not about how much money you can gain, but what can you do with such a tremendous amount. Turns out the answers is rarely "I'm going to build a fort Scrooge McDuck-style". I don't think I will be able to convince you on this, but for me it's clear that there is point where greed alone is not longer the driving factor.

I am not sure about that. Some people have more money that they could spend in their entire life, yet they still want more. It's a force of habit at this point. But I will agree that you can veer off into exerting influence instead of simply keeping making money.

I did not say that you did that, but I think that it will be again, naïve, to except except the same of everyone when politics and ideology are concerned. Do you really think politic debate are all about arguing in good faith ?

No, of course not. But I think some people go too deep into making things more complex than they are. Not everything has to be a conspiracy. We don't need the Illuminati to explain what's going on, it only make such people look like loons. You can be a lot more convincing by using a much more reasonable approach and rhetoric. I mean, talking about vaccines turning people into lizards by altering their genetical structure is pretty much a sci-fi land (or Spider-Man), whereas saying that quickly made vaccines can have potentially harmful effects later on is much more reasonable thing to say and much more believable as a result.

- In the beginning of the game 2 people are killed. In matter of minutes later the characters who see these people getting killed, which includes the protagonist, acts like nothing happened and that's like everyday occurrence. For those who don't know, the world of Harry Potter is a fairly civilized, people don't get routinely killed and, in the books, not many people die, and every time it happens characters don't take it lightly, precisely because is not common.

Considering this is a video game I am not surprised whatsoever. Besides, there were people who died in the books (a whole bunch of them, in fact) and some even stuck around as ghosts, so let's not claim like death is something unheard of in Harry Potter universe. If anything, I'd put more emphasis on the player being able to learn Avada Kedavra and being able to use it with no consequences (that I know of).

- Main character travels to a place and is given like 3 spells without he's making anything. No studying, no nothing, just given these spells. It's a bit too little effort for someone that is just recently joining Hogwarts.

At the very beginning it was mentioned that the main character studied and was trained the the professor. The spells are simply unlocked during the game as part of the tutorial/prologue. Unless you mean after getting admitted to the school?

- There are supposed to be certain restrictions on the magic that students can use outside of school. But the protagonist uses them quite deliberately.

There are some explanations possible here:

1) The player could be a special case. Keep in mind that he had to learn how to use magic before getting accepted into Hogwarts as the 5th year.

2) If we consider the whole map of Hogwart's Legacy to be a part of Hogwarts, then there is no problem with being able to use magic there. No idea how true this is though.

3) I would imagine that nobody is tracking ancient magic nor I suppose it is possible for wizards to tell that somebody underage (or anyone, really) is using magic in the Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Before you do get there the one using the spells in the open is the professor, who is allowed to do so.

- The teacher who accompanies us does not hesitate to put himself and us in danger. While the teachers at Hogwarts used to take a certain amount of paternal care with the students in dangerous situations.

Some teachers went with their students into danger in the books (granted, most of them weren't Good Guys™).

 

[Lagole Gon]

Posting on a page 88.

 

[Fictive Cunt]

Rate me old or gay or whatever, but I'm surprised the game devs didn't just copy paste the assets from the movies. If it's all WB and they have rights sharing I wonder why there's so many discrepancies between the films and game.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Nice people they got there working on.