Hogwarts Legacy - Gameplay Reaction

[largh]

Seriously though, it would be pretty stupid to make an RPG about a school without character progression. Was it even an option? I hope it's not consolified progression, but proper RPG progression with experience, levels and everything...

Could be just learning about new spells, though, and no stats.

EDIT: Here is a quote from the site @Redglyph linked:

Q: How do players level up in Hogwarts Legacy?
A: In addition to classes and spells, players will have access to a deep set of upgrades, talents and skills to aid their progression as a witch or wizard. They can complete challenges throughout the world to earn experience and level up their abilities. Magical gear can also be upgraded and specialized to increase offensive and defensive capabilities in a chosen playstyle.

 

[Redglyph]

...BUT you can be sure that you can make a transgender character in this game I know, I know, that's what you always wanted to make. A definition of a good game!

If they don't want to be called names, they must have included that possibility along with choices of colour and romance preferences. It's interesting to see the differences between modern and older games in that area.

At least they have given a choice between male / female, and a custom name, instead of sticking to a Harry Potter MC.

 

[Avantre]

The character creation seemed to be cosmetic only? Maybe that's normal if the main character is defined in the setting, but I didn't see any sort of progression. According to their FAQ there are skills and such, though, so that should be fine.

Previews showed the player getting XP, and you can briefly see the game's talent tree at 10:05 in this video. There's locks people were walking past in the preview which said 'Level 2 lock', so the spells (or at least the unlocking spell) can be upgraded, whether in the talents section or the spells section. And gear was previously confirmed to have traits (eg 'Decreased Damage taken from Trolls') that could be added to them (see 14:25 in the same video).

So there is some level of customisation available, it's just a question of how deep it is. Some of the previewers said they were asked to avoid showing the spell and talents tooltips in their recordings to avoid spoiling it, but the proper reviews in a week or two will probably confirm what's what for character progression.

 

[JDR13]

The previews I've seen were on PS5, not PC, and in the only decent preview I could find, the guy was struggling with the controller - he must have been a PC guy. So I hope they've implemented a decent K+M system. What I mean is, I hope it's not too arcarde-ish and combat-focused.

I'm seeing it referred to as an action-RPG, and the genre tags on the Steam page are Action, Adventure, and RPG. I think we should expect that it's probably going to be on the arcadey side.

 

[Avantre]

I'm seeing it referred to as an action-RPG, and the genre tags on the Steam page are Action, Adventure, and RPG. I think we should expect that it's probably going to be on the arcadey side.

Honestly it seems to play a bit like Assassins Creed from the previews. You can stealth (Disillusionment charm to make you semi-invisible), you can stealth attack (petrification charm).

Actual combat while definitely action orientated does seem to have strategy as it's a case of mixing and matching your spells. So you have counters for opponents various magical shields (one class of spells is effective against one class of shields, another is effective against another shield, and the same is true for attacks against your shields or you can dodge). You can use environment items (barrels, for example) in fights, you have items you can use (the one I saw used was a mandrake, which stunned the nearby opponents for a few seconds. But the player also talked about having a potion that could reduce casting time and there were other things in their tool wheel as well).

The ones who button mashed their duels in the previews were the ones who died, it did require a bit of thinking even if it's just "yellow shield means I cast my yellow spell to break it".

 

[pibbuR]

//Deleted

 

[booboo]

Watched some of the lastest vids. The combat looks a bit shootery, and spammable, wading through groups of enemies - which is somehow disappointing to me. I'm not a huge HP fan (only managed to read part of book 1 then stopped ) but in the movies at least wand combat was a high-stress affair, and you often only got through with diffculty - it was really challenging and 'fraught'. Here its just blam*blam enemies dispatched. Sure, you may have neat combos, but its seems sort of gimicky. And apparently you can use the 'unforgivable curses' (or whatever they are called) with very little consequence (kind of like using dark side powers with no conseqence in certain games No, I don't know what I was hoping for exactly, just giving an impression on combat at least. Perhaps even though the vids focussed on combat, you don't spend that much time engaged in it?

 

[JFarrell71]

Perhaps even though the vids focussed on combat, you don't spend that much time engaged in it?

I hope so. I'd like to see a wide variety of creative applications of magic, as well as other sorts of activities. The books/movies barely had any direct conflict at all compared to the overall story, after all.

Wouldn't surprise me. It's the norm to show the most actiony, combat heavy parts of just about every game that includes combat in the pre-release videos. It seems to be the consensus of marketing departments that that's how you drum up the most interest.

 

[Arkadia7]

It looks pretty good for a Harry Potter books fan...I'm not one (never read them or saw any of the movies), but I can see the appeal if I was a fan. The exploration and world graphics do look very good.