Hogwarts: Legacy

[Dragon Lord]

So I went ahead and pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition for PS5 since there's a few pre-order bonuses, and the Deluxe Edition also comes with getting the game three days early as well (if Amazon doesn't botch the shipping, I should get my copy on the 7th instead of the 10th). Decided to go with PlayStation for platform because the game has a quest on PS that's going to be exclusive to that platform for one year, and doing the quest will unlock a shop that you can sell items and gear to for a higher price than normal, so seems worth getting the game on PS5 over PC, since I don't imagine I'll still be playing this game in a year, haha.

[Moonface]

I forgot this game has timed content for PlayStation, despite seeing a lot of complaints about it when it was announced. Although that was mostly aimed at Sony's hypocrisy for complaining Microsoft was going to make some Activision things exclusive if that sale goes through then in the same breath is paying to get timed content.
As for the Deluxe Edition, I wonder how long any of that Dark Arts stuff will remain exclusive to that edition; that's if it ever does get released out to those who only get the standard edition.


Also for those who are playing this or getting it for someone else to play it, what House are you planning to pick?

[Dragon Lord]

I'm probably going to pick Slytherin just because I like sneks.

I don't really have any attachments to any of the houses though, nor do I dislike any of them for any reason. I haven't looked into much info on the game as I mentioned before, so I don't know if the houses have certain boons they grant by being in them, but if not, I'll just go with Slytherin.

[Kyng]

As a life-long Harry Potter fan, I expect I'll be getting it myself - although, because it's been hyped to such an immense degree, I do worry that people are going to go into it with unrealistic expectations - and anything less than perfection will be viewed as a disappointment.

Either that, or it'll simply be too ambitious for most people's hardware - but, since I got a new gaming laptop just this week, I guess now would be the best chance for me to try it .

[Heatman]

The video game is already out for Playstation 5. It's not yet out for me on my Playstation 4. I think that it should be out on Playstation 4 by April 4th. I'm waiting for it.

[Moonface]

I'm probably going to pick Slytherin just because I like sneks.

I don't really have any attachments to any of the houses though, nor do I dislike any of them for any reason. I haven't looked into much info on the game as I mentioned before, so I don't know if the houses have certain boons they grant by being in them, but if not, I'll just go with Slytherin.

I'm not 100% certain if certain houses have different perks, but I expect the only main difference gameplay wise will be you're more likely to befriend people of your own house over others. Depending on their portrayal in the game perhaps Slytherin will have a harder time befriending others because in the books that house looked down on everyone else. The definitive difference would be the house common rooms, which I'm under the impression you only get access to the common room of your own house. I could see a lot of people picking Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw just to see their common rooms, as those are never seen in the movies or mentioned in the books.

The video game is already out for Playstation 5. It's not yet out for me on my Playstation 4. I think that it should be out on Playstation 4 by April 4th. I'm waiting for it.

I think it's only out on PS5 for Deluxe Edition owners, who get 72 hours early access to the game. General release is supposed to be Feb. 10th, and yes, PS4 and XBO are April 4th.

As a life-long Harry Potter fan, I expect I'll be getting it myself - although, because it's been hyped to such an immense degree, I do worry that people are going to go into it with unrealistic expectations - and anything less than perfection will be viewed as a disappointment.

Either that, or it'll simply be too ambitious for most people's hardware - but, since I got a new gaming laptop just this week, I guess now would be the best chance for me to try it .

Seems overall to be reviewing pretty well critically:

Of all the ones listed IGN is the only one I've seen anything of their review, and the summary of that was the game seems to have some technical issues (not surprised) but otherwise is everything someone could want from a Harry Potter game.

[Dragon Lord]

It's actually tomorrow (the 7th) that Deluxe Edition and Collector's Edition buyers get to start playing the game.

Though it looks like I might not be getting my three day early access... or access for the next month. I got an email from Amazon today saying that my estimated time of delivery is now March 1st. If this ends up being the case, and I don't get another email from them later today saying mine has shipped, I'll likely cancel my order through them and also cancel my Prime, because this would just be the final straw that broke the camel's back with all of the issues Amazon has given me over the last year.

[Moonface]

Eww, I wouldn't be willing to pay full price for the Deluxe Edition if I wasn't getting one of the key things in it, and definitely not when I'm getting it almost a month late. Not surprised to hear Amazon dicked you over though DL; I've not really had a great time with ordering from them lately either.

[Dragon Lord]

I got another email from them confirming the delay in shipping, so I immediately canceled my order. Looked around other places, but the Deluxe Edition was completely sold out every where... not really sure why. It has no physical media with it other than the game itself, so how do you run out of stock?

Anyways, as much as I hate buying digital, I just went ahead and bought the Digital Deluxe Edition on PS5 so that I could still play it today while also getting the goodies. Really hate buying games digitally when a physical copy exists, but oh well. Guess I can make an exception for once. Maybe I'll pick up a physical copy some time down the road when it's on sale for like $20 just to have it in my collection.

[Moonface]

Yeah if the Deluxe doesn't come with anything physical except the game you may as well just grab a digital copy and then get the physical on a sale later just to have it. I don't get how that edition can even sell out except for it coming with a cover saying "Deluxe" on it and a code in the box. I feel like it would be better when any game does a special edition like that to not bother with a special cover and instead just have codes that get printed and shipped with the standard game, because then if a retailer runs out of codes they could just request more or something. I dunno, just seems like it's a limited supply item that could easily be unlimited or done on demand.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, it really boggled my mind how it could possibly sell out. Really just a shitty situation all around, but oh well I guess.

So far the game is pretty fun, granted I've spent most of my time just exploring around finding loot and doing puzzles. They allow you to explore a surprising amount of the school before doing the first main quests of the game. Though I have encountered a lot of locks that I'm unable to open, so I'm assuming I'll have to progress to learn a spell to unlock them, or perhaps I just need to be a certain level to get past them.

Graphics-wise the game really does look gorgeous, and I'm very surprised by how good the character models are and especially how good the mouth/lip sync with words are. Probably one of the best cases of feeling like the animations are properly matching the words (for the most part) that are being said.

[Moonface]

They allow you to explore a surprising amount of the school before doing the first main quests of the game. Though I have encountered a lot of locks that I'm unable to open, so I'm assuming I'll have to progress to learn a spell to unlock them, or perhaps I just need to be a certain level to get past them.

I can see that. I imagine most players are going to want to explore the school as the first thing they do in the game once they have free reign, so may as well make a decent amount of it accessible. It was like this in the PS2 games as well; most regular locations were open and the only restricted things were story specific, or areas locked behind spells.

Graphics-wise the game really does look gorgeous, and I'm very surprised by how good the character models are and especially how good the mouth/lip sync with words are. Probably one of the best cases of feeling like the animations are properly matching the words (for the most part) that are being said.

That's actually surprising, only because the gameplay footage I watched that was about a month or so ago didn't seem to have great mouth-sync present, but I also don't know what build that was. I know sometimes developers will use an older build for showcases than what the current one actually is even if the game is almost finished. Regardless, it's still neat to hear of another case of another game improving on something notably from its preview footage rather than going the opposite direction like most games do.


Did the choice of house actually provide any differences besides common room access?

[ShiraNoMai]

IGN? You OK?

[Dragon Lord]

They allow you to explore a surprising amount of the school before doing the first main quests of the game. Though I have encountered a lot of locks that I'm unable to open, so I'm assuming I'll have to progress to learn a spell to unlock them, or perhaps I just need to be a certain level to get past them.

I can see that. I imagine most players are going to want to explore the school as the first thing they do in the game once they have free reign, so may as well make a decent amount of it accessible. It was like this in the PS2 games as well; most regular locations were open and the only restricted things were story specific, or areas locked behind spells.

Graphics-wise the game really does look gorgeous, and I'm very surprised by how good the character models are and especially how good the mouth/lip sync with words are. Probably one of the best cases of feeling like the animations are properly matching the words (for the most part) that are being said.

That's actually surprising, only because the gameplay footage I watched that was about a month or so ago didn't seem to have great mouth-sync present, but I also don't know what build that was. I know sometimes developers will use an older build for showcases than what the current one actually is even if the game is almost finished. Regardless, it's still neat to hear of another case of another game improving on something notably from its preview footage rather than going the opposite direction like most games do.


Did the choice of house actually provide any differences besides common room access?

So far nothing yet, but I guess there are some quests that you can only do if you're in a certain house. At least that's what I read. Can't confirm if it's true or not yet. 

Man, after seeing the way people are acting towards streamers playing HL, I might just buy a physical copy at full price just to support the game more.

[Moonface]

IGN? You OK?

What irks me most with their review is that the concluding summary that gets attached to the score makes no summary of the game having any problems besides technical ones, and that everything else is good or better. Meanwhile their actual review itself proceeds to constantly state flaws with the game itself in a way that it doesn't come off as a review that would end with a 9/10. Just baffling and reinforces the belief that IGN's reviews are influenced by money even if they're not.