Hogwarts Legacy

[Peelee]

I'd strongly argue against buying the game on the basis of its IP and the way the IP has been used in recent years. I don't know where the line is on what is and isn't forum appropriate, so I'll just leave off on that line by echoing pendell's comment that Rowling has, to put it mildly, been extremely divisive in recent years and with how heavily tied she is to the Harry Potter franchise, you can't really support the franchise without also supporting her platform.

I would like to point out that there is a 100% chance used copies for sale will exist and used copies give zero royalties or additional sales numbers to the franchise, so one can absolutely purchase the game without supporting the franchise. It would take patience, though.

Maybe it should have been called "Vincent Clortho Public School for Wizards: The Legacy"

Wouldn't work, school is in England. "Public schools" for them are private schools that charge directly. Hogwarts seems to be what they call a "state school".

[Divayth Fyr]

I would like to point out that there is a 100% chance used copies for sale will exist and used copies give zero royalties or additional sales numbers to the franchise, so one can absolutely purchase the game without supporting the franchise. It would take patience, though

Are there any drm-free PC version available?

[Trafalgar]

Wouldn't work, school is in England. "Public schools" for them are private schools that charge directly. Hogwarts seems to be what they call a "state school".

Vincent Clortho Public School for Wizards is located in the United States. HBO made a documentary about it you can watch here.

The same way Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are located in Hungary and France (I think).

[Peelee]

Vincent Clortho Public School for Wizards is located in the United States. HBO made a documentary about it you can watch here.

The same way Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are located in Hungary and France (I think).

Ah. That was a very interesting exposé, I greatly enjoyed it.

[The Glyphstone]

The top commenter is right - I'd watch this, it's a gold mine of sitcom potential.

[Sapphire Guard]

I lost it at 'wand with a silencer' and the security guy's genuine exasperation at the pointlessness of it.

[Trafalgar]

Key & Peele definitely have some geek cred. The name "Vincent Clortho" is a Ghostbusters reference.

[Anarchic Fox]

Maybe a difference of mindset; it seems we agree on the broader point. I'm not a fan of the Thing. But from my perspective the Thing has had zero involvement in the actual property in over a decade, and even if the game sold zero copies it would have zero impact on the Thing's existence; it would still be around, doing Thing things, and nobody can stop it.

That is why, to me, the controversy IS inconsequential. Because it ultimately will accomplish nothing. The source of the controversy is not, but I just can't bring myself to care enough about a choice whose consequences are nonexistent.

Hmm. This still seems like a quietist stance to me. But then, I myself have quietist tendencies, so I'm not in a position to judge.

{Scrubbed}

[pendell]

Wait a minute ... why does a wand need a silencer? It's not a firearm, there's no loud BANG when it fires , right?

And I thought noise suppressors were de rigeur on any firearms used at a range, so that the shooters don't suffer hearing loss?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Zevox]

I think the only annoying thing so far is definitely the early game has a lot *nudge nudge* "Hey do you remember this thing? Apparation? Accio? Portkeys? Weasleys and Blacks?" etc. etc.

As someone familiar with the source material, I found it obtrusive. Like I get it, this is the first really big AAA game based on the franchise, they want to nostalgia bait as much as possible. But yeesh, tone it down a notch.

HOWEVER...for someone fresh to the franchise I think the more nostalgia bait-y aspects would fly over your head (there is zero reason to be attached to the fact that there's a Professor Weasley or that the headmaster of the school is one of Sirius's ancestors) and the more...mechanical bits acts as a great introduction to how things work in the wizarding world.

So far it seems like being a fan of the source material is optional, and perhaps even a detriment insofar as it might test your tolerance for how many winks and nudges you can take in a short timespan.

From my playtime so far, I don't think jumping in fresh would be an issue. It's an entirely game original plot, set about 200 years before the actual series, so you don't have that awkward issue of "the adaptation has glossed over critical plot details because they assume you've read the books" like the movies had (no, seriously, a few of the movies cut PLOT CRITICAL scenes and the movie only makes sense if you've read the books lol).

The setting is pretty succinctly set up early on, with basically all you need to know being that magic can do anything, and therefore magic is used for EVERYTHING.

The only time so far I've used book knowledge to make a decision is I decided to do one story quest before another because I saw an optional collectible early on that looked like it needed the spell I would get from said quest, and that's a pretty small decision since both story quests are non-optional.

Yeah, I'd heard about it being set well before the books, which was one of the things that helped it catch my eye, since that made it more likely that it would be friendly to someone unfamiliar with the existing material.

Sounds good. I'll add it to my to-play list. Not sure when I'll get to it, but there's not a much coming that's a day 1 must-play for me in between now and June, so I'm sure I'll find time.

[Mordokai]

I'd strongly argue against buying the game on the basis of its IP and the way the IP has been used in recent years. I don't know where the line is on what is and isn't forum appropriate, so I'll just leave off on that line by echoing pendell's comment that Rowling has, to put it mildly, been extremely divisive in recent years and with how heavily tied she is to the Harry Potter franchise, you can't really support the franchise without also supporting her platform.

I... don't believe this to be true.

Now, I will preface everything from this point on with the following statement. I have no stake in the whole controversy. I do believe JKR is wrong in her opinion(which cannot be discussed any further, per forum rules).

With that in mind...

I haven't been in AAA games scene for a long time. I believe Hogwarts Legacy falls under that banner. I know of it mostly because of meme compilations from youtube, which seem to be, to my eye, at least, somewhat right-leaning. That said, I also get the feeling there has been a lot of smoke where there is very little fire. I don't know if developers have any ties with JKR, other than IP itself. Hell, there has been a meme going around that you can designate your male wizard as a witch. I assume the reverse to hold true.

If that is so, it alone is a huge spit in JRK's face and the whole controversy. If it's not true... there is an old adage of separating the art from the artist.

I get it. It may be hard to do so. Impossible, even. If that is the case for any individual... I get it. I honestly do. But the other side of the record should hold true as well. Just because somebody bought the game(or any piece of media, actually) you personally disagree with, it doesn't mean they hate you and everything you stand for. It doesn't mean they stand with the author and everything they preach.

They may just enjoy the world.

[Forum Explorer]

I... don't believe this to be true.

Now, I will preface everything from this point on with the following statement. I have no stake in the whole controversy. I do believe JKR is wrong in her opinion(which cannot be discussed any further, per forum rules).

With that in mind...

I haven't been in AAA games scene for a long time. I believe Hogwarts Legacy falls under that banner. I know of it mostly because of meme compilations from youtube, which seem to be, to my eye, at least, somewhat right-leaning. That said, I also get the feeling there has been a lot of smoke where there is very little fire. I don't know if developers have any ties with JKR, other than IP itself. Hell, there has been a meme going around that you can designate your male wizard as a witch. I assume the reverse to hold true.

If that is so, it alone is a huge spit in JRK's face and the whole controversy. If it's not true... there is an old adage of separating the art from the artist.

I get it. It may be hard to do so. Impossible, even. If that is the case for any individual... I get it. I honestly do. But the other side of the record should hold true as well. Just because somebody bought the game(or any piece of media, actually) you personally disagree with, it doesn't mean they hate you and everything you stand for. It doesn't mean they stand with the author and everything they preach.

They may just enjoy the world.

I have no idea if this is the case, but they very well could have payed JK a set amount for access to the IP to make their game, and that's it. Supporting the game would therefore not have any effect on JK's wellbeing as she has already received all the money she is going to receive from the game. Nor will boycotting it hurt her for the same reason.

Of course the opposite could be true as well and the amount of money she makes is based directly off of the success of the game. I have no idea how to begin researching that, and nor do I care to.

Personally the game looks interesting, but I'm too bogged down in Elden Ring to be looking at any sort of RPG for a long while. Not to mention I still have to get through Cyberpunk, Jedi: Fallen Order, and, look the point is my backlog might literally be over a year long at this point. A game has to be more than just 'interesting' to get added to it at this point.

[Rynjin]

Personally the game looks interesting, but I'm too bogged down in Elden Ring to be looking at any sort of RPG for a long while. Not to mention I still have to get through Cyberpunk, Jedi: Fallen Order, and, look the point is my backlog might literally be over a year long at this point. A game has to be more than just 'interesting' to get added to it at this point.

If you want a quick gauge of the quality of games you've mentioned, Elden Ring is incomparably better, Cyberpunk is significantly better, and Fallen Order is significantly worse. Maybe a rough "playing order"?

[Sapphire Guard]

Wait a minute ... why does a wand need a silencer? It's not a firearm, there's no loud BANG when it fires , right?

That is the joke (I think)

Does anyone actually know what benefit JKR is getting from the success or lack thereof of the game? I mean really know, not speculation or assumptions.

[Yuki Akuma]

That is the joke (I think)

Does anyone actually know what benefit JKR is getting from the success or lack thereof of the game? I mean really know, not speculation or assumptions.

She gets royalties from all sales of Harry Potter related things Warner Brothers produces, due to negotiating a really good contract when she sold the IP rights. So, money.

[Taevyr]

Yeah, I don't know what a normal royalty percentage is for someone in her position, but e.g. even 0.01% of profit'll still end up pretty huge considering how big a success the game seems to be thus far, particularly considering that the target audience on average is at an age where disposable income'll be relatively high.

At the very least, it's high enough that I can very well understand people who think her rhetoric goes too far say "I don't want to contribute to that".

[LaZodiac]

Any amount is too much because she believes, and has said as such multiple times, that her financial success is proof to her that her views are considered correct by the majority.

Never mind the fact that the actual content of the game is, itself, pretty unsafe for the board in terms of things happening in the plot and what they represent.

[Jophiel]

Been playing for a while now and really enjoying it. External factors aside, there's plenty of reasons on paper to NOT like it: the Ubisoft-esque number of map icons, repetitive tasks, a ton of systems to keep track of, limited number of enemy types, etc but I'm at 40hrs and still having a blast. I've never read the books and only saw one of the movies once ages ago because my son wanted to see it (pretty sure it was the final HP one) but I've enough cultural osmosis to recognize the Weasley name or the gist of house elves or the whole school houses thing. On the flip side, I don't feel any desire to clutch my pearls when my witch kills a bunch of goblins because Harry never did that much less worry about the minutia of spells or what a proper Hogwarts class should be like.

Combat is pretty fun and accessible and it's a rare game that makes magic duels feel as fluid and flashy as they do here. A number of entertaining combos and challenges that pop up each fight to keep you from getting into a rut. Gear is okay; the best thing I can say for it is that anything you loot you permanently get the cosmetic option for so I'm usually more excited to see a new coat or gloves I don't own than worrying about its numbers. The world itself I find pretty delightful to travel in. Granted, the NPCs aren't especially responsive to your actions but it feels much more alive than Elden Ring's lands, which always felt to me like an MMORPG grind zone where everything existed solely for me to punch the Eldenbucks out of it. In comparison, the lands inside the castle and out feel like they have their own realized existence full of things to do and fun little surprises. As previously noted, it's also a pleasant world to spend some time despite the goblin threats and scary spiders. From the art direction to the music to the little visual treats, it's an upbeat magical feeling place to be.

Again, I could easily make a list of shortcomings that would make the game sound mediocre at best and I'd bet it's not especially fun to watch someone stream. But, in my experience, it's a "greater than the sum of its parts" experience and I still find myself fully engaged when I'm playing. There's some people out there trying to share plot spoilers either to troll or to "punish" people for playing but it feels sort of weirdly impotent -- you don't play this for the amazing plot twists and story pathos, you play it to immerse yourself in the overall world.

[GloatingSwine]

Wait a minute ... why does a wand need a silencer? It's not a firearm, there's no loud BANG when it fires , right?

And I thought noise suppressors were de rigeur on any firearms used at a range, so that the shooters don't suffer hearing loss?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

IRL Suppressors are expensive and degrade with use, you don't waste them firing at a range. You wear ear protectors instead.

I wouldn't put it past a AAA open world game to have a wand suppressor though, they are notoriously unimaginative games. (You can tell because they all use that same inventory they got from Destiny to put in an eternal loot treadmill instead of creating bespoke gear which integrates into the story of the world in form, function, where the player finds it and what they have to do to get it like an old school CPRG).

[Rynjin]

Never mind the fact that the actual content of the game is, itself, pretty unsafe for the board in terms of things happening in the plot and what they represent.

By that token, so would most content in D&D, and by extension OotS. "Evil goblin does evil goblin things" is not exactly groundbreaking narrative territory, though the fact that it's a splinter group of goblins instead of all of them is fairly rare.

[Rynjin]

I can assure you that the people in my life who are not terminally online do not care a whit.

[animorte]

Stepping in here to be passive-aggressive (with assumptive consequence) doesn't help the cause. I will play it and actively support a cause at the same time instead of making an excuse to be unkind. That's all I'm going to engage even remotely close to the topic as I would like to focus on the context at hand. There are other platforms for said discussion.

In comparison, the lands inside the castle and out feel like they have their own realized existence full of things to do and fun little surprises... you don't play this for the amazing plot twists and story pathos, you play it to immerse yourself in the overall world.

The world being full of weird puzzles and little secrets to find is just par for the course in Hogwarts and they've really done a great job tying up some of the more video gamey mechanics into the lore.

I would like to point out that there is a 100% chance used copies for sale will exist and used copies give zero royalties or additional sales numbers to the franchise, so one can absolutely purchase the game without supporting the franchise. It would take patience, though.

All of these provide pleasant confirmation in knowing what to expect when I decide to purchase it in a few months. I haven't been watching a ton of videos aside from trailers because I want to go in and just experience the world. I've already decided, optimal or not, I have no intention of using the unforgivable curses. From what I remember, my two favorite spells are Protego and Finite. I'm interested to see how everything looks. I already stated my purpose:

I just want to go on an interactive tour. That's what this game is for me.

[GloatingSwine]

By that token, so would most content in D&D, and by extension OotS. "Evil goblin does evil goblin things" is not exactly groundbreaking narrative territory, though the fact that it's a splinter group of goblins instead of all of them is fairly rare.

It's pretty hard to reduce Redcloak to "evil goblin does evil things" when you've actually read OotS and understood the nature of goblins in its world. Even if it's technically correct, it's far too focused on the finger.

There's a lot more thought behind who's doing what and why (and how it is informed by how D&D has presented various races over time) than anyone connected to Harry Potter has ever deployed.

[Rynjin]

It's pretty hard to reduce Redcloak to "evil goblin does evil things" when you've actually read OotS and understood the nature of goblins in its world. Even if it's technically correct, it's far too focused on the finger.

There's a lot more thought behind who's doing what and why (and how it is informed by how D&D has presented various races over time) than anyone connected to Harry Potter has ever deployed.

The point is more that OotS is only able to make the commentary it does BECAUSE D&D as a whole is so simplistic and uncritical.

"Simplistic and uncritical" is what I'm in the mood for ATM. I've played a few "deep and meaningful" (by comparison) games recently, and I'm in the mood for "plucky teen fights evil bad bad man who does bad things for unclear reasons" as a change of pace.

@animorte: You'll be happy to know that Protego is baked into the basic functionality of the game. The spells that you always have access to are "basic cast" (you shoot some red energy from your wand and it does damage), Protego (as a timed shield, not a sustained one), and Stupefy (as your "perfect counter" benefit).

I don't think Finite is in the game though. Or the Patronus? The latter I'm kind of surprised about, the game basically takes everything else from the old Pottermore site and runs with it; you cna actually link your account and it will pre-populate the game with the House and wand attributes sourced from the quizzes (but you can still tweak anything you like).

[Jophiel]

The head bad goblin has his story of why he's a bad guy which is about on par for a video game villain story, i.e. a bit of an unhinged overreaction but you know he didn't crawl out Evil from under a rock somewhere. Goblins in general, in this game (not conversant with the literary/film world) are portrayed much more neutrally with multiple encounters with friendly ones and the story vibe being that trade and diplomacy between them and the people is common. Or was until the bad guy started recruiting goblins for his plans. Even when defeating them in combat, my character often mutters something about "Too bad you chose to follow Ranrok" versus "Yay, I killed filthy evil goblins".

[Rynjin]

"Neutral goblin" is the status quo for the franchise, yeah. They run the Wizard Bank and...that's it. That's basically their only purpose in the setting. Even House Elves get more exploration into their natures than the goblins do.

[Gnoman]

IRL Suppressors are expensive and degrade with use, you don't waste them firing at a range. You wear ear protectors instead.

This is wrong - suppressors can be cheap or expensive, and only the very cheap or the very expensive ones degrade in that manner. From a technical perspective, using them at a range is a very good idea even with ear protection. The big limiting factor is legal issues that this isn't the right place for.

[animorte]

@animorte: You'll be happy to know that Protego is baked into the basic functionality of the game. The spells that you always have access to are "basic cast" (you shoot some red energy from your wand and it does damage), Protego (as a timed shield, not a sustained one), and Stupefy (as your "perfect counter" benefit).

I don't think Finite is in the game though. Or the Patronus? The latter I'm kind of surprised about, the game basically takes everything else from the old Pottermore site and runs with it; you cna actually link your account and it will pre-populate the game with the House and wand attributes sourced from the quizzes (but you can still tweak anything you like).

That's very neat on Protego. Finite is basically a dispel magic, so if there were lasting curses you could be subject to or hidden things that Revelio couldn't reveal because magic, then I suppose it would have a stronger purpose. I suppose they would need to have found a purpose for a Patronus as well, which is most commonly Dementors.

I plan to import my Wizarding World account, yes.

[Psyren]

I would like to point out that there is a 100% chance used copies for sale will exist and used copies give zero royalties or additional sales numbers to the franchise, so one can absolutely purchase the game without supporting the franchise. It would take patience, though.

I wish more people remembered this. I've seen plans online to scour friends' and acquaintances' achievement lists even years down the line so people know who might be deserving of castigation and cancellation. It is in fact possible to buy a game without financially rewarding the holder of its IP.

[warty goblin]

I wish more people remembered this. I've seen plans online to scour friends' and acquaintances' achievement lists even years down the line so people know who might be deserving of castigation and cancellation. It is in fact possible to buy a game without financially rewarding the holder of its IP.

Not on PC it isn't.