No matter where you tried to run, not matter where you tried to hide, for months on end you could not escape the name Hogwarts Legacy. This game was absolutely everywhere, at least, that is, until it wasn’t, when Hogwarts Legacy dropped off the face of the planet about a week after release. So much excitement, so much positivity… and then nothing. It turned out the long-term staying power that so many single-player games have these days, games half a decade or more older, well that just wasn’t there at all for Hogwarts Legacy despite it following the same exact formula. Why is that? Well, the answer, I think, all hinges on one, major mistake this first attempt at an open-world Hogwarts game made. To be upfront here, this video is something I’ve needed off my chest for quite a while, but I’ve done my waiting, seven months of it, so here we go. In my mind, Hogwarts Legacy is the most frustrating game of the year - not because it’s bad, not at all, but instead because it absolutely nails what it needed to most, but then seems to enter a race against itself to abandon everything it does best. Let’s start with the obvious, the castle itself - now, I don’t know how many of you watching fall into the same boat as me, but Hogwarts Legacy was my most anticipated game ever. Those movie tie-ins were amazing as a kid, but they were thrown together in months to meet a deadline. Some of ‘em hold up, sure, but the untapped potential was off the charts for a fully realized Hogwarts, I couldn’t wait, and by the way, this is coming from someone who was Harry Potter for Halloween every single year except for one when I went as Shrek which was a fairing disaster, but that’s a story for another time. Point is, if there’s one thing this game needed to get right, it was the castle, and by Merlin’s saggy left beep, they did it. Those first 10, 15 hours in Hogwarts are where the game peaks - there’s not really anything to find in terms of interesting collectibles, mostly just a near infinite amount of clothing items, but what the castle does have are quite a few little references and details that zero attention is brought to. The game doesn’t throw them in your face because they exist for you to seek out, you being the book fan, or the movie fan, and I love the game for having those things. What I don’t love is that Hogwarts Legacy puts this amazing castle in front of your face, and then kicks you out of it into way less interesting areas for most of the game. One of the biggest mistakes Hogwarts Legacy makes is having this huge, sprawling map south of the castle that offers almost nothing, and I find it to be such a misfire because whether it was realized or not, that sprawling map came at a major cost, one that slowly but surely infects, degrades and cheapens nearly every last corner of this game by the end, and, well… let me explain. First though, quick thanks to this video’s sponsor, Factor. Now, this is the first I’ve accepted in like two months which was also Factor, mostly because they’re the meal delivery service I use myself. All you really need to know is that if you’re someone who struggles to eat the right things each day without wasting a ton of time you don’t have cooking, cleaning and shopping, then Factor is what you need. 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Before saying anything else, I want to be clear that as an idea there’s no problem with massive open worlds or even certain types of filler content, in fact I think there can be a place for filler in games as long as it isn’t taking away from things that are far more important. Hogwarts Legacy though, well.... This game has about 40 hours worth of content that just shouldn’t exist, not when there are far more important things that are completely missing. Now, I want to point out, it’s not that spending time south of the castle is an awful experience, I mean at least it’s an excuse to listen to this game’s amazing soundtrack, but what Hogwarts Legacy really, desperately needed was focus. This isn’t a game that you can really accuse of not having a ton of resources put towards it, I mean it was in development for six entire years, and for whatever reason so much of that time and effort was spent on a barren open world and tons of areas that bizarrely make almost no use of the Wizarding World license. Somehow, someway, that turn your brain off with a podcast on content, the kind that you could also get from any other open world game, well, that stuff somehow took priority over much of what really needed to be there inside and around Hogwarts. Maybe some of you will disagree with what I’m about to say, I don’t know, but I would trade every single Merlin trial, every last cave with nothing but a meaningless piece of clothing in it, every nonsensical Alohomora minigame and demiguise statue South of Hogwarts, I’d trade all of that in a heartbeat for even half of what’s missing or barely there inside and around the castle. I don’t need to explore an empty cave for the 687th time, the first 2 were more than enough. Honestly, one of the most memorable moments I got out of this entire game, not in a good way in this case, was when I solved a little puzzle on an outside bridge of Hogwarts. The puzzle itself was great, but after solving it I took a look at the game’s field guide, how you track your progress, and I saw that what I’d just solved was one out of 3 Hogwarts Secrets. Yes, 3 for the entire castle. There’s 95 Merlin trials in the countryside, 95, not an exaggeration by the way, and also they’re really the same 5 repeated about 20 times each, yet there’s 3 Hogwarts secrets in total. Now, in case you haven’t played the game I don’t want to misrepresent things, there are the little visual details in the castle I already mentioned, as well as collectibles that the game doesn’t count as being secrets, and rightfully so because they’re all the very straightforward kind that are repeated many times over, you know - see a certain type of door with a minigame on it, solve that minigame for the ninth time, and you’re in. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff isn’t awful, in fact I was constantly reminiscing back to those collectibles when the game forced me outside of the castle for the other 85% of them. Inside Hogwarts, and by extension the immediate surroundings including Hogsmeade, the collectibles didn’t even really register as a grind, because I was entertained enough running around the castle… however, when I was grinding out the points of disinterest in the 14th identical Wizard hamlet south of Hogwarts that had zero distinguishing features from the last 13, well, I couldn’t help but think how much better of a time I’d be having in the castle, or in Hogsmeade, and how much better spent development time would’ve been in those areas. Let’s quickly talk about the Hogwarts Professors, because they’re maybe the single-best example I can come up with of this game just sprinting away from what it does best. So, the devs of Hogwarts Legacy, Avalanche, did an absolutely incredible job of coming up with a new roster of professors. I’m a dork, so at launch I bought the concept art book for Hogwarts Legacy, and looking through it… I mean, it’s beyond obvious that everyone responsible for bringing these new professors to life realized the expectations fans were going to have. I mean, how you follow up the professors of the books and movies, who were all so memorable? Well, you do it like Avalanche did, because they knocked it out of the park. Professor Sharp, Weasley, Ronen, Garlick - I remember them all, especially Garlick for some reason, but unfortunately, Hogwarts Legacy presents you with this really great lineup, and then just completely forgets about them so you can go commit mass Mordor and pop balloons in some generic countryside. You know it would be really entertaining to see what the reaction would’ve been before launch if it had slipped out that in this 70ish+ hour game, you only go to most of your classes a single time for about 5 minutes and that each professor gets one or maybe two cutscenes, almost all of which are in the first 10-15 hours. After that, the game just kinda gives up on any feeling of you being a student, because you’re too busy slaughtering every human and goblin who ever lived with zero repercussions. On the topic of Goblin slaughter, something that of course comes up frequently here on this channel, how about that main story, which again almost entirely falls into the trap of Hogwarts Legacy not recognizing its own strengths. Now, I won’t spoil it because there’s no reason to, really, but the main questline is the type that could be summed up in about two seconds, because the premise basically is the entire story. You’re the chosen one, more or less, there’s a goblin rebellion going on, so go kill thousands of ‘em and figure out why you’re the chosen one, which will definitely play out exactly how you think it will because this is the safest main quest of all time. The story doesn’t really take a single twist, turn, or chance of any kind, and while it is fine, it’s passable, what gives me a headache is that the main quest gets absolutely embarrassed by one of the side storylines. You probably already know which one I’m talking about, it’s of course the questline with Sebastian and Ominus. These two characters carried Hogwarts Legacy, especially towards the end when their story is one of the only reasons left to ever be in Hogwarts. I don’t know how many of you had this same experience, but it reached the point for me while playing where my primary motivation for continuing the main questline was just to unlock more of the Sebastian and Ominus story. Whenever I’d get a new objective related to them, I’d sprint towards it immediately and have a good time, but when it was over I’d already know exactly what was about to come next. I’d hang my head low and get ready for another main quest where I immediately leave Hogwarts to go kill a bunch of Goblins in the countryside yet again: The Sebastian storyline, well, it really should’ve been the main quest, or at least I think so. Drop the chosen one thing that doesn’t go anywhere interesting and has been done to death anyway, drop the Goblin rebellion that keeps us out of Hogwarts, and instead, what could’ve been so much more is a fleshed out version of Sebastian and Ominus’s storyline, one that actually fits in with the rest of the game. As it is, the Ominus Sebastian questline is really good, but it’s also pretty short, a fair amount of it happens without your involvement, and, it needed a lot of work to not be in constant disagreement with everything else that happens in this game. It’s the Sebastian storyline that puts some of the most important choices this game offers in front of you, the ones related to getting involved with some of the darkest magic in this world. Those decisions are, without exception, presented as being super consequential points of no return for your character, as they really needed to be if they were going to make any sense… but then, shocker, they aren’t consequential, at all. The second you step outside of this storyline, with only one small exception nothing you did within it matters, even a little bit. It’s honestly kind of embarrassing looking back, because when Hogwarts Legacy came out this channel had about a quarter of the subscribers it does now, and as a very small channel, I was so excited at the time to make some Hogwarts Legacy content focused on the little things, you know choices, consequences and all of the ways the game responds to your actions. As we all know now, despite that being a pretty big part of the marketing, well, there really isn’t anything of that. I mean you’re free to become death, destroyer of the Scottish countryside all you want, but the actual choices you make in dialogue, the ones that should be game changing, well they mean absolutely nothing. As it turns out, and this was news to me after having read the books 40,000 times, the Unforgivable curses are actually extremely forgivable - your teachers don’t care, your other friends don’t care, Deek doesn’t give a sit about anything other than the potions you brewed, so at least that’s consistent, but point is, no one cares what unspeakable acts you’ve committed or what dark magic you’ve decided to tamper with, and let’s be honest, it doesn’t make any sense. Avalanche, please, if anyone from the studio is watching, I beg you to consider my offer: I would like to refund 50 Merlin trials and 27 Bandit Camps in exchange for even half of my choices having consequences. You can also have 250 square acres of the southern part of the map back, I’ll include that for free. I’d also like to return the other 45 Merlin trials, plus I’ll even throw in two dozen empty caves and the pointless lockpicking minigame to sweeten the deal in exchange for this game having a House Point system, or more students to talk to, or companions that could join you on adventures, or a dueling club that lasts more than 10 minutes. I mean, seriously, what was that about? How do you introduce a dueling club, the perfect setup for fun, repeatable combat within Hogwarts, and then get rid of it after just a few minutes? You know, one, not very convincing argument I’ve heard as to why an open world twice the size of Pangea was necessary is that without it, it wouldn’t be possible to fit much combat in. To that I say, huh? As it is Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t even come close to making the most of the combat opportunities that are already there in the iconic parts of the map, let alone Wizarding Hamlet number 27 or plot of land 713. Like, the Forbidden Forest’s entire thing is that it's filled with dangers of every sort, and you never know what’s around the next corner… In Hogwarts Legacy’s Forbidden Forest, well, that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s like 5 creature types to fight in total, and those same 5 are just repeated endlessly across the rest of the map. You know, despite some issues, I do like the combat in this game a lot, it’s honestly pretty impressive how solid it ended up being… that said, the one complaint thrown out most often against it is that there just isn’t enough there to keep it interesting for 60, 70+ hours. It was built for the more casual gamer, which is totally fine and appropriate for a game like this, this isn’t Dudley Souls, but like so many other areas of Hogwarts Legacy, its combat would’ve benefited greatly from less of a focus on quantity, you know the same encounters spammed 50 times each which is what you get, and instead a focus on a little more depth and some variety. Different enemy types can do a lot to keep simple combat feeling fresh, and this game just doesn’t have the excuse of there being limited options. I mean there’s an entire spin-off Potter book just filled with dangerous creatures that are right there, ready to use, and while I’m definitely not saying we needed all of them in this first game, it does feel like a major misfire to be spending most of your time fighting skeletons, wolves and spiders in this world, one that offers dozens of very unique, already designed enemies, the kind that you couldn’t get in a non-Wizarding World game. That’s the part to really hammer home, there are so many bits and pieces of Hogwarts Legacy that don’t take advantage of what this franchise already offers up on a silver platter. Part of the reason you haven’t seen much Hogwarts Legacy content since launch I think has to do with this being a game that’s really difficult to break down in a way that’s fair, even when you’re focused solely on judging the game by its own merit. On one hand, I and I’m sure many of you are rooting for Avalanche Software - they’re famously not the type of studio you would’ve expected to be assigned a huge project like this, I mean their crowning achievement pre-Hogwarts Legacy was Chicken Little: Ace in Action, the spin-off Chicken Little game, and with that in mind Avalanch did some incredible work here. On the other hand, I don’t think that’s a shield from all of the very avoidable flaws baked into the core of this game, especially the ones that feel really self-inflected. If you look into the game’s files you’ll see tons of evidence of core features that were in the works but ultimately scrapped, I’m talking House Points, a reputation system based off of your behavior, companions that could accompany you on adventures and react to unrelated quests you were doing, penalties for using dark magic in front of authority figures, that stuff was being worked on, and for a game with so much padding that ate up dev time, well… that brings us full circle as to why Hogwarts Legacy is one of the most frustrating games of the year for me. A pretty good game, and one I think of positively in a lot of ways, but once some time passes, after Avalanch have put out a sequel or two and other Wizarding World games have come and gone, because we know they’re coming after how this one sold, well, I think Hogwarts Legacy will be looked back upon as more of a good start than anything else. It’s a flawed beginning saddled with the huge mistake of biting off way more than it could chew and as a result, it left a ton of room for improvement. The positive though is that Hogwarts Legacy has set Avalanch up with an incredible foundation to build upon, and whatever is coming next, I’m looking forward to it.... And there better be quidditch. Well, that’s all for today, if you enjoyed this video consider leaving a like as that’s how YouTube decides what’s worthy, and if you enjoyed the video, feel free to subscribe. Thanks to the channel’s patrons as always for their support, something big is coming very soon, so stay tuned for that, and that’s it… see ya.