It was a tossup between Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy and as much as I admired the character work and story and immersion of the former, it wasn't a world I particularly wanted to hang out in.
Hogwarts, on the other hand. This is a media property, but Warner really put some love into the IP. I think it went beyond just trying to keep the customer happy -- they are sure to know and respect that a whole bunch of people want to hang out in Harry Potter land, even if Warner would just as soon they pay at the gate for the live Wizarding World experience. And there is just a little bit in the game of making sure that they are playing nice with the movie-watching, wand-buying, full tour to Burbank crowd.
But past that, this is a game that works.
Which is funny. Really, this is generations in on game design. There are quite elaborate chains of mechanics; you collect robes and other clothing items that are functionally armor, increasing your combat stats, and you can trade those in for money when you upgrade. Which means you run out of inventory slots. So there are the Merlin Challenges to increase the inventory slots. Which in turn require new Spells to complete, and those spells are taught for a price that may include things like raising (totally unrelated) botanicals...
Which means functionally there's a lot of the same grind as in Starfield. The difference, the weird difference, is that this time it is fun.
The stuff is fun to do, that's a big one. More fun than anything in Starfield (the space combat is okay, but the basic combat is a boring slog through endless bullet-sponge AI without enough intelligence to use a pencil). But more than that, it looks great, and the sound and music are great, and there's lore that's interesting. So you don't feel like you are sitting there spamming the "fire bullets" button.
Fights by the middle game of Hogwarts are complicated and fast-moving, with ever-changing and quickly evolving situations. A very good rock-paper-scissor mix, even if there are a few killer aps.
Chinese Chomping Cabbages. Besides being absurdly strong if you spend all your available upgrades on improving them -- plus dedicate all of your greenhouse to raising the things -- there are situations where you can manipulate the enemy AI. If they see you, they converge in full combat mode. If they are getting nibbled to death by vegetables they flail about, sometimes getting killed without even getting a shot in.
That is, if you stand just out of range and roll a few cabbages that way.
The game puts a lot of emphasis on raising "beasts." I think. There's links between main story progression and side stories, and I'm not sure -- even aside from gear upgrades -- you can get through the main story without progressing some of the "beasts" storylines. Which are sort of two not always related ones; fighting poachers with Poppy Sweeting and Natsai Onai (the latter, like Sebastian Sallow, appears to have mandatory main-campaign missions). And raising your own.
See, you can do it ethically -- because you aren't trying to support a family, you just need a few feathers and hairs to weave into your own school clothes for the mojo they give, so waiting until the frolicking creature drops a few naturally is enough for you.
And you have up to three magical vivariums, pocket dimensions in which your pets can frolick without predators or other threats. Which are the loveliest level designs in the game, and that is saying a lot. This game really, really spends those pixels well.
It is what I am doing now while I wait for paint to dry on my new prop and my brain cells to recover after fighting my way through another scene in the never-ending Paris novel.
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