Hogwarts Legacy Review

Collecting collectibles:

Deeply exploring the magical world of Hogwarts Legacy, as it is known, is hand-in-hand with a long and layered progression system, mostly made up of collecting dozens of collectibles. The fulcrum of all this are the Challenges, which through the achievement of various objectives allow you to acquire experience points and objects to improve and expand your inventory.

There are three macro-zones in which empty and desolate spaces alternate with areas teeming with points of interest, environments in which to find animal dens, poacher camps, dark wizards or goblins, tests and puzzles of various types. This is the main limitation of Hogwarts Legacy: an adventure in which free roaming becomes redundant at times. At the same time, however, the paradox of Hogwarts Legacy lies in the immeasurable charm of its setting and artistic direction: getting lost in the lugubrious fronds of the Forbidden Forest, exploring desolate caves and advancing along the corridors of the castle returns a constant sense of wonder, which makes even the most superfluous activities a rewarding tinsel that the most loyal fans of the Wizarding World will hardly want to give up.

The management component also follows the same principle: the Room of Requirement,after unlocking its use for narrative purposes, it becomes an additional but not crucial element for the main mission. The crafting of potions and plants, as well as the care of magical creatures and the upgrading of clothes, are tasks intended for the expansion of a role-playing framework that is not too complex, but functional to the rules of the Harry Potter themed world.

The distillates, the plants themselves or the components to improve the outfits are on the other hand available at the appropriate retailers or can be found in nature. Taking advantage of the Room of Requirement to devote yourself to Life Sim interludes is in turn part of that aggressive fanservice with which the work is cloaked. Ultimately, Hogwarts Legacy is a formula attributable to the purest, freest and most unbridled entertainment : nothing more and nothing less. The immeasurable strength of the reference license therefore partially balances a not too original playful substrate.

Battles & Challenges … with graphics:

Learning, collecting and harnessing spells around the Wizarding World is a blast, now in exploration, now in combat. The 24 basic spells are essential above all for overcoming various puzzles, mostly environmental puzzles scattered between trials and long, quite stimulating dungeons. But it is in the battles that Hogwarts Legacy has proved to be further solid and fun: the clashes with the sound of wands and magical formulas born from Rowling’s mind are in fact unique in the fantasy ecosystem, and in our opinion the development team has managed to make its own that uniqueness in an effective and constantly evolving combat system.

Evolving Talents is important to make the most of all the possibilities offered by the gameplay: in short, it is necessary to extend the diamonds of the skills to create specific sets of spells, inflict ever higher damage and Malus useful for turning battles in one’s favor, as well as unleashing devastating special attacks and ring combos as long and complex as possible. As the adventure and your alter ego’s abilities progressed, casting attack spells turned out to be much more dynamic than it initially seemed: thanks above all to a good management of the enemy waves, which force the player to move, dodge and constantly parry the offensive impulses. In this sense, we must however point out a general difficulty that is not very high: at a normal level, with the exception of a few tougher bosses, we rarely ran into game over and we therefore recommend that you try your hand at the “Difficult” grade, if you are looking for a more challenging.

Finally, we explored the graphical and accessibility settings a little further: Hogwarts Legacy allows you to customize all the elements of the HUD for an even more immersive and personal experience,with a pleasant eye towards the accessibility options: we have, for example, a voice reader for the menus and a Color Blindness Mode.

Graphics & Sound:

In Hogwarts Legacy, music is also an important element of art direction. The game, in fact, boasts a soundtrack inspired by the legendary tracks of John Williams in the film saga, with some rearrangements of the classic theme that cannot fail to convey the thrill of nostalgia to the most loyal fans. The rhythm of the sound accompaniments is also excellent: the cheerful and light-hearted notes of the franchise keep us company for most of the exploration, adapting the atmosphere depending on whether you are in the weird alleys of Hogsmeade or in the mysterious corridors of the castle. As for the adaptation in our local language, Hogwarts Legacy offers a good Italian dubbing, with some recitative slips regarding the tone of some secondary NPCs. The game also adaptives tend to experience some drag when casting spells or boosting while in flight. In short, these are not revolutionary but still pleasant additions. Moving on to the visual sector, Hogwarts Legacy immediately shows off a great glance especially in the composition of the scenarios.

In general, the richness of environmental textures emerges above all in the breathtaking landscapes of nineteenth-century Hogwarts and in a spectacular draw distanceshowing the muscles of a solid production. On the other hand, even in the interiors, especially those of the castle, the team did not skimp on the architectural details as well as on the light effects, from the lighting of the rooms to the spectacular reflections on the glass and marble that make up the complex structure of the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry . To demonstrate how much the work has its roots in the previous generation, however, there are some small visual details: the expressiveness of the faces, for example, highlights several qualitative oscillations, as well as the animation department of both our character and the many NPCs that inhabit the wizarding world.

Conclusion:

Avalanche did an outstanding job in creating a Harry Potter RPG world for every fantasy and wizarding fan. For all the fans, it is a must have game.

A good combat system, great attention to detail and an outstanding art graphic direction makes “Hogwarts Legacy” a game that you simply have to play. Even non-HP fans will just love it.