I have never watched a Harry Potter movie, never read a book, and never gave HP a second thought. It's such a hype game though, I had to give it a shot especially since the reviews are surprisingly good, not that numbers mean anything.
I gotta say I am really pleasantly surprised at how...whimsical the world actually is. Thankfully the game doesn't use any established lore outside Hogwarts being the school of wizards though it's possible there is some deep lore referenced here that i would never know. Anyway you are a 5th year student which I'm assuming is something like a 16 year old Junior in high school based on the apparent age of the character. Right from the start you have a fairly decent character creator which allows you to do any human skin tone you want (no greens or purples like Souls games) and a pretty decent voice customization option. You can pitch either the female or male voice up our down several notches and what was nice about this was how it didn't make the voices sound weird, whatever magic they're running here allows you to pitch the dialog but not change the acting behind it so it all sounds pretty good. You can use either voice regardless of apparent gender of the character you make and you can also choose you wizard pronouns (witch or wizard). So I suppose your character can be trans if you wanted which was probably the point considering everything going on around this thing.
Anyway you are on your way to Hogwarts with a Professor named Fig and a friend of his who has a scroll sent by Fig's wife. Neither of the older men can open the scroll's casing but your character can see a special magic that neither of the men can, you use the magic to open the scroll and inside you find a strange key. Suddenly your flying carrage on the way to Hogwarts gets bit right in fucking half and Fig's friend is murdered immediately.
This actually legit made me cry out, "Holy shit!" Not because of a big fucking dragon attacking you, but that they just let this dragon murder a dude in a Harry Potter game. I thought this shit was for kids, but that dude got eaten. That's was cooler than I expected, we killing people in this game.
As you fall the Professor grabs you and the magic key you guys open teleports you to safety, but it's a set of ruins that the Professor is unfamiliar with. Intro story short, you investigate a bank vault with the key and it's teased that you have a special gift that allows you to see magics that nobody (or very very few) people can see and this will lead you to mysterious secrets.
Afterwords you're brought to Hogwarts and assigned a Gang along with your gang colors. Your then free to explore the school pretty much freely though some stuff is cut off during the intro few quests like being able to explore the open world at all. But here is where the game really impressed me, the school feels really magical and it gave me a sense of wonder that made me want to roam the halls even without looking for collectibles or whatever. The people in paintings will move as you walk by, some of which even talk to you, suits of armor will stiffen up as you pass, books fly around the room. Everything is so well designed (though i'm sure a lot is pulled from movies and books in terms of how the setting is built) and it makes you just wanna see what's around as opposed to wanting to hunt for an exclusively gameplay reason.
Throughout the halls there are puzzles, and scavenger hunts for lore entries, some of which require you to use a spell to reveal invisible things. The rewards are neat and the RPG gear system is hilarious, I started the game looking like a normal student, only to find gear that put me in robes that look like pajamas and a clown hat with Morpheus glasses. It's a little out of place, but comically so.
Comabt itself is very snappy, and feels good. Your basic attack is a quick R2 pull which shoots a little magic bullet at enemies, triangle will allow you to quick parry an attack and if timed right will cast Stupify on the enemy which stuns them (which I find hilarious that you parry a dude and call him stupid and he just gives up for a second). There is a dodge on circle for bigger enemy attacks. Then you have Special spells tied to holding down R2 and using the face buttons. These seem to be more for field utility and explorations, for example you have "GET OVER HERE!" which you can pull flying collectibles out of the sky and right into your hands with. There is Luminato which makes your wand glow so you can see in the dark. Revify which repairs broken things in the world so you can cross maybe a broken bridge or whatever. And Levioso, which leviates shit and so far this is the only spell useful in combat. When an enemy has a magic shield you cast levitate on them and the shield drops so you can start blasting.
All in all, it's a very easy game to play in that there seems to be very little resistance in doing whatever you want when playing and the roadblocks feel minimal and seem limited to spells you unlock over time. There are a few locks doors and I'm assuming there is a lockpicking spell or something down the road that will let me get into these places. It's standard open-world style things.
I played about four hours and it was far enough for me to meet another trans character in the game. IMO it's a very well done trans character too, while you can obviously tell it's meant to be a trans person, there is no mention of it, no acknowledgement by any of the characters. They are just referenced with proper pronouns and are a cool character in their own right. Which I think is the developers trying to encourage people that they do not share Rowling's views and just because it's her license doesn't mean they have to share her ideals. Sadly people are dismissing the game outright because...well whatever.
Bottom line is I kind of was going to ignore this game and just leave it to watching the drama on the internet, but with the way people have been shitting on streamers who absolutely do not deserve that, I decided to play it, and it's actually really damn good. The characters are good, the mystery is well placed, the world itself is wonderous and fun to roam around in, yeah....this is a win I don't know what else to say.
I gotta say I am really pleasantly surprised at how...whimsical the world actually is. Thankfully the game doesn't use any established lore outside Hogwarts being the school of wizards though it's possible there is some deep lore referenced here that i would never know. Anyway you are a 5th year student which I'm assuming is something like a 16 year old Junior in high school based on the apparent age of the character. Right from the start you have a fairly decent character creator which allows you to do any human skin tone you want (no greens or purples like Souls games) and a pretty decent voice customization option. You can pitch either the female or male voice up our down several notches and what was nice about this was how it didn't make the voices sound weird, whatever magic they're running here allows you to pitch the dialog but not change the acting behind it so it all sounds pretty good. You can use either voice regardless of apparent gender of the character you make and you can also choose you wizard pronouns (witch or wizard). So I suppose your character can be trans if you wanted which was probably the point considering everything going on around this thing.
Anyway you are on your way to Hogwarts with a Professor named Fig and a friend of his who has a scroll sent by Fig's wife. Neither of the older men can open the scroll's casing but your character can see a special magic that neither of the men can, you use the magic to open the scroll and inside you find a strange key. Suddenly your flying carrage on the way to Hogwarts gets bit right in fucking half and Fig's friend is murdered immediately.
This actually legit made me cry out, "Holy shit!" Not because of a big fucking dragon attacking you, but that they just let this dragon murder a dude in a Harry Potter game. I thought this shit was for kids, but that dude got eaten. That's was cooler than I expected, we killing people in this game.
As you fall the Professor grabs you and the magic key you guys open teleports you to safety, but it's a set of ruins that the Professor is unfamiliar with. Intro story short, you investigate a bank vault with the key and it's teased that you have a special gift that allows you to see magics that nobody (or very very few) people can see and this will lead you to mysterious secrets.
Afterwords you're brought to Hogwarts and assigned a Gang along with your gang colors. Your then free to explore the school pretty much freely though some stuff is cut off during the intro few quests like being able to explore the open world at all. But here is where the game really impressed me, the school feels really magical and it gave me a sense of wonder that made me want to roam the halls even without looking for collectibles or whatever. The people in paintings will move as you walk by, some of which even talk to you, suits of armor will stiffen up as you pass, books fly around the room. Everything is so well designed (though i'm sure a lot is pulled from movies and books in terms of how the setting is built) and it makes you just wanna see what's around as opposed to wanting to hunt for an exclusively gameplay reason.
Throughout the halls there are puzzles, and scavenger hunts for lore entries, some of which require you to use a spell to reveal invisible things. The rewards are neat and the RPG gear system is hilarious, I started the game looking like a normal student, only to find gear that put me in robes that look like pajamas and a clown hat with Morpheus glasses. It's a little out of place, but comically so.
Comabt itself is very snappy, and feels good. Your basic attack is a quick R2 pull which shoots a little magic bullet at enemies, triangle will allow you to quick parry an attack and if timed right will cast Stupify on the enemy which stuns them (which I find hilarious that you parry a dude and call him stupid and he just gives up for a second). There is a dodge on circle for bigger enemy attacks. Then you have Special spells tied to holding down R2 and using the face buttons. These seem to be more for field utility and explorations, for example you have "GET OVER HERE!" which you can pull flying collectibles out of the sky and right into your hands with. There is Luminato which makes your wand glow so you can see in the dark. Revify which repairs broken things in the world so you can cross maybe a broken bridge or whatever. And Levioso, which leviates shit and so far this is the only spell useful in combat. When an enemy has a magic shield you cast levitate on them and the shield drops so you can start blasting.
All in all, it's a very easy game to play in that there seems to be very little resistance in doing whatever you want when playing and the roadblocks feel minimal and seem limited to spells you unlock over time. There are a few locks doors and I'm assuming there is a lockpicking spell or something down the road that will let me get into these places. It's standard open-world style things.
I played about four hours and it was far enough for me to meet another trans character in the game. IMO it's a very well done trans character too, while you can obviously tell it's meant to be a trans person, there is no mention of it, no acknowledgement by any of the characters. They are just referenced with proper pronouns and are a cool character in their own right. Which I think is the developers trying to encourage people that they do not share Rowling's views and just because it's her license doesn't mean they have to share her ideals. Sadly people are dismissing the game outright because...well whatever.
Bottom line is I kind of was going to ignore this game and just leave it to watching the drama on the internet, but with the way people have been shitting on streamers who absolutely do not deserve that, I decided to play it, and it's actually really damn good. The characters are good, the mystery is well placed, the world itself is wonderous and fun to roam around in, yeah....this is a win I don't know what else to say.
