I finished it yesterday. Felt it sorta started to fall apart towards the end. Or rather, it got to a point where its good parts couldn't compensate for its weaker parts anymore. It turned into a series of increasingly frequent and increasingly samey combat encounters, while having pretty much exhausted its enemy variety midway through the game and having a moveset that, while larger than what you'd expect, also has a bunch of redundancies.
To be fair, it doesn't help that I was a bit underleveled for the finale so the enemies felt more spongey than they were supposed to but that was really only part of the problem.
Overall I feel positive but not really amazed by the game. There's a lot of incredibly charming stuff in there and while the main quest wasn't anything to write home about, I did really warm up to some of the supporting cast. At least the ones that had their own designated questlines, Natsai, Poppy and Sebastian, I was invested in by the end. I feel the main problem with the narrative side of the game is in its priorities.
I mentioned earlier that I didn't like how much of a Gary Stu the protagonist is, in being liked immediately by practically everyone except the villains, but that is really only one aspect of it. A big part of what made the series enjoyable and Hogwarts such a good setting were the dynamics between the people there. You had friendships, rivalries, romances and intrigue playing out between students and to a lesser extent faculty. Hogwarts Legacy feels like it neglected that way too much. It was missing characters like Draco Malfoy or Professor Snape who'd add some conflict to the actual school life part of the game.
And just generally, that aspect felt too undercooked. The books put great emphasis on the experience of studying in a magic school. Regular lessons and tests, events like Christmas and Halloween celebrations were given some focus (the lack of that in the game is especially jarring, considering the castle is actually decorated for these holidays), aspects like the house cup or the Quidditch cup that frame the house rivalries in Hogwarts are completely absent.
It just doesn't really manage to turn Hogwarts into an actual microcosm of interweaving personal stories, rather than just a hub. Honestly, I would have gladly taken a smaller overworld if Hogwarts and Hogsmeade had been more fleshed out and dynamic in return. Both are beautifully designed, but for the most part still just feel like sets.
If it had paid more attention to these things, I would have overlooked the relatively forgettable storyline but it hasn't, so I really can't. The core mystery around "ancient magic" could have been a perfectly good framework, but the overly video gamey "complete four trials to prove your abilities" is incredibly boring and the two villains barely have screentime, or personality.
Oh, and here's something else. This might sound petty, and I might not have pointed it out if I didn't have the same problem with GoW: Ragnarök which I've played right before, but listen: Just because solving a puzzle might take me a minute doesn't mean you have to tell me the solution. Back on the N64, there was this obscure action-adventure game called "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" which, you see, had a mechanic where your fairy companion would give you a hint after, and only after, pressing the C Down button to ask her for one. It's an approach that many games could take some notes from.
Anyway, the game was mostly pretty charming but there's a lot of room for improvement. This will almost assuredly get a sequel eventually, so I hope the developers will be able to recognize what it is still missing. The frameworks solid, but the specifics still need work.
Welp, I'm gonna start Wanted Dead now.
