After 86 hours of magic and exploration, I finally reached the end of Hogwarts Legacy. It was truly an epic journey and I enjoyed just about every minute of it, except maybe for tracking the last few field guide pages. In this era of delayed and watered down games, it’s refreshing how packed full of gameplay this one is.
Hogwarts Legacy is Packed with Side Content
Since my last post, I spent a ton of in game hours exploring and completing challenges. That’s why it’s been so long. There’s no way I was going to explore every cave or take down ever poacher camp. I did do a lot more than I expected I would. I fully upgraded all my clothing items, complete with level 3 traits.
Surprised myself by taking time to even complete all the Merlin challenges. Those magical ability testing puzzles were short and fun, especially after learning many of the basic tricks. There were a lot, with the ultimate reward for completing all was just an achievement. Still, no regrets for completing them all.
Piggybacking off the beasts missions from last time, I was able to rescue and breed each type of beast. As my list of beasts grew, it opened up four different vivariums in my Room of Requirement. It’s definitely magic to step through one of those doors and end up transported to a beach or forest or mountain top. All contained within my Room of Requirement
With all the beast breeding, it’s an easy way to farm things like feathers used to upgrade clothing. That’s mostly what I did, but there’s even more depth to those vivariums. There’s a whole set of conjuration items available to build a village or even as castle within each. I did pass on spending a bunch of extra hours going down that rabbit hole.
The actual Room of Requirement also has a ton of conjuration items, both decorative and functional. Towards the end, I had a table with multiple pots to brew several potions, a planter to grow several plants and a composter for fertilizer to increase yield. No need to buy potions again.
Finally Mounting a Hippogriff
Not long after my last post, I did finally unlock my hyppogriff mount and later the thestral. It was a great escape with the hyppogriff and a nice view of the Hogwarts Express train. All as I flew through the valley towards Hogwarts. The hyppogriff is best for travelling on the ground fast with the extra option to fly. It’s majestic with those big white feathers, but the broom was the go to for me.
The broom’s ability to go straight up and down helped circumvent a ton of platforming. It’s speed was also very hard to beat, especially after purchasing all the upgrades. I didn’t really bother with other brooms other than my first, but there are options to buy.
When searching for all those Merlin challenges, the broom was key to quickly searching the map. In combination with the upgraded Revelio, I quickly revealed large sections of the map. Had I used the other mounts, the process would have taken much longer.
I spent a lot of goofy time flying through the balloons in the world. The developers really nailed the broom flight.
Finally Finishing Hogwarts Legacy’s Story
The main story of chasing traces of ancient magic was fun, no doubt, but I preferred the relationship missions. Ancient magic main missions had great set pieces and gameplay as I completed the keeper challenges. As far as the actual writing, I’d say it was good, but not great.
It all basically boiled down to a powerful wizard abusing ancient magic and the other wizards banding together to stop her. Those keepers basically gate keep ancient artifacts needed for the final showdown. I did like the idea of the pensieves to handle flashbacks and see how that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The side relationship missions are the stories that impressed me most. Following Sebastian’s slow descent into the dark side of magic to save his sister was my favorite. His ends justify the means story is relatable. It’s also a bonus that he taught me the unforgiveable curses. Those curses are very well done with an almost anime flare to them.
I enjoyed using Imperio to turn an enemy against his allies, then torture some of them with Crucio. The icing on the cake was using Avada Kedavra to kill off tough enemies. The wind up and electric green blast is so satisfying.
Helping Poppy with her poachers problem was also fun, as was Natsai’s quest to take down Harlow. I think I really did like all these quests better than the main story. It actually gives me hope for any possible future DLC.
The ending was like a battle royal of wizards and goblins. I felt like it was a great way to end the game, but then there were quick epilogue missions to really put an exclamation point on everything.
What’s Next for Hogwarts Legacy?
It’s hard for me to rate games over years and different genres, but this is no doubt a top ten game for me. Yes, there some stutters and visual glitches still, but they were rare enough to not take away from the game. The gameplay was fun, stories were good and the world building was fantastic. I’m really hoping Warner Brothers asks the developers to create DLC.
I’d happily preorder a story DLC or even just Quidditch DLC (with so much in the current game, it’s a bit weird that is left out). Really looking forward to what’s next, because this game was such a great experience for me.