It’s honestly amazing how well this game sold considering how mid the gameplay actually is. Having a popular IP really helped.
Eh, people don’t buy for the gameplay mechanics most of the time, they buy for what they see in the trailers and read in the descriptions. Being the only videogame available for this IP, having the WB marketing juggernaut behind it, releasing at a time of the year without much competition, coming out on every single platform - it would have been weird if this game wasn’t the best selling one in 2023.
Exactly. You don’t know what the gameplay is until after you buy the game, unless you are savvy and watch reviews or something, which hardly any consumers do.
Also, it’s not like the gameplay was mind bogglingly terrible, just some bland questing and a serviceable combat system. The main thing the game had to do to sell well imo was sell the environment and vibe which I think it did decently.
Are you saying that marketing works?!
My wife, whose entire history with video games is Sims 3, Animal Crossing: NH, and Pokémon Go, played through this game start to finish and loved it. It wasn’t really made for “gamers”, it was made for Harry Potter fans that wanted to play a Hogwarts game. It didn’t succeed as a gaming revolution, it succeeded in bringing non-gamers to buy it.
Personally, I love that she got into it whether it’s mid or not, because it introduced her to a lot of the mechanics necessary to play “real” games in the future. And she had a lot of fun.
I’m both a gamer and HP fan.
I thought the game was great, and I didn’t really realize the depths of people’s distaste for it, I guess.
Was it crazy revolutionary? No, but it was fun.
Fellow HP fan, I was kinda weirded out by the whole “free access to unforgivable curses” and “canonically killing people” and the honestly kinda disheartening stance on goblin personhood but man flying around the grounds is so fun
Oh yeah me too. There are a lot of moments in the writing that make me go “wait… what? are you sure about that?” and some of the game design was iffy here and there but the main attraction is just the fact that they’ve given us a “full-scale” Hogwarts and surroundings.
Oh no kidding, I loved how they handled the curses. For the most part at least. Like, I would’ve been pretty disappointed if they weren’t usable in-game at all, but was never sure how they could introduce them in a realistic way. So HL literally having entire side quests devoted to you discovering the curses and learning how to use them honestly blew away my expectations.
My only issue with them is being able to use them in front of others so casually. They should’ve just made them unusable if you had another character accompanying you.
the last video game my mom played before hogwarts legacy was like…pac man in the arcades. it was amazing to share our progress together and bond
Haha! That sounds like so much fun!
What can you say gamers love anti-Semitism.
I thought the gameplay was awesome. To me, a really impressive entry to a potential series. What did you feel were the weak points in the gameplay?
I found the combat to be serviceable, and at some points I had fun with it. But it kind of got repetitive really quick. Like once you learn the core mechanics, they didn’t really introduce a lot after that to keep you on your toes. But the main problem I had with the game came from the quests, they just felt so monotonous. I love exploring the castle, but finding every little collectible just felt tedious and didn’t really seem to have any payoff.
All things I hope can be improved with an eventual sequel, I’m definitely glad I picked up the game. But it’s not something I’ve ever considered revisiting once I beat it.
Yeah, agree with these points. It had that first entry vibe to it, similar to the Outer Worlds. Lack of enemy variety was a pretty big one, once you were a few hours in.
Just seen they’ve uploaded this pretty funny video 😂: https://youtu.be/gwyHqXMSkAw?si=7REw4Cgj2lEpbAc0
The IP was my only interest. Games like this I get bored with so I generally avoid. But the views of the school looked great and I’ve always wanted to walk around it, like the fantasy version of it. I’ve been to the real set and walked around that which is cool. My only complaint is I bought it on PC so I didn’t get to see Azkaban.
What do you mean? I played on pc and went to Azkaban, what very little there was to see anyway
Azkaban is not based on platform but house, join Hufflepuff to see it.
I thought that was a PlayStation exclusive
I’m playing this game right now and it’s honestly a six out of 10. The only reason to launch the game at all is because of the world design which is top notch. So top notch it scores all of those six points, because the plot characters story and gameplay are all a let down otherwise. This is the type of game that will disable the controls for your magical flying broom and then tell you that you need to climb a wall. I wish it wasn’t so successful so they didn’t think this formula was so good, because if they made the game actually good AND a Harry Potter property, that would have really been something special. But as it is now, it’s just an uninspired video game painted in a pretty coat of a popular franchise. I’m sure we’ll get a sequel.
I would have loved to have this game as a kid. It may be a 6 out of 10 but most of the other harry potter shovelware they shit out when the movies were coming was at best a 0.2 out of 10. The only arguably not that bad one was the prisoner of azkaban movie based game.
IDK. Most of the early games were actually pretty entertaining. I fairly recently played sorcerer’s stone on the gbc, and it was still pretty fantastic.
I’m curious, what open world games do you rate as a 9 or 10? I’m not saying Hogwarts did anything revolutionary, but it did most things pretty solidly. It’s been a while since Ive played an open world game that does a good job on making the world actually feel alive.
Not the person you asked, but for me personally to rate some open world games:
- Hogwarts: 4-5/10. It’s pretty damn bad IMO, beyond the fan pandering.
- Avatar Frontiers of Pandora: 5-7/10, it’s a slightly worse Far Cry (which is already damn tepid) but looks insanely pretty which makes it a good braindead time waster.
- Cyberpunk 2077: Originally 2/10, laughably underdesigned and so buggy it felt like industry-criticizing sarcasm. Nowadays 7/10 if including the expansion, still quite buggy but not in a bad way, and the redesigned combat and character systems feel artificial but pretty fun. City still too dead and underdesigned, sadly.
- Skyrim: 6-7/10, damn impressive at the time, but only briefly as the game was shallow as all hell, even in its best moments. Still impressive but it’s all on the mods and hence the players, not the game designers.
- Witcher 3: 8-9/10, essentially same design flaws as modern CP2077, but given its fantasy world suffers much less from it, of course the empty countryside is, well, empty.
- Subnautica: 10/10, amazing horror vibes, good progression, not too open and not too confined, focus on exploration.
- Outer Wilds: 10/10, completely open and pure exploration, reductive game design done perfectly right.
the redesigned combat and character systems feel artificial but pretty fun
What do you even mean by this? Artificial gameplay?
No like… it feels pretty obvious they weren’t that way originally, if that makes sense? That this got changed after the game was already out for a while, this wasn’t how it was designed at first?
I got Subnautica for free twice (PlayStation and Epic), I should really look at giving it a proper try. I have the feeling it’d be really good in VR, played No Man’s Sky in VR recently and I immediately loved it while on flatscreen it didn’t click with me as much.
Subnautica is a masterpiece.
Witcher 3 I’d rate 9/10.
Subnautica gets a 9/10. Fallout 2 and 3, if we’re specifically going RPGs. NieR: Automata for action RPGs. Look at Persona for school influenced RPGs. I’d have geeked out so hard if we got even Persona-style class experiences in Hogwarts Legacy. Instead, all we get is completely contextless montage cutscenes.
Yeah I wish Hogwarts Legacy had taken more inspiration from Persona. Having a schedule, working on social links, engaging in fun activities outside of school, it all lends itself incredibly well to a Hogwarts game.
Unfortunately it sounds like the creators haven’t ever even touched a Persona game. I remember before the game launched they were asked if there’d be romance options, and they seemed almost offended by the thought since the characters are kids, despite Persona doing the same for literal decades.
Going to a ball in Hogwarts Legacy, or going on a date in Hogsmeade, would’ve been so much fun too.
Imagine that, teens dating… What a wild concept, they didn’t even had to play Persona, our own culture is filled with teen drama series, even DC made gotham academy.
Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 are both up there for me.
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It happens every time. Pokémon Sword/Shield and Scarlett/Violet had the biggest launch in the franchise’s history despite being (justifiably so) heavily criticized by pretty much everyone online.
People shit on microtransactions and always-online games but the top charts always show online multiplayer games are among the most played.
It doesn’t make the criticisms any less valid; it just means that the general public is usually ignorant of them.
Or just don’t care that much
JKR is a very vocal TERF that basically wants trans people to dissappear. A lot of people dont want to financially support her because of that. That most people seemingly either dont care about trans erasure or even worse, bought the game specifically because theyre the type to do shit just because people with a conscience told them they shouldn’t, says more about most people than it does that “vocal minority”
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This right here is why Lemmy is often a shitshow. You’re absolutely right, but since you’re going against the hive mind it’s nothing but downvotes. No one’s even bothered to reply because there’s nothing to argue against in good faith. Just angry downvotes because your facts are getting in the way of fake outrage.
Nah. Both of you just haven’t kept up with her history of equating trans women with sexual predators and trans men with poor brainwashed little girls, some of which was hinted, if disguised in polite words, in the article where she talked about the situation and defended how she totally didn’t mean any harm to anybody.
Did you see when she said she’d march with trans people if they truly were persecuted? Their rights have been challenged and undermined many times since, and she didn’t show any sign of that.
Because, you know, sometimes people aren’t completely honest and taking them at their word is not the ultimate measure of their characters.
So don’t confuse disagreeing with people here and getting downvoted with being the one clear-minded contrarian. However much internet bandwagons are a thing, you won’t get the clear picture unless you go look into it. Sometimes you might get that reaction because you are wrong and that’s it.
Seriously! If I say something stupid, others are supposed to show up and educate me on why what I said is stupid! That is how public discourse is supposed to works!
Wait, why aren’t the people tired of my ignorant shit jumping to help me learn? Oh I know, that means I’m actually super smart, totally correct and fully informed. Everyone else is just being stupid and mean to me for no valid reason.
Honest feedback (for honest ppl): there are ways to ask people what they think so they’ll be inclined to reply earnestly. Starting with “pipe down” ain’t it… ya fuckin dingus. lol
I think that the masses are mostly disengaged with terminally-online type discourse. The only reason I knew JK Rowling was TERF was because of reading it on here, so if you are only on social media to follow your old high school classmates on facebook, you’d probably never find out
The masses are largely disengaged with LGBT rights in general, but the declining rights of transgender people in the UK (and the US) shows this is not just a “terminally-online” kind of issue. She is not the only one responsible, of course, but her outspoken antagonism towards transgender people is influencing people.
It concerns me when people can’t differentiate “this issue does not affect me” from “this issue does not exist”. Even calling matters “terminally-online” in general is a bit questionable when whole ass presidents get elected by meme campaigns these days.
The game has a minor character who is trans too. It uses the world she invented but does not borrow her real world views
Just because a minority is depicted in a work of art does not mean that depiction was made in good faith. Americans are familiar with that concept because of our dark history of minstrel shows and blackface performances.
When the trans woman character’s name is Sirona Ryan, it calls into question whether she is meant to be a character or a caricature.
I pirated the game. The first part in the actual school was really fun. But once you get out into the world, you quickly realise that it’s just another generic open world game with outposts, collectibles, and general busywork that you’ve seen in every other open world game. It got boring very quickly for me and I never finished it.
I also pirated it, and yeah, I definitely got my money’s worth from it. I tried to have fun, but it’s the poster child for “mile wide, inch deep.”
Maybe they can reuse the environment for a better game in the future.
I agree. The magical feeling of being a student at Hogwarts soon evaporated as soon as you got a broom and didn’t really need to visit Hogwarts again and instead just fight endless random enemies, which gets pretty easy as you level up.
I was also disappointed by the endless voice acting. There was so much pointless talking and you couldn’t really control the outcome, all options seemed to result in a positive outcome when I just wanted to be a badass Malfoy but you’re not allowed, you jave to be a goody goody Hermione, juat in Slytherin clothes.
I was very interested in mods for this game, people found all kinds of fun cut stuff that would’ve elevated this game so much like companions having commentary for several quests when you used a mod to bring them, and having actual consequences for using the dark arts. But it’s impossible to implement.
Technically it’s possible, but you’d have to reply on the cooperation of empress and that’s… not gonna happen.
I loved the mod that turned all those animated paintings into anime vtubers, so goofy
poped in to say transrights! that’ll be all
fuck harry potter, read terry pratchett
Can I just read Pratchett without fucking anyone? I’m ace and it’s just really smelly and uncomfortable.
Absolutely but I do recommend whispering to yourself “get fucked JK rowling” before reading a book as it is good luck. You can substitute “eat shit” or whatever else feels right to you and it should still work fine.
Can I just read Pratchett without fucking anyone?
You can, but you’re missing out. Getting to the climax of Guards! Guards! is really something else.
Bit unfair, because when compared to Terry Pratchett, just about everything else gets tossed to read more Pratchett. 😅
(not that I disagree, Pratchett is best)
Imagine if JK Rowling had even a 1/1000th the artistry and intuitive empathy Pratchett had for the world, there would be millions upon millions of people out there with a life long love of a series who didn’t feel betrayed and forced to make a choice between being part of a community that textually hates them or continuing to love their childhood nostalgia.
<3 trans people <3 granny weatherwax and I really wanna get drunk with nanny og.
Careful, Nanny will make you do chores.
Does Nanny NOT make you do the chores?? She told me everyone else was very studious about doing them and that only I was slacking off.
Wait a minute….
She had me convinced SHE was the one being fooled this whole time, she even told me so
I just wish there was more media of the Discworld other than the books, a handful of movies and some games of the 90’s. It is such a big universe that has so much room for stories.
I’m sure the studios will get around to it and then we’ll get a million sequels. Maybe the estate owning the rights is not keen on authorizing works.
Yeah I don’t think his daughter is that hot on allowing a lot of people to do stuff with it. Last year’s animated Maurice movie was about the only thing in a long time, I think?
okay
It’s multi-platform, uses one of the biggest IPs of an entire generation and seems to do it quite well too. Everything else would have been more surprising to me.
I’m shocked the online outrage from gamingcirlclejerk didn’t work
It’s like the sub made for taking the piss out of gaming criticism and critique did what it was supposed to do.
Not really, they were often really serious about it which made it all the more ridiculous. Sometimes it’s a fun circlejerk sub, sometimes it’s presenting their slacktivism almost as being some gaming vanguard and fighting a war against the game.
It was pretty funny.
I used to love that sub, but these days they are only focused on the outrage culture. Nothing inherently wrong with that, I like to laugh at people who take their video game waifu too seriously. I initially joined that sub because it seemed like the best place to have level-headed conversations about overhyped games, like the Witcher 3. Everywhere else seems to love that game as if it’s the second coming of Jesus, but if you find some places that didn’t like the game, they swing a bit too hard on the opposite site, so you can’t have a conversation with them either. I found plenty of people in that sub who loved that game, but knew where the shortcomings were.
I wonder it’s because it attracted a bunch of people who weren’t into games, but are huge Harry Potter fans.
It’s also on every platform, including the Switch, while TotK is just on the Switch.
Yeah this feels like a Look What They Have to Do (release on every system) to Mimic a Fraction of Our Power (be Zelda) meme.
More like: Even a bland game will sell more if it is released on multiple platforms, no matter how good the other game is.
I think you just nailed it, this is exactly why.
Yep it’s an unfair comparison. If Zelda was available on all platforms then it might have been a different story.
But it isn’t, and that is the problem.
Honestly it was just a good game. I saw it attracting both Potterheads and non-Potterheads. (I would not consider myself a Potterhead).
Does it have a bunch of replay value? Not really (neither do a lot of games). But man, that initial playthrough was just really good. It also looks like I clocked 113 hours on the game, so that’s a pretty decent return to me.
Also, despite the source material and the author, it had a lot of very inclusive elements, which were a nice touch.
if you seriously think this game was special, I have a far cry themed bridge to sell you
Hasnt Nintendo like, not released digital sales for TotK? I remember reading that recently.
Not a cope post, I don’t care if you play the terf game, just actually curious.
If you have nothing else to play and want a simple open world game set in and around Hogwarts, it’s perfectly servicable as long as you pirate it. Don’t expect to be blown away by it though.
I assumed that after literally nobody or any media outlets have talked about it since release. Telltale sign of bang on average game. Probably great for potter fans and boring for those who don’t care or haven’t seen the films/read the books.
I would - and I hate my saying this - rather recommend Avatar then. Yeah it’s a Ubisoft game. I know. Yeah, it needs a beefier machine to actually look really pretty.
But oh my fucking hell is it pretty when cranked up. And it helps the generic open world gameplay a lot to be this awesome looking. Fun to just wander around and take in the scenery, even when you leave the jungle areas and go to the plains and see the wind-swept grass and all.
Zelda was more fun though
Zelda would have been even more fun if it was available on every platform instead of just Nintendo.
The same can be said for many games over the years then, but I don’t like thinking that way.
If there’s a game I want to play, I’ll get the hardware needed to play it
That’s it, I never played Nintendo games because I never had their hardware. For me personally it’s just not worth getting into their closed ecosystem. Basically same reason I never had anything apple.
I only played the unpatched version with the dupe glitches, that was super fun.
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its not insane unless you’re doing completionist stuff, you can easily cap a few sets of armor for key purposes just with chest loot and some monster mashing. I created a second game on another user account after my first game (with duped gems, etc) and its not really grindy until you try to max out like a third set of armor.
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you can get most of the battery cell upgrades by opening chests from exploring (and where the chests are becomes obvious if you collected a few old maps) and following the main story. The problem is exploring the depths isn’t all that fun. I never even used duping to get battery in my original game- by the time I explored the depths fully I was maxed out.
Genuinely curious which game has more “Hours Played”. I’m willing to put money down on it being Zelda.
Millions of people have bad taste. Shocker
Smug gamer thinks what others like is wrong. Shocker.
Supporting transphobes is wrong. Millions of people supported a transphobe. For me, that’s not being smug, it’s being terrified
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Enjoying the game doesn’t mean you are supporting the author.
Especially if you pirate it.
No smugness here, just disappointment.
Why does it matter to you what others play?
Financially supporting a crusade against a minority group (trans folks) is one of my pet peeves
So. You’re saying the developer and everyone that worked on the game are part of a crusade against a minority group?
Or is it just that you’re delusional enough to think that because the creator or the IP is a blowhard hag of a human being, everyone associated with her IP should be thoroughly punished?
Nah thats not what im saying. But the millions raked in by harry potter enterprises goes in to Rowlings pockets. Also, i dont weep for the devs, they were paid already…
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The game allowed you to create a trans protagonist (male voice/female body, pronouns, …). It isn’t a crusade against them at all, it is empowering them. No matter what the author said.
Never got into Harry Potter since I was too old. This game was really fun to just explore and I constantly felt a forward momentum. Some of the stories were good, and some were awful.
I would absolutely play a sequel just based on the well done sense of discovery alone. I just wish more of what you found was impactful instead of cosmetic.
On the one hand, I agree about wishing there was more to find than a new color cloak, but on the other hand I think it’s a neat way to keep the game approachable to more casual gamers (and to try and get as many Harry Potter fans to get it as possible). That being said, I would have liked if there were more challenge, and something other than just flat stat improvements could have been a way to keep that interesting if they had higher difficulties.
I get it, but it doesn’t have to be just pure stats. Could have been mild ability improvements or something or maybe changed some of the effects or visual things that occurred around you. Hell, even walking speed improvement or something like a tone to help you locate hidden items.
There’s a lot they could have done considering we’re dealing with magical items! Still had a pretty good time with it overall though.
I thought it was a great game that captured the spirit of the books & movies so well. Thankfully all the mock outrage and virtue signaling didn’t affect its sales and probably boosted them.
mock?
Considering one of the main hubs for outrage was /r/GamingCirclejerk who themselves use the defense of “lmao this list of streamers playing wizard game totally isn’t an invite to harass them. This is a joke subreddit why are you taking it seriously?!”.
I can hardly blame people for thinking the outrage was fake. Some of it was so over the top it was insane
That said, fuck J.K Rowling, and fuck her opinions
I bought the game only because of the obnoxious virtue signaling cunts screaming about boycott.
Ended up enjoying it tremendously and playing it way too much.
So, thanks to obnoxious virtue signaling lynch mob I guess.
There is something to be said about voting with your wallet and boycotting people who actively donate to anti-lgbt organisations.
But christ was that particular boycott super fucking obnoxious.
I thought the game was kinda mid. The first part in Hogwarts was amazing, the rest of the game turned into the standard open world grind a bit too quickly for me.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, and I can see how you did 😁
Yes. Some game “reviews” were such absurd, performative straw man attacks at JK Rowling that they bordered on parody. I’m thinking of the Wired one in particular but others were equally bad. The irony is these diatribes clearly helped the game, or rather, this really good game sold well in spite of that crap. Ultimately these websites just undermined their own reputations.
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Completed both 100% and they’re such great fun games.
Hogwarts was awesome to walk through the wizardry world. Battling wizards, poachers, spiders, etc. Finding all the secrets and going through the story. Finished the game in a week, I just couldn’t put the controller down.
I pirated it and played for maybe two hours. It was boring and the controls didn’t feel good. Uninstalled shortly after.
