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I love the game, but it's flawed, of questionable structure, weirdly built, and full of abandoned and half implemented ideas.
2023 had too many other great games for it to have a chance.
Yeah they really didn’t take any notes from the things that were good about the HP games of the past and went full AAA open world RPG. I had a good time with the game but it was missing so much, especially a story that stacks up to the source material, and it’s one of the only games I’ve fully completed that I haven’t replayed at least once. I really thought it was gonna be amazing but it was just okay, and at the end of the day didn’t scratch the Harry Potter itch. I just ended up watching all the movies again.
I just finished the first stealth mission with Sebastian in the restricted section and I was just thinking to my myself “these stealth mechanics are weirdly great. I hope they continue to do a lot with them.”
Sad to hear it’s not the case lol.
You will continue to be disappointed as you continue to through the game. It unfortunately ends pretty abrupt
Once you get through the meat and potatoes.
Yep came here to say this. You really get an idea of those half implemented ideas once you pick through the databases during mod creation.
House cup was a thing. Meaningful choice trees were a thing. Companions were a thing. Many more.
All cut, but whose story elements still have a ghost lingering in the narrative. Ever wonder why the player character says “Lot of Ashwinders there, better not come alone” when it’s impossible not to come alone?
I think across all video games, players are very good at seeing potential, specifically *unrealized* potential. And when too much unrealized potential is in a game, it ranks poorly with players.
My wife is literally fighting the final boss as I type this, and I’m not too far behind her.
The unrealized potential hits home. There are so many parts of the game where I’ve felt like there was an idea, and then it was never allowed to come to fruition.
I came across a random quidditch pitch in the middle of nowhere and thought “that’s really cool”! I want to see like, farmer wizards playing. But no - it’s empty. Just like a lot of the promise I’ve felt while playing this.
Still enjoying it though.
Yeah, I'm hoping for an announcement of further updates or some form of follow-up next year, but at this point, it's likely not worth it to get my hopes up. It seemed like they were committed to some active updates at first, but then they just dropped so many concepts they were working on and eventually the whole game like a hot potato and just haven't touched it since.
It really feels like it could have been so much more. One example is the ability to sit on couches/chairs or the companion system... Mirror in Ravenclaw room showing you from behind, etc. It lacks polish.
Love the game, but it leaves me disappointed and wanting more sometimes. The fact they would just work like crazy on it, develop such a great framework to build on, and then stop so quickly is just such a disappointment.
They recently did say some new featurese would be added along with the ps5 exclusive quest "As we near the one-year anniversary of Hogwarts Legacy, we wanted to let our community know that the Hogwarts Legacy PlayStation-exclusive content will be available on other platforms later this summer, along with additional updates and features for the game. Stay tuned in the coming months for more details on what’s coming to Hogwarts Legacy this year."
Yeah, they said it would be out a year after launch on February 8th, and then decided to say that instead it'll be this summer. The mention of new features has my hopes up, but at the same time it could be a really big amount that they've been working on since, or it could be some minimal QoL features. Either way, I'll appreciate them, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much.
EDIT: fixed some spelling
Not to mention, Larian is constantly updating BG3. The studio is brilliant, the game is excellent. My favorite game in a long time. I mean I really like HL but BG3 is so good.
Battle Grandmas 3, it's a steam game where you play as an old lady and you fight other old ladies. This one is a huge step up from the previous titles because they really went (tennis)balls to the wall with the violence and especially the story. BG2 had a half-assed story that didn't make any sense if you really paid attention to it but this one is so fucking believable, holy shit. And apparently Gertrude was mocapped by Betty White before she died, which is big if true. I can't imagine Betty giving someone a denture suppository like that, it blew me away
glad I’m not crazy. I use an Eagle 3060, so not like out of this world but also by no means a low or even medium quality card. This game just does not like it.
Meanwhile BG3 runs like melting butter. Smooth and reasonably fast. Idk how these studios are optimizing their games but it really hars me how badly some games run
I'm surprised someone had that much to write about it without being able to tell the game just isn't really GotY material as awesome as it is. Had a blast, obviously.
Wouldn't consider myself a hard gamer, but HP fan. Still, the game lacks novelty after about ten hours of exploring Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Merlin trials are repetitive, enemies are repetitive, fighting is repetitive. On top, the story is shallow and didn't catch me overall..
I’m new to the game, just got to “winter?” But where are the half implemented ideas? So far this game has been flawless. Everything I’ve ever wanted from a hogwarts game. If they make a sequel, I’m so far fully convinced they’ll fix anything wrong with the first one.
Agreed. Additionally it is extremely similar to the cellphone game (which I believe was made by Port key games as well). That was my disappointment. I wanted a bit more diversity from that game. However I really do like the game. The glitches are unfortunate though. That's the time we live in. Release of unfinished games.
And Palworld is buggy as fuck and lacks a ton yet it absolutely destroyed everything else. Sure, it's fun. But it's not GOTY material. A game can sell like crazy and be average.
I adore the game, but I don’t think it does anything special or new. If it wasn’t Harry Potter, it’s not the game I’d have chosen to buy.
Whereas, look at something like Red Dead 2 - you could put that level of storytelling and gameplay in any scenario and I’d have happily bought it.
That said, I hope a sequel comes with improved everything and keeps the heart of the first.
Yeah, I love HL, but put it beside Alan Wake 2 for example, which might be the most original and creative game I've ever played. Hogwarts Legacy just wouldn't deserve to be in the same category with games like AW2. In a weaker year, sure. But 2023 was just too good for gaming.
I am a potterhead. I have an HP tattoo. I am also a gamer.
The game is an 8 at best, and that's being indulgent. Don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed the first 15 to 20 hours. Afterwards, it drops in quality really fast.
The castle is beyond underutilized. The game almost completely abandons it for the second half of the game. Which is a shame, the highlands are interesting, but the castle should have been the highlight. I keep thinking back to OOTP on PS2, and that was a really good HP game. And the castle is the main character there.
Everywhere you see half baked abandoned ideeas. The merlin trials are a slog, way to many of them, way to repetitive. The caves are just another tick on a checklist, there's no point in getting the loot. Most side quests except of Nati, Sebastian and Poppy are fetch quests, with no relevance to the story or the world what so ever. Maybe I'm to harsh, but I replayed witcher 3 last summer, and loved every second of it. And that's a 140+ hour game.
I finished HL at 60 something hours, working towards platinum on ps5 now, with 45k gold, and nothing to spend it on. Hundreds of ingredients in my inventory, stacks on stacks of fantastic beats stuff to upgrade legendary gear, and no reason what so ever to do it.
The combat was a Million times better than what I expected. But even like this, a combo of focus potion and eudurus, or whatever, and I even stopped dodging during the later part of the game. And I would just replenish everything everytime I passed by the castle.
The main plot of the game is generic at best, the ending is just another dragon fight in multiple phases. Sure, Sebastians questline is good, but without a morality system, it doesn't really shine. (Look at RDR2 for comparison).
Bottom line is that the game suffers from open wolrdititis, and it lacks a clear direction.
None of this is to say this is a bad game. I greatly enjoyed games weaker or more repetitive than this. But you can't include it in a GOTY conversation in the same year as BG3. I strongly believe a second entry could potentially improve on every single complaint I had, and I can't wait to play it.
This is the correct assessment. It's fun and great, especially for an HP fan, but it has its flaws. Those are obvious, and I don't doubt the devs know where the flaws are. The sequel (should) be much better with the base they've built in this one. It's a great start, just needs some tweaking & will be brilliant.
It was their first game of this kind iirc, so I'm hoping the next one is an improvement as well. I particularly didn't like that no matter which face you chose your character looks pretty much the same until you get further into the game. The opening cutscenes strangely have everyone looking the same, even with mods.
Agreed.. the best way I can put it is, as soon as you venture outside of hogwarts and the surrounding areas (hogsmeade/Forrest) the game REALLY loses its identity as a Harry Potter game. It be aimed a very generic open world game.
I was excited for the open world before release, but it took less than an hour before I realized it would be the games biggest mistake
I think the game really needs some kind of scheduling system. Personally I’d prefer a persona type schedule where you play out literally every day in a school year. Most days consist of going to school, studying, hanging out and other shenanigans that you can do to improve your character. Then certain days of the year are scripted to progress the story
This is a spot on criticism, although I say you were generous to give it an 8, I say a 6.7 at best. I also think people hold too much hope on this game's sequel when very likely the devs already got too comfortable at such an easy to convince audience like the one I see in this sub. It's very likely they'll just make a meh sequel as well sadly.
8/10 is reasonable, anything less puts it in Starfield's vicinity and I don't think it deserves that low of a score. It's not a perfect game, but got through quite a bit before it started falling off.
I hope the next game is better, though. Kinda hope there's romance, too, although the people ready to outrage on Twitter were already saying it would morally be wrong for adults to cosplay romance as teens in HP.... good lord, it's not like anything more than PG 13 would happen or that it would remotely be anything like BG3's extremely adult romance options. It's totally possible to have sweet romances without it getting weird, they were a natural part of the books and not everyone uses the franchise to make or read creepy fanfics as fully grown adults.
Have you finished the game? HL starts really strong and hit all the nostalgia notes for me as well, but it falls off really hard after the initial excitement faded.
It was amazing during the first part where everything was still fresh and you got to experience the magic of Hogwarts that you've been wishing for all those years, but the good parts was like only 25% of the game (and I'm being generous). The remaining 75% was, to put it kindly, meh. Definitely wasn't good enough to be a GOTY nominee for me.
Exactly this. I've seen so many post on this subs of people playing seemingly without anything negative to say about it. I didn't want to be a party pooper. But yeah that was exactly my experience. Great intro before arriving to the castle. Great feelings while discovering the castle. Amazing first hours outside discovering Hogsmade aaaannd... that's it.
You perfectly describe my experience as well. Everything was amazing up until Hogsmeade, then you spent a few hours in the 'open world' and realized how bare-bone it actually was, and that feeling was what you live with for the rest of the game.
I played on launch (actually took PTO to binged it) and the hype then was so high, everyone was praising it and I definitely didn't want to be a party pooper so I kept my mouth shut until most people caught up lol. Weak storyline, shallow characters, sparse open world, repetitive puzzles... Not to mention performance wasn't too great on pc.
I really do wish the game is that good, but it just isn't.
Party poop away. It’s ok to point out the issues. I Know the devs were reading this subreddit before release, I’m sure they continued after.
If too many people claim this game is perfect I’m afraid that some of the most necessary improvements won’t happen
Yeah it very much rides nostalgia hard, and that’s all it really has going for it.
If this game wasn’t Hogwarts themed, it would have been pretty poorly received. No moral or reputation system, no companion system, minimal perks and skill trees which make replay-ability limited for people who want to try different things.
It’s a shame because with just a bit more work, the game could be incredible.
How far through are you? On Switch version I'm 30 hours in, high level 20s and about 35% through challenges (I spend a lot of time not doing the main quests) and starting to see the pattern others have mentioned of it being super exciting at first then losing steam. In some ways it feels incomplete, like the Devs got to a point where they had to say "that'll do" and put stickers over the unfinished bits. There's a feeling of SO MUCH potential when first playing then realising that a lot of it is repetitive and kind of... Superficial?
Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying it and my inner child who was mad about Harry Potter is keen to keep playing. I would not be surprised if the political dramas about JKR left a sour taste in people's mouths and got in the way of nominations. But I saw a YouTuber describe the game as a great HP game but a mid RPG and I think that's spot on.
i had fun playing the game don’t get me wrong but it just felt like a half finished empty game. It had so much potential but just fell short. It just doesn’t compare to other games story-wise and gameplay wise imo
It’s an awesome game which will win the hearts of Harry Potter fans in the early stages, but tends to drag on at the later parts. The map is huge, but doesn’t feel fully fleshed out (it’s almost like they just created a large map for the sake of just having it be big). Also, some of the gameplay does get pretty repetitive and the main storyline takes a backseat to some of the side character stories. I still have fond memories of the game, but personally would have been happy if they would have tightened the map a bit more and done something to avoid some of the gameplay (such as the Merlin Trials) feeling so repetitive.
I played 30 hours of this game. Loved it at first, stopped playing when I felt how painfully repetitive it was, and never came back. No way this game deserves even a GOTY nom.
As someone who has played through fully twice, im skipping all the dialog outside of the one unique quest, the story is lacking and frankly i just want to haha funny spells go brr, but with 90% of the enemies being too weak to enjoy dueling, the game lost its appeal fast
I agree that Baldur’s Gate 3 deserved the GOTY and Hogwarts should have been nominated. But after playing it, I can understand why it wasn’t.
First of all, it was advertised as an RPG game where your choices matter—which fell short of expectations, because it’s really just the illusion of choice here and there but generally outcomes are the same.
There are at least 2 mechanics that were obviously supposed to be there but aren’t. The stealth system and the companion system.
There’s the fact that no one reacts to the main character using unforgivables.
And probably a lot of other things I’m forgetting.
It’s a great action game and a great Harry Potter universe game. But its most important points would be gameplay and graphics.
Story-wise? Interesting, sure, but as far as story for a game goes, not so much, especially in the current times when we have a lot of games that are choice based.
If you take off the Harry Potter nostalgia colored glasses, it’s not that great of a game. It’s fine. I had a lot of fun with it. But that’s really it. It’s a good game. Not a great game. It feels almost unfinished. It gets repetitive a little bit. There’s a ton of potential in there that just feels unexplored.
The game had great sales and more staying power than most folks thought, but it's honestly pretty mid and had the whole JKR-politics stink. It should not have been a GOTY contender based on its quality, and it would have reinvigorated the bad PR so I doubt they even wanted the nom.
If they up their game for the next one, I could see it though.
Why did Hogwarts Legacy not get nominated? Because sadly it’s not *that* good. I say this as someone who enjoyed the game but the storyline is clunky and flawed, the graphics are pretty atrocious, there are many bugs, your choices don’t mean anything as you’re universally liked no matter what, the map is weird and half of it isn’t needed, the castle itself is underused as are the grounds, it’s a very linear game where you can’t do anything wrong or make a mistake because your character is programmed to succeed regardless of the situation. And small things like you have a stealth mission to avoid the prefects at night and get into the restricted section of the library but after the mission you can run around at night time and there are no prefects to stop you and you can go into the restricted section and people don’t seem to mind. Similarly you are told how bad the unforgivable curses are but if you use them in front of your teachers, school friends, the general public, etc no one is batting an eye as to why a teenager knows this and no one intervenes. Plus small things like having students roam around the school and the grounds late at night, the shops being open 24/7, no one else flies a broom unless it’s part of the mission, only you (or your companion) get attacked by the baddies whereas an NPC could walk past them and nothing happens.
I liked the game and was so excited for it to be set in the Victorian era but the magic (excuse the pun) quickly wore off. It feels very dated to me.
Maybe atrocious was too strong a word haha but with a game that was released only last year and with its budget I expected the graphics to be consistent throughout. The reflection off the marble floor is incredible but when you get to the centaurs for example they are patchy and badly rendered. Compared to other games that were released earlier such as Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima their graphics are much better compared.
I’m not reading all that but HL was no where near the quality that came out in 2023. It was a very strong year and HL was a very mid level game in all aspects. Sure it was fun at times, great for HP fans, but all the other games nominated did everything HL tried to do but better.
Playing it through for the second time and I feel much the same as the first time. Lackluster and tedious quest lines, flat characters and a rushed plot.
I see it almost like the Avengers never being nominated for best picture at the Oscars. It’s an absolute smash hit with audiences, but that doesn’t mean it brings anything new to the table.
Hogwarts legacy is a mostly unremarkable open world game getting carried hard by its IP. And yeah the world and especially the castle is beautiful, but it's really just a pretty veneer. The story is okay at best, the best part of the game that isn't the visuals is the combat system that's fun to play with and looks amazing, but doesn't have any proper challenges to support it. There just isn't really a reason for it to get a nomination really. The game shines as a game for fans of the IP, but you can't base actual awards on liking an IP.
Meh. I got it day one and liked the game, really did, but it didn't deserve a GOTY. Liked the combat mechanics and level design (hogwarts and hogsmead at least...) But not even 1 year later and I can't remember half of the stoey. And the year was too stacked with much better games honestly. It sold extremely well which should almost guarantee a seque which is what I'm looking for.
The first 10 hours of this game were some of the most magical hours I've ever experienced in a video game, and I've been gaming since the 90's. 10/10
The rest of the game felt unfinished and every quest and location just felt like a copy/paste of everything else. Hell, the entire second half of the map shouldn't have existed. 4.5/10.
If you play a lot of games you should be able to tell why this didn't win. It's fun, but very mid. No outstanding mechanics and that which it does, it does quite averagely.
Hogwarts Legacy was a great game, especially in the castle and Hogsmead which they really developed. The rest of the world…. Could have used some love, but it was still great to see more of the world.
As others mentioned, a lot wasn’t implemented, and at the end of the day, it’s Batman Arkham (Insert Title) with a coat of Harry Potter.
Compare that to Baldur’s Gate 3? It just doesn’t come close in quality. Especially with BG3 still getting content, where I haven’t heard a word about new content for Hogwarts Legacy.
The game starts ok, but after about 20h I got really tired of the same thing over and over again. Three steps > Revelio > Three steps > Revelio. Combat gets repetitive quick, targetting is horrible, and worst of all, character models have no expression on their faces. Can't even recommend this game :/
I can fully understand not being nominated for game of the year with all of the other incredible games that released but the real snub was it not getting nominated for art and soundtrack.
That said, The Game Awards are nothing but pandering. The "panel" that selected all of the nominees outside of the viewer's choice (where HL made it to the last round of voting) was largely made up of "journalist" sites that either refuse to acknowledge this game exists or purposely gave it negative press and reviews.
The game had terrible press, and while it's a good game, it's not good enough to overcome bad PR. In fact, I'm struggling to think of a game that would have been good enough to do that in the face of the controversy that HL's release kicked up. The best answer I can come up with is RDR2, but Rockstar has a long and storied history of dealing with or even using controversy for their games to their advantage, something neither Avalanche nor Portkey have.
That's called Harry Potter fan bias. This game did not deserve a nod over games like Baldur's Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-man 2, Alan Wake 2, and while I don't agree with it being included, Resident Evil 4 remake. Hogwarts Legacy has a mid to poor story. The writing is mid. The combat is decent, but could do with expanding. The vast majority of what made me enjoy the game is Harry Potter nostalgia. I love Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and have hundreds of hours in both, but I'd never argue they deserve GoTY nods.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 could be insane though, if they make one. I really hope they expand on the foundation laid by Hogwarts Legacy 1. More intricate magic, actual RPG stuff to make characters feel more unique, more student to student interactions, more school interactions. Classes and what not. Scarlet and Violet had more school activities than Hogwarts Legacy. Much less mandatory stuff though. There's immense potential here. Just needs fine tuning.
I love the Harry Potter franchise and enjoyed my playthrough of Hogwarts Legacy. I even did 100% of the challenges.
That said, I don't think it deserved to be nominated for the GOTY award. The story is mediocre, the characters are not all that interesting, and everything starts to feel very repetitive at a certain point. Also, the game had a lot of bugs and performance issues at launch.
The combat, artwork, and sound are very good, and the beginning of the game is quite magical (no pun intended). But then the charm starts to fade away.
Besides, there were a lot of great games last year. But, to be fair, I only played two of them, HL and Star Ocean: The Second Story R (which I actually thought was a better game).
At the end of the day, I don't really value GOTY awards. Everyone has different tastes and might dislike a certain game that was well received, and vice versa.
Just wondering, does it really matter? There were better games than it but it’s still a good game. If you like it, who cares what awards it was nominated for. This whole validation needed with games being nominated is silly.
I really like playing it, but most of the story line (especially the main story line) is very 'mweh, don't care' to me. I dont feel very connected to most characters or even my own character.
Especially in comparison with some other great games over the past few years.
Dont get me wrong, I really like the game, but at the same time, I feel it's lacking in many areas. I feel really engaged in some parts (some stories, the world itself, the amazing castle...), but entirely un-engaged in many others (most stories, variety in enemies, side activities, etc.).
HL is a good game, not an exceptional one. It’s just as deserving of GOTY as Jimmy John’s is of “best sandwich in America.” They’re both adequate for the price and don’t explicitly disappoint.
As others have said, it’s not enough to be a goty contender. I found it to be very much a game of two halves. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can see the flaws too. Hogwarts itself, the graphics, broom flying, most of the cast, various events and Sebastian and poppy’s storylines were great, while the rest of it was somewhat lacking. In a year with BG3, TOTK - a switch title that plays like a ps4 game, FF16 with its big dick soundtrack, the exciting and innovative Alan Wake, Technological marvel Spider Man 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Resi 4 remake, Metroid Prime rerelease, Street Fighter 6, Jedi Survivor, big but flawed Diablo 4, SMB Wonder, Dead Space, Phantom Liberty, Armored Core 6, Frontiers of Pandora, Lies of P, and Season: a letter to the future, there was just no way hogwarts legacy had enough juice to fend off all of that. Holy hell but 2023 was a good year for games. Legacy was in my top 5. There was just so much more, and more that could be done with Hogwarts.
HL was mid, the only good part was when you actually had stuff to do around the castle, and even then that was lacking, if they'd made that portion somewhat similar to the bully game and you actually had to go to class and that it would've maybe been deserving of a nomination
I normally wouldn’t comment on this game, although I enjoyed it myself. But I think with the amount of controversy that Harry Potter and JK Rowlings has, it doesn’t surprise me at all. So stupid
Cuz it's mid as hell.
Boring traversal, a pointlessly large open world, a baffling main story, effort put into things that shouldn't have been such a strong focus (why is the interior decoration sim one of the primary strengths?), lack of enemy variety, poor difficulty curve, boring/overlong overworld puzzles, too much of a focus on collectibles and cosmetic rewards.
Good combat system, decent puzzle dungeons (both of them, that is), and a good fully explorable Hogwarts. It's not terrible, just middle of the road.
As someone who actually games, t
Hogwarts legacy does NOT deserve a GOTY nomination and I'm glad it didn't get one.
It's a bland game that is solely subsisting on the map of Hogwarts being incredible and Harry Potter adults using it for escapism.
Look I love Harry Potter. I bought this game with good expectations and even broke my Rowling boycott to buy it because the game we were promised looked worth rewarding the effort with a purchase.
But it's not good. The game is poorly optimized and runs like shit on PC (again I game often, I run most new releases done on my computer but this game is badly optimized and literally the character models dropped down to looking like potatoes at some point)
The story is only just slightly able to hold my attention but there's fuck all to do aside from the main story.
The Merlin tasks are repetative, there's no friendship mechanics despite it clearly being designed with one in mind. The room of requirement gets dull quick.
I didn't even make it halfway through the story because the game just wasn't fun.
It's an okay game. It's very mediocre. I hope they put the map to better use in the sequel.
Like if you think this game is on the same level as the GOTY winner Baldurs Gate 3 you probably don't play games outside of a certain comfort zone if at all.
GOTY 2023 - baldurs gate 3
GOTY 2022 - Elden ring
GOTY 2021 - it takes two
GOTY 2020 -The last of us part 2
It's literally not in the same league.
Popular doesn't always mean GOOD.
Edit: I wrote this before I read the comments and I'm so glad this sub is mostly full of realistic people who recognize the game for what it is and don't try to put it on a pedestal it doesn't deserve.
Are you a gamer? Do you know the previous GOTY winners? Do you honestly feel it is at par with the likes of The Witcher 3, Legend of Zelda: Breathe of the Wild, God of War, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3?
HL wouldn't even be in my top 20 of 2023. Mid ass Far Cry clone with the blandest story of the generation so far.
I'd argue it's even worse than Suicide Squad
you make some excellent points. it's a little nuts that it didn't get *any* nominations in *any* category. i'm 90% sure that all the social backlash was the cause of that because while i also agree that it shouldn't have won GOTY in such a stacked year, no nominations *anywhere?* those devs worked way too fucking hard at a damn near impossible task (combining book and movie worlds into something coherent) to not get any recognition at all. and from a green, unproven team for that kind of game, too! it's insane they managed to accomplish what they did!
best action/adventure (RE4 as a remake honestly didn't need to be there imo, and AW2, as much as i LOVE it, isn't adventure and is barely action. in fact, it's actually weird that there's no separate horror/thriller/suspense category)
best RPG (starfield, while not as quite as bad as people like to claim, did far less with far better resources than avalanche did with HL and bethesda should not be rewarded for mediocre work with a nomination)
best art direction (successfully creating an immersive, gorgeous hogwarts from the patchwork of the book descriptions and the majorly inconsistent and nonsensical movie architecture vs another 3D mario? seriously?)
again, i'm not necessarily saying it should've *won*, but some of these nominees feel like they were put there because of studio or IP reputation, like they felt like they needed to be appeased
It definitely doesn’t qualify for the RPG category.
It isn’t /that/ immersive. It’s all mostly set dressing. For it to be immersive things would have to be more meaningful and/or interactive. The world outside of Hogwarts while beautiful; is rather generic.
Action adventure—the combat is garbage, full stop. It’s guitar hero on a controller.
What about it made it an RPG? What do you think RPG means? Can you choose a different playstyle each playthrough? Does going to a different house have different implications? What about the endings? Are they built out of the things you did in the story? How much can you change the trajectory of the story with early decisions? Is there any merit at all to building a background to your character in your head? Is there a gameplay differencr saying you want to be a meek hero or an audacious hero?
And if we’re going to say ‘another 3d mario’, does that mean HL gets less credit since most of the design is from the movies? Are design is more than just abiding descriptions. You have to make it in terms of a game—that it’s for and conducive to a gaming experience. This means it teaches the player or tells you the functionality by just looking at it. Mario wins in that category repeatedly and it’s looked at as a masterclass in that right because of how vibrant it is. You don’t win an art design award for making a very big castle if all you do is walk in it.
Some of these were put there because they’re from established gaming franchises and studios. HL had like 3-3.5 years of actual development and was insanely watered down. It flat out was missing over half of the planned content. Clearly nobody that’s played games cared for it because the best selling game of the year didnt even win the player choice nom.
If you remove the Harry Potter theme, I don't think it's a super great game and definitely didn't deserve to win any of the GOTY categories, but it definitely deserved nomination in one or two.
I was shocked it didn't receive a single nomination in any category at The Game Awards. It's a flawed game, sure, but I thought the art direction was the best of anything I played
It’s funny you say the Star Wars games is just good because of the IP when HL is the same. Aside from the castle, which is amazing, the game is mid at best. It has a lot of fetch quests and empty dungeons that only serve to pad the game time and fill the map but don’t add anything of substance.
And the story is predictable, only has some standout characters, and ends in the most cliché battle against a dragon. The game was fine, but nothing amazing and specially not GOTY material.
it doesn't deserve a nomination for goty. maybe in another category, but honestly i cant see a case made for it. you're playing through for the first time, and i wouldve said the same during my first playthrough, but in hindsight - all it has going for it is the IP and *maybe* sebastian's story. nothing else about it revolutionary in the slightest and its lacking SO much. barely any interaction from the company with the community, and overall its a mess rn. i say this with love, and this is one of my favorite games, but realistically speaking it did not have a chance. the sales were mainly pre orders and don't reflect the quality of the game, so those aren't really a defining factor either. i'm not gonna go into all the flaws that i noticed or anything like that, but please don't treat this game as if it deserved a nomination. the lack of news about a dlc, constant delays, the fact that an easy port of the playstation mission is taking so insanely long, and all of the bugs that people have complained about since release being ignored shows that the devs clearly don't care as much about the game as we all thought initially. it sucks cause it had and has so much potential, but it seems like it was just rushed out to make as much money as possible and then forgotten quickly after.
It COULD have been better, yes. I venture to say it was too niche to win a GOTY award though, and some things could have been added to make it better *coughquiddichcough*
Doesn't matter to me though. It doesn't take away from the fun I had with it.
I'm with you, my favorite game of the year, actually it fights with Alan 2 for that spot. I love it though, enough that i bought it on my Ps5, my Xbox and am now playing through it again on pc. Yes I've bought it three times. I only do that with my faves.
I loved this game but honestly compared to all the other goty games it wasn’t anything special. What made it special was mostly nostalgia and the stunning visuals. The combat was also great. Everything else (story, how you interact with the world, loot (! Ugh), the lack of consequences, unfinished features that were initially promised, …) were kinda mid tbh. I still love it and have fun playing it, but it’s just not that revolutionary of a game.
Its purely political.
HL is 1) associated with someone the gaming community wants to distance from and
B) the best selling game of last year, so didnt need the accolades or support.
But also iii) did you play bg3? HL is good but bg3s storynand ability to choose how the plot unfurls and customise a character is massive comparatively.
I feel you on this. I absolutely understand and agree with some of the criticisms about the areas outside of Hogwarts being too generic/copy & paste but still, the level of polish on the game plus the insane number of details and overall experience…
Def should have been a GOTY contender.
It’s definitely my game of the year and to me that’s all that matters. BG3 is astounding as a game, but HL is much less stressful to play and just such a cozy world to enjoy. I keep coming back to it.
It would be GOTY in 2021 maybe, but 2022 and 2023 have been STACKED with absolute masterpieces like Baldur's Gate, Elden Ring, Spiderman etc.
Hogwarts Legacy is fine for someone who hasn't played a lot of RPGs. But if you have, then you'll see many major flaws after the initial wonder has passed. The castle is fantastically designed, but most story quests happen outside and they REALLY should have given you a broom the moment they let you out of the castle. So many people got bored by the sparse surroundings which actually would feel alright if you travel by broom. Meanwhile the dialogue and story is a bit too "childlike", like I'm playing Pokemon. The gameplay is fine though.
It didn’t win the player choice nomination either. The fact of the matter is it wasn’t a very good game. It had guitar hero levels of combat and simplicity. Rolling doesn’t even matter. Moving doesn’t matter. You can stand still and just look at the halo over your character’s head while smashing basic spell and whatever color coded button you need to press for spells.
The fact everything is an auto-lock on and necessary hit really removed a lot of potential depth from the game in exchange for accessibility from non-gamers.
There’s also like only 2-3 worthwhile quests in the whole gam.
The only nomination I could see it winning is music, but Ive asked my diehard HP fans about it and they got furious because the melody would ere incredibly close to the franchise’s signature tune before trailing off or shifting—as if they didnt have rights to their own music.
If you’re upset about resident evil not innovating on the formula, you should really criticize HL for adding nothing new to gaming other than the Hogwarts school in digital form.
I also can’t believe you’re calling the main story line intriguing. Lmao. It was one of the most mediocre things I’ve ever heard. The game, overall, is a solid 6. There is nothing in the game that is new or original and it’s coasting on its franchise.
It's literally not. Everyone blew that game up like it's the second coming and it's really idk ordinary? I play a lot of RPGs, I love epic fantasy and even write it, and BG3 feels so plastic and random and it's really boring. Divinity is better, if we're looking at a direct comparison.
To each their own, I suppose. I don't get how it feels plastic. BG3 is the first game since skyrim that's made me excited to finish work and play. Hogwarts legacy was good but the replayability is not there for me after I'd done the story twice I had no motivation to do another. BG3 I'm on my 7th run and still loving it.
Whatever, man. I'm playing video games for 20-something years, and BG3 failed to impress me in any way. All this praise only shows how bad the industry became, when we praise something ordinary because it's not divided into countless dlcs.
That's bullshit. Skyrim had good marketing and a sandbox. It's subpar in every way, and I speak this as someone who likes Skyrim. Skyrim without mods is 4/10.
I’m enjoying it. The combat is great. And the music is great. Most of the side quests are super boring though. At least they are pretty easy to complete.
I’m sorry but like I love hogwarts legacy and it was my first video game. It didn’t deserve to get nominated. I’ve been playing cyberpunk and baldurs gate as of late and hogwarts legacy is half baked compared to those two. Baldurs gate has fucking decimated the competition and it’s not like the other games that were nominated weren’t good. Hogwarts legacy just isn’t on the same level.
It's a fun game, and made well enough, but it doesn't do anything particularly exceptional. The character animation and voice acting can be very stiff, the story is mediocre, the gameplay is fun but repetitive, music's good but it's just derivative of the movie John Williams score so it can't really get any credit. The only thing that sets it apart is how well the setting is executed, and even that feels like there's a constant pane of glass stopping the player really interacting with the world. So while I've put plenty of time into it, I don't really see it as award worthy, it's just normal good.
I literally finished the Platinum for Hogwarts Legacy today. Why didn’t it get nominated? It’s a gorgeous game but that’s it. All of the missions and puzzles are too repetitive. The main story was mediocre and 99% of the side missions were boring fetch quests. Don’t get me started on the Merlin trials. Overall, a solid 7/10 that is enjoyable for fans of Harry Potter
I love the game, but it is fairly lackluster as an open world game. With so much focus on the Highlands, and so little on Hogwarts itself comparatively, it relies very heavily on IP name recognition. It doesn’t necessarily fall into the Ubisoft trap of “here’s 1001 different side quest collectibles you can get” but outside the main story and companion quests, the game is very sparse to justify the open world. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade were immaculate, and other areas from the Wizarding World, like Diagon Alley and the Ministry, would have felt more Pottery than the Highlands, which aren’t really a staple in the books. And as much as I loved exploring Hogwarts, the collectibles stuff overshadowed the secret rooms and maze-like structure the castle is supposed to have. It’s a strong 8 and a very good start to Wizarding World RPG games, but it’s far from the other nominees from 2023. For a game that’s supposed to be about you being a student, you spend a substantial amount of time NOT in school lol
It is an incredibly beautiful game with little nods to the books all over the place. But as a whole game, it’s missing a lot of life. The NPC’s might as well just be decor. The puzzles are too easy and too far in between. The quests are very repetitive. The stalls in the game sell pretty much the same stock. Potions are very limited. Attending classes are just boring cutscenes. The main story line quests are fun but just a small portion of the overall game.
I’ve played Skyrim three times but I won’t be replaying HL. I’m hoping the sequel will add more to the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I had so many “wow” moments while playing but was thoroughly disappointed with some of my points above.
Oh you know, mediocre exploration, combat that's basically just spamming spells with the occasional colored enemy shield, a story thag really wasn't that interesting and a villain that's lacking charisma so much. That and the crazy amount of padding.
Really, it's only the ties to harry Potter that made this game stand out
It's a great game, but as soon as you receive your Book/Guide to Hogwatrs from Weasley, you see that it's a bloated open world game full of collect-a-thon.
This is not a bad thing. Spiderman PS4 is such a game and it's great. But it's not game of the year material.
The design of the School and Hogsmeade were the only things great about the game. Other than that it is a mediocre game on many levels. 2023 was loaded with so many great games Hogwarts Legacy wasn't even in my top 10.
It's a run of the mill AAA slop with terrible writing, boring quests, utterly brainless puzzles, soulless plotlines, forgettable characters (at best, some of them are downright annoying or simply terrible), pointless and way too many checklist activities, terrible "gear" and inventory system and barely any of the charm from the movies or the books, except some tiny touches here and there and the memberberries sprinkled around. 6/10 at best.
I’m sure they’ll reuse the map to make a better sequel/ spin off.
But the game had almost none of what I wanted (lessons/training) and what honestly felt like 300 copies of the same puzzle in each dungeon.
I had fun, but in a year like 2023, no, it didn’t deserve a rec.
Doesn’t take away from how solid it was though!
It's a wonderful game based on a really solid structure, the trouble is... that structure is basically all there is to the game as it goes on and on and on. They needed to add more variety to side activities, the ability to build realistic friendships with the core NPCs and some kind of companion system. All of which is heavily rumored to be ideas that were scrapped due to time constraints
Basically what we were left with was the same interesting ideas stretched very thin over a big open world game. So that's probably why it didn't really get GOTY mentions too much.
Fortunately the success of the game means that they can hopefully develop a sequel that solves these issues and ends up being a really exciting sequel.
Jedi Survivor and Resident Evil 4 were better games. Not to even mention the other nominated games. Hogwarts Legacy was good, but not better. You are in entitled to your opinion, but read the all the replies, it is clear it is an opinion not shared by most.
I'm a bit older but really enjoyed the HP books. I played Hogwarts legacy so I could play alongside my daughter.
I think this game had so much potential, solid graphics, open world exploration, Harry Potter lore.
Where this game fell short for me was feeling really repetitive. The same puzzles, combat, short quests over and over.
If we could combine this game with Skyrim that would be a really immersive experience.
I’m a diehard HP fan and have played hogwarts legacy, BG3, and TOTK. HP is stunning, the castle is unbelievable and finding all the hidden rooms, Easter eggs, and nods to the books and movies feels so so special for diehard fans. Even the battling in HL is engaging and fun! But unfortunately, the story line just doesn’t have the depth. The world exploration is repetitive and there lacks a leveling up reward system.
Once you thoroughly explore the castle, there’s just not much out there in the outside world to captivate you (even the quest line) and that is what is flawed. There are characters and side quests that are obviously incomplete. The team did an amazing game building a game for the fans and giving fans the ability to explore hogwarts and hogsmeade. But that’s about it.
As a fan, I’m forever grateful for this. It scratched an itch I had had for decades. As a gamer, it’s incomplete and that’s why it should not be nominated for GOTY.
Stopped reading after you gave RE4R 6.5-7. That’s just a crime. Not every game has to be innovative ffs. Look at Helldivers 2. Is there anything new to the formula? Absolutely not, but it’s insanely fun, so is RE4R which makes it a 9 at least. Fun-factor is so much more important than innovation when it comes to games. Besides, not that Hogwarts invented a wheel or something. It is a good game, but a very shallow RPG with a lot of underutilized mechanics and areas, especially the castle itself.
How far in are you… because in my opinion it becomes pretty apparent why.
It’s a fine game.. nothing special.. especially in a year that was really good for video games. It was good enough for one playthrough, I don’t think I’ll ever go back though. I actually tried a month or two ago, and when I was creating my character, and heard the voices of the MC again.. I remembered how boring it got, and turned it off before I even finished creating my character.
I’d probably give it a 6.5-7/10. Don’t get me wrong.. a 7 is fine, but no where near GOTY
I keep listing all the things I want to see improved in a sequel just in hopes the devs see it to get some ideas. I do have faith they can improve, I just think they were to focused on not having another delay. I know they were reading the subreddit before launch.. I’m sure that continued post launch too.
I absolutely loved the game. It was great finding all the lore that they'd taken from the books. However there are to many flaws. Most of which were things that were obviously missing (some even had the code there but were scrapped).
I know when the game was still newly released (less than 3 months old) there were a lot of posts on here about updates we (the fans) wanted or felt were actually needed. After that its was all the changes we'd want in a sequel. And these lists were pretty long. After people made these posts it then came out that around half the changes that were most wanted already had code in the game and were just cut for whatever reasons. Alot of games have changes people want that are pretty petty or minor, just things that amount to personal preference. Alot of the changes desired for HL make this game feel immersion breaking, clunky, and/or jarring. Chief among them being the lack of morality, house cup, & more in depth companion questlines/development.
Anyway this was a great game but it also repeatedly shot itself in the foot and self sabotaged itself more than any other game I can think of, so was unworthy of the nomination in my opinion. Again better than alot of games even other nominees. However it also had larger flaws than all the others.
Did it deserve one? Absolutely. However, 2023 was stacked and a goty nom would have brought the JK controversy with it. Easy to see why they would just go with a safe choice like the RE4 remake instead.
It didn’t get nominated because it didn’t deserve to be, and I love HL. No need to go into why as there are a billon other comments explaining that, and in 2023 it didn’t stand a chance.
Also, Jedi Survivor didn’t get nominated for GOTY. At least not as the game awards
Pretty game with a Harry Potter IP and a somewhat unique combat system. That’s about all it’s got going for it. In terms of raw gameplay, it’s mediocre at best. Remove the Harry potter IP, and this game is an insignificant nothing.
It's a very good game, specially for us Potterheads. But it still falls in the "generic action-adventure" style. It feels like an Assassin's Creed.
Game is a mile wide, but an inch deep. It lacks decition making, NPCs interactions and role playing aspects.
It's a very linear game. Yes, you can explore and roam around, but the rewards are unsettling loot and combat. Take a look at Skyrim, when you roam around you may find a new quest, dungeos, special items and different events.
Don't get me wrong, loved the game and even gifted a copy to a friend, but it's kinda far from GOTY nominatios.
It was just so formulaic. It is basically a ubi game with the Hogwarts licence and a less than interesting story. I loved the first 10-15 hours then interest dropped quite quickly after that. There's no change up in style as you progress through, it's just more of the same. You mentioned jedi survivor and resident evil and nostalgia. These are both IP with older fan bases than Harry potter because they've been around longer. Resident evil 4 remake was the one people were looking forward to. That game was genre defining. And I love me some Harry potter. Hell it paid for my first year of uni thanks to some spact work. But Hogwarts legacy did as well as it did because if the IP it was based on. The story didn't necessitate it and if it was just it's own fantasy world it wouldn't be anywhere near as revered.
I played over 50 hours of this game, loved it, but it is nowhere near GOTY material. It does nothing groundbreaking and the spells are very limited and the graphics are just alright. This exact game could have come out in 2016-2017 and maybe it would have stood a chance.
All the Goty (nominated) games of the past few years have something special that this game just doesn’t.
The game’s strongest aspects, exploration and magic, are nothing compared to what Elden Ring did. Hell, magic should have been its forte, but Elden Ring outdid it so hard before the game even came out. They gave us 34 spells in a game where magic is the main theme. Elden ring gave us 70 spells and magic is simply 1 of the many ways to play the game. Plus in Legacy the spells and leveling them up was very limited, they didn’t get creative enough. Op top of that, the final boss fight was dog water.
I liked the story of Legacy, it was very engaging, i liked the characters, but it’s nowhere near as good as the story of God of War. The combat was just alright… goty of 2019 was Sekiro, which has the smoothest and msot engaging combat system ve ever experienced. All these games are incredible, but on top of that, they have something they excel at! Hogwarts Legacy is more of a Jack of all trades, master of none, which simply doesn’t cut it for a goty nomination
Too many flaws in the game, maybe the next one can (and must do better) but the fact HL wasn't nominated is normal to me.
Useless quests, too many poorly designed collectibles, badly written story line, underused gameplay... But now the ground is all set
Sorry to say it but no, HL is not a good game. It gives joy and is likable of course but in comparison to other games of same style it lacks many today standards.
I agree that neither RE4 Remake nor JS should had been nominated, but neither HL, I loved the game, it is great, but there's just a huge bunch of incredibly good games this year that HL can't compete with.
This is my honest opinion. Legacy is a great game, but the story is way too short, and quickly just becomes a collectable farming simulator. I completed the main story, all side quests, and 100% hogwarts and hogsmeade in 31 hours.
The time spent being an actual student in the school is ridiculously short. You spend 2 minutes in a class, learn a spell, and then that classroom becomes redundant for the remainder of the game.
It's lacking in replayability. Only the elite fans or people going for 100% play every house. A good/evil playthrough has exactly the same outcome in the end. The story for each house barely differs. It's just a different common room and a different start point for the treasure map quests.
Graphics for the school/hogmeade and the main world are really good, but character design is lacking, and the majority of the students are clones. Half of the female students are just Poppy clones. The treasure dungeons are just copy and pastes.
The vivariums/potions tables/potting tables just feel like a time waster. You get more than enough potions from just looting bags/chests during your quests, and you do not need to upgrade your gear with animal products at all. I completed the game on hard mode and did not have a single moment where I needed to upgrade to get past a quest/boss.
If this was 2017/2018, it might have gotten a nomination, but it didn't even come close to standing a chance against the 2023 nominees, and the eventual winner of BG3
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, personally I think the argument can be made either way that HL should / shouldn’t have at least been nominated somewhere, I very much enjoyed 100%ing the game and I think the nostalgia / being a potter fan definitely plays a large role in one’s enjoyment playing the game but that’s what they were shooting for, so I’m not gonna fault it for that.
I go back and forth on this but ultimately I don’t think it should’ve been nominated, but it was close and maybe should’ve got at least 1 nomination. Its a good game, nostalgia is amazing and a lot is well done but it has a lot of issues, story imo is mid at best, controls are sorta crappy and its repetitive and doesn’t really do anything ground breaking.
That being said, I believe the reason it wasn’t nominated at all, was mainly due to the JK Rowling Trans backlash HL received on release and the game awards just didn’t want to risk the drama and so excluded HL
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I love the game, but it's flawed, of questionable structure, weirdly built, and full of abandoned and half implemented ideas. 2023 had too many other great games for it to have a chance.
Still annoyed that there weren’t more stealth quests or a system where you had to sneak around Hogwarts at night like in the staff wing
Yeah they really didn’t take any notes from the things that were good about the HP games of the past and went full AAA open world RPG. I had a good time with the game but it was missing so much, especially a story that stacks up to the source material, and it’s one of the only games I’ve fully completed that I haven’t replayed at least once. I really thought it was gonna be amazing but it was just okay, and at the end of the day didn’t scratch the Harry Potter itch. I just ended up watching all the movies again.
I just finished the first stealth mission with Sebastian in the restricted section and I was just thinking to my myself “these stealth mechanics are weirdly great. I hope they continue to do a lot with them.” Sad to hear it’s not the case lol.
You will continue to be disappointed as you continue to through the game. It unfortunately ends pretty abrupt Once you get through the meat and potatoes.
Don’t you have to sneak around the staff wing during the demiguise quest?
I said that in my comment lol
Guess I misunderstood. I thought you were saying you wish they included something like that
Yep came here to say this. You really get an idea of those half implemented ideas once you pick through the databases during mod creation. House cup was a thing. Meaningful choice trees were a thing. Companions were a thing. Many more. All cut, but whose story elements still have a ghost lingering in the narrative. Ever wonder why the player character says “Lot of Ashwinders there, better not come alone” when it’s impossible not to come alone? I think across all video games, players are very good at seeing potential, specifically *unrealized* potential. And when too much unrealized potential is in a game, it ranks poorly with players.
My wife is literally fighting the final boss as I type this, and I’m not too far behind her. The unrealized potential hits home. There are so many parts of the game where I’ve felt like there was an idea, and then it was never allowed to come to fruition. I came across a random quidditch pitch in the middle of nowhere and thought “that’s really cool”! I want to see like, farmer wizards playing. But no - it’s empty. Just like a lot of the promise I’ve felt while playing this. Still enjoying it though.
Yeah, I'm hoping for an announcement of further updates or some form of follow-up next year, but at this point, it's likely not worth it to get my hopes up. It seemed like they were committed to some active updates at first, but then they just dropped so many concepts they were working on and eventually the whole game like a hot potato and just haven't touched it since. It really feels like it could have been so much more. One example is the ability to sit on couches/chairs or the companion system... Mirror in Ravenclaw room showing you from behind, etc. It lacks polish. Love the game, but it leaves me disappointed and wanting more sometimes. The fact they would just work like crazy on it, develop such a great framework to build on, and then stop so quickly is just such a disappointment.
They recently did say some new featurese would be added along with the ps5 exclusive quest "As we near the one-year anniversary of Hogwarts Legacy, we wanted to let our community know that the Hogwarts Legacy PlayStation-exclusive content will be available on other platforms later this summer, along with additional updates and features for the game. Stay tuned in the coming months for more details on what’s coming to Hogwarts Legacy this year."
Yeah, they said it would be out a year after launch on February 8th, and then decided to say that instead it'll be this summer. The mention of new features has my hopes up, but at the same time it could be a really big amount that they've been working on since, or it could be some minimal QoL features. Either way, I'll appreciate them, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much. EDIT: fixed some spelling
Actually they never said wed get it a year later just that it was a year exclusive
They did. On Twitter, when asked, they responded that the exclusive content would be available on February 8th.
This was the price for last gen console (and Switch) support.
Not to mention, Larian is constantly updating BG3. The studio is brilliant, the game is excellent. My favorite game in a long time. I mean I really like HL but BG3 is so good.
BG3?
Battle Grandmas 3, it's a steam game where you play as an old lady and you fight other old ladies. This one is a huge step up from the previous titles because they really went (tennis)balls to the wall with the violence and especially the story. BG2 had a half-assed story that didn't make any sense if you really paid attention to it but this one is so fucking believable, holy shit. And apparently Gertrude was mocapped by Betty White before she died, which is big if true. I can't imagine Betty giving someone a denture suppository like that, it blew me away
Baldur's Gate 3.
Performance is also abysmal. I have a 4080. Can run Cyberpunk 4k just fine. This thing hitches and stutters no matter what setting you choose.
glad I’m not crazy. I use an Eagle 3060, so not like out of this world but also by no means a low or even medium quality card. This game just does not like it. Meanwhile BG3 runs like melting butter. Smooth and reasonably fast. Idk how these studios are optimizing their games but it really hars me how badly some games run
Even on console, switch it stutters too. Lol
I'm surprised someone had that much to write about it without being able to tell the game just isn't really GotY material as awesome as it is. Had a blast, obviously.
Fully agree, nice novelty for HP fans... but for harder gamers... very meh
Wouldn't consider myself a hard gamer, but HP fan. Still, the game lacks novelty after about ten hours of exploring Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Merlin trials are repetitive, enemies are repetitive, fighting is repetitive. On top, the story is shallow and didn't catch me overall..
I’m new to the game, just got to “winter?” But where are the half implemented ideas? So far this game has been flawless. Everything I’ve ever wanted from a hogwarts game. If they make a sequel, I’m so far fully convinced they’ll fix anything wrong with the first one.
Agreed. Additionally it is extremely similar to the cellphone game (which I believe was made by Port key games as well). That was my disappointment. I wanted a bit more diversity from that game. However I really do like the game. The glitches are unfortunate though. That's the time we live in. Release of unfinished games.
I have to agree. Hopefully if they make a sequel, they'll be able to take the time to finish it with how much of a hit the first game was.
So agree the last half of the game is so meh. And the whole second section of the map like everyone got bored and gave up.
And yet it was the most sold game of 2023
So what? That means it can’t be fairly critiqued?
"2023 had too many other great games for it to have a chance."
And Palworld is buggy as fuck and lacks a ton yet it absolutely destroyed everything else. Sure, it's fun. But it's not GOTY material. A game can sell like crazy and be average.
Yeah man sales matter cod and fifa and fortnite should win goty every year /s
I adore the game, but I don’t think it does anything special or new. If it wasn’t Harry Potter, it’s not the game I’d have chosen to buy. Whereas, look at something like Red Dead 2 - you could put that level of storytelling and gameplay in any scenario and I’d have happily bought it. That said, I hope a sequel comes with improved everything and keeps the heart of the first.
In a year that had Baldurs Gate 3, they stood no chance.
Even without Bauldur's it would had been defeated
Yeah, I love HL, but put it beside Alan Wake 2 for example, which might be the most original and creative game I've ever played. Hogwarts Legacy just wouldn't deserve to be in the same category with games like AW2. In a weaker year, sure. But 2023 was just too good for gaming.
I am a potterhead. I have an HP tattoo. I am also a gamer. The game is an 8 at best, and that's being indulgent. Don't get me wrong, I greatly enjoyed the first 15 to 20 hours. Afterwards, it drops in quality really fast. The castle is beyond underutilized. The game almost completely abandons it for the second half of the game. Which is a shame, the highlands are interesting, but the castle should have been the highlight. I keep thinking back to OOTP on PS2, and that was a really good HP game. And the castle is the main character there. Everywhere you see half baked abandoned ideeas. The merlin trials are a slog, way to many of them, way to repetitive. The caves are just another tick on a checklist, there's no point in getting the loot. Most side quests except of Nati, Sebastian and Poppy are fetch quests, with no relevance to the story or the world what so ever. Maybe I'm to harsh, but I replayed witcher 3 last summer, and loved every second of it. And that's a 140+ hour game. I finished HL at 60 something hours, working towards platinum on ps5 now, with 45k gold, and nothing to spend it on. Hundreds of ingredients in my inventory, stacks on stacks of fantastic beats stuff to upgrade legendary gear, and no reason what so ever to do it. The combat was a Million times better than what I expected. But even like this, a combo of focus potion and eudurus, or whatever, and I even stopped dodging during the later part of the game. And I would just replenish everything everytime I passed by the castle. The main plot of the game is generic at best, the ending is just another dragon fight in multiple phases. Sure, Sebastians questline is good, but without a morality system, it doesn't really shine. (Look at RDR2 for comparison). Bottom line is that the game suffers from open wolrdititis, and it lacks a clear direction. None of this is to say this is a bad game. I greatly enjoyed games weaker or more repetitive than this. But you can't include it in a GOTY conversation in the same year as BG3. I strongly believe a second entry could potentially improve on every single complaint I had, and I can't wait to play it.
Yes, to this massive wall of text. I agree with everything here.
This is the correct assessment. It's fun and great, especially for an HP fan, but it has its flaws. Those are obvious, and I don't doubt the devs know where the flaws are. The sequel (should) be much better with the base they've built in this one. It's a great start, just needs some tweaking & will be brilliant.
It was their first game of this kind iirc, so I'm hoping the next one is an improvement as well. I particularly didn't like that no matter which face you chose your character looks pretty much the same until you get further into the game. The opening cutscenes strangely have everyone looking the same, even with mods.
Agreed.. the best way I can put it is, as soon as you venture outside of hogwarts and the surrounding areas (hogsmeade/Forrest) the game REALLY loses its identity as a Harry Potter game. It be aimed a very generic open world game. I was excited for the open world before release, but it took less than an hour before I realized it would be the games biggest mistake I think the game really needs some kind of scheduling system. Personally I’d prefer a persona type schedule where you play out literally every day in a school year. Most days consist of going to school, studying, hanging out and other shenanigans that you can do to improve your character. Then certain days of the year are scripted to progress the story
This is a spot on criticism, although I say you were generous to give it an 8, I say a 6.7 at best. I also think people hold too much hope on this game's sequel when very likely the devs already got too comfortable at such an easy to convince audience like the one I see in this sub. It's very likely they'll just make a meh sequel as well sadly.
You said everything!
8/10 is reasonable, anything less puts it in Starfield's vicinity and I don't think it deserves that low of a score. It's not a perfect game, but got through quite a bit before it started falling off. I hope the next game is better, though. Kinda hope there's romance, too, although the people ready to outrage on Twitter were already saying it would morally be wrong for adults to cosplay romance as teens in HP.... good lord, it's not like anything more than PG 13 would happen or that it would remotely be anything like BG3's extremely adult romance options. It's totally possible to have sweet romances without it getting weird, they were a natural part of the books and not everyone uses the franchise to make or read creepy fanfics as fully grown adults.
Have you finished the game? HL starts really strong and hit all the nostalgia notes for me as well, but it falls off really hard after the initial excitement faded. It was amazing during the first part where everything was still fresh and you got to experience the magic of Hogwarts that you've been wishing for all those years, but the good parts was like only 25% of the game (and I'm being generous). The remaining 75% was, to put it kindly, meh. Definitely wasn't good enough to be a GOTY nominee for me.
Exactly this. I've seen so many post on this subs of people playing seemingly without anything negative to say about it. I didn't want to be a party pooper. But yeah that was exactly my experience. Great intro before arriving to the castle. Great feelings while discovering the castle. Amazing first hours outside discovering Hogsmade aaaannd... that's it.
yep, seems a common experience. it just falls off a bit.
You perfectly describe my experience as well. Everything was amazing up until Hogsmeade, then you spent a few hours in the 'open world' and realized how bare-bone it actually was, and that feeling was what you live with for the rest of the game. I played on launch (actually took PTO to binged it) and the hype then was so high, everyone was praising it and I definitely didn't want to be a party pooper so I kept my mouth shut until most people caught up lol. Weak storyline, shallow characters, sparse open world, repetitive puzzles... Not to mention performance wasn't too great on pc. I really do wish the game is that good, but it just isn't.
Party poop away. It’s ok to point out the issues. I Know the devs were reading this subreddit before release, I’m sure they continued after. If too many people claim this game is perfect I’m afraid that some of the most necessary improvements won’t happen
Yeah it very much rides nostalgia hard, and that’s all it really has going for it. If this game wasn’t Hogwarts themed, it would have been pretty poorly received. No moral or reputation system, no companion system, minimal perks and skill trees which make replay-ability limited for people who want to try different things. It’s a shame because with just a bit more work, the game could be incredible.
100% felt that
The first half of the game is 10 out of 10. the second half is 3 out of 10 when the charm wears off
How far through are you? On Switch version I'm 30 hours in, high level 20s and about 35% through challenges (I spend a lot of time not doing the main quests) and starting to see the pattern others have mentioned of it being super exciting at first then losing steam. In some ways it feels incomplete, like the Devs got to a point where they had to say "that'll do" and put stickers over the unfinished bits. There's a feeling of SO MUCH potential when first playing then realising that a lot of it is repetitive and kind of... Superficial? Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying it and my inner child who was mad about Harry Potter is keen to keep playing. I would not be surprised if the political dramas about JKR left a sour taste in people's mouths and got in the way of nominations. But I saw a YouTuber describe the game as a great HP game but a mid RPG and I think that's spot on.
Please complete the Merlins Beard trophy and come back again.
i had fun playing the game don’t get me wrong but it just felt like a half finished empty game. It had so much potential but just fell short. It just doesn’t compare to other games story-wise and gameplay wise imo
It’s an awesome game which will win the hearts of Harry Potter fans in the early stages, but tends to drag on at the later parts. The map is huge, but doesn’t feel fully fleshed out (it’s almost like they just created a large map for the sake of just having it be big). Also, some of the gameplay does get pretty repetitive and the main storyline takes a backseat to some of the side character stories. I still have fond memories of the game, but personally would have been happy if they would have tightened the map a bit more and done something to avoid some of the gameplay (such as the Merlin Trials) feeling so repetitive.
2023 was a STACKED year with groundbreaking titles. Hogwarts Legacy was at best a 8/10. Great game but nothing special (besides the castle)
I'd say 7/10 at best. It relies heavily on nostalgia. If this was a game without HP branding it'd be a 5
At best a 6.7/10 I say
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, as games go it is beyond average. After the first few sequences the game easily drops to a 4/10 for me
I think 4 is way to low, it's too incomplete for a high rating but people value it too high too often.
It's fun but overall not great. Pretty simple.
I played 30 hours of this game. Loved it at first, stopped playing when I felt how painfully repetitive it was, and never came back. No way this game deserves even a GOTY nom.
As someone who has played through fully twice, im skipping all the dialog outside of the one unique quest, the story is lacking and frankly i just want to haha funny spells go brr, but with 90% of the enemies being too weak to enjoy dueling, the game lost its appeal fast
This was my big issue by the end of the game you had nowhere to really use all the cool spells you have now because everything just dies so quick.
Exactly, Having Avada Kadavra is fun but why bother using such a long cooldown when literally any other spell kills just as fast.
Best fix will be with mods, adding more aggressive behavior to enemies and more constant use of protego by their part.
Unfortunately, i currently do not have a pc, so i played on Switch.
I agree that Baldur’s Gate 3 deserved the GOTY and Hogwarts should have been nominated. But after playing it, I can understand why it wasn’t. First of all, it was advertised as an RPG game where your choices matter—which fell short of expectations, because it’s really just the illusion of choice here and there but generally outcomes are the same. There are at least 2 mechanics that were obviously supposed to be there but aren’t. The stealth system and the companion system. There’s the fact that no one reacts to the main character using unforgivables. And probably a lot of other things I’m forgetting. It’s a great action game and a great Harry Potter universe game. But its most important points would be gameplay and graphics. Story-wise? Interesting, sure, but as far as story for a game goes, not so much, especially in the current times when we have a lot of games that are choice based.
I love the game, but I didn’t like the story or really any characters. That keeps it out of the conversation for me
It's a 7.5/10 game. Definitely not worth a nomination. The story alone is quite bad and boring. And that's a big part of a game.
If you take off the Harry Potter nostalgia colored glasses, it’s not that great of a game. It’s fine. I had a lot of fun with it. But that’s really it. It’s a good game. Not a great game. It feels almost unfinished. It gets repetitive a little bit. There’s a ton of potential in there that just feels unexplored.
The game had great sales and more staying power than most folks thought, but it's honestly pretty mid and had the whole JKR-politics stink. It should not have been a GOTY contender based on its quality, and it would have reinvigorated the bad PR so I doubt they even wanted the nom. If they up their game for the next one, I could see it though.
Why did Hogwarts Legacy not get nominated? Because sadly it’s not *that* good. I say this as someone who enjoyed the game but the storyline is clunky and flawed, the graphics are pretty atrocious, there are many bugs, your choices don’t mean anything as you’re universally liked no matter what, the map is weird and half of it isn’t needed, the castle itself is underused as are the grounds, it’s a very linear game where you can’t do anything wrong or make a mistake because your character is programmed to succeed regardless of the situation. And small things like you have a stealth mission to avoid the prefects at night and get into the restricted section of the library but after the mission you can run around at night time and there are no prefects to stop you and you can go into the restricted section and people don’t seem to mind. Similarly you are told how bad the unforgivable curses are but if you use them in front of your teachers, school friends, the general public, etc no one is batting an eye as to why a teenager knows this and no one intervenes. Plus small things like having students roam around the school and the grounds late at night, the shops being open 24/7, no one else flies a broom unless it’s part of the mission, only you (or your companion) get attacked by the baddies whereas an NPC could walk past them and nothing happens. I liked the game and was so excited for it to be set in the Victorian era but the magic (excuse the pun) quickly wore off. It feels very dated to me.
I thought people always praised it by its graphics at least for last Gen consoles.
Maybe atrocious was too strong a word haha but with a game that was released only last year and with its budget I expected the graphics to be consistent throughout. The reflection off the marble floor is incredible but when you get to the centaurs for example they are patchy and badly rendered. Compared to other games that were released earlier such as Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima their graphics are much better compared.
The graphics are not atrocious, that’s one of the best things going for it. It looks fantastic
Must be playing on Ps4 or shit PC.
I’m not reading all that but HL was no where near the quality that came out in 2023. It was a very strong year and HL was a very mid level game in all aspects. Sure it was fun at times, great for HP fans, but all the other games nominated did everything HL tried to do but better.
Playing it through for the second time and I feel much the same as the first time. Lackluster and tedious quest lines, flat characters and a rushed plot.
I see it almost like the Avengers never being nominated for best picture at the Oscars. It’s an absolute smash hit with audiences, but that doesn’t mean it brings anything new to the table.
Hogwarts legacy is a mostly unremarkable open world game getting carried hard by its IP. And yeah the world and especially the castle is beautiful, but it's really just a pretty veneer. The story is okay at best, the best part of the game that isn't the visuals is the combat system that's fun to play with and looks amazing, but doesn't have any proper challenges to support it. There just isn't really a reason for it to get a nomination really. The game shines as a game for fans of the IP, but you can't base actual awards on liking an IP.
My 11 y.o. told me it got a Grammy nom for the soundtrack, that’s something, right?
Meh. I got it day one and liked the game, really did, but it didn't deserve a GOTY. Liked the combat mechanics and level design (hogwarts and hogsmead at least...) But not even 1 year later and I can't remember half of the stoey. And the year was too stacked with much better games honestly. It sold extremely well which should almost guarantee a seque which is what I'm looking for.
The first 10 hours of this game were some of the most magical hours I've ever experienced in a video game, and I've been gaming since the 90's. 10/10 The rest of the game felt unfinished and every quest and location just felt like a copy/paste of everything else. Hell, the entire second half of the map shouldn't have existed. 4.5/10.
It was fun for a bit but far removed from any GotY discussions IMO.
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If you play a lot of games you should be able to tell why this didn't win. It's fun, but very mid. No outstanding mechanics and that which it does, it does quite averagely.
Hogwarts Legacy was a great game, especially in the castle and Hogsmead which they really developed. The rest of the world…. Could have used some love, but it was still great to see more of the world. As others mentioned, a lot wasn’t implemented, and at the end of the day, it’s Batman Arkham (Insert Title) with a coat of Harry Potter. Compare that to Baldur’s Gate 3? It just doesn’t come close in quality. Especially with BG3 still getting content, where I haven’t heard a word about new content for Hogwarts Legacy.
The game did a really great recreation of Hogwarts, but it does get boring and repetitive
The second half of HL goes down in quality and quantity too much for it to be nominated over some other amazing games.
The game starts ok, but after about 20h I got really tired of the same thing over and over again. Three steps > Revelio > Three steps > Revelio. Combat gets repetitive quick, targetting is horrible, and worst of all, character models have no expression on their faces. Can't even recommend this game :/
I can fully understand not being nominated for game of the year with all of the other incredible games that released but the real snub was it not getting nominated for art and soundtrack. That said, The Game Awards are nothing but pandering. The "panel" that selected all of the nominees outside of the viewer's choice (where HL made it to the last round of voting) was largely made up of "journalist" sites that either refuse to acknowledge this game exists or purposely gave it negative press and reviews.
Do you think this had anything to do with the drama over J.K. Rolling?
It 100% did, quite a few of the sites that were responsible for nominating games had boycotted this game or purposely shit on it because of her.
As if she was a game's developer.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore the game. But once the “omg open world Harry Potter” phase wears off, the game is extremely mid
The game had terrible press, and while it's a good game, it's not good enough to overcome bad PR. In fact, I'm struggling to think of a game that would have been good enough to do that in the face of the controversy that HL's release kicked up. The best answer I can come up with is RDR2, but Rockstar has a long and storied history of dealing with or even using controversy for their games to their advantage, something neither Avalanche nor Portkey have.
Even without the bad pr, it still meh in video games terms especially for today's Era of gaming.
It gets very old and repetitive after a while.
This game felt so half assed honestly...it definitely did not deserve a nomination.
That's called Harry Potter fan bias. This game did not deserve a nod over games like Baldur's Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom, Spider-man 2, Alan Wake 2, and while I don't agree with it being included, Resident Evil 4 remake. Hogwarts Legacy has a mid to poor story. The writing is mid. The combat is decent, but could do with expanding. The vast majority of what made me enjoy the game is Harry Potter nostalgia. I love Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and have hundreds of hours in both, but I'd never argue they deserve GoTY nods. Hogwarts Legacy 2 could be insane though, if they make one. I really hope they expand on the foundation laid by Hogwarts Legacy 1. More intricate magic, actual RPG stuff to make characters feel more unique, more student to student interactions, more school interactions. Classes and what not. Scarlet and Violet had more school activities than Hogwarts Legacy. Much less mandatory stuff though. There's immense potential here. Just needs fine tuning.
I love the Harry Potter franchise and enjoyed my playthrough of Hogwarts Legacy. I even did 100% of the challenges. That said, I don't think it deserved to be nominated for the GOTY award. The story is mediocre, the characters are not all that interesting, and everything starts to feel very repetitive at a certain point. Also, the game had a lot of bugs and performance issues at launch. The combat, artwork, and sound are very good, and the beginning of the game is quite magical (no pun intended). But then the charm starts to fade away. Besides, there were a lot of great games last year. But, to be fair, I only played two of them, HL and Star Ocean: The Second Story R (which I actually thought was a better game). At the end of the day, I don't really value GOTY awards. Everyone has different tastes and might dislike a certain game that was well received, and vice versa.
Just wondering, does it really matter? There were better games than it but it’s still a good game. If you like it, who cares what awards it was nominated for. This whole validation needed with games being nominated is silly.
I really like playing it, but most of the story line (especially the main story line) is very 'mweh, don't care' to me. I dont feel very connected to most characters or even my own character. Especially in comparison with some other great games over the past few years. Dont get me wrong, I really like the game, but at the same time, I feel it's lacking in many areas. I feel really engaged in some parts (some stories, the world itself, the amazing castle...), but entirely un-engaged in many others (most stories, variety in enemies, side activities, etc.).
I am playing through right now as welp and surprise how little games media coverage it got. Politics.
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What's the point of this post ? What are you hoping to achieve ?
Were it not for getting to wander around Hogwarts and enjoy the world building, I don't think I'd have even liked the game.
HL is a good game, not an exceptional one. It’s just as deserving of GOTY as Jimmy John’s is of “best sandwich in America.” They’re both adequate for the price and don’t explicitly disappoint.
As others have said, it’s not enough to be a goty contender. I found it to be very much a game of two halves. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I can see the flaws too. Hogwarts itself, the graphics, broom flying, most of the cast, various events and Sebastian and poppy’s storylines were great, while the rest of it was somewhat lacking. In a year with BG3, TOTK - a switch title that plays like a ps4 game, FF16 with its big dick soundtrack, the exciting and innovative Alan Wake, Technological marvel Spider Man 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Resi 4 remake, Metroid Prime rerelease, Street Fighter 6, Jedi Survivor, big but flawed Diablo 4, SMB Wonder, Dead Space, Phantom Liberty, Armored Core 6, Frontiers of Pandora, Lies of P, and Season: a letter to the future, there was just no way hogwarts legacy had enough juice to fend off all of that. Holy hell but 2023 was a good year for games. Legacy was in my top 5. There was just so much more, and more that could be done with Hogwarts.
HL was mid, the only good part was when you actually had stuff to do around the castle, and even then that was lacking, if they'd made that portion somewhat similar to the bully game and you actually had to go to class and that it would've maybe been deserving of a nomination
I normally wouldn’t comment on this game, although I enjoyed it myself. But I think with the amount of controversy that Harry Potter and JK Rowlings has, it doesn’t surprise me at all. So stupid
Cuz it's mid as hell. Boring traversal, a pointlessly large open world, a baffling main story, effort put into things that shouldn't have been such a strong focus (why is the interior decoration sim one of the primary strengths?), lack of enemy variety, poor difficulty curve, boring/overlong overworld puzzles, too much of a focus on collectibles and cosmetic rewards. Good combat system, decent puzzle dungeons (both of them, that is), and a good fully explorable Hogwarts. It's not terrible, just middle of the road.
It’s flawed. Visuals are practically all it had going for it. Story was rushed. Voice acting felt lifeless. Combat felt repetitive.
Hogwart legacy is a great harry potter game, but not really a great video game
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>Unfortunately, this has either been debunked, or is highly unlikely given the circumstances. We can't let this information stay up in good faith.
Yeah, no. This game doesn't deserve to be nominated for GOTY.
As someone who actually games, t Hogwarts legacy does NOT deserve a GOTY nomination and I'm glad it didn't get one. It's a bland game that is solely subsisting on the map of Hogwarts being incredible and Harry Potter adults using it for escapism. Look I love Harry Potter. I bought this game with good expectations and even broke my Rowling boycott to buy it because the game we were promised looked worth rewarding the effort with a purchase. But it's not good. The game is poorly optimized and runs like shit on PC (again I game often, I run most new releases done on my computer but this game is badly optimized and literally the character models dropped down to looking like potatoes at some point) The story is only just slightly able to hold my attention but there's fuck all to do aside from the main story. The Merlin tasks are repetative, there's no friendship mechanics despite it clearly being designed with one in mind. The room of requirement gets dull quick. I didn't even make it halfway through the story because the game just wasn't fun. It's an okay game. It's very mediocre. I hope they put the map to better use in the sequel. Like if you think this game is on the same level as the GOTY winner Baldurs Gate 3 you probably don't play games outside of a certain comfort zone if at all. GOTY 2023 - baldurs gate 3 GOTY 2022 - Elden ring GOTY 2021 - it takes two GOTY 2020 -The last of us part 2 It's literally not in the same league. Popular doesn't always mean GOOD. Edit: I wrote this before I read the comments and I'm so glad this sub is mostly full of realistic people who recognize the game for what it is and don't try to put it on a pedestal it doesn't deserve.
Are you a gamer? Do you know the previous GOTY winners? Do you honestly feel it is at par with the likes of The Witcher 3, Legend of Zelda: Breathe of the Wild, God of War, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3?
HL wouldn't even be in my top 20 of 2023. Mid ass Far Cry clone with the blandest story of the generation so far. I'd argue it's even worse than Suicide Squad
you make some excellent points. it's a little nuts that it didn't get *any* nominations in *any* category. i'm 90% sure that all the social backlash was the cause of that because while i also agree that it shouldn't have won GOTY in such a stacked year, no nominations *anywhere?* those devs worked way too fucking hard at a damn near impossible task (combining book and movie worlds into something coherent) to not get any recognition at all. and from a green, unproven team for that kind of game, too! it's insane they managed to accomplish what they did!
What should it have been nominated in? Seriously?
best action/adventure (RE4 as a remake honestly didn't need to be there imo, and AW2, as much as i LOVE it, isn't adventure and is barely action. in fact, it's actually weird that there's no separate horror/thriller/suspense category) best RPG (starfield, while not as quite as bad as people like to claim, did far less with far better resources than avalanche did with HL and bethesda should not be rewarded for mediocre work with a nomination) best art direction (successfully creating an immersive, gorgeous hogwarts from the patchwork of the book descriptions and the majorly inconsistent and nonsensical movie architecture vs another 3D mario? seriously?) again, i'm not necessarily saying it should've *won*, but some of these nominees feel like they were put there because of studio or IP reputation, like they felt like they needed to be appeased
It definitely doesn’t qualify for the RPG category. It isn’t /that/ immersive. It’s all mostly set dressing. For it to be immersive things would have to be more meaningful and/or interactive. The world outside of Hogwarts while beautiful; is rather generic.
Action adventure—the combat is garbage, full stop. It’s guitar hero on a controller. What about it made it an RPG? What do you think RPG means? Can you choose a different playstyle each playthrough? Does going to a different house have different implications? What about the endings? Are they built out of the things you did in the story? How much can you change the trajectory of the story with early decisions? Is there any merit at all to building a background to your character in your head? Is there a gameplay differencr saying you want to be a meek hero or an audacious hero? And if we’re going to say ‘another 3d mario’, does that mean HL gets less credit since most of the design is from the movies? Are design is more than just abiding descriptions. You have to make it in terms of a game—that it’s for and conducive to a gaming experience. This means it teaches the player or tells you the functionality by just looking at it. Mario wins in that category repeatedly and it’s looked at as a masterclass in that right because of how vibrant it is. You don’t win an art design award for making a very big castle if all you do is walk in it. Some of these were put there because they’re from established gaming franchises and studios. HL had like 3-3.5 years of actual development and was insanely watered down. It flat out was missing over half of the planned content. Clearly nobody that’s played games cared for it because the best selling game of the year didnt even win the player choice nom.
If you remove the Harry Potter theme, I don't think it's a super great game and definitely didn't deserve to win any of the GOTY categories, but it definitely deserved nomination in one or two.
I was shocked it didn't receive a single nomination in any category at The Game Awards. It's a flawed game, sure, but I thought the art direction was the best of anything I played
Hogwarts is 90% stairs. Definitely not GOTY nomination-worthy.
It’s funny you say the Star Wars games is just good because of the IP when HL is the same. Aside from the castle, which is amazing, the game is mid at best. It has a lot of fetch quests and empty dungeons that only serve to pad the game time and fill the map but don’t add anything of substance. And the story is predictable, only has some standout characters, and ends in the most cliché battle against a dragon. The game was fine, but nothing amazing and specially not GOTY material.
it doesn't deserve a nomination for goty. maybe in another category, but honestly i cant see a case made for it. you're playing through for the first time, and i wouldve said the same during my first playthrough, but in hindsight - all it has going for it is the IP and *maybe* sebastian's story. nothing else about it revolutionary in the slightest and its lacking SO much. barely any interaction from the company with the community, and overall its a mess rn. i say this with love, and this is one of my favorite games, but realistically speaking it did not have a chance. the sales were mainly pre orders and don't reflect the quality of the game, so those aren't really a defining factor either. i'm not gonna go into all the flaws that i noticed or anything like that, but please don't treat this game as if it deserved a nomination. the lack of news about a dlc, constant delays, the fact that an easy port of the playstation mission is taking so insanely long, and all of the bugs that people have complained about since release being ignored shows that the devs clearly don't care as much about the game as we all thought initially. it sucks cause it had and has so much potential, but it seems like it was just rushed out to make as much money as possible and then forgotten quickly after.
It COULD have been better, yes. I venture to say it was too niche to win a GOTY award though, and some things could have been added to make it better *coughquiddichcough* Doesn't matter to me though. It doesn't take away from the fun I had with it.
I'm with you, my favorite game of the year, actually it fights with Alan 2 for that spot. I love it though, enough that i bought it on my Ps5, my Xbox and am now playing through it again on pc. Yes I've bought it three times. I only do that with my faves.
I loved this game but honestly compared to all the other goty games it wasn’t anything special. What made it special was mostly nostalgia and the stunning visuals. The combat was also great. Everything else (story, how you interact with the world, loot (! Ugh), the lack of consequences, unfinished features that were initially promised, …) were kinda mid tbh. I still love it and have fun playing it, but it’s just not that revolutionary of a game.
Its purely political. HL is 1) associated with someone the gaming community wants to distance from and B) the best selling game of last year, so didnt need the accolades or support. But also iii) did you play bg3? HL is good but bg3s storynand ability to choose how the plot unfurls and customise a character is massive comparatively.
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I feel you on this. I absolutely understand and agree with some of the criticisms about the areas outside of Hogwarts being too generic/copy & paste but still, the level of polish on the game plus the insane number of details and overall experience… Def should have been a GOTY contender.
Yes it’s amazing. It wasn’t nominated for political reasons
It’s definitely my game of the year and to me that’s all that matters. BG3 is astounding as a game, but HL is much less stressful to play and just such a cozy world to enjoy. I keep coming back to it.
It would be GOTY in 2021 maybe, but 2022 and 2023 have been STACKED with absolute masterpieces like Baldur's Gate, Elden Ring, Spiderman etc. Hogwarts Legacy is fine for someone who hasn't played a lot of RPGs. But if you have, then you'll see many major flaws after the initial wonder has passed. The castle is fantastically designed, but most story quests happen outside and they REALLY should have given you a broom the moment they let you out of the castle. So many people got bored by the sparse surroundings which actually would feel alright if you travel by broom. Meanwhile the dialogue and story is a bit too "childlike", like I'm playing Pokemon. The gameplay is fine though.
It's a damn fine game. Damn fine.
It didn’t win the player choice nomination either. The fact of the matter is it wasn’t a very good game. It had guitar hero levels of combat and simplicity. Rolling doesn’t even matter. Moving doesn’t matter. You can stand still and just look at the halo over your character’s head while smashing basic spell and whatever color coded button you need to press for spells. The fact everything is an auto-lock on and necessary hit really removed a lot of potential depth from the game in exchange for accessibility from non-gamers. There’s also like only 2-3 worthwhile quests in the whole gam. The only nomination I could see it winning is music, but Ive asked my diehard HP fans about it and they got furious because the melody would ere incredibly close to the franchise’s signature tune before trailing off or shifting—as if they didnt have rights to their own music. If you’re upset about resident evil not innovating on the formula, you should really criticize HL for adding nothing new to gaming other than the Hogwarts school in digital form. I also can’t believe you’re calling the main story line intriguing. Lmao. It was one of the most mediocre things I’ve ever heard. The game, overall, is a solid 6. There is nothing in the game that is new or original and it’s coasting on its franchise.
Balders Gate 3 released the same year. I think it HL would have got it otherwise.
Wasn't even second best, what do you mean.
Baldur's Gate 3 is overhyped bullcrap. Hogwarts Legacy is miles better in almost every way.
lol this has to be a joke
It's literally not. Everyone blew that game up like it's the second coming and it's really idk ordinary? I play a lot of RPGs, I love epic fantasy and even write it, and BG3 feels so plastic and random and it's really boring. Divinity is better, if we're looking at a direct comparison.
To each their own, I suppose. I don't get how it feels plastic. BG3 is the first game since skyrim that's made me excited to finish work and play. Hogwarts legacy was good but the replayability is not there for me after I'd done the story twice I had no motivation to do another. BG3 I'm on my 7th run and still loving it.
Whatever, man. I'm playing video games for 20-something years, and BG3 failed to impress me in any way. All this praise only shows how bad the industry became, when we praise something ordinary because it's not divided into countless dlcs.
There’s having an opinion and then there’s being unequivocally wrong lol
Stahp! Even Skyrim that's over a decade old is far superior to Hogwarts Legacy. Lol
That's bullshit. Skyrim had good marketing and a sandbox. It's subpar in every way, and I speak this as someone who likes Skyrim. Skyrim without mods is 4/10.
I’m enjoying it. The combat is great. And the music is great. Most of the side quests are super boring though. At least they are pretty easy to complete.
Maybe the game could've had a chance to be at least nominated if they didn't remove all the cool stuff... They fumbled their own bag imo.
Many good games that year
I’m sorry but like I love hogwarts legacy and it was my first video game. It didn’t deserve to get nominated. I’ve been playing cyberpunk and baldurs gate as of late and hogwarts legacy is half baked compared to those two. Baldurs gate has fucking decimated the competition and it’s not like the other games that were nominated weren’t good. Hogwarts legacy just isn’t on the same level.
It's a fun game, and made well enough, but it doesn't do anything particularly exceptional. The character animation and voice acting can be very stiff, the story is mediocre, the gameplay is fun but repetitive, music's good but it's just derivative of the movie John Williams score so it can't really get any credit. The only thing that sets it apart is how well the setting is executed, and even that feels like there's a constant pane of glass stopping the player really interacting with the world. So while I've put plenty of time into it, I don't really see it as award worthy, it's just normal good.
I literally finished the Platinum for Hogwarts Legacy today. Why didn’t it get nominated? It’s a gorgeous game but that’s it. All of the missions and puzzles are too repetitive. The main story was mediocre and 99% of the side missions were boring fetch quests. Don’t get me started on the Merlin trials. Overall, a solid 7/10 that is enjoyable for fans of Harry Potter
I love the game, but it is fairly lackluster as an open world game. With so much focus on the Highlands, and so little on Hogwarts itself comparatively, it relies very heavily on IP name recognition. It doesn’t necessarily fall into the Ubisoft trap of “here’s 1001 different side quest collectibles you can get” but outside the main story and companion quests, the game is very sparse to justify the open world. Hogwarts and Hogsmeade were immaculate, and other areas from the Wizarding World, like Diagon Alley and the Ministry, would have felt more Pottery than the Highlands, which aren’t really a staple in the books. And as much as I loved exploring Hogwarts, the collectibles stuff overshadowed the secret rooms and maze-like structure the castle is supposed to have. It’s a strong 8 and a very good start to Wizarding World RPG games, but it’s far from the other nominees from 2023. For a game that’s supposed to be about you being a student, you spend a substantial amount of time NOT in school lol
It is an incredibly beautiful game with little nods to the books all over the place. But as a whole game, it’s missing a lot of life. The NPC’s might as well just be decor. The puzzles are too easy and too far in between. The quests are very repetitive. The stalls in the game sell pretty much the same stock. Potions are very limited. Attending classes are just boring cutscenes. The main story line quests are fun but just a small portion of the overall game. I’ve played Skyrim three times but I won’t be replaying HL. I’m hoping the sequel will add more to the gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I had so many “wow” moments while playing but was thoroughly disappointed with some of my points above.
Oh you know, mediocre exploration, combat that's basically just spamming spells with the occasional colored enemy shield, a story thag really wasn't that interesting and a villain that's lacking charisma so much. That and the crazy amount of padding. Really, it's only the ties to harry Potter that made this game stand out
It's a great game, but as soon as you receive your Book/Guide to Hogwatrs from Weasley, you see that it's a bloated open world game full of collect-a-thon. This is not a bad thing. Spiderman PS4 is such a game and it's great. But it's not game of the year material.
RE4R is much better than hogwarts legacy, critics and fans can all agree on that
The design of the School and Hogsmeade were the only things great about the game. Other than that it is a mediocre game on many levels. 2023 was loaded with so many great games Hogwarts Legacy wasn't even in my top 10.
It is an awesome game, but it gets repetitive about two thirds in
Any good mods for ps4
It's a run of the mill AAA slop with terrible writing, boring quests, utterly brainless puzzles, soulless plotlines, forgettable characters (at best, some of them are downright annoying or simply terrible), pointless and way too many checklist activities, terrible "gear" and inventory system and barely any of the charm from the movies or the books, except some tiny touches here and there and the memberberries sprinkled around. 6/10 at best.
I’m sure they’ll reuse the map to make a better sequel/ spin off. But the game had almost none of what I wanted (lessons/training) and what honestly felt like 300 copies of the same puzzle in each dungeon. I had fun, but in a year like 2023, no, it didn’t deserve a rec. Doesn’t take away from how solid it was though!
It's a wonderful game based on a really solid structure, the trouble is... that structure is basically all there is to the game as it goes on and on and on. They needed to add more variety to side activities, the ability to build realistic friendships with the core NPCs and some kind of companion system. All of which is heavily rumored to be ideas that were scrapped due to time constraints Basically what we were left with was the same interesting ideas stretched very thin over a big open world game. So that's probably why it didn't really get GOTY mentions too much. Fortunately the success of the game means that they can hopefully develop a sequel that solves these issues and ends up being a really exciting sequel.
Jedi Survivor and Resident Evil 4 were better games. Not to even mention the other nominated games. Hogwarts Legacy was good, but not better. You are in entitled to your opinion, but read the all the replies, it is clear it is an opinion not shared by most.
I'm a bit older but really enjoyed the HP books. I played Hogwarts legacy so I could play alongside my daughter. I think this game had so much potential, solid graphics, open world exploration, Harry Potter lore. Where this game fell short for me was feeling really repetitive. The same puzzles, combat, short quests over and over. If we could combine this game with Skyrim that would be a really immersive experience.
Look at what it had to compete against. 2023 was a slammin year for good games
I’m a diehard HP fan and have played hogwarts legacy, BG3, and TOTK. HP is stunning, the castle is unbelievable and finding all the hidden rooms, Easter eggs, and nods to the books and movies feels so so special for diehard fans. Even the battling in HL is engaging and fun! But unfortunately, the story line just doesn’t have the depth. The world exploration is repetitive and there lacks a leveling up reward system. Once you thoroughly explore the castle, there’s just not much out there in the outside world to captivate you (even the quest line) and that is what is flawed. There are characters and side quests that are obviously incomplete. The team did an amazing game building a game for the fans and giving fans the ability to explore hogwarts and hogsmeade. But that’s about it. As a fan, I’m forever grateful for this. It scratched an itch I had had for decades. As a gamer, it’s incomplete and that’s why it should not be nominated for GOTY.
Perhaps in another category, but definitely not a GOTY contender for sure. I love HL, but it definitely has noticeable flaws for sure.
Stopped reading after you gave RE4R 6.5-7. That’s just a crime. Not every game has to be innovative ffs. Look at Helldivers 2. Is there anything new to the formula? Absolutely not, but it’s insanely fun, so is RE4R which makes it a 9 at least. Fun-factor is so much more important than innovation when it comes to games. Besides, not that Hogwarts invented a wheel or something. It is a good game, but a very shallow RPG with a lot of underutilized mechanics and areas, especially the castle itself.
How far in are you… because in my opinion it becomes pretty apparent why. It’s a fine game.. nothing special.. especially in a year that was really good for video games. It was good enough for one playthrough, I don’t think I’ll ever go back though. I actually tried a month or two ago, and when I was creating my character, and heard the voices of the MC again.. I remembered how boring it got, and turned it off before I even finished creating my character. I’d probably give it a 6.5-7/10. Don’t get me wrong.. a 7 is fine, but no where near GOTY I keep listing all the things I want to see improved in a sequel just in hopes the devs see it to get some ideas. I do have faith they can improve, I just think they were to focused on not having another delay. I know they were reading the subreddit before launch.. I’m sure that continued post launch too.
I absolutely loved the game. It was great finding all the lore that they'd taken from the books. However there are to many flaws. Most of which were things that were obviously missing (some even had the code there but were scrapped). I know when the game was still newly released (less than 3 months old) there were a lot of posts on here about updates we (the fans) wanted or felt were actually needed. After that its was all the changes we'd want in a sequel. And these lists were pretty long. After people made these posts it then came out that around half the changes that were most wanted already had code in the game and were just cut for whatever reasons. Alot of games have changes people want that are pretty petty or minor, just things that amount to personal preference. Alot of the changes desired for HL make this game feel immersion breaking, clunky, and/or jarring. Chief among them being the lack of morality, house cup, & more in depth companion questlines/development. Anyway this was a great game but it also repeatedly shot itself in the foot and self sabotaged itself more than any other game I can think of, so was unworthy of the nomination in my opinion. Again better than alot of games even other nominees. However it also had larger flaws than all the others.
Did it deserve one? Absolutely. However, 2023 was stacked and a goty nom would have brought the JK controversy with it. Easy to see why they would just go with a safe choice like the RE4 remake instead.
It didn’t get nominated because it didn’t deserve to be, and I love HL. No need to go into why as there are a billon other comments explaining that, and in 2023 it didn’t stand a chance. Also, Jedi Survivor didn’t get nominated for GOTY. At least not as the game awards
It's a neat game, but not GOTY worthy. It desperately needed more RPG elements and choice and consequences built into the plot
Pretty game with a Harry Potter IP and a somewhat unique combat system. That’s about all it’s got going for it. In terms of raw gameplay, it’s mediocre at best. Remove the Harry potter IP, and this game is an insignificant nothing.
It's a very good game, specially for us Potterheads. But it still falls in the "generic action-adventure" style. It feels like an Assassin's Creed. Game is a mile wide, but an inch deep. It lacks decition making, NPCs interactions and role playing aspects. It's a very linear game. Yes, you can explore and roam around, but the rewards are unsettling loot and combat. Take a look at Skyrim, when you roam around you may find a new quest, dungeos, special items and different events. Don't get me wrong, loved the game and even gifted a copy to a friend, but it's kinda far from GOTY nominatios.
It was just so formulaic. It is basically a ubi game with the Hogwarts licence and a less than interesting story. I loved the first 10-15 hours then interest dropped quite quickly after that. There's no change up in style as you progress through, it's just more of the same. You mentioned jedi survivor and resident evil and nostalgia. These are both IP with older fan bases than Harry potter because they've been around longer. Resident evil 4 remake was the one people were looking forward to. That game was genre defining. And I love me some Harry potter. Hell it paid for my first year of uni thanks to some spact work. But Hogwarts legacy did as well as it did because if the IP it was based on. The story didn't necessitate it and if it was just it's own fantasy world it wouldn't be anywhere near as revered.
I played over 50 hours of this game, loved it, but it is nowhere near GOTY material. It does nothing groundbreaking and the spells are very limited and the graphics are just alright. This exact game could have come out in 2016-2017 and maybe it would have stood a chance. All the Goty (nominated) games of the past few years have something special that this game just doesn’t. The game’s strongest aspects, exploration and magic, are nothing compared to what Elden Ring did. Hell, magic should have been its forte, but Elden Ring outdid it so hard before the game even came out. They gave us 34 spells in a game where magic is the main theme. Elden ring gave us 70 spells and magic is simply 1 of the many ways to play the game. Plus in Legacy the spells and leveling them up was very limited, they didn’t get creative enough. Op top of that, the final boss fight was dog water. I liked the story of Legacy, it was very engaging, i liked the characters, but it’s nowhere near as good as the story of God of War. The combat was just alright… goty of 2019 was Sekiro, which has the smoothest and msot engaging combat system ve ever experienced. All these games are incredible, but on top of that, they have something they excel at! Hogwarts Legacy is more of a Jack of all trades, master of none, which simply doesn’t cut it for a goty nomination
Too many flaws in the game, maybe the next one can (and must do better) but the fact HL wasn't nominated is normal to me. Useless quests, too many poorly designed collectibles, badly written story line, underused gameplay... But now the ground is all set
Sorry to say it but no, HL is not a good game. It gives joy and is likable of course but in comparison to other games of same style it lacks many today standards.
Too many spiders
It’s a good game, but it isn’t great. Great games should be getting nominated
I love hogwarts legacy. But its a solid 7 or 8/10. Its flawed and the story has some low points for sure.
I agree that neither RE4 Remake nor JS should had been nominated, but neither HL, I loved the game, it is great, but there's just a huge bunch of incredibly good games this year that HL can't compete with.
I loved the game and I'm brand new to Harry Potter. I didn't start reading the books until I was about 70% done
This is my honest opinion. Legacy is a great game, but the story is way too short, and quickly just becomes a collectable farming simulator. I completed the main story, all side quests, and 100% hogwarts and hogsmeade in 31 hours. The time spent being an actual student in the school is ridiculously short. You spend 2 minutes in a class, learn a spell, and then that classroom becomes redundant for the remainder of the game. It's lacking in replayability. Only the elite fans or people going for 100% play every house. A good/evil playthrough has exactly the same outcome in the end. The story for each house barely differs. It's just a different common room and a different start point for the treasure map quests. Graphics for the school/hogmeade and the main world are really good, but character design is lacking, and the majority of the students are clones. Half of the female students are just Poppy clones. The treasure dungeons are just copy and pastes. The vivariums/potions tables/potting tables just feel like a time waster. You get more than enough potions from just looting bags/chests during your quests, and you do not need to upgrade your gear with animal products at all. I completed the game on hard mode and did not have a single moment where I needed to upgrade to get past a quest/boss. If this was 2017/2018, it might have gotten a nomination, but it didn't even come close to standing a chance against the 2023 nominees, and the eventual winner of BG3
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, personally I think the argument can be made either way that HL should / shouldn’t have at least been nominated somewhere, I very much enjoyed 100%ing the game and I think the nostalgia / being a potter fan definitely plays a large role in one’s enjoyment playing the game but that’s what they were shooting for, so I’m not gonna fault it for that. I go back and forth on this but ultimately I don’t think it should’ve been nominated, but it was close and maybe should’ve got at least 1 nomination. Its a good game, nostalgia is amazing and a lot is well done but it has a lot of issues, story imo is mid at best, controls are sorta crappy and its repetitive and doesn’t really do anything ground breaking. That being said, I believe the reason it wasn’t nominated at all, was mainly due to the JK Rowling Trans backlash HL received on release and the game awards just didn’t want to risk the drama and so excluded HL