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I played Harry Potter Legacy and reached 100% completion last night. I cant remember the last time I 100% completed a game like this. The assassin creed series and far cry series have the similar big maps and lots of collectibles, but I tire of the game before I ever reach it.
It was a good game, combat was interesting, if a bit easy once I got the hang of it (I had to turn up the difficulty to hard, but still never died). I liked a few of the side stories more than the main story. There were some silly fan service moments, like at the end how your house ends up winning the house cup cuz one of the school teachers gives out a bunch of points to just you.
There was some level of story and gameplay disconnect. I was slaughtering a dozen enemies at a time, and still sometimes got reactions like "you are a kid, it is much too dangerous for you!" Kinda like when some no name bandit in Skyrim tries to mug the dragon born that is walking around in Daedric Armor.
I had fun roleplaying a bit and making my own personal cannon. I unlocked the killing spell, and never used it on anything smarter than a Troll. It was a little silly that the killing spell got treated so badly, but I created a literal mountain of bodies without the killing spell. (unless they are all just sleeping)
I also had the thought that finishing a game at 100% completion is kind of bad. One thing that could be said in favor of an assassins creed game that I play to 80% is that there was enough content for me to play for as long as I was enjoying the game. I suppose I could start a new playthrough in harry potter in a different house, but Ravenclaw felt like it fit best, and I don't respect the other houses very much.
I've only watched gameplay and haven't tried it myself, but while the game seems like a good game, I'm mildly confused at the poor job it does of being an RPG in some important regards, such as making you feel like a student in Hogwarts as well as an intrepid adventurer.
What I do find baffling is how inconsequential the use of Unforgiveable Curses is, even if you do them in public or in front of your teachers (!). I understand the desire to not be too restrictive of the player, but it would have been easy enough to have it diegetically explained as a temporary relaxation in the light of the Goblin Revolt, and make the character face repercussions for blasting anything and everything they see with a killing curse, even if you don't end up in Azkaban or kicked out of school.
Some of it is explained as the main character having a special natural affinity for magic. The main character tends to learn new spells super easily with minimal instruction. There is a little mini game we have to play.
I think in general they just took the lazy programming route on a bunch of things. There is also no penalty for being outside the dorms during curfew. They have a mission or two where they fake it by forcing you to use stealth in certain areas of hogwarts (a classic "sneak into the forbidden section of the library"). Also the headmaster conveniently bans quidditch that year. I cant imagine what kind of nightmare it would have been to program that sport.
Also no one seems to take the Goblin revolt very seriously. It seems most of the government and authority figures are in denial. Which isn't too unbelievable from a story perspective. But it means any kind of "special considerations" are off the table.
I can appreciate taking the lazy programming route. I'd rather have them make a good system for what they can do well than spend a lot of effort to make a crappy system that everyone hates.
I'd say the best thing about the game is the unique combat system. Its all very close range, closer than almost all modern shooters, but not actually melee range. The visual cues and mixed spell options make for a system with plenty of death. By the end of the game I felt like a god in some combat situations. Dodging spells to zip around the battlefield, or blocking them to unleash powerful retaliatory attacks. But one or two mistakes in a row would bring me to the edge of death.
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