Hogwarts Legacy review

I got my Hogwarts letter

May 3, 2025

Categorization: Fantasy

Where played: PS5

Non-spoiler review.

I was so incredibly excited for this game. I grew up in an era where when the fourth book (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) came out and the Harry Potter series had just barely cemented its position in the literary cosmos, the queue to collect the book on the first day of its release went around and around the block of my local bookstore.  When the last book came out (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), I was already in university, but that in no way diminished my excitement to read the final installment. I purchased it on the second day it came out, went to a party that I had promised to attend that same night, took the book with me, and snuck back into my car to read the book at midnight while my friends were getting plastered. I'm pretty sure I saw one of them, a typical finance "bro" wearing an Hermes belt over his abs and whose spirit animal was, according to him, "Chuck Bass", sneak away to do the exact same thing. Those were the good ol’ days.

As an aside, can I just say here that I miss those days when people loved a book so much that they deemed it a worthwhile use of their time to spend all day lining up to buy it on the day it came out. A couple of months ago, I was walking around a shopping area and passed a local bookstore, and there was a long queue in front of the entrance. As I had no clue what was going on and wanted to enter the bookstore just to browse, I walked past the queue and asked the staff what book people were lining up for. It turned out not to be any book, but rather, a tiny collectible glow-in-the-dark figurine from Japan that was sold in a gacha box, i.e., a blind buy box that doesn’t tell you what model you are going to get so you have to waste money buying a ton of them to get the figurine model you want. This generation… I swear to God.

Anyway.

 Like every kid other kid in my generation, I suppose, I have always wanted to experience Harry Potter’s wizarding world outside of the books. The closest I ever came was going to Harry Potter world in Universal Studios in Japan, and while it was amazing, the fact that all the rides and audio in the little stores in the Hogsmeade-type village were narrated in Japanese did take away from the experience quite a bit (myself being, if it is not clear yet, a non-Japanese speaker).

And so I was all over excitement when I finally got my hands on Hogwarts Legacy.

And it was pretty much amazing. To see Hogwarts as a virtual reality that one can explore at whim is the stuff of every kid-at-heart’s dreams. I can tell that so much love and effort and expense went into fully realizing Hogwarts for the Potterheads, the developers wisely realizing, I suppose, that any worldbuilding effort for this game would be futile without a fully-realized Hogwarts. The people who made this game obviously loved and respected the books.

You play as a budding wizard, attending Hogwarts and solving the mysteries therein (much like Harry and his pals, of course), and you land yourself in a very The Sorcerer’s Stone type adventure, with a quest with clearly-defined steps that must be accomplished to defeat the evil threatening to overcome the land. The main story is reminiscent enough of the series to appeal to fans, but different enough to create a sense of new adventure. Bravo.

But going back to the world, I think every Potterhead will already be satisfied with having purchased the game if, like me, you have always wanted to go to Hogwarts. I mean, you can attend magical classes class, for crying out loud, which makes it already the best USD 60 dollars I ever spent. I don’t know about you, but I have always wanted to go to Potions and Charms and Herbology classes in Hogwarts. You can go to the Great Hall, the house elves’ kitchen, the random staircases, the off-limits faculty area, the Quidditch field, just… everything that a Potterhead has always imagined and yearned for. Best of all, as a consequence of the sheer size of the virtual reality Hogwarts, which seems to have fully captured every nook and cranny of the castle’s enormity, the game’s Hogwarts evokes the sense of being lost in the grand old castle, which is exactly the way it should feel. 

The very infrastructure of the castle itself also feels magical and alive, creating the aura of mystery that the books weave around the reader so well. I don’t want to spoil anything, because I had the privilege of going into this game completely blind and wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone, but there is a Room of Requirement, of course, and the most restrained description I can give is that it does what you think it should do and more.

Like I said, I would have played the game for the chance to explore virtual Hogwarts only (my inner child is happy!), but I am pleased to say that the rest of the English countryside wizarding world is very fun to explore, too. There’s a lovely, complete Hogsmeade that is just as picturesque and delightful as you have always imagined it, with all the book and wand and sweet shops and is where, of course, you will buy and upgrade your gear. You can explore all around it as well, as there are forests and small hamlets containing mysteries and side quests that unravel more lore about the world, and there are bandits and magical creatures to dispose of and collect loot from. And I’m happy to report that there is quite a lot to explore and do for at least 60 percent of the game.

It is only around that 60 to 70% mark when gamers will definitely see the game’s limitations, and (probably?) what was sacrificed in order to devote time and work and expense to creating the lore and Hogwarts. I think the developers got their priorities straight, but that doesn’t change the fact that after scratching the surface a bit, the gameplay is quite basic. At the 60% mark, you will find that the enemies don’t vary very much and the gameplay becomes repetitive and frankly, rather boring. The levelling up of the gear no longer provides the same satisfaction it does at the start of the game, as well, as you will eventually accumulate too much of it to know what to do with. I suppose it is more interesting if you are really into changing the appearance of your character, which is not something that I have ever given that much thought to. I played this in hard mode and still thought it was too easy.

But see, I still think every Pottterhead should purchase the game. You don’t come into it thinking you are going to pay Skyrim or God of War, obviously, that would be too much to ask for. I certainly didn’t. You come into it to experience the virtual reality of the books, and on that promise, the game absolutely delivered. It’s a shame that the planned DLC was cancelled, but I do hope that another game is in the works, as Legacy is a propitious beginning.