The Questyen

That's almost certainly something that will be fixed in a patch.

OldBoy

This is a game for wizards, witches and muggles. Something for every itch you need to scratch.

fujishig

How much are they paying you to shill for them, OldBoy?

OldBoy

Just enjoying the game, very very much.

lwhy?

Are you enjoying it more than Control OldBoy?

OldBoy

Really different games. Control was more tense, thriller with aspects of horror type game. HL is another beast entirely. Open world, light with a dense world to discover and be free. Control was linear and not really a happy game. But, I still love it dearly, for different reasons. But comparing apples to oranges in terms of genre.

lwhy?

Which one do you like better?

OldBoy

I’ll know when I finish Hogwart’s. It’s a strong contender to surpass, but I’m not close to being done yet. These my initial reactions. Similar to others who have posted thoughts thus far. TBC.

mhg83

Had to drop the difficulty down to normal. Getting ganged up four to one was not fun

The Cow

We are still really enjoying this and still have a long way to go. I do like a lot of the little things like the seasons changes as mentioned prior. Also like the background music, rather calming for the most part.

OldBoy

I can’t wait to ride a Hippogryph or whatever they are called.

asianxcore

Bought the Digital Deluxe Edition last night.

Currently Level 17 and enjoying it a whole lot.

The Cow

Wife finished the main story today. Now on to doing everything else.

asianxcore

Is anyone having issues with the menu navigation in-game?

Quite often when I open up in-game menus, the controller will default to the thumbsticks but other times will default to the Touchpad.

The issue I'm having when the Touchpad takes over, is sometimes it works smoothly and other times its very glitchy, making it hard to move the cursor around.

Anyone know of a fix for this issue?

OldBoy

Uninstall and then reinstall perhaps?

Rob V

Loving this game so far (XSX) but I did have damn near a game breaking issue... Clicked "fast travel" and it took forever to "travel" (was over 3 or 4 minutes) so I assumed my Xbox locked up and I shut down / restarted the game. The save files must have been corrupted after that because when I loaded back in, my character was just falling thru the screen and there was image tearing. So I went back and loaded my last 3 auto-saves ---- all corrupted. Thankfully the 4th auto-save was ok. I lost about 30 or 40 minutes of gaming but that beats the alternative. I guess the lesson is, don't shut down during fast travel --- even though fast travel might be broken?

Noonan

I did what I believe was the PS exclusive quest last night. Feelings are double-edged. It was a good quest with some fun visuals and puzzles but it was also very long and the whole time I knew there would be no big payoff since it was a console specific quest. Most of the time, I just wanted it to be over (I didn't know what it was when I started) so I could continue with actual story quests.

asianxcore

Finished the Main Quests this morning.

I'll probably go back throughout the week to find more Side-Quests, as my character ended at Level 30.

There are some absolutely stunning visuals in the later portions of the game.

Also, though I didn't use it much, learning Avada Kedavra is so hilarious

Noonan

I'm not sure what the cap is but I'm lvl32 and my MSQ is to go talk about the 3rd trial.

Haven't seen the quest for Kedavra yet but I have the first two.

The Cow

Did the PS5 exclusive quest tonight (Haunted Hogsmeade Shop), that was something. Looking back, it was good, but did take us a while.

Noonan

Fuck those mannequins.

I don't know if the ghost has any relation to the books at all but all I could think of when he was talking is Sheogorath from Elder Scrolls.

Noonan

Finished. Level 37 and 48 hours. My field guide was at 91% which I guess was enough for the "true" ending. I did all the side quests but had no interest doing things like the dueling challenges. Under Exploration, I didn't even have the last one unlocked. I thought it would have been for those hedge mazes but they never started tracking. No idea what that section was.

Solid 8/10

dino88

The last one is solving Hogwarts secrets. I've found one so far. It wasn't part of a mission, so I'm assuming the other 2 aren't either. I have a feeling where one of the last 2 is, but I haven't been able to access it yet.

If you want a hint on the one I found...

Noonan

Thanks. Yeah, I remember messing around with those torches but I never went back to actually see what the puzzle was. Probably won't bother at this point.

Turns out getting the final ending is just getting to level 34 for the quest to appear (and I assume doing the "good" path at the end). It's not tied to field guide completion percentage.

maxfisher

Finished this up last night and have fairly mixed feelings on it.

The setting is absolutely incredible. I honestly don't know the last time a game so thoroughly transported me to its world. The design and art direction of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and the surrounding area are nearly perfect. For people who love the books & movies, just wandering around is a treat.

They also nailed the gameplay/controls. Throwing spells around has some heft to it and, crucially, they made it very easy to quickly change between a relatively large number of spells. The flying controls felt a bit wonky at first, but once I got used to them, they were extremely natural for navigating the world.

Just to experience running/flying around and interacting with the world they've created, I'd say the game is easily worth full price to any Harry Potter fans who haven't abandoned the property due to Rowling.

Far less impressive is the story, characters and dialog (both the writing and performances). In general, just about all of the narrative choices range from bland to offensive. You could drop the plot into a generic fantasy world with no link to the Harry Potter universe and it would require very few changes. And if you did that, no one would care about it at all because it's unoriginal and uninspired. There's a major side story throughout the game that involves someone doing wrong things for the right reasons. In talented hands, it could've been quite compelling and tragic, if lacking in originality. As it played out, it was just boring, predictable and occasionally unintentionally funny. Most of the stories told in the game fell into that category for me. And when it occasionally hits on something a bit more inspired, rather than achieve any type of poignancy, the game's still dragged down by lousy dialog and mostly b-grade voice performances.

Saving the worst for last, I personally feel it was nearly a fatal error to have characters killing hundreds of 'bad guys' over the course of the game. That's just not the world of Harry Potter. In that fictional universe, the people on the side of good don't run around slaughtering the other side. The decision to go that route reeks of laziness. And I'm fairly sure they knew it, since you get to hear your character say some variation of 'that person's blood is on (insert bad guy's name) head' about a billion times after killing someone, as if the lazy-ass writers are begging you to agree with the sentiment. And then they make things even more bizarre with the treatment of the unforgivable curses. Your character can learn and use them, supposedly with no consequence, though I opted out of learning them. But there are also some 'big' moments in the game where we're supposed to be like 'oh my god, someone used an unforgivable curse!' and there's literally no dramatic heft to it because the game is already a bloodless blood bath.

Honestly, to me it felt like the world was designed and the gameplay was programmed by extremely talented diehard Harry Potter fans, and then WB hired a bunch of medium-talent workers to come in and use those elements to make a game largely driven by soulless corporate committees. It's too bad. Again, I think the game is absolutely worth getting for those inclined, but WB had a shot at creating one of the best games of this generation, if not all time, and instead settled for mediocrity in a very impressively realized and fun to visit digital world.