THIS IS NOT 10/10, not GOTY, not even close.
Steam needs to implement a third review option. Mixed. Instead of just Recommended or Not.
Consider this review Mixed.

Hogwarts Legacy is the first modern Harry Potter universe game since the original movie/book based games on the classic consoles.
This is listed as an RPG, but is lacking many basic features that are present in many, more popular RPGs.
Many outlets rate this game 10/10 but it is nowhere near that, especially not the pc port.

THE GOOD
The graphics are great, especially the sky. Snow in winter is beautiful. The sunrise at the coast, gorgeous.
Great, captivating moments in cutscenes.
Niamh's Trial was friggin awesome.
Huge world to explore, including the Castle itself.
Custom wand.

THE BAD
Characters will jitter and change positions or clip in different locations.
Enemies will fall through the ground, soft locking a fight sequence.
Companion NPCs can get caught in a pathing loop and run in place forever, preventing you from continuing.

To go into detail...

1. CHOICES DO NOT MATTER, AT ALL
If you want to RP your character as the most evil person who is the rightful Heir of Slytherin, well too bad because all the dialogue options have no real effect on the outcome at all and your character is always overly nice and always has a goofy smile.
The only choice that matters is the choice at the end, even still you're still treated as the hero regardless.

2. Welcome to Hogwarts Legacy. The game where everything is made up and the (House) Points don't matter.
In the classic games, House Points actually mattered and depending on how you did in classes (yes, you could actually attend classes regularly) your House would get more/less points. In Hogwarts Legacy, Points are only present in reference only ("very good, points to X") and have no real impact. You can find the hourglasses and they will all be completely empty. Always.

3. Lacking basic RPG things.
No sleep. No hunger. No stamina. No morality. No attributes/perks (charisma, speech, strength, etc). No meaningful dialogue trees. Everything good RPGs have, Hogwarts Legacy does not.
There is no morality, you can do no wrong. Sure, pick a lock right in front of someone, and no one bats an eye. But in other RPGs, the guards are on you in an instant. Cast Unforgivable Curses? Nothing unusual here.

4. No House rivalries.
"ooh, some hotshot new student just joined, and they've been bumped up to a fifth year. They can do lots of things us regular students can't and they have special friends who are important members of staff." Surely in any other universe, this would set off a rivalry and a branching storyline with a satisfying payoff. BUT NO! No one hates you and you're everyone's friend, at least a friend to the four people you're allowed to talk to.

5. Gender neutral terms.
"You are a GENTLEPERSON and a scholar." "They" "They've"
Just seems weird at times. In English, it's all gender neutral terms. But is incredibly gender specific in other languages.

6. Tacked on homosexuality (in at least one instance) and token transgender character
There was a boycott for the game because of what JKR said about trans people. There's a trans person in the game, so it's all good right? BUT NO! The trans community hates the trans character purely because of the name. Sirona Ryan. They see SIRona RYAN. That's how they actually view it. Their deep af voice throws me off more than anything, really.

7. Two protagonist voices. Can pitch shift, but sounds awful.
Because WB couldn't be tasked with spending a few extra dollars to hire extra voice actors, they decided to use a horrible feature in UE4 to change the pitch of the voices. Unfortunately, it causes a robotic, warbled effect.

8. Two minute fetchquest side quests
Basically "over there is a thing, go there and tell me what you find. oh thank you, have this as a token of appreciation." >received a cosmetic appearance
Speaking of...

9. Inventory management is a joke
There are so many cosmetic items in the game and you can actually fill your inventory very quickly. Once your inventory is full, you can no longer collect items. Open a chest that contains a rare, high level outfit? Too bad your inventory was full, now you can NEVER come back and get it.
What's more, there's little point to cosmetic items when you can change the appearance of each piece. Just basically select the higher level cosmetics and change their appearance and sell the rest to get money you never use. Rinse and repeat.

10. Mobile game mechanics for herbology, potions, and beasts.
Want to grow a plant? 15 realtime minute wait
Want to brew a potion? Up to one minute wait.
Want to breed this rare beast for a main story mission? 20 real minutes.

11. No Quidditch
Saved by the fact the KBM controls for brooms are counter intuitive (can't even look up or down), there is no Quidditch in the game. Why? Because of a note you can find that has been redacted. The real reason? An injury...

12. Button mash fights
click click click click click 1 click click 2 3 click click 1 click X click Z click Q click Ctrl click click
Fights are overly easy but damage dealt is a joke.

13. PC port is absolute trash compared to console
Reminds me of another WB pc port that had a horrible release. Arkham Knight...
No patch for three weeks (as of March 30th) But that's not saying much considering each patch has broken the game more and more. People who have never crashed started crashing after the March 8th patch, textures are potato graphics for many, shadows become pixelated only feet from you, even on Ultra setting, Nvidia's official driver will cause the game to black screen, raytracing is like the sun shining in every room, etc.
Devs silent. Don't seem to care. "Don't worry about the pc port, look at how well the game is selling. So what if player counts have dropped by over 100k, it's sold so well."

14. Alohamora lockpicking
The Alohamora spell is supposed to instantly unlock a lock. In Hogwarts Legacy, you have to solve a minigame when using it. Just hold a button until you hear the gears spin. There are different "levels" of locks, levels 1 to 3 and you have to collect objects to be able to unlock the higher level locks. But once you do, you realize there's no difference between them at all, other than time gating to prevent you from unlocking important areas too soon. A level 1 lock is the same as a level 3 lock, there is absolutely no difference.
In any other RPG, lockpicking is far more intuitive and different "levels" of locks actually have different challenging traits to them.

15. The "Perfect World" scenario
No one hates you. Only bad people hate you. No House rivalries. Trans and gays are accepted. All races living in harmony. Haven't seen many Asians, though. And the only two are teachers and both teach you kamikaze and banzai, err broom flight and Bombarda.

16. Anemic endgame.
Beat the final boss. "You're a hero." "You need to study for your upcoming exams." "House Cup time." The end.
No exams, no new paths to follow, little replayability. It does let you explore, but that's only to go for 100%.

17. No option to buy the soundtrack
Soundtrack is awesome, but to my knowledge isn't for sale at this time.

Many have voiced their disappointment of the lack of romancing in the game. "Harry was flirting with Cho in year four." Hogwarts Mystery (also by WB) had romancing, including kissing. But that game was gender specific. hmm...

Spell pronunciation :P
Lu-mOHs, Lu-mAHs. LeviOOHHsa, LevioSSAAA. I thought correct pronunciation mattered.


This game is 7/10 at best and 5/10 at worst. It's the most basic RPG there is. It has some great moments, sure, but the whole package together isn't the 10/10 technological marvel people make it out to be.
Despite all the negatives, you can still enjoy the game for what it is; a bare bones RPG set in the Harry Potter world.

THIS IS NOT 10/10, not GOTY, not even close. Steam needs to implement a third review option. Mixed. Instead of just Recommended or Not. Consider this review Mixed. Hogwarts Legacy is the first modern Harry Potter universe game since the original movie/book based games on the classic consoles. This is listed as an RPG, but is lacking many basic features that are present in many, more popular RPGs. Many outlets rate this game 10/10 but it is nowhere near that, especially not the pc port. THE GOOD The graphics are great, especially the sky. Snow in winter is beautiful. The sunrise at the coast, gorgeous. Great, captivating moments in cutscenes. Niamh's Trial was friggin awesome. Huge world to explore, including the Castle itself. Custom wand. THE BAD Characters will jitter and change positions or clip in different locations. Enemies will fall through the ground, soft locking a fight sequence. Companion NPCs can get caught in a pathing loop and run in place forever, preventing you from continuing. To go into detail... 1. CHOICES DO NOT MATTER, AT ALL If you want to RP your character as the most evil person who is the rightful Heir of Slytherin, well too bad because all the dialogue options have no real effect on the outcome at all and your character is always overly nice and always has a goofy smile. The only choice that matters is the choice at the end, even still you're still treated as the hero regardless. 2. Welcome to Hogwarts Legacy. The game where everything is made up and the (House) Points don't matter. In the classic games, House Points actually mattered and depending on how you did in classes (yes, you could actually attend classes regularly) your House would get more/less points. In Hogwarts Legacy, Points are only present in reference only ("very good, points to X") and have no real impact. You can find the hourglasses and they will all be completely empty. Always. 3. Lacking basic RPG things. No sleep. No hunger. No stamina. No morality. No attributes/perks (charisma, speech, strength, etc). No meaningful dialogue trees. Everything good RPGs have, Hogwarts Legacy does not. There is no morality, you can do no wrong. Sure, pick a lock right in front of someone, and no one bats an eye. But in other RPGs, the guards are on you in an instant. Cast Unforgivable Curses? Nothing unusual here. 4. No House rivalries. "ooh, some hotshot new student just joined, and they've been bumped up to a fifth year. They can do lots of things us regular students can't and they have special friends who are important members of staff." Surely in any other universe, this would set off a rivalry and a branching storyline with a satisfying payoff. BUT NO! No one hates you and you're everyone's friend, at least a friend to the four people you're allowed to talk to. 5. Gender neutral terms. "You are a GENTLEPERSON and a scholar." "They" "They've" Just seems weird at times. In English, it's all gender neutral terms. But is incredibly gender specific in other languages. 6. Tacked on homosexuality (in at least one instance) and token transgender character There was a boycott for the game because of what JKR said about trans people. There's a trans person in the game, so it's all good right? BUT NO! The trans community hates the trans character purely because of the name. Sirona Ryan. They see SIRona RYAN. That's how they actually view it. Their deep af voice throws me off more than anything, really. 7. Two protagonist voices. Can pitch shift, but sounds awful. Because WB couldn't be tasked with spending a few extra dollars to hire extra voice actors, they decided to use a horrible feature in UE4 to change the pitch of the voices. Unfortunately, it causes a robotic, warbled effect. 8. Two minute fetchquest side quests Basically "over there is a thing, go there and tell me what you find. oh thank you, have this as a token of appreciation." >received a cosmetic appearance Speaking of... 9. Inventory management is a joke There are so many cosmetic items in the game and you can actually fill your inventory very quickly. Once your inventory is full, you can no longer collect items. Open a chest that contains a rare, high level outfit? Too bad your inventory was full, now you can NEVER come back and get it. What's more, there's little point to cosmetic items when you can change the appearance of each piece. Just basically select the higher level cosmetics and change their appearance and sell the rest to get money you never use. Rinse and repeat. 10. Mobile game mechanics for herbology, potions, and beasts. Want to grow a plant? 15 realtime minute wait Want to brew a potion? Up to one minute wait. Want to breed this rare beast for a main story mission? 20 real minutes. 11. No Quidditch Saved by the fact the KBM controls for brooms are counter intuitive (can't even look up or down), there is no Quidditch in the game. Why? Because of a note you can find that has been redacted. The real reason? An injury... 12. Button mash fights click click click click click 1 click click 2 3 click click 1 click X click Z click Q click Ctrl click click Fights are overly easy but damage dealt is a joke. 13. PC port is absolute trash compared to console Reminds me of another WB pc port that had a horrible release. Arkham Knight... No patch for three weeks (as of March 30th) But that's not saying much considering each patch has broken the game more and more. People who have never crashed started crashing after the March 8th patch, textures are potato graphics for many, shadows become pixelated only feet from you, even on Ultra setting, Nvidia's official driver will cause the game to black screen, raytracing is like the sun shining in every room, etc. Devs silent. Don't seem to care. "Don't worry about the pc port, look at how well the game is selling. So what if player counts have dropped by over 100k, it's sold so well." 14. Alohamora lockpicking The Alohamora spell is supposed to instantly unlock a lock. In Hogwarts Legacy, you have to solve a minigame when using it. Just hold a button until you hear the gears spin. There are different "levels" of locks, levels 1 to 3 and you have to collect objects to be able to unlock the higher level locks. But once you do, you realize there's no difference between them at all, other than time gating to prevent you from unlocking important areas too soon. A level 1 lock is the same as a level 3 lock, there is absolutely no difference. In any other RPG, lockpicking is far more intuitive and different "levels" of locks actually have different challenging traits to them. 15. The "Perfect World" scenario No one hates you. Only bad people hate you. No House rivalries. Trans and gays are accepted. All races living in harmony. Haven't seen many Asians, though. And the only two are teachers and both teach you kamikaze and banzai, err broom flight and Bombarda. 16. Anemic endgame. Beat the final boss. "You're a hero." "You need to study for your upcoming exams." "House Cup time." The end. No exams, no new paths to follow, little replayability. It does let you explore, but that's only to go for 100%. 17. No option to buy the soundtrack Soundtrack is awesome, but to my knowledge isn't for sale at this time. Many have voiced their disappointment of the lack of romancing in the game. "Harry was flirting with Cho in year four." Hogwarts Mystery (also by WB) had romancing, including kissing. But that game was gender specific. hmm... Spell pronunciation :P Lu-mOHs, Lu-mAHs. LeviOOHHsa, LevioSSAAA. I thought correct pronunciation mattered. This game is 7/10 at best and 5/10 at worst. It's the most basic RPG there is. It has some great moments, sure, but the whole package together isn't the 10/10 technological marvel people make it out to be. Despite all the negatives, you can still enjoy the game for what it is; a bare bones RPG set in the Harry Potter world.