Here's the thing: I've never, ever (as in ever, not even once) bought a console game for myself. I buy plenty of them to give to my partner as gifts and surprises, but I've never bought one just for myself, one that I know my partner will have no interest in playing. Until last spring, when the PS4 version of Hogwarts Legacy dropped and I decided to "try it out". After all, who knows, maybe I'm a gamer at heart.
That turned out to be the understatement of the century.
I'm currently on my third run of the game. I've had a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff, and now a Gryffindor MC. It takes me about six weeks to complete the game if I play about two hours a day, five days a week.
What impresses me most is how competent I've become.
First time playing, I died immediately (literally, the first Sentinel got me). Now, I don't even need the Unforgivable Curses to kill off trolls and Acromantulas with ease. (Which is perhaps because I bred Graphorns and wove their horns into my clothes.) I'm also using the hardest difficulty now, which means that your reaction time has to be on point.
Needless to say that I'm very grateful that my partner is not a Potterhead. I don't know if I could share the game. (And if he suddenly becomes one, we'll just have to buy another PS console and a new copy of the game.)
Therefore, the one word I'd use to describe Hogwarts Legacy is unprecedented.
RK
P.S. I recently learned a handy new trick: if you find yourself midst twenty spiders at once with no Wiggenweld left, just put on your Protego shield and outsource the fighting to some Chinese Chomping Cabbages. (I'm still surprised how well that worked.)
