This game is unimaginably horrible and it's baffling it's the hill so many are willing to die on. There is no enemy variety, which is for sure a good idea for a modern open world game. There is no spell variety either (26), which again certainly was a great idea for a modern rpg based solely around it's magic set at a magic school, but hey Harry Potter has always had a terrible magic system so ¯\(ツ)/¯. For reference Final Fantasy (1987 NES) has triple as many spells (60), and Skyrim a more modern open world game for comparison has over 100 AND both those games have multiple combat classes besides magic. The game will let you use the "unforgivable curses" but it has no morality system to give any meaningful consequences to your actions because according to the devs it would be "too judgmental on the game maker's part". The world is empty, which is always a problem with open world games (not remotely a fan of the genre tbh) and every door is a loading screen. The game is also a buggy mess and anyone saying otherwise is just lying, the game literally has Denuvo lmao. But none of this is surprising, ignoring the original author for a moment, every trailer made it look lackluster and it's made by the developers infamous for Disney tie-in shovelware.

And now for the elephant in the room... The game doubles down on all the racism and antisemitism of its source material, anyone saying Terfling had nothing to do with this game is bending the truth. The official Q&A for the game on their site says they worked closely with her team so it perfectly fits her world, and that it does a little too perfectly. The main premise is squashing a goblin rebellion riddled with antisemitism. The goblin rebellions are not new to the franchise, they are a thing mentioned in the books and expanded material as something the students learn in history class. And what were all the rebellions about? The lack or basic rights like using wands, and checks notes wizards attempting to enslave them "as house elves" but we’re supposed to believe they’re still the villains throughout the franchise?
Which brings us to the next topic, the house elves... As in the source material Hogwarts is run by slave labor and the franchise doesn't want us to look deeper into what that means, waving it off with "well they like it". But if wizards can attempt to enslave goblins as “house elves” what does that actually mean, what exactly is a “house elf” and why doesn’t the series creator want us to examine it? The head house elf at Hogwarts becomes a companion, so you don't actually get to own a slave but you still get one by proxy. The game also lets you decorate the Room of Requirement with mounted house elf heads, with how controversial this aspect of the books has always been idk who on the dev team didn’t think “maybe we shouldn’t keep the mounted head of a sapient creature decoration item”. Again none of this is surprising given the source material where they decorate houses with elf heads and the kids put little hats on during christmas, oh isn’t it so cute and whimsical? And the fact that one of the lead devs was a gamer gate youtuber (them stepping down was never going to divorce the game from these elements). The game is also a prequel set in the 1800s so it can't actually effectively deconstruct the issues with the source material, the goblins are still the anti-semetic bankers, the house elves are still slaves, and the ("good") wizards are still the good guys that have every right to oppress them. Just like Terflings own politics and the politics of the source material the game's message is about preserving the status quo, nothing meaningful can change and it shouldn’t cause we have a continuity to uphold damnit!
The game also throws in the series "first trans character" who they named "Sirona Ryan", this is a name of a Celtic goddess (as many people will point out in an attempt to ignore criticism, despite the origin not being the issue with the name) but just like "Cho Chang", "Anthony Goldstein" and "Kingsley Shacklebolt" it's certainly a choice out of all the Irish names to deliberately use that one for your first trans women. Sirona was also very obviously thrown in last minute in an attempt to save face and say the game was divorced from Terflings and her raging transphobia, but as you can see the game is quite the opposite.
But you know despite all that 9/10 IGN-ostalgia am I right!

In conclusion this game is truly the “Legacy” of this franchise and I can see why fans say “this is everything I ever wanted in a Harry Potter game” because this is all the franchise really truly is. I certainly hope everyone who bought the deluxe edition for the sole reason to spite a minority the author is actively harming daily love their overpriced shovelware and fuck off. Remember yall were the same people in the 90s who hated and wanted to boycott the books for being “satanic” and "progressive". (spoiler alert they never were)

And for anyone who can’t let go of the franchise because of “childhood” and cause “it’s so magical”, let me recommend “Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin, “Discworld” by Terry Pratchett, and “Percy Jackson” by Rick Riordian. None of those series are perfect and have their fair share of problems, but they were written by authors who actually cared, who actually took criticism and grew from it. You can let go and grow too.

Playing the Hero side of the story felt a little lacking and it didn't really feel like a follow up to the first game. It just didn't feel like an "Adventure" game without the Adventure Fields connecting all the stages together, and I preferred the character select of the first game. The story was also the generic stop Eggman again, which isn't necessarily bad but I do think they should have sprinkled in some things about Gerald and his plans, maybe Tails could have decrypted files or maybe them commenting on the Artificial Chaos'? Cause Heroes story alone felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the game.
All that being said though, my opinion started to change as soon as I started Dark side of the story. It's actually where most of if not all of the plot picks up. And I understand that's by design, you don't get to see the villains thoughts and motives while playing as the heroes. But I still think more could have been done/hinted in Heroes side to connect it without spoiling what you eventually fully learn in Dark and Final stories. And I understand why it's probably more streamlined then the first game, with only 3 gameplay modes and no Adventure Field, they probably couldn't fit all that on a disc and wanting to focus more on the story rather then cutting it up from 6 different points of view. With the lack of Adventure Field they should have used the map the stage select post game has in the story to show how the characters are moving from one place to another to give the sense of connection. But overall I did really enjoy the game!

I do think G.U.N. was underutilized, outside of the intro where they arrest Sonic they don't really feel like an actual presence in the game beyond the generic robots you destroy. Which is surprising with how important they were to the backstory behind the events of the game. I do know/think they do more in later games like "Shadow the Hedgehog", but as their debut it was a little underwhelming.
The Chao Garden was also really improved from the first game! I still think more interactivity and minigames would make it better, but what there is was still really nice. (gonna be a little sad the Chao Gardens don't return in future games)

Oh and one last random thing, the Halloween stage was so funny and out of place lmao. Every other stage is normal and makes sense, a city, a prison, a jungle, a dessert, and then a random Halloween themed area in the middle of all that lol.

I already knew this wasn't going to be good but this game just made me sad. Despite the name it doesn't feel like a follow up to Sonic 3&K, and instead more of a retread of Sonic 1 but somehow worse. The special stages were just annoying, who thought adding a timer and more bumpers that knock you out of the stage to the Sonic 1 special stages was a good idea? The world map was neat but because you can just select whichever zone in any order and there's no zone transitions, there doesn't feel like there's a natural progression between areas.
To end on something positive, I did like the card surfing and the fact you can choose the specific act you want to play (instead of having to replay the whole zone, or get that option in debug mode).