powerfulboy
Bio
I WANT MEN!!!!!!!!!
I WANT MEN!!!!!!!!!
Badges
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
Favorite Games
004
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
000
Games Backloggd
Recently Reviewed See More
I am reviewing the double pack cuz it’s much easier since they’re the same game.
The performance issues on this game are so beyond abysmal. This game literally, at some points, was in slow motion with how janky the frame rate was. It has improved marginally but not that much for how long it’s been out.
The mechanics of traversal are also really janky and feel really underdeveloped. Arches had this problem but even that wasn’t that bad in comparison to this. Traversal isn’t as fun or intuitive, often actions won’t register like they’re supposed to, especially when climbing. Flying also has been super nerfed. It’s just rough.
Pokemon designs are also the worst. They aren’t as bad as Gen 1 but they’re bordering on the worst. There’s some I like but overall there’s not a lot I like. Maybe if they were done in Sword and Shield style I’d like them but the low quality models make them uglier than they should be.
The story is actually the only thing I consistently like. Team Star was the weakest, by far, with some really baffling cutscenes that didn’t make sense to me. The gym challenge was OK but Nemona was not a good rival and the champion is terrible. No wonder they reduced the champion down to a rank you can get cuz she literally can get creamed by a good fire, fighting, or water type. The best one is Arven’s storyline which culminates in the final conflict which, while a bit tacked on, is still good, I’d say and had maybe the darkest storyline of a pokemon game as far as content goes.
Terrastalizing is OK but nothing special. It does add some cool competitive stuff but as someone who doesn’t play competitive it’s completely a non factor for me. Gigantamax and Mega Evo were 20x better but Terra is 20x better than Z moves.
What I’m most disappointed by, though, is the lack of explorable inside spaces. Arceus, even though it’s so so so so so ugly, had pretty good inside environments with lots of moments for worldbuilding. Arceus especially had quests that made even the empty and boring world seem full and fleshed out. This doesn’t have side quests or inside spaces and instead NPCs are just walking around outside and maybe two of them talk about the town but most of them have no world building moments at all. Even Sword and Shield, for how shite it was overall, had more love and interest in the country and cultures it was making. This game feels like it’s uninterested in creating a world and more interested in filling up space. It’s a façade.
Very disappointed with this game. I wish I wasn’t but it’s just not good. I hope the DLC is better than this.
The performance issues on this game are so beyond abysmal. This game literally, at some points, was in slow motion with how janky the frame rate was. It has improved marginally but not that much for how long it’s been out.
The mechanics of traversal are also really janky and feel really underdeveloped. Arches had this problem but even that wasn’t that bad in comparison to this. Traversal isn’t as fun or intuitive, often actions won’t register like they’re supposed to, especially when climbing. Flying also has been super nerfed. It’s just rough.
Pokemon designs are also the worst. They aren’t as bad as Gen 1 but they’re bordering on the worst. There’s some I like but overall there’s not a lot I like. Maybe if they were done in Sword and Shield style I’d like them but the low quality models make them uglier than they should be.
The story is actually the only thing I consistently like. Team Star was the weakest, by far, with some really baffling cutscenes that didn’t make sense to me. The gym challenge was OK but Nemona was not a good rival and the champion is terrible. No wonder they reduced the champion down to a rank you can get cuz she literally can get creamed by a good fire, fighting, or water type. The best one is Arven’s storyline which culminates in the final conflict which, while a bit tacked on, is still good, I’d say and had maybe the darkest storyline of a pokemon game as far as content goes.
Terrastalizing is OK but nothing special. It does add some cool competitive stuff but as someone who doesn’t play competitive it’s completely a non factor for me. Gigantamax and Mega Evo were 20x better but Terra is 20x better than Z moves.
What I’m most disappointed by, though, is the lack of explorable inside spaces. Arceus, even though it’s so so so so so ugly, had pretty good inside environments with lots of moments for worldbuilding. Arceus especially had quests that made even the empty and boring world seem full and fleshed out. This doesn’t have side quests or inside spaces and instead NPCs are just walking around outside and maybe two of them talk about the town but most of them have no world building moments at all. Even Sword and Shield, for how shite it was overall, had more love and interest in the country and cultures it was making. This game feels like it’s uninterested in creating a world and more interested in filling up space. It’s a façade.
Very disappointed with this game. I wish I wasn’t but it’s just not good. I hope the DLC is better than this.
IT’S GOOD IDC IDC
This review contains spoilers
I like this game to a point.
Hogwarts is the centerpiece of this game. It is well realized in almost every single way. Any creative thing they could do, they could do it.
The problem is everything else. The first 15h or so are pure bliss, with so many things to find and constant new challenges and interesting quests and lore that really are interesting. The details are just insane when it comes to the first bits of the game and Sebastian’s storyline and Poppy’s to some extent are really great.
But then we get to the goblin storyline, which is really really piss poor. The main quest line is so boring and inane. Ranrok as a villain is so unambiguously evil and has no motivations that are interesting or multifaceted. I don’t even think this is a jewish stereotype type shit that the books are notorious for, it’s mainly just Palpatine level “We have to rule the galaxy because we have to”. There are bits and pieces of world building and character building but it’s half assed and very much “tell, don’t show”. It’s their first game as a company, but when it’s this type of big ass game, I’m just kind of flabbergasted it was this bad.
The world is also kind of nondescript. Outside of Hogwarts, The Forbidden Forest, and Hogsmeade, the world of HL is really just countryside in England with occasional monsters and points of interest. In games like Horizon or other open world games, there are bits of world building snuck into little vignettes or locations that have some sort of in world quality to them that makes them feel more immersive. This kind of has that but it’s usually in the form of notes, and the environments are usually repeated and lifeless. Visual assets in this game are repeated so often it begins to feel like you’re in a hell loop.
And then the combat and exploration…combat I’d say is the most solid and consistently good thing about this game because it does offer a lot of options for wand waving. However, it does start to feel like a shooter when I’m basically casting magic that essentially just pushes, pulls, flips, stops, etc. and function in the same or nearly the same way. It also doesn’t help that terrain doesn’t really vary at all in this game. It is kind of just hilly areas with no cliffs or interesting structures. Transportation is really great, though, and I love the room of requirement and all of its mechanics, etc. I think every aspect there is great.
Puzzles are also a constantly repeated. The pages are cool and there are a lot of genuinely good puzzles like the clock door stuff and various other bits and bobs, but the main ones are treasure vaults, ancient magic stuff, and camps and caves. None of them are all that exciting and repeat motifs with prizes that can be fun but often are just cosmetic. I like it only sometimes, but getting them is usually boring.
Also, the main story quests are really, really bad, usually. They often have nothing to do with Hogwarts and are just you going out to find some kind of ancient magic thing. Most of the story is the MC repeating shit every two seconds, and Prof. Fig just saying, “Oh my God”, or “What does that mean?” which does not make for a very engaging story. People kind of shat on the small side quests, but at least those had some sort of in world ties, the main quest really felt so paper thin and could’ve been condensed to make room for more fleshed out quests in world. Like I paid for the extra dlc bits and the quest for the Hogsmeade shop, and that shit was really freaking great. It was insane how much of a difference in quality there was from that to all of the quests. You essentially fight a poltergeist in a really unique environment and gain a house for it and the ability to free an elf. Like…where was that energy literally everywhere else?
The character quests were good but not great. Sebastian’s was obviously the best, but I couldn’t help but feel there was something held back from all three of the relationship quests. All three of them have a clear arc in mind but Natsai’s development is done in the eleventh hour and Poppy doesn’t change at all. Sebastian’s really is the best and has a really compelling throughline. I’d like to see him thrive and do better for himself in a DLC or something.
Also, everyone is talking about JK Rowling’s involvement in this, and while I don’t like the idea that she’s getting anything off of this, it is inevitable if you want to be a Harry Potter fan at all and for me, it is an intrinsic aspect of my childhood I still find worth something. The trans character in here is unfortunately named but all the characters that mention her and her role in the story is really done surprisingly tastefully. The goblin aspect to her storyline kind of highlights, however, the problem with Rowling’s world in general in its limited view of racism. It’s a “preserve the status quo” type of thing where civil rights activists are comically evil or overzealous and incidences of goblin intelligence or humanity are usually exceptions to the rule. It also pro-ports that the system in place should not be questioned but instead the heads of state or the evil people involved in the world being bad are the problem. It’s something that the game developers do encourage and something intrinsic to the world of Harry Potter that sadly cannot be removed, and even in a modern era of Harry’s children going to Hogwarts has remained unchanged. This is the problem with neoliberal ideology in that its placid attempt at viewing inequality in the most karen way possible.
Anyways, it’s an OK game but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t a massive HP fan. More than anything, it reminds me of how much could’ve been achieved if many small things had not gone wrong with where they set the game and how they went about many of the systems they put in place.
Hogwarts is the centerpiece of this game. It is well realized in almost every single way. Any creative thing they could do, they could do it.
The problem is everything else. The first 15h or so are pure bliss, with so many things to find and constant new challenges and interesting quests and lore that really are interesting. The details are just insane when it comes to the first bits of the game and Sebastian’s storyline and Poppy’s to some extent are really great.
But then we get to the goblin storyline, which is really really piss poor. The main quest line is so boring and inane. Ranrok as a villain is so unambiguously evil and has no motivations that are interesting or multifaceted. I don’t even think this is a jewish stereotype type shit that the books are notorious for, it’s mainly just Palpatine level “We have to rule the galaxy because we have to”. There are bits and pieces of world building and character building but it’s half assed and very much “tell, don’t show”. It’s their first game as a company, but when it’s this type of big ass game, I’m just kind of flabbergasted it was this bad.
The world is also kind of nondescript. Outside of Hogwarts, The Forbidden Forest, and Hogsmeade, the world of HL is really just countryside in England with occasional monsters and points of interest. In games like Horizon or other open world games, there are bits of world building snuck into little vignettes or locations that have some sort of in world quality to them that makes them feel more immersive. This kind of has that but it’s usually in the form of notes, and the environments are usually repeated and lifeless. Visual assets in this game are repeated so often it begins to feel like you’re in a hell loop.
And then the combat and exploration…combat I’d say is the most solid and consistently good thing about this game because it does offer a lot of options for wand waving. However, it does start to feel like a shooter when I’m basically casting magic that essentially just pushes, pulls, flips, stops, etc. and function in the same or nearly the same way. It also doesn’t help that terrain doesn’t really vary at all in this game. It is kind of just hilly areas with no cliffs or interesting structures. Transportation is really great, though, and I love the room of requirement and all of its mechanics, etc. I think every aspect there is great.
Puzzles are also a constantly repeated. The pages are cool and there are a lot of genuinely good puzzles like the clock door stuff and various other bits and bobs, but the main ones are treasure vaults, ancient magic stuff, and camps and caves. None of them are all that exciting and repeat motifs with prizes that can be fun but often are just cosmetic. I like it only sometimes, but getting them is usually boring.
Also, the main story quests are really, really bad, usually. They often have nothing to do with Hogwarts and are just you going out to find some kind of ancient magic thing. Most of the story is the MC repeating shit every two seconds, and Prof. Fig just saying, “Oh my God”, or “What does that mean?” which does not make for a very engaging story. People kind of shat on the small side quests, but at least those had some sort of in world ties, the main quest really felt so paper thin and could’ve been condensed to make room for more fleshed out quests in world. Like I paid for the extra dlc bits and the quest for the Hogsmeade shop, and that shit was really freaking great. It was insane how much of a difference in quality there was from that to all of the quests. You essentially fight a poltergeist in a really unique environment and gain a house for it and the ability to free an elf. Like…where was that energy literally everywhere else?
The character quests were good but not great. Sebastian’s was obviously the best, but I couldn’t help but feel there was something held back from all three of the relationship quests. All three of them have a clear arc in mind but Natsai’s development is done in the eleventh hour and Poppy doesn’t change at all. Sebastian’s really is the best and has a really compelling throughline. I’d like to see him thrive and do better for himself in a DLC or something.
Also, everyone is talking about JK Rowling’s involvement in this, and while I don’t like the idea that she’s getting anything off of this, it is inevitable if you want to be a Harry Potter fan at all and for me, it is an intrinsic aspect of my childhood I still find worth something. The trans character in here is unfortunately named but all the characters that mention her and her role in the story is really done surprisingly tastefully. The goblin aspect to her storyline kind of highlights, however, the problem with Rowling’s world in general in its limited view of racism. It’s a “preserve the status quo” type of thing where civil rights activists are comically evil or overzealous and incidences of goblin intelligence or humanity are usually exceptions to the rule. It also pro-ports that the system in place should not be questioned but instead the heads of state or the evil people involved in the world being bad are the problem. It’s something that the game developers do encourage and something intrinsic to the world of Harry Potter that sadly cannot be removed, and even in a modern era of Harry’s children going to Hogwarts has remained unchanged. This is the problem with neoliberal ideology in that its placid attempt at viewing inequality in the most karen way possible.
Anyways, it’s an OK game but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t a massive HP fan. More than anything, it reminds me of how much could’ve been achieved if many small things had not gone wrong with where they set the game and how they went about many of the systems they put in place.