Topic: Hogwarts Legacy

@Ulysses Flying was my biggest worry, too. But it flies ok. The trees in-game are more simple, and lower count. While both Digital Foundry and Switch Up have performance reviews on youtube, they might omit showing flying. I did find a video with flying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq0Y5tfEoWY

EDIT: I will also note, that a patch came out late december - mid january that helped improve frame rate stability. That patch came out about a month+ after everyone posted performance reviews when it launched on the switch in late November. Although, forgive me for not being to quantify it or put in better context.

There are about 3 or 4 of us here in this thread that have the game, and have been enjoying it. And I don't think any of us have complained about frame rate. I've played it for 60 hours.

I enjoyed Hogwarts Legacy on my PS5, but its a shame there is no version of this game that is complete. Both the PS5 and Switch version have to download files.

I understand it is a big game, but it still sort of blows.

@ShonenJump121 : I don't even think size is an issue. The game is under 16GB on Switch. Some publishers have released budget titles with games requiring such a cartridge. I think it's more the case that WB wanted to rush the game to shelves, and so they pressed an unfinished build to disc/cartridge while they gave themselves time to make the finishing touches between the manufacturing of the physical copies and the time the game actually reached shelves. Pressing the games on lower-capacity cartridges/discs was just a bonus. God, I hate modern AAA publishers.

As for PS5, they have access to 100GB Ultra HD Blu-ray discs (there's a lower 66GB tier as well).

@ShonenJump121 Normally I would grumble internally because they're too cheap to use a cartridge size > 8GB. But I think for this particular game the additional download is a good thing. This is not Nintendo: the game needs lots of fixes. These games have quality issues on initial release. Check out the list of fixes in the 12/12/23 update:

https://portkeygamessupport.wbgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/239...

Would you want to play without those fixes?

Consider also the stuff you get in the 6/5/24 update:

https://portkeygamessupport.wbgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/295...

That "little" update is a 2.4GB download on its own.

@cwong15 I don't know how it runs now, but I remember on PS5 even after some updates the game still had some sluggish issues especially with framerate.

Its also one of the only games I've had straight up crash on me, I had about two crashes during my entire playthrough. With that experience I have no idea how it runs on Switch since even on PS5 it had noticeable issues.

@ShonenJump121 If you have a PS5 and have played the game through, I don't see why you would be interested in how it performs on the Switch. This game should be experienced on the big screen, IMHO.

Anyway, on my part I have logged 80+ hours on this game on the Switch, and performance has not been a problem. They obviously had to downgrade graphical fidelity to make this playable on the Switch. Given that, I find it quite playable and never noticed framerate issues. I'm on my second playthrough right now, and I'm looking forward to the formerly PlayStation-exclusive sidequest that just became available.

@cwong15 It would've been nice to have it portably for a second playthrough as a different house since I've already experienced it once before.

@cwong15 Are you choosing a different house for the second playthrough? I only did Gryffindor.

@WoomyNNYes Yes, definitely. IMHO a change of house should be part of a replay. You have exclusive access to the house common room which looks quite different for each house. Slytherin's room is under water. There's a section in the early part of the main story that is different for every house. IMHO the Slytherin variant (my current playthrough choice) was lame. It was only as a Hufflepuff that I got to visit Azkaban, which was way more cool.

Another potential variation is to change your character's sex, since it alters the outfits you wear. There was a sidequest that offered a witch's outfit as a reward, but that outfit was mostly unusable for my (male) character.

This time round, I will try the other ending for Sebastian. And since I only have a Switch, this is my chance to do the now-available Haunted Hogsmeade quest.

@cwong15 Oh, that's right. I thought read that Hufflepuff is the only house that has a Azkaban quest. Thanks for the tip!

Does the game have some sort of quiz or “ceremony” to give you your house, or is it just a plain <pick one yourself> thing?

If I eventually get this, it’d be fun to just let the game assign me one.

reckon I'll get this around Halloween.

@Eel The answers to your house selection questions are both "yes". There is a Sorting Ceremony. The Sorting Hat will have an opinion. But if you remember your Harry Potter, you'd know that the student's wishes will override the Sorting Hat's. This game is faithful to that tradition.

@cwong15 ah then you can have it both ways, that’s good to know, thanks.

I have to say, after spending time with this game on Switch, it's pretty impressive what they've managed to do. I think the visuals here are better than Xenoblade 2, for reference - shows how far games can come on a console within a generation of learning how to squeeze power out of the hardware.

To me, when playing docked at least, it's evident the devs made the choice to go for a smoother framerate over the visual fidelity, and for an action adventure title like this, I think that is the correct choice. If the visuals were a little sharper but the input felt sloppy/choppy, it would ruin the game for me. But the way it is, the camera and movements feel smooth, you just have to get over the blurred visuals.

@rallydefault Yeah I agree I was very impressed. As an older gamer I'm more on the side of fun than visuals. While I do agree visuals and just not being a broken game are important in the end it's all about how fun a game is. I had a lot of fun with this game to where anything regarding graphics went out the window from the start.

@Ganner
Agreed. And there are still some very pretty sights to see even with the Switch visuals. The first time I was in the Ravenclaw common room, for instance, was still super beautiful to look at.

I was actually quite surprised by how smooth the camera and the inputs felt when I first started playing. For anyone who played Crash Bandicoot 4 on Switch, I was expecting not only the blurred visuals but a bit of the input lag/choppiness that plagues that game on Switch.

I think they did a great job with immersing you in the wizarding world. Not all the details need a powerful console. You have the moving stairs, the moving portraits, the ghosts and armor, howlers and other little details that are plot-irrelevant but makes the world feel alive. All this is there on the Switch, and the game remains responsive and smooth. This is the first RPG I've played where every single word of dialog is fully voiced, including all side quests and background chatter. You could turn off subtitles and just hear rather than read your way through the entire experience.

I wonder how long we have to wait for an upgraded version of Hogwarts Legacy to come to Switch 2? Even though I tolerate the switch version of Hogwarts, I'm really looking forward to an upgraded version.

Been thinking about a new playthrough with a different house (granted, the different houses only yield a few differences, as I understand it)

@WoomyNNYes While I agree with you it would be great to have an upgraded version of a game when new hardware releases however there's not much to go on to know if it's even a possibility. To my knowledge it doesn't happen very often besides a select few here and there. Being that it was a huge seller I'd say it has a chance but I'm not betting on it. It's already been announced that a sequel was in the works so I'd assume they'd put their resources towards that. You never know though so we'll have to wait and see. Would be cool since I loved that game. I'm hoping they add in more arena and/or a survival mode of some sort. The combat was always so exhilarating at times.