This was supposed to be released in February, but life distracted me. So I’m releasing it today as a free post to everybody! Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing some other photographs I took last week on my walk to and from City Hall for Patreon subscribers. If you like the post, please feel free to subscribe to my Patreon for short stories, poetry and photography.

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Well, this was intended for February, but I got caught in a depression pit full of devil’s snare.

But aside from crawling my way out by recommitting myself to writing and sharing a metric fuckton of Harry Potter memes to my friends on the internet, I also played Hogwarts Legacy like a junkie with the world’s last kilo of pure cocaine.

And while I’m pretty sure J.K. Rowling wouldn’t like that I compared her fantasy universe to an illicit substance, I have also excised J.K. Rowling’s opinions from my personal admiration for the universe. Death of the Author is pretty handy in this regard¹, and the idea of a magical boarding school, somewhere in the north of Scotland is just a fun setting. There’s a lot of whimsy to be had in a Hogwarts setting.

And Hogwarts Legacy finally delivers on that whimsy in such a way that makes sense. I know I’m like, two years late on this, but this is truly a game that I wish I could play all over again for the first time.

Not that I can’t play the game again and enjoy the slight twists in the story, but the power fantasy has been achieved.

I was Benjewick Kettleman, the exemplary Hufflepuff. A prodigy of Herbology and Potions class, an expert flier, a friend to all magical creatures, a master of fashioncraft and drippery and your secret Felix Felicis plug. Plus a damn fine interior designer, if I don’t say so myself.²

There are certain things I don’t like. The open-world gameplay mechanics are a bit old-fashioned and the scale of certain locations are all out of whack. Seriously, the Forbidden Forest should be absolutely massive. Moreover, the potioneering, herbology and beast taming aspects of the game are a bit limited. Also, no Quidditch? What the fuck?

It all adds up to a well-worn adage of critique: “wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.”

But the game cures that by asking really simple questions:

1. Can we make it fun to go to class and learn a new spell?
2. Can we make it fun to fly on a broom or the back of a Hippogriff around the Hogwarts grounds?
3. Can we make it fun to throw goblins into the air, freeze them solid and then slam them back down to earth?
4. Can we make it fun to cast a disillusionment charm, sneak into a castle ruin and then throw flesh-eating cabbages at unsuspecting poachers?

Hell yeah they could.

Make no argument; this is the definitive Wizarding World game. If one wanted to go “live” in that world, this would be the game to do it. Don’t take it from me, take it from the countless ambient soundscape videos online that use this game as the template.

And after completing Hogwarts Legacy to a level that I rarely complete most games³, I can honestly say: I will never pick this game up again, but I can’t wait for the sequel.

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Hello there! I appreciate you taking the time to read this Patreon Exclusive. As you know, I’m working on growing the Casual Ramble but I need your help. If you like my writing, I would love it if you gave it a like and a share. (Make sure to tell people the password!) These actions go a long way to increase reach on WordPress and help more people see what’s happening in this little corner of the internet. Thank you regardless if you’ve read this far, you’re the champ of this blog–not me.

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1 I don’t subscribe wholesale to “Death of the Author” theory, as I believe an author’s upbringing and social environment undoubtedly affects how they write, and they have a right to the natural artistic instinct to explore their universe outside of a narrative. But when an author speaks on a topic or acts in someway separate from their narrative universe with or without care, I try my best to separate that from the work. I think it’s only way one can enjoy a piece of media without being struck down by the morality of that enjoyment. The response I have cultivated, thus, is to identify with the work, not the author, while still identifying how the author has put themselves within their work.

2 Most of my game time (over 30 hours) was spent designing and then redesigning little personal base in the Room of Requirement. Some of this was needed. Some of this was demanded by the game constantly screwing up my setup by adding new spaces. I get that as the game went on, it needed to increase in size to allow me to fit in more decorations, but it felt like every other moment I finished a quest for Deek, I had to spend another two hours re-configuring the whole space!

3 I hit every page of that Hogwarts Field Guide. Every page, Professor Weasley.