Hogwarts Legacy -- 6 hours in with Thomas Lionblood

I've had Hogwarts Legacy on my Steam wishlist for a long time, and last week, I suddenly saw that the price had dropped dramatically with a 75% sale (it should still be 24 hours from the time of posting to pick it up if you're interested). 

Everyone I talked to about the game had high praise, so I sprang because . . . $75 quality game for $15 bucks AND a game with actual "happy dueling" in it? Yes please!

You're a Wizard, Thomas!

Yes, Thomas Lionblood has once more been reborn into this new world!  A couple problems there . . . one, I hadn't been sorted yet and, two . . . DUDE, I forgot to give him blue hair!  Why do I do this all the time when making a new Thomas Lionblood character?!

Weeeeee!

After surviving an amazing dragon attack on my way to Hogwarts with my new buddy Professor Fig (and a quick jaunt to the bank and a magical tutorial island), I was finally at the sorting ceremony. From there I was able to suss out the most necromancer-y school of them all, Slytherin.

I'll show you how snake-like I can be!

A couple of hours into it, I was off to the Hogsmeade Village so I could rectify problem number two with my Thomas Lionblood character. Just a quick trip to the magical salon and, voila, I had my blue hair. NOW we could get down to business.

I hear there's a mod that would REALLY make the blue hair pop . . . hmm

. . . and then the troll attacked and life got extra awesome.  They tried to play it off like Ranrock, the evil bad guy goblin of the story, had set up the whole attack, but let's face it, it had to have been the Medieval Times guard sicced on me by the fashion police.

He's clearly targeting my new blue hair

After managing to dodge the fashion police attack, I was sold on the game. That battle with the troll was the first big boss battle, and it felt great! I loved every minute of it and somehow just scraped by. You have to love that moment when a game solidly hooks you. This was it for me.

I'm now a mere six hours in and have taken several classes and explored a good chunk of the winding maze that is Hogwarts. My book of challenges says I've only done about 10% of what's available. I'll be playing this one for a bit it seems.

Overall, this game is just full of that old-world, English wizard charm. I can't really even begin to explain how cool it is just to walk around in this game. It feels like there's some new artistic touch around every corner: a painting that moves and breathes, a suit of armor that snaps to attention, a new side-quest that opens up for you to explore, and on and on. The devil is in the details.

. . . and yes, you CAN pet the cat.

Currently, I've just finished up exploring a huge cavern full of giant spiders to get to a map room that a ghost had guided me to. It's every bit as exciting and fun as it sounds. Inside, there was a ton of loot, and I'm slowly building my Thomas Lionblood wardrobe.  I love these glasses so much I can't even explain it.

Dueling tournament winner? More like dueling fashion winner!

So there it is, I've yet another fantastic game to play and write about. I couldn't be happier with the purchase. 

Happy Dueling!