Hogwarts Legacy gets one very important thing right: the world, the environment. Recreating the Harry Potter universe from the books and movies is no easy task, and Avalanche Software knocked it out of the park in that department. But there’s one tiny thing that bothers me about this game: the horrible, horrible fashion.
Look, I get it. Hogwarts Legacy is set in the 1800s. I can’t be expecting these olde witches and wizards to all be fashionista trendsetters. They’re not gonna be walking around sporting the latest Louis Vuitton 1850 Spring Collection sets, but come on. This game could’ve done so much better than those accursed dragon glasses, right?
Right?
The facewear options in Hogwarts Legacy might be the ugliest things I’ve ever seen in a video game. Dragon glasses aside, for some reason this game also decided that slapping on a white ceramic mask on your face somehow makes sense. Because, yes, I definitely want to be serving weird Phantom of the Opera vibes in my oversized cloak as I waltz into my Herbology class, while everyone else looks like a perfectly normal student.
I’d initially thought the fashion would get better the further I got into the game, but it does not. Hogwarts Legacy seems content with serving up questionable cosmetic decisions all throughout your adventure, and before I knew it, the rush of excitement I used to get when I picked up a new piece of gear had completely dissipated.
Great, I’d think as I opened another chest with a piece of gear inside. Another goddamn beret to go with my stupid-looking mirror glasses.
It’s not all doom and gloom, of course. Hogwarts Legacy does offer a transmog option to let you cover up the monstrosity you’ve chosen to don on your adventure. As you complete quests and challenges, you unlock new outfits that you can equip to glamor over your gear. This has been a lifesaver, especially since the mishmash of gear you get in the game clash with each other so horribly.
But even then, some of the outfit designs also seem questionable at best. I mean, really. Who’s gonna be walking around the castle in a ridiculous suit of armor?
To make matters worse, it really doesn’t help that Hogwarts Legacy also suffers from poor menu-ing. Each time you equip a new piece of gear, you have to head into the cumbersome menus to transmog it again. Why can’t I just choose to permanently equip a cosmetic outfit, game? Why? Why are we still here? Just to suffer?
Hogwarts Legacy is fun in its own right, but it’s not without its fair share of issues and controversies. But you’d think they’d at least have gotten the fashion right. The clothing choices in this game are an abomination. As Tim Gunn would say, this concerns me enormously.
