Because of the majestic experience I had during my morning walk along the beach, I decided to do more morning walks for this day. Upon arrival, I already looked around the vicinity (with the help of the ever reliable Google Maps) and so I already had assessed the area if it is pedestrian-friendly. I was very pleased when I saw that wide lane in the middle of the highway which we were able to walk on last night. This was why I was so driven to have my morning walk that day.

It's evident to me that this area is well kept. Looking at the picture, I would think I'm abroad because of how nice (and clean) the pavement was. This city is gorgeous.

And so I spent several minutes walking in this area. It was a calm morning, with just a few joggers and bikers around. There was also none of those busy rush of vehicles along the road. It was the perfect scenery for me to slow down and do some meditative walk.

Upon noticing that the sunrise was getting brighter, I decided to do a U-turn and start my walk back to the hotel.

Slightly sweaty after that walk, I went back to our room to prepare for the official start of our activities. Well, hey, that was indeed a walk to remember. ✨

As a child who has grown up reading the Harry Potter books and watching the films, I have daydreamed more than a hundred times of being a student myself at Hogwarts. I imagined receiving my letter by owl post, being sorted to a house, and participating in classes by learning potions and spells. And now, finally (after a few years of delay from the original launch date), Hogwarts Legacy is finally here to play! Is it worth all the hype? Well, it's a solid YES for me. ✨✨✨

To say that I am hooked on this game is an understatement. 🫥 I'm not proud of this, but I'm borderline being a games addict at this point. 🥲 I would spend hours and hours in front of my computer just playing away. And I suffered some unfortunate consequences, physically and mentally (don't worry, as of this writing, I am already recovering 😉).

As a long-time Potterhead, I'm just so happy that this game finally came out, and that it was actually accessible to me. Honestly, I was a bit skeptical with the game at first. I loved the game trailers, but I took them with a grain of salt because we can't really judge a game based on a few minutes of footage from the trailer, right? Also, there was so much hype about the game, because it is the first of its kind for the franchise. However, I prepared myself to be disappointed. But, oh boy oh boy, I was too quick to judge everything. Where did my faith in humanity go? 😅 As the title says, I have played a full 24 hours on the game (I think even more as of this writing), and I was very much enjoying every moment of the game. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally invested in this game. Well thankfully, I can say now that the honeymoon phase for me for this game is over, and I can get back to being a more responsible adult. 😂 But before that, I want to reminisce how awesome that journey was. Hold onto your brooms, or hippogriffs (or thestrals!), as this is gonna be a hella kind of ride. 😎

Like most peeps, I was looking forward to the game's release. As a Potterhead, this game sure did capture my attention, but I was still undecided if I would purchase the game. I'm not really much of a gamer (I have a handful on my Steam library) and I think Hogwarts Legacy is the most expensive one that I will buy, in case. Well, I don't know what came to me, but at a whim, I checked Steam a few weeks before release date and saw that the game was already available for pre-order. I felt the urge, thought about it (for a few minutes? LOL) and went ahead and bought the Deluxe Edition. 😉After this point, the game became "real" to me, and that was the time that I realized what was about to happen.

The Potterhead in me came alive and I slowly went into fangirl mode. I bought HP-themed highlighters, switched my phone wallpaper to the Hogwarts Legacy promotional poster, and bought a Hufflepuff house poster, thinking I would choose that house for my character in the game (plot twist: I did not get sorted to the badger house). I coincidentally also dug up some of my college stuff and found out that I actually had an HP folder before. I legit forgot about that, and discovering that was just so timely.

Part of the perks of buying the Deluxe edition is the 72-hour early access, which just meant that we Deluxe players would be able to access the game earlier than the general public release date. This didn't really mean much for me (but I bet this is a huge deal for content creators who want to feature the game). For me, I just didn't want to read spoilers online and yeah I admit it... couldn't wait for 3 more days for the release date. 😅

This was also the time that I joined the Hogwarts Legacy subreddit, and that's where I experienced all the buzz and excitement of all the fans all over the world who were highly anticipating the game. Expectedly, I got into their energy flow and just bounced back with the hype, all of us now passionately looking forward to the game.

Lurking on that subreddit, I learned that PC users won't have the pre-download option, so I saw several comments that expressed their frustration on this. I also got a bit disappointed because I knew this would be a huge game, so downloading the game would take some time.  Well, we were in for a surprise. A day before the launch, guess what we found out on the Steam page of the game -- the pre-download button! ✨ Immediately after discovering it on Steam, I went straight to the subreddit and as expected, everyone was in a frenzy about it. 😁PC users were so happy about it. Of course, I went ahead and triggered the pre-download, which completed after a few hours.

And so the day finally came. I wasn't sure what hour the game exactly unlocked for my timezone. I just got up earlier than usual to check if the game was already playable. Well, yes, it finally was. 😍

Still groggy (and I wasn't even wearing my glasses LOL), I went through the first few minutes of the game. It's so surprising how quickly time passed by. Next thing I knew, my work shift was already starting. Yeah, I made the mistake of not taking a vacation leave on this day. 😅 What was my point of having early game access? Oh well, so I reluctantly dropped my controller and went on my day to work. I stayed off Reddit for that time because I didn't want to read spoilers or be distracted from my tasks. 

Finally, the end of my work shift came, and I immediately shifted to gamer mode. I continued where I left off, and... ladies and gentlemen, this was the moment I fell in love with the game. 💖

⚠️ Spoilers alert! You've been warned. 😉

First and foremost, that intro was AMAZING. It was like I was in a movie. There was already a major battle scene, I loved how it played out as the tutorial of the game controls. This was such a creative move from the makers of the game. We are so used to having Harry Potter games that start with receiving your letter (well this game did start on this one) and then going to Diagon Alley to get your wand and other supplies, jumping the Hogwarts train, yada yada yada, we all know the drill, right? But for this one, our main character got to encounter dragons (and see death just a few minutes into the game, that's why we immediately get to see Thestrals), goblins, and huge sentinels of a treasure in Gringotts Bank. The game has such amazing storytelling, I could already tell at this point.

I did not get a "normal" sorting ceremony because I linked my Wizarding World profile and I was automatically sorted to Ravenclaw house. That's when I remembered that Ravenclaw was the latest house I got sorted into. I thought I was in Hufflepuff. Hmm well yes I was under the badger house in my Pottermore account. However that platform was already defunct, and so I just chose to stay under Ravenclaw. One factor that made me stay also is the fact that my Patronus is a black-and-white cat, which I think perfectly suited my current "spirit animal" preferences.

After the sorting scene, things began to feel wacky on the game, because apparently my PC only meets the minimum specs  requirements of the game. I cracked up laughing when the characters began looking like the infamous Hagrid meme.

It took me some time to get the perfect settings to have the smoothest gameplay possible. There were times that I needed to sacrifice performance versus quality of the images rendered to have the best gaming experience. Whenever I was not in battle and was just leisurely strolling around Hogwarts, I will put Texture Settings to Ultra level and I just appreciate how Hogwarts Legacy is such a visually-striking game, and you will be able to appreciate the game as it is, even if you are a newcomer to the Harry Potter Universe.

And this is where the fan in me felt so ecstatic -- going through every corner of the Hogwarts castle felt like I'm a kid and it's my first time in Disneyland. My heart leapt with joy whenever I discovered familiar areas that I saw in the movies. Avalanche Software, the team behind the game, did a fantastic job recreating every detail of the castle. 🏰

Yes, you read that right, we have the feature to fly on a broom (and more ✨). It's very useful especially in traveling to far places in the map beyond Hogwarts castle. First time riding the broom around Hogwarts was magical 🥰, and the music during that part tugged at my heartstrings. As someone who had this unrealistic dream of learning how to fly, discovering this open-world on a broomstick is already a dream come true. 

Our beloved room is present in Hogwarts, and this will play a huge part in the game. The RoR will feel like your headquarters, and you will be spending more time here than sleeping in your room (well our character doesn't sleep anyway). Here, you'll brew potions, grow plants, and take care of magical creatures inside vivariums.

If you've reached this part, and have thoroughly read this post through, you already know at this point how much I'm in love with this game. However, there's something else I discovered that made this game just super special in my heart. My "safe place", the scenery that I have envisioned during my meditation moments, came to life in this game. One of the vivariums was very strikingly similar to the environment that I created in my mind, so I really admired this little coincidence in the game. ✨