Xenowars | Defense, Dungeon, And Dung
Hogwarts Legacy | Haunted Hogsmeade And More
With a bunch of rumors circling the Hogwarts Legacy universe, I thought I'd drop in. All the exclusive content has been added to PC and other platforms for a while. I also wanted to see if anything cool was added to the game as well.
No shock when I first logged in was the barrage of new rewards. Everything from the exclusives that were on other platforms and the stuff it looks like they added in for those that beat the game. For the most part, it was cosmetic items.
I also now have access to the Haunted Hogsmeade Shop quest which was the real reason I returned to the game. It was around the time of Halloween and I was in a spooky mood for such a thing.
I first needed to go talk with a house elf who was not willing to tell me the truth about what was going on for the Haunted Hogsmeade Shop quest. I started to get a funny feeling rather quickly that I could not just become an owner of the shop by forking over 1,500 coins.
While there I thought I'd play around with the photo mode that was added in. It can be accessed in the menu by pressing K on the PC. It’s 2024 and I don’t know why all games don’t have such a mode. Along with a bunch of settings you can change. It allowed me to get the perfect camera angle I wanted. This would have been a feature I used a lot of the game just came out and I was about to create a lot of content on it. It however is better late than never for such a feature. I’ll still have some fun with it anyway.
As you can see the shop, I'm looking to acquire is all boarded up. There was quite a tail behind what was going on here. The two people I'd be speaking with the house elf Penny and Cassandra Mason were not going to be telling the truth about this place.
Once I was done talking with the elf I went up the road to Cassandra Mason's house to have a chat about acquiring this place. She offered me quite a strange deal. At only the cost of 1,500, I could buy the place. She was also willing to buy it back if things didn’t work out for me at a reduced price. That set off quite a few red flags for me.
She also asked a small favor of me getting some of her husband's stuff out of a chest in the back room. I had a funny feeling that is where this adventure would start to take off.
First, however, the shop was a total mess for some reason. I was told the former person who tried to buy it left it in quite a mess. I also got the hint this was not the first time this place was this badly trashed.
I ended up going around casting a couple of repair spells to clean the place up. The house elf then worked on scrubbing the floor. She looked quite guilty and nervous for some reason.
There was only so long I could put off going to the back of the shop and retrieving Cassandra Mason's husband’s stuff. Was I shocked to open it to find it led down to a dark spooky dungeon that was haunted by a ghost? Not at all. I might have been a bit disappointed if it had not.
This place was at least worth the wait. It was like a haunted mansion. Complete with expanding and decreasing spaces, spinning rooms, smoke, and being a maze. I ended up wandering around a bit following any door that suddenly unlocked in front of me.
For some added once in a while random floating objects would soon at me like projectiles that I'd try and quickly take out with a spell. It also felt like there were these creepy manikins that were following me around. Once in a while they would come to life and try and kill me.
After wandering around for a bit it became clear I was not alone down in the dungeon under the shop. There was a ghost controlling the whole thing. Cassandra Mason's husband Fastidio was behind it all and waiting for her to send down yet another victim for him to play with.
I would end up chasing after him for the rest of the time I remained down in this dungeon. He ended up turning the place into a little fun house with a bunch of puzzles that needed to be solved. Along with a few areas where things tried to kill me.
This place was also filled with quite a few jump scares. Things were a bit creepier than anything else. Thankfully I could use my wand for light as that was quite needed in a few sections of this dungeon.
Quite a few of the puzzles revolved around me finding handing lights and moving them over to these handstands. Usually, I had to work out puzzles on left and right-side offshoots of a room. With each one yielding one light as part of the key to move forward.
Thankfully none of the puzzles down there were that hard. As I was returning to this game after a long break I was quite rusty. I ended up opening my spell book and doing my best to recall what was used for what.
This place was amazing to explore around and deal with the different puzzles. More than once I thought this must be the end of the dungeon and then things and sometimes the room would twist a bit and it would keep going on.
At last, after a decent amount of fun, I made it to the end. Fastidio who was expecting me to become crazy like all the people before me had nothing left to toss at me. He ended up going into an agreement with me allowing me to operate the shop with only limited hauntings by him.
After learning many before me met quite cruel fates. I went back to confront Cassandra Mason about it. She had other plans in mind. After a bit of a duel, I ensured that where she was being sent this would never happen again to anyone by her.
Final Thoughts
I now have my little shop and an elf who will manage it for me. It’s a shame I did not get to unlock this when it naturally becomes a quest. As I am now just one last quest from the game ending yet again.
It was at least fun to return to the game yet again. Afterward, I went around taking some photos and playing with photo mode.
I am also quite excited about the many rumors around this game. While I'm sure it will be quite some time before a Hogwarts Legacy II or some added content. I at least had this waiting for me to work on.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Hogwarts Legacy.