Like many, I’ve been waiting for a truly excellent Harry Potter game since I was in the third grade. In that time, we’ve gotten some respectable LEGO Potter games, an underwhelming EA Sports Quidditch game for some reason, and even suffered through the fevered nightmare that is Harry Potter Kinect. But none of these has come close to fulfilling that fantasy of receiving a Hogwarts admission letter that opens the door to a secret world. With Hogwarts Legacy, I’m happy to say that we finally got a Harry Potter game that captures some of that magic. Its open world map absolutely nails the vibe of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it has spellcasting combat that’s stupefyingly good, the characters that inhabit it are charming and unforgettable, and it is positively brimming with countless diversions to soak up dozens of hours of your time. It may not be the most impressive technical achievement and it is certainly cursed with a lack of enemy variety, but none of Hogwarts Legacy’s issues can cast a Descendo charm on this triumphant visit to the Wizarding World.

Right in line with most Harry Potter tales before it, Legacy’s plot has more holes than a fishnet stocking and sorta just expects you to accept that its magical world makes no sense. This mystical third-person action-adventure RPG begins with you transferring to Hogwarts as a fifth-year witch or wizard (for unexplained reasons) to do everything from attending classes to fighting giant spiders with a magical stick to flying around on a hippogriff. The fantastic character creator has plenty of options for you to craft your ideal witch or wizard (apart from a fairly limited voice selection), and as soon as you do they’ll immediately become entangled in a conflict between the Wizarding World and an evil goblin. On top of that, because being in a secret society of wizards is apparently not exciting enough, you soon discover that you’ve got some freaky super-charged magical abilities that allow you to do extra cool stuff that also isn’t really explained.

If you’re like me, you’ll roll your eyes during moments when you’re introduced to 100 years’ worth of dead characters lecturing you from paintings about the importance of some stuff that happened a long time ago and how you have to save the world or whatever. But once that’s over with Legacy mostly redeems itself with a fantastic cast of non-painting characters that help boil things down into a not-too-convoluted good-guys-versus-bad-guys conflict that ends up being an enjoyable tale, even if it's not particularly profound or original.

The characters you’ll spend most of your time with are the classmates who will befriend you on campus, accompany you on certain quests, and help you hone your abilities as a magic user. Most are memorable and instantly endearing, like Sebastian the cocky and morally pliable Slytherin, or Natsai the clever and unflappable Gryffindor, and spending time with them and improving your social links through their relationship questlines made my stay at Hogwarts all the more enjoyable.

Even better, though, is the world itself, which is just packed with nearly everything I wanted in a Potter game and more. You’ll find yourself exploring Hogwarts’ stone-cobbled halls and secret passageways, flying around the Forbidden Forest on a broomstick, and exploring dark caves lit only by the glow of your Lumos spell. The developers at Avalanche have so brilliantly captured the look and feel of the Wizarding World that I was amazed at just being there, no matter what trivial errand they had me wrapped up in.

As someone who finds the wand-whipping combat in the movies fairly dull, I was very concerned about Hogwart Legacy’s ability to keep my attention after slinging spells for dozens of hours, but I can admit when I’m wrong – the combat is fantastic, challenging, and utterly captivating. There’s a lot more to it than shooting balls of light out of a stick! Instead, the trick is in dodging and countering enemy attacks while pulling off creative combos. For example, you can pull enemies towards you with Accio, light them on fire with the close-range Incendio, then blow them away with the explosive Bombarda spell. Chaining together abilities to make your opponents look like complete fools never stops being amusing, especially as you unlock talent tree perks that enhance your skills with modifiers that make your elemental spells fork to nearby enemies or transform into AoE attacks.

In nearly every way, Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter RPG I’ve always wanted to play. Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours. It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.