Since the reveal trailer dropped at the PS5 Showcase Event in September 2020, Harry Potter fans and gaming site journalists have pored over new information about Hogwarts Legacy. Anticipation is high because this represents the first attempt at a full-blown RPG experience within J.K. Rowling’s world. Delaying the game to 2022 due to COVID-related slowdowns in development seems wise, but we won’t know until release.
We don’t know much right now, but the most relevant and pressing topics are foremost in our minds. The focus is on what will most affect a player’s experience. Avalanche Software has a tall order of expectations from Potterheads that wants to lose themselves in a fantasy world where they can be a Hogwarts student. The answers to these questions may decide whether the game once rumored to be called Hogwarts: Dark Legacy will land on on its face or feet.
10 What We Know: You Can Choose Your House
While there might be something worth saying about the possibility of having the game choose randomly, no one wants to play under a banner they haven’t associated with for years. Competing for house points should reach new heights in Hogwarts Legacy, and it’s something to look forward to (or fight over).
9 Question: Will There Be A Quidditch Mini-Game?
If there’s one thing fans of the series have wanted in a Harry Potter video game, it’s a quality Quidditch experience. Trailers and early leaks suggest this will happen, but nothing seems set in stone at this time. For the moment, fans can only wonder if they’ll get their opportunity to snatch the golden snitch or become the best keeper at Hogwarts.
It’s hard to imagine that Warner Bros. Games would neglect to include this in the franchise’s first open-world title, but stranger things have happened. It’s a shame that a quality Quidditch experience is hard to find, and Hogwarts Legacy is the perfect opportunity to correct that history.
8 What We Know: J.K. Rowling Did Not Write The Story
It’s worth noting that the limited information available about the story focuses on choices and how they will change the Harry Potter universe. If the core concept involves tinkering with the canon through gameplay, she may not have had much interest regardless. With that said, signs point to J.K. having a minimal role in developing the story despite the Warner Bros. president’s protests.
7 Question: How Do Pets Work In Hogwarts Legacy?
Having a pet is essential to any Hogwarts student, so how will the open-world RPG handle choosing one? Everyone knows the acceptance letter states that you may bring an owl, cat, or toad, but what if it wasn’t that way in the 1800s? Considering that fantastic beasts are in the game, can you tame one and make it your best friend?
Hogwarts has a shady history concerning student safety, especially since Dumbledore warns students not to walk on the right-hand side of the third-floor corridor if they don’t want to die. That’s intense for a first-year student, but it’s also worth mentioning that rumors swirl that you will arrive as a fifth-year in Hogwarts Legacy. With that kind of seniority and a hundred years of distance from the story’s start, anything could happen with this RPG.
6 What We Know: Choices Matter And Will Change The Future
The narrator in the reveal trailer states that “The choice you make now will define the legacy of Hogwarts.” While suggestions that you can change the future may sound intriguing, what matters is how it lands while playing the game. Developers have to give us more than a so-so reason to stop doing things like adding floating candles to Minecraft to make video games more Harry Potter-like.
What kind of emotional impact, if any, will Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games bake into decisions made in its 1800s setting? Will the changes that you make in the game feel permanent? Knowing this detail about the game only begs thousands of more questions, but it has great promise, and we can’t ignore that.
5 Question: What Is The Ancient Magic?
The reveal trailer narration says, “A strange and mysterious talent you possess may be the key to unlocking this dormant power.” It’s clear that how you respond to learning about this secret knowledge will change your character and gameplay experience.
Is it possible that you could become more powerful than Harry, Dumbledore, or Voldemort? How did this ancient magic go unnoticed by future generations of witches and wizards? The answers to these questions may make or break the core concept of Hogwarts Legacy, so the answers to come will tell us quite a bit about what to expect from this title.
4 What We Know: The Game Is Set In The 1800s
Hogwarts Legacy happening a century before any of the books could be a significant clue for fans. Critical characters to the magical universe J.K. Rowling created attended the school for witches and wizards during the late 1800s. Dumbledore started attending Hogwarts in 1892, and Grindelwald was a student at the same time at the Durmstrang Institute.
If players have the opportunity to change everything about the wizarding world’s future, the 1800s is the best setting for the game. The noblest of witches and wizards attended their respective schools during this time with Wizard Hitler’s followers. If the red-haired woman in the trailer is a clue as well, Hogwarts is likely to have Weasleys that will join you going to classic and even weird locations fans have wanted to explore.
3 Question: Who Are The Dark Wizards?
Without the haunting specter of fascist racists threatening to kill Harry and overrun the government, who are the baddies? Also, are those basilisk fangs on that dark wizard’s bandolier? Since the reveal trailer dropped in September 2020, fan theories abound about how the dark wizards with skull masks fit into the narrative.
Do these mysterious figures have a connection to He Who Must Not Be Named? Unraveling the threads and dueling wands with these characters needs to give players an enemy to fear out in the wild. Hogwarts Legacy can’t work without a solid structure of enemies to tangle with (literally if Levicorpus is an option).
2 What We Know: Fantastic Beasts Tie-In
Rumors persist that the delay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3 happened due to more than Johnny Depp’s legal woes. The trailer for Hogwarts Legacy implies that discovering and taming creatures will play a role in the game. Warner Bros. Either way, it’s clear that there’s a plan for how to integrate the movie’s release with the open-world RPG.
While it’s exciting to think that Hogwarts Legacy may give players a “Gotta catch ’em all” complex along with other wizarding adventures, it also raises more questions. Will this be a crucial part of the gameplay or a side quest? How does a player benefit other than collecting the Harry Potter equivalent of Pokemon? Only time will answer these questions, but the concept alone raises hope for enjoying this game.
1 Question: What Spells Can You Use?
Will the development team have the freedom to add new spells to the Harry Potter universe? Can players use an unforgivable one, and will it change how people view that character at school? Screenshots from early gameplay show a usual suspect of available spells, but how Hogwarts Legacy approaches this is crucial to its success.
The trailer features a quick shot of a practice target, which may represent a training area for slinging spells, but nothing but rumors exist at this time. The combat system will undoubtedly revolve around this element, so desperate questions need answering in the months to come.
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