It goes without saying that a major part of the appeal of a game like the mysterious Harry Potter RPG comes from the magic, as the bestselling books and the blockbuster movies set in the wizarding world have garnered millions of fans. Although the Harry Potter series isn't short on video game adaptations, some are contentious in quality, but a major Harry Potter game with RPG advancement elements making use of the power of modern consoles is likely to find some success.

However, in a wizarding game with RPG and progressions mechanics, there are a lot of questions worth answering. It's unclear how a player would learn and use magic, and what kinds of magic are available to the player. These questions are especially important for dark magic. What are the odds that players can learn and use spells that are considered taboo in Harry Potter lore? The implications are large, but with rumored titles for the Harry Potter RPG like Hogwarts: A Dark Legacy, dark themes might be built into the plot. Maybe dark magic won't be the purview of the player's enemies forever.

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A Walk on the Dark Side

leaked game footage

It's hard to imagine a scenario where this game doesn't feature magic as the core mechanic that the entire rest of the game is designed around. Players will surely be required to learn and master an arsenal of spells with the help of Harry Potter inspired RPG progression mechanics, and those will be just as useful for things like solving environmental puzzles as they will be for combat. Therefore, allowing players to use dark magic could be a compelling area to explore, letting them gain unique and powerful abilities, but surely at a deep cost.

There are certain dark curses that any Harry Potter fan is familiar with and seem like obvious inclusions in a list of dark spells that a player character might learn. Throughout the lore, they're called the Unforgivable curses. They are the infamous Killing Curse, the agony-inducing Cruciatus Curse, and the mind-controlling Imperius Curse. These are not the limits of dark magic by any means, but they set the precedent for what a dark wizard build in this RPG would look like.

Dark magic for player characters in a Harry Potter RPG would face some significant balance issues. While the Cruciatus and Imperius Curses have obvious and reasonable applications as a damage and crowd control spell and a tactical spell for brainwashing enemies respectively, the Killing Curse is much harder to justify. Any game is bound to lose much of its challenge if a player can learn an attack that instantly kills any enemy. Unless there are some severe costs to using the spell, it seems unlikely that players will be able to solve their problems with a simple 'Avada Kedavra'.

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Confronting Dark Forces

In general, it stands to reason that there would be significant consequences to learning dark magic. Characters in the setting of Hogwarts would undoubtedly have something to say if they saw the player casting an Unforgivable curse. If it's an option for players, perhaps it will involve player decisions at notable story beats where a player can choose to take a dark path, for instance. Multiple endings or unique events based on how much the player dabbles in dark magic might be very interesting if applied via a morality system akin to Fable.

Unless such a system is put in place, it seems more likely that the game will save dark magic for the player's enemies. Harry Potter media has always associated the dark arts with villainy, strongly discouraging their use even to battle evil. Doing otherwise would be a significant departure from the setting's canon. However, until information on the game starts coming from the developers instead of leaks, the possibility can't be ruled out completely. There's always a chance that this game will tell a new kind of story in a well-known world.

The Harry Potter RPG is reportedly in development.

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