At PlayStation's latest State of Play, Avalanche Studios finally gave Harry Potter fans a look at Hogwarts Legacy. Everything revealed about Hogwarts Legacy makes it look like the dream game for fans of the franchise. Players will be able to explore a fully realized Hogwarts and attend classes to learn magic. They will also be able to explore the Hogwarts grounds and even take a trip to Hogsmeade. It is the Harry Potter game that fans have been waiting for, though something is missing.
Hogwarts Legacy will whisk players off to a late 1800s Hogwarts. This is years before Voldemort killed Harry Potter's parents, before Dumbledore became headmaster, and before even Grindelwald walked the Earth. While this time period allows for Avalanche to tell the Harry Potter story it wants to tell, it means that fans of the franchise will not be able to interact with the characters and locales they have grown to love over the years, and that is a huge missed opportunity.
The Story of Hogwarts Legacy
The story of Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the late 1800s. The player character, who is fully customizable, joins Hogwarts as a fifth-year student. They have to uncover a weird new form of magic that they seem to be able to utilize. The player is able to explore Hogwarts and learn magic, and they can venture outside the castle grounds through a large and expansive world. At some point, the player character will be tasked with preventing a goblin rebellion; a story thread that has been considered problematic by some.
Not much is known about where the story will go or what Harry Potter characters it will involve. Avalanche Studios has said that the goblins will work alongside dark wizards and that there will be plenty of conflict throughout the game. Players will have to uncover a hidden truth in the world, but who hid the truth and what the truth is are unclear. The game will also apparently feature a morality system of some kind which will allow players to become a dark wizard if they so choose.
The story and mechanics seem like they will help flesh out the history of the Wizarding World. Fans of Harry Potter who are interested in the backstory of the world will probably be thrilled with the story being told here, as they get to shape the history of Hogwarts. However, the choice to tell a story in the late 1800s instead of during the Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts storyline could hurt many fans' enjoyment of the game.
Hogwarts Legacy Feels Lacking Without Harry Potter
Harry Potter fans have been engrossed in the Wizarding World ever since The Sorcerer's Stone was published in 1997. The franchise has grown to include seven Harry Potter books and eight films, as well as a prequel series called Fantastic Beasts and a sequel play called The Cursed Child. Fans have grown attached to many of the characters and professors; from the main trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione to lesser known characters like Peeves. Many fans have dreamed of attending the classes of Professor Snape or Flitwick, and playing Quidditch against Draco and the rest of Slytherin.
Hogwarts Legacy will allow players to explore Hogwarts and be a student in the Wizarding World, but it will not allow players to encounter the majority of Harry Potter characters. The story takes place a century before Harry Potter was born, and more than thirty years before Newt Scamander's adventures. This means that players will not be able to hang out in Hagrid's Hut, be taught herbology by Professor Sprout, or get chased through the halls by Filch and his cat. Instead, they will encounter new characters and professors during their journey through Hogwarts.
Though crafting a Harry Potter story with brand-new characters allows Avalanche Studios to tell its own story that is not tied down by the events of Harry Potter, not having large connections to Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts will put off many fans who just wanted to hang out at a Hogwarts headmastered by Dumbledore. There are some characters that will appear, like Nearly Headless Nick, but the major players of the old story will be absent - something that is a missed opportunity for the game.
Fans who are looking to attending Hogwarts during Harry Potter could play one of the various titles based on the films or even check out LEGO Harry Potter. Hogwarts Legacy seems to be the most advanced and expansive Wizarding World game that the franchise has gotten, and does seem like the perfect title for fans of the franchise, but it just feels lacking without larger connections to Harry Potter. Fortunately, that could still be rectified.
There is Still a Chance for Harry Potter Connections
While the story of Hogwarts Legacy will not allow for any large connections to Harry Potter, post-launch updates and DLC could. Avalanche Studios constructed a fully realized Hogwarts for its story, and it could use that to create Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts stories. These could be simple quests that let players explore some iconic rooms or set up various Harry Potter storylines, or it could be a larger expansion that connects more to Harry Potter.
These post-launch updates do not necessarily have to include Harry Potter characters, as that would be difficult unless Avalanche wrote a time travel plot or crafted a separate story from the main campaign. Avalanche could release a Triwizard Tournament expansion where players participate in the iconic tournament that Harry Potter competed in during Goblet of Fire. It could create a Quidditch-centric story where players get to watch and participate in the Quidditch World Cup that was seen in that same film. Players could even take a trip to the Ministry of Magic or Diagon Alley. As suggested above, Avalanche could just create a Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts story, too, as it would not be the first studio to create DLC that is disconnected from the main game.
Regardless, Hogwarts Legacy looks to be the perfect game for Harry Potter fans. Finally, they will be able to explore Hogwarts and attend classes in the Wizarding World, and though lack of connections to Harry Potter makes the game feel like it is missing something, Avalanche can easily rectify that if it wants to release some compelling post-launch DLC. Further, much of the story of Hogwarts Legacy is still shrouded in mystery, so maybe those connections already exist and Avalanche is just waiting to surprise fans.
Hogwarts Legacy is coming Holiday 2022 to Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S/