Players will have a number of enemies to encounter in Hogwarts Legacy, such as Inferi, spiders, and trolls. It is unknown if Dementors will play a large role as they have only been shown a couple of times, but many of Hogwarts Legacy’s adorable magical creatures have been portrayed in full. These magical creatures include Graphorns, Nifflers, and Kneazles, which can all receive safe refuge in the Room of Requirement’s Vivarium. This was a feature shown during the second gameplay showcase, where players will have an entire enclosure dedicated to caring for creatures.
Besides being incredibly immersive as a nod to Fantastic Beasts, this gives players an opportunity to interact with these creatures closely and learn more about them. But in terms of how this affects gameplay, players will be able to collect resource materials that come from these creatures specifically after they have tended to the beasts in Hogwarts Legacy’s Vivarium. This would suggest that instead of killing these creatures for their resources, like many other open-world games task players with doing, fans will be able to harvest their materials in a much more favorable way in Hogwarts Legacy.
Resource Collection is Often Monotonous in Open-World Games
In many open-world games, players are given a swathe of resource materials they may need in order to craft or upgrade certain items. This is usually used as a way to encourage players to explore areas or encounter enemies in the open world they might not have otherwise, such as if a desired item needs a particular resource that only one enemy type or region offers.
Elden Ring is a fantastic example of this gameplay loop, especially because there are some resource materials that are important and others that are valuable only if players have a particular goal. Smithing stones are highly sought after for armaments, for example, but thin beast bones may be an item that players never need to pick up in an entire playthrough. Crafting opens up a whole new side to Elden Ring that many fans might not care to dive into too deeply, but it is still a fun way to produce consumables and other useful items on-the-go.
Not all crafting items come from killing creatures, but Elden Ring’s docile animals do provide crafting resources if players kill them, making that choice to do so an optional one. Players may not think twice to kill these animals in a game as hostile and unassuming as Elden Ring, but fans would surely be upset if they were forced to kill adorable magical creatures in Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy Lets Players Collect Resources through Magical Beast Care
It is unknown if certain magical creatures will be hostile until players tame them, or if they will be able to mindlessly slaughter these creatures anyhow. Thankfully, players may not need to cast any harmful spell on them to salvage their resource materials. Instead, Hogwarts Legacy’s workaround seems to be having docile animals inhabit the player’s Vivarium in the Room of Requirement.
Here, magical creatures will happily offer their resource materials when players come to tend to them, as shown in Hogwarts Legacy’s second gameplay showcase. This mechanic will likely encourage fans to hoard lots of magical creatures in the Vivarium as soon as possible in order to start autonomously gaining resource stores. Either way, it is a wonderful way for players to interact with friendly creatures and also gamify them in a way that gives them resource materials for the Room of Requirement.
Hogwarts Legacy launches February 10, 2023 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, on April 4 for PS4 and Xbox One, and on July 25 for Switch.