First announced in 2020, Hogwarts Legacy has kept Harry Potter fans waiting patiently for more details. With Sony's State of Play presentation, players were given a much more in-depth look at the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy, as well as a confirmed release window of Holiday 2022. The open-world game set in the Wizarding World will let players explore the beloved school and its surrounding environments like never before, and with an extended glimpse of gameplay in the newest trailer, many fans are eager to dive into Hogwarts Legacy themselves.
One aspect of the almost fifteen-minute long official gameplay reveal trailer that had fans most excited was the focus on spells and different abilities. As a focal point for Hogwarts Legacy, it's important that the developers really nail the magic–how it feels, how it looks, and how much freedom it should give the players. With a world of extensively established lore already in place, fans of the book series, films, and previous games will already be anticipating using spells like Wingardium Leviosa, Expelliarmus, and Reparo, as well as seeing how the developers have translated them into the game. With so many spells, enchantments, and other magical elements to choose from and feature, it seems like Hogwarts Legacy will give gamers the opportunity to shape their witches and wizards in an almost endless amount of ways.
Harry Potter's Legacy's Magic
Players will not only take on the role of a Hogwarts student throughout the game, but also a student who finds themselves behind their fellows. Starting late as a fifth year, players will have some catching up to do, and this perfectly sets the scene for gamers to learn the ropes and progress their characters through their schedule of classes. Getting their wands, being sorted into their Hogwarts house, and working out which classes they want to excel in will all be part of Hogwarts Legacy's gameplay, as players start to build their characters the way they want. Whether they'll be an ambitious Slytherin with a penchant for Potions or a friendly Hufflepuff with a passion for Charms, Hogwarts Legacy will let players decide.
There will be the classic range of Hogwarts classes, from Herbology to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and players will be able to learn enchantments, offensive and defensive spells, potion-making, plant growing, and more on their journey to becoming a formidable witch or wizard. Things that players learn in the classrooms will help them in the wider storyline of Hogwarts Legacy as they tackle a goblin uprising and a slew of foes including dark wizards and magical beasts. The playable protagonist also has the mysterious ability to use an ancient magic that even their teachers don't understand, and this can also be utilized during combat to take out more powerful enemies.
Hogwarts Legacy: Leveling Up, Combat, And Specializing In Spells
In addition to learning new spells and skills, players can level up their character and choose to specialize in certain aspects to adapt their protagonist to their own unique playstyle. Completing quests and challenges in Hogwarts Legacy will earn players experience, which can be spent on upgrades, talents, and skills that are apparently diverse and deep to provide a high level of customization. These include areas like Stealth to help players sneak around, and Core to improve a player's overall effectiveness. In addition to upgrading their skills and spells, players can also improve the potions and plants that they use in battle.
With an array of both offensive and defensive spells for players to choose from, they can really play the way they want by combining spells for a combo, enchanting or incapacitating, and exploiting the weaknesses of the variety of enemies they will encounter. Gamers can even grow and send out magical plants to distract, swarm, or damage foes on the battlefield, or craft potions to temporarily improve stats or give them other advantages. With so many different approaches to combat, Hogwarts Legacy really lets players customize the way their character fights and faces antagonists.
Hogwarts Legacy has blasting curses, stunning spells, and shield moves to deflect both long-range magic and melee attacks from weapons and beasts. Once enemies are stunned, players can attack with their own combination of spells to lift them from the ground, burn them, or even use objects from their environment to cause damage, to name but a few examples. Players can define their own style and sink experience into upgrades for the spells they prefer to better customize their character. They will even be able to loot, purchase, or create their own magical items and equipment which can also be upgraded to suit their specific needs.
Hogwarts Legacy Character Builds
Harry Potter fans the world over have waited a long time for a truly complex open-world RPG set in the Wizarding World, and the pressure is on for Hogwarts Legacy to deliver. Creating an authentic, in-depth world with characters that feel real and environments that beg to be explored is always a challenge, but Hogwarts Legacy has decades of established stories to pull from. One major problem that it will face is whether or not players feel like they have the proper freedom to create their characters exactly as they want, to not only reflect their playstyle but also the story they want to tell. A competent character creator mode is a start, but that's really only a small part of RPG customization.
The world offers a few obvious opportunities, like players picking their Hogwarts house, which classes they want to specialize in, or what specific wand they'll wield (even if the wand traditionally chooses the wizard, and not the other way around). The sheer variety of spells, from ones that blast enemies away to ones that exploit weaknesses and adopt a stealthier approach, means that players will be able to pick and choose which ones they want to use and (more crucially) how they want to play. From customizing the character to specializing their gear, there appears to be a lot of flexibility for players to create a build that suits them, and how well Hogwarts Legacy pulls this off will be interesting to see.
Hogwarts Legacy is coming Holiday 2022 to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.