A video showing Hogwarts Legacy next to an old Harry Potter game shows just how far the industry has come in the intervening years. Hogwarts Legacy is looking great, certainly from a visual sense. But it can be easy to take such impressive modern graphics for granted, especially as technical improvements become more and more granular. At least until something like this puts the difference into stark, even jarring contrast.
The extensive list of Harry Potter video games begins long ago, in 2001 with the arrival of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which saw separate versions release simultaneously on Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Windows, and PS1. Since then, fans of the franchise have been treated to dozens of games, including the many mobile titles. Most entries earned middling reviews at best, many being regarded as film adaptation cash-ins.
But as Hogwarts Legacy nears its release date, it seems to be bringing with it a shift in the public's perception of the franchise's games. It looks great, and fan expectations are high. One such expectant fan and TikTok creator has done a side-by-side comparison of Hogwarts Legacy and a 2004 Harry Potter game, and it shows how times have changed. Judging by the year, the clip, shared by TikTok user LookinAzz, most likely uses Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which released that year on PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.
The mirrored shots are only a few seconds long, and give viewers a look at Hogwarts Castle in the background before panning right to take in the view of a nearby lake. The player character, Harry Potter in the 2004 version, is on the left in the foreground. Interestingly, though the graphical disparity is jarring, the actual layout of the Hogwarts grounds and the castle itself are strikingly similar, at least in this quick sequence. This is despite evidence that the Castle of Hogwarts Legacy will not be the one audiences know now. Regardless, the location in the clips are nearly identical.
Commenters on the video debate which version looks better, and revel in nostalgia over the old games. Nostalgia aside however, It's hard to compare the questionable gameplay and clunky-even-for-their-time graphics of the early entries with the open-world Hogwarts Legacy which, if hopes are realized, could be one of the standout games of the year.
Whatever the final product's quality ends up being, it's certain that it will look much better than the previous titles. That, at least, is something fans can be grateful for.
Hogwarts Legacy is available February 10 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. It releases April 4 on PS4 and Xbox One, with a Switch port available on July 25.