Hogwarts Legacy analysis: it’s the Harry Potter game we’ve all dreamed of

There are games that millions of people have been dreaming of for years and years. AND surely one in which you get the letter from Hogwarts and you can get lost in the castle, be selected for one of the four houses, learn spells and fly on a broomstick, It is in the personal top of many people. Hogwarts LegacyHe promised us just that in 2020 and, three years later, we have already been able to play it.

Sets Harry Potter We have had a lot. Each of the films has received video game adaptations, achieving some of them variants of the same plot for various consoles as disparate as PS1, gameboy advance either pc. In fact, that is what happened with The Philosopher’s Stonehe; and they even tried out different genres, such as turn-based RPG in The prisoner of Azkaban for Game Boy Advance.

However, almost none of them managed to achieve what all the fans of the magician with the glasses were looking for. To live Harry’s story we had the books and the movies, and some games that mostly didn’t quite get what we were looking for. What we really wanted was to lose ourselves in the magical world in which he lives, go to class and visit Hogsmeade for the weekend to buy a new cauldron.

And that was perfectly understood by Hogwarts Legacy. Its recent launch trailer is quite a declaration of intent: an owl is looking for the protagonist of the game (we are still the users themselves at the controls), to deliver the letter that accepts him as a Hogwarts student.

What is Hogwarts Legacy and who is the character we play as?

The Portkey Games and Avalanche video game takes us to the end of the 19th century, so we won’t see the mythical characters from the books. However, this is a great decision to create a completely original story to serve as a starting point. It is possible to fill the castle and the surroundings with references, but there is not an excessively rigid continuity to follow.

We will be able to create our student through a character editing system, and after this we will be told that we are a particular case. It turns out that we entered the College of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the fifth year, something tremendously atypical. Also, we are sensitive to Ancient Magic, an expression of power that almost no one can even perceive, and that will move the main plot of the game.

This plot will lead us to explore goblin rebellionthose beings that you will know for being responsible for Gringotts, the wizards’ bank. Ranrokan aggressive leader of this race seeks to go to war with the wizards, and our destinies are intertwined from the very prologue of Hogwarts Legacy.

We have to catch up in class

But back to the topic of the fifth course. This decision, which may seem arbitrary, makes perfect sense for the game. Being behind our peers makes a much more direct progression possible, as well as allowing for a full exploration of Hogwarts and the castle grounds.

As soon as we begin our journey at Hogwarts, we will be provided with a Field Guide. This kind of magical agenda serves as a map, an indicator of where we have to go, a mission journal and much more. But the most interesting thing is that it serves to measure progression.

The Guide is missing sheets, which are scattered throughout the Hogwarts Valley. This will be the main collectible that awaits us in the smaller puzzles and emblematic places. With them, we will discover that the Guide has a reward system for challenges.

By getting a certain number of pages in Hogwarts, we will be given a specific type of clothing. But this also works for things like killing a number of spiders, completing puzzles of a certain type, or broomstick flying challenges. In this way, we can get improvements or cosmetic content.

Also, being in fifth grade, the teachers will give us additional homework. The story will make us go to class potions or of Defense against the dark artsOf course, but they will also give us extra tasks that will unlock the learning of new spells with which we can catch up with our companions.

A very solid open world RPG

Hogwarts Legacy is an open world RPG. Share a lot with games like Horizon Forbidden West, Dragon Age Inquisition either The Witcher. We will have some main missions that will advance the story, a lot of secondary missions that we will get by talking with classmates or inhabitants of the valley, as well as those collection tasks and challenges from the Field Guide.

In addition, between the main missions and the secondary ones, we will have some companion missions. Regardless of the house to which the Sorting Hat sends us, we will have friends in the rest of them. Unlike the secondary ones, these missions will be chains of tasks throughout the entire school year that will address the character arcs of our friends.

It’s a more mandatory type of secondary, if you will, that is making its way into RPGs and that we’ve seen in recent games like Horizon itself, or even Xenoblade Chronicles 3. In Hogwarts Legacy it works perfectly, because just another thing that every Harry Potter fan wants is to make friends at school.

Focusing on progression, it will be possible to level up to improve our student through an experience system, as well as unlock skills through a talent tree and enhance our style of play. Not to mention the equipment, which provides us with additional attack or defense statistics, as well as new aspects for our character. Of course, the game knows us enough to allow us to camouflage all the clothes with the aspects of others, so that we can always go with our uniform.

A gameplay based on combat and exploration

And how is it played? Well, the essential thing you have to know is that at any time we can launch spells, which are used for combat, but are also useful in puzzles. there are the classics Wingardium Leviosa, action either Fire, and a lot more that you will unlock as you play. In fact, it’s possibly the Harry Potter game where you can cast the most spells.

A key part of the game is the combat, which will pit you against other wizards, goblins, and all sorts of magical creatures. In essence, It is a system very similar to the one in the saga batman arkham popularized, with basic attacks that we can launch with our wand, and various alerts on our heads. Some attacks can be defended with Protego, and others directly have to be dodged.

To this we must add the rest of the spells, which have to be selected for our templates of four, and used with the right trigger and the assigned button. In this way, we can make combos as colorful as throwing someone into the air, hitting them in a basic way a couple of times, setting them on fire and making them fall hard to the ground. Oh, and you will see in your game how ancient magic adds even more possibilities.

The combat is snappy, deep enough, and tremendously pretty to look at.. As if this were not enough, we can improve our abilities with potions prepared by ourselves or even make use of plants grown in Herbology that will attack our enemies independently.

And the other pillar of the game is exploration. Here the game is tremendously clever. From the beginning we can go pretty much where we want, but Hogwarts Legacy knows how to dose with its main missions so that we are not overwhelmed by the amount of content available. Because more than quantity, bet on density, especially within the castle walls.

First he will leave you for a few hours in the castle, and you will not complain because it is incredible. The detail with which areas that we have seen in movies and read about in books are recreated is amazing.. When you get to know this place more or less, they will take you to Hogsmeade, the nearby town where you will find all kinds of shops and tasks. And when you start wanting more, you will get a broom with which to explore all the mapping.

Personalization and decision making

One of the issues that worries fans is that there will be no chance to play Quidditch, the cool sport of flying broomsticks from Harry Potter. However, be clear that although that is not there, there are many other things to do. It will take a few hours, but soon you will get access to the room of requirementa completely customizable room that will serve as your operations center.

There you can improve your clothes, prepare potions, grow plants or even have a giant nursery in which to take care of fantastic animals in the style of Newt Scamander. Not to mention that it is possible to customize the floor, the paintings or the furniture completely to your liking. It is an addition that at first does not have many incentives to be exploited, but that will soon gain weight in your game.

The game also has dubbing into Spanish, something that is greatly appreciated. On a technical level, we have encountered some drop in frames at certain times, despite using the performance graphics option. We also ran into a couple of occasions with certain textures taking a few seconds to load. As always, we’ve played a pre-launch build, and updates can always be added from day one.

But that does not tarnish the enormous work at the artistic level of the game. From iconic rooms and classrooms, to Lumo-lit caves, to views of Hogwarts from Hogsmeade, it’s all going to make you want to take screenshots.

After playing Hogwarts Legacy, it is evident that every great franchise would want an adaptation like this. The level of affection that the most remote corner of Hogwarts has is overwhelming, but it is also that we are facing a very solid RPG, with a huge amount of things to do and collectibles to get your hands on.