Credit: Warner Bros.As we get closer to the release of Hogwarts Legacy (2023), we’re learning more about what the open-world game will offer. Recent months have seen the unveiling of trailers, Hogsmeade Village quests, and more recently, a 45-minute Hogwarts Legacy gameplay showcase.
Hogwarts Legacy is a character-driven game, in which you can forge your own destiny at the titular school in the late 1800s. The path you choose will either see you become a good witch or wizard, or a dark one, not unlike Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort or Gellert Grindelwald.
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The showcase revealed many aspects of the game’s highly detailed character customization, and featured an exploration of a very impressive Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was also revealed that the game has different endings.
During the showcase, Hogwarts Legacy director Alan Tew commented about the game’s ending, saying “different interaction with different characters can also offer different choice points for the player, and then some of those can affect things game-wide; some of these affect characters’ lives, the ending of the game.”
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While this comes as no surprise, given that many open-world titles feature multiple endings, which usually depend on all the choices the player makes — whether they relate to particular missions or non-playable characters — this brings a new level of excitement to the game.
As the future of the Wizarding World faces uncertainty, with Warner Bros. recently hinting that the Fantastic Beasts franchise will not be continuing, perhaps suggesting a major reset of the Harry Potter franchise altogether, many fans will be thrilled to know that they’ll be able to control the outcome of the next major installment.
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Previously, some Harry Potter fans have threatened to boycott the game on its release, due to all the controversy surrounding JK Rowling. Fortunately, these fans represent a small minority.
The Wizarding World creator hasn’t been directly involved with the making of Hogwarts Legacy, though, but the developers have collaborated with her to ensure the game falls in line with established Wizarding World lore. With that said, the game is not considered canon with the Harry Potter books or movies.
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Though the last two Fantastic Beasts movies were huge disappointments, the upcoming open-world game is set to please many Harry Potter fans (the only thing you you can’t do in the game is play Quidditch). But if you can’t contain your excitement until February 10, in the meantime you can pick your Hogwarts house before the game is released.
As per the official Hogwarts Legacy website, here’s the synopsis for the game:
Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. For the first time, experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Now you can take control of the action and be at the center of your own adventure in the wizarding world. Your legacy is what you make of it.
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Hogwarts Legacy is one of many upcoming open-world titles based on major blockbuster franchises. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (TBA) is due out some time next year (possibly 2024), and there’s even an open-world Star Wars video game in the works.
Hogwarts Legacy will be released on February 10, 2023, on all major gaming platforms — Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch version release date, however, “will be revealed soon” according to Portkey Games.
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What path will you choose in Hogwarts Legacy? Let us know in the comments down below!