Hogwarts Legacy Gameplay Reaction

Article by Kieran Burt.

A short gameplay trailer has been released for Hogwarts Legacy, teasing several elements of the upcoming open world, from companions to Unforgivable Curses, the enemy variety and the teachers’ players will encounter along their journey.

Taking place in one of the many explorable dungeons, two characters (a stand-in for the player and Sebastian Sallow, one of the many companions), seek to uncover knowledge about Salazar Slytherin in order to defeat the dark magic threatening Hogwarts. Despite the game taking place decades before anything players have ever seen, through the exploration of the lore of the Harry Potter world these games tie themselves firmly into the wider wizarding world. The deeper exploration of lore is bound to give players many opportunities to learn new facts about Hogwarts and its founders, which is really intriguing. Hopefully it will touch on the split between the founders, and expand on it. 

Just like Harry Potter, players won’t be exploring Hogwarts and the surrounding area alone. There are many companions that players can team up with. Sebastian Sallow is just one of many, and he and others will no doubt pull the players into troublesome situations, just like the one shown in the trailer. Sebastian grapples with using Crucio, one of the three Unforgivable Curses to explore a dungeon. Hopefully this teases a moral dilemma for the player. Yes, these curses are available and easy to use, probably quicker than the more complex combat systems, but they come at a cost in other ways.

One of these costs becomes immediately apparent through the course of the trailer. A teacher who has followed Sebastian into the dungeon warns him against using these curses, and then is horrified when Sebastian goes through with it. Hopefully this translates into gameplay ramifications if the player uses one, perhaps enemies will respond in kind and deal more damage, or a morality system comes into play, where Hogwarts teachers become less friendly to the player. There are many directions the game could go with a system like this, which makes it exciting to see what ends up in the finished product.   
This game has a huge number of systems on offer, and this trailer only gives a glimpse of what’s on offer. The trailer shows off a lot with a little, teasing the lore, combat and morality system all in one short clip. Players can jump into this expansive world next February, when the game is set to release.