What we know about Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is a single-player open-world action role-playing game, part of the Harry Potter saga, which is scheduled for release sometime in 2022 or 2023. It is being developed by Avalanche Software, known for titles such as Disney Infinity.

The videogame is set in the 19th century, an era little explored in the magical world, and will follow an original story of which few details are known, although several theories are circulating on the Internet. This would be the first game in the magical world that would not follow the events of the books published by J.K. Rolling and would tell an original story.

It has been confirmed that Hogwarts Legacy will be for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S Series and Microsoft Windows, although the game requirements for the latter are not known. Decision making is handled throughout the title, which has become very popular in recent years, but it is not known to what extent these influence the development of the story.

Development of Hogwarts Legacy

It was in 2017 that the company Warner Bros Interactive acquired the rights to create Harry Potter video games from Disney, and the same year created a division called Portkey Games that had as one of its main objectives the development of a video game set in the magical world.

Although, in 2018 the creation of Hogwarts was leaked in a Reddit post, where a teaser with an extensive character creation was included, it was not until 2020 that an official exhibition of the title was shown as it would be the gameplay and its graphics.

Not many details have been given about the development process that the game has had, but Warner has already confirmed that J.K. Rowling will not be involved in the development of the game, but the president of the company, David Haddad, admitted that she will obviously get the income she is entitled to as the creator of the franchise and admits that “she has the right to keep her opinions”, so there are things in which she could confess her annoyance.

Originalmente, el título tendría que haberse estrenado en algún punto del 2021, pero debido a problemas relacionados con la pandemia Portkey Games tuvo que retrasar su fecha de estreno de Hogwarts Legacy para el 2022.

What to expect from Hogwarts Legacy?

It has been promised that the title will be a fully immersive title that will allow the player to delve into the magical world, learn more of its mythology, and explore Hogwarts in its entirety.

It was confirmed that players will be able to explore other locations besides Hogwarts such as the Forbidden Forest or Hogsmeade Village, so many believe that other iconic areas such as Diagon Alley or Platform 9 ¾ could appear as well.

One thing that has already been confirmed is that there will be no appearance or mention of Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Voldemort, nor will there be any direct references to their actions. Although, there has been rumored some kind of cameo of young Albus Dumbledore arriving at the school, Gellert Grindelwalt or even Nicolas Flamel.

Nothing has been said about the graphic speed it will have, the minimum requirements it will need to run on a PC, or the level of detail that the characters will have. But, seeing the Hogwarts Legacy trailer and knowing that the game will be released for last generation consoles, it is estimated that these can be quite high.

Hogwarts Legacy gameplay

About the plot of Hogwarts Legacy, it has been said that the main character possesses a secret related to Ancient Magic, and will have to make a decision about whether to protect this power, or whether to experiment with the dark magic he possesses.

The latter, seems to go hand in hand with what was said with DC Allen, one of the screenwriters of Hogwarts Legacy, who published a Twitter where he stated that it would be possible to assassinate practitioners of dark magic, although he had to delete this comment later. If true, the game would be rated 16+.

It is known that the player will be able to customize his character, from his physical appearance, his gender, even being able to choose a transsexual character, the type of body, his voice, and even the house to attend, which is not known if it will be possible to change the option once the story is advanced. Likewise, it is not known if Hogwarts Legacy follows a linear story, or if the decisions made will change the course of events.

As can be assumed, the player will have the opportunity to attend classes to learn spells, earn points for the Hogwarts Cup, play Quidditch matches, prepare potions, fly on brooms, face other wizards and magical beasts, or tame the latter if desired.

It is not known how many hours of gameplay Hogwarts Legacy has, but it has been said that there will be several side quests that can be completed apart from the main story, which can be unlocked by talking to other students, teachers and so on.

Hogwarts Legacy Theories

Since the game was announced, Potterheads didn’t wait long to post their wildest theories about what the game will be about, what impact it will have on the Harry Potter franchise, either explaining things they mentioned in the books or affecting future projects related to the magical world in the long run.

Although the most logical thing is to think that nothing that happens in Hogwarts Legacy will have any kind of long-term repercussion for not having J. K. Rowling as the main creative master, if the project is to the author’s liking, it is most likely that she could declare it as something canonical and use it for her future books, in case she makes more, similar to what happened with Harry Potter: The Cursed Child.

Characters from Hogwarts Legacy that may appear in Hogwarts Legacy

As we have mentioned before, there are few characters that may appear in Harry Potter and Hogwarts Legacy, due to the era where it is set, although there are many more who may make an indirect appearance. For example, some ancestor of the Weasley, Malfoy and Potter family could appear, or even have an important role.

On the other hand, the game is also a good opportunity to introduce magic users who have not had the relevance they deserve, such as time-turners or seers.

Game villain

Continuing with the line of characters that may appear, one of the best-hidden secrets has been the identity of the possible main villain of Hogwarts Legacy, as many Potterheads point out that an important character from magical mythology could have his official appearance in this title.

While, there are many options, it is believed that the main villain would be Loxias, who was the wielder of the Elder Wand during the 19th century; and much of his life is unknown except for his coldness against those who opposed his will.

Another popular theory is that the villain of Hogwarts Legacy will be Owle Bullock, a magical being, whose sex is unknown, who discovered how to create a horcrux and wrote down the instructions in the book “Secrets of the Darkest Arts”, where Lord Voldemort would later find it.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that Hogwarts Legacy does not have a single villain, but that the protagonist must face multiple evils throughout the story that will trigger a line of unfortunate events, or, alternatively, that the directors will create a villain specifically for this title.

The magic secret

One of the things that most surprised audiences who saw the Hogwarts Legacy trailer was that students were apparently allowed to use magic outside of school despite the fact that this is something that is strictly forbidden, and has been penalized multiple times in the Harry Potter books and films by the Ministry of Magic.

Interestingly, the law prohibiting students and minors from using magic outside of Hogwarts came into effect in 1875, the same era where the story took place, and the reasons why this rule was created in the first place have not been revealed. So, there is a chance that the big event in the game that caused this ban will be shown.

When will Hogwarts Legacy be released?

Since Hogwarts Legacy postponed its release to 2022, being that it was originally due to arrive somewhere in 2021, no exact date has been given as to when exactly it would be released, nor have there been any further developments related to the game system.

For a couple of weeks now, it has been rumored that Hogwarts Legacy might in fact be delayed again, now for 2023. This is due to some statements made by the writer Colin Moriarty, who says that the studio is not entirely satisfied with the final result, and would seek to improve these details to give the player the best possible interactive experience.

However, a couple of days ago Warner itself denied the rumor from its Twitter account, where it reviewed all the games that the company would launch this year and included Hogwarts Legacy, along with other titles such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League or Gotham Knights.

Still, no official release date has been released, although it was confirmed that the Hogwarts Legacy art book, known as “The Art and Making of Hogwarts Legacy”, will be released on September 6, 2022, and as this is an item that is usually accompanied with the video game it can be expected that Hogwarts Legacy will be released by the end of the last quarter.