Hogwarts Legacy

About the Game

This game is set in the late 1800s, so there is no overlap with any characters from the movie and book canon, although some of the ghosts you know and love may pop up to guide you on your way – or hinder and delay you, if you annoy them!

Unique – and central – to this game are NCPs (non-playing characters) Victor Rookwood (who is the sort of pre-Voldemort leader of the Dark Wizards – precursors to the Death Eaters), Professor Eleazar Fig who is your form teacher and ally, and the deliciously evil rebellious goblin leader, Ranrok, who trusts no human and especially no wizard!

You are a student about to start your fifth year who transfers to Hogwarts from somewhere else following a mysterious accident. Slowly it emerges that you are the possessor of the key to an ancient secret that could tear the wizarding world apart.

Ranrok hates all wizardkind, but has allied himself with Rookwood in order to get hold of an ancient magic. An ancient magic which is so dangerous that wizardkind has tried to hide it from itself – and that you, unexpectedly, turn out to be the one wizard that is the key to the unleashing of this ancient magic!

Needless to say, Rookwood is in danger if Ranrok succeeds, but Rookwood is dangerous enough on his own behalf. You, as the student, must work with Fig to keep the magic’s secret and avert the goblin rebellion…

The Nitty Gritty

You will attend classes, in between saving wizarding civilisation, in Charms, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Potions, and in between classes you can explore much further afield than simply the castle. The Hidden Forest, Hogsmeade and Gringotts Bank are all accessible and fully explorable

The open world setting will change with the seasons, and you can choose your house, and customise your playing character in many ways including voice, body type, gender and wand selection. All of this adds up to mean that each player can enjoy a tailor-made and very different gaming experience.

As noted above, the game is open world and positively begs exploration as you interact with NCPs like Nearly Headless Nick, Peeves the poltergeist – who is known and loved by readers of the books, but never quite made it into the movies, although the part was filmed for the first movie, starring the late great Rik Myall – and the Fat Lady, who guards the Gryffindor dormitories.

The Room of Requirement features in the game too, serving a much wider purpose than previously seen. Players will be able to customise it to their needs and preferences and it operates as a kind of common room, growing plants, doing research and tweaking your customisation as you need to.

The game’s in-built morality system will allow wannabe villains to tackle the killing curse if they dare, or you can make friends with everyone you meet – including classmates who will grow and develop alongside you, offering handy aid at tricky moments.

There are no microtransactions in the game: everything you get will be earned the hard way, there are no shortcuts for the rich to take and get ahead.

Fantastic Beasts and How to Care for Them

Care of Magical Creatures is a must as you will interact, take care of and even battle using:

• Dragons: never mind the ban on breeding dragons, in Hogwarts you can raise your very own pet incinerator on which you can ride, cuddle and battle. Just don’t forget to feed them
• Nifflers: the cute and cuddly mole-platypus-magpies return again, snaffling up anything shiny and simultaneously annoying and charming you
• Trolls: more animal than humanoid in this game, trolls are firmly in the creature camp rather than the wizard camp here
• Hippogriffs: Buckbeak (aka Witherwings) and co return to terrify and delight you as well as coming in jolly useful in the battling stakes with both sharp claws and a fearsome beak to put to good use against your enemies
• Mandrakes: technically plants, but considering their roots are screeching and intensely grumpy babies, they fall under the ‘magical creatures’ umbrella. Use ear defenders when potting them, and unleash them on your enemies when you are in a pinch