Hogwarts Legacy’s release date is scheduled for the Holiday season of 2022, and fans are eagerly waiting for the Potter game.
Harry Potter is the number one bestselling book series on the planet. With over 500 million copies of the novels sold, it is almost surprising that dedicated a video game set in the Harry Potter universe hasn’t been made around the brilliant storyline. Luckily for us, Hogwarts Legacy, an upcoming action role-playing video game published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment under the Portkey Games tag and developed by Avalanche Software, steps in to fill that very void for us.
The good thing about this Hogwarts Legacy game is that we don’t need to look for leaks and rumors to know more about this title. The developers themselves have shared a lot of information. After a lot of waiting for details, Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche finally let us into their secrets about Hogwarts Legacy at the Sony’s State of Play.
From being the creator of our own character to exploring a huge open-world animation, the developers gave us a boatload of details about the upcoming Potter game. And as you’ll see, not all the reveals invited happy reactions.
Of course, as we move towards the release date, they’ll release more. But even now, we can establish a decent map of the title based on the already revealed facts.
CHECK OUT: Horizon Forbidden West Review – gameplay, storyline, performance, detailed info
Read on to know everything there is to know about Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy Release Date
Here, we don’t have a specific number. Hogwarts Legacy release date has been confirmed to be scheduled anywhere between May to mid-August, which is the Holiday season for 2022. Actually, the title was supposed to release in 2021, but the developers delayed it as more time was needed to make the game as immersive as possible.
The release window mentioned above was confirmed during the Sony State of Play this Thursday. This presentation also gave us over 14 minutes of gameplay.
Hogwarts Legacy Platforms
There is good news here and different fans will be able to enjoy the game as Hogwarts Legacy is set to release across all the major platforms, confirmed Warner Bros. Games. This includes PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, plus Nintendo Switch.
When the title was revealed in September 2020 for the first time, the list of platforms did not include Nintendo’s console. But in an FAQ published this Thursday, Warner Bros. Games officially stated that the Hogwarts Legacy Nintendo Switch version will also release when it launches this Holiday season.
More than this is not known, but 4K/60 FPS display resolution on current-gen consoles and 30 FPS on last-gen consoles is the least expected. PC system specifications are yet to be released.
CHECK OUT: Grand Theft Auto 6 – release date, plotline, characters, location, more
Hogwarts Legacy Plotline, setting, and locations
As can be expected, the players follow the story of a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This student is one who ‘holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart.’
In the beginning, the student gets accepted into Hogwarts late and learns that Ancient Magic is real. It is up to the player to choose the side: They can either use their secret for good or turn over to the bad side and learn some dark magic.
You get to decide the way your character looks and also pick the house you go into – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.
Take a look-see at some of the outfits below.
As you go along, you learn that your bond with this magic has put you in mortal danger by setting you on a trajectory against a goblin rebellion led by Ranrok and helped by the Dark wizard Victor Rookwood, both of whom are dangerous enemies. Along with that, you’ll get to visit Hogsmeade Village, Forbidden Forest, and such places.
This Hogwarts Legacy title presents the idea between the story in a fresh way, thus ensuring two things. One, the vision of the story remains the same as envisaged by J. K. Rowling. Two, it offers the players something new and exciting.
In the recent FAQ, there were comments that talked about the author’s involvement in the game. Two of these are given below.
‘Each Portkey Games encounter will take place in the wizarding realm and will be authentic to it.’ J.K. Rowling is a fan of Portkey Games and also has committed the game’s design and development to Warner Bros. Games and the creators involved.’
‘Her group has also worked closely with Warner Bros. Games on all parts of Hogwarts Legacy to ensure that it stays a true part of the Wizarding World experience and meets fans’ expectations for innovation and magic.’
CHECK OUT: Genshin Impact Version 2.6 – Livestream, release, leak, more
Hogwarts Legacy Trailer and Gameplay
In this Harry Potter game, personalization has really been focused on, thus allowing players to better enjoy the game. So obviously, you’ll be allowed to choose whether you want to become a witch or wizard.
To allow the players to better track their progress, the Hogwarts Legacy gameplay will sport a skill tree and enable you to grow your abilities and try out impressive spells and combat skills. Where the enemies are super tough and deadly, you will have someone to accompany you.
After the Hogwarts Legacy gameplay reveal, Avalanche Software gave us some additional insight into the workings of the game and what all the players can expect from the game in a behind-the-scenes video.
In the mentioned FAQ, Hogwarts Legacy will not support co-op gameplay and has no in-game purchases or microtransactions.
The unique selling point of this game has been brought out by Avalanche when they said that the players will continually keep making almost impossible choices which will help the player determine ‘what they stand for.’
Check out the Hogwarts Legacy trailer below.
One rather common aspect among games here is that the player will be allowed to brew potions that will help the player by increasing the strength of his magic. Essentially, you’ll be going around collecting herbs and then putting them in a potion and making a potion out of it.
Of course, we’ve seen this feature a number of times in other titles. But that is not to say that this mechanic makes the game lame. A Harry Potter game needs to have this feature. Period.
CHECK OUT: LEGO Doctor Who game release scheduled for 2023
Check out the Hogwarts Legacy gameplay below.
Warner Bros. Games said, ‘Players will experience life as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s as they embark on a dangerous journey to uncover a hidden truth of the wizarding world.’
Another significant aspect of the game is Hogwarts Legacy Talents. These allow you to level up your character’s spells and potions that increase respectively their power and effectiveness. Again, not the most common aspect, but still an interesting one. You’ll have to be alert when choosing the talents so that they suit your magic and style of playing.
Two of the Hogwarts Legacy Talents are Stealth and Core. Stealth levels up you’re your sneaking ability, and Core improves your general abilities. There are more Talents of course. The gameplay we saw showed five, but we’ll probably get to see a lot more when the game finally releases.
Microtransactions in Hogwarts Legacy
As was mentioned, not all details drew out a happy reaction from the audience. And the part which showed that in-game timers as lengthy as 25 minutes were sported in the game to access certain features was not one of them.
The question that arose here was whether these timers are impacted by Hogwarts Legacy microtransactions, like how mobile tiles are used to expedite this process. But only hours after this doubt was raised on social media, the developers responded, saying that game will contain no microtransactions, as stated before.
A tweet by Chandler Wood states it like this.
CHECK OUT: Honkai Star Rail – gameplay, characters, beta, sign-up, more
Let’s into some more detail. In the second half of the Hogwarts Legacy State of Play reveal, the community got to see the famous ‘Room of Requirement. If you’ve read the book, you can guess the function of this room. This place allows the witches and wizards of Hogwarts to create their very own station, a place where they can brew potions or grow some plants if they want.
Now, while this was going on, a new resource called ‘Moonstone’ which is required to expand the room came into view. Moreover, while building new spaces, a variety of timers could be noticed. These timers are in real-time. Now, while some of these were only a few minutes long, some went up to as much as 25 minutes in total. And you don’t have to be a dedicated gamer to know that when you are totally immersed in a game, you just can’t wait that long.
And as we can expect, this immediately sparked concern and debates. “It makes me wonder whether this was originally intended to be a mobile and/or online RPG game,” is what a player said on Reddit.
Another player said, ‘That timer on brewing potions triggered microtransaction nightmares,’ on Twitter.
Given these concerns, it is pretty easy to understand the course of action that developers adopted: taking out microtransactions from the game.
And that’s about all the information we have regarding Hogwarts Legacy. Make sure to stay tuned to official channels for more news about the title as there are bound to be some facts dropped here and there. And of course, don’t miss out on the Hogwarts Legacy game when it actually releases.
We will update you with the new information as soon as it comes out, so keep following Gamevro.
