Hogwarts Legacy Looks Increadible

 We finally got the letter!

Though the PlayStation 'State of Play' had been announced plenty of time in advance, I'll admit to having forsaken the event in favour of literally anything else because it always stings to see the latest promising title which is going to have it's full potential stunted in order to fit Sony's exclusivity dominion. If 'Horizon: Forbidden West' wants to know why its place in pop culture was so soundly stolen by Elden Ring, they should note not only Elden Ring's conceptual superiority, but also that game's access to literally three-times as many members of the general public. But then I saw 'Hogwarts Legacy' was due for a proper reveal, leading off the much-beloved Harry Potter licence that everyone my age in helpless indebted to, and I decided to put my prejudice behind me, before then learning that this game isn't, in fact, a console exclusive. So more celebrations all around; we can all go to Hogwarts!

This was a title which titillated and excited even with that sleight, gameplay free, reveal from the previous year, thus it was a stressful moment to rock upon a, old-school Ubisoft-style, gameplay showcase over 10 minutes long and showing only gameplay. One would have to ask themselves the serious questions- is Warner Bros. Games truly ready for this or has the clock just run out for how long they can delay? And given the general legacy (pun intended) of reveal events like these, sometimes even the level of polish we're shown turns out to be an abject lie and the game will really arrive significantly downgraded. But assuming we can, in fact, trust what we're seeing and that Hogwarts Legacy is every bit as big and beautiful as this gameplay event insists; then this might truly be the Harry Potter game that the fandom, affectionately and rarely known as 'Pot Heads', has been waiting decades for.

Taking place in the 1800's, Hogwarts Legacy isn't beholden to the tightly woven, and increasingly strenuous, narrative of the mainline books and movies (Which are set from 1991 to 1998). Nor does it need to saddle up alongside the other Harry Potter timeline which is, unfortunately, canonical: Hogwarts Mystery's 1984. We don't even have to be contemporaries of the contemptibly bland Newt Scamander and endure lead-ins to 'Fantastic Beasts and how to prolong a paper thin premise in a disinterested cash grab prequel franchise'. This game is set in a version of the wizarding world that is made for us, specifically to do with as we wish. That means totally new teachers, new students, and a totally fresh look at the world which, whilst clearly inspired by the feel of the movie series, retains it's own storybook fairy-tale flair. Maybe we won't be getting any flying cars, but the cosy warmth of antiquated Hogsmeade more than makes up for that.

Rather fittingly given the target audience for a game like this, Hogwarts Legacy will feature a custom made player character who is a late-comer fifth year to the School; so unfortunately we won't have a seven-year epic narrative told throughout the growth of our player, as cool as that would have been. That doesn't mean, however, that we're free from our duties to have to attend classes. No, Hogwarts Legacy will feed into the dreams of the fandom and allow us to live the Hogwarts school experience, taking questionably dangerous magical courses, taking shot-gun assignments in order to catch up to the rest of our classmates and taking the lessons learned into the wider world with practical application in life-or-death bouts. All between exploring a simply stunning recreation of the Hogwarts school that seems endlessly faithful to the visual look of the films.  

But this isn't just a school simulator. We're getting genuine wizard combat in the game and it honestly looks like the most robust magic fighting system we've had out of any of the Harry Potter games to date, but then I guess that is pretty much to be expected when we're talking about a game created by the same team behind 'Shadow of War'. (Imagine brutal combat like that in a Harry Potter game. We're likely never getting those sorts of beheadings, but its pedigree no doubt had a real influence here.) What we have here is a visual flair that is decidedly based on the action from the movies, wherein little wisps of multi-coloured magic daggers shoot back and forth. I'll be honest, I always felt that looked flimsy and insubstantial for when it came to spellcasting duels, and I still think it looks that way today, but I'll accept how it looks if the thing plays well. And right now I cannot be sure how it plays. The combat looks strangely clunky, with characters standing in the open and taking these rigid waving wand movements that look like the world's slowest Paso, but if the voice over is to be believed then we have all the ingredients for this combat to be great: combos, elemental weakness, a shield button, it just all looks a bit weird in practice. I guess I'm just not used to seeing it, I'll reserve ultimate judgement. 

Of the game's many systems that are in the works, and perhaps the one which confuses me most right now, is that of companions. Because that's a thing they're doing, for whatever reason. My suspicion is that these characters are really just friends that you'll meet and get to know throughout your school year, rather than party members who will quest and fight alongside you. Although there was mention of building your relationship with them which really does sound like a more evolved system with companion quests and the like. I just hope there's really a wide range of personalities to meet that'll come from all of the four houses, otherwise it might feel a little railroad-y if we have our regular school acquaintances decided by the all master hand of the game designers.

Now how about we get weird? Talk about the things that no one was really looking for from their Harry Potter game but are kind of okay with considering it's one of the standards of modern game design. The Room of Requirement, normal Harry Potter world snippet, is now an upgrade room with seemingly casual time gates for growing and harvesting and potion brewing. That's an... odd addition. I know there has to be crafting otherwise that one games industry investor who demands it from every AAA studio will flip his lid and crash his Lamborghini off a cliff or something, but that still doesn't quiet square with the multi-minute timer for watching ingredients grow. In fact, that particular timer sort of feels like what you'd expect from an MMO or a mobile game, but there doesn't appear to be any microtransactions here at all so one must wonder where the reasoning for this mode comes in. At least there's a special house building minigame in there too, give us something to do whilst waiting for the mandrake seeds to set.

At the end of the day the draw is the exploration, and I have to say that from the snippets we've seen the team have utterly succeeded in making a world that looks cool enough for me to want to explore it. Seeing the caves and mines in the mountains and the hills, riding across the skies on a broomstick or on the back of a hippogriff, and even just walking the shifting staircases of Hogwarts. Even if the whole rest of the game game turns out to be a total waste of time, which I'm really starting to feel like won't be the case based on everything we've seen, then this will still serve as the prettiest picture book exploration into the Harry Potter world we've ever had. Acknowledge well the fact that you have a rapid non-sensical fan spouting all this excitement at you, but then hear that he has indeed played every Harry Potter game in existence. (Save for the Deathly Hallow 'shoot-'em ups', because who cares about the franchise without the school.) God, all this makes me so irrationally excited I almost want to go and play Hogwarts Mysteries just to- woah, actually, I'm not that far gone down the insane rabbit hole yet. Maybe give me a little time.