New Harry Potter Game and Everything We Know About It
Harry Potter fans were pleasantly surprised when Reddit user VapeThisBro posted a leaked video in 2018 about the alleged development of a game in the iconic universe for consoles and PCs. The leak was confirmed in September 2020, with the announcement of Hogwarts Legacy for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Here’s everything we know about it.
The trailer for the Hogwarts Legacy video game around the world of “Harry Potter”, shown during the presentation of the PlayStation 5, became a sensation among gamers and Potter fans. The novelty will have to wait until next year, but for now, you can enjoy its visual accompaniment, comparing it with old titles around the world.
Trailer
Hogwarts Legacy looks amazing. It is noticeable that the developers took the style of the Harry Potter films as a basis: Hogwarts and other locations look exactly as we saw them in the movies, and this will be an excellent reason for fans to return to their favorite universe again.
The quality of the graphics is also worth noting: although the game will be released on PS4 and Xbox One, it displays an impressive level of detail that will provide players with a cinematic experience.
Finally, the familiar notes in the soundtrack creep into goosebumps, and the opportunity to send your own created character under the Sorting Hat is mesmerizing.
Plot
The game will take place at the end of the 19th century, about 100 years before Harry got to Hogwarts, and will tell the player a completely new story, not related to books and films. In the beginning, you have to create your character with the ability to customize the appearance, choose a house, and one of eight classes. These are quite typical RPG elements that fans have been waiting for in the Harry Potter games throughout their history.
Your character is a student holding the key to an ancient secret that threatens to destroy the wizarding world. You received an invitation to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and soon discovered that you are an atypical student: you can perceive and master ancient magic. It’s up to you whether you keep it a secret for the greater good, or face the temptation of more sinister magic, intrigues the Hogwarts Legacy website.
The character will have to fight evil wizards ‒ in the trailer were visible people in masks, probably representatives of an order like the Death Eaters ‒ as well as make allies, explore the world and learn spells. The plot will likely feature well-known personalities from the book cycle, for example, Nicholas Flammel.
Perhaps we will visit places of worship near Hogwarts, such as Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. Besides, players will meet new creatures inspired by the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Griffins, moon calves, and goblins will also appear.
The game promises a moral system that affects the relationship of the NPC with the player’s character, depending on his choice and actions during the game. Therefore, we are wondering if the player, with an evil version of the passage, will be able to get more terrible spells like the forbidden Avada Kedavra.
Harry Potter Release Date
The release date for the new Harry Potter game is still unknown, but Warner Bros. promises that we will see it in 2021. And this is not far from the truth, considering that in 2018 it was already in development.
Gameplay
“Now you can take control and be at the center of your adventure in a magical world. Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations, explore and discover fantastic creatures, develop your character and create potions, master spells, improve talents and become the wizard you want to be,” says the description of the game.
A Harry Potter RPG game offers players many opportunities to create their own unique experience. Choosing a character class from the very beginning of the game allows players to immediately specialize in a certain direction: duels, potions, etc., which leads to more varied play styles that significantly affect combat, crafting, and interaction between characters.
Perhaps even minor things like the choice of a half-breed character will influence how other students and professors view him. Hogwarts is a school of wizardry, so raising parameters and gaining new skills can be realized through studying lessons in various subjects. For example, reducing the number of ingredients needed to brew a potion of healing or increasing the amount of potion, your character can brew, will require you to spend more time learning and gaining benefits that may not be available to other spell-focused players.
According to the leaked video, players will be free in terms of where and when to cast spells. In most previous games, they were limited to scripted events. This suggests that the game will have an open world, and certain territories will only be accessible after receiving some spells.
We know combat will be an essential element of the gameplay. Over the years, this has been the case in several Harry Potter games, with both decent and downright terrible implementations. We hope that the game will have some kind of target selection system so that you can distribute attacks across multiple enemies. Finally, the game will have destructible environments (and dragons!). So, casting spells should be much more fun and atmospheric.
Conclusion
A large-scale RPG in the setting of “Harry Potter” is exactly what hardcore fans of the universe have been waiting for. Players will finally get a chance on their adventures at Hogwarts, unrelated to the story of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment said: “J.K. Rowling is not directly involved in the production of the game, but her outstanding volume of work is at the heart of all projects that take place in the Wizarding World.” The publisher also explained that Hogwarts Legacy is “not a new J.K. Rowling story.”
Most likely Warner Bros. decided to distance herself from the author of the Harry Potter books because of the scandals around her: on the Web, J.K. Rowling is actively accused of transphobia.
