One of the most hotly anticipated games coming in early 2023, Hogwarts Legacy has fans of the magical world of Harry Potter looking forward to February with high hopes. As we get closer to the release date, the developers continue to reveal more about what we can expect to see in the game. Recently, a livestream gave us our first look at Hogwarts Legacy Exploration. Let’s take a closer look!
Introduction
Last Friday, Avalanche Software showed off some exciting gameplay footage from their upcoming single player, action RPG Hogwarts Legacy on their Twitch channel. Set in the wildly popular, magical world of the Harry Potter book series, the game takes place at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s. Players will get to create their own student character and attend classes, learn spells, create potions and more as they immerse themselves in student life. But there is also a deeper story thread to explore as the student finds themselves holding the key to an ancient secret which threatens the wizarding world.
Set to release on February 10, 2023 on all major console and PC platforms (with a Switch version promised for later) fans of the Harry Potter series can’t wait to experience the game for themselves! As we all eagerly wait in anticipation, I’d like to take a closer look at some of the game elements Avalanche Software revealed in their stream.
Open World
While likely not the same kind of hugely open world game such as Skyrim was or Starfield plans to be, Hogwarts Legacy will still have lots of areas for exploration and self discovery in the game. On the game’s website Avalanche Software states that players may “Freely roam Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest, and the surrounding Overland area.”
Listing only four separate areas may not sound like a lot, but let’s take a closer look at what all is contained within these areas.
Hogwarts Castle
As any well-versed Harry Potter fan knows, Hogwarts Castle is huge. This structure needs to not only house the student body and working staff for at least eight months of the year, but also has to have plenty of room for classrooms, a library, greenhouse, observatory, dungeons, offices, dining hall and more.
It’s not yet been confirmed exactly how many spaces and rooms we’ll be able to nose around in as a player, but during the livestream the developer team gave viewers a short tour around the castle and showed off some of the places we’ll be able to visit.
House Common Rooms
The House Common Rooms are places where the art design in the game really get to shine! Taking a lot of inspiration directly from the books in their creation of these student areas, the developers sought to reflect each house with not only their colors but representative elements: Earth for Hufflepuff, Air for Ravenclaw, Fire for Gryffindor, and Water for Slytherin.
A couple of months ago the developers released sneak peek videos of each of the house common rooms, I highly recommend checking them out!
Hufflepuff | Ravenclaw | Gryffindor | Slytherin
Great Hall
The Great Hall is one of the most iconic locations in the castle, where students gather for meals and socializing together while hundreds of lighted candles float above their heads. For now, the developers don’t want to spoil what this extra-large room will look like, but it has been confirmed that it is in the game. Just beyond those double doors to the right of the House hourglasses keeping track of house points!
Grand Staircase
The grand staircase is another fun space, with moving staircases keeping students on their toes. In this screen capture we can also see that visiting certain places for the first time will light a small floo flame which enables fast travel.
Courtyard
There is plenty of open, exterior courtyard space just outside the main castle entrance. On nice days, lots of students like to gather outside with friends.
Owlery
Library
Greenhouse
Of course, there are lots more spaces than just these, but on the tour the developers mostly just teased fans with glimpses of the entrances and didn’t actually take us inside. But we saw plenty to get us excited about what’s behind many of those doors!
Here is a list of other confirmed spaces in Hogwarts Castle:
- Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom
- Potions Classroom
- Herbology Classroom
- Charms Classroom
- History of Magic Classroom
- Prefect’s Bathroom
- Kitchens
- Room of Requirement
- Headmaster’s Office
- Clock Tower
But there are certain to be many more places in Hogwarts to visit! The castle seems to be absolutely massive, with all kinds of secret places to find.
Hogwarts Grounds
Forbidden Forest
Cemetary
Hogsmeade
Train Station
Shops
As a fifth year, you’ll be allowed to travel to Hogsmeade and there will be a variety of shops available for you to buy all kinds of different magical items. From a magical bookshop, to potion ingredients and recipes at Pippin’s Potions, seeds for growing magical plants, a wizard tailor shop for your gear, and even a branch of Olivander’s, going to Hogsmeade won’t just be a fun student field trip but a necessity for your character.
Conclusion
Between previous trailer and state of play videos, along with this most recent livestream, there have been a ton of locations revealed which the player will get to see and experience. This includes a plethora of other non-Hogwarts locations. Presumably, visits to these places will be tied to the story, rather than part of the open world exploration.
But it’s pretty clear that there will be plenty to see and do in the Hogwarts Castle and out on the Grounds. Though the entire game may not be strictly open world, much, if not all, of Hogwarts appears to be. I’m incredibly excited to get in game and discover all of the secrets it holds!
I can’t wait to play Hogwarts Legacy in 2023 and hope to see you there following along in my Twitch channel! In the meantime, as we wait, I’ll be posting the latest news and reveals here on my website and later on will have plenty of information and video guides on my Youtube Channel as well!
All information is based on pre-release sources. We’ll update it as soon as the game launches on February 10 2023
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