Hogwarts Legacy, all the news from the State of Play
Hogwarts Legacy
Hogwarts Legacy has finally shown itself at the last State of Play: about twenty minutes in total, of which fifteen dedicated to scenes taken from the game itself. It is, we recall, a project in development for years at Avalanche and produced by Warner Bros. Games: the director is Alan Tew, who has been working with the Salt Lake City software house for a long time.Past works don't live up to Hogwarts Legacy's ambitions, but Warner Bros. has invested heavily, the team has grown, and time and again the developers have bragged that they are working on an AAA project (not which is a guarantee). The game is an action RPG set in the world of Harry Potter, and so many different settings, scenes and topics have been shown that we will try to summarize the most important things. We will try to recap all the news that emerged from the State of Play of Hogwarts Legacy.
Let's start with what immediately catches the eye, namely the visual rendering and the fidelity to Hogwarts that we know. The graphic impact is certainly positive, although there are some details that we hope will be fixed before the release. In particular, the animations of the characters, which in some cases seemed quite woody, especially in the phases of flight (on the broom, or astride what seemed to us a hippogriff). On the architectural level, however, the work carried out is of the highest quality: both in the reproduction of the elements already known (courtyards, towers, etc ...) and, as far as we have understood, in the integration of the unpublished settings of the game. Game that, while containing the word "Hogwarts", will also take place outside the school: we have seen forests, mountains and even dungeons.
Despite the dark poster anticipating the State of Play, and despite the original John Williams theme in a perhaps too "epicized" version, the Hogwarts we saw seemed a sensible middle ground between the colorful one and lively of the early films, and the overly gloomy one of the later Harry Potter films. Even the uniforms are extremely faithful to those appreciated in the film adaptations. function ready (fn) {if (document.readyState! = 'loading') {fn ()} else {document.addEventListener ('DOMContentLoaded', fn)}} ready (function () {window.addEventListener ('message', function (event) {let target_origin = 'https://aff.netaddiction.it'; if (event.origin! == target_origin) return; if (typeof event.data == "object" && event.data.hasOwnProperty ( "type") && event.data.type == "embaff") {let embed_id = event.data.embed_id; if (embed_id == '595') {document.querySelector ('#_ aff_embed_595'). setAttribute ('height ', event.data.embed_size);}}}, false);}) A precise release date has not been announced, but only a generic "Holiday 2022", so it is reasonable to expect the title around Christmas. For the avoidance of doubt, although the event was broadcast on the official Sony channels, the game will also be released on PC, Xbox One, Series X (obviously in addition to PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4) and Nintendo Switch.
History and setting
Hogwarts Legacy: fighting will play an important part in the game This paragraph will be of particular interest to Harry Potter fans, and we will assume that you know the basic contents of the saga (we could not do otherwise). Hogwarts Legacy is set towards the end of the 19th century, a period never explored, and rarely mentioned, in the original volumes. A period far from the main series, but not so much: it is not clear how many direct links will be, but as we could see from the video, some of the ghosts we already know will return. We'll see if the developers will have the courage to insert stronger intersections: Albus Dumbledore for example was born in 1881, and could - in theory - be a companion of the protagonist.A highly customizable hero, in sex and appearance, in the tone of the complexion: as soon as he arrives he will be subjected to sorting, and will be assigned to a House (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff). Some fans are quite extremist about their ideal location, but at the moment it is not known exactly how it will play out (whether totally random, through a test, or freely chosen by the player); for certain, however, we have understood that the leading student will enter school starting from his fifth year, a totally new decision and partially inconsistent with the original books. The reasons why the developers did it are pretty obvious: it helps to concentrate (temporally) the plot and limits the complications of making the protagonist grow over time, but at a narrative level it is not clear how they intend to justify it.
Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts is reconstructed with great care Hogwarts seems to have been recreated with extreme skill: corridors, rooms, classrooms, everything is well done and recognizable. It will be a pleasure to cross it and explore it in its majesty, for anyone who is passionate about the saga (and, hopefully, not only). All the common rooms of the series are present, and you can even see that of Hufflepuff, never appeared in books or films. Hogwarts Legacy offers a new and, we believe, totally invented faculty; the subjects seemed to us the usual ones, so Potions, Herbology, Spells and so on. It has not been shown how much detail the lessons will go down, nor how frequent they will be, but it is quite clear that the focus will be on duels, and therefore the same subjects will be declined in this sense (a student expert in Herbology will be able, for example, to use some plants to hinder enemies, or to power up).
There are the kitchens of the house elves, the forbidden forest, the Quidditich field (we haven't seen any quidditch scenes played, so we still don't know if it will be included as a minigame or not), but above all it is understood that Hogwarts Legacy will have a rather complex history. Basically, if the protagonist follows the lessons and strengthens himself within the school, at the same time he will have to investigate - together with this Professor Fig - on a revolt of the goblins which, we remind you, in the world of Harry Potter have often had some conflicts with wizards. They are skilled builders of treasures, they are greedy, they regard the sale of their items as a lifetime loan, and they run the magic bank Gringotts; in this game they seem to be helped by a mysterious group of dark wizards. As already mentioned, the protagonist will have the opportunity to get out of Hogwarts, both in the wilderness and in Hogsmade, the magical village where, we suppose, most of the encounters with the "non-school" characters will take place.
Hogwarts Legacy: a lot of attention will be dedicated to the creation of magical potions From a thematic point of view, therefore the title tries to trace the main saga, which has always combined the magical lessons, and the daily life of students, with external (or internal) threats to the school. It seems to us a wise choice: in terms of narrative coherence, in addition to admitting the protagonist directly to the fifth year, the magical beasts corrupted by darkness leave us some doubts. We do not remember anything of the kind, unless we make a big mistake: we are not talking about possessed animals, but precisely about "aberrant", black, cursed beasts. What spell would that be? We hope that the developers have asked Newt Scamander a few questions, if they have decided not to speak to J.K. Rowling (never mentioned in the event, to tell the truth).
Game and character development
Hogwarts Legacy: There will be various parts outside of Hogwarts Finally, we come to what we understand, and above all intuition, of the game: according to the developers it is an action RPG, and the definition seems fitting. The seasons will pass during the formation of the protagonist, but we do not know if gradually or in specific "steps" of the game (we bet on the latter), or if they will have some interactive as well as visual value; at the same time, during the video it was said that the "training path will start from the fifth year", so we imagine that Hogwarts Legacy will focus on the events that will involve the fifth, sixth and seventh years of the protagonist, but even this is not a certainty.As mentioned, a very clear focus on combat and magical duels emerged from the presentation. The same subjects seemed to us devoted to personalizing this aspect, rather than having an interest in themselves. The fights have been briefly explained, but we liked what we saw all right: this is because it is not simply about attacking or defending, but precisely you can act creatively, moving objects, disguising them, using potions and plants. Of course, it will be the realization that determines the quality of the whole, but the choice to leave freedom of approach is already very, very faithful to the spirit of the saga: Harry Potter, for example, is a wizard who aims a lot (in the main series, we mean ) on combat spells. On the contrary, when we see McGrannitt, as a good Transfiguration teacher, we discover that there are other ways to approach duels: transforming objects, throwing them, sending them up in smoke. Still regarding the personalization of the protagonist, skills and talents can be gradually unlocked, and the Room of Requirement (the most famous hidden room in the world) will also play a role, which will be, or at least this seemed to us, a sort of personal laboratory. of the protagonist. As far as alignment is concerned, there will certainly be room for maneuver; towards the end of the film, for example, the protagonist is seen hurling an Avada Kedavra, the curse that he kills. At the same time we assume that, however "bad" he may become, he will hardly be able to lighten himself up with the goblin rioters.
It is also not clear how much it will be possible to interact freely with the other students of Hogwarts: we had the impression that, in whichever house you are playing, there are some "privileged" colleagues with whom the game will try to put you in contact. One of them has "a mysterious past", so we assume that the plot can develop in a rather complex way, even outside the main track. The protagonist has the ability to perceive Ancient Magic, a concept that in Harry Potter has never been explored: we limit ourselves to attesting to it, hoping that the developers do not have an excessive impulse, so to speak, "creativity". A cornerstone of the adventure will be the management of the balance between the phases inside Hogwarts and those outside: will the external areas be treated as well as the school, or will they disfigure in comparison? How much will the gameplay vary between the two moments, how will the vastness of the extra-school world be managed? These are all questions to which we have no clues to answer, reiterating that the flight - on the broom - seemed to us one of the least inspired parts.
Hogwarts Legacy is a highly anticipated project, and after this presentation, Harry's fans Potter can only wait for it with greater trepidation: the school is recreated with extreme care, we see that the developers have studied (and loved) the saga thoroughly, even in the narrative approach followed. Hogwarts, magical beasts, spells: everything, really everything - net of some technical problems, especially related to the animations - is made with care. We perceive that the budget behind it is substantial. At the same time, part of the game is still obscure to us: we know that the protagonist will be customizable (how much?), And that there will be many sections outside the school (how will they be?). There are doubts, but they have given us various reasons to be positive and have presented us with what is undoubtedly the richest and largest game set in the Harry Potter universe.
