The arrival of Hogwarts Legacy is highly anticipated among fans of the Harry Potter franchise and its arrival is steadily getting closer after being delayed a few months. Although some content from the game has previously been shared, Avalanche Software has now unveiled the most content yet with a deep look at the gameplay of Hogwarts Legacy.
The special showcase aired on YouTube and ran for just over 45 minutes with an abundance of new content for players to see. The video primarily focused on three types of content: character customization, a mini-tour of Hogwarts castle, and the combat mechanics of Hogwarts Legacy. Throughout each segment, Avalanche Software showcased many new features and also demonstrated or mentioned other gameplay aspects that had not previously been shared.
Character customization in Hogwarts Legacy
The character customization segment of the showcase occurred first and demonstrated all features within the character creator feature. Players had seen small snippets of this tool before, but the gameplay showcase provided a complete look at all features within the complex system.
The first page offers players the ability to choose between a wide variety of presets as a starting point for character customization. All aspects of the character preset are entirely customizable and are simply there to help players begin creating their characters.
The next page allows players to choose their face shape and skin tone. The face shape is selected from a variety of options while skin tone is selected through a slider. Players can also select glasses on this page but may collect more glasses options as they progress through the game.
The third page has an abundance of hair options in many different textures and types. Hair color is selected in a manner similar to skin tone and is chosen on a slider. Avalanche Software confirmed that players can always change their hair color later on at a barber if they wish to do so.
The next page offers players the ability to select unique skin details, including freckles, moles, scars, markings, and other complexion marks.
The fifth page lets players select their eye shape from a selection of options and choose both their eye and eyebrow color on a slider.
The final page lets players select their game difficulty, name their character, and decide whether they want to be a witch or wizard. It also lets players choose their voice from two options and change the pitch as desired to fully customize the voice of their character.
Hogwarts castle tour in Hogwarts Legacy
The next part of the showcase featured a mini tour around Hogwarts castle. The Avalanche Software team started in the Hufflepuff common room and discussed how the design for each of the four houses’ common rooms is heavily inspired by the element that they are tied to, with Hufflepuff being earth, Gryffindor being fire, Slytherin being water, and Ravenclaw being air. Each common room also comes with its very own music to truly immerse players in a unique environment.
The only common room that players got to see during the mini-tour was Hufflepuff, but in-depth looks at all of the Hogwarts common rooms were previously shared on the Hogwarts Legacy YouTube channel, so this part wasn’t entirely new. What was new about this segment was that Avalanche Software showed off one of the actual dorms where players will stay while attending Hogwarts.
The Hufflepuff dorm room featured a few beds and had a special perch that appeared to contain the player’s pet owl. The specific gameplay functionality of the dorm room was not discussed, but a complete look at the dorm room and all its complex details were shared.
After the common room, the presentation moved out into numerous Hogwarts halls. The Avalanche Software team discussed the importance of making each area of the castle look and feel entirely unique to help players navigate around the immense sprawling castle.
Due to the immense size of the castle, a teleportation system exists throughout Hogwarts. They didn’t delve too deeply into this feature but did mention “fast travel points” that appear to be tied to floo powder fireplaces around the castle.
A few other locations including the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, the clock tower, and one of the iconic courtyards where students hang around were showcased throughout the Hogwarts tour. But the tour only featured a small piece of the massive Hogwarts castle and there is much more to be explored.
Avalanche Software didn’t venture beyond Hogwarts during this showcase but did promise more to come for what exploration outside of Hogwarts looks like.
Combat in Hogwarts Legacy
The final segment of the gameplay showcase highlighted the complex and versatile combat gameplay aspects. For the gameplay showcase, Avalanche Software demonstrated combat in the context of the Hogwarts dueling club, but combat is a feature that will be necessary both in and beyond Hogwarts castle.
As a whole, Hogwarts Legacy’s combat system is very buildable, fluid, and built around a combination system. It pushes players to try out different spells and combinations of spells because each spell has a cooldown on it and will thus not be usable for a short period of time. As players progress, they may gain different abilities that affect how different cooldowns work, but using different combinations in the combat system will remain important nonetheless.
In addition to a slottable spell system, players will also have access to a basic spell attack that can be used in combination with the more powerful and complex spells. Players will start off with the option of having up to four slottable spells plus their one basic attack but will grow the one slottable spell diamond over time until they will eventually be able to have up to 16 spells slotted.
Players can use the Protego spell to help protect themselves in battle, but so can their enemies, which makes for complex and challenging battles that players will have to learn to navigate. Spells are divided across different categories and are also color coded to help players keep track of which spell does what and what their enemies are doing in a battle as well.
Throughout the three main sections of the Hogwarts Legacy presentation, a few other important gameplay features were also shared for the first time.
- A first look at the user interface occurred while the Hufflepuff dorm room showcase happened.
- It features a spell diamond, which is where players’ spells are slotted, with over 20 spells that can be learned throughout the game and slotted within it. Up to 16 spells may be slotted at one time once players have unlocked the maximum number of diamonds.
- An eyeball icon indicates a variety of “essential spells” that are not slottable and instead may be used in very specific situations. These are available to players at all times and include spells like Revelio.
- There is a special tool wheel that players can access at any time to use numerous magical tools.
- Players have a green health bar located beneath the spell diamond with a potion icon next to it that allows them to consume potions to heal.
- Another bar sits above the health bar, but exactly what it does is unknown. Avalanche Software said that it wants to keep that a secret for now.
- The bottom left corner features a mini-map that has an overhead view of where players are situated. Those who prefer to not have a mini-map can turn this feature off.
- Players will be able to interact with characters to receive special quests. During these conversations, players can drastically shape how they wish to behave and how they treat others, which can then potentially impact the characters’ lives, the overall storyline, or otherwise affect the game in an impactful way.
- While wandering around the wizarding world, players will be able to interact with much of the world around them to find special guide pages. These pages are essential in helping players catch up on their wizarding skills since they are joining Hogwarts as a fifth-year student.
- Players can attain progress in numerous categories, including combat, quests, exploration, field guide pages, and the room of requirement.
- House points are not a gameplay system in Hogwarts Legacy, but players will still find the signature house hourglasses next to the Great Hall. The point system will, however, be an important storyline aspect.
- Along the same lines as house points, some other gameplay aspects players may have expected, such as Wizard’s Chess, Quidditch, and Gobstones, will not be available. But with any feature that Avalanche Software wanted to add but couldn’t, it did still try to add references to it throughout the storyline.
- Hogwarts classes do not operate on a daily schedule system. Instead, they occur in a chapter-like format, with their occurrences being based on the main storyline. Classes may even sometimes be optional, which offers players the choice of skipping them if they see fit.
Hogwarts Legacy is set to be released on Feb. 10, 2023.
