Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’re going to be
discussing the new Hogwarts Legacy game which was recently announced. The official trailer
for Hogwarts Legacy was released on the Playstation YouTube channel 5 days ago, and if you haven’t
seen it yet, well, you’re missing out. While the trailer is only 2.5 minutes long, this
is the first shred of new Harry Potter content that we’ve had in a very long time, and
it’s certainly got people excited. The game is definitely long overdue, and people have
been speculating about its release for years-though no official statement had ever been released
by Warner Bros.
Great- so a new Harry Potter game. But, what kind of game is it? We’ve had Harry Potter
Games in the past- how is this any different?
A press release from this week confirmed that it is in fact an “an open-world, single
player, action role-playing game” which will allow you to create your own personal
witch or wizard, and spec them exactly as you want them to be.”
“Players will experience life as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
like never before, as they live the unwritten and embark on a dangerous journey to uncover
a hidden truth of the wizarding world,”
“They will grow their character’s abilities as they master powerful spells, hone combat
skills, and select companions to help them face off against deadly enemies. Players will
also encounter missions and scenarios that will pose difficult choices and determine
what they stand for.”
Additionally, this game is clearly the product of a great deal of effort, something which
I can’t say for some of the Harry Potter themed games that have been released in the
past. This game has been in the works for a while, and I predict that it’s going to
set itself apart from the rest.
“With innovative high definition graphics, a player can practically feel the terror of
Inferi bearing down upon them, sense the ground rumbling beneath them as a herd of angry centaurs
surrounds them. Even dueling against a deadly dark witch takes on a new level of realism
thanks to the controller’s ability to imbue sound and touch into every moment.”
The clear forethought and effort that appears to have been placed on this game makes things
seem promising, and the prospect of an OPEN world Harry Potter game has got me excited,
but- what’s it all about? Is it canon? Does it touch on the lives of the existing characters
that we know and love? Or is it something else altogether?
The game, created by Portkey Games and Avalanche Software takes place around 100 years before
Harry Potter starts attending Hogwarts. You’ll play as a student attending Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the late 1800s, and, just like any other student at
Hogwarts, you’ll attend classes and learn magic alongside your classmates.
"You have received a late acceptance to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
and soon discover that you are no ordinary student: you possess an unusual ability to
perceive and master Ancient Magic,"
Even more exciting, it looks as though you will be able to determine your own path-good
or evil, much like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. KOTOR was was one of my favourite
games of all time, and if Harry Potter Legacy is able to live up to that game at all, then
I’ll be satisfied.
"Only you can decide if you will protect this secret for the good of all, or yield to the
temptation of more sinister magic."
Ok, so the game takes place in the late 1800s- which technically means that, since we’re
going to be attending Hogwarts, we should see some familiar faces. There’s also one
man in particular that I’m hoping to see, that was..QUITE important in the Harry Potter
franchise. Albus Dumbledore- ever heard of him? Dumbledore was born in the year 1881,
and he started attending Hogwarts in the year 1892. If the game takes place in the late
1800’s I’m going to assume that this covers the 1880s and 1890s. So- will we see our beloved
Hogwarts headmaster?
According to Avalanche Software and Portkey Games, who are responsible for Hogwarts Legacy,
the game will follow the wizarding world lore set out in the original Harry Potter novels,
HOWEVER the story for the game itself is entirely original and was written by the studio - not
by JK Rowling. What this means is that we might not see so many familiar faces, as it
follows a different trajectory altogether. However, given that the studio have expressed
that the game WILL follow the wizarding lore set out in the novels, I think that it would
be unusual for Dumbledore to not make an appearance, as he was quite a prominent figure at the
school during his schoolboy days. If he doesn’t make an appearance at all, then I think it
would break canon to some extent, and I also think that everyone would be a bit disappointed.
It would have been easy for them to have simply set the game in the 1850s or 1860s, so, I
think that they must have consciously chosen the LATE 1800s for a reason. Dumbledore went
there from 1892-1899- coincidence? I think not.
IF Dumbledore is included in the game, I am eager to see how Hogwarts Legacy will portray
him, particularly as at this point in his life he’s not the wise old man that we’ve
all become accustomed to. At this stage in his life, Dumbledore had not yet graduated,
which means that he had not yet returned to Godric’s Hollow, which is where he met Gellert
Grindelwald. When Dumbledore met Grindelwald, it was a time of his life when he went down
a much darker path. Dumbledore didn’t have all the answers, and he was still figuring
things out for himself. So, given that his time at school predates this period, I can
only speculate that the schoolboy Dumbledore would be even more naive.
There has been some speculation by fans that, if Dumbledore IS present in the game, that
he will have some kind of direct affiliation with the character that we play. The most
popular idea floating around is that OUR character will serve as some sort of a mentor or teacher
to Dumbledore- helping him to develop the strong personality that he has later in life.
Others have speculated that our character will actually be Dumbledore’s rival- a bully
that treats Dumbledore the same way that Draco treated Harry, or James Potter treated Snape.
Given that the game has alluded to freedom with regards to the moral path that our character
can go down, perhaps both of these will be options.
Either way, it will be interesting to see a younger, ‘teenage’ Dumbledore, as in
both the Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter films he already seems to have figured everything
out more than everyone else.
The Headmaster of Hogwarts during this time, according to canon, is Phineas Nigellus Black,
who served as headmaster from 1847-1925. Phineas was a pure-blood member of Slytherin house
and perhaps the most hated Hogwarts headmaster in the school’s history. Despite his notoriety,
Phineas was immortalized in the form of a portrait in the headmaster’s office, and
he has some back and forth with Harry in the Order of the Phoenix:
“I thought that to belong in Gryffindor House you were supposed to be brave? It looks
to me as though you would have been better off in my own house. We Slytherins are brave,
yes, but not stupid. For instance, given the choice, we will always choose to save our
own necks."
"It's not my own neck I'm saving."
"Oh I see. This is no cowardly flight — you are being noble."
If Portkey and Avalanche HAVE decided to place familiar characters in the game, which do
you expect to see? Which characters do YOU know that were at Hogwarts in the late 1800s?
We still don’t know EXACTLY how the gameplay will work just yet, but the trailer certainly
gives us a bit of an idea, and I expect that in the months to come more and more information
will be revealed to us about how the game itself will operate. We also don’t have
an exact release date for the game just yet, but we do know that it’s coming out in 2021-
which is certainly making 2021 look a lot better than 2020 already.
And that’s it for this video! What do you guys think of this game? Are you going to
play it? Which characters do you hope to see in it?
Let me know down in the comment section below
UNTIL NEXT TIME
YER A WIZARD ARRY