The highly anticipated GamePlay Showcase took place yesterday Hogwarts Legacyvideogame that will lead us to play the role of a fifth year student of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The event, which lasted a good 45 minutes, revealed a lot of the gameplay and game mechanics, but also of the settings, which will literally drive fans of the Harry Potter saga crazy.
Recall that the videogame will consist of a massive open world developed by Avalanche Softwaredue out in 2023 on consoles and PC
Let’s go to platform 9 and 3/4 of Hogwarts Legacy
Let’s start from the beginning, so from the context. The game will be set in 1800, so well before Harry Potter’s arrival at Hogwarts. Our character will be a student who is about to start his fifth year and will be fully customizable.
The Showcase has in fact started by showing us the creation of our magician, which can be customized in all its parts. We thought the editor tool was enough standard but certainly complete. You can choose the color of the skin, the scars on the face (after all we are in the world of Harry Potter) and much more. Basic face models can also be edited manually. Once the game is created and started, the main aspect of our character cannot be changed, if not for some characteristics (such as hairstyles). In Hogsmeade, the village near Hogwarts, there will be a barber wizard, just like in GTA.
Open world we said: in Hogwarts Legacy it will be possible to move through the Castle that houses the school of magic, faithfully reproduced. The design of Hogwarts is in fact faithfully taken from the books of JK Rowling. We will then be able to walk through the corridors, explore the dungeons, get lost in the immensity of the Great Hall and try not to be fooled by the stairs that, you know, love to move. And then there will obviously be the bedroom and the Common Rooms of the individual houses, a meeting place and conviviality.
From the visual point of view instead we will have aquite classic interface. At the bottom right there will be a rumble with four spells that we can use (the game has 20 to learn). Below the rhombus is the health barwhile in the lower left we will find the map. The game settings will also allow us to hide these interfaces. Similarly to the Assassin’s Creed saga, our character will be able to use the d-pad to show any hidden objects in the game scenario.
Dialogues and fights
One of the key game mechanics of Hogwarts Legacy is dialogue. Depending on how we interact with other students, our character will develop a certain character and alignment of his own (good bad). The different responses will also lead to different endings, as is typical of RPG games.
There will also be the fights, revealed in the last part of the 45 minutes of Gameplay Showcase. We have already mentioned the over 20 spells that we will be able to learn, which will make up our arsenal of weapons. As in classic shooters, from consoles, you can attack using the right trigger of the controller, choosing the spell with the four buttons. The D-Pad will allow you to select different sets instead (remember that the shortcuts include 4 spells for the four buttons). In total we will therefore have sixteen different possibilities of attack.
The defense during the fights will mainly consist of dodges and shields. Spells learned can be upgraded, although this aspect of the game was not shown during the Gameplay Showcase.
When is Hogwarts Legacy coming out?
The title is currently still in the works. It is therefore no surprise that the gameplay shown yesterday was limited to just 30fps. A much lower framerate than what we will see at the exit. The game will in fact also be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S, which should certainly guarantee superior performance.
Currently, the release date of Hogwarts Legacy is set for February 10, 2023 are PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One e PC. Below you can find the full video of the Gameplay Showcase held yesterday. At this link instead our article on the official trailer of the game.