Hopping in-and-out of shops in Hogsmeade looks to provide great entertainment in Hogwarts Legacy. Further, players will at some point be able to fly atop a hippogriff, giving them seemingly unbridled access to the castle grounds and other remote locations. It is unclear how large or dense Hogwarts Legacy’s open-world map will be, it seems that there will be much to discover. Some areas may be explored as part of Hogwarts Legacy’s companion quests or side quests, such as a quest that will apparently take players to castle ruins.
It is unknown if some areas are completely obstructed unless players are there as part of a particular quest. Likewise, areas such as the expanding, bottomless trunk in Hogwarts Legacy’s PlayStation-exclusive quest demonstrate that areas may be hiding more than they let on. This is fantastic for areas outside the actual Hogwarts school, but the castle should not be put on the backburner in favor of exploration outside its walls. WB Games Avalanche’s unique 1800s take on the castle still needs to be accentuated and emphasized in order to fully sell an immersive Hogwarts Legacy experience.
Little of Hogwarts Legacy’s Castle Has Been Shown Compared to its Grounds
Warner Bros. Interactive has shown fans quite a bit of footage in Hogwarts Legacy that depict its castle interiors. Excited fans have Hogwarts Legacy’s PlayStation State of Play trailer to thank, which centered around activities players will engage in. Besides that, however, gameplay has chiefly centered around areas outside Hogwarts. This seems appropriate when considering the scale of Hogwarts Legacy’s world, and by sharing different areas it can achieve that before the game releases.
If more from Hogwarts’ interior is not shared in the coming months, it may be to some fans’ benefit, as it would make for an exciting surprise once they finally have their hands on it in February. Hogwarts Legacy’s castle interiors will hopefully have as much exploration if not more than its exteriors, if for no other reason than to create a sense of mystery and fantasy within the school’s stone corridors and atriums.
Portraits should be intractable if only to hear a line of dialogue or two from its pictured inhabitant, for example, or they could create passageways to other areas of the castle. Hogwarts Legacy’s diverse house dormitories look astonishing, and that quality and detail should be represented throughout the rest of the school as well.
Hogwarts Legacy Could Benefit from a Metroidvania Approach
If the castle itself is not as enormous as fans may expect, it can still create a wonderful sense of exploration if it takes a page out of Metroidvania design. For example, different corridors, doors, or passageways could be barred from player entry until players learn a particular spell.
Learning Alohomora could be a Hogwarts Legacy mid-game endeavor that players need to pursue in order to unlock doors in the castle; otherwise, there could be spells that disintegrate a physical obstruction or bridge a gap over a chasm. This could make exploration fun throughout the game without there actually being a ton of unique areas to traverse, with areas being unlocked periodically and as a result of the player’s desire to find hidden rewards.
It is assumed that Hogwarts Legacy will have dungeons beneath the castle that could establish their own puzzle rooms, which would be an exciting way to introduce new areas to the school. Aside from dungeons, however, the castle needs its own exploration to be satisfying and as significant as exploration seems to be when players leave its walls.
Hogwarts Legacy releases February 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A Switch version is also in development.
