Hogwarts Legacy has the convenience of rich lore behind it, even though its narrative plunges into a new territory for the franchise with Ancient Magic. Stepping outside the castle it is easy to see where Hogwarts Legacy might have drawn other inspirations from action-adventure or open-world games, but within the castle players get as much fan service and nostalgia as they could hope for in the most subtle of ways. Hogwarts Legacy mildly refers to the Chamber of Secrets, and a trophy room offers a look at the Goblet of Fire casket as only two of myriad examples.
Hogwarts Legacy does eventually require players to journey far from Hogwarts, and it is in this exploration that a broomstick becomes invaluable. That said, broomsticks are not the only form of traversal or flight in Hogwarts Legacy since there are other mounts that players gain access to later on. These mounts are certainly neat from a visual standpoint, and how they can spawn and despawn on command is spectacular, but they are ultimately redundant when the broomstick is earned much earlier and receives satisfactory upgrades and skins.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Broomstick is Worth the Time It Takes to Receive
Until players progress enough through Hogwarts Legacy’s main questline to go to their flying lesson, all traversal is done on foot. There are areas where players are not able to fly anyway, such as Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, and fast travel is a kind of reward for players having endeavored on foot throughout the enormous castle.
Even in its basic form the broomstick is a godsend that makes traversal much easier in Hogwarts Legacy’s massive open-world map, whether players decide to fly high into the sky for the best view or right along the ground for the best speed. Besides being essential to open-world traversal, the broomstick is also integral in flight races that players can compete in throughout the Highlands, and doing so will reap favorable rewards in Hogsmeade with incremental broomstick upgrades. The broomstick is also customizable with preset skins scattered throughout the game that players can purchase and collect.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Mounts Are Not Unique or Functional Enough on Their Own
Besides the broomstick, players also eventually earn a hippogriff and a Graphorn as mounts. Likewise, players can have a Thestral mount so long as they have purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game that came with Hogwarts Legacy’s Dark Arts bundle pack. However, after players have already gotten used to the convenience of a broomstick, there is hardly any reason to switch over to a hippogriff or Thestral as the player’s primary method of traversal beyond enjoying the fact that they are riding a magical creature.
Graphorns have a similar problem as Horizon Forbidden West’s Sunwing mounts, where they are not available until the end of the main questline. This made Sunwing mounts feel underutilized as a mechanic because players may have already tried to do a bunch of side content on foot or astride grounded mounts, and also because Sunwing mounts were featured in Horizon Forbidden West’s marketing as if they would play a larger role.
Either way, Hogwarts Legacy’s Graphorns have an even smaller functional role besides its ram attack. Magical beasts can be rescued and domesticated within the Room of Requirement’s Vivariums, and that is perhaps the only truly functional role for them since players already have a perfectly serviceable, upgradeable, and customizable broomstick on-hand.
Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. PS4 and Xbox One ports are scheduled to release on May 5, and the Nintendo Switch version arrives July 25, 2023.
