While it may not have as many spells as a game like Elden Ring, Hogwarts Legacy does a lot to make each of its spells feel truly unique and worthwhile, not only being used in combat, but also the game's vast array of puzzles and open-world activities. One of the best elements of Hogwarts Legacy's spells is their overall visual and sound design, with each one feeling truly magical. But before players can equip these powerful spells, they need to do a little mini game first.
Minigames can be a pretty divisive feature in modern video games. While those with depth are often praised as being wonderful side additions to a game's primary content, mini games that lack any real gameplay are often derided for being a waste of time and effort. While Hogwarts Legacy's spell-learning mini games are extremely simplistic, their inherent nostalgia will likely keep most long-time Wizarding World fans pretty happy.
Hogwarts Legacy's Spell-Learning Minigame Hearkens Back to the First Harry Potter Game
Before the player learns a new spell in Hogwarts Legacy, they're usually tasked with completing a few prerequisite objectives for their professors. These can range from rescuing specific animals to brewing and using potions to defeating dark wizards in combat. These objectives are always very straightforward, and they act as a great way to ensure that both the player and their in-game character are keeping up with their wizard studies. After those objectives have been completed, players can head to their professor, who will teach them a new spell.
To learn a new spell, players must complete a little 15-second mini game. This mini game sees players trace a shape by pushing the thumbstick in the designated direction. Along the shape, the player will find little boost symbols, whereby pressing the right button when going over it will give the player's line a speed boost. If the player hits all of these speed boosts, and avoids the red line chasing them, then they learn the spell. It's an incredibly simple mini game, and an extremely short one, and while most players won't think twice about it, long-time Harry Potter fans might get a wave of nostalgia every time they complete it.
The original PlayStation 1 version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is infamous for many reasons, from its clunky dialogue to its wonky character models, but its core gameplay loop was actually pretty solid, at least for a 2001 movie tie-in game. During the game, players would attend classes, where they would learn new spells. To learn a new spell, players would have to complete a shape-based mini game, much like in Hogwarts Legacy. These mini games required players to time their button presses with the rhythm of an icon tracing the outline of a shape. The PC version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone also saw players engage in a similar spell-learning mini game, but here players simply needed to trace the outline of the spell's icon with their mouse.
Hogwarts Legacy's spell-learning mini game isn't just a fun throwback to the original Harry Potter games, as it epitomizes the whole Hogwarts Legacy experience. All of Hogwarts Legacy, from its environmental design to its story to its music, has been designed to strike the perfect balance between nostalgia and a fresh new experience, and this spell-learning mini game is just the simplest example of it in action. Hogwarts Legacy is constantly taking nostalgic elements from the Wizarding World franchise and putting a fresh coat of paint on them, and for the most part, it really works.
Hogwarts Legacy is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. PS4 and Xbox One ports are scheduled to release on April 4, the Nintendo Switch version is arriving July 25, 2023.
