The upcoming open world Harry Potter action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy is making a change to how the Imperio Unforgivable Curse works, as revealed in a new tweet by the game's official Twitter account. When Hogwarts Legacy launches next year, it will give players the chance to utilize a variety of magical spells from the Harry Potter franchise, and those who decide to dabble in dark magic will even have the Unforgivable Curses at their disposal.
Harry Potter fans will recognize Unforgivable Curses as essentially being illegal spells that witches and wizards use on each other for nefarious purposes. The most famous Unforgivable Curse in the Harry Potter franchise is Avada Kedavra, which is also known as the "killing curse," making anyone struck with it drop dead immediately. Crucio, meanwhile, is basically a spell used to torture people, while Imperio makes witches and wizards do whatever the caster desires.
The description for Imperio as it will appear in the Hogwarts Legacy video game is as follows: "Temporarily forces enemies to fight as if they were your companion. While under your control, they take reduced damage from other enemies to prolong their allegiance to you. Also curses the victim - and cursed enemies take extra damage." So in the game, Imperio will essentially turn enemies into temporary allies in combat as opposed to giving the player direct control over what the victim does. It's possible that Imperio will have more uses outside of combat that better fit how it actually works in the books, but if so, that has yet to be explained.
More information on Imperio and the other Unforgivable Curses as they appear in Hogwarts Legacy should come to light in the weeks and months ahead, especially as we get closer to the game's launch. It may be hard to believe, but the Hogwarts Legacy release date is now merely three months away at this point, and so Harry Potter fans will soon be able to play the open world action-RPG for themselves.
The only exception to that rule will be Nintendo Switch players that plan on playing Hogwarts Legacy. While those on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox will be able to play Hogwarts Legacy and explore open world Hogwarts as much as they'd like come February, Switch gamers will have to wait a little longer. An official release date for the Hogwarts Legacy Nintendo Switch port has not been announced at the time of this writing, but just as more information should be released on the game's spells and curses, more info on that should also be on the way.
Hogwarts Legacy launches February 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X with a Switch version also in development.
