Avalanche did its best not to reveal too many secrets within Hogwarts during Hogwarts Legacy’s first gameplay showcase. This involved a mindful tour within the school that passed its player-character through different hallways and corridors, but because the school is ripe with secrets and prompted interactions in the Hogwarts Legacy’s UI, it was always going to be impossible not to have a couple interesting prompts appear. One such prompt appeared in red text that reads “Level 1 Lock” beside a locked door, which insinuates a couple of things based on the specific wording of the text.
There are already a ton of spells confirmed for Hogwarts Legacy with more that fans are probably hoping to appear as well. Classes seem to have a large role in Hogwarts Legacy’s narrative, but fans also hope that they are integral to learning these associable spells and implementing them in the open world, whether players are busy exploring inside or outside Hogwarts. It would be easy to assume that this locked door teases the inclusion of the Unlocking Charm, Alohomora, and if so, the text prompt also suggests that it will have tiers players upgrade through to detach more powerful locks.
Hogwarts Conceals Some of Its Secrets Behind Locked Doors
In order to get the absolute most out of Hogwarts’ freely explorable castle, it would be phenomenal to see doors, passages, and other areas obscured from the player until they have learned requisite spells or have obtained requisite items. This would employ a Metroidvania approach with areas being returned to later, adding suspense and excitement for when a spell is learned that purist fans know they need for a particular predicament.
It is possible that the “Level 1 Lock” door is unlocked with a literal key, but it is much more likely that players will be casting Alohomora to dislodge the giant lock attached to the door’s knob. These doors may simply hold chests with loot or other such rewards, but it would still make exploration engaging when players finally have more spells learned and slotted into their arsenal. Hogwarts Legacy will hopefully conceal secrets behind different spells in order to diversify its magical obstructions if that is the case—if players know they will be learning a certain charm in a future class, for example, classes could be a highly anticipated part of gameplay that players arrive prepared for.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Spell Upgrades Could Be a Mixed Bag
If Alohomora is indeed used to unlock doors in lieu of physical keys, then it seems as if the spell needs to be upgraded to unlock higher-level locks. The player-character not being able to unlock this “Level 1 Lock” suggests that the build the developers used in the showcase did not have Alohomora equipped. More powerful locks would likely have a prompt that reads “Level 2 Lock” and so forth, negating players from attempting to unlock them until they have upgraded the spell.
Rather, spells being upgradeable could be a detriment to the overall Hogwarts Legacy experience, where spells may feel underpowered and not comparable to their franchise counterparts if they need to be unlocked before their full potential is realized. Perhaps only spells used outside of combat may be upgraded, such as ones that could be implemented in solving puzzles, but that still runs the risk of fans being disappointed that Alohomora may not work ubiquitously on every lock.
That said, Hogwarts Legacy’s Avada Kedavra is supposedly as lethal as it is outright. If there is an in-game explanation for Alohomora needing upgrades, such as locks being enchanted with more and more magical encryptions, then that would hopefully satiate fans while giving them something fun to strive toward in gameplay.
Hogwarts Legacy launches on February 10 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, with PS4 and Xbox One versions coming on April 4 and the Switch version launching on July 25.