Hogwarts Legacy is the most recently announced game set in the world of Harry Potter, under the Portkey Games label that brought fans titles like the AR game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and the mobile puzzle game Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells. Hogwarts Legacy is being advertised as an open world, action RPG wizarding experience that fans will be able to enjoy on console as they take on the magic school experience in the 1800s.
There’s been a fair amount of excitement over Hogwarts Legacy and its promise to deliver an exciting cinematically-rendered open world, interesting roleplay, and loyalty to the extensive source material. And anyone who’s read the main seven books, watched the films, and dipped into the side books and expanded universe knows that the lore goes back far. Any Harry Potter game this ambitious needs to keep a careful eye on the source material, as many of its fans are known for being highly knowledgeable and invested in the worldbuilding.
Spoilers ahead for the Harry Potter series
Fans have already speculated on different aspects of the lore and how they’ll appear in the game, like what the famous wizarding families would be doing in Hogwarts Legacy‘s 19th-century setting. The Hogwarts Castle is known for not being conducive to modern technology, and students typically wear robes and use quills and parchment instead of paper. Although the movies put the students in more modern British private school attire like knee-length skirts, button-down shirts, and ties, it’s fair to say that much of Hogwarts is already steeped in the past. Many fans are excited to see how Victorian times affected Hogwarts regardless, even if some things are likely to stay the same. One such thing is the textbooks, some of which were canonically published long ago, and they’re something that could be even more interesting in Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts’ textbooks are some of the most intriguing pieces of worldbuilding in the franchise, which is fitting, seeing as the books and movies take place mostly in a school. For six of the seven books (every year that the main trio of characters attended school), there is plenty of mention of the books they study with at Hogwarts, whether that’s in class or on a book list to take to the famous Diagon Alley. And, as Hermione is quick to remind Ron and Harry, studying and taking notes on textbooks take up a huge part of any student’s time, let alone students of the magical arts unknown to the general population.
If Hogwarts Legacy is going to provide what is said to be the most comprehensive interactive Hogwarts experience yet, it’d make sense for textbooks to be a big part of the game. That may come down to just flavor, which is easy enough with titles like Merpeople: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Language and Customs, which is never opened in any of the books or movies but sounds intriguing enough. Or, books could be a mechanic in this Harry Potter game, allowing players to learn new spells and potions, as well as parts of the history that haven’t been delved into yet.
Beside Dumbledore’s hunt for Voldemort’s Horcruxes that he brings Harry along on (and the headmaster’s eventual murder), a large part of the book revolves around Harry’s burgeoning skill with potions. Part of this comes from the fact that his potions professor no longer violently hates him, but a huge reason behind Harry’s potion-making prowess is that he gets a copy of the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book. The book has plenty of helpful notes scribbled in the margins, in addition to a spell that turns out to be devastating to its enemies. Ironically, this book turns out to be the property of Harry’s hated potions professor, ex-Death Eater Severus Snape.
While the Half-Blood Prince’s textbook is probably the strongest example of a plot-important textbook (it named the sixth book, after all), other books show up to move the plot along too. In the second book, Gilderoy Lockhart’s extensive publishing history (Marauding with Monsters, Break with a Banshee, etc.) turn out to be stolen from other heroes, and Lucius Malfoy uses them to cloak his slipping Tom Riddle’s diary into Ginny Weasley’s cauldron. In the fourth book, the false Mad-Eye Moody loans Neville Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs, which had information about the gillyweed plant that Harry later uses to enter the Hogwarts-hosted Triwizard Tournament.
If books have played such a large part in the books and movies, they could easily provide plot hooks and give players important information in Hogwarts Legacy. And, there are already a ton of textbook titles floating around in the canon thanks to their mention in the books that many readers would no doubt love to see expanded upon.
Hogwarts Legacy will launch in 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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