Many fans of the Harry Potter franchise were thrilled once they saw the announcement of Hogwarts Legacy. Despite its rich backstory full of lore, there hasn’t been much exploration of the wizarding world outside of Harry Potter’s era. While this game seeks to scratch that itch for hardcore fans, it will be interesting to see how well it performs without the titular character, Harry Potter. This wouldn’t be the first time that the franchise stepped away from the boy who lived, but typically other stories it has told at least connect to Harry Potter in some way, whereas it seems like this one won’t.
It doesn’t take an eagle-eyed observer to notice that Hogwarts Legacy is completely lacking the Harry Potter prefix. Set in the late 1800s, this game will take place more than a century before Harry Potter was even born, and even Dumbledore will only have been a young boy at the time of the story. In terms of characters from the original seven books, Dumbledore seems like the only one old enough to make an appearance, and he certainly wouldn’t be playing the role of wise mentor like he does in other forms of media.
Hogwarts Legacy may be testing the strength of the franchise without its chosen one to back it up, but it already has something to go off of. There have actually already been numerous instances of the wizarding world being explored outside of Harry Potter’s story, with perhaps the most recognizable instance being Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The movies tell the story of Newt Scamander, a Magizoologist and famed author of the book by the same title of the movie. Though his primary concern is the fantastic beasts that he studies and cares for, he does get mixed up in the machinations of the evil wizard Grindelwald.
Outside of that, there are other games as well that don’t focus on Harry Potter. On mobile, players of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery create their own character and interact with Hogwarts’ students from ’80s. Many of these names are mentioned in the Harry Potter books and movies, but they aren’t central characters. Finally, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite takes place after the events of the books, and although Harry and friends are characters in the game, they are not the main focus. All of this goes to show that the Wizarding World has enough staying power without Harry Potter to at least draw some attention, but it isn’t clear whether that will be enough to let Hogwarts Legacy succeed.
Even if brand recognition fails to catapult Hogwarts Legacy to success (Thanks to J. K. Rowling’s reputation, it could could actually hurt sales in a way), it appeals to a wide audience for a number of other reasons. For starters, it features RPG mechanics that hardcore gamers tend to love. These things are enough to draw fans into games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and if implemented correctly, they’ll certainly attract players to Hogwarts Legacy.
It’s also a unique take on magic in an RPG. In most cases, players can use magic to supplement other abilities or they can choose to focus on it in a limited sort of way. In Hogwarts Legacy, all characters will primarily be magic users, and the customization comes into play based on what kinds of magic the player wants to use. There have been games that have tried to accomplish this sort of thing, but none that are as high profile or as promising as Hogwarts Legacy.
Despite not including the character or even the name Harry Potter, Hogwarts Legacy still has the marketing power of the most famous wizarding school in history, Hogwarts. Some fans would have liked to see this type of game feature another wizarding school, but it’s likely that the choice was made to stick with Hogwarts since it is well known even by casual fans. If the game was titled Beauxbatons Legacy, for example, there’s a huge audience that would have no idea about the wizarding school in France and wouldn’t realize that this is in fact a Harry Potter game.
In all the afore-mentioned forms of Harry Potter media without Harry Potter, they all share a common bond in Hogwarts. Though Newt Scamander’s adventures take place in America where the primary wizarding school is Ilvermorny, he himself went to Hogwarts and talks about it in the movies. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery sees players take their own custom character through seven years of school at Hogwarts, and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite also features Hogwarts prominently in the story and events. It could be argued that the school itself is more iconic than the boy who lived, and that will almost certainly be enough to draw in casual fans.
If anything, Hogwarts Legacy will serve as a way to get more casual Harry Potter fans or those that care more about the RPG aspects of the game into the extended universe of Harry Potter. There already exists a ton of lore about dark wizards, the history of magic, and the like that Warner Bros. could explore if it wanted to, and Hogwarts Legacy might be the bridge to that unknown world of witchcraft and wizardry.
Hogwarts Legacy is also a great example of a company making a new story in the Wizarding World, using the world of Harry Potter to craft its own adventure. If the game performs well, it could be start of more like this, a thought that no doubt makes Harry Potter fans very excited. This could mean exploring other schools, time periods, stories, and characters that are as of yet untouched.
Hogwarts Legacy releases 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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