Hogwarts Legacy Gameplay Showcase Details Combat, the Castle, More

As was previously announced, Avalanche Software held a new gameplay showcase for Hogwarts Legacy. This detailed deep dive showed off the RPG’s combat, user interface, character creator, the castle, and more.

The stream kicked off with the character creator. Players can pick from a ton of presets and then choose the one they want to use as a starting point. There are a few different types of glasses from the jump, but players can collect more later in the game. Players can also pick from many different hairstyles, hair colors, scars, freckles, moles, eye colors, eyebrow types, eyebrow shapes, voice pitches, and whether they want to be a witch or wizard, which doesn’t seem to be locked depending on prior customization choices. Players can even change some (but not all) of these options later in the game.

Game Director Alan Tew then broke down the user interface. Players have quick access to four spells, but there are over 20 total. The team didn’t want to reveal more of the spells or the magical tools players can use because of spoilers.

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The quick explanation of the user interface then transitioned to a lengthy tour of the school, which started in the Hufflepuff common room. This specific common room showed off the different architecture and music each House has. The four Houses are also based on different elements — Hufflepuff is earth, Ravenclaw is air, Gryffindor is fire, and Slytherin is water — and they are all reflected in the design of each common room.

Exploring the castle might unlock certain challenges and these are justified in the lore. Since the protagonist is a late fifth-year student, these challenges act as ways for the character to catch up to the other kids. They seemed to touch all sorts of aspects of the game from collectibles to combat.

Side missions are also scattered around the castle. These can flesh out the game’s world and have consequences that can affect certain characters or the ending itself. One of these had players finding Gobstones, which isn’t playable in Hogwarts Legacy. Tew said that the team had to pick and choose what to make playable, but made sure to give nods to as many different in-universe games as they could.

The tour then went through some of the classrooms, which allowed the team to explain how classes work. Classes aren’t based on a schedule, meaning it is not a sim where players can miss classes. Instead, they are tied to narrative missions and side content.

One side mission opened up in the demo that led to a more detailed look at the combat. Pressing the attack button (R2 in this case) throws out a basic shot but holding it down opens up the four spells around the icon in the bottom right. These special spells on the face buttons have different effects and have cooldowns once used. This quick menu can grow later in the game, allowing for an even broader access to these special spells during gameplay.

Spells are slotted into different, color-coded classes and this system allows for players to more easily understand what spells do. For example, if an enemy has a red shield, a red spell will break through that barrier. It also has some Batman: Arkham elements, too, as a little halo appears over the character’s head when a spell is incoming. Pressing the right button allows the player to quickly deflect it and holding that button down will lead to a more powerful counter that stuns the enemy. Tew likened it to fencing, but at a longer range.

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The gameplay demo portion of the stream ended with a tease of the next stream, which will be on the areas outside of the school.

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