March 2022’s State of Play presentation was entirely focused on Hogwarts Legacy, and among all the new gameplay footage came the revelation of just how huge the game’s open-world map is. While it was already confirmed that gameplay would expand beyond just the walls of Hogwarts Castle, it wasn’t entirely clear for a while what that meant. Now, however, it appears as though Harry Potter fans will not only get to venture through iconic locations like Hogsmeade but well beyond the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest, as well, across a map so large that it takes a broomstick to explore it properly.
After so long without new footage, the Hogwarts Legacy PlayStation State of Play was highly anticipated. The game had already gone through a couple of delays and skipped out on all of 2021’s biggest gaming expos since its announcement in 2020, and many were starting to speculate that it might even be pushed back to a 2023 release date. Fortunately, it’s now been confirmed that Hogwarts Legacy will come out during the 2022 holiday season, and it’s also much clearer what Harry Potter enthusiasts can expect when they start venturing out into the wizarding world.
When it was initially revealed that Hogwarts Legacy would take place in the 1800s, many weren’t sure what to expect in terms of the game’s setting. Some of the most iconic novel and movie locations likely wouldn’t exist in Hogwarts Legacy, or at the very least wouldn’t look the same as readers had probably envisioned. However, the most recent footage indicates that Hogwarts Legacy‘s developers are taking the game’s unique timeframe in stride, allowing players to explore areas of Hogwarts that were underdeveloped or entirely left out of the movies, the dangerous outskirts of Hogsmeade, and a wholly new take on the Room of Requirement, thus making the game’s open-world larger than players may have initially envisioned.
Exploring Hogwarts is one thing, but the primary storyline also seems to involve the game’s protagonist journeying far beyond the walls of the Castle, working with Hogwarts Legacy‘s returning Harry Potter characters as well as newly-introduced ones like Professor Fig to uncover the truth behind the mounting Goblin Rebellion. March’s State of Play gameplay footage gave viewers a glimpse at the scope of Hogwarts Legacy‘s map and showed how important it will be to utilize magical methods of fast travel to make getting around more manageable. Everything from hippogriffs to broomsticks can cut down travel time, and perhaps even more instantaneous options like Floo powder will be revealed as the 2022 holiday release window approaches.
Several other confirmed areas of Hogwarts Legacy weren’t featured on the map, potentially indicating that the total size of the game is as of yet unknown. For example, urban sprawls like Hogwarts Legacy‘s version of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley were excluded, and some have speculated that this is because they aren’t a part of the game’s open-world area. Instead, Hogwarts Legacy might require a separate loading screen to journey there. This could also be true of more story-heavy locations like areas that Professor Fig may escort the player to through the duration of the game’s primary storyline. Even more minor priorities like finding gear and crafting potions will serve to make the most incidental locales worth investigating, however.
Given Hogwarts Legacy requires players to balance multiple game mechanics such as ingredient gathering, combat, and creature taming, it’s little surprise Avalanche Studios has opted to go big in terms of scale. The full extent of what that means isn’t entirely clear yet, but the game’s footage has already promised that there will be plenty of space to roam and many activities and items to find while searching, be that in the form of combat or puzzles. As more details come to light, hopefully the true scale of the map of Hogwarts Legacy will be made apparent.
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Author: Ky Shinkle
