Hogwarts Legacy

Being able to wield a wand in the hallowed halls is enchanting, but what's beneath the spell is competent but unspectacular.

Hogwarts Legacy starts to feel like countless open-world games of the past decade once you’ve been playing it for more than 15 hours. In place of that, we have hundreds of things to collect and dark wizards and magical wildlife to battle, and like most open-world games it starts to feel repetitive and meaningless after a while. The story, which revolves around a goblin uprising, is thin and uninteresting, and interrogates nothing about the Dark Arts or the sources of conflict between wizard-kind and other magical denizens. Hogwarts Legacy has so much to work with: it is the product of millions of childhood dreams. When Hogwarts Legacy leans into its role as a wizarding wish-fulfilment simulator, it is – forgive me – enchanting. It is a shame that the game can’t escape this context, because tremendous effort has clearly gone into diversifying Potter’s magical world for a 2023 audience.

The most ambitious game ever to emerge from the franchise will delight fans — unless they join the boycott.

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You're directly supporting the royalty checks J. K. Rowling will receive for use of the Harry Potter intellectual property (IP). You're financially signaling to ...

And if you knowingly weigh the costs and decide that your personal enjoyment of a video game is worth supporting a trans-exclusionary radical feminist, that indulging your nostalgia is more valuable than supporting the transgender community? A closeted trans girl, lonely and desperately craving validation, would attempt to enter her assigned (dreaded) dorm, only for the stairs to deny her because the stairs knew that her gender wasn’t what the world said it was. There was a beautiful idea I read once about the stairs of Hogwarts, specifically the girl’s dormitory stairs that would allow girls to climb up but not boys, and vice versa. The gendered staircase concept has a lot of problematic elements that could be unpacked (the binary nature, etc.) but magic as a force of validation? I experienced no major bugs, but nor did I find much to make it stand out in the plethora of action RPGs available. I did play the review copy of Hogwarts Legacy I received. I don’t need to prove that she’s a ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’ – she has [openly identified with the label](https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1270749170215903232?s=20). You buy Hogwarts Legacy, you provide support that harms the transgender community. - You’re socially engaging with the IP and potentially broadening its audience, encouraging others to engage with it as well. - You’re financially signaling to the wider market that the Harry Potter IP is a profitable space, likely worth investing in with future titles. Perhaps even moreso when that creation takes steps to distance itself from those now-tainted roots, and offers support to the people who were wronged. Rowling will receive for use of the Harry Potter intellectual property (IP).

Rowling's consistent anti-transgender rhetoric for the past few years. Many Harry Potter fans have vowed not to buy Hogwarts Legacy as not to benefit Rowling ...

We know our fans fell in love with the Wizarding World, and we believe they fell in love with it for the right reasons," he said. We have a diverse cast of characters that players will encounter throughout the game." The Character Creator is just one example of that and of course, the large, diverse cast of characters present throughout the game have also had a huge amount of thought from Avalanche and Warner Bros. Offering players choices in the way they play the game is an element that we have worked on since the start of development. "It has been a high priority throughout the development of Hogwarts Legacy to create a game that is representative and diverse, aligning with our wonderful fan community. IGN asked Portkey to comment on Sirona's inclusion in the game, and a representative for the developer responded via email:

Hogwarts Legacy, the new video game stemming from author J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter" fiction, is launching this week to big sales and big controversy.

It has not yet published a review of the game. Rowling, but because we feel the continued popularity of Harry Potter only provides her with a larger platform and further legitimizes her views, which we in turn feel are harmful to trans people.” Rowling” that states inconclusively: “As critics, our job is to answer the question of whether or not we find Hogwarts Legacy to be fun to play and why; whether it’s ethical to play is a separate but still very important question.” (Access to the game, so far, is controlled by Warner Bros., which like any other publisher, chooses which outlets to send review copies to.) Among her many comments on gender since then, she has mocked the idea that the phrase “people who menstruate” could refer to anything other than women. [published an essay](https://www.gamespot.com/articles/jk-rowlings-anti-transgender-stance-and-hogwarts-legacy/1100-6501632/)by Earl about Rowling’s views and the game. [told Axios](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/25/warner-bros-games-discovery-david-haddad): “We're going to stay very focused on the game that we built and the great job that the Avalanche studio has done.” He added: “We want everybody that loves this world and loves these stories and loves these characters.” [the Washington Post recently described](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2023/01/23/hogwarts-legacy-jk-rowling-trans/)as “the pain and difficulty in being a Harry Potter fan of late.” [let players make trans characters](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-02/harry-potter-video-game-will-allow-for-transgender-characters)by [decoupling body and voice selections from gendered terms](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/21/character-creation-lgbtq-hogwarts-legacy-world-of-warcraft)in the users’ character creation process has been viewed as a subtle repudiation of Rowling. [actors for the Potter movies](https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/pictures/harry-potter-cast-how-stars-feel-about-j-k-rowling-controversy/)who have [distanced themselves](https://ew.com/celebrity/sebastian-croft-apologizes-hogwarts-legacy-video-game-casting-backlash/#:~:text=Croft%20took%20a%20moment%20to,aware%20of%20JK%20Rowling's%20views.)from Rowling and overtly supported trans rights. - A Canadian outlet, TheGamer, is among those that won’t review Hogwarts Legacy. [accused of transphobia](https://www.glamour.com/story/a-complete-breakdown-of-the-jk-rowling-transgender-comments-controversy)— she denies it — since 2018, when she “liked” a tweet that said that trans women are “men in dresses” ( [per Politico](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/03/the-metamorphosis-of-j-k-rowling-00043835), she said it was for research purposes).

The ongoing controversy surrounding Hogwarts Legacy has resulted in calls to boycott the game in various ways. Here's what you need to know about the ...

[Switchboard ](https://www.switchboard.org.uk/about/) [(UK)](https://www.switchboard.org.uk/about/) – Switchboard is a charity for LGBTQ people looking for a sense of community, support or information. [published a report](https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1366743338494353412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) regarding Hogwarts Legacy’s development in which he noted that some members of the team anonymously informed him that they felt uncomfortable working on the game after they became aware of Rowling’s views. [The National Center for Transgender Equality](https://transequality.org/) – The National Center for Transgender Equality advocates to change policies and society to increase understanding and acceptance of transgender people. [official adaptations](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-k-rowling-net-worth-150001281.html) of the Harry Potter books and the expanded Wizarding World universe they resulted in. In a 2018 video, [Leavitt claimed](https://www.indiewire.com/2021/02/harry-potter-game-designer-gamergate-youtube-channel-1234619220/) that he had “disclosed my YouTube channel to WB Games, it didn’t appear to be an issue for them,” but noted that they did not “endorse anything I’ve said.” [this tweet ](https://twitter.com/SebastianCroft/status/1614315678412029956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1614315680953782274%7Ctwgr%5E6b6398398ae68ba0168853b345c81f0cb344d665%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2023%2F01%2Fheartstopper-sebastian-croft-responds-backlash-harry-potter-hogwarts-legacy-game-casting-1235225408%2F)regarding their involvement with the title: “I was cast in this project over 3 years ago, back when all Harry Potter was to me, was the magical world I grew up with. Others mentioned that the name Robert Galbraith is similar to that of [Robert Galbraith Heath](https://www.newsweek.com/why-jk-rowling-robert-galbraith-pseudonym-gay-conversion-robert-galbraith-heath-1532341), a psychiatrist who claims to have “cured” homosexuality through the use of electrodes implanted in the patient’s brain. [with GamesHub](https://www.gameshub.com/news/features/hogwarts-legacy-interview-stephen-dona-technical-game-designer-diversity-38657/): “We worked closely with the Wizarding World team. Rowling is not involved in the creation of the game, but as creator of the wizarding world and one of the world’s greatest storytellers, her extraordinary body of writing is the foundation of all projects in the Wizarding World. The above is not a complete summary of Rowling’s statements, her political/social beliefs, or an attempt to summarize the thoughts of why everyone who is boycotting Hogwarts Legacy has chosen to do so. [Mermaids](https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/), a trans children’s advocacy group based out of the U.K. While Hogwarts Legacy is generally considered to be one of the

Set in the beloved Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts Legacy is the most ambitious game of the franchise, and ...

Hogwarts Legacy is coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X The first you're able to learn is Crucio, the torture spell that inflicts excruciating pain on your enemy. The game is releasing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X Every piece of gear can have a custom appearance. Hover over the gear slot you want to change and press Square or X to change the look and keep the perks. Locations you've unlocked are marked with a green flame.

Incant the words 'Harry Potter' and that spells 'meh' to me. I'm no devotee, though I've scanned the books and sat through the films.

A handful of times I struggled to flick to the correct target in a group. Being able to intricately place/size and stylize every conceivable inch of that space is the true time-waste danger. When you get down to brass bedknobs and broomsticks, Hogwarts Legacy is an ambitious triumph. Not to be the bearer of a bad owlvelope, but I often ran afoul of bizarre cloak glitches that would clip trenchcoat tails into being aprons (or bunched-up bustles). Having most of one’s crafting stations, stables and dirt pots in one place is the practical appeal. It’s nothing compared to the thwang of hucking an anvil into someone’s beak. And if your cooldown is preventing you from breaching the coloured ‘elemental’ shield of an opponent, just tap R1 to ping incidental objects at them. It’s basically a 3D Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Likewise, Hogwarts itself is more or less the perfect environment to build a video game level around. Every spell is then tied to one of four coloured cooldowns, which encourages experimentation and prevents spamming. This is a clean slate plot, set 130 years in the past. Incant the words ‘Harry Potter’ and that spells ‘meh’ to me.

Hogwarts Legacy has had strong reviews, but the way its developers have responded to JK Rowling's controversial comments on the trans community has sparked ...

[Karl Quinn](/by/karl-quinn-hvecw)is a senior culture writer at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Warner Bros was so alarmed at the declining fortunes of the Fantastic Beasts franchise that it cancelled the final two films it had planned to make. [a statement in September 2020](https://www.denofgeek.com/games/hogwarts-legacy-harry-potter-jk-rowling-involvement/) that made it clear the Scottish author “is not directly involved in the creation of the game”. (Sirona is the Celtic goddess of healing, associated with wells or springs, an apt name for the witch proprietor of a pub.) [CEO David Zaslav said he hoped to make more Potter movies](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/harry-potter-more-movies-j-k-rowling-1235255333/). Notably, he said he wanted to make them with Rowling (she shares ownership of the Potterverse with the studio). In 2022, the game – for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Windows – was named the most anticipated of the year. This week was set to be a time of celebration for fans of Harry Potter, with the release of the long-awaited and highly anticipated open world video game Hogwarts Legacy. They once found in her work – which teems with outcasts and misfits – a safe haven. Harry Potter fans have long clamoured for a fully developed role-playing game (RPG), and until now have largely had to contend themselves with the (admittedly enjoyable) Lego iterations. “Why is Sirona Ryan voiced by a cis man and has that name? The first footage of gameplay from tHogwarts Legacy, from developer Avalanche and publisher Portkey, both of which are owned by Warner Bros, surfaced in 2018.

Hogwarts Legacy, despite being enmeshed in a near-constant state of controversy, is already breaking sales records on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and unless the game ...

I thought I would update this post now that I’ve had the chance to play the game a few hours before Early Access begins on consoles (and a bit longer if you’re on PC, unfortunately). I’ll have proper impressions up later and a full review down the road (this game is huge) but for now, I can honestly say this is the most fun I’ve had in an RPG in years—at least in an RPG that isn’t a Dark Souls / Bloodborne / Elden Ring game. The game is beautiful, by the way. There’s a fascinating mysterious plot that kicks off right away, but you almost forget all about it as you enter Hogwarts, sit with the Sorting Hat to pick a House and then head off to class, to Hogsmeade, and to all the adventure you encounter along the way. Comments which use derogatory language, in this thread or anywhere else on the sub, will be removed and the user will be banned, with the duration/permanency at the mod team’s discretion. Rowling has put a damper on things, but I believe you can purchase and enjoy the game whether or not you agree with Rowling’s politics. Hogwarts Legacy has been shaping up into what looks like a very good game (I had many doubts early on but I’ve come to be pretty excited about the game). So 9pm PST / 10pm MST / 11pm CST on the 6th, and then 12am EST on the 7th (at least, that’s what the below map appears to convey despite the Hogwarts Legacy tweet’s text): The open-world Harry Potter game allows players to explore the magical school Hogwarts as a young witch or wizard as they attend school, fight monsters, fly on broomsticks and cast spells—all in a fantastical open-world. Whenever the clock strikes midnight and the carriage turns back into a pumpkin and the dress into rags, lose your glass slippers and hop into the game. If you pre-ordered the game’s physical Collector’s Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition on console or PC you’ll get 72 hours of early access. The most highly-anticipated game of 2023 (so far) is almost upon us.

Connect your Harry Potter Fan Club and WB Games accounts to receive cosmetics and your wand in Hogwarts Legacy. Make sure to link your accounts for a more ...

- Click the “Discover Your Wand” button on the Legacy Connect page to receive a wand. - Click the “Get Sorted Now” button on the Legacy Connect page to get sorted into your house. After receiving your field guide, you’ll be able to change the appearance of your clothes in the Gear section. If a pop-up with a code appears on your screen, you’ll have to redo the linking process. Select the “WB Games Account” button for a pop-up to appear saying you’ve successfully linked your accounts. This involves a couple of quizzes to find which Hogwarts house you belong to and the right wand for you.

The new 'Harry Potter' video game, 'Hogwarts Legacy,' features the series' first trans character amid controversy over J.K. Rowling comments.

“Sirona” is a traditional Celtic name, but some people have zeroed in on the choice to give a trans woman a name that starts with “Sir.” It even seems oddly inline with Rowling’s own habit of giving some characters comically stereotypical names like Cho Chang, Seamus Finnigan, or Anthony Goldstein. I don’t know how it appears in the final product but one of the sources I talked to described it as ‘performative bullshit.’” But this stab at broadening representation hasn’t exactly gone over well — not necessarily with Rowling’s defenders, but rather Potter fans who have raised questions and criticisms over the intent behind the character’s inclusion and her incredibly minor role in the game. Ryan is a witch that runs the Three Broomsticks, an inn and pub in Hogsmeade Village, that the player interacts with during a mission involving a goblin. [Harry Potter](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/harry-potter/) video game is ostensibly trying to distance itself from [J.K. Which is more than I can say for some of my own classmates.

Despite repeated controversies over J.K. Rowling's views, it seems the wizarding world may have debuted its first transgender character.

Rowling](https://deadline.com/tag/j-k-rowling/)’s views about the [transgender](https://deadline.com/tag/transgender/) community, it seems the wizarding world may have debuted its first transgender character. “We met when I was waiting tables here as a student — well before I bought the place,” Sirona says. For us, it’s making sure that the audience, who always dreamed of having this game, had the opportunity to feel welcomed back. Took them a second to realize I was actually a witch, not a wizard.” In Hogwarts Legacy, the open-world role-playing game debuting this Friday, Sirona Ryan is a witch who owns and runs the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade village. That they have a home here and that it’s a good place to tell their story.”

Rowling's consistent anti-transgender rhetoric for the past few years. Many Harry Potter fans have vowed not to buy Hogwarts Legacy as not to benefit Rowling ...

We know our fans fell in love with the Wizarding World, and we believe they fell in love with it for the right reasons," he said. We have a diverse cast of characters that players will encounter throughout the game." The Character Creator is just one example of that and of course, the large, diverse cast of characters present throughout the game have also had a huge amount of thought from Avalanche and Warner Bros. Offering players choices in the way they play the game is an element that we have worked on since the start of development. "It has been a high priority throughout the development of Hogwarts Legacy to create a game that is representative and diverse, aligning with our wonderful fan community. IGN asked Portkey to comment on Sirona's inclusion in the game, and a representative for the developer responded via email:

Using a Hogwarts Legacy name generator will help you find your wizard or witch name for the new Harry Potter game.

[Hogwarts Legacy Switch](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/hogwarts-legacy-switch/)- handheld version explained [Hogwarts Legacy PC requirements](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/hogwarts-legacy-pc-requirements/)- the specs you need [Hogwarts Legacy Deluxe Edition](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/hogwarts-legacy-deluxe-edition/)- price for early access [Imagine Forest Harry Potter name generator](https://www.imagineforest.com/blog/harry-potter-name-generator/). [subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article). [Hogwarts Legacy multiplayer](https://www.radiotimes.com/technology/gaming/hogwarts-legacy-multiplayer/)- is it co-op? Now get out there and live out your Hogwarts Legacy fantasy. If you aren’t happy with your Witch or Wizard name, you can always mix and match your own name and a Potter-sounding surname. Yes, there is a Harry Potter name generator that you can use to name your created player character in Hogwarts Legacy. What it appears to do is take your initials and apply them to names from the book series. It likely won’t give you your own name if it’s one that doesn’t appear in the books, however, as this writer’s first name is routinely ignored, at least. All you need to do is enter your first name, second name, and select whether you’re a wizard, witch, or if you’d rather be surprised. Here is how to find your wizard or witch name for Hogwarts Legacy. There’s a certain ring to the names in the wizarding world of Harry Potter and you may want to emulate that feeling as best you can.

Hogwarts Legacy allows you to customize your character fully, but once you've started the game is there any way to change them?

Can you change your character’s appearance in Hogwarts legacy? You’ll be able to change your hair as soon as you have access to Hogsmeade, which happens within the first hour or so of the game. Any character can have any hairstyle, so you’re not restricted to specific witch or wizard styles.

Once you have completed the Jackdaw's Rest quest, you will receive a quest called Flying Class. During this quest, you'll get a flying lesson from Madam Kogawa, ...

After the quest is finished, you’ll be able to head to Spintwitches in Hogsmeade and purchase a broom for 600 gold. Once you have completed the Jackdaw’s Rest quest, you will receive a quest called Flying Class. At about 8 or so hours into the game, you’ll be able to get the broomstick and fly by completing a main story quest.

Hogwarts Legacy is chock full of gear, whether it be neckwear, cloaks and robes, outfits, and even facewear. But if you're looking to keep appearances,

Do note, though, that each time you change a piece of gear, you will also need to adjust the transmog override. This will now bring up the Appearance Menu, which will allow you to assign a different visual to pieces of gear you own. To change your gear appearance, you will first need to equip an item.

Hogwarts Legacy's Twitch drop promotion allows you to acquire some early in-game cosmetics. Here's how you claim your rewards.

To be more specific, you’ll receive the following drops in this order for every 30 minutes that you’ve watched a supported stream (up until the two-hour limit): Once you’ve linked your Twitch and WB accounts, you just need to watch a Hogwarts Legacy Twitch stream that has drops enabled for the game (more on that in a bit). If you watch developer Avalanche Software’s Twitch stream for 20 minutes (while your accounts are connected and enabled, of course), you’ll also receive the following item: Since individual Twitch streamers stream at different times, it’s tough to offer a solid schedule for those first four items. If that tag is present on a stream, then you will be able to receive drops from watching that stream. From there, you should be able to receive drops up until February 24th. While you can claim them regardless of whether you are able to play the game yet, you obviously can’t do anything with them until the game is unlocked for your platform/region. From there, you just need to play Hogwarts Legacy, open the pause menu, choose “Character,” and look for your rewards under the “Change Appearance” option. Some viewers have reported receiving them earlier than that, but it may be best to wait until the PC Early Access period begins just to be safe. Make sure you are logged into your Twitch account while you watch. Connect your Twitch Account to your Warner Bros. While those rewards are purely cosmetic in this instance, they’ll almost certainly be prized by Hogwarts attendees looking for a little extra style at the start of the game.

The hotly anticipated video game set in the "Harry Potter" universe releases Friday and appears to feature a transgender character, which would be a first ...

That they have a home here and that it’s a good place to tell their story.” Others have pointed out the name “Sirona” refers to [a Celtic goddess of healing and rebirth](https://www.names.org/n/sirona/about). So far, she has not commented on the “Hogwarts Legacy” character. Fans regularly debate how much and when they should invest in the franchise given Rowling’s views. Though Rowling has said she supports trans people, she also has expressed [gender essentialist](https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095846595;jsessionid=7A937D1614036C1A0575AC681D4D8204) ideas and criticized mainstream transgender rights movements. “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman … For us, it’s making sure that the audience, who always dreamed of having this game, had the opportunity to feel welcomed back. [actors like Daniel Radcliffe](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/entertainment/daniel-radcliffe-responds-jk-rowling-trans-tweets-trnd/index.html), and have deeply divided the vast “Harry Potter” fandom. Took them a second to realize I was actually a witch, not a wizard.” [periodically adding comment](https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/21/opinions/jk-rowling-harry-potter-dumbledore-gay-controversy-thomas/index.html) or context to the Harry Potter canon. [in a 2020 essay defending her views](https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/entertainment/jk-rowling/index.html). [controversy surrounding “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling’s views](https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/03/entertainment/harry-potter-sites-condemn-rowling-intl-scli-gbr/index.html) on transgender people.

Controversial open-world game 'Hogwarts Legacy' has introduced the series' first canonically transgender character.

Rowling did not include a transgender character inside the Harry Potter series, but ironically, the rules of her Wizarding World provide many opportunities for magic users to experiment with gender norms. Sirona is a witch that runs a tavern in Hogsmeade Village, an NPC (non-player character) that the player can speak to. There are several instances of characters changing and choosing their identities. Hogwart Legacy, as the developer is keen to emphasize, was created without the involvement of Rowling. Sirona is Harry Potter’s first canonical trans character, and she seems to have been inserted into the franchise in response to controversy, without the input of Rowling. The character seems likely to have been created as a gesture of goodwill towards the trans community, especially in response to the Rowling controversy, but her existence sparked mockery online, as gamers poked fun at her unfortunate name.

While J.K. Rowling had nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy's development, there are those who still think the game should be boycotted as a means to protest her ...

[Twitch streamers have even called for a boycott](https://gamerant.com/hogwarts-legacy-boycott-twitch/) of the streaming giant itself in response to advertisements promoting the Hogwarts Legacy game, whereas other streamers are streaming it without caring about the potential harassment from viewers. [Hogwarts Legacy](http://gamerant.com/tag/harry-potter-hogwarts-legacy/) together on Twitch, but the chat quickly became toxic, with people berating the streamers by calling them bigots for playing the game and fighting with other viewers. Considering this, it's no surprise that Twitch streamers have been streaming the game, but some of those streamers have been subject to harassment from angry viewers in their Twitch chat. Some have gone as far as to say that buying Hogwarts Legacy is the same as outright supporting Rowling's transphobia. Hogwarts Legacy is one of the most divisive video game releases in recent memory, with Rowling had nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy's development, there are those who still think the game should be boycotted as a means to protest her transphobic views.

Commentary: The game lets you dive into an unseen era of the wizarding world, and it's an absolute joy to explore.

The game encourages you to use every tool in your arsenal, instead getting comfortable with a few basic combos and relying on them to get through every battle. The world opens up in a big way once you finish your first flying lesson and get your own broom. Crucially, the flow of quests gives you time to get comfortable with each new ability before introducing another -- you'll attend a class and then use what you've learnt in a few story missions or side quests. These are varied and fun in terms of gameplay, exploration and puzzle-solving, but feel even more worthwhile since they present opportunities to learn more about the quest-givers and world. The development team's love for Harry Potter is apparent in every aspect of Hogwarts Legacy, but shines most brightly in the world and its characters. (It's frustrating that you can't pause during cutscenes though.) This characterisation is woven through the main story and its side quests, which range from investigating one of the castle's mysteries and sneakily grabbing potion ingredients to wandering into a dangerous cave. The house you end up in doesn't seem to change much beyond the common room, your uniform and some throwaway lines. After creating your character, you're whisked off on a brief opening adventure before reaching the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The customization options are a key element in living out your wizarding world fantasy, and they're a joy. This open-world action RPG game, developed by Avalanche Software, is designed to let us live out our fantasies of enrolling at the iconic School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a new student. In 1998, my mum handed me a copy of Philosopher's Stone -- called Sorcerer's Stone in the US -- and that first chapter sucked me right into its magical universe. Rowling's inflammatory comments about transgender people](/culture/entertainment/daniel-radcliffe-responds-to-backlash-calling-j-k-rowling-transphobic/), sucked the remaining fun out of the franchise, and I figured it was time to move on.

Early Access for Hogwarts Legacy pre-orders of the Collector's and Digital Deluxe editions of the game on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC is now live.

In any case, the game is great and so magical. You can read all about the game’s download size, PC requirements and more I checked my receipt and no, that wasn’t the case. Early Access for Hogwarts Legacy pre-orders of the Collector’s and Digital Deluxe editions of the game on PS5, Xbox Series X and PC is now live. You can hop into the game right now and start playing. In my Steam account, despite pre-ordering the Digital Deluxe version of the game, the Play button was greyed out.