The imagery of the different mythical creatures that call the Harry Potter universe home is stunning in the film and reminds fans of the wonders that Harry Potter can be filled with. Despite the source material’s true legacy fans of many ages were able to enjoy a story that while complicated seemed to touch on one of the more positive aspects of what it can mean to be a witch or wizard. As Hogwarts Legacy prepares to give players a similar opportunity copying off of a few of the notes that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them took would be a great way to set the tone for the future of the Harry Potter franchise.
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Harry Potter’s Fantastic Beasts
While Fantastic Beasts 3 looks like it will likely be taking a step away from the mythical creatures that inhabit the Harry Potter universe, this doesn’t mean that Hogwarts Legacy can’t pick up where the series left off. Hogwarts itself is already a part of a massive ecosystem of creatures that have been shown off in the movies and games before. Each time they’ve been incorporated in a Harry Potter story they’ve engaged fans and helped to add depth to the wonders of the world that the characters live in.
Species like the acromantula and other creatures spotted in the Hogwarts Legacy reveal trailer are a start to keeping this formula going but there’s more that can be done with Hogwarts and the region that it’s in. It might not be realistic for fans to expect something as nefarious as a basilisk to appear in Hogwarts Legacy given the creature’s history with Salazar Slytherin and his descendants but others like the centaurs and more inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest could easily make an appearance. Coupling some of these creatures with storylines in the game could also help to flesh out the canon knowledge that fans have about Hogwarts itself.
In the past, much of Hogwarts older lore is focused on its most important characters and their relation to Harry Potter but there were likely students like Newt Scamander and Hagrid before their times. Wizards already building relationships with the magical creatures in proximity to them even if they weren’t becoming keepers in the same sense. Those who would’ve viewed creatures like the merpeople as beings they could learn from rather than vilifying or using them. In the main series of books Hogwarts students that fit this description already exist to an extent with Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood both showing empathy for magical creatures at different points in the franchise.
Building off of both these characters and their relationships to the magical world around them could be a great way to further develop Hogwarts Legacy. Some fans of Hogwarts Legacy want to be able to play as a Dark Wizard despite the negative connotations that come with the title. While this likely won’t mean they’ll become He Who Shall Not Be Named, that doesn’t mean morality isn’t a way mythical creatures and fantastic beasts can be explored. As honorable as a hippogriff can be there’s still the other side of the coin with dementors and inferi being some of the darkest creatures known to witches and wizards.
Using an approach that focuses on magical creatures as much as possible, whether it be through a player morality system or otherwise, would also do wonders for the immersion of Hogwarts Legacy. With what has been shown off so far, the game’s concepts already look great but how deep their implementation goes can be what makes or breaks Hogwarts Legacy. Players will want to not only be able to engage with creatures they know but discover new ones that might have been overlooked before. Similarly, to how Hogwarts Legacy should be able to nail seasonal events it should also be able to whisk its players to a world where the creatures that inhabit it feel mystical and foreign.
Behind the veil that hides magic from the real world that fans know is a whole zoological index waiting to be expanded. It’s clear that not every creature was shown to fans in the first Harry Potter film and even by the last book, there’s still a lot for fans to learn. While thestrals may have become visible to Harry, it’s obvious that much of the world around him and the fans still needs to be discovered. Giants and werewolves are a start and helped to add to the backstories of important characters like Hagrid and Lupin but from the mundane to the exciting, the open-world around Hogwarts should be filled with natural wonders and mysteries.
Hogwarts Legacy is believed to release in 2022 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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