Players can elect to channel their inner dark witch or wizard in Hogwarts Legacy instead of playing simply as a hero. Unforgivable Curses, taking lives, and other dubious things are available actions for the player character.
Incendio
Normally, one would expect players to be able to set torches alight or use fire to defeat Earth or plant-based enemies, but Hogwarts Legacy takes the fire spell to an entirely new level.
Players are able to slot many different spells to their quick bar, and one of those spells is Incendio. As players use their regular attack spell, they can use these other powerful spells to crowd control and further damage enemies.
When updated, it seems that players will be able to not only set other wizards on fire, but also cast a large ring of fire around them that sets everything in the vicinity ablaze. Not only that, players are also able to summon a flaming tornado and toss their victims inside!
The Unforgivable Curses
In the Harry Potter universe, there are three legendary spells that are so dark and evil that they are known as the Unforgivable Curses. Imperio, Crucio, and Avada Kedavra are all available to players in Hogwarts Legacy.
Taking a much darker turn than previous Harry Potter games or any of the other media, Hogwarts Legacy allows players to cast the Unforgivable Curses on their enemies. Crucio causes immeasurable pain and tortures the enemy, Imperio takes over an enemies mind and makes them a slave, and Avada Kedavra is the killing curse.
Hogwarts Legacy does not shy away from the darker side of wizardry and lets players explore their evil sides. The ability to torture other wizards and dark creatures, bend the minds of their enemies to their will, and even just blindly murder gives players more agency than they have ever had before to engage in the Dark Arts.
Petrificus Totalus
Any good RPG game set in an open world with many different areas to explore and dark magic to uncover needs to have good stealth mechanics. Players should be able to sneak their way around an enemy camp and silently take people out to thin their ranks before going in full force.
In Hogwarts Legacy, players are able to employ the Disillusionment Charm in order to become mostly invisible and sneak around. Then, players can sneak up behind an enemy and use Petrificus Totalus, which is the paralyzing charm. This locks enemies into a state of being unable to move or cast spells or anything indefinitely.
Gameplay footage has shown players paralyzing foes near the edge of a cliff, causing them to tumble to their deaths. Also, when players use Petrificus Totalus on enemies, the enemies tend to merely disappear from existence afterwards.
The stigma of the Dark Arts in the books and movies is that the villains and antagonists dabble in them, while the heroes and protagonists shy away from them. The Harry Potter books are largely children’s and young adult books, so the themes don’t tend to be very mature or dark.
However, Hogwarts Legacy flips this and takes players into the depths of malice and evil intention. The developers have hinted at different conversations and dialogue options appearing for players that choose to go down this road.
This is a highlight of the game – that players have the agency to be as dark or light as they want. Though the Unforgivable Curses are taught to the player no matter what, the player still has the ability to choose whether or not to use them.
As Hogwarts Legacy gives players the option to be evil without too many real consequences, players are sure to be able to find many different ways to accomplish the goals in the game and carry out the quests. The replayability of the game is enhanced by this as well as by the four different houses that players choose at the beginning of the game.
The developers urge players to make the game their own: “Hogwarts Legacy is an immersive, open-world action RPG set in the world first introduced in the Harry Potter books. For the first time, experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Now you can take control of the action and be at the center of your own adventure in the wizarding world. Your legacy is what you make of it.”
