This upcoming Harry Potter game is delivering the one thing Hogwarts Legacy was missing and I’ve got mixed feelings about that

This upcoming Harry Potter game is delivering the one thing Hogwarts Legacy was missing and I've got mixed feelings about that

As a seasoned researcher with a lifelong passion for all things Harry Potter, I can’t help but feel a tinge of disappointment when it comes to Quidditch in Hogwarts Legacy. Having grown up playing the Electronic Arts PC games, I was eagerly awaiting the chance to dive into a full-fledged Quidditch experience as part of the main game. However, the absence of competitive matches in Hogwarts Legacy left me feeling like I had been served a delectable sundae without the cherished cherry on top.


In my assessment of Hogwarts Legacy, I highlighted Avalanche Software’s remarkable feat of making the enchanting wizarding world come alive in an engaging and enjoyable action RPG. Upon release, I found myself fulfilling long-held childhood aspirations by traversing Hogwarts castle, catching exotic creatures, attending magical lessons, battling dark wizards, and employing various spells. Despite the option to soar on a hippogryph or a broom, one essential part of student life at Hogwarts was conspicuously absent: exhilarating Quidditch matches.

Quidditch Champions addresses a previous gap by focusing exclusively on the magical sport as a multiplayer game. However, this latest addition stirs some ambiguity within me about Hogwarts Legacy.

No wonder Quidditch wasn’t in Hogwarts Legacy

In simpler terms, the explanation given within Hogwarts Legacy for why Quidditch isn’t played is rather thin. The game starts with Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black canceling Quidditch, claiming an injury occurred the previous year as the reason. However, this seems like a weak excuse since Hogwarts has many hazards yet still operates normally even in the face of student injuries or deaths (like Cedric and Myrtle). It’s questionable whether the wizarding world would be more cautious during the 1800s when Hogwarts Legacy is set, but I find it unlikely.

If anything, this feeble reasoning made it even more inexcusable that Quidditch matches weren’t in Hogwarts Legacy at all. The Quidditch Pitch (field or arena) was right there on Hogwarts school grounds, yet I couldn’t even watch a match from the stands or see a quick cutscene of students playing a match. It was kind of like having an indulgent sundae with the iconic gleaming cherry placed right before me and knowing I couldn’t eat it or even touch it. Even flying around the vacant Quidditch arena in Hogwarts Legacy felt hollow and sad. 

That all said, the lack of Quidditch gameplay was a good thing, overall. 

This upcoming Harry Potter game is delivering the one thing Hogwarts Legacy was missing and I've got mixed feelings about that

It’s quite likely that one major motivation for creating an additional Quidditch game, apart from Hogwarts Legacy, was to generate extra revenue using the Harry Potter intellectual property owned by Warner Bros. Games. However, this move should not be automatically viewed as a negative choice.

For example, the old Electronic Arts (EA) PC Harry Potter games I played as a kid let me fly around and catch the Snitch during competitive Quidditch matches. Thing is, since I was playing as Harry, the developers only had to worry about creating the Seeker part of the sport rather than the various positions on the Quidditch team. In other words, all EA had to do was plan on players catching the Snitch rather than accounting for the various other scoring possibilities that could tip a match one way or the other. Even then, the Seeker segments were really underdeveloped and felt pretty shoddy in EA’s games.

While exploring the magical world as your unique character in Hogwarts Legacy, you might wonder if you’d also like to be part of the Quidditch team as a Seeker. To accurately capture the essence of this magical sport, it would have required Avalanche Software to dedicate significant time to developing the mechanics for each Quidditch role, not forgetting the intricacies of broom movements and scoring systems. This would have meant dedicating an enormous amount of effort on just one optional aspect of the game. Instead, their focus has been more effectively directed towards enhancing the main gameplay.

This upcoming Harry Potter game is delivering the one thing Hogwarts Legacy was missing and I've got mixed feelings about that

Dropping Quidditch from the game allowed the Hogwarts Legacy team to concentrate more on developing combat, storyline, and single-player features since Hogwarts Legacy was intended primarily for solo play, while Quidditch is more geared towards multiplayer. In today’s era, we no longer expect every single-player game to incorporate a lackluster multiplayer mode, which is a positive change. The Hogwarts Legacy developers have put great effort into every aspect of the game. Including Quidditch could have detracted from the overall experience and made the game less polished than it currently is.

As a tech enthusiast captivated by the magical world of Harry Potter, I believe that having a dedicated team focused solely on bringing Quidditch to life could potentially enhance the gaming experience significantly. While I’m eager to see how Unbroken Studios handles the upcoming multiplayer game Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, I’m relieved that Hogwarts Legacy didn’t try to do too much and spread itself thin. A little more focus on Quidditch cutscenes in Hogwarts Legacy would have made me even happier, but for now, I’ll just enjoy the game as it is.

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2024-08-10 14:09