Bibliographic Information:
Title: Hogwarts Legacy
Developer: Avalanche Software, Shiver Entertainment
Publisher: Warner Bros Games / Portkey Games
Platforms: PlayStation5, PlayStation4, PlayStation4 Pro, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One consoles, Nintendo Switch and PC.
Copyright Date: 2023
Genre / Format of the Title: Adventure, Action, Role-playing, Simulation / Video Game
Awards or Honors:
Japan Game Awards - Award for Excellence 2023
The Steam Awards - Best Game on Steam Deck 2023
BMI Film and TV Awards - BMI Video Games Award 2024
Interest Level: Teen+ (13+)
Plot Summary:
Learning spells, brewing potions, learning the Dark Arts, exploring the campus of Hogwarts, the town of Hogsmeade, and the surrounding world: you can do all of it in Hogwarts Legacy. An open-world game (meaning you can go outside of the area for quests and explore everything at any given time), Hogwarts Legacy has unlimited opportunities for a game player to explore the Wizarding World around Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The game takes place one hundred years before Harry Potter is born, and the main character (which you can fully customize!) is a fifth year student just joining school who happens to have the special ability of seeing traces of ancient magic. There are a multitude of side quests to embark on, as well as the main storyline leading to hundreds of hours of gameplay! With countless duels to partake in, an endless amount of magical knowledge to learn, and all new locations to explore, Hogwarts Legacy will be the perfect game for anyone to get lost in for hours at a time.
Creator Background:
Avalanche Software has been a company for 29 years, 30 as of 2025. They have always been led to create games to please fans of all ages - as Avalanche was created by a group of friends, they maintain that connections are the best part of gaming. Avalanche is known for working with franchises to bring what fans love from series or works to life within games. Having worked with Mortal Kombat, Disney, and now Warner Brothers, Avalanche has been able to create worlds for fans of all types of entities to enjoy (About Us).
Shiver Entertainment is a subsidiary of Nintendo, and is a small team who specifically works with larger production companies to help make games playable on the Nintendo Switch. The Switch typically has a later release date in video games than other consoles and platforms, so the fact that Shiver worked alongside Avalanche so all platforms could play at the same time was great thinking ahead on Avalanche’s part. Outside of the fact that Shiver helps create games on the Nintendo Switch with larger software companies, there is little about the company elsewise (Shiver).
Critical Evaluation:
Oh, my, goodness. It took me a while to get my hands on this game as a fan in general, so finally playing it and realizing that I could include it in this assignment was absolutely perfect. I love the fact that there are various difficulty levels., including a story version where the plot lines are really the main point and the skills are less involved and incorporated. I chose to play on easy as I am not an experienced gamer, and still had some difficulties but I quickly got the hang of it. I am sure that for those who enjoy gaming a lot more, the game will come much easier to them, even with using a higher difficulty level.
Emotionally, this game left me in awe. There was so much to do, and to explore, to experience. I think I could spend dozens of hours just running around the world collecting ingredients and finding new places. When the game advertises as open world they really do mean it. It is also great that it is both a place that fans of the Harry Potter series are familiar with, but that there are new characters and even Hogwarts has some minor differences from the book and movies. Due to this, Hogwarts Legacy is both like a return home but also an entirely new place to fall in love with. My only drawback is that it is certainly only for single players - there is no multiplayer function, and I could see how the game could be enhanced with that ability. Other than that one small lack of a feature, this game is amazing and addictive - be careful to only play it when you actually have time and no due dates!
Creative Use for a Library Program:
There are a lot of quests in Hogwarts Legacy that involve solving puzzles and scavenging for necessary items: so let us do a scavenger hunt! Patrons with their library cards will be given clues on what they need to find in the library, which will then lead them to the next clue and onwards. Scavenger hunts will change each week (will last four weeks to represent the four Hogwarts houses) and three winners from each week will be able to pick a prize. I think this would also be great just to help those who may not come to the library physically very often learn the layout of the land!
Speed-Round Recommendation:
Have you ever wanted to attend Hogwarts, explore the castle, learn spells, brew potions, and defeat villains? Congratulations because it is time for you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a fifth year student, who has the ability to see traces of ancient magic. As you learn more about magic and your fellow students, you’ll be tasked with making some really difficult decisions. Turns out being a witch or wizard is not as simple as you would think.
Which Hogwarts house will you join?
Gryffindor
Ravenclaw
Slytherin
Hufflepuff
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation:
There are a multitude of potential challenge issues that could happen with this game: there are certainly a lot of violent aspects to the game play, and depending on the path the player chooses, you could learn the Unforgivable Curses which include the killing curse. There is also the issue that tends to creep up with every “witch” theme game, with religious community members believing anything with witchcraft having no place in the public eye. To them, anything magical is affiliated with the Devil and therefore sinful and should not be made available to the public. As with previous issues, the defense preparation is that any library card holders under the age of 13 will not have access to the item unless a parent or guardian approves of it being checked out for that minor, and again, censorship has no place in a library that is protected by the ALA Library Bill of Rights and the First Amendment.
Reason for Inclusion:
Hogwarts Legacy was one of the most hyped up video games to be created in quite a while as it had mass appeal to all different ages and genders. Although the game's release was pushed back multiple times, when it was finally revealed it immediately became a hit amongst fans. Not including such a beloved game that can keep people entertained for a large amount of time would be silly to say the least. On top of that, it is a game with varying difficulty levels making it easy for anyone to play, including those who would normally not consider themselves gamers (like myself!).
References:
(n.d.). About Us. Avalanche Software. https://www.avalanchesoftware.com/about-us/
(2020, September 16). Hogwarts Legacy. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts_Legacy
(2012, December 1). Shiver. Shiver. https://www.shiver.net/
Comments