Summary

  • Hogwarts Legacy successfully captures the experience of being a student at Hogwarts, with classes, friends, and wand battles reminiscent of the Harry Potter films.
  • While not following the class schedule format of Bully, Hogwarts Legacy still manages to evoke the charm of attending a magical school and allows players to engage with complex classmates through dialogue choices.
  • Fans of either game will surely appreciate some recent fan art that depicts Hogwarts Legacy characters like Ominis and Sebastian in Bully's art style.

A talented artist managed to recreate Hogwarts Legacy characters in the style of Rockstar's Bully, highlighting just how conceptually similar the two games are – at least on a surface level. When Hogwarts Legacy was officially announced, Harry Potter fans had years of speculation and daydreaming amassed beforehand, and expectations for the game were sky-high. Players wanted to choose their House in Hogwarts Legacy, attend classes, make friends, ride brooms, and of course, engage in thrilling spell fights with their customizable wands. To the credit of Avalanche Software, Hogwarts Legacy delivered on most counts, and the game enjoys a beloved status in the Harry Potter community.

In a very stacked year of gaming, Hogwarts Legacy has emerged as one of the biggest titles of 2023, and one of the main reasons for the acclaim is due to the way it recreated the experience of wandering the halls of Hogwarts. Exploring both within and outside the castle is rewarding, and the open world in Hogwarts Legacy is littered in treasures and puzzles, but it never overstays its welcome.

hogwarts-legacy-houses
Dedicated Hogwarts Legacy Player Gets 100% Completion With Every House

An incredibly dedicated Hogwarts Legacy player manages to get 100% completion on four different playthroughs, one with each of the Hogwarts houses.

By 

Hogwarts Legacy fan ketto_art drew the classmate characters from the game in Bully's striking art style, capturing the likeness of Everett, Imelda, Sebastian, and Ominis. Much like Hogwarts Legacy, Bully also takes place in a school, as players immerse themselves in the role of a student attending classes and making friends, progressing through the storyline along the way. It was a unique concept at the time, one that played against Rockstar's usual style, and a sizable amount of Harry Potter fans were hoping that Hogwarts Legacy would borrow many of the features and mechanics that Bully established back in 2006.

While Hogwarts Legacy may not have the class schedule format of Bully, it can be argued that it managed to capture the feel of being a Hogwarts student pretty well. Players are taught basic (and advanced) game mechanics by attending classes, and these are usually followed by an elaborate cutscene reminiscent of the Harry Potter films, or a montage that sells the idea of being in class to various degrees of success. Classmates such as Sebastian Sallow in Hogwarts Legacy have complex storylines of their own, and players can choose how to engage with those characters through dialogue choices.

Even though there are aspects about attending Hogwarts that could use improvement, much like Bully still evoked that Rockstar charm, Hogwarts Legacy established its own charm that Avalanche could tap into and expand upon in its next project. Though no DLCs are planned for Hogwarts Legacy, a sequel is reportedly in development.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy Tag Page Cover Art
9 /10

Hogwarts Legacy
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Action
RPG
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Systems
PlayStation-1 Xbox-1 super greyscale 8-bit logo PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 88%
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Released
February 10, 2023
ESRB
T For Teen Due To Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol
Developer(s)
Avalanche Software
Publisher(s)
Warner Bros. Games
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Cross-Platform Play
Hogwarts Legacy doesn't have crossplay or crossplatform support
Cross Save
you can freely use your saved data between each console as long as you are connected to the internet and signed into the same account where the saved data was created
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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Franchise
Harry Potter
Genre(s)
Action, RPG