You don’t need to spend too long with Hogwarts Legacy to realize that the developers who made the game have poured an incredible amount of love and attention into its creation. Their fandom of the Harry Potter property is abundant and clear to see in every nook and cranny of the game, and for fans of the series, there’s no shortage of iconic locations that have been lovingly recreated and brought to life throughout the game’s massive open world, both within and without Hogwarts Castle itself. Here, we’re going to talk about a few such locations that stood out to us the most.
GREAT HALL
The Great Hall is a location that Harry Potter fans are deeply familiar with, having been the backdrop for a number of memorable scenes throughout the course of the series, and Hogwarts Legacy does an excellent of recreating the location. From the enchanted sky that mimics the weather outside to the hundreds of candles floating above the long benches of the four Houses, from the stained glass windows to the staff table at the end of the hall and the lectern for the Headmaster in front of it, the game’s version of the Great Hall replicates our memories of the location incredibly well.
COMMON ROOMS
Hogwarts Legacy allows you to be sorted into any of the school’s four Houses, with each having its own unique Common Room. Those Common Rooms, as you might expect, are some of the best and coziest locations in the entire game. To be fair, Harry Potter fans have seen little to nothing of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Common Rooms in the books and movies, but the game very effectively makes each of them feel like a real lived-in space that reflects the style of that House perfectly. The Gryffindor Common Room in particular is obviously one that fans of the series will find most recognizable, but really, each of them has its own merits.
QUIDDITCH PITCH
It’s more than a little disappointing that there’s no playable Quidditch in Hogwarts Legacy, and our hope, of course, is that the game’s inevitable sequel will address that. Even so, though the sport itself isn’t playable, the Quidditch pitch is there for all players to look and and even access, and it’s been recreated with great attention to detail. The stands, the narrow areas beneath the stands, the hoops, all of it looks exactly as fans of the series will remember.
HOGWARTS GROUNDS
There’s plenty to see in the Hogwarts grounds outside of the Quidditch pitch as well, and plenty of it will be instantly recognizable to Harry Potter fans. There’s the long, wooden, covered bridge that looks dangerously rickety but is being magically held aloft. There’s the greenhouses, where you go for your Herbology lessons. There’s the courtyard, where students gather and casually hang out with each other at daytime. There’s the Groundskeeper’s hut, which, roughly a century on from the game’s events, will be occupied by one Rubeus Hagrid. And that’s really just scratching the surface.
BLACK LAKE
Another major fixture in the grounds surrounding Hogwarts Castle is the Black Lake, a large and ominous body of water that’s said to be home to all manner of magical creatures, from a giant squid to grindylows to merpeople and more. And as you’d expect, the Black Lake and the boathouse are yet another example of Hogwarts Legacy lovingly recreating iconic Harry Potter locations. It’s a shame that there’s no underwater swimming mechanics in the game, because we sure would have loved to explore the insides of the lake, but the aforementioned squid does briefly pop up at times, so at least that’s something.
HOGSMEADE VILLAGE
Hogwarts Castle might be the obvious star of the show here, but there’s a great deal to see beyond the confines of the school as well. Another iconic Harry Potter location, Hogsmeade Village, is part of the game’s massive open world as well, and it, too, is one of the game’s best locations. Sporting the same obsessive level of detail as the castle itself, Hogsmeade never fails to emanate incredibly cozy and charming vibes no matter how many times you visit. Iconic establishments in the village are also a job to visit, including the likes of the Three Broomsticks inn, Zonko’s Joke Shop, Honeydukes, and many more.
ROOM OF REQUIREMENT
Back to the castle and its interiors, the Room of Requirement is another iconic location that series fans will be very familiar with, and it’s another location that the game does an excellent job of bringing to life. You first come across the room a few hours into the game, at which point it appears in a form that those who watched Deathly Hallows – Part 2 will remember very well. Of course, from then on the room changes form and allows you to customize it however you want, but the shifting and changing nature of the space harkens back to the source materially in all the best ways.
FORBIDDEN FOREST
Sticking with the non-Hogwarts locations in Hogwarts Legacy for a while longer, the Forbidden Forest is another area that’s always been incredibly recognizable, and that’s still very much true in the game as well. Sure, it’s not as forbidden as its name implies, in that you can walk in and explore it to your heart’s content without any real obstacles, but once you enter the forest itself, you can’t help but appreciate how well it recreates the location’s ambience. The creepy, dark forest is crawling with fantastic beasts of all kinds, and exploring it has a very different vibe to it than exploring the halls of Hogwarts Castle.
HOGSMEADE STATION
The Hogwarts Express sadly never makes an appearance in the game, since you first arrive at the castle aboard a flying carriage being pulled by Thestrals, but the station where the train brings hundreds of students every year is still in the game. Sure, visiting Hogsmeade Station might make you ache for the Hogwarts Express to be properly featured in the game that much more, but you also can’t help but be impressed with how well the location is recreated. Hopefully, Hogwarts Legacy’s inevitable sequel will let players see the insides of the train as well- though until that happens (which might be several years from now, if not longer), we can at least visit the station and bask in its surroundings.
CLASSROOMS
Hogwarts Legacy sadly doesn’t emphasize school work and your life as a student nearly as much as many had been hoping for, but it does feature a number of different classrooms that successfully recreate their counterparts from the films. The Defence Against the Dark Arts class with a massive skeleton hanging from the ceiling, the Charms class with its closely packed together seating arrangements, the Herbology class inside of the aforementioned greenhouses, the Potions class in the dungeons with all of its stations and boiling pots- there’s plenty here and in other locations that will tickle your nostalgia. It’s a bit disappointing that these classes don’t have a much more prominent role to play in simulating the life of a Hogwarts student, but there’s no faulting their attention to detail, that much is for sure.