A new trailer for Hogwarts Legacy was released at Gamescom Opening Night Live, showing a darker side to the open-world Harry Potter game than we’ve seen before.
Introducing us to Sebastian Sallow, a Slytherin student you can befriend in the game, the trailer focuses on the dangers of using Dark Magic — and reveals that you’ll be able to cast unforgivable curses like Crucio.
“Should you choose to befriend Slytherin student Sebastian Sallow, you will be faced with the decision to embrace or reject the Dark Arts as you uncover his family’s mystery through his companion quest line,” reads the trailer’s description. “Will you choose to learn this dark magic?”
Instead of your character being a jack of all trades, it seems like you’ll be able to specialise in a certain area of magic, even if that means dabbling in the Dark Arts.
It’s still unclear if your decision will affect the story or whether characters will react differently to you depending on your character’s alignment. If everything we saw in the trailer is contained to Sallow’s companion quest, the choices might be fairly self-contained. Then again, we do see a Hogwarts professor catching Sallow and the player character engaging in Dark Arts, which feels like it might have significant consequences.
Originally scheduled to come out this year, the new Hogwarts Legacy release date is February 10, 2023. Pre-orders will go live on August 25, and luckily the trailer confirmed what you get if you pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition. You’ll get:
Dark Arts Pack including the Thestral mount, Dark Arts cosmetic set, Dark Arts battle arena
Onyx Hippogriff Mount
Dark Arts Garrison Hat
72 Hours Early Access
We’re still holding our breath for more information about the Hogwarts Legacy Collector’s Edition, which is coming soon and will hopefullyinclude a replica wand.
