Avalanche Software has held another Hogwarts Legacy gameplay showcase. This stream continued from the last one and shows broom and mount traversal, Dark Arts combat, and the player’s heavily customizable Room of Requirement.
Since the last stream ended teasing broom traversal, it is fitting that this stream opened with it. Players can take off with their broom and soar around wherever as soon as they are able to leave the school, but they are somewhat dictated by a meter since these are older brooms. This meter doesn’t control how long players can ride the broom, but does control how high they can go at max speed. Said meter can be upgraded so players can travel higher for longer, and this (along with probably some technical limitations) is to keep users lower to the ground so they can explore the world and its many side missions more intimately. There are also other broom skins on sale at Hogsmeade.
The stream then transitioned to showing the rideable mounts. The hippogriff, for example, can be ridden on the ground like a horse and then transition to flying, which gives it a unique touch over the broom since the broom is faster, but the hippogriff’s height isn’t tied to meter. This vantage point gave the team the opportunity to use “dev magic” and change the weather to something more wintery. The game goes through seasons to give players the feeling of going through school and seeing time pass.
Combat made up the second chunk of the stream and since the first showcase went through the basics, this one went into depth with the Dark Arts battle arena in the Forbidden Forest, which is for those who buy the digital deluxe and deluxe editions (but those with the standard version can buy it separately). This arena serves a few purposes, as it preloads players with different abilities and lets them loose. This means anyone can test out Dark Arts magic to see if it is for them before going down that path in the main game. There are also two other combat arenas in the game that anyone with any edition can access.
The actual arena combat also showed more how the meter and combo system works, demonstrating how higher combos play into how often certain spells can be used. The Avada Kedavra Killing Curse was also one such spell and appropriately has a long cooldown. Of course, those cooldowns can be shortened by using certain consumables.
These consumables can be crafted at the player’s Room of Requirement, which was the final section of the stream. This personalized area is where players can express their creativity in a more relaxed environment. It can be heavily customized with different furniture and architecture, some of which is what helps players craft the aforementioned consumables. Players can also inspect the gear they’ve found here and change what bonuses are attached to what. Transmog, however, can be done at any time regardless if players are in the Room or Requirement or not.
There’s also a farm outside of the Room of Requirement where players can house different animals. These beasts can be renamed, played with, fed, and petted, the latter of which yields valuable crafting resources. Some of the different items that can conjured can automatically feed the creatures and further automate the process.
The team pointed out how the Room of Requirement links into the other parts of the game and vice versa. Recipes and blueprints can be found outside in the world and those can be taken back into the Room of Requirement to get more resources.
And while the stream did stop there, Avalanche had one more tease, which revolved around Tom Riddle’s diary. The short clip at the very end had the player wander up to the book in question before being sucked in.
