Now, there’s plenty that’s been said aboutHogwarts Legacysince its release. Whether that be from thoseboycottingit to those that claim it’s an early Game of the Year contender, there’s a whole stack of stuff to wade through. With so much being saidaroundHogwarts Legacy, it’s quite easy to miss what is actually going on with the game itself.
That being said, if you had told me that I would spend a huge amount of my time playing a Pokémon-like beast management system stored away within The Room of Requirement, I would’ve castSilencioon you and walked away. As someone who alwaysfeltlike they should like Pokemon but just couldn’t ever fully get into it, Hogwarts Legacy scratches that creature-catching itch.
When I first booted up Hogwarts Legacy, I had no idea that hunting and breeding magical creatures was even a thing, or just how deeply that rabbit (or Puffskein) hole would go. Featured mainly in side quests, the whole Beast Management system is surprisingly fleshed out and has you populate your own magical creatures' zoo (or Vivarium, as it’s known in the game) with a range of magical creatures pulled straight from the books.
RELATED:Hogwarts Legacy’s Open World is Surprisingly Big, Yet Cozy
Being a fan of the book series growing up, it was surprisingly nostalgic to explore the map and discover creatures that had either featured in the main stories, or in the spin-off book and later film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This whole aspect of finding animals in the wild before pulling them into my magical nab-sack Pokemon-style seemed to be pulled straight from the latter, and although this is advertised as a Harry Potter-inspired game, hunting magical creatures had me feeling more like Fantastic Beasts' Newt Scalamander than the lightning-scarred hero.
Hogwarts Legacy does not shove this creature-rearing aspect down your throat, which is both a blessing and a curse. Should you want, you could ignore the whole system entirely, other than the few sections you are required to do as part of the main story, but you would be missing out on one of the most rewarding time sinks that the game has to offer. Granted, catching the magical creatures is a simple affair that can quickly stray into the repetitive, but it’s just the start of the system at work.
Once you’ve caught the creatures, you may deposit them back in the Room of Requirement. Initially, I was unsure as to how involved I would get in this whole process. Who wants to capture magical creatures and breed them for their feathers and fur?
Well, me it turns out.
The whole system is tied into how you upgrade your gear. Treat the animals you capture nicely by feeding and brushing them with a swish of your wand, and they will reward you with items that can then be used in the magical loom to upgrade your gear and imbue them with attributes or make your spells more powerful. This comes in super-handy, as the gear I’d collected seemed to level out fairly early on, so a means to make me more powerful quickly became a massive pull. I soon found myself visiting the Room of Requirement more often in order to see what items I needed before heading out to capture the required creatures, upgrading my gear as I went.
Later this system is expanded even further as you are given the option to breed the creatures you have captured, providing you have the required breeding pen and enough animals and space to store them. As someone who always spends way too much time investing in inventory management in RPGs, this tickled me to no end, enough that I started to manage my Vivariums to ensure maximum efficiency, like some Hogwarts-endorsed magical creature breeder.
Ethics aside, I quickly realised I was havingwaytoo much fun in my cosy little Hagrid simulator when I had my Vivariums churning out ever more creatures to produce more magical items than I would ever need.
Exploring the world and hunting out the required beasts was by no means the main attraction for me going into Hogwarts Legacy, but the system was so simple and enticing that I quickly found myself spending more and more time on it. Trekking through the world and collecting creatures was enjoyable, and exploring is one of the things Hogwarts Legacy does extremely well. Hunting for beasts has you searching all over the map, and combined with the sheer variety of creatures to track down, I was quietly impressed considering this is little more than a glorified side quest.
Fans of the series will recognise many of the creatures featured, from the haunting Thestrals visible only to those who have witnessed death, to the cheeky Niffler that has a habit of pinching anything shiny like some thieving magical magpie. Each creature comes with a brief synopsis should you wish to know more, with each feeling like its own Easter egg of sorts, as most are mentioned throughout the course of the 7 book series.
Had you told me when I first started the game how much time I would spend in this Pokémon-like side quest I would have looked at you as if you were befuddled with the Stupefy charm, not least because I have never really spent that much time with a mainstream Pokémon game.
In fact, the most time I have spent with a Pokémon game was Pokémon Go, back in the days when that first took over the world. Hogwarts Legacy seems to capture this magic by having you hunt out magical creatures and store them in your Pokeball like nab-sack, but with the added bonus that you don’t have to walk anywhere in reality to catch them. Plus, with 13 beasts available it doesn’t take that long to catch’em all either, at least by Pokémon standards.
Battling is the obvious difference, as Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t have you battle your captured creatures Pokémon-style to become the ultimate magical creature breeder. But hey, if they announce a Hogwarts Legacy Magical Creatures Fight Club DLC, just remember you heard it here first.
