Outward Definitive Edition | War Was Imperative
Exploring The Castle In Hogwarts Legacy
The Hogwarts Castle is a thing of wonder and beauty to explore around. I’ve at this point lost track how many hours I find myself just wandering around finding new things and solving old things I’ve had to pass up on past exploration expeditions. It seems alot of attetion and care was put into it.
The overall map of Hogwarts castle itself can be a bit misleading. It’s hard to understand just the scale of this place by looking at it. The first hint however is the floo flames locations are broken down into seven different areas of the castle. With the drilling down even further when you click on them.
I am rather glad this game is not so based so much on time or days of the week as many were expecting. Otherwise, I would be late for a couple of sessions you do end up going to class for. While there is not as far as I can tell a classroom for every single subject mentioned in the book at least for the floo flames I’ve found. It comes darn near close with: charms, defense against the dark arts, transfiguration, flying, beasts, potions, and divination,
Thankfully of the couple of lessons I’ve taken I just needed to show up during the daytime whenever. Not so much a date on the calendar. As there have been many moments where I’ll leave the castle ground for quite extended amounts of time as well.
The only real passage of time in Hogwarts Legacy other than the day and night cycle is the seasons change. Quite a few of these photos I took were during the fall time in the game.
They don’t just have classrooms either. You have many areas for teachers as well. From their staff rooms to living quarters to explore. Many of the living areas drop some kind of context clue of who it belongs to from decor to letters addressed to them that you can read.
There are also quite a lot of areas where you can get some rather breathtaking views. I have found myself at the top of several towers on occasion. It is only a shame you can’t use the telescopes up here to take a gander at the landscape.
The Hogwarts castle also has quite a few puzzles to solve throughout. I’ll be creating a separate post going over quite a few of the puzzles and how to go about solving them. Some are rather easy and others require a little more thought in working out the clues.
This a rather strange doorway with symbols that appears in quite a few different locations in the castle itself. While you do find a lot of the same puzzles. I feel they do help add to the overall enjoyment of exploration while out and about.
I have taken over 1k screenshots so far of Hogwarts Legacy. Quite a few of them of just inside the castle itself. The amount of detail in every little thing everywhere you look is insane. Sometimes I’ll return to the same location a few times and notice things I did not the first time around.
The amount of stairs in Hogwarts castle is quite impressive. I don’t know how many times I’ll head off in one direction to go up a bunch of stairs. Only to be going downstairs once I get across from rather large areas.
There are also a lot of little secret areas found and even dungeons in the Hogwarts castle. Many hidden away areas are from the books. Then you have stuff like this Hall of Herodiana. That took me on quite a short but rather interesting adventure of solving a couple of puzzles.
Even when you stumble onto these rather large areas within the Hogwarts castle. They feel quite alive. There are lots of little things going on. Students talking, things to interact with. Along with me spamming R to reveal any points of interest.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Hogwarts Castle itself is how it feels like every square inch of the place is filled. It’s not like other games where you expect to have long empty hallways with a bunch of doors you can’t open.
While sure you do run into the occasional broomstick closet except this one was filled with a bunch of chairs. The amount of used indoor space in the castle is quite impressive.
There are also a lot of well-known locations you can tell they spent some time working on. Such as the Prefects’s Bathroom.
You also have areas like the trophy room that I’ve been in a few times. You never know what little detail you missed out on the first time. On occasion, you can find some floating notes that explain what you are looking at in Hogwarts castle.
Then you have things in the hospital wing. Thankfully the only time I needed to come in here was during a mission when it was off-limits so I was slowly walking around trying to avoid being detected. With how much trouble I end up getting into I’d have expected one of these beds to be just for me.
This was not the only time I found myself in the bounds areas I’d been in before. I however won’t be talking about what occurred in the restricted section of the library. Instead, you just get a screenshot of the library.
There were also other places I assume I should not have been in. The house elves on the other hand seemed to be quite welcoming of me. It was quite nice for once to not see them vanish after one of them was spotted cleaning random areas in the castle. Yes, my character did need to tickle a pear in a painting to get into the kitchen.
Out of all the rooms and areas in the castle. Most of the time the grand dining hall feels the most empty. Even with all the moving candles. I also rarely ever come wandering into this room either. For whatever reason, it feels a bit smaller than I’d expect but it makes sense it’s this size.
Many times I’ll just be wandering around and notice an area I had yet to explore yet. So I go hunting around trying to find how to get to it. Sometimes like in this case I end up finding the spot in some rafters. Other times I just seem to be missing the areas holding some loot.
Thankfully I have not stepped on any trick steps yet on stairways. I have however come across stairs that I have to wait for to reappear so I can use them. As you can see with a couple of steps in front of me I was waiting for the rest of them.
The only doors I’ve yet to open are simply because I’m either lacking the spell or the knowledge to get past the door. The developers of this game went through quite an insane endeavor to pull something this magical off with just how many little side areas there are to explore. It has left my jaw ajar at times.
There are also a lot of interesting things going on in the castle that can sometimes be easy to overlook. One of them I don’t overlook however is when Peeves makes his appearance. He happened to be juggling firesticks this time around. Laughing like a crazy person.
The best moment however had to have been when I was exploring and entered an area that had two suits of armor next to each one. I could tell one suit of armor was getting annoyed by the other. It then just flat-out hacked the other to bits. Right in front of me!
While you would think I’d be spending a lot of time in the Gryffindor common room. I’ll admit I’m seldom in there. While it is quite amazing looking I don’t have much use in there.
Instead, I find myself spending quite a lot of time in the Room of Requirement. You have a lot of control over the kind of furniture and other items you want in there. Until I unlock a lot of the furniture I’m going to avoid spending too much time trying to decorate it.
Instead, I mostly have one of the areas filled with quite a few plant potters. Along with some brewing stations. Once I do a proper overhaul and unlock everything I can for that room. I’ll do a more proper tour of it.
It is however not one of the crazier rooms at least in my eyes. That I have to give it to the entire greenhouse area of the castle. This one happens to be the one I visit the professor to turn work in. So it feels a bit more set up as a classroom.
While the inside of Hogwarts castle is amazing. The castle ground areas can be just as interesting. I however can’t crank up the settings needed to make it look somewhat decent without causing issues. It is also a bit low resolution when I fly around on it on a broom. Which is a bit of a shame.
While there is no Quidditch there is at least the field. I have yet to work on any broom upgrades. As there is just so much to do and work on.
Every time I go outside around the castle it makes me think it’s about to be Halloween. All this will soon be gone once the season changes once again.
While it was quite fun to go back through the castle yet again picking up stuff I had missed or could not access just yet. It’s time for me to go off on another magical adventure in Hogwarts Legacy.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Hogwarts Legacy.
