It is no secret thatHogwarts Legacyhas a huge amount of content for players to explore. As well as its extensive mainline narrative, the title possesses a staggering amount of side-content for fans to tackle.
This side-content extends toward the imposing achievement list ofHogwarts Legacy, which poses the perfect challenge for dedicated players. Like many titles, these achievements include a select amount of secret elements, which players are supposed to work out and unlock through their own ingenuity without any guidance. While it is great to seeHogwarts Legacyinclude these kinds of experiences for players, the variety and execution of the title’s secret achievements leaves a lot to be desired.
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The Secret Achievements of Hogwarts Legacy
In all, there are only four secret achievements inHogwarts Legacy, making up only a small portion of the title’s 45 base achievements. Interestingly, the game’s secret achievements are arguably the most time-consuming, but only because each of them requires a completely separate playthrough to unlock.
These four secret achievements are The Gryffindor in the Graveyard, The Toast of the Town, The Wise Owl, and The Auror’s Apprentice. Each of these achievements are tied to a different Hogwarts house playthrough, requiring the player to find theMap Chamberas each different house. While these four playthroughs are great for aiding the replayability ofHogwarts Legacyand encouraging players to try different house perspectives, the way the achievements are utilized is quite stale.
How Hogwarts Legacy Could Have Improved Its Secret Achievements
The main issue withHogwarts Legacy’s secret achievements are that they all pertain to the exact same mainline quest, with the only modifier being that the player reaches that point of the story with each house. The quest in question is also fairly early on in the main narrative, making the secret achievements seem even more redundant. This feels like a clear missed opportunity to cater the different secret achievements tohouse-specific traits and ventures, with the idea of achievements tied to each house being a great base to work with.
Hogwarts Legacy’s secret achievements should have instead been tied to more house-specific feats that players can achieve. This would give much more meaning behind house choice, and would encourage dedicated players to roleplay in a way more in-line with their house of choice. For example, the Gryffindor secret achievement could be unlocked by approaching certain quests in a more fair and just way, whereas something likeSlytherin’s would reward players for being deceitful and cunning.
The issue withHogwarts Legacy’s secret achievements speaks toward the wider criticism of how the title givesno real meaning behind house choice. While secret achievements rewarding certain behavior would do well to remedy this, it would be even more beneficial to have had more variety in the main storyline depending on house choice and behavior. It is true thatHogwarts Legacyhas multiple endings, but they can be achieved through no real set-up by the player throughout a playthrough.
A wider variety of house-specificHogwarts Legacyquestswould have resulted in a much better selection of secret achievements, which is something the title sorely lacks. With the current secret achievements of the game feeling hollow and repetitive, some real meaning and differentiation behind each achievement would have done wonders for the title’s replayability and roleplaying.
Hogwarts Legacyis available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a Switch release scheduled for November 14th, 2023.
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