Hogwarts Legacyhas a rather slow introduction with a lot of world-building it needs to create a foundation for before players even arrive at Hogwarts. Much of the game’s opening hours is a tutorial on mechanics in the meantime, though players are never truly finished learning new features inHogwarts Legacyuntil almost the end of the game. In any other open-world game this approach might be tedious, butHogwarts Legacy’s approach goes hand-in-hand with the idea that players are students learning at an educational institution.
This makes sense narratively sincethe protagonist is a fifth-year student attempting to catch up on Hogwarts’ curriculumafter not having attended the school beforehand. However, fans may be alarmed to learn how muchHogwarts Legacytruly earns its classification as an open-world game. It had been previously revealed that players can fly on broomsticks and other mounts to Hogsmeade and hamlets in the surrounding area apart from Hogwarts itself, but that information was perhaps intentionally underplayed after players get access to the world map and receive a similar sensation fromElden Ring.
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Elden Ring’s Map is an Open-World Feat
FromSoftware fans playingElden Ringat launch were in for a huge surprise when they embarked upon its open world. Fans were undoubtedly accustomed to the linear level design of games likeDark Souls,Bloodborne, andSekiro: Shadows Die Twicebefore it, andElden Ringbeing billed as an open-world action-RPGwas met with equal parts intrigue and hesitation.Elden Ringthen starts out with players seeing a relatively large portion of a map that they can see in-game as a landscape vista before them, and the map is intentionally zoomed in to make Limgrave look enormous.
Players eventually have an opportunity to open a transporter chest trap that whisks them off tothe northernmost part ofElden Ring’s whole map in Leyndell, and when players open the map again to get an idea of where they are they will be stunned by how much of the map now lies between where they have wound up and where they began. Much of the map will be obscured in an illustrative fog at this point, and a lot of the fun ofElden Ringcomes from clearing out this fog and exploring every corner of the map in a nonlinear fashion.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Map is Bigger Than Players May Expect
Hogwarts Legacyhas a comparable effect when looking at its own map, though it technically has three distinct maps to tab through for all of its content. Indeed,Hogwarts Legacycould have easily gotten away with only producing the castle and its neighboring Hogsmeade village. These two portions of the game have their own individual maps, and whileHogsmeade is understandably small for a commercial district strip, Hogwarts is an immense open world in-and-of itself.
There are myriad corridors and remote towers to explore, for example, and secrets players cannot access until much later in the game through learned spells and their respective upgrades. But when players are given an opportunity to step outside Hogwarts for the first time and get a glimpse of the world map, which encompasses Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the Highlands, players will surely be baffled at how long the map is.
There is a bit of a northern region above Hogsmeade that includes the Forbidden Forest, but the map extends so far downward from the castle that roughly two-thirds ofHogwarts Legacy’s open worldis easily its Highlands region below it. This rewards a full dedication to exploration on a broomstick and casting Revelio to uncover Merlin Trials, Infamous Foes, and many other activities filled throughout.
Hogwarts Legacyis available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. PS4 and Xbox One ports are scheduled to release on April 4, and the Nintendo Switch version arrives July 03, 2025.
