Even though the game is still months from its projected February 2022 release, the characters in Avalanche Software’s much-anticipated RPG title Hogwarts Legacy’s rule-breaking characters looks potentially great.
In the Harry Potter series, many students have a close relationship with their family, and especially their parents. Perhaps the biggest example of this is with the series’ namesake, Harry Potter himself, who is motivated by avenging the death of his parents throughout most of the saga. While this is certainly an understandable motive, readers characters like Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom also spend a significant amount of time worrying about parents and familial ties, to the point where it sometimes seems to overshadow the characters themselves.
Not much is known about the deeper secrets of Hogwarts Legacy's castle and its students just yet, but based on the information released so far, the characters seem to be a lot less occupied with their own family legacies and more focused on their own personal endeavors. There are a few students in particular which show a lot of potential to become favorites, even with the most traditional Harry Potter fan.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Students Are Written As Individual, Complex Characters
As hinted in a surprisingly dark Hogwarts Legacy gameplay trailer, Sebastian Sallow has a bittersweet backstory. As a Slytherin student, he is nothing short of mischievous, but he has an obsession with the Dark arts. This sets him on another level compared to his peers, but there is actually a good reason behind this arcane affinity. His family is rumored to have ties with the Dark Arts, for reasons yet unknown. However, Sebastian’s motivation doesn’t seem to have anything to do with his parents’ legacy. Instead, it looks like he’s learning these sinister spells because he believes they can actually save his twin sister Anne’s life from a horrible curse.
Another teased character is Poppy Sweeting, a Hufflepuff student in Hogwarts Legacy who is deeply captivated by the many fantastical creatures of the Harry Potter universe. She is said to be a descendant of Havelock Sweeting, a Magizoologist who was famous for his research on unicorns. While Poppy assuredly shares this love for magical creatures, her aspirations seem to be a lot more direct, even borderline political. She appears to be a staunch advocate against the act of poaching, supposedly one of the game’s central evil forces, and so it’s likely that much of her story could relate to this irable goal of hers.
Natsai Onai, a Gryffindor student, is also an intriguing Hogwarts Legacy character. She originally studied in Uagadou, an enormous wizarding school in Matabeleland, Africa. She moved to Scotland when her mother began to teach magic spells at Hogwarts. While much more isn't known about her wider story, focus seems to have been placed on her insatiable thirst for bringing justice to the world around her. It’s possible that something happened during her years of study at Uagadou, and that it inspired her to seek some form of justice at Hogwarts.
Each of these Hogwarts Legacy students, even if not Dumbledore or other classic franchise names, seem to be a lot more driven to reach personal goals compared to the younger characters in the Harry Potter book series. Though there is surely still much to learn about Sebastian, Poppy, and Natsai - they each seem to have more individually-aligned character arcs that will likely make them easier for fans to connect with. Players must wait until February in order to really get to know them, but so far, Hogwarts Legacy’s students look quite promising.