Back in February of 2023, Hogwarts Legacy released and left a lot of Harry Potter fans wondering, where is quidditch? The answer was that it gave room for the developers to focus on other game play elements. Paul Tassi from Forbes did an article on it in April of 2023. After my time with the game, it is clear as to why it would have taken away from Hogwarts Legacy, and in a way, taken from Quidditch Champions. Once you play this game you will realize why it is worthy of its own stand-alone title.
When you start out, like most games, you are thrown in to the tutorials. Do not skip them. This is probably the one main draw back of the game. This is not a game you can pick up and know what you are doing right off the bat.
You will be trained on all four classes. Keeper, Seeker, Beater, and Chaser. Each class has a very specific purpose and goal just like any other sport.
The Keeper is the goalie. You will be tasked as the Keeper to protect the 3 goal points from your opposing chaser’s trying to throw the quiffle ball in to the goals.
As a chaser you will be tasked to run the field essentially. The main goal is to score your team points and to play defense. It is the soccer equivilent of playing midfield.
As the Beater, you will be straight up smoking fools with magic. No player is off limits to your power… wanna knock out the keeper for your team-mates to score goals? No problem! Wanna knock out the seeker from catching the snitch? No problem! Wanna pick up the quaffle? Well… you can’t do that. But be vigilant, your opponents can dodge your attacks.
If you watched Harry Potter, you already know what the seekers job is: to stop he who shall not be named. All jokes aside, the seeker’s job is to catch the snitch.
I really enjoyed playing as the seeker. You have to dodge incoming attacks from the beater while flying as fast as you can through hoops to build up your seeker bar. Once the bar is completely full, congratulations, you caught the snitch!! Now, unlike the books or movies, catching the snitch doesn’t win you the game. It does, however, score you 30 points and you will have 2 opportunities to catch a snitch within a match for a total of 60 points a game.
You will either need 100 points or have the highest amount of points in 4 minutes to win a match.
Now on to building your team. As you play each class for the first time, you will prompted to create a character for that role. You are limited on how much you can edit that character after creation so make sure you are happy with your descisions. This is a game design I hope is back tracked in a future update.
What is fun about creating your own team is the endless customization options you have. Want to sport Gryffindor colors while on a Ravenclaw broom? Or maybe Slytherin robe, hufflepuff hat, with a gryffindor broom? That would be hideous, but you can do that if you so desire.
The only thing that affects gameplay is the broom. The statistics affects agility, speed, and endurance. You are given the option to upgrade that broom with crystals, a currency you obtain through challenges and progression in the seasonal pass.
Yes, that’s right, a season pass. Don’t freak out, its free. Only broom aesthetics are obtainable through the seasonal pass so there is no pay to win aspect here. There is also no way to buy currency. If you choose to buy the deluxe edition it does include some extra in game currency. But aside from that, you can’t swipe your card to buy all the in game loot. Again, all cosmetic.
There are 50 tiers in the seasonal tree, at level 50 you can obtain Ron Weasley as a playable character. Harry Potter has yet to make an appearance as a playable character, so we can assume that as future seasonal content.
There is a campaign mode and an online mode. In the campaign there are 4 cups to acheive. The Weasley’s Burrow Garden, Hogwarts House, The Triwizard Schools, and the World Cup. You can tackle the campaign in Co-op if you want as well. There are also 5 difficulties. Casual, Standard, Advanced, Expert, and Champion.
With the online mode, you can only choose one of three roles: Keeper, Seeker, or Beater. Everyone has a chance to let an AI bot take over their role so they can be a chaser. As opposed to single player, where you can switch over to any role seamlessly.
There are daily, weekly, and career challenges. All can be unlocked through either mode. Unless the challenge states otherwise.
If I had to knit pick and find issues with the game, I would say I wish there was a better passing system in place. When you are rushing towards the goal, it can be hard to see around you and where you are throwing the quaffle. This led to me throwing the ball into the open even though a player wasn’t in that spot. This isn’t a huge deal seeing as I was able to win a cup on champion difficulty despite this problem.
I am so glad this game is its own stand alone thing. It can now get the love and attention it deserves. Whether you are playing online or with a friend through the campaign, each class is a guaranteed good time. If you ever fantasized about getting out on the field, I highly recommend this game!
This game was reviewed on Playstation 5.
To watch me play a match as all the different positions, click below!
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