The Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Trailers Are Setting Our Expectations
August 20, 2024
Warner Bros. Games' newest Portkey Games title, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, is on the horizon with the initial release date set for September 3, 2024. The official gameplay trailer has given insight to the quidditch mechanics and the recent Triwizard Schools Showcase trailer gave audiences a peak at the quidditch pitches for Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. Since this release is still on the heels of the incredibly well-received, Hogwarts Legacy, expectations are high and so is the criticism.
The General Consensus — We've Been Here Before
The biggest critique to be gleaned from the official trailer is the gameplay direction taken by the developers at Unbroken Studios. Hogwarts Legacy featured enjoyable broomstick flying and, coupled with the open world, the spirit of freedom and adventure was a breath of fresh air compared to the more simplistic style seen in past games. It set a precedent for what flying could be in a Harry Potter game.
Despite those developments, Quidditch Champions appears to be a return to the playstyle seen in previous games, namely the 2003 game Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup. Since Hogwarts Legacy did not integrate quidditch, the decision to use decades old mechanics and create a stand-alone game (as opposed to a DLC which has been widely suggested) has spurred disappointment in many fans even as early as the game's playtest sign ups in April 2023.
The trailer itself, while short, reveals enough of the gameplay to warrant the critiques it's received. Magical barriers around the pitch seem to limit the player to areas within the arena and the recycled flying-through-rings mechanic to catch the Golden Snitch ultimately takes away the sense of freedom that we got a taste of in Hogwarts Legacy. While most of the footage is played through the perspective of a Chaser, the latest Triwizard Schools Showcase trailer does expand upon the gameplay with POVs from the Beaters and longer snippets of a livelier looking match. This improves upon Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup where you could only play as the Chasers during matches, however, that is arguably expected given the 2 decades of time between these games.
Canonical Elements...Kind of?
Quidditch Champions is set to feature a single-player career mode as well as online competitive play. You will be able to choose from any of the 4 positions (Keeper, Chaser, Beater, or Seeker) and from Hogwarts students we know and love, including Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, and The Chosen One himself. Interestingly, you can decide to create and customize your own character and equipment, suggesting a highly personalized career mode. The use of our regular cast of characters may hint to some story-based or story-adjacent challenges.
Gameplay footage shows us that some sort of time limit will be placed on the matches (which fans will know is not how quidditch games are meant to end) but this is clearly a means to foster playability. Other story elements are present with The Burrow and 1994 Quidditch World Cup arenas, but the online multiplayer experience is clearly the focus of this game.
Upgrades to your broom's Speed, Durability, and Agility stats, presumably to support the varying positions' needs, will be available along with different broom skins. Warner Bros. has stated that there are no plans to include microtransactions but so far there has been no word on whether or not there will be a ranking system or some other method of supporting fair co-op. The game will support cross-platform play but local multiplayer does not appear to be an option.
What all three trailers do highlight is that there will be a return to the main timeline centered around Harry & Co (most likely Harry's 6th year). With the presence of familiar faces such as the Weasleys, Viktor Krum, Cho Chang, and story-based locations like Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, it's obvious that the developers have made some attempt to invoke the source material. For Potterheads like myself, this is the game's leading positive factor, along with the customization that lends itself to the immersive Wizarding World experience we all crave.
While we all love to see the characters that we know so well, the fan service comes off a little superficial. The brightly colored and distinct artistic direction make it clear that the intention for this game is light-hearted fun so there is surely still entertainment value, but the stylistic gameplay decisions have rendered general expectations of the game relatively low. We may be looking at something more akin to an arcade/minigame style installment with limited replayability.
There might just be too much room to compare Quidditch Champions to the pioneering Hogwarts Legacy, particularly due to its notable absence of quidditch. The bar has been set pretty high and the clear departure in style may be a subtle nod to point our expectations in the right direction. Only time will tell what this game truly has to offer.
