Hogwarts Legacy Wanted System introduces Azkaban and actual penalties for dark magic

Despite its massive success, generating over $1 billion in revenue across several platforms, fans of Hogwarts Legacy feel the game is “criminally empty”, and are looking to unreleased content and mods to keep things fresh and interesting.

One of the most sought-after features is a wanted-level and penalty system, which was supposedly featured in earlier builds of the game but was cut sometime during development. This essentially makes the game more like Rockstar Games’ Bully, adding actual repercussions to messing around and attacking other wizards.

Now, one modder, jedijosh920, has implemented this system, with a mod that’ll make you think twice about using Unforgivable Curses in the game. Once installed, the player will be punished whenever they use the killing curse - Avada Kedavra - on an NPC, becoming wanted by the Ministry of Magic, who will send Aurors to fight and detain the player.

You’ll also get a fun image of your character on a wanted poster that says “Have you seen this wizard?” until you either escape or are defeated. Speaking of defeat, if the Ministry of Magic gets the better of you, you’ll be sent to the prison of Azkaban, which essentially acts as a game-over, forcing you to reload your save file to the nearest checkpoint.

It definitely adds some greater depth to the combat, as the Unforgivable Curses essentially act as the game’s easy mode, since they can often be spammed to immediately dispatch whatever enemies are attacking. So, a penalty to discourage their use is greatly appreciated.

It’s also great from a role-playing perspective too, as the game does let you choose your light and dark alignment to an extent, but this doesn’t really change much during free-roam segments. Using some evil spells and trying to survive the Ministry of Magic for as long as possible would have been a great addition for players who wanted to be true dark wizards.

There’s still a lot to see and do in Hogwarts Legacy, and Nintendo fans are yet to explore the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry following yet another delay of the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Despite everything it has to offer, it does feel like a missed opportunity to not let players be as evil as they want to be while providing some challenging punishments to balance out the gameplay.