The Wizarding World may be on hiatus on the big screen, but Harry Potter fans still have a lot to enjoy when it comes to games.
Hogwarts Legacy may not have featured the in-universe sport of Quidditch, but Unbroken Studios has got fans covered with their upcoming game, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Gameplay Walkthrough Launch Trailer
The game is set to launch next week, and while previews haven’t shown much gameplay, WB Games dropped a new trailer that gives players a better idea of how each member of a Quidditch team will function in the game.
For context, players will be able to cycle through four kinds of roles in a Quidditch team—Chasers (4), Beaters (2), Keepers (1), and Seekers (1). Chasers handle the quaffle and attempt to get it into the enemy rings; Beaters hold clubs and handle bludgers, violent balls that fly around the pitch looking to hits players; Keepers defend the hoops for their team; and the Seekers have the job of finding and catching the golden snitch.
Each playstyle is different for the role that a player has chosen, and they’ll have the chance to team up with friends online or participate in online multiplayer with other Quidditch fans.
Balancing the Game
Though it does look like Quidditch Champions follows most of the basic rules of Quidditch, it seems that they’ve changed one particular rule, which many fans have considered a huge balancing issue.
The game still ends when a Seeker catches the snitch, but instead of earning 150 points as they do in the books, catching the snitch will only earn a 30-point boost—enough to be significant to the game but not large enough that it invalidates the points that are earned throughout the match.
Different Quidditch Pitches
When developing their Quidditch career, players will start from ground zero with the Weasley’s made-up Quidditch pitch at the burrow—a location in the books but never shown in the film.
Moving up would have players competing at the Hogwarts pitch, with players choosing which house they want to fly for — Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, or Gryffindor.
Next would be the interschool championships, where players face other teams in arenas such as the Beuxbatons Academy and the Durmstrang Institute. Then, finally, they would get to go to the Quidditch World Cup, which would offer an array of 16 countries their Quidditch team could represent.
Customization and Hero Skins
As far as customization goes, players have access to six characters, and they can fully customize their costumes with different robes and all kinds of facial accessories and hats. There is also an array of available emotes and post-game highlight animations.
Aside from the cosmetic side, though, the game also offers a skill tree that is different for each kind of role in the team. Players will also have a choice of broom, each with various specialties and stats.
Though players can customize their own original characters, they will also get access to ‘Hero Skins’ based on characters from the films and books. Besides Harry Potter, players can get skins for characters like Draco Malfoy, Cedric Diggory, and Cho Chang. There are even skins for non-Quidditch players like Hermoine, and flying instructor Madame Hooch is also an unlockable skin.
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions launches for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Sept. 3.