25 Best Video Games Like Hogwarts Legacy

It’s tough nowadays to be openly a fan of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The “Harry Potter” movies turned the popular fantasy books into a multimedia phenomenon, spanning video games, theme parks, and even Broadway. This all seemingly culminated in 2023, with the release of what would’ve been the ultimate experience for “Harry Potter” fans with “Hogwarts Legacy,” an action RPG where players create their own students at the titular wizarding school, navigating iconic locations in an expansive open world and growing stronger as they gain more experience. 

However, the release and subsequent life span of “Hogwarts Legacy” has been, like the rest of the “Harry Potter” franchise, marred with controversy. The book series’ original author, J.K. Rowling, has been a notorious voice of transphobic sentiment over the past few years, leading many former fans of the books, movies, and other media from the franchise to be turned off by engaging with any new content, including “Hogwarts Legacy,” which released in 2023. 

The controversy hasn’t made any impact on the game’s sales, and many claim the author’s lack of involvement with “Hogwarts Legacy” allows “Harry Potter” to move on without Rowling. Nevertheless, fans who would normally love a game like “Hogwarts Legacy” may find themselves feeling left out as others enjoy a conscience-free experience exploring an open world, practicing magic, and living the perfect wizarding experience. With that in mind, here are 25 games you can enjoy instead of “Hogwarts Legacy” that provide a similar experience. 

“The Legend of Zelda” is one of the most famous video game franchises of all time, but the series took a huge leap into the modern era with 2017’s “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” for Wii U and Nintendo Switch. In the game, players control Link, a hero who awakens from a hundred-year slumber to rescue Princess Zelda from the clutches of Calamity Ganon, an evil entity tormenting the open world of Hyrule. 

Like “Hogwarts Legacy,” “Breath of the Wild” allows players to fully immerse themselves in a vast land, similar to the former’s exploration of Hogwarts and the surrounding areas. They might even find visual similarities between the two games’ archaic design influences. While “The Legend of Zelda” has traditionally been more action-adventure than RPG, “Breath of the Wild” includes many elements of the latter, including armor upgrades and enough optional side quests to keep you occupied for years. Plus, when you’ve finished “Breath of the Wild,” you can continue with its 2023 sequel, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”

There’s no shortage of “Star Wars” games, but the best for many fans is 2019’s action-adventure game “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.” It takes place shortly after the events of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” and rather than creating their own characters, players control Cal Kestis, a fugitive Jedi tasked with rebuilding the fallen Jedi order while avoiding capture from the Galactic Empire. 

The game’s progression of growing stronger and more experienced has been compared to the “Metroidvania” sub-genre, in which exploration and upgrading go hand-in-hand, but “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order” also shares a lot of similarities with “Hogwarts Legacy.” While there are obviously similarities between the powers of a Jedi and the magic of Harry Potter’s wizarding world, players will find themselves growing more powerful as they continue exploring the galaxy, even if that exploration is treated a little differently in this game than in other open-world RPGs. 

The “Assassin’s Creed” franchise has been around for a while, allowing players to embody a lineage of assassins in various historical eras, whether it’s the Italian Renaissance, the American Revolution, or, in the case of 2018’s “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey,” ancient Greece. This is much more in line with what “Hogwarts Legacy” fans might expect from a recommendation, as it combines the freedom of exploring a rich open world with RPG elements such as taking on missions, leveling up, and gaining new abilities that they can use to covertly take out their enemies.

Although those unacquainted with the franchise may judge “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” after the video game’s appeal failed to survive the leap to the big screen, “Odyssey” is agreed upon by many as one of the best installments in the franchise since its earliest incarnations. Plus, the disconnect to the franchise’s main story that many fans criticized might be perfect for someone coming from the already lore-heavy world of “Harry Potter.” 

The 2010 Wii game “Xenoblade Chronicles” kicked off an unconventional franchise for Nintendo, with the 2015 Wii U game “Xenoblade Chronicles X” serving as a spiritual successor to the original game’s narrative. Players control a custom avatar who, after mysteriously crash-landing on the planet Mira, joins the Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth (BLADE) to help protect their world from an invading alien race known as the Ganglions.

The gameplay, like “Hogwarts Legacy,” combines open world exploration with RPG action, involving turn-based combat and, later in the game’s narrative, the control of giant mechs known as Skells. It may have languished in obscurity releasing in the late stages of the Wii U’s lifespan, but it just recently got a re-release on the Nintendo Switch as “‘Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition,” which includes a DLC expansion, a continued story, and several new characters to add to your party. If you’re looking for a game with a lot of scale like “Hogwarts Legacy,” “Xenoblade” is the franchise for you. 

“Monster Hunter” has been a huge franchise in Japan ever since it began in 2004 on the PlayStation. It’s since blown up in the west, thanks not only to the “Monster Hunter” movie by Paul W.S. Anderson, but also with one of the more definitive installments being 2021’s “Monster Hunter Rise.” While “Monster Hunter World” introduced the series to many quality-of-life changes, from open world maps to improved combat mechanics, “Rise” recaptured that magic on the Nintendo Switch, only seeing a release on other consoles in 2022 and 2023. 

The gameplay loop involves, as the title suggests, a party of hunters tracking down massive and fearsome monsters, defeating them, and using their dropped materials to craft new weapons and armor to prepare them for stronger fights. It’s a lot more action-centric than the likes of “Hogwarts Legacy,” but players of that RPG may appreciate the feeling of slowly growing stronger and taking on progressively more difficult fights. 

Most “Pokémon” fans would consider “Pokémon Scarlet & Violet” the series’ proper entry into the realm of open-world games, but 2022’s “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” may appeal more to fans of “Hogwarts Legacy.” The game, which serves as a prequel to “Pokémon Diamond & Pearl,” finds players in the Hisui region, where they join the Galaxy Expedition Team’s Survey Corps, recording data for Professor Laventon’s inaugural Pokedex by catching as many Pokémon in the wild as they can, investigating the appearance of space-time rifts along the way.

Compared to the more traditional-RPG gameplay of the mainline “Pokémon” games, “Pokémon Legends: Arceus” allows for more freedom, exploration, and slow progression while still being a whole lot of fun. It’s also a lot more polished than the recent mainline entries in the “Pokémon” franchise, which have suffered from hardware limitations and a plethora of game-breaking glitches. Plus, it may inspire you to rewatch the “Pokémon” franchise of TV shows and movies, or even to buy the upcoming (at the time of writing) follow-up “Pokémon Legends: Z-A.” 

At times, playing “Persona 5” might feel like watching one of the best anime movies ever, thanks to the game’s intricately animated cutscenes. However, it’s actually a really fun role-playing franchise that, like “Hogwarts Legacy,” takes place at a peculiar school for super-powered individuals. In “Persona 5,” players control the enigmatic Joker, attending school, exploring the outside world, and eventually discovering an alternate universe known as the Metaverse, formed entirely from the subconscious desires of people. So, you know, a lot more grounded than Hogwarts.

Fans of role-playing games often name “Persona 5” as one of the greatest in the genre, which has been especially the case since its re-release, “Persona 5 Royal,” released initially in 2019, three years after the game’s initial release in 2016. If the RPG aspects of “Hogwarts Legacy” combined with the unexpected thrills of studying at a peculiar academy appealed to you, then “Persona 5” should be the game you play next, aside from our next recommendation …

The “Fire Emblem” franchise has been one of Nintendo’s most successful RPG franchises outside of “Pokémon,” but “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” on the Nintendo Switch takes a sharp turn from the franchise’s regular formula. Players control an avatar who is hired to teach at the Garreg Mach Monastery, a university uniting the trio of nations in the land of Fódlan. Early on, players make the choice to join one of the three titular houses, which will completely change the trajectory of the story and whether they end up on the side of good or evil. 

For the first half of “Fire Emblem: Three Houses,” “Hogwarts Legacy” players will find a formula gameplay loop, but this time they’re the ones teaching as a means of strengthening their units. At the end of each in-game month, armies unite to wage battles across Fódlan, but a plot twist midway through forces players to focus more on strategy than education. If you want an RPG that’s not too different from HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” “Fire Emblem: Three Houses” will be very engaging. 

When it comes to open-world exploration, few companies have nailed the formula quite like Rockstar, the minds behind franchises like “Grand Theft Auto” and “L.A. Noire.” However, they really raised the bar with their 2018 release, “Red Dead Redemption 2,” which lets players pretend like they live in one of the best Western movies of all time. 

Whereas “Hogwarts Legacy” puts players in the Hogwarts school system, “Red Dead Redemption 2” is fully open-world, stringing players on an engaging narrative but giving them lots of room to just freely roam an 1899 United States as an outlaw taking on missions and slowly learning the trick of the trade, that trade being crime. Like other Rockstar games, the focus on creating a gripping story might leave less freedom for players to make their character their own, like in “Hogwarts Legacy,” but it can’t be denied that when it comes to open worlds, “Red Dead Redemption 2” is the best it can get. 

The 2022 action video game “Ghost of Tsushima” was inspired by Akira Kurosawa films, and like some other entries on this list, it gives players the opportunity to fully realize their dreams of being a samurai… assuming they had them to begin with. Like “Red Dead Redemption 2,” players control a specific character, Jin Sakai, as they swear an oath to protect Tsushima, Japan, from an oncoming Mongol invasion in the late 1200s. 

Players can freely explore the three islands that incorporate Tsushima, which they slowly unlock throughout the course of the narrative (and by purchasing DLC expansions). The gameplay, involving action and open-world exploration (the latter being accomplished through judging the direction of the wind), is very reminiscent of “Hogwarts Legacy,” but differs in the focus on stealth as a major tactic to take out enemies. Combat is also a lot more complicated than the likes of “Hogwarts Legacy,” with no magic, just strategic sword-fighting.

“The Witcher” franchise is, like “Hogwarts Legacy,” based on a series of books, which began in the 1980s and follow the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a hunter tasked with killing dangerous supernatural creatures. “The Witcher III: Wild Hunt” initially released in 2015 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, boasting incredibly ahead-of-its-time open world environments in which players can freely roam, interact with NPCs, and slowly grow stronger not just from leveling up (it is an RPG, after all) but by actually studying in-game texts. 

While the Netflix series “The Witcher” makes some major, and sometimes baffling, changes from the books, “The Witcher III” is notable for being an immersive fantasy world with engaging characters, particularly Ciri, the adopted daughter of Geralt who was born with the ability to magically teleport, making her a bit closer to a “Harry Potter” character than even her father. The game has since seen ports to current-gen consoles, and still doesn’t feel like it’s aged at all since its original release. 

2014’s “Dragon Age: Inquisition” is not the most recent installment in the franchise, but it is the most definitive installment, as opposed to 2024’s vastly different, more linear and level-based “Dragon Age: The Veilguard.” “Inquisition” was designed to appeal to veterans of the series, addressing some of the biggest concerns with the previous title, “Dragon Age II,” which had only been released three years prior in 2011. As a result, “Inquisition” is an open-world action-RPG that’s actually still preferred by many hardcore gamers when it comes to titles in the genre, even modern ones like “Hogwarts Legacy.” 

While the game is not nearly as open-world as “Hogwarts Legacy,” “Inquisition” has more traditional RPG elements, including a limited selection of classes (warrior, mage, and rogue), each with their own arsenal of weapons to fight with. It’s as catered to “Dragon Age” fans as Netflix’s video game adaptation, “Dragon Age: Absolution.” 

Despite debuting in 2017, “Horizon Zero Dawn” has already become so iconic as a franchise that we know Netflix is making a video game adaptation of it. While many fans might be arguing as to who they’d love to see play Aloy in Netflix’s series, newcomers to the franchise coming from “Hogwarts Legacy” will find an entirely original and rich world to become obsessed with. In “Horizon Zero Dawn,” Aloy is a hunter exploring an open world where animal-like robots rule the land, forcing her to survive an unexpected wilderness.

While the franchise was followed up with “Horizon Forbidden West” in 2022, “Horizon Zero Dawn” is as fresh as a new video game franchise has ever been in recent years. It’s as if the gameplay of the aforementioned “Monster Hunter” franchise was translated into a proper open-world setting, with a more interesting narrative, characters, and aesthetics to boot. 

If you like “Hogwarts Legacy” and other games like it, chances are you’d love playing a game like “Elden Ring” or “Dark Souls.” “Bloodborne” is a spiritual successor from each of those games’ same developer (Hidetaka Miyazaki, whose other projects include “Sekiro” and “Armored Core”) that, rather than take inspiration from a specific series of books, takes after the works of authors like Bram Stoker as well as the best Lovecraftian movies, both of which are known for their creepy yet completely fleshed out worlds that put J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world to shame. 

In “Bloodborne,” players control a hunter roaming a Gothic world known as “Hunter’s Dream.” The game borrows a lot of action-RPG elements from the “Dark Souls” series, in which the more enemies you defeat, the more experience points you gain, thus the stronger you become. Compared to “Dark Souls,” “Bloodborne” is better on almost every front, from its storytelling, replay value, boss battles, and even its soundtrack.

“Hogwarts Legacy” may boast magical creatures of Newt Scamander’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” like the phoenix, but “Immortals Fenyx Rising” has one accompanying the player at all times. “Immortals Fenyx Rising” is a much different take on Greek mythos than “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey,” but it also shares a lot of similarities with “Hogwarts Legacy,” namely its distinctly vivid open world and a customizable player character.

Where “Immortals Fenyx Rising” differs from “Hogwarts Legacy” is the progression of the players’ powers. Rather than use any RPG-esque elements, “Immortals” utilizes platforming and puzzles in the in-game Vaults of Tartaros, while battling enemies is simplified with switching between a sword, axe, and bow-and-arrow. The game has also drawn many favorable comparisons to other open-world games like “Breath of the Wild,” which, judging by its aesthetic, it definitely feels reminiscent of. Still, fans of Greek mythology may find as much excitement from this game as “Harry Potter” fans find in “Hogwarts Legacy.” 

In all fairness, “Shadow of the Colossus” is easy to recommend just on the basis of being one of the best video games of all time. Given how grand and cinematic “Shadow of the Colossus” is, it’s surprising that it’s not a video game based on a movie franchise, rather than being a completely original fantasy world. In the game, players control Wander, a young man who, determined to resurrect a young girl named Mono, sets out on a mission to kill 16 giant colossi scattered across a vast and barren open world. 

“Shadow of the Colossus” has the perfect combination of jaw-dropping storytelling and focus on action gameplay, even if it lacks the RPG elements that “Hogwarts Legacy” players might be looking for. However, the game’s aesthetics and the simple exploration through the aptly-named Forbidden Land will appeal to those who love “Hogwarts Legacy” for its open world aspects. Sadly, until the purported “Shadow of the Colossus” movie gets a new director, people can only experience this tremendous game in its original form. 

At this point, if you’re not watching the generally improved adaptation of “The Last of Us” on HBO, it’s the second time you’re missing out on this franchise’s big twists. The original “The Last of Us” completely innovated the storytelling of video games in 2013, but its follow-up, “The Last of Us: Part II,” which released in 2020, was one of the biggest controversies in video game history, based on several surprising plot twists that set the story of revenge and violence into motion.

What viewers of “The Last of Us” on HBO won’t know about the 2020 video game is that it actually has a lot of free-roaming exploration baked into the story, no matter whether you’re playing as Ellie or Abby. In fact, players may not even feel like they’re being taken on a steady adventure, given how movie-like a lot of the game feels, which is where it really differs from the more action-y qualities of “Hogwarts Legacy.” 

Speaking of exploration, it doesn’t get more exploratory than “Tomb Raider.” The iconic video game franchise stars Lara Croft, an Indiana Jones-esque archaeologist who takes treacherous journeys to uncover lost artifacts and ruins. Many people recognize “Tomb Raider” as a film where Alicia Vikander or Angelina Jolie kicks ass, but the character of Croft in the games is no different, especially when it comes to more recent installments like 2015’s “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” in which Croft takes on an adventure through Siberia in search of the mythical city of Kitezh.

Compared to previous entries in the series, “Rise of the Tomb Raider” feels the most open-world, though the focus is much more on exploration throughout the game rather than combat or learning magic spells. There’s also a strong dose of puzzle-solving needed to navigate through these labyrinthian tombs, and it also lacks any multiplayer capabilities, though that’s something it actually shares in common with “Hogwarts Legacy.” 

What’s there to say about “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” that hasn’t already been said? Originally released in 2011, the Bethesda RPG finds players taking on the role of the Dragonborn, a prophesied warrior questing to defeat a cataclysmic dragon from destroying the titular land of Skyrim. It’s a game that has spanned numerous generations of consoles, debuting on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, all the way up to current-day consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, among others.

It’s very traditional in its inclusion of RPG elements, with players choosing different races and classes with different abilities, leveling up via battling experience, and exploring an incredibly vast open world that, to be completely honest, was maybe too ahead of its time to make for a fully operational game early on its in lifespan. However, the fact that “The Elder Scrolls VI” has yet to be released at the time of writing proves that “Skyrim” is one tough act to follow for any game. 

“Fable” was first released in 2004 for the original Xbox, making it one of the oldest games on this list. “Fable” is pretty traditional for RPG standards, with players taking on a variety of optional quests that will raise their experience and level. Much like they can in “Hogwarts Legacy,” players can also learn magic spells to increase their inventory of abilities, though some may prefer to play the game while sticking with just melee or ranged weapons. 

The “Fable” franchise remained a consistent action RPG franchise until its developer, Lionhead Studios, shut down in 2016, in that time producing two proper sequels in “Fable II’ and “Fable III.” It may not have much to boast regarding a story, but it’s short and sweet enough to satisfy those looking for a quick and enjoyable RPG experience before getting set free to explore the world and accomplish dozens upon dozens of side quests. 

“Spellcaster University” is one of the few indie games on this list, having first released on Steam Early Access in 2019 before its proper full release in 2021. It’s since seen ports to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, giving many players access to its incredibly unique gameplay. It only shares a few similarities to “Hogwarts Legacy” in terms of its actual gameplay, but more so to its world. 

As the title suggests, “Spellcaster University” players take control of a university for magicians, managing it a la “Roller Coaster Tycoon” or “Sim City,” whether that means hiring teachers, managing the budget, or even taking your university in one creative direction versus another, i.e, whether to focus on black magic or demonology. Its sense of freedom comes from the idea that players can get a lot of mileage out of just spending time building their own Hogwarts, rather than simply being a student there.

“Stardew Valley,” on the surface, probably seems like the furthest recommendation possible from “Hogwarts Legacy,” but hear me out. As an indie title, its development isn’t incredibly different from the development of J.K. Rowling’s original sketches for “Harry Potter,” as designer Eric Barone created it when he found himself unemployed after graduating from college. The game is, ostensibly, a farm simulation that bears a resemblance to “Harvest Moon” and “Animal Crossing,” though for some “Harry Potter” fans, it might actually scratch a similar itch.

That is, many “Harry Potter” fans find “Hogwarts Legacy” a surprisingly cozy game to play, especially if the parent series is their comfort franchise. “Stardew Valley” occupies a similar space for fans of it, offering a much more lax gameplay experience than most other RPGs. Given the freedom offered by “Stardew Valley,” it might be the perfect game to relax your brain in between long sessions of getting lost in the realm of “Harry Potter.” 

“Marvel’s Spider-Man” is to the iconic Marvel Comics superhero what “Hogwarts Legacy” is to Harry Potter. The 2018 action game is by far the most immersive experience possible in getting to play as the friendly neighborhood web-slinger, incorporating the best Spider-Man villains like Green Goblin, Kingpin, and Black Cat, among many others. Getting to explore New York City as an open world has never been more fun than in “Spider-Man,” though impatient players can also rush to the action with fast travel mechanics.

Gameplay-wise, there’s obviously not a lot of going to school or spell-casting in “Marvel’s Spider-Man,” though the variety in levels is interspersed with getting to control other characters, including Mary Jane Watson and Miles Morales (the latter of whom later got his own storyline in the 2020 remaster “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales). It’s debatable whether Yuri Lowenthal’s take on Peter Parker is the strongest version of Spider-Man, but given how much comic book fans love it, it’s safe to say “Hogwarts Legacy” lovers felt similarly when they finally got to experience attending Hogwarts in-game. 

Leave it to “South Park” of all TV shows to unexpectedly create one of the best modern RPGs. The 2014 game “South Park: The Stick of Truth” was an ambitious project for the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, as they helped make an RPG where players can freely roam the titular Colorado town while also capturing the animation style and tone of the series. Surprisingly, they nailed it, with “South Park: The Stick of Truth” becoming one of the better video game adaptations of a TV show there’s ever been. 

“The Stick of Truth” also invokes “Harry Potter” in its narrative, in which the town has been overrun in a LARP-ing adventure involving wizards and knights, though due to copyright reasons probably there’s no appearance from the group of students obsessed with the wizarding franchise from season 6’s “The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers.” Nevertheless, for the most part, the game is a classic RPG, albeit one packed with blue humor.

Of course, we couldn’t end this article without giving a shoutout to maybe the best “Harry Potter” game that’s not “Hogwarts Legacy.” “LEGO Harry Potter Collection,” a bundle of the separate games “LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4” and “LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7” that was originally re-released in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, retells the entire “Harry Potter” saga, albeit with a plethora of comedic relief and LEGO-based humor. 

Nevertheless, prior to “Hogwarts Legacy,” this was as all-encompassing of a “Harry Potter” video game adaptation as you could get, featuring numerous iconic locations from the franchise, and hundreds – yes, hundreds – of playable characters, from series protagonists like Harry, Hermione, and Draco, to incredibly obscure characters like Rufus Scrimgeour, Krum Shark, and Seamus Finnigan. Sure, the open world and RPG elements that “Hogwarts Legacy” fans have gotten used to may not be present, but when you’re so accurate to the “Harry Potter” franchise you’re including Viktor Krum when he’s transformed into a shark in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” you’re worthy of praise.