ONE
Ministry Official Osric, catching a ride with us to Hogwarts, shows Professor Fig the goblin-metal canister Miriam Fig sent him before her death. It may have some relation to the rebel goblin, Ranrok. Only I can see that the canister glows. Inside is a golden key.
A red-eyed dragon attacks, killing Osric and destroying the carriage. As Fig and I fall, he grabs the key, which is a portkey. We end up at a remote location. A magical doorway that only I can see transports us to Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
TWO
The portkey is for Vault 12, one of the earliest ever built. A guard with red eyes watches us proceed to our vault. After we step through the door, our banker, as per instructions from the original vault owner, locks us inside. Glowing symbols lead us through a dungeon and toward a pensieve with a locket floating above it.
THREE
In the pensieve’s memory, Percival Rackham and Charles Rookwood discuss the person who will eventually discover Vault 12. This person (me) will be able to wield ancient magic.
FOUR
Fig and I are disrupted when Ranrok, eyes glowing red, enters. As he and Fig fight, I discover another magical doorway. Fig and I escape. To our surprise, we are on the grounds to Hogwarts. I am sorted at the opening feast and choose my house. Let the school year begin.
Natty and Sebastian, my potential friends (and side-quest givers), are introduced to me. One of them takes me to Hogsmeade to replace my lost school supplies. While there, we are attacked by a red-eyed troll. I learn about my ancient magic super spell.
Afterwards, in a side alley we see Ranrok talk to his human partners, Victor Rookwood and Harlow. They were supposed to use the troll attack to capture — me. Protected by patrons of The Three Broomsticks, I and my friend are able to return safely to Hogwarts.
I meet with Fig, who’s been examining the pensieve’s locket. An inscription opens a map for us. I can see a glow over the library section. Fig can’t go with me; Headmaster Black needs him. However, I can sneak in with Sebastian. When Peeves catches us, Sebastian diverts him. I go alone into the puzzle room. At the end of it is another pensieve.
This memory is of the Four Keepers as they magically restore a blighted village. A little girl watches them. Years later, the same girl arrives at Hogwarts as a fifth-year student. (I am also a new fifth-year student.) Isidora, like Rackham, can see the glow of ancient magic.
The pensieve included a book, which I show to Fig. Pages in the middle are missing. Fig will take the book with him to study while he travels to the Ministry at Black’s insistence.
Meanwhile, I’m introduced to the mystery of ghostly Richard Jackdaw by different means (depending on which house I’m in). He leads me to the cave where he died. His body will have the missing pages to the book.
From there another magical doorway leads me to the Map Chamber under Hogwarts. Four large, empty portraits hang on the wall. Into one walks Rackham. He’s glad to meet me, but we can proceed no further until the book is placed on its pedestal. When Fig returns, so will I.
While waiting, I continue with my studies. Sebastian shows me a secret room, the Undercroft, where we can practice spells.
Fig and I deliver the book. The entire floor of the Map Chamber lights up. I must pass four trials, one for each Keeper. When Fig explains about Ranrok, Rackham initiates the first trial right away. At the end of his ordeal I find another pensieve.
Rackham’s memory is of student Isidora as she practices her ancient magic. She’s upset, though, because her father’s sadness doesn’t lift. She wishes she could take away his pain. Human emotion is as complex as magic, Rackham counsels. Her father’s pain is not hers to take.
Years later the Keepers welcome Isidora as a new Hogwarts professor. She invites them to her home. (To be continued with the next Keeper’s pensieve.)
After the memory I return to the Map Chamber and meet the second Keeper, Charles. He wants to wait on his trial until we can learn more about Ranrok.
I try asking a local goblin if he can tell me of Ranrok’s plans. Lodgok will help me if I help him by retrieving a helm. I do so, which pleases him. While I wait for his information, I meet Highwing the hippogriff, a good creature to know. I also help the caretaker with a problem. He teaches me how to unlock doors, a useful (and necessary) skill.
As promised to Sebastian, I go with him to visit his sister, Anne. She’s been cursed and is ill. With all his heart Sebastian wishes he could find a cure.
He shows me where it happened, at a ruined house above the village. We discover that this was Isidora’s home. Her portrait is destroyed so she can no longer visit it. The basement has a magical doorway to Hogwarts’ Undercroft. When we walk through, a triptych appears on the wall. One panel holds a landscape painting; the other two are empty.
Now it’s Natty’s turn to help me. She’s discovered the poachers’ lair and wants to find evidence she can take to the constable. We go together, sneaking, until we see that Highwing is a prisoner. While Natty looks for Harlow’s letter, I find Highwing and another hippogriff. Natty and I escape on their backs while Harlow shoots Avada Kedavra into the sky around us.
At this point, Charles decides to move ahead with his trial. He can hear disturbing sounds at his castle where he has a portrait he can visit. Fig and I find a plundered dig site; one of the magical repositories has been breached. Charles is devastated by this news.
After his trial, Charles’ pensieve waits for me. His memory is of the Four Keepers visiting Isidora’s home, continuing from the previous memory. Bringing out her semi-catatonic father, Isidora shows them all her discovery. She can magically take away his pain. Rackham is horrified, but Isidora’s father thanks her.
Back in the Map Chamber I’m introduced to Headmistress Niamh in the third portrait. Because Headmaster Black is prickly, she’ll need to find a way around him before she can begin her trial.
In the meantime, Lodgok has sent me a message to meet at a mine that will have information. I bring another student, Amit, who can kinda-sorta read goblin language. We find schematics for an enormous drill. When Amit leaves, exhausted by so much adventure, Lodgok shares some of his backstory. Ranrok’s ancestor, Bragbor, left journals that detail the depositories he built for the Four Keepers. Then Lodgok speaks of the time he met Miriam as she investigated Rookwood Castle. Her kindness changed his opinion of wizard-kind, and her death saddened him. The final Bragbor journal and its description of the last, large repository is still out there and Ranrok seeks it.
The picture in the First Triptych, which Sebastian has located, leads us to another mine. Isidora has a secret room here. We find another canvas and step through a magical doorway to the Undercroft. Again Sebastian recognizes the landscape. When I say I want to consult Lodgok first, Sebastian is angry. A goblin cursed Anne, he’s sure, saying children should be seen and not heard. The argument between us is tense.
Niamh Fitzgerald has not found a way around Headmaster Black, but we need to proceed with her trial. It turns out that Fig started brewing a Polyjuice Potion months ago. I drink it, becoming the Headmaster. (Fig has taken the real Black away for the day.) I encounter other professors and must pretend to be Black (along with some funny dialogue choices). After changing back to myself, I make my way up the stone staircase and into the Headmaster’s office. Niamh’s portrait awaits me. I’m to read a book, a fairy tale, on a pedestal behind Black’s desk.
SWITCH
Niamh’s trial is a black-and-white line drawing, like a children’s illustration, that I explore. Skirting Death, I must sneak and uncover the three Deathly Hallows hidden here. When I finally find Niamh, she leads me to her pensieve. In color, I see her memory.
FIVE
Isidora and Niamh walk the grounds of Hogwarts. Isidora is alight with excitement about her magic. She’s hired Bragbor to make goblin-silver containers to hold all the power she’s pulled out of people. Isidora, in a very disturbing act, uses her wand on Niamh’s chest to unwillingly remove a pain from her.
This leads me back to the Map Chamber where San Bakar steps into the fourth portrait. Just meeting me for the first time, he’s low on trust. He won’t share his trial right away. While I wait, Sebastian and I pursue the Second Triptych’s location.
Another mine, another secret Isidora room. We find the last canvas and a magical doorway to the Undercroft. The picture is meaningless, but it unlocks a pensieve that Sebastian and I can both view.
Once again, the memory is of the visit from the Four Keepers and Isidora’s demonstration of removing her father’s pain. After, Isidora meets with Bragbor, excited about the success of his storage canister. She needs more, and she needs bigger.
Sebastian, seeing the power of ancient magic, is excited. This is a potential cure for Anne. He leaves with hope, while I remain with trepidation.
(Legacy misses a chance here to diverge paths. A more stereotypical Slytherin character would embrace Isidora’s discovery. The game doesn’t pursue this option. Without explanation, Anne is incurable. Ancient magic, so unique that only three people in all of wizard kind over centuries have possessed it, has nothing to offer.)
Lodgok wants to meet in another mine. With Bragbor’s missing journal in hand, Lodgok is captured by Ranrok, who ends up being revealed as his brother. Now Ranrok has everything he needs. He kills Lodgok and threatens Victor Rookwood. I escape while they fight.
Bakar, in the Map Chamber, has no excuse to dither. He must initiate his trial. He’s astonished that Bragbor kept a journal. However, the door to his pensieve cave can only be opened by a rare and gigantic beast, the Graphorn. I must fight and tame it, then ride it to the entrance.
SIX
His memory is of a visit he makes to Isidora’s home. Only her father, who behaves like a zombie, is there. When Bakar rushes to tell Rackham, he learns that Isidora has been using students. She removes their pain and stores the resulting power in a large, spherical repository in the caverns under Hogwarts.
When the Four Keepers confront Isidora there, she accuses them of arrogance. They attack and she, with the power she’s accumulated, blasts them back. They’re losing, but while she’s distracted, Bakar hits her with Avada Kedavra. Isidora is dead. The sphere, indestructible, remains under Hogwarts as their secret. This is what Ranrok seeks.
SEVEN
I must ask Ollivander to craft me a wand designed for one unique purpose.
EIGHT
Outside Ollivander’s shop, Victor Rookwood waits for me. I’m kidnapped and forced to fight for my life, ultimately killing him.
And now it’s time for the final battle under Hogwarts to protect Isidora’s sphere from Ranrok. Fig and I have help from the other professors as we fight trolls and goblins, until finally it’s me against Ranrok in dragon form.
After Ranrok is dead, Fig is wounded. Holding Miriam’s wand, which Ranrok tried to wield, Fig dies.
NINE
The school holds a memorial for him in the Great Hall. After, the game tells me I can finish any sub-quests and go anywhere I like, but the official storyline is complete.
CRITICAL NOTES
I’ve bolded the word “memory” in the plot summary. The story takes two trajectories. One is the mystery of Ranrok and the threat of his accumulation of power and destruction. This is where reliable gameplay comes in: fighting and treasure looting. The other is the explanation of ancient magic and how Isidora misused it, which is where “memory” becomes a signpost. It’s clear how the Keepers feel about Isidora (and I, meat person, agree).
However, gameplay that allows role-playing as someone who admires Isidora, who takes her side, is absent. Why ask my character what she intends to do with the sphere if the answer has no consequences? Also missing is any reckoning the Keepers should make for using magic to interfere with the natural order. Little girl Isidora saw what they did to her village. They made a blighted countryside bloom within seconds. Of course she would grow up to have grandiose ambitions and dreams of changing the course of injustice. Did the Keepers by their action create Isidora’s misconception of magical power? They had other charitable options they could have used before they chose to miraculously intervene. I wish I’d seen some personal reflection by the Keepers. Instead, they’re constantly surprised that their well-laid plans have failed: repositories breached, Isidora’s memories saved, goblins breaking into Hogwarts.
Because of the throughline of the memories, I’ve chosen a classic Three/Six structure: memories in/memories out. The first memory marks the Three, and the last is the Six. The memory itself plays for a while, so we don’t have a visual Mirror. It’s the in/out that marks the connection.
The decision to visit Ollivander and request the wand is a pretty mundane Seven. The story won’t advance without it, though, so it’s a serviceable choice.
The Eight is as expected: defeat the bad guys. The unexpected part is the death of Fig. This makes the Two/Eight another in/out structure. At the Two Fig leads us through the game’s tutorial. He’s an in-game mentor and a real-life teacher. At the Eight he’s taken from us. We don’t meet Ranrok at the Two; his henchman must stand in for him. Of course we’ll have a monster battle against him at the Eight. Introduce the villain’s force at the Two Trouble, climactically confront them all at the Eight. We prepare for this, and the game delivers.
I’ve chosen Niamh’s trial as the Switch because it’s so visually striking. The game turns at this point. We must use the Resurrection Stone Hallow on Niamh’s body in the trial. The tone is more serious and more threatening. It’s immediately after this that we see Isidora assault Niamh’s emotional integrity. It doesn’t leave much of a Five for this Enneagram, but if I had played some of the side quests, particularly Sebastian’s, they would’ve fallen within the Five, too. Sebastian goes pretty dark, which lines up with the more upsetting tone.
This is a great game with huge replayability. The Enneagram is tidy and the fight mechanics are satisfying. During the process of writing this review I became distracted by some missing story choices surrounding Isidora, but it in no way diminished my enjoyment of the game. I can’t wait for the next Hogwarts Legacy in the series.