Hogwarts Legacy Played it Too Safe, Here's How The Sequel Can Do Better
Reputation and companion systems are needed
Hogwarts Legacy players are in agreement that the hit Wizarding World release played it too safe, and I’m right there with them.
Avalanche Studios’ 2023 open-world RPG was a monumental success. In fact, the game recently celebrated a whopping 40 million copies sold.
That places it as the joint 19th best-selling game of all-time, tying with 2013’s Payday 2 and 1991’s Sonic The Hedgehog.
Whilst a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy hasn’t formally been announced, it’s clearly what Avalanche is quietly working on.
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In recent years, insiders claimed that a director’s cut and DLC for that original game had been canned.
Given how much money this franchise has generated, I can only assume that those ideas are being incorporated into a sequel instead.
Hogwarts Legacy’s follow-up doesn’t need to do a ton to perfect the formula having already built very solid foundations, but gamers agree a sequel can’t quite play it quite so safe.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Safe Approach Is Reflected in its Storytelling and Open-World
It was Reddit user leila_cdrd who kicked off the conversation, arguing that “Hogwarts Legacy plays it too safe morally and that’s a missed opportunity”.
“Honestly, yes that would've been fun if it closed/open certain questlines or made people have different reactions to you based on whether you lean more moral/immoral,” replied LukeIsNumber1Twd.
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“The fact that we can cast all of the unforgivable spells and torture the burning enemies, while generally being extremely polite just cracks me the f**k up,” replied Nosferatatouille.
User dumbass_supervirens agreed, saying, “I went off with all my unforgivables in front of Poppy before remembering she was with me, but she didn't seem to mind.”
I quite agree. I personally did use unforgivable curses out of curiosity, but it’s really strange that you can readily do that without repercussions. It's not like morality impacting narrative is a new feature to games - Fable, Mass Effect, Deus Ex... That's just off the top of my head. It's been a thing for 40 years now, so it's really disappointing it didn't go any further in Hogwarts Legacy.
If Hogwarts Legacy was lore accurate, our playable character would most definitely be locked up in Azkaban by now.
A sequel surely needs to introduce some kind of reputation system to add consequences to our actions.
I’m really intrigued with how the sequel will also deal with the game’s varied endings.
In Hogwarts Legacy’s hidden ending, the player character can absorb the ancient magic themselves, their eyes glowing an evil red.
Of course though, many players will have done the noble thing and released the ancient magic. That should carve two very different paths forwards, but that’s going to be hard to tackle from a game design perspective.
I’d personally also love to see the open-world play it less safe.
Hogwarts Legacy’s opening third is utterly charming as you go about exploring Hogwarts and attending classes to learn spells.
Journeying off to Hogsmeade or the Forbidden Forest for the first time is also very special, but the game grows a tad stale beyond that.
Assets are reused as you’re tasked with completing repetitive side quests and visiting copied and pasted caves and ruins over and over again.
I’d settle for a smaller map if that’s the only way Avalanche could cut down on the repetition.
It would also be great to see the Hogwarts experience extended with optional classes, a companion system, and the extension of mini games like Crossed Wands and Summoner’s Court.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 has potential to be a much stronger game, if it ever happens. Let’s just hope devs deliver the goods.
Topics: Hogwarts Legacy, Harry Potter, Warner Bros