As someone who grew up reading Harry Potter, finding the whimsy and magic in every page utterly enthralling, the wonderous immersion of the films so enrapturing, I couldn’t wait for Hogwarts Legacy to release. I distinctly remember watching the State of Play that so exhaustively detailed every little facet of gameplay gleefully on repeat, excited to embark on my own adventure within the once unexplorable hallowed halls of Hogwarts. Unfortunately, as much as I loved a lot about Hogwarts Legacy, it didn’t quite live up to expectations, putting a greater emphasis on the aspects that simply didn’t matter and neglecting the parts of a Hogwarts experience at the very least I have so desperately wanted to enjoy.
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Luckily for me, Hogwarts Legacy 2 has been officially announced and, in theory, holds the potential to rectify the mistakes of its predecessor. We’ve already been treated to a handful of Hogwarts Legacy 2 leaked details, although many of these, including its alleged status as a live service title, are somewhat concerning. However, what we still don’t know is whether it will address Hogwarts Legacy’s greatest flaw. For all its many strengths, Hogwarts Legacy failed to make its titular school feel important, drawing attention away from the classes, classmates, and activities that made Hogwarts such an iconic location so many of us wished to be transported to as children. If there’s one thing Hogwarts Legacy 2 needs to fix, it is this, and fortunately, there are simple solutions on offer.
Hogwarts Legacy Failed To Capture The Magic Of Hogwarts
It baffles me to this day how little of Hogwarts Legacy is actually centred around the titular school. Upon hearing that title, I imagined a Bully-esque experience with a magical, Harry Potter coat of paint splashed over it, but, alas, this is not what we received. While there are indeed classes in the game, they exist only as tutorials and end rather swiftly. For the majority of your playthrough, there is no need to return to Hogwarts outside of handing in quests. Classes stop becoming even optional activities, the common rooms have nothing of interest in them, and, beyond a few fetch quests, a large portion of Hogwarts Legacy’s side content is situated beyond the school’s walls.
What makes this particularly frustrating is just how beautiful a location Hogwarts is. It is a tremendously designed space, packed so full of intricate detail, magic, and whimsy that one cannot help but feel utterly immersed. It gives the illusion of there being plenty to do as you initially explore it, but its complexity lies on a purely surface level. There are no minigames to play with classmates, no study sessions to attend, no exams to complete, nor even Quidditch to compete in. Of course, not everyone wants their Harry Potter game to be a full-blown school sim, especially adults who’ve long moved on from that part of their lives. However, I’d argue it is an essential part of the Harry Potter series and, indeed, one of the few things that would have set Hogwarts Legacy apart from its contemporaries.
That’s something, sadly, the game needed quite a bit more of. Hogwarts Legacy’s lack of unique flair makes it feel rather dated already, a game that, while enjoyable in an initial playthrough, begins to feel rather lacking thereafter. It apes too much from its obvious influences, but never nearly as well, and its magic combat, while certainly enjoyable, lacks the complexity it needs to be truly genre-defining. Indeed, what Hogwarts Legacy had that no other game has offered thus far is a fully-realized school, and it chose to completely ignore it. This neglect also affects the narrative, as when the game’s cast of teachers pop their heads in during the climactic finale, you feel no attachment to them, as you met them twenty hours ago for one lesson and never again.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Needs To Be More About Hogwarts
There are an awful lot of features Hogwarts Legacy 2 must improve from its predecessor, but chief among them should be Hogwarts itself. The foundations, rather literally, are perfect and don’t really need to be altered, even if Avalanche Software decides to change the time period. The structure itself is gorgeous and a genuine delight to explore, its many secrets still being uncovered to this day. Rather, it is how players interact with it that must be adjusted, the reasons they have to return, and the role it plays in their overall adventure.
I found it odd that Hogwarts Legacy never incentivized players to return to the common room beyond the first few hours of the game. Not once do characters gather there to discuss their plan of action, as was so common in Harry Potter, nor does the player ever need to sleep there to pass time, or indeed have a dedicated space in which they could alter their appearance. You don’t even have a specific bed that is yours; it is so bizarre. The common room should undeniably play a much more significant role in Hogwarts Legacy 2, serving as a home base of sorts, perhaps even replacing the Room of Requirement in this regard. At the very least, it should feel somewhat essential to the narrative and offer a handful of roleplaying purposes for those interested in that.
The same can be said about classes, an activity that should play a far bigger role in both the narrative and in optional activities. I’m not even asking for a full-blown Persona-esque timetable system in which players must attend classes at a certain time of day, as awesome as that would be. Rather, it just feels as if the core purpose of Hogwarts as a school should be better represented. It shouldn’t be that you complete every class in the first few hours of the game and then never see those teachers again. Classes beyond those designated as key story moments or obvious tutorials could be a repeatable activity, one that typically results in a cutscene and maybe a handful of experience points, but could occasionally lead to additional quests, spells, and characters, thus incentivizing players to revisit them every so often.
At the absolute very least, Hogwarts Legacy 2 must include more ways of interacting with students across Hogwarts. Whether it’s through minigames like Wizard Chess or Gobstones, or more directly like study sessions or meetups akin to those seen in Persona 5, ways of spending quality time in Hogwarts must become a priority. These feel like basic features Hogwarts Legacy 2 must include, not just to resemble the game I want it to be, but to truly stand out within the exceptionally oversaturated open-world RPG genre. Hogwarts Legacy 2 should do what its predecessor failed to and tap into the very unique aspects that made its source material such a beloved and iconic success. Only then can it truly be crowned not just a legendarily good magical RPG, but the definitive Harry Potter video game experience.
Do you think Hogwarts Legacy 2 needs to be more of a school sim? Leave a comment below or join the conversation below in the ComicBook Forum!
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