Hogwarts Legacy clearly had an impact on players as it was the best-selling game of 2023, surpassing even Call of Duty, which typically takes the top spot. It isn’t hard to see why either, being both based on an immensely popular IP and offering a vast and detailed open world to explore. Hogwarts Legacy’s success has already garnered it a sequel, although, frankly, anyone could have told you one was in the works long before it made its first sale. This is assuredly turning into a full-blown series akin to the one it is based on, which will likely continue dominating the charts.
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However, despite its impressive commercial success, the first game is far from perfect and, in many aspects, is pretty subpar. That isn’t to say that Hogwarts Legacy as a whole is a bad game, as, for all its flaws, I happened to rather enjoy it, and it is also a widely critically acclaimed game. Rather, Hogwarts Legacy’s upcoming sequel has a lot to improve upon in order to rectify its predecessor’s mistakes and keep the series alive and well. If it manages to abandon the very worst aspect of Hogwarts Legacy, its narrative, then it may be in with a chance of enviable commercial success once again.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Narrative Was Weak
From its terrible loot and inconsequential use of the Forbidden Arts, there is an awful lot Hogwarts Legacy 2 must fix to not just supersede its predecessor, but cement the budding series’ place as one of the very best in its genre. However, the most crucial element Hogwarts Legacy 2 must address is its main story. While the narrative in the original Hogwarts Legacy was far from terrible, it was utilized to such a pitiful degree, merely pushing the player toward obvious reveals and underdeveloped conflicts that concluded with a meaningless choice that has little to no bearing on the rest of the experience.
Hogwarts Legacy isn’t badly written, but it is badly plotted, with its central villain appearing only a handful of times and its secondary baddie getting killed unceremoniously in a lacklustre final confrontation. It is neither impactful nor enjoyable, something compounded by the death of a major character that fails to land the emotional gutpunch Avalanche Software was clearly hoping for. By far its biggest sin is how much it detracts from the rest of the experience, and, indeed, the sheer amount of resources it required that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Let’s face it, Harry Potter isn’t exactly known for its narrative chops. Sure, the fight between good and evil is fun, and the central cast are suitably developed throughout. However, were it not for the whimsy of Hogwarts itself, the magical nature of its world, and its striking iconography now so heavily associated with the IP, I’m not certain Harry Potter would be nearly as popular. Hogwarts Legacy attempted to reach similar narrative heights by telling a high-stakes story packed full of morally questionable villains, but it never needed to. Hogwarts Legacy should be about the player crafting their own story at the titular school, rather than being thrust into a rather banal war between two factions, all while being made the chosen one.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Needs To Tweak The Narrative
Hogwarts Legacy 2 can, and frankly should, ditch all of this in favor of a more laid-back approach to narrative, one that largely focuses on the player’s experience at Hogwarts rather than an all-consuming epic battle surrounding it. Indeed, it could be told across several smaller, low-stakes stories that coalesce into one final set piece that ties together everything the player has experienced up until then, much like many of the Persona games. This would allow the developer to hyper-fixate on specific characters during each segment, thus giving them enough screen time and development so that when they appear at the end, they feel important and the player actually knows who they are, unlike the majority of characters who turn up at the end of Hogwarts Legacy’s climactic event.
This style of storytelling also accomodates for roleplaying, as the player isn’t thrust into a grand conspiracy from the outset, and can thus enjoy their time as a student. Surely, this is ultimately the whole point of these games. Hogwarts Legacy should be about fulfilling the fantasy of attending the school itself, as this is, at least to my understanding, the aspect that fans enjoy the most about the original series. Harry, Hermione, and Ron are fun characters and beloved by those who read the books, but I’d argue that Hogwarts itself is a far more important aspect to the fandom. That would be why it is called Hogwarts Legacy, and not a retelling of those aforementioned characters’ adventures.
Of course, I am aware that this is ultimately an RPG and therefore needs a strong narrative hook, as is tradition for the genre. However, again, I’m not convinced that Hogwarts Legacy needs to reach for the same heights as The Witcher 3. Instead, it should look at the likes of Octopath Traveler or the aforementioned Persona as inspirations, games that are more character-driven with narratives that serve those characters rather than the other way around. Indeed, I suspect fans would be more than happy if Hogwarts Legacy 2 were to turn out to be like Crimson Desert and focus on exploration, roleplaying, and combat over narrative. At least that way, it would be embracing what makes it a unique experience.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Should Embrace What Makes It Unique
In my opinion, Hogwarts Legacy’s greatest failing was its inability to exploit the aspects that make it so unique. Rather than leaning into the school-sim elements, the classes, and the student life, it instead opted to tell a generic story about ancient magic and a chosen one at the heart of it, something that wouldn’t have felt out of place in any other fantasy RPG. Hogwarts Legacy needed to focus on Hogwarts, but instead it decided to feel and, at times, play like its contemporaries.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 has the perfect opportunity to rectify all of that, to lean into the aspects that justify Hogwarts Legacy’s existence beyond profiting off of a popular IP. Again, I must stress that, in many ways, Hogwarts Legacy was a great game and worthy of the lavish praise it received. However, at least in my opinion, it simply didn’t do enough to capitalize on what makes the setting and the IP so special and important to so many people. There are so few games that offer a Harry Potter-esque experience that it is baffling to me that Avalanche Software didn’t focus on that.
The narrative is ultimately the biggest aspect getting in the way of achieving that, at least the one presented in the first Hogwarts Legacy. It puts too much pressure on an overarching, high-stakes, world-ending goal and makes the player once again the chosen one, a tired fantasy trope that was as boring in Harry Potter as it is here. Hogwarts Legacy 2 doesn’t need any of that; it simply needs to give players a Hogwarts that feels alive, one full of fun quests, activities, classes, minigames, characters, and roleplaying opportunities. Beyond that, it can offer a mystery to solve in the form of its main story, one that is tantalizing enough to encourage those interested to pursue it, but not so distracting that those who would rather merely immerse themselves in this incredible setting feel it detracts from their experience. Because, ultimately, Hogwarts Legacy should be about one thing: Hogwarts.
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