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I Hope Hogwarts Legacy 2 Doesn't Make The Same Mistake As One Of Nintendo's Most Divisive Games
Hogwarts Legacy, rather ironically, didn’t leave as lasting a legacy as one may have expected. That’s not to say it didn’t do well financially or critically, as it exceeded in both respects. Rather, as much as diehard fans thoroughly enjoyed it, Hogwarts Legacy is rarely discussed anymore, at least concerning its strengths and place in the annals of RPG legends. That’s a shame, but it is largely down to its minor and occasionally major flaws that held it back from being the truly exceptional RPG that we all know it can be, were it to get a handful of tweaks.
It felt like, for a while, that it may indeed get those tweaks via the now-cancelled Hogwarts Legacy DLC. Now, it rests on the heavy shoulders of its sequel, likely titled Hogwarts Legacy 2, which Warner Bros. confirmed was happening a short while back. However, for that sequel to succeed, for it to right the wrongs of its predecessor and cement itself a legacy that can rival the likes of Skyrim and BOTW, Hogwarts Legacy 2 must avoid the same issue a controversial Nintendo game suffered from, and instead carve its own bright and bold path.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Can’t Be Like TOTK
It Can’t Just Feel Like More Of The Same
My greatest critique of Tears of the Kingdom is that it could never recapture the magic of BOTW. While it certainly tried, TOTK’s more mechanics-driven approach to exploration, rather than delving deeper into the game’s use of tone and atmosphere, made it feel like a far less interesting game, one driven by creativity, but not inquisition. Tears of the Kingdom gets a lot right, but it’s an iterative sequel that expands upon the wrong aspects while forgetting about what made BOTW, much like how Animal Crossing: New Horizons focuses too much on gameplay and not communication.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 absolutely needs to avoid falling into both pitfalls. It cannot be a mechanical evolution, one that simply shoehorns more spells or combat mechanics to make exploration feel more rewarding. It also cannot be iterative, building upon the basic ideas of its predecessor and doing little to differentiate itself. While one could argue that that is the role of a sequel, Hogwarts Legacy’s many flaws are a result of its inherently misguided game design. Iterating upon that can only lead to a more polished version of its largely disappointing experience.
This is all coming from someone who actually rather likes Hogwarts Legacy and wants its sequel to succeed. However, the lack of role-playing opportunities in a game that should be packed full of them, coupled with a bad story, lackluster characters, the poor implementation of companions, and a class system that becomes redundant after the first few hours all make Hogwarts Legacy feel meandering and not quite in tune with its source material. The sequel has an opportunity to fix Hogwarts Legacy’s greatest weaknesses and give fans the game they’ve always wanted.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Should Feel Like A Completely Different Game
It Should Be Everything Hogwarts Legacy Couldn’t Be
By all accounts, Hogwarts Legacy 2 will be a drastically different sequel thanks to a shift in approach. However, knowing Warner Bros. and its dogmatic devotion to the failing and floundering live service model, I’m not sure that it will be the best approach. Nevertheless, I do agree that, unlike Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy 2 needs to go in a completely different direction. Of course, I’m not convinced the multiplayer route is the way to go, although if pulled off correctly, it could end up being quite a role-playing experience.
Instead, I believe Hogwarts Legacy’s sequel needs to take the Persona approach, putting a greater emphasis on the life sim and school sim aspects of the experience, rather than on combat and story. That’s not to say that Hogwarts Legacy 2 shouldn’t have impressive combat or a good narrative, as both are absolutely Hogwarts Legacy features that need improving. Rather, by implementing more life-sim and school-focused gameplay elements, players can create their own stories and ultimately live the fantasy of attending Hogwarts and being a part of its everyday life.
As much as it is antithetical to the original game’s design, it would deliver a more Harry Potter-centric experience that no other game on the market is offering, and that is something unique and worth chasing.
More meaningful common rooms, the ability to make and hang out with friends, class-based mini-games like in Bully, and more ways of interacting with Hogwarts – such as doing homework, prefects patrolling at night, and even more secrets to uncover – would go a long way in delivering this more radical and atypical Hogwarts Legacy RPG experience. As much as it is antithetical to the original game’s design, it would deliver a more Harry Potter-centric experience that no other game on the market is offering, and that is something unique and worth chasing.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Needs To Be Innovative, Not Iterative
It Should Change Its Entire Approach
Tears of the Kingdom’s greatest flaw was that it tried too hard to chase BOTW’s success. Hogwarts Legacy 2 shouldn’t just iterate on its predecessor; it needs to evolve and become something very different. Not only does that make the original feel special and not discredit it by simply being a better and more polished version, but it also gives fans something new and exciting to experience. While iterative sequels can and have worked, when the foundations of the first game aren’t worth iterating on, it is absolutely worth breaking the mold.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 could win GOTY by drastically altering its core design principles while retaining a lot of the visuals and world from the first game. A more nuanced school-sim with a greater focus on immersing players within the wizarding world is a far more interesting premise, at least in my opinion, than yet another fetch-quest-heavy open-world RPG. Hogwarts Legacy, beyond its setting, did little to differentiate itself from the usual Ubisoft fare, which is why its sequel needs to be so much more.
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Hogwarts Legacy 2’s Coolest Opportunity Is The One It’ll Never Take
Hogwarts Legacy 2 has the chance to take the Harry Potter franchise in a new direction, but the series’ history suggests this is not going to happen.
I’m certain that if Hogwarts Legacy 2 went down the TOTK route and iterated on its combat and quest design, we’d get a competent and likely enjoyable open-world experience that, like the first game, we’d forget about relatively quickly. However, if it offers a more role-playing-focused experience, then it becomes an endlessly replayable experience with the potential for a multiplayer mode. Hogwarts Legacy 2 could become the ultimate school-sim video game, thus creating a new and more impressive legacy, unlike TOTK, which merely rode the coattails of its more memorable predecessor.
