Hogwarts Legacy was the most successful game of 2023, which has helped make its inevitable sequel among mainstream gaming's most anticipated titles. Of course, fans of the original are hoping to see a sequel Hogwarts Legacys story and character building, which was a bit lacking in the first game, but there are a number of more extensive changes that the sequel should implement as well.
Much has been said about how Hogwarts Legacy fails to deliver the “Hogwarts simulation” experience that many players expected prior to launch. Given its attitude and the precedent set by the principal Harry Potter books and movies, many expected a game more in line with the likes of Bully or Persona than The Witcher or Assassin's Creed. In other words, there is a popular opinion about it Hogwarts Legacy missed an opportunity to make magical education a bigger part of the game experience, put it at the center of its pacing and structure, and offer meaningful incentives to participate in student life, similar to how Persona making teen culture and academics core aspects of the game and story. This would be a good area for Hogwarts Legacy 2 to focus on, but Persona could provide it with another good nugget of design wisdom.
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Why Quidditch in a Hogwarts Legacy sequel couldn't be a replacement for a Gwent-like minigame
Quidditch could be a hit if it makes it into a Hogwarts Legacy sequel, but a few things hold it back from being a replacement minigame.
Persona's anthology format provides a good blueprint for the legacy of Hogwarts
How loose connections help Persona
Different Persona The entries are connected to their titular fantasy concepts, embodied by specific lore elements like the Velvet Room, but they all have distinct roles of characters and settings, allowing Atlus to get more mileage out of the franchise. This overall structure allows each Persona the game introduces several new ideas, not only in terms of lore, but also in the areas of character and intimate storytelling, which are arguably far more important. Such a format also comes with several advantages, such as the ability to remove certain characters or story elements that may not have worked in previous games, or may not be well-suited for retaliation in a sequel.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 could enjoy similar benefits by learning from Persona
Although there are definitely some cool things Hogwarts Legacy 2 could do with recurring characters and Hogwarts-specific concepts, being a direct sequel to its predecessor would likely come with more limitations than opportunities for good storytelling. It would certainly be interesting to see how the story of a character like Sebastian Sallow would unfold, but for each Sebastian, Hogwarts Legacy features several characters whose stories are either completed or simply not interesting enough to withstand the rigors of a sequel.
But if Hogwarts Legacy 2 were to take place elsewhere, like Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, then it could sidestep awkward narrative issues while opening up new creative avenues. It could feature a new group of students, freed from the baggage of the previous game, while focusing on other major conflicts. There would be no need to incorporate the heroes and villains of the first Hogwarts Legacygiving Avalanche a fresh start for the sequel's story, similar to how each Persona The game stands on its own narratively.
Most importantly, the adoption of the anthology format would help set the stage for the future Hogwarts Legacy as a franchise. While Avalanche could milk another story out of the first game's premise, it's unlikely it could do so indefinitely, but by establishing a series formula of ever-changing locations, characters, and stories, future Hogwarts Legacy games would have much more creative leeway and, by extension, potential.