Hogwarts Legacy 2 risks undoing the first game's ending

While Avalanche Software may not have yet announced a sequel to this year’s Hogwarts Legacy, it’s clearly something that’s going to happen.

Hogwarts Legacy is by no means a critical darling, failing to gain a single nomination at The Game Awards. That being said, it has proved to be an enormous hit with Wizarding World fans, with Hogwarts Legacy going on to become the year’s best-seller and the most popular game according to Google. I’d say that more so than any other game released this year, Hogwarts Legacy appeals to the casual gamer, maximising its sales.

Enjoy a tour of Hogwarts’ four house common rooms below.

Back when the game was released, posts were cropping up left, right, and centre with people claiming it was their first RPG experience, lured by the attraction of the Wizarding World branding and the chance to finally explore Hogwarts. You can see then why Avalanche is seemingly busy hiring more developers to build upon this franchise. Hogwarts Legacy lays the foundations of a solid gaming series. It just needs some tweaking.

Hogwarts castle itself is meticulously crafted. Particularly on new-gen consoles, which are free of loading screens, it's a marvel to explore. Just walking through the castle’s main rooms and corridors is a magical experience. That feeling is heightened when you eventually discover all of the hidden areas and passageways. I also think the combat is fairly solid, albeit with room for expansion.

Hogwarts Legacy’s most glaring issue is its open-world which is, to put it bluntly, empty. Hogsmeade is crafted with the same care and attention as Hogwarts itself. I also felt positively spooked walking through certain sections of the Forbidden Forest. For the most part though, outside of the main missions, the game will take you to a variety of cut and paste caves and ruins in order to get you to complete repetitive side errands. That’s not what I’m worried about in a sequel though.

WB Interactive Games

Expanding upon the depth of the open-world feels like a natural progression and something I’m almost certain devs will work hard on. What does concern me is Hogwarts Legacy’s flippancy when it comes to player-made decisions. Largely, choices are meaningless in the game. Naturally, everybody picks a house and this alters one quest in particular, but otherwise you’ll have the same experience as other players. Casting Avada Kedavra every two seconds may prompt a few troubled stares, but there’s no real consequence.

That all changes in the game's final scene. Warning: spoilers lie ahead. During the climatic finale, you’ll finally defeat Ranrok and locate the ancient power, known as the Final Repository, he was attempting to take control of. There are three ways this can go, although initially you’re presented with two options: keep the power contained or release it into the world. If you press release the power, you’re then presented with several further choices.

You can continue to release it, redact your choice and keep it stored, or a new third option will appear, allowing you to take the power for yourself. It’s certainly the least common option as I think many of us goody two shoes players will have kept it contained. If you do choose the ‘secret’ option of taking the power for yourself, a short cutscene begins showing the main character’s eyes glowing red as they cast an evil glare directly through the screen.

WB Interactive Games

The thing is, Hogwarts Legacy is no Mass Effect. It’s not built around your choices, and so it feels like this last minute mechanic in the final throes of the game will be discarded at the beginning of a potential sequel. It’s one thing for our overpowered main character to continue their Hogwarts studies after accumulating a body count higher than Voldemort’s, but there’s going to be a stark difference between those of us who contained the power and those of us who went full on evil mastermind in the final scene.

If those players who made the latter choice don’t then start the next game with that ancient magic coursing through them, it’s going to feel a little, well, odd. If that’s not the case, Hogwarts Legacy 2 would need to find a way to explain why all main characters are beginning on the same level playing field once again, which, while not impossible, feels like a tall order. Either way, I’m intrigued to see how it’s addressed. You can hardly provide the player an ending-altering choice only to ignore it later down the line.

Players had high expectations for Hogwarts Legacy. I can only imagine those expectations are going to increase for Hogwarts Legacy 2 given the fact that fans have voiced exactly what improvements they want to see made. I just hope the sequel hasn’t already shot itself in the foot.