Hogwarts Legacy‘s gameplay reveal highlights what players will be doing in this open-world RPG using the popular yet controversial Harry Potter license. Players will role-play the life of a new fifth year student at Hogwarts, which means attending classes, befriending housemates, and uncovering the school’s hidden secrets. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is clearly the main character of this game, and the attention to detail brings this magical academy to life.
As a game set in a school focused on teenage students, Hogwarts Legacy shares many similarities with Rockstar Games’ Bully. Avalanche Software already seems to be borrowing a lot from Rockstar’s controversial hit, and there’s a lot the developer could learn from Bully that would make Hogwarts Legacy a great game for fans.
How Bully Inspired Hogwarts Legacy
The closest analogue to Hogwarts Legacy right now in regards to setting and genre is Bully. Both are open-world games that take place at a boarding school, a setting video games rarely touch. Participating in classes at Hogwarts will be a major activity for players, just like it was in Bully. However, while Bully explored a grounded, modern setting with familiar classes like chemistry or gym class, Hogwarts Legacy has players attend fantastical classes such as Potions or Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Bully satirizes the high school drama clichés of social class systems, pitting Jocks against Nerds and Preps against Greasers. In Hogwarts, students are divided into similar social class archetypes through the school’s famous houses: Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. The game allows players to choose which house to join from the start, unlike Bully which introduces the main character, Jimmy Hopkins, as an outsider to the system, siding with whoever he wants throughout the story.
Game Design Decisions Hogwarts Legacy Should Adopt From Bully
While not many details on Hogwarts Legacy are available, the game is clearly an ambitious undertaking. Expanding on Bully‘s mechanics will in achieving its lofty goals. For example, Hogwarts Legacy should adopt Bully‘s strict school schedule. Jimmy is free to take on missions and explore school grounds, but he’s still a student who needs to attend class at specific times of the day. Players who choose not to participate when the bell rings will be hunted down by faculty for tardiness. This in-game clock provides options on how players want to spend their days. Designing classes for Hogwarts Legacy in the same fashion will immerse players in the school experience, and introducing magic to this feature can add interesting techniques for faculty/student interactions.
Bully was ahead of its time for having a dialogue system that allowed players to form relationships with other students, and Hogwarts Legacy should expand upon this idea. Players were able to interact in positive and negative ways with any student walking around Bullworth Academy. Every social group has their own relationship meter indicating whether or not these people like Jimmy. How players interact with students affects the relationship meter that the student is associated with, changing how that social group treats Jimmy. For example, making enemies with enough Jocks will cause them to pick fights with Jimmy more often. This system creates dynamic reactions out of every action players make, and it would fit perfectly with the inter-house rivalries the series is known for.
Including such systems would help make Hogwarts really feel alive, and they fit within the Harry Potter world. Allowing players to build relationships with other students and develop a reputation through their actions will help create an open world worth engaging in. Player decisions could dictate which houses will like them and who will come to their aid later on. Warner Bros., publishers of Hogwarts Legacy, own the patent for Shadow of Mordor‘s unique Nemesis System, which would be another wonderful tool to implement that’ll bring these relationships to life far greater than Bully could even imagine.
While it’s unclear if Hogwarts Legacy will be able to meet fan expectations or escape the shadow of J.K. Rowling’s controversial comments regarding the transgender community, the game has the potential to be the next great open world title. By learning from Bully and putting player choice at the forefront of the game, Avalanche can make Hogwarts an immersive and dynamic place to explore.
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