An In-depth Look at the Reasons Why I'm Cynical About Hogwarts Legacy

Harry Potter's incoming game, Hogwarts Legacy, promised a pretty crazy amount of content. Character customisation, companions, creatures, decoration, exploration... Just to name a few. And although I did make an article about why I am not excited for this incredible game, I didn't have space to go in-depth, so here I am to explain why so many promises scared me off from Hogwarts Legacy. 

To preface this, I want everyone to understand that I am not hating on the game, nor do I have a rotten soul that cannot fathom anything but cynicism. When I say I am no longer excited for it, I mean more like I am, just "low-key" or cautiously optimistic. I am not expecting the game they have showcased at all, as I am taking that as merely a fever dream. Without further ado, here are the features promised and why I am scared of them.

Character customisation: Given they didn't show too much of how that works, I cannot imagine it is going to be like Skyrim level of customisation. There are probably some things you can adjust and that is great! I appreciate you can change your character, I am just sure it won't be that deep.

Decorating: Sure, they also didn't show much of this one, but in the Room of Requirement, you apparently can change it to have the things you want and although that is incredible, ideas like these usually boil down to only a few items being useful; therefore every Room of Requirement will basically have the same layout.

Exploration: Although the developers mentioned they hoped to give fans more than just the castle itself, this type of exploration can sometimes become just a few places with tiny bits to explore and a lot of things that are inaccessible or there just for show. As an example, a "town" where half of it is sealed off by invisible walls, and the rest is just closed-off buildings except for two or three.

Combat: It looked incredible and I wanted to cry, but a lot of games don't make it obvious in the reveal videos how clumsy the combat feels. 

Spells: Although it sounds like there's going to be a lot of freedom and customisation here, there's a lot of danger in this area. Maybe the spells will be much like the decoration, where they may have 20 spells but only eight of them are actually useful or fun.

Outfits: I absolutely love the idea of being able to not only customise myself into the Harry Potter universe but also dress as they do. However, I know from experience that when games this massive promise clothes and outfits, they usually mean they'll give us like two or three options. I know this is still something to wear and I appreciate it, but my hopes are still low.

Secrets: I started noticing a very sad pattern in some games that are focused around collectibles and exploring: Sometimes the collectibles and "secrets" are so obvious that you barely have to walk outside of the road to find them. You will literally just walk straight down the path and find them all with little to no effort. I hope this isn't true, as I absolutely love having to explore every nook and cranny to get them; a game that implemented exploration in this way fantastically was Tinykin.

Companions: Oh boy, I was very excited to meet the characters in this game and befriend them! Although I don't have too many horror stories of games promising companions and not delivering (because I believe even Fallout 4 did a decent job), there's still a lot that could unfortunately go wrong here, like the characters being a bit bland, stereotypical, or just downright too NPC-y (repeating dialogue too often, having extremely awkward AI, not acting human, etc).

Classes: I hope the classes in the game are fun. I haven't played too many titles that promise me a school life (or maybe none at all now that I think of it), but I can see how this might be shallow content with things becoming repetitive and still being forced onto us, feeling half-hearted, or even just straight-up ignored as the game goes on. 

Dungeons: I didn't super understand what they meant by dungeons, but the only type I can associate them with is Skyrim's. I hope they aren't the same two or three layouts of dungeons, with the same handful of enemies over and over that give similar or same loot in the chests. 

Puzzles: They mention we're going to need to be clever and I hope we do because a lot of games that are only puzzle-based have been more like walking simulators that make us click buttons or drag something from here to there — as happened in It Takes Two. Having simple puzzles, to the point of needing barely any thought at all, is a very disappointing feature a lot of games have. 

Story: Although the story is kept vague to us and I am not really going to be playing the game a lot for the story (of course, I am still looking forward to it), I hope it won't be disappointing in the sense of the villain having a very childish excuse for their actions, or things being blatantly ignored for the sake of progressing the story (much like some of the Harry Potter books' ginormous plot holes). 

All in all, Hogwarts Legacy has an absolutely gorgeous world. I could watch the video over and over just to feast my eyes on what the developers have created. I just hope that they didn't spread themselves (or the budget) too thin and end up falling flat on their faces on something they obviously put so much heart into. I look to this game with an equal amount of anxious excitement and cynicism.