Hogwarts Legacy didn’t need to repeat this trope from Harry Potter, and the game could have been better if it had been excluded entirely.
Hogwarts Legacy isn’t free from tropes, but there’s one Harry Potter similarity specifically that it could have done without. It would be unreasonable to expect a Wizarding World game to not include any likeness to Harry Potter plots or archetypes, but Hogwarts Legacy has a trope that comes across as a bit too repetitive. Although the Harry Potter series uses many familiar fantasy elements, the books and films tended to find ways to give them new life. In the case of Hogwarts Legacy‘s story, the implementation of one cliché that Harry Potter shares ultimately distracts the game from other avenues that could have been more interesting.
Similar to how Harry Potter is known as the Boy Who Lived, players in Hogwarts Legacy take on the attributes of the Chosen One trope due to circumstances beyond their control. Hogwarts Legacy makes changes to Harry Potter canon, but it sticks too close to its inspiration in making the player another Chosen One to fill in for Harry Potter. The game could have simplified its plot to set it aside from other media in the Wizarding World, even if that meant abandoning the player character’s unique abilities.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Story Focuses On The Chosen One & Ancient Magic Too Much
The idea of Ancient Magic might be interesting, but Hogwarts Legacy focuses on it to the point that being a student at a magic school seems like an afterthought. Classes themselves are used as tools to give the player spells that they’ll need to progress in the main quests. Even the day and night cycles are meaningless – negating the possibility of having a class schedule like a student would – because the player can spend days on side quests and go back to Hogwarts at any time without consequences for how long they’ve been away. Ancient Magic also makes no sense, shirking the gravitas given to dark magic like the Killing Curse, doing further damage to the game’s verisimilitude.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Story Should Have Focused On Being A Student
The fifth-year player character in Hogwarts Legacy being the Chosen One draws away from the academic setting of Hogwarts Castle. Instead of reusing a common trope in the Harry Potter universe, Hogwarts Legacy could have focused the plot around being a new student and putting pressure on players to win the House Cup or making relationships more meaningful than they are in the current game, perhaps through the use of features in social simulators. The player’s ability to use Ancient Magic causing them to start their wizard education late could have also been replaced with the player being a transfer student like Natty, making Hogwarts a new experience for them without making them the Chosen One.
The choices and character relationships in Hogwarts Legacy can often feel meaningless since the emphasis of the game is on the player being the Chosen One. When the player character’s abilities consistently outstrip their peers and negate some of the regular challenges of being a student, the game’s premise can feel a little cheaper. It could have been an interesting path if the game avoided that trope and let players live out the experience of being a regular Hogwarts student. Repeating Harry Potter tropes led to missed opportunities for the life and social simulation game potential of Hogwarts Legacy.
Editor’s Note: Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has been accused of transphobia by those in the LGBTQ+ community. Although not directly involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy, Rowling does stand to earn royalties from the game. We would like to reiterate our support for trans rights and that trans identities are valid. Support services are listed below for trans people impacted by discussions of transphobia.
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