Bro, you got everything; but you don't know anything!
Oh what's that? We've gone all of fifteen minutes without getting any solid news and/or confirmations regarding the feature-set of Hogwarts Legacy? Time for rampant speculation! Afterall, it is the express job of the Internet and myself to tell the hardworking developers exactly how to do their jobs. Well, actually not how to do their jobs, but rather what to do with it; they can figure out the how in their own time. Because that's the great conceit of being a backseat developer, you can waffle on all day about how the game should be, but most people haven't the faintest idea what goes into the things they're advocating or even if it will be the right fit for the game they're talking about. I recently watched someone so aghast with the fact that their favourite brand was recently inducted into Fortnite, a game where people use guns, that they suggest their character (who does not use guns in canon) should be singularly built their very own weaponless moveset with abilities tied to each individual weapon and buff they pick up, perfectly balanced so as to provide no unfair advantage one way or the other and perfectly updates with each new version Fortnite releases. And that was from a supposed Industry semi-professional. So you see what I'm saying right, sometimes consumers be dumb.
Yet having said all of that, and dumped all that copious shade all-over the place, let me turn around and say that without a doubt, and in this excessively specific instance, the mobs have got the right side of things. (Or maybe I've just lowered my standards and become one of their grunting number, it's a toss-up really.) This I say for the unfounded expectation, nay undeserved demand, that the upcoming Potter-Universe game 'Hogwarts Legacy' should be a social simulator, or at least covet social simulator elements. Yes please, without a doubt, this needs to happen. I don't care if the guys tapping away over at Avalanche Software have just finished the final page of the script and are ready to start sending it off to the coding team- blare the horns, stop the presses, halt the very heavens themselves, this things needs a rewrite. Because in this single demand people have cracked the code of how to turn this new game from a good idea into the single dream game for every single Potter fan over the world. No joke.
But first let's be clear, what exactly is a 'social simulator' game? Well I can answer that with one single word, because we're lucky enough to have the genre exemplified by one iconic example: Persona. Although I realise that not everyone out there has played Persona (To absolute shame, all of you; Persona is a legend) so let me elucidate. Persona is a game that splits up the time you're not battling RPG monsters between the daily activities which the player decides on in order to 'simulate' their ordinary life. You choose the jobs they want to do, the people they meet up with, the talents they train at night before bed, you essentially enter into the shoes of their lives. And as you dictate these activities, the effect they have on the character works to 'improve' specific attributes or companions attributes, emulating the way in which our social lives can make us better people. (Or at least that's what I'm told. I have absolutely no social life whatsoever and I turned out perfe- ooh, wait they may actually have a point.)
So do you see it? The blinding nugget of unrefined potential glinting out from the bottom of this coal mine? Hogwarts Legacy, with social elements, can be the remedy to all those kids from around my age who read Harry Potter as a child and waited patiently for their owl and proceeding invitation to Hogwarts. (Hey, don't make fun! Most of us knew it wasn't real, we just wanted to believe) We wanted to be part of the Hogwarts world in a manner that wasn't satiated with following the adventures of 'The boy who lived' or reading Newt Scamander's various notes into why his books would make for the most boring movie adaptations this franchise could muster. (Oh, his books weren't about that? I haven't read them, I just assumed) We wanted to be the Witches and Wizards studying the arcane arts, We wanted to decend into the bitter tribalism encouraged by school houses, (Actually, I did have that in my school days, much as I loathe to remember) and we wanted to be charmed, tortured, misled and nearly killed by a revolving door of worse and worse Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers. (Hmm, maybe not that last one. Ah who am I kidding? That last one too.)
We already know that the game is going to feature some form of 'create a wizard' built into the game, so that we may play whomever we choose to be, but making the jump from a creator system to a full RPG simulator which allows us to live the world of a Hogwarts student is not necessarily the logical conclusion. A game like this could very easily devolve into simple fetch-quests across the world as you journey around in a story ostensibly your own, but really the developers. Of course, whatever we end up with is going to be a story crafted by developers, but present it in the correct way and that's a river we Potter-heads could easily be swept away with. I'm sure there's some great quest bubbling away in 18th century Hogwarts, with Dark Wizards and scary monsters and schoolboy Dumbledore, but give enough slack on the leash and those can be just the guidelines for the ultimate Harry Potter universe game. Imagine thus-
You wake up in the morning at the dorm of your house of choice, spending those first few hours at the dorms with the circle of friends important to this narrative. The cutscene time between the dorms and schoolrooms could be a time, just like in Persona 4, for the group to discuss plot relevant information, go over plans and struggles they have to pursue, let the main story seep naturally into the everyday. The afternoon could be a time free to the player, to pursue further studies, catch-up with friends, or shoot to further the ultimate quest. The choice would be up to them with the kicker being that they can only choose one, and so the management of time becomes a significant factor to consider each and everyday. I outlined just the basic idea for a social simulator, but starting with that as a base, Hogwarts Legacy could evolve it into so much more, with character skill systems, companion events, special holiday dates, world events; there's so much you can do, all it takes is for the developers to put themselves in the position where they can take those paths.
We're at that golden stage of wonderment, wherein we know literally nothing about the structure of the game and can make all the wild unsubstantiated wishes that our little heads can conjure up. Will this ultimately end up in the steady crafting of an unmatchable idealisation of the game? Undoubtedly so. But maybe in all this grandstanding the developers and licence holders can get an idea for the sort of game that people want and steer development to a rough approximation of that dream. That might be a sliver hope, but we've survived over a decade of Harry Potter games, and so far the only really decent ones have been the Lego games, and that's just a given, those guys over at TT could make Lego 'No Country for Old Men' and it would still be fun and engaging for kids. We're past due that one knockout which blows everyone away and truly makes use of the potential of this franchise, maybe something that can even breathe some life back into the wizarding world where these recent movies have fallen short. So yeah, not to put the entire weight of Harry Potter's future on your shoulders, Avalanche Software, but that's pretty much where we're at right now. (So do the right thing and make 'Persona: Hogwarts Edition'! You know it makes sense.)
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