Summary
Hogwarts Legacyis surprisingly adding to its shelf life with content drops but at some point a full-blown sequel or spin-off is going to need to come to fruition following the success of Avalanche’s wizarding world action-RPG.Hogwarts Legacydemonstrates that the action-RPG formula can work brilliantly in an open-world game leashed to a gargantuan IP and even though it is story- and character-driven it is clear where its inspirations lie within certain facets of gameplay.Hogwarts Legacyis not a Soulslike, for instance, and yet its sequel could stand to gain from influences drawn from games likeElden Ring.
Elden Ringhas essentially rewritten the book on not only what an action-RPG should be but also what an open-world game should be. Therefore, distinguishing a Soulslike from any regular action-RPG may be more difficult nowadays with muddied, ambiguous subgenres labeling games as ‘Souls-lites’ and so forth.Hogwarts Legacycertainly has features that are reminiscent of Soulslikes such asreplenishable healing consumables emulatingDark Souls’ seminal Estus flasks, but there are two features unique toElden RingthatHogwarts Legacy’s sequel would be able to adapt immersively: waygate teleporters and trap chests.
Elden Ring’s Waygate Teleporters and Trap Chests Make for Fun Subversions in Exploration
Elden Ring’s waygate teleportersare straightforward, sending players to a predetermined location. The distances vary greatly and are not all always useful, but they’re helpful nonetheless when exploring, trying to find inaccessible areas, or reaching new sites of grace to connect dots and fill out as much of the map as possible.
Hogwarts Legacyallows fast travel via the Floo Flame Network, which acts similarly to sites of grace in that players can connect dots throughout the open world and easily revisit those areas on a whim. Moreover, trap chests—not to be confused withDark Souls’ mimics—are thrilling, at least on a first, cold playthrough, because players may open them anticipating a reward and be met with a cloud of smoke followed by a loading screen.
Afterward, players find themselves in a predetermined location, usually one that’s alarmingly far away from where players were. The most notable trap chest is the one atop the Tower of Return in the Weeping Peninsula that teleports players to Leyndell, Royal Capital on the other end of the map to the north.
They’re commonly dubbed “trap” chests because players are stuck where they’ve been teleported to, though there is typically a quick way out; an inactive waygate can be found on the Divine Bridge near a golem, for example, and a site of grace is available and necessary to rest at before being able to freely fast travel again. IfHogwarts Legacy’s sequel debuted portkeys it could design them comparably to bothwaygates and teleporter chests inElden Ring.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Sequel Could Employ Portkeys for Sudden Transportation
Portkeys have designated destinations they teleport to once interacted with and that functionality would be great if portkeys took the form of any miscellaneous item in the environment that players might interact with anyway and suddenly be whisked away to a different location—perhaps a perilous dungeon they’re trapped in until they discover aFloo Flamenearby.
Portkeys would lose their luster if they were incredibly ubiquitous. Rather, having enough around so that players could learn about previously inaccessible areas or seemingly random, faraway locales would be a wonderful way to encourage exploration in aHogwarts Legacysequel, which would be expected to pile on many of the iconicHarry Potteritems, spells, creatures, and customs that the original game either didn’t have time for or chose not to adapt.
