Why does Hogwarts Legacy hate Hogwarts?

Skipped quidditch, Skipped classes, skipped major holidays, skipped house moments/quests, skipped fighting for your house's success, and didn't have a difficult or repeatable dueling club. I loved the little questions that Ravenclaw girl gives you in the library. They could have had something like that for each class teaching us about the wizarding world and then giving us tests to see if we remember and the better we do the better our house points could be. You pick a house but it never seems to matter which one you're in.

i think what was mostly missed by devs was them forgetting or not realizing that a vast majority of people who wanted to play this game were very excited to BE a STUDENT at hogwarts. The books and the movies showed that yes while a lot of exterior things were affecting our favorite characters lives, the best moments were them showing their affection, being family, and just being kids in a magical castle. I mean the setup was practically handed to these guys to nail that. I just hope if another one comes they see that

There was a huge lack of secret passageways in Hogwarts. Plenty of hidden rooms and chests but the castle should have actual passages that would act as shortcuts throughout the castle

The first hours of being a student and discovering Hogwarts and Hogsmead were definitely the best part of the game ! I grew very frustrated when the game kept asking me to leave the castle for every quest. They spend so much time and effort making the castle only to force the player to not play in it...

They should have added a lesson system like the one in "Bully", where you could decide to join classes or not, completely optional, but actually joining classes rewarded you with new features and gameplay elements.

The game needed some outdoor areas, Hogsmeade, the forest, the lake, the train station. Maybe even a visit to the Ministry. But other than that? Yeah, you're completely right. Hogwarts is a *magical castle*. It has exactly as much space as you need or want.

For me, if they were to do a sequel, they'd really need to lean into the day-to-day student experience thing. Not doing the same 6 classes every time you play, but actually immersing the player in being a student at hogwarts. as you touched on with a reputation system, consequences for being out of bed, companions etc etc. I'd also limit the map to hogwarts, hogsmeade, the lake, forest and then a few side maps you can go to at certain points - diagon alley (before school and during the "holidays" and the ministry of magic (for a quest and then sneaking out to discover something there). All it needs is a slow burn story in which you discover certain things depending on what you do, with minor side quests, missions, and puzzles at and around the immediate vicinity of hogwarts to just immerse you in the magic of it and actually feel rewarding, not like ticking another merlin trial off the list of 95. Quidditch should be a near must-have if they do a sequel as well. I know its a lot to ask for but if it could be perfect (or what I would see as perfect anyway) Id' be happy to wait 5+ years for it.

I wished for more interactive NPC, more classes, more in Hogwarts missions, more missions like the Polyjuice one. The polyjuice one was very HP and what a student would do. Too many caves and not enough missions in Hogmeades as well. I also wished we could have a core friend group.

This pretty much mirrors my thoughts exactly. I wanted to be a student in this game. I didn't need a shoe-horned "chosen one" storyline. I wanted to start as a first-year and go to class, be required to actually learn stuff in order to progress my character, and spend several in-game school years becoming a great witch or wizard while exploring and constantly uncovering new secrets in Hogwarts, which was beautifully crafted. Every time I left Hogwarts in this game, I no longer felt like I was playing a game in the Harry Potter universe. Just felt like any other generic open world game.

My main issue was the severe lack of consequences. It's well established in the books and movies that students shouldn't be outside of the common rooms after hours, but outside of a few missions I can walk around everywhere without anyone batting an eye. Not to mention leaving the castle in plain view of everyone. Then there's the ability to use the dark arts anywhere and the most you'll hear is "Please don't do that"

It's really weird that they took the power fantasy approach to the player character. They went to chosen one, world threatening stakes in the opening hours of the game and rush to skip the entire student experience of Hogwarts. I would think the entire fantasy of attending Hogwarts is....well, attending as a student, learning and growing in knowledge and ability and having more of the world and it's dangers revealed to you as your power and responsibilities expand.

Also what I wanted soo desperately was the ability to sit Especially in the common rooms I just wanted to sit in one of the endless amount of cozy chairs or on a bench and overlook the lake and just take it all in and not awkwardly stand around and shift position every so often It's a small thing but somehow huge for me

I was the producer for the Hogwarts Castle until I left Avalanche in March of 2021. I think there are many worthwhile observations and criticisms in this video. Should there be a sequel, the developers should take much of what you have to say here to heart.

I was so excited about getting to be in Hufflepuff and actually make an impact in my house and spend time in the common room since you don't get to see it in the movies. I spent all of probably 15 minutes in there since there wasn't anything interactive to do :( I was pretty sad realizing that it didn't even feel like I was part of any specific house other than it showing on my robes

I'd love to have a game focused on Ominis and Sebastian. Or at least with a darker and more mature atmosphere.

I was kinda dissappointed at the lack of INTERACTIVE classes. When I found all the classrooms it felt like a waste to not use them. Wouldve been cool if we couldve picked out our classes and interacted within them. And Diagon Alley is also something I missed! And I wish that you could buy more stuff in Hogsmeade, like I have a trillion Galleons and cant even buy a sugar quill. I really wanted to feel like a student. Altough Im happy that you can walk around anytime anywhere you like.

You perfectly summed it up, I hope they see this. It angered me so much that basically every main- and sidequest happened in freaking caves as well, and spiders are not THAT central in the wizarding world. Nobody bought this game hoping that they would get to fight spiders in caves every ten minutes

I literally didn’t do a single merlin trail… The best part of the game was, crazy enough, going to class lol. I loved role playing as a student at hogwarts. They should had about 10 student quest lines instead of giant open world stuff. The castle is legit amazing. It’s one of the greatest parts of a game I’ve played in the last ten years. Hogsmeade was fine, and I didn’t mind having a bit of open world like the forest and close surrounding area, but it should’ve been 75% smaller. More focus on quests and being an actual student would’ve bumped this up on my list of best games.

The puns in this video are next level. Especially to a player who’s put in 80+ hours, the subtle references to annoying quirks like ‘Deek doesn’t give a sh*t about anything but the potions you’ve brewed’ was perfect. Add in little nuances like ‘Dudley Souls’ & it made the whole video overall quite enjoyable while still clearly conveying the point. Subscriber earned.

It was so immersion breaking for the cutscene in the Sebastian/ominis questline where Sebastian gets chastised for using unforgivable curses once where I had used them about 15 times in the fight immediately preceding. I agree it was the best questline in the game but the lack of consequences was heartbreaking...