Highlights

  • Hogwarts Legacy 2 can learn from Dragon's Dogma 2's fast travel restrictions to make its open world more immersive and engaging.
  • Implementing restrictions on fast travel could encourage players to explore Hogwarts Legacy 2's world on foot or broom for a richer experience.
  • By making the open world more interesting, players will be more inclined to explore and enjoy the magical setting of Hogwarts Legacy 2.

Avalanche Software's Hogwarts Legacy 2 is still likely years away, but the developer is undoubtedly already taking notes for its next great open-world Harry Potter adventure. However, while Hogwarts Legacy 2 is still on the drawing board, it might consider looking at Capcom's Dragon's Dogma 2 for some cues on how to craft its open world.

Dragon's Dogma set a precedent for the open-world genre, and it appears Dragon's Dogma 2 is aiming to do the same. As such, there is one particular feature of Dragon's Dogma 2 that Hogwarts Legacy 2 could learn from to improve upon its predecessor and give fans the open-world experience they desired from the beginning.

Harry Potter Hogwarts Legacy
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How Dragon's Dogma 2's Approach to Fast Travel Can Benefit Hogwarts Legacy 2

Dragon's Dogma 2's Fast Travel Has Restrictions

Despite having a significantly larger world than its predecessor, Dragon's Dogma 2 places restrictions on fast travel by requiring players to use valuable Ferrystones to teleport. Dragon's Dogma fans may recognize this mechanic, as it was also used in the first game. While this has proven to be a divisive feature among fans who prefer to reach their destinations swiftly, Capcom implemented it for a rather noble reason.

Dragon's Dogma 2's director, Hideaki Itsuno, emphasized the importance of fast travel restrictions in games during an interview with IGN when he said that they chose to "design the map in a way that the journey [itself] could be enjoyed." In other words, Itsuno and Capcom wanted to ensure players would experience Dragon's Dogma 2's open world rather than miss it due to fast travel, and they accomplished this by refusing to allow unrestricted fast travel.

Dragon's Dogma 2 and its predecessor aren't the first games to implement fast travel restrictions. For example, Horizon Forbidden West requires players to use valuable Fast Travel Packs to travel from anywhere at any time. If players wish to fast travel for free, they first have to reach a campfire and then depart from there. However, Ferrystones aren't the only method of fast travel in Dragon's Dogma 2.

Players can also make use of Oxcarts in Dragon's Dogma 2, which function similarly to Red Dead Redemption 2's stagecoaches. Unfortunately, despite the appeal that traveling via Oxcart may have, they bring with them the possibility of being ambushed along the way.

These limitations may feel unnecessary or burdensome to some, but they add value to Dragon's Dogma 2 's open world, and they could do the same for Hogwarts Legacy 2 .

Restrictions on Hogwarts Legacy 2's Fast Travel Could Benefit Its Open World

Like many open-world games that allow fast travel, players could perform the action from anywhere for free in Hogwarts Legacy. Fortunately, in doing so, players wouldn't miss much of Hogwarts Legacy's world, as many fans and critics found the Harry Potter adventure's open world to be rather empty and lifeless at the end of the day. However, implementing fast travel restrictions such as those in Dragon's Dogma 2 could allow Hogwarts Legacy 2 to avoid that same criticism.

The notion of fast travel restrictions opens Hogwarts Legacy 2 up to some incredible opportunities. If Avalanche Software aimed to place restrictions on fast travel in Hogwarts Legacy 2, it would simultaneously give a reason to make its open world more interesting.

After all, heavy encouragement from the game's mechanics to explore its open world would simultaneously require that world to be worth exploring. In making the open world of Hogwarts Legacy 2 more interesting, players would then be more behooved to explore on foot or broom, which should arguably be a goal in any open-world adventure. At the very least, what Capcom has chosen to do with Dragon's Dogma 2 should serve as an example for all open-world developers to follow.