Highlights

  • Hogwarts Legacy's loot system needs a major overhaul for the next game to avoid repetitive and underwhelming rewards.
  • The game's randomization of gear undermines exploration, since it often leads to underwhelming rewards, especially in the late game.
  • Hogwarts Legacy 2 must focus on offering unique and intentional gear instead of abundant but repetitive items.

Avalanche Software's Hogwarts Legacy is an impressive and detailed game, but it's far from perfect. Aside from some narrative inconsistencies and issues with Hogwarts Legacy's open-world, perhaps the most commonly criticized aspect of the game is its somewhat looter-shooter-style approach to gear and loot, which is ready for a major overhaul in the sequel.

As an open-world, Western role-playing game, Hogwarts Legacy's progression and personalization revolves around loot. In many ways, loot drives the game's exploration, as new wand handles, cosmetics, and Room of Requirement items serve as rewards for discovery and quest completion. However, this fairly integral part of the experience falls flat, especially later in the game, as nearly all the loot players can find in the many caverns, villages, and enemy encampments of the open-world is randomized. This is something that the next game ought to rectify.

The next Hogwarts Legacy hasn't been confirmed, but the overwhelming success of the first game makes a sequel seem almost inevitable.

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Hogwarts Legacy 2 Needs to Leave Randomization In the Past

RNG Loot Hurts Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is rife with stylish apparel, unique Room of Requirement furnishings, and a straightforward transmog system that makes personalization easy and flexible. However, a lot of these strengths are undermined by the fact that, by all accounts, discoverable items seem to be randomized, making for quest and exploration rewards that are often underwhelming and redundant. It can be hard to feel engaged in the game's loot system when, upon completing a side quest or clearing a particularly challenging area, any and all rewards have a chance to be either unremarkable or even a copy of something that has already been collected.

In another game, perhaps this wouldn't be much of an issue, but as previously stated, Hogwarts Legacy is built around gear. When most of this gear winds up being lackluster, looting and exploration can quickly become arduous and boring, particularly in the late-game when most items have already been discovered and repeats abound. Coupled with the transmog system, which allows players to apply the cosmetic of any discovered item regardless of whether they have it in their inventory, collecting gear in Hogwarts Legacy can ultimately feel pointless after so many hours, with newly discovered items serving as little more than junk to sell at vendors.

How Hogwarts Legacy 2 Can Improve Gear

As is typical of sequels, Hogwarts Legacy 2 will probably offer more options when it comes to gear and customization, but Avalanche Software should focus more on quality and variety than sheer abundance. A gross reduction or complete elimination of repeat items is a must for the sequel, but randomization should also be tossed in favor of a more bespoke, intentional gear system. Exploration and side activities could be so much more engaging and satisfying if players were guaranteed a unique piece of loot, even if it's not scaled to their level. This would be especially true if the sequel retains the transmog system, as exploration would feel like genuine, linear progression, facilitating collection and completion, rather than the "treadmill" feeling that so many loot-based games engender.

Recent comments from Warner Bros. Discovery suggest that Hogwarts Legacy could wind up taking a live-service route, which would likely not do much to help an RNG-centric loot system that already feels inspired by games-as-a-service. Assuming that the Hogwarts Legacy franchise doesn't take such a sharp turn, though, it would be nice to see a less repetitive, meatier collection of gear, as this would result in not just better items to collect, but more rewarding exploration and open-world gameplay overall.