Highlights

  • Hogwarts Legacy features a vast world with activities to complete, such as Merlin Trials that reward players with gear slots and trophies.
  • The controversial aspect of Merlin Trials in Hogwarts Legacy is their quantity and lack of variety, with only nine different types available and dozens of Trials that need to be completed.
  • Despite the divisive nature of Merlin Trials, they offer both entertainment and rewards, making them worth improving rather than eliminating in a potential sequel. Having less of them and a wider variety of trial types could make a huge difference.

The world of Hogwarts Legacy is vast, with an extensive backdrop of land that is fully explorable but can take hours on foot. Thankfully, Avalanche Software's Harry Potter adventure allows players to use magical flying brooms to traverse the sprawling landscape. During their time exploring, players can find a countless number of collectibles and activities, including a large variety of gear, side quests, and challenging puzzles. One such activity players will encounter rather frequently in Hogwarts Legacy's world is its Merlin Trials, which see players solving fairly simple puzzles using their wand and any helpful spells they've learned during their time with the game.

While they can be quite entertaining to complete at first, Merlin Trials have proven over time to be one of Hogwarts Legacy's most controversial features. This is on account of the fact that there are arguably far too many of them and only a handful of different variations. That being said, they still provide a fun respite for players looking to take a break from the game's more demanding activities. Now, assuming Hogwarts Legacy 2 is in development, it shouldn't bury Merlin Trials just yet, no matter how divisive they were in the first game.

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Hogwarts Legacy 2 Should Keep Merlin Trials But Improve Them

Hogwarts Legacy's Merlin Trials Are Too Numerous and Lack Variety

The two main reasons Hogwarts Legacy's Merlin Trials have been so controversial are because of how many there are and their lack of variety. Scattered throughout Hogwarts Legacy's world are a total of ninety-five Merlin Trials. Of these ninety-five Merlin Trials, there are only nine different types of the puzzle, meaning each puzzle type makes up around 10% of the total number of trials available. Essentially, once players have completed ten different Merlin Trials, they will need to do that all over again nine times.

Upon completing every Merlin Trial, players are awarded the "Merlin's Beard!" Trophy/Achievement. However, as far as Achievements go, this is one of the least completed for Hogwarts Legacy. Currently, less than 5% of Hogwarts Legacy players have acquired the achievement on Steam. This is most likely due to the chore it becomes even after doing a few dozen of them, leading to many players never completing more than they are encouraged to. Nevertheless, completing Merlin Trials has its perks, so they shouldn't be ignored.

Apart from the unique fun they provide, Merlin Trials also have the potential to award players with additional gear slots. Upon completing an increasing number of Merlin Trials, players' gear slots will be expanded by four, so the puzzles are more than worth pursuing and finishing. As such, this combination of relaxing entertainment and a rewarding experience shouldn't be shoved aside in Hogwarts Legacy 2, only improved.

How Hogwarts Legacy 2 Could Improve Merlin Trials

Hogwarts Legacy 2 should keep Merlin Trials but improve them in the areas they fell short in. Specifically, either Hogwarts Legacy 2's Merlin Trials need to be less abundant, they need to have more variety, or both. It may be enough to simply increase their variety by adding plenty of new variations to the mix rather than decreasing the number of trials that are available, but some players may still find such a large number of them to be burdensome. Open-world gaming trends typically show the open worlds of certain franchises growing with each installment, and if that's the case, an even larger number of trials wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. The puzzles would just need to be quite a bit more diverse.

Hogwarts Legacy 2's development is all but officially confirmed, simply based on the first game's success. Avalanche and Warner Bros. likely know they would be leaving money on the table without a sequel, so its eventual release is almost guaranteed. Assuming it is in development, Hogwarts Legacy 2 should hold onto the first game's Merlin Trials but add some polish.