With November in the rearview, the holidays are in full swing once again. That means the annual return of colorful lights, family parties, and of course, Harry Potter marathons. Despite having nothing to do with the holidays on the surface, the franchise has become a holiday staple for many fans, due in no small part to the comfy, cozy atmosphere Hogwarts always seemed to have during the holidays in the earliest films. And those warm nostalgic vibes were translated to absolute perfection when Avalanche Software recreated the castle in Hogwarts Legacy.
Since the confirmation of a sequel, fans have been wondering what Hogwarts Legacy 2 could bring to the table, especially when the first game was so pitch-perfect right out of the gate. While it’s a guarantee that Avalanche has plenty of tricks and surprises up its sleeve for the follow-up game, there’s plenty of room to further improve what worked so well the first time around – namely, how the game and its narrative incorporate the holiday seasons throughout the school year.
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Hogwarts Legacy 2 Should Lean More Into the Holidays at the School
Christmas and Halloween Were Underutilized in Hogwarts Legacy
Assuming Hogwarts Legacy 2 follows another student through a year at the iconic school, the developers would be smart to capitalize on the holiday seasons they incorporated the first time around. Despite the immaculate atmosphere Hogwarts Legacy captured in both the fall and winter seasons in the game, not much is done within the context of the holidays themselves. The seasonal changes are mostly cosmetic changes to the castle and surrounding grounds; no in-narrative focus is really given to Halloween and Christmas, two holidays that the franchise has become heavily associated with in the hearts of fans.
They don’t need to occupy too much real estate in the narrative; the focus should stick to whatever main/side narratives the game is trying to tell. But handling them more in the way the mainline books/films do would be a smart play. One-off missions focused on Hogwarts’ preparations for the holidays could be a fun, slice-of-life-style way to show how they impact the culture of the school and the student body. But where the developers can really get creative is for Halloween.
What Hogwarts Legacy 2 Can Do For Halloween and Christmas Content
For a franchise about witches, wizards, magic, and monsters, there’s a near-limitless supply of things that Hogwarts Legacy 2 could do to celebrate Halloween in-game. But of all the possibilities on the table, a horror-themed mission in the Forbidden Forest would be among the best outcomes.
The Forbidden Forest has lost some of its teeth of late. What started as an ominous, scary, and genuinely dangerous place has become defanged after one too many series protagonists have wandered in there and faced no lasting consequences. It’s easy to forget why it’s even forbidden in the first place. A quest set inside the Forbidden Forest on the scariest night of the year would be a perfect way to incorporate some additional horror elements into the game while giving the Forbidden Forest back some of the menace it had in the earliest days of the franchise.
Though the winter holidays have a noted and iconic presence in Harry Potter media, there’s not quite as much that can be done for Christmas in-game, since the school empties out during the last two weeks of the year between the semesters. But in the event that the next game’s protagonist doesn’t have a place to return home to, they could elect to stay on-grounds during the break, perhaps with the company of one or two of their companions. Not only would this be a nice callback to those early Christmases in the first few books where Harry and Ron would spend the holiday together at school, but it would also be a nice quiet moment to develop Hogwarts Legacy‘s new companions and highlight the relationships between these new characters.
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