I have not yet decided if I’m going to buy the recently announced video game Hogwarts Legacy, based on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I have been looking forward to this game since it leaked a couple years ago, but writer JK Rowling has proven herself to be a horrendous transphobe.

So at the very least, for now, I can speculate on what I’d like to see in a single player Wizarding World RPG.

I don’t have any real excuse to hide behind in wanting to play this game, like supporting the developers or death of the author. I just really love single player RPGs and I love the Harry Potter books/world. So for me, it’s going to be a matter of deciding between how much I want to play this game vs. how little I want to support anything in Rowling’s world, because of her toxic views against trans people. It’s a decision a lot of fans have been grappling with for years, and when Hogwarts Legacy comes out, it’s a decision I will have to make.

So join me after the jump for six things I hope to see in the game…things I may decide to never experience.

6. Create-a-Wizard

I love create-a-character modes in video games. I live for that sort of fan-fiction insert. There are a ton of great RPGs that have an established character, like The Witcher games, but I will always create my own original character if I get the chance. Sometimes, very rarely, I create myself. I just like creating original characters better, and that’s exactly what I hope we get in this new game. From the looks of the trailer, that is indeed the case…but we just don’t know yet.

Funnily enough, I do not have an original Wizarding World character of my own. I’ve done a List of Six of my fan fiction OCs before, but I never got around to coming up with one for Harry Potter. This could be my chance!

Also, the option to make an openly transgender character would not be amiss.

5. Ongoing school year

I want nothing more in Hogwarts Legacy than for it to be an actual role-playing game instead of an action game with a straight forward story. I want to live the life of an actual Hogwarts student, with every pedantic detail exactly right. I want to go to class. I want to have a class schedule. I want to have a dorm room and a curfew. I want to get yelled at for running in the halls. I want detention. I want homework. I want this game to actually progress through the school year(s) as if actually living at Hogwarts. I don’t want a one-off adventure that takes place over the course of a week. I want the whole year, if not the whole Hogwarts career.

It’s already been leaked that our character joins the school in their fifth year, which I think is rather dumb. Why deny us the fun of having a first year? Seems like an odd choice and a missed opportunity.

4. Classroom mini-games

So basically, I want Hogwarts Legacy to be the Harry Potter version of Bully, that classic Rockstar game from back in the day. One of my favorite parts of Bully, which didn’t get enough action in the game, was that you had to attend different classes, and you completed those classes like mini-games. I don’t remember what the games were, they were just simple stuff, but I loved that aspect of the game. I hope to see something similar with Hogwarts Legacy. I want a class schedule, where I actually have to navigate Hogwarts to get to class on time and then complete some sort of mini-game to get through the class. I want to attend magical classes, gosh darnit!

3. Quidditch

What have previous Quidditch video games been like? I’ve never played them. Do they really feel like real Quidditch? Either way, I think this game needs to have gone out of its way to create as realistic a Quidditch game as possible, just to have as a side activity. Like the full golf game inside Grand Theft Auto V, I want a full Quidditch game inside Hogwarts Legacy. I want to join the team as part of the story, I want to have different positions available, and I want a whole season of play to take place over the school year. It makes the most sense to me.

2. Student relationships

I don’t necessarily mean romantic relationships, at least not strictly romantic relationships. I want a system where you maintain friendships with NPCs throughout the game. I’ve no doubt that the game will give you your own versions of Ron and Hermione, some best pals to stick with you as the story goes along. But what about a Seamus Finnigan or a Parvati Patil? Kids that just exist throughout the school that you can get to know. I want as broad and as inclusive a student body as possible.

1. As few direct Harry Potter references as possible

The temptation is going to be there and I hope the game’s writers avoided it. I don’t want to see any cutesy references to Harry Potter’s timeline. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the game is going to be set in the late 1800s. I don’t know anything about that timeline, but considering the emphasis on pureblood wizarding families, one has to imagine there are Potters, Malfoys, Weasleys, Blacks and other old timey ancestors kicking about. I hope we never meet them. Or, if we must, that they are only minor NPCs. I don’t want the main character’s best friend to be a Weasley or for the rival to be a Malfoy. Or for the teachers to all be Dumbledores.

I want the game to create a wholly original cast of characters and to not try to get cute with it.

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