Hogwarts Legacy's side quests provide a great deal more convenience than other open world games, like Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2. Similar to Red Dead Redemption 2, Hogwarts Legacy has been a massive sales success breaking records and standing a very realistic shot at being the top-selling game of the year. It gives fans the opportunity to explore a large open world set in the Harry Potter universe, filled with unique areas and plenty of quests to complete. As far as quests go, there is one key way that Hogwarts Legacy manages to stand above some of the industry's largest open world games.
When it comes to open world games, few are held up with as much reverence as Red Dead Redemption 2 from Rockstar Games. Red Dead Redemption 2 earned near-universal acclaim at the time of its release, with praise for its emotionally-charged narrative and realistic open world. Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a dizzying number of quests for players to complete during their playthrough, though completing them all can be unnecessarily nerve-wracking for players.
Many Red Dead Redemption 2 side quests must be completed within specific windows, otherwise players are locked out of doing them unless they start a new save. Progressing too far in the main story means giving up the chance to do some of the game's side content. There are pros and cons to this approach. On the plus side, this helps Red Dead Redemption 2's narrative have more weight and makes the world feel more alive. On the negative side, it means gamers have to deprive themselves of the main story if they want to tackle all the side quests that the game has to offer. This makes fully completing the game and unlocking all of Red Dead Redemption 2's achievements/trophies especially frustrating.
Hogwarts Legacy takes the exact opposite approach. Hogwarts Legacy never locks players out of content, allowing them to complete the main story and then circle back around to side content that they didn't get to before. And even though the seasons change in Hogwarts Legacy and the year advances, players never lose the opportunity to take on side quests and fully complete their Field Guide.
Again, there are pros and cons to this approach. On the positive side, Hogwarts Legacy is like a completionist's dream, as it lets players complete everything at their own pace without having to worry about being locked out. On the other hand, it does come at the price of Hogwarts Legacy's world feeling quite as alive as Red Dead Redemption 2's. It also means there's not much importance to the seasons in Hogwarts Legacy beyond how the castle is decorated, whereas each new act in Red Dead Redemption 2 is clearly distinct from one another.
Ultimately, it comes down to one's preference, but it seems like Hogwarts Legacy's approach to side quests is significantly more user-friendly than how Red Dead Redemption 2 handles them. It will be interesting to see if future open world games go with the Red Dead Redemption 2 approach to side quests, or if they take more inspiration from Hogwarts Legacy's focus on convenience.
Hogwarts Legacy is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X with PS4 and Xbox One versions launching April 4 and a Switch port dropping July 25.