Harry Potter Media
With the popularity of Hogwarts Legacy and the potential of an HBO reboot of the seven books, I thought it would be interesting to ask what sort of media you would want to see come out of the franchise, assuming the end result met your requirements and expectations. I'll give an example:
A game set during the Marauders' time at Hogwarts, with the main gameplay starting from 1971 and roughly ending in 1978. There would be six playable characters (the Marauders, Lily, and Snape), and the player would be able to influence the decisions of whatever character they choose to play as, resulting in an alternate timeline/ending. Players could choose any "bookmark" in the timeline, or a place that's explicitly in the books that the character is canonically involved in, and begin their story from that point onward; for example, Snape could start during the memory where the branch falls on Petunia, or perhaps the werewolf prank, or the evening immediately following SWM.
Each character would have unique gameplay, bonuses, and penalties based on their characterization. For example, someone like James would be the best in Transfiguration, Lily would be best in Charms, Snape would be best in Potions, etc. Grades in classes would directly contribute to available options later on in gameplay, and perhaps unlock or restrict certain possible outcomes; one example would be Snape being good enough with a wand to beat the Marauders during SWM. After the Marauders become Animagi, assuming the player decides down this path, each Animagus would have unique gameplay; Peter could find hidden passageways or cracks to scurry through, Sirius could track people by scent, etc.
This is something I've been thinking about, and I thought it'd be interesting to hear other people's thoughts and ideas.
I would love such a game @thegestaltprince, I have played many HP games including the Hogwarts Mystery, Harry Potter PC games and would love play Hogwarts Legacy (when I upgrade my PC).
I would love exploring such scenarios. I would also add more playable characters like Regulus Black, Xenophilius Lovegood and Amelia Bones to diversify game and add character interactions.
Another good possibility would be a Visual Novel with Severus Snape as protagonist. You get three routes through the choices, Canon Route i.e Death Eater turned Order spy, Order of the Phoenix Route(where Snape joins it) and Neutral Route(where Snape doesn't join either group and does his own stuff). Each route has multiple endings some good and some bad with different possibilities. What do you think about it?
Personally, I would prefer to keep anyone who isn't a Marauder, Lily, or Snape as an NPC, but with their own questlines that can affect the outcome of the game, and unique questlines for an individual NPC depending on what character you choose to play (i.e. Snape and Sirius having special questlines relating to Regulus Black, Lily having special questlines with Mary MacDonald, a character having Quidditch questlines if they make their respective team, etc.) That being said, I'd want characters you can't play as to be memorable and interesting for players to interact with.
I'd love a Snape visual novel with those sorts of options; maybe three major endings with minor alterations depending on certain smaller outcomes.
Yeah, three major endings, with Good ending, Neutral ending and Bad ending as variations of each major endings. Also having a different girl in each major ending. (if you have played or heard about Fate Realta Nua, you know what I mean).
I agree that having others as NPCs in questline is a good option, depending upon them you can actually befriend them and it gives different outcomes in future events like Sirius patching up his bond with Regulus, Regulus becoming friends with Snape or even a questline where Lily and Snape can patch their friendship.
That would be amazing! My idea is very similar, a game that would start during the Marauders era where you could choose to play any canon character and the outcome was completely open-ended. You make choices as your character, both big and small, which affects what happens, how other characters interact with you, and how the story plays out. I'd want it to extend beyond Marauders era though, assuming that character choices allowed whoever you were playing to survive to adulthood. Would definitely be fun to bring it into modern era, especially if you were able to explore various AU scenarios through characters that would've been dead in canon.
(This is a response to @thegestaltprince's first post. I wandered off in the middle of writing my response and didn't realize others had responded in the meantime 😂)
Quote from Heatherlly on April 10, 2023, 2:18 amThat would be amazing! My idea is very similar, a game that would start during the Marauders era where you could choose to play any canon character and the outcome was completely open-ended. You make choices as your character, both big and small, which affects what happens, how other characters interact with you, and how the story plays out. I'd want it to extend beyond Marauders era though, assuming that character choices allowed whoever you were playing to survive to adulthood. Would definitely be fun to bring it into modern era, especially if you were able to explore various AU scenarios through characters that would've been dead in canon.
I could see a 90s-themed DLC which takes your choices into account and selects from a character pool based on those decisions, perhaps playing as the new generation. If you choose a Snily outcome, the Snily child (or children, depending on your character's preferences in terms of parenthood) would be a playable character. If Regulus lives, he could work with Dumbledore to uncover the rest of the horcruxes and destroy Voldemort before 1991. If Peter doesn't betray the Potters, James and Lily could live into the next generation and affect Harry's personality.
This is a concept that has tons of potential outcomes.
I love the DLC idea, you can continue the AU save in Harry's gen or can start with canon and do similar things like marauder era character. Playable characters could be Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco and AU children.
That'd be really cool, perhaps giving each character their own bonuses and penalties depending on their upbringing and natural talents, just like with the base game.
Yeah, like Harry gets DADA, Hermione gets overall good skills but lack dueling, Ron has better tactical skills.
One thing I forgot to mention with my initial post is the inclusion of personality traits and relation to character choices; if a character makes a decision that contradicts their personality, they gain stress; if they make a personality-consistent decision, it reduces stress. High stress levels could result in the player losing agency until the character's stress is reduced enough.
Characters with Occlumency would have higher stress thresholds, allowing more freedom of choice.
