Almost two years on from the leaked Harry Potter RPG footage, Warner Bros. continues to remain tight-lipped on the highly-anticipated game. Warner Bros. was previously rumored to have been planning its first E3 showcase during the 2020 show, where it would announce its upcoming slate of games including the Harry Potter RPG, its upcoming Batman game from WB Montreal, and the latest project from Batman Arkham creator, Rocksteady Studios. However, the show was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19, and very little has been said about the publisher's future plans for the game ever since.

Keeping in mind that Warner Bros. has never officially announced the game, the most common thought is that despite being set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the long-rumored Harry Potter RPG won't actually feature the titular character. Instead, players will finally be able to get their own letter to Hogwarts, creating their own unique witch or wizard, and interacting with iconic magical items from the series like the Sorting Hat. Building from this general idea and while waiting for the official announcement from Warner Bros., it's worth looking at how the Sorting Hat could work in the Harry Potter RPG.

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How the Sorting Hat May Work

Harry Potter RPG

Earlier in the year, Nintendo released a remake of the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, a series where players are able to choose one of a dozen starter Pokemon to play as. Although the player ultimately to choose, it initially asks the players a series of personality-related questions and a starter is chosen based on the answers. If Warner Bros. plans to release a proper next-gen Harry Potter RPG then it needs to it right, which means the Sorting Hat and Hogwarts Houses are incredibly important.

One way that it could work incredibly well is to follow Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and ask a series of personality questions that match the different houses and assign the player to either Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin based on their answers. Sure, players can restart and cheat the system to get their preferred house, but that's ok because the Sorting Hat always takes opinion into account. It let Harry Potter choose Gryffindor after all.

Harry Potter RPG's Rumored Plot

Going all the way back to when the gameplay footage first leaked, the leaker also released a lengthy post about the game's setting and story. According to the leak, the Harry Potter RPG is set sometime during the 1800s, and players would be entering Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during their fifth year. As a late entry, there wouldn't be a traditional sorting with the full year. However, the player would absolutely need to be sorted into a house due to its importance at Hogwarts, not to mention fans of the series, which could play a pivotal role during the opening chapters of the game.

The Four Houses Could Affect the Story

Last year, the Nintendo Switch exclusive Fire Emblem: Three Houses released to critical acclaim, another school-based fantasy-RPG that required players to choose between three distinct houses. This is an early-game choice that significantly impacted the story and characters to the point that many fans would play the full 45-hour game three times to experience each house. Taking cues from Fire Emblem, the player's chosen house could affect the story in a number of fun ways including access to unique locations such as the house common room, different companion characters and enemies, exclusive side-quests, house-themed collectibles, the list goes on. If the player is in Hufflepuff, while the main story and gameplay will be the same, their experience should be unique compared to a Gryffindor or Slytherin player.

Why the Sorting Hat Needs to be There

Hogwarts Houses are iconic and fans of the Harry Potter series relate and identify themselves with the different houses. An RPG is all about player customization and the four houses are as important as choosing a race and class in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or Destiny 2; the Sorting Hat is the first piece in that puzzle. Warner Bros. would be doing both themselves and fans an incredible disservice if the Hogwarts Houses didn't play a major role in the game's story. Not to mention that having four different houses that significantly affect the story allows for a lot of replayability, a pretty important factor in the 'games as a service' age.

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Harry Potter RPG

The series doesn't have the best track record when it comes to Harry Potter video games, particularly when the only games in the market right now are mobile game offerings like Wizards Unite or the China-exclusive, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened. It's about time that Warner Bros. released a proper AAA game in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter universe that isn't somehow tied to LEGO, and what better place is there to start than a next-gen Harry Potter RPG?

Harry Potter RPG is rumored to be in development at WB Games for unknown platforms

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