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3 things Harry Potter: Wizards Unite can learn from Pokemon GO

We love you Pokemon Go, but seriously...

3 things Harry Potter: Wizards Unite can learn from Pokemon GO

The maker of Pokemon GO had some pretty big news to share with the world last week. Niantic's next project is going to be Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - an AR extravaganza set in J.K. Rowling's popular magical universe.

We've already speculated that there's going to be rather a lot of Pokemon GO's DNA in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, which is no bad thing.

But there are a few fundamental areas in which we hope Harry Potter: Wizards Unite learns from and improves upon its predecessor.

Be more social

I'll never forget the experience of going out during the early months of Pokemon GO. The way you'd frequently see other people out doing the same thing as you - which normally entailed standing in public places, holding up and flicking their phones.

It was a uniquely social experience. Which made the game's oddly undernourished social element all the more puzzling. It was like you were all sharing the same single player experience, with only the undercooked gym battles really telling you that there were other players here in a virtual sense.

Even the later addition of raids relied upon local, wordless cooperation.

With plenty of talk about teaming up in the initial Harry Potter: Wizards Unite blurb, as well as Niantic's acquisition of social platform Evertoon, we're hopeful that this social faux pas will be addressed.

Make the action more involving

As we've just alluded to, the battling element of Pokemon GO was perhaps its worst - and least well explained - element.

Hammering the screen to attack and swiping to dodge simply never feels all that gratifying or nuanced. It's highly automated and frankly a bit of a slog, with only the odd special move opportunity really making you feel like you're doing anything useful.

Now, the initial blurb surrounding Harry Potter: Wizards Unite only mentions fighting in passing, so it might not be such a prominent feature. But that's not really the point.

There will almost certainly be action elements of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite - skill-based mini-games that require you to directly interact with the game. These will need to learn from Pokemon GO and be genuinely interesting and fun.

Don't be stingy with new creatures

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will ask you to "discover & fight legendary beasts," which suggests that there'll be a Pokemon-like drive to catch-'em-all at the game's heart.

If that really is a major element here, Niantic, please do us all a favour and cut down on the repetition. Pokemon GO has become infamous for bombarding you with the same low level Pokemon.

Of course, you can put all of these to some kind of use. But when you're still searching out undiscovered Pokemon after more than a year of solid playing, another Weedle is almost enough to push a level 29er over the edge.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.