The team behind Hogwarts Legacy has explained why there are no romance options in the game. Hogwarts Legacy is a big new RPG set in the Harry Potter universe and with that comes a lot of expectations. Players want to create their own witch or wizard (which they can) and attend classes (which they can) and make big decisions (which they can) and form relationships in the game… which isn’t really possible. Harry Potter’s journey through Hogwarts sees him growing up in a school through his formative years, which also sees him starting to engage in some light romance amongst the chaos in his life. It’s all very endearing and obviously a big part of a lot of being a teenager.
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However, Hogwarts Legacy has opted to skate around that stuff for a multitude of reasons. When speaking with GamePro, narrative lead Moira Squier explained that the team at Avalanche Studios wanted to ensure players could make the character they wanted and be who they wanted. However, it gets much harder to allow that kind of freedom when you allow players the opportunity to romance other characters, which opens up a whole other can of worms. Game designer Kelly Murphy added on to that by also noting that the game centers around children and allowing players to interact with teenagers in that way certainly makes things a bit complicated. However, you can still befriend people and have platonic relationships with characters, which is probably the best course of action.
“We made a conscious decision not to [have romance],” said Squier. “There is no way to do it well, after all you are the protagonist in the game and you can be anyone. We want you to be able to be whoever you want. […] That would be too difficult to manage [with romance].”
Ultimately, this may disappoint some players hoping to juggle relationships, but it does make sense. Not only is it a bit of an ethical concern, but this is a very robust game with lots going on. Given Avalanche has never made anything quite at this scale, it’s probably best to make sure the core experience is solid before expanding out into the more ambitious RPG ideas.
Do you want to see romance options in a Hogwarts Legacy sequel or DLC? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
[H/T CharlieIntel]
