Romance Seems Like a Safe Bet, But It Shouldn’t Be

An image of Hogwarts Legacy 2 has yet to fully materialize, but it’s always been a safe bet that Avalanche is planning on developing it, if it’s not already. The first Hogwarts Legacy sold exceptionally well, outpacing other giants of its year like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and it’s only a matter of time before a follow-up, whether direct or indirect, is announced.

The burgeoning Hogwarts Legacy IP is, by definition, limitless: it’s not bound to any existing Harry Potter IP, and is thus free to explore any era or concept of the Wizarding World.

And of course, where there’s room for a sequel, there’s room for rampant discussion, wish-listing, and daydreaming about one. However, one commonly requested sequel addition, romance, might still wind up scrapped in the final release, and for good reason.

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It Will Be Tough for Hogwarts Legacy 2 To Do Romance Right, So Maybe It Just Shouldn’t Try

Hogwarts Legacy 2’s Central Characters Will Presumably Just Be Teenagers Again

Unless Hogwarts Legacy 2 follows Aurors or some other adult faction—sections of the Wizarding World that have been famously underrepresented in Harry Potter media—it seems probable that its main characters will be schoolchildren again. This makes sense, especially since Hogwarts is arguably the most interesting part of Harry Potter, but it could stand in the way of meaningful and interesting romance experiences.

Hogwarts Legacy 2‘s romance plots can only go so far, as it were. This isn’t just in reference to the physically intimate elements of the romance, which would of course not be appropriate to depict in a video game like this, but also the more emotional side. The fact is, a romance between two sixteen-year-olds isn’t very interesting for many older players, as their emotional connection is often less intense and complex than what two adults can have.

Depicting physical intimacy between teenagers may not be inherently bad in media as a whole, but the fact that Hogwarts Legacy 2 will presumably be an RPG within which players are encouraged to insert themselves, makes the subject a little hairier.

If Hogwarts Legacy 2 were to get romance options and subplots, then they would likely be cursory to the point of being ineffectual. In other words, Hogwarts Legacy 2 would only give players a swing at puppy love, which, by definition, is shallow and uninteresting. Considering the moral and optical minefield that romance options would pose in Hogwarts Legacy 2, a bare-bones and uninspired romance system would likely not be worth the trouble.

That doesn’t mean that Hogwarts Legacy 2 should shy away from social-sim elements entirely, though. On the contrary, the repeated absence of romance options, coupled with a greater pivot away from trivial action-RPG mechanics, could make the sequel’s in-game friendships much more impactful and well-defined. Hogwarts Legacy has problems with its central, school-based premise, but they won’t be solved by the arrival of romance features alone.