Hogwarts Legacy players 'shamed' for wanting romance options

Hogwarts Legacy is ruling the roost right now, and although praise has been heaped on the RPG, there are aspects of it that are lacking.

With characters like Amit Thakkar, Poppy Sweeting, Natsai Onai, Omnis Gaunt and Sebastian Sallow, players are feeling a little put out that there aren't any opportunities to secure their friendships with these companions. Exploring the wonderful Wizarding World is something they can only do on their ownsome and the students don't have a lot to say outside of specific quests.

These of course aren't the only criticisms of Hogwarts Legacy as it has been denounced for its possible antisemitic interpretations of the central conflict and contributions to controversial author J. K. Rowling through royalties for the use of her intellectual property.

Hogwarts Legacy has charming common rooms for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin students - check them out here:

Imaginations will run rampant in role-playing outings, and players have commented that the school students are a match for their own characters, with a lot of love for Hufflepuff's Poppy Sweeting. Given their ages, some aren't so keen on encouraging that sort of conversation, making for a debate amongst the community.

"Everyone needs to chill with shaming people over wanting romance options," argued Reddit user acnhSteph on the game's subreddit, in a post that is presently unavailable to read as a result of moderation. That hasn't stopped players continuing the conversation in the comments.

"IMO it fleshes out the depth of characters in the game. The characters were too Disney and one dimensional," said chilloutman24. "No one’s asking for crazy shit. Just deeper relationships than the surface."

Others pointed out that this shouldn't be that divisive seeing that Harry and his friends started romantic relationships while in the fifth year of their studies at Hogwarts. "The novels had romance subplots, and the movies adapted those subplots when the actors themselves were underage and it was never a problem. Dating is something teens do. Automatically assuming it's lewd is kind of weird and out of touch with reality," continued macrocosm93.

One only needs to behold the many, many, many, many romance mods for Skyrim to see that this feature is likely to be implemented in the future, though it would ask for a lot of work as there isn't a comparable companion system for modders to form a foundation off.