Hogwarts Legacy fans really want to be mean, but the game just won't let them.
Avalanche Software's new action-RPG offers plenty of dialogue options and branching quest lines to enable you to tell the story of your custom witch or wizard. But despite the considerable freedom it offers, when it comes to the personality of your character, fans are finding it much more limited.
"Why won't this game let me be an a**hole?! Asks one player on the Hogwarts Legacy subreddit. "Has anyone noticed even when you choose the a**hole dialogue option, the character still manages to make it polite somehow?"
Others shared their disappointment at not being able to play the villain. "I just wanted to be evil. Like really evil. You give me cool evil spells but then make me be all nice to everyone," writes one fan. Another replies, "I feel you. I would like to play a Slytherin with a somewhat dark character. But whenever I decide to go for bad dialogues, it's just a friendly no."
In response, some fans have revealed how they get around always being a goody two-shoes. "Not telling Lenora how to solve the mystery of the paintings is how I show my dark side... mwahahaha," says user HaleStormTV. Others admit to keeping Zenobia's Gobstones for themselves, while St0neByte takes being evil to a whole new level. "I keep people's animals when they have me go get them," admits the player. If you ask us, that's worse than using any unforgivable curse.
GameRadar's own Jasmine Gould-Wilson was equally disappointed that Hogwarts Legacy doesn't allow you to embrace your dark side. "It's a role-playing game, but you're typecast into the role of being a good guy with zero opportunity to sway the moral compass," she wrote.
The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.
