There were moments in Hogwarts Legacy's story that did invoke questions of morality, but it was all kept compartmentalized and inconsequential for the most part. For Avalanche Software to have gone the route of Bioware and Bethesda RPGs, letting players dictate the moral boundaries of their characters, would have more than likely interrupted the flow of the story, and made for a disjointed gameplay experience in Hogwarts Legacy.
Not many could have predicted the success of Hogwarts Legacy before it launched. Expectations were high, with high-quality material shown throughout the trailers and gameplay reveals, not to mention having one of the world's most popular IPs attached to it, but even still, its critical reception and profitably blew past the most optimistic projections. Though Avalanche Software and Warner Brothers had no initial plans for a large-scale DLC for Hogwarts Legacy, no one could blame the studio and publisher if those plans changed.
Hogwarts Legacy Does a Fine Job at Blurring the Line Between Right and Wrong
The story for Hogwarts Legacy dipped into some fairly dark territory, with a plot winding around a goblin uprising that invoked themes of classism and discrimination. Beneath the surface of Ranrok's attempted revolution was a classic power struggle, culminating in a choice for the player character between wresting power for themselves or sealing it away forever. Branching, eventually entwining with the main plot were the somber character arcs of Sebastian Sallow, Ominis Gaunt, and the caveat of going too far into the darkness to save a loved one.
Giving players the option of a good or bad ending for Hogwarts Legacy was a nice touch for those who wanted the story to conclude on a less saccharine note, though even the bad ending was relatively happy. Going beyond that and into a full morality system with player choice throughout the game impacting the narrative would have been to its detriment. Avalanche Software delivered a tight, well-paced story with a hero's journey much akin to the Harry Potter books. Giving players more agency in their character's decisions would have required completely shifting the story and gameplay, and it is hard to imagine an avenue where it could have worked in Hogwarts Legacy.
A Morality System in Hogwarts Legacy Would Weaken its Total Package
The three Unforgivable Curses in Hogwarts Legacy play an interesting role, with players able to opt out of learning them entirely if they refuse to partake in Sebastian's extracurricular lessons. Like the dialog options and the multiple endings, it is a nice touch of immersion for players who want a sense of being able to shape their character, but are ultimately inconsequential. For Hogwarts Legacy to have taken things further and altered the course of the story based on those decisions would have required rethinking every step of the journey. Deciding against learning the Unforgivable Curses does little more than close a portion of the gameplay off from players, which is a microcosm of the gating off of content that would likely occur with an implemented morality system in Hogwarts Legacy.
The counterargument is that content could be balanced against a good or evil playthrough, perhaps with a light-side version of the Unforgivable Curses for players who went the paragon route in Hogwarts Legacy. The issue with that is how to walk the fine line between a plot point reacting differently to a good or evil main character and branching the narrative without having to craft an entirely new storyline. There was also little pretense for an evil main character in the game, the way they are introduced to the wizarding world by being accepted into Hogwarts, taking in all the whimsy and boundless possibilities opening up before them. Going through that sort of life-altering discovery and then breaking bad because of it would be a massive dissonance. Maybe it could be done deftly enough to work, and at times the dialog seems to have been designed with a morality system in mind, but Hogwarts Legacy is absolutely a strong title without it.
Hogwarts Legacy is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. It will be released on the Nintendo Switch on November 14, 2023.