Video Game Review - Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

After years of dreaming the day when we can have the full Hogwarts experience, the day has finally come and although not perfect, its what we've been waiting for. So those of us who have enjoyed the Harry Potter franchise have wanted an RPG where we can create our own characters and get to learn in Hogwarts. Well thanks to Portkey Games of which is a subsidiary of WB Games who as the name implies publishes and makes games based on the Wizarding World without being tied in or directly connected to any existing media (such as the Fantastic Beasts films) and developer Jam City, we finally have that game. So let's see if it really is magical or should be locked up in a vault:

So players get to create their own character and with that character, they meet and befriend another student called Rowan (who regardless of your gender, will match your gender and will end up in the same house as you) and experience life at Hogwarts during a time where Harry Potter is still a baby but is in the safety of the Dursleys. The game has its own original story that sees the player character finding a means to redeem himself/herself after his or her so called brother Jacob causes chaos. You get to do almost every class that you can do in Hogwarts with some being available in later years and chapters. All situations go in one of three ways. In events and classes, you need to tap on highlighted objects to get stars to complete those instances with some having moments where you need to draw something, do a quick time event or answer a question correctly. The next one occurs in conversations in which you need to pick one of three possible answers in order to convince the person to do whatever it is you want them to do. The last one is dueling in which you decide what kind of attack you want to do and should you be successful, you can then do that attack or alternatively, cure yourself of any status elements or health. Then like with TellTale games, you get conversations where you can choose one of several possible answers, some of which may not be available depending on your knowledge, courage and empathy levels. Characters can be leveled up over time and customisation is there too in which you can change your character's appearance and clothing.

It does feel like a dream come true in many respects, but as I said, the game is not perfect. To begin with, its free to play and therefore has micro transactions and its annoying because you're often waiting a while before you can touch highlighted areas because of a lack of energy which can be refuelled either by waiting (and therefore lose a good chuck of the lesson or event's time) or by paying for such. Some of the character's can be annoying such as the prefect who constantly goes on about you losing house points despite them not doing so well either. And the original characters can be very one dimensional to the point where they are just not very interesting. Last negative is on the house sorting in which you pick your house, but most would prefer if we can have the sorting hat do the work like it did in the books and the films. Other than all of that, it uses the license well and gives us not a great experience, but enough to please the fans who are ok with the waiting times. So not the best overall Harry Potter game there is, but maybe the Pokemon Go game we are getting will work better. We shall see. 7/10