It’s not a secret that the much-anticipated mobile game Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery was overly underwhelming and served as a great disappointment upon its initial release. However, the app-based game has received many updates over the past few months, and now includes a whole set of new features and events! Does Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery deserve another chance?
What was wrong with the games initial release?
While Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery may have been one of the most highly anticipated mobile games released in 2018, it was also one of the biggest let-downs. Two factors contributed to this widely received outcome — the underwhelming game-play and the forceful micro-transactions.
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The game received much hype after the first release of its game-play trailer. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery was advertised as a mobile app game which would offer a fully immersive gaming experience as the entire world would be able to enter the fantastic Wizarding World of Harry Potter; on their very phones.
Whilst the game does deliver on its promised immersive experience through various aspects, as it allows for players to completely customize their very own characters and does offer an exciting storyline, the lack of interesting gaming elements, unfortunately, negates the wondrous masterpiece this game could have been.
Put simply, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a visual novel that works in ‘chapters’ however, it does include some of the occasional quizzes and swiping; just to spice things up a little. Overall, the game-play would have been tolerable if the game designers didn’t dilute the fun even further, by making it impossible to escape from the micro-transactions.
Due to players constantly running out of ‘energy’ during quests and tasks, fans of the game are either forced to purchase gems or wait for ridiculous amounts of time for their energy to be restored. As a result, many frustrated fans have given up on the game altogether and have found solace in clicking the ‘uninstall’ button.
Online Dueling Sessions
The Duelling Club is an entirely new feature to this game, and it is one of the best, if not the best, element of the game. This exciting feature allows players to duel with other online game players from around the world.
Of course, dueling in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is not a new concept — as players have been exposed to duels with the pre-programmed characters in the game — however, this Duelling Club allows for players to interact with other online players with the opportunity of winning prizes if you defeat your opponent.
Dueling in the game is not necessarily tricky as its concept is very much synonymous with ‘rock, paper, scissors,’ with that being said, this Duelling Club dramatically reminds me of the Card-jutsu mini online game from the Club Penguin days, so I definitely thoroughly enjoyed this new addition to the game.
Get Yourself A Pet
Jam City has recently made pets a feature of the game. There are currently four pets that you are able to choose from: a cat, rat, frog and an owl.
Feel free to collect them all, if you can afford it. Unfortunately, pets are not able to be bought via the use of coins. Gems are required for you to commence your pet ownership, and it’s a rather steep price; pet prices range from 160 to 320 gems.
Aside from the obvious reasons as to why players would like to own pets in the game, there are actual incentives for collecting these virtual animals. Pets in the game will allow players to collect bonus energy rewards.
Of course, energy points — or lack thereof — serve as a crucial complaint to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, however, hopefully with the incorporation of this new feature, players will be able to restore energy at a quicker rate — to complete quests quicker without encountering too much grief from the utterly unnecessary energy restoration wait times.
Events
Special events have also been added as a new feature of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. So far, the game has only held two events; Pyjama Party included. These events allow for players to stock up on bonus coins, gems and even event exclusive items — meaning that these items will not be available for regular purchase.
This newly added factor of the game is nothing but positive, as it gives players an incentive to attain full stars in all of their classes, but also supply players with much-needed gems and fun-to-collect clothing items.
For example, with the most recent event — Pyjama Party — players receive not only coins and gems but also an adorable pajama set that is unique to each player’s chosen house. Hence, Gryffindors receive lion-themed pajamas.
As of right now, it is unclear as to when these special events are set to take place. No one knows if it’ll happen every week, fortnight or even every month — but it’s still undeniably fun nonetheless.
Microtransactions
Overall, the game still consists of long wait times because, in the end, the game heavily relies on micro-transactions. The game developers want players to purchase gems and thus, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery‘s game-play is severely compromised by this.
If you’ve got the patience to sit around and spend more time waiting than actually playing the game, or if you’re financially capable of engaging with the game’s many micro-transactions, then sure — give the game another shot. Because I’m not going to lie, I was genuinely excited to collect all of the exclusive special event items.
YouTube: Harry Potter – Hogwarts Mystery Official Launch Trailer
Photo credit: All used images and screenshots down are owned by WBIE, Portkey Games, and Jam City.
