Emily L
I’m usually not a huge fan of video games. I wasn’t allowed to have them as a kid, and the only game I ever loved was Guitar Hero, which I discovered in 9th grade when I was finally allowed to get a PlayStation 2. My band name,”Theg,” was chosen because I didn’t know how to use the keyboard feature and was trying to type “the” but couldn’t find the space key and gave up. That’s how good at video games I am.
I tried to play Pokemon Go for a week or two to appease my boyfriend, then promptly decided I didn’t care. He could keep all the raries, as we call them, for himself. But for Harry Potter, I’m willing to make an exception. So you better believe I downloaded Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery on my phone as soon as I got to work on the day it came out. Sorry boss, I have Devil’s Snare to fight and Slytherin bullies to face off today.
You create your own character in the game so I created Ester Dragondown – a girl of mystery with a delightful pixie cut. You can have the game generate a name for you, or connect to your Facebook, but I let my creativity do the talking. She’s a Ravenclaw, whereas I’m a Slytherin, but I didn’t want to create myself entirely. I would say I’m a Slytherin with Ravenclaw undertones and Ester is the opposite. She’s a Ravenclaw, but don’t cross her. The game will take you through all seven years at Hogwarts and all the crushes, spells learned, and Hagrid encounters that come with it.
My first impression: The graphics for this game are pretty impressive. There’s no lag time, which I expected on the release day of a game with such a giant fan base. I loved the intro and the making of your character. The gameplay, in general, feels a little young, but at the same time, you’re starting the game as an eleven-year-old. Hopefully, the action will ramp up and you move out of the timid first-year category.
I’m curious to see if everyone plays the same story. I’m assuming yes since it would be an insane amount of work to create like five different character arcs, but I’ll be jealous if my pal Rowen is everyone’s best friend. I thought what we had was special!
My impression after a day of gameplay: I can see myself being addicted to this game for about a month. I couldn’t stop opening it up at work and making progress. I want to see what happens next! But at the same time, it’s full of waiting. In order to complete challenges, which are timed, you need a certain amount of energy, which of course gets depleted very quickly. It regenerates every 4ish minutes, but when you need 25 energy points in the next hour, those 4 minutes feel like an eternity. Yes, you can buy energy, but if you think I’m paying real money, or even my fake game money on that you clearly don’t know how much of a bargain-hunter I am. I’m hoarding that shit for my Gringotts account. Hopefully, there is some strategy for getting more that I will eventually figure out. Until then, I’ll do actual work while I’m waiting for the energy to stack up. The game also makes you wait an allotted amount of time to complete challenges. It’s almost like they’re telling you, “You’ve been here for four hours, stop playing you loser. Live in the real world for a couple hours! Come back in two and then we can talk.” It’s good, but in that Netflix “are you still here?” kind of way that makes you feel pathetic.
Stepping away from the gaming aspect of the game, I want to emphasize as a massive Harry Potter fan that this game feels like Harry Potter. It uses the voices of the actors from the film, the writing picks up all the idiosyncrasies of your favorite characters, and Hogwarts feels like Hogwarts. We all finally get those acceptance letters we’ve been waiting for and we get to go!!
I’ll admit I was under the impression that this was an augmented reality game like Pokemon Go which I was definitely more interested in. Apparently, that game is coming out later this year (or at some indeterminate time in the future), and if they learn some lessons from Pokemon Go I think it will be f*#&ing huge. Like the hype around Pokemon Go x5. Do you know how rabid us Harry Potter fans are?! I’m taking my first trip to Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando in June and I’m curious to see if there’s any integration with Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery or the forthcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. Hopefully, I can get some extra lives or something…
Angela
My video game experience isn’t a whole lot better than Emily’s. Well, that’s not true. I would sneak into my older sister’s room while she was gone and play her Super Nintendo. Sesame Street was my shit. And then I had some Sonic skills on the Sega Genesis. But once they started adding knobs and more than just your thumbs, I was out. I have the coordination of a typical book worm, so controlling my head with one thumb and my body with the other…I can barely do that IRL. Er…you know what I mean.
And then the Wii came out. That was a lot of fun for about 10 minutes. But it is a social activity and after I graduated, Drunk Mario Cart tournaments lost their appeal.
As for Pokemon Go!…I could never bring myself to try. I just didn’t care. But my coworkers made me sign up for the preregistration on GooglePlay for this one and then I forgot about it until Wednesday morning when I woke up two hours early, couldn’t fall back to sleep, and noticed the notification that it was available.
My first impression: I thought this was going to be like Pokemon Go and make me actually get my steps in every day. I don’t know if I’m glad it isn’t or not. I hit the random name button until I came up with Isabella Reyes, which was the third name I tried. I am a Ravenclaw, so I was really glad that I got to choose for myself. I would have liked to have been able to put in my own wand too (connect to Pottermore accounts, perhaps?) Sorry to break your heart, Emily, but I am also working my way to being BFFs with Rowen. I thought I would be trying to play all day, but the whole running out of energy for nothing more than asking your neighbor a question (at least Candy Crush only penalizes you for sucking) kind of annoyed me. I also have been so busy at work that I haven’t been finishing even half of my coffee because I don’t have time to sit down and drink it, much less worry about Snape. I did play it while Boyfriend was watching the playoffs, and, again, the energy thing was a bummer. I broke up the time by playing a different game. That is how those games hook you, by giving you unlimited lives for x amount of time, or whatever. Not asking you to put it down every 10 minutes. They could have done the Go thing, and make me walk to get more energy faster, not wait 4 minutes per drop.
My impression after day two: I’ve got some gripes, y’all. First, every time you leave the game–whether it be to answer a text or just turning off your screen to stir your noodles–you have to see the opening credits and wait for it to load. Now, remember, you are waiting for it to recharge your energy, am I supposed to just let the screen sit on for the 12 minutes it takes to whisper something to the antagonist (I’m the worst with names. Sorry, but also not)? Maybe it is a conspiracy of some sort, keeping our phones on. Whatever, it’s annoying.
Also, they have the dialog box pop up during a lesson–with info you are sometimes quizzed on–UNDER YOUR THUMB. And it goes fast. Look at this blurry picture of my thumbs covering the left corner:
And, I agree, it is pretty immature. This story would have made sense 15 years ago when everyone was new to the story, but the majority of the people that are going to be playing this are at the age when going shopping for a new mattress is more exciting than Christmas (that’s seriously what I did tonight instead of playing. I’m so excited.)
Gosh, it sounds like I don’t like this game at all. I am interested in seeing where this goes. What happens after year seven? Do you finish? Do you get a job? But, honestly, I’m not that impressed. To be fair, I’ve been suffering a bit of Harry Potter burn out, so that might have something to do with it. But with Pokemon Go changing the world and mobile gameplay, this could have been so much more. Let me do spells by waving my phone around. Make me get out from behind my desk. Make me ignore my friends at dinner so I can win a duel (there is something duel related coming, but it won’t be anything like I’m picturing, I’m sure). Clearly, they should have come and asked me what the game should have been. I just expected so much more.
Have you been playing? What are your first impressions? What were you expecting? Have you gotten past the first year yet? We want to know!
*Secret tip! Click on things throughout the castle to get energy points – that Whomping Willow Branch, paintings, that house elf slouching in the dungeons. You’re welcome.
