***BEWARE: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD***

Jam City, together with Portkey Games, released the new Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery app a little over a month ago, on April 25. I downloaded the app fairly early on and have been playing pretty consistently since then. Considering the new update that launched yesterday, May 30^th, I thought I would give my views on the app.

The game is set before Harry’s time at Hogwarts and features many familiar faces, including your favorite professors, some friends, and even a dog. It follows the player character through their years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they learn spells, duel enemies, attend classes, and much more!

Game play starts out simple enough: you choose a basic look for your character. Unfortunately, customization options are extremely limited at the start of this game. As is common with many apps, you need to progress and level up to unlock more options and these options cost either gems or coins to purchase. Some of the clothing choices cost quite a bit in this game. Even simple clothing cost several thousand coins or up to 200 gems and if you wish for your character to wear glasses, that’s going to cost at least 6000 coins. Despite this, earning coins as you progress is actually pretty easy, and you’ll be able to afford a new look in no time.

The first character you’ll meet in this game is Rowan Khanna, whose gender (and eventual house) will always match that of the player. They’re a loyal friend throughout the game who is almost always willing to help you out. During your interaction with them, you learn that your character’s older brother used to attend Hogwarts but was expelled for trying to open the Cursed Vaults hidden within the castle. Shortly after he was expelled, your brother went missing. This is where the mystery part of the game comes into play. Your story is strongly guided by your need to find the Cursed Vaults, find your brother, and clear his name.

Once you get to Hogwarts, you get to go through the much-anticipated sorting ceremony! Unfortunately, this is a major part of the game that fell short for many fans. People wanted the ability to talk with the sorting hat and some wanted a quiz similar to a simple version of the Pottermore quiz. Instead you just click the house that you want and that’s the one that you get. It is understandable why they chose to do this – so that people definitely got the house they liked best – but many players were disappointed still.

The story itself is very intriguing. As you progress through each year at Hogwarts, you are given several opportunities to make choices (some of which require you to have specific ability scores to use) that will affect how the story continues. Sometimes, however, even trying to choose the “right” choice (the one you know is the good choice that won’t get you in trouble) leads you to the same outcome and doing the thing you shouldn’t be doing, so you don’t have ultimate control.

Your character is often required to learn certain things (spells, potions, etc) in order to progress to the next chapter in the story. There are many classes in the game that become available at different times, including charms, potions, flying, transfiguration, and herbology. These classes are timed events that require energy to complete. This is one of the biggest complaints that many players, including myself, have about the game. Energy is limited. It increases very slowly as you level up, but it requires quite a bit of energy to complete a single class and only 1 energy recharges every four minutes.

There are several locations where you can collect extra energy. It isn’t much, but it could be enough to get the required stars at the last minute if you are coming up a few short. After yesterday’s update, you are also allowed to leave during class (so long as you aren’t currently clicked on an action) to go collect this energy, just click the doors in the lower right corner. The clock continues to count down though, so just make sure you get back in time to finish the class.

Bonus energy locations are:

– East Towers

When you first enter East towers, there is a blank picture behind your character. Click this for a bonus energy and a woman will appear in the frame.

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Scroll almost all the way to the right of the corridor to see Peeves, click him for an extra energy. He will make some faces at you and then zip away.

Before

After

– West Towers

Near the middle of the hall, there will be a picture with something that looks like a branch. Click on this for a bonus energy and a hand will drop some oranges into the painting.

BeforeAfter

–  Lower Floor – West

Right outside the Great Hall, there are two fire pillars. The one on the right is unlit. Click on it to light the flame and get an extra energy.

BeforeAfter   Just passed the Great Hall, there are 3 suits of armor. Click on the middle one to allow him to steal back his shield and give you an extra energy

Before

After

– Dungeons

There’s a house elf eavesdropping outside the kitchen. Click on him to make him scurry off and get your bonus energy

Before

After

– Castle Ground

There is a path running next to the Whomping Willow that has a stick beside it. Click the stick to see the puppy, Fang, run off with it and to get your extra energy.

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After

– Lower Floor – East

Beside the door to the library, there is a messy pile of books on a bench. Click them to tidy them up and gain your free energy.

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After

– Hogsmeade

Between The Three Broomsticks and Honeydukes , there is a kid off in the distance waving at you. Click him to have him sled down and give you your bonus energy.

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After

When you complete “star sections” during classes, you are often asked questions that would have been answered in the text for the class (although some are based on basic Hogwarts knowledge) or given the Focus “Mini game” requiring you to click when the circle is green. Completing these things correctly earns you a reward in the form of attribute bonuses, coins, gems, and even energy. I almost always choose the attribute bonus so that I can get higher levels in those areas, however, sometimes it will give you options of 1000 coins or several gems that are too good to pass up. If you are more interested in customizing your character, collecting the coins or gems would likely be better for you, but this is why we have options!

Aside from being able to leave during classes, the new update also allows you to complete friendship events, like eating with a friend in the Great Hall or playing Gobstones with a friend in the Courtyard. This is great because it gives you an opportunity a couple times a day to increase your friendships with characters much quicker than just waiting for the story to give you a reason to. Some actions during missions and side quests require you to have a certain friendship level with certain characters to complete the quest with them, so being able to advance your friendship on your own is fantastic.

Overall, this is a great app with an interesting story. Clearly, they are still updating slowly to improve the game, as it is still new, but if you don’t mind checking back frequently when energy replenishes, the story seems worth the play through. Since the story doesn’t require any knowledge of Harry’s adventures during his time at Hogwarts, this is a great game for fans and newcomers alike.

Lastly, I just wanted to share some info on my character, as my decisions while playing would obviously affect certain things in game and my overall experience while playing:

House: Slytherin

Level: 17

Attributes: Courage – 17, Empathy – 17, Knowledge – 17

Progress: Year 3, Chapter 6

***All photos in this post were screenshots taken from my save file from the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery app