Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a role-playing mobile game based on the Harry Potter series. Developed and published by Jam City. It is a prequel to the Harry Potter series.

Why We Must Cast Avada Kedavra On It

 * 1) Blatant microtransaction abuse. As many free-to-play mobile games, it is clearly pay-to-win. Almost every action in the game requires "Energy" (in-game currency that you use to do any action). You gain one Energy unit every four minutes but everything's costs multiple Energy units and you're limited to 20 energies, meaning you'll constantly run out of it, forcing you to either spend money or constantly sit waiting on average twenty minutes to recharge Energy if you want to play "honestly". This is why many players resort to Energy-hacking APKs, but it is also not the first instance of microtransaction abuse.
 * 2) * Many of the microtransactions are overpriced, for example you will only get a whopping 25 gems for $0.99 in which will only get you barely anything, besides 10 energy points in which is 20 gems.
 * 3) * Unlike other games with microtransactions, rather than trying to make it appealing to buy microtransactions it actually threatens you. There's a point in the mission to escape and defeat the Devil's Snare where your character gets strangled until you buy currency or wait. There are ways to encourage people to pay, but no other game has taken your avatar as a hostage. Much like the NBA 2K example this shows clear intent to attempt to shake down the younger audiences playing for money, and an example of child exploitation.
 * 4) * The uses for Energy can sometimes be stupid, pointless, and convoluted. For example, you need to use energy just to smile, and you need energy to rest.
 * 5) * The maximum amount of Energy you can have at once is 20, however many actions require a lot of it, such as twelve Energy units to defeat the Devil's Snare (the plant that strangles its victims if they panic), which means that if you actually waited for your energy to recharge, you may need to wait again once you use them.
 * 6) * There's a special timer in the game where if it ends, it resets the quest you're doing, forcing you to spend more Energy if you wait too long.
 * 7) Gameplay is almost non existent, as you mostly just tap the screen to do meaningless tasks.
 * 8) Earlier in its release, players have reported crashes that have occasionally occurred literally in the middle of the game.
 * 9) Like EA's Star Wars: Battlefront II, this game is another example of a treasured franchise being exploited for a quick buck.
 * 10) There are gold coins that you collect to buy cosmetic items, but they're extremely expensive, of course.
 * 11) The game has several plot inconsistencies, as explained here.
 * 12) The game is very poorly optimized, in which the game takes forever to load if you are on a low-end device.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The game has nice graphics.
 * 2) Decent soundtrack.
 * 3) Cool story, albeit with plot holes as mentioned above.

Reception
The game received a lot of hype from fans, but was critically panned on release due to its energy system and insulting abuse of microtransactions.

Videos
youtube.com/watch?v=m5y0IQiDwcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFb_zw47S3U youtube.com/watch?v=3TInJvO5FQc youtube.com/watch?v=3WUiim_Lpho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1hvwaoTlWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95AVHxpvX7Y