Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2001 PC Game - Retrospective

[@CamelCasee]

The first few PC games felt so comfortable and safe, the music and the warmth of it holds a place in many hearts.

[@Rihcterwilker]

I firmly believe limitations breed creativity. all the use of lighting dark areas over low-poly environments, the whinsical music, it gave us just enough, so that we would fill the rest with our imagination, which is something new games fail to do nowadays.

[@bencemervay]

@@Rihcterwilker i totally agree!

[@Obmelg]

Oh my god, i might have let out an audible little scream when i saw that you are covering this game! One of my favorites, the nostalgia!

[@bencemervay]

@@Obmelg i hope you will like it :)

[@OpenHD-Official]

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was my first "AAA" title, and the first expensive game I got (and yes that was a christmas present and my whole family played it together). Your video made me experience the time again, .. thank you :)

[@bencemervay]

@@OpenHD-Official you are very much welcome :)

[@carlosbatista6896]

I love the little Prisioner of Azkavan hint you made at 24:37 Lupin says pretty much the exact same thing in the Carpe Retractum challenge.

[@bencemervay]

@@carlosbatista6896 oh, that was not intentional. I only played with Prisoner of Azkaban 2 times, so I do not remember all these little details.

[@samu-fs3jh]

Still my favorite Harry Potter Game. The Chamber of secrets did improve many mechanics, especially the collectibles. But the Atmosphere and Magical Ambience was the best in the first one.

[@bencemervay]

@@samu-fs3jh I totally agree!

[@yesfredfredburger8008]

To split hairs, I’d say Rowling has tremendous talent for writing paragraphs and chapters, but her plotting leaves a lot of room for improvement

[@bencemervay]

@@yesfredfredburger8008 about the plotting I definitely agree. You may be right about paragraphs, it was a while ago since I last read a Harry Potter book. Next time I read one I will pay more attention.

[@thegreypilgrim2849]

How's that so? A plot is a plot.

[@Babelbot2730]

@@thegreypilgrim2849saying a plot is a plot is like saying a car is a car. Every different car model has different work and designs put into it that make it sell well. If you put out a car with missing nuts and bolts, it ain’t gonna work as well as it could or may fail. Same thing with plot. Putting out stories with plot holes, deus ex machina, characters that make decisions completely out of line for their characters for the sake of “moving the story along”. Not saying the guy is right, but saying a plot is a plot is next generation dumb

[@thegreypilgrim2849]

@@Babelbot2730 You misunderstood me. By "a plot is a plot", I meant that her plot is hers. So it would be next generational arrogance to say what could've been in her _own_ story. Better now?

[@Babelbot2730]

@ Explained better, yes. It’s still ignorant to say we shouldn’t critique an authors writing. Authors use critiques/opinions to improve their work. Harry Potter is extremely well-written, but there are multiple spots pointed out as not belonging or misplaced in the story or something being out of character. J.K. Rowling herself has even acknowledged and responded to some of them with posts on Pottermore to add lore to remedy her mistakes pointed out by readers. Writers know this is normal and you should too

[@rameshkumarnishad3625]

Nice Video Buddy! Keep it up!

[@bencemervay]

@@rameshkumarnishad3625 thank you!

[@xMasterMindx]

Nice video man, keep it up!

[@bencemervay]

@@xMasterMindx thanks! :)

[@NawiTheCore]

Amazing retrospective of one of my favorite games ever. I played this game when I was 8 and it was what motivated me to read the Harry Potter books and become a Potterhead. It was also one of the first 3D platformers I played, so it has a special place in my heart. I don't think it has aged all that well (especially if you don't have the mod that improves the controls), but it is still really fun to play. Back then, games were just fun, short and memorable. Nowadays, they're just bloated messes full of microtransactions and RPG mechanics. I hope you do retrospective of Chamber of Secrets, my favorite HP game, next!

[@lonerider543]

This is a really well made video and nicely thought out. Hope that people will come across it as it deserves way more views than it has currently. Well done! :)

[@bencemervay]

@@lonerider543 thank you for the praise! I have one other game review video (about Gothic 1, an rpg) if you liked this video you might like that one as well!

[@lonerider543]

@bencemervay I'll put it on my watch list. I've heard of the gothic game series but never actually played it so will be interesting to find out more!

[@proclarushtaonasat]

as for altering game mechanics, specifically the pots, i´d make them always have a chance to drop something valuable, such as potion ingredients, but always have the game penalize you, if you break them in front of teachers, or students of other houses.

[@bencemervay]

@@proclarushtaonasat good idea!

[@leonardcsapo416]

Good to see my fellow countrymen making long form retrospective videos

[@bencemervay]

Örülök, hogy tetszett! :)

[@BackstreetBorz]

Jo lett, johet meg ilyen!

[@bencemervay]

Köszi a választ! Ezen kívül még a Gothic 1-hez van kritikám, a többi videó a csatornán environment art vagy tutorial.

[@BackstreetBorz]

@@bencemervay Megneztem azt is :D Game dev miatt ajanlotta be a csatornadat a yt

[@wingsofzero5732]

I love the added detail of the sneak levels where Harry has unique lines for whispering his spells. Fun fact about that: Incendio has a whisper version too even though you never use it during the sneak levels. I know if you sequence break the start of the second sneak level and get behind the first locked door without triggering the cutscene, it's possible to cast Incendio on Mrs. Norris for some reason.

[@bencemervay]

@@wingsofzero5732 wow, I did not even know that! Thanks for the info!

[@Bensmith-v9n]

Remélem lesz még hasonló jellegű retroperspektív videód. :)

[@bencemervay]

@@Bensmith-v9n azon leszek!

[@timrob12]

9:09 - For years, I didn't get further than that bit.

[@bencemervay]

Yeah, me too! I think they at least should have added a save book on one of the static platforms.

[@timrob12]

@@bencemervay Perhaps, yes.

[@zelgadis115]

Great analysis, loved this and your take on Gothic 1 both! Appreciate the analytical approach to game design, and I think you're spot on the lighting being muted in Chamber of Secrets and therefore feeling less magical and atmospheric (perhaps this was an artistic decision due to the much darker nature of the murder mystery plot). I did a breakdown of the contents of this game in case you're interested on my channel, from December 25th 2023, listing the exact number of each collectibles & enemies encountered, this might be fun for you to look at in terms of their distribution throughout the game

[@bencemervay]

@@zelgadis115 cool! I will have a look at it! Thank you!

[@Tim3LPs]

Great video! I very much enjoy it, if you played any other's as a kid please cover them too!

[@Tim3LPs]

Also, I definitely also missed the jars in the Filch level. I always tried to walk by him right near the door and it took me so many tries

[@bencemervay]

I knew I am not the only one!

[@jackatherton7639]

even 20 years later im finding things i missed in these games 5:32 cant belive i never used a spell on that big massive window hahahahah.

[@BlackcapCoder]

I loved to read as a kid. My mother bought me the entire goosebumps series for my birthday (some 60 books), and I read every book several times- I would read as a I walked home from school. Then eventually we were forced to read books as homework, and I hated reading after that. My mom was furious with the school! Anyways, this game is really nostalgic to me! I initially thought the thumbnail was referring to the games config file, which among other things refers to something along the lines of a "shotgun mode". I'm not upset though, because I do write games from time to time :D

[@bencemervay]

@@BlackcapCoder hey, thank you for the comment! I hope you liked the video! Also, thank you for the personal story about reading :)

[@BlackcapCoder]

@@bencemervay It was useful. The problem I have when making games, is that I'll do the engine and the actual mechanics and perhaps even a level editor, and then I hit a brick wall- I only do the bare minimum of actual content to verify that everything works. Game design is hard!

[@bencemervay]

@@BlackcapCoder unfortunately yes. Did i understand correctly that you make your own engine?

[@BlackcapCoder]

@@bencemervay Indeed- that's the most fun part! I started programming very early, towards the end of elementary school- so gosh, almost 20 years at this point- and I enjoy doing everything from scratch. Edit: I often start off with an engine though to mock up the idea, but eventually I'll transition into my own thing.

[@calculateddeclination5534]

I really like the Harry Potter games on ps1. They're so fun. 😊

[@bencemervay]

Yeah, I heard that the ps1 Harry Potter game was more famous than the pc version. I unfortunately never owned a ps1 (or any consol), so I could only review the pc version.

[@catcocomics1601]

oh yeah, the uhh... fire turtles I'm pretty sure are supposed to be "Blast-ended Skrewts", which don't appear until Goblet of Fire in the books.

[@bencemervay]

@@catcocomics1601 hm, maybe you are right

[@LunchBaggy]

Can you do the chamber of secrets next that was my favorite one played it one game cube

[@bencemervay]

@@LunchBaggy hi! Yes, it is on my radar.

[@u9vata]

Oh my God.... I literally loved "Kincskereső kisködmön" when being small. Do not dare to say its "hard to grasp"... It is like a fake spread of information that grown ups usually say and the issue is not with the books but probably with amounts or teaching or anything else. PS.: This is not against Rowling books. They are also awsome, just I think the pick was really poor comparison. PS.: The game was well crafted - btw it even ran on our very weak 200Mhz pentium MMX with NO real 3D card just this S3 something in it... Yes... okay... it was skipping frames and went like 3-5 FPS I think but young me did not seem to care that much lol.

[@bencemervay]

@@u9vata Hey! Thank you for the comment! I did not mean that Kincskereső Kisködmön was hard to grasp. I meant that it was depressing (for me). And learning to read with a depressing book is hard. At least it was for me back then. This does not mean that you cannot love the book :)

[@u9vata]

@@bencemervay I see. Just I remember it very liking when being a kid (and I think we read it in second grade and before third btw in the summer as first book in my time). For some reason I never have remembered it as "depressing" but very much just feeling for the people in it and seeing them as good people so it felt not at all depressing and very positive - just saying as a counter-point. But I grew up parents reading all kinds of folk tales for me so was pretty used to deeper stories when I was already big enough to read on my own I think - so maybe because of this? Some generations earlier that was very common so probably there were much less issues grasping stuff? But I generally did not see my class mates struggling with it - except one guy, but he had dyslexia so he struggled beforehand even in the classes so its different. To the contrary I saw a lot of struggling with later "more modern" books that were on the "need to read" list so was just very baffled by the choice.

[@bencemervay]

Na, gondoltam, inkább magyarul válaszolok, a félreértések elkerülése végett. A Kincskereső első fejezetében rögtön azzal találkozunk, hogy Gergő irigységből nem adja oda a körtemuzsikát a haldokló húgának. Nekem három húgom is van. Nem mondom, hogy sosem voltam irigy, de egy ilyen esetben számomra elképzelhetetlen és visszataszító ez a viselkedés. Régen voltam kisiskolás ('91-ben születtem), de én úgy emlékszem, hogy harmadikos korunkban kellett először kötelezőt olvasni, ami a Kincskereső volt. Én küzdöttem az olvasással, és az, hogy egy ilyen könyvön gyakoroljak, nekem nagyon nehéz volt. 1-2 oldal elolvasása után inkább otthagytam az egészet a francba. A Harry Potter nekem megváltás volt. Izgalmas, érdekes. Észre sem vettem, és megtanultam olvasni. Sőt, meg is szerettem az olvasást. És félreértés ne essék, ettől a Kincskereső Kisködmön nem lesz egy rossz könyv, de én (a magam példájából kiindulva) úgy gondolom, hogy ezt nem feltétlenül alsóban kellene olvasni, vagy ha igen, akkor is úgy, hogy az olvasni tudás már alap legyen, mert egy érzelmileg nehéz műről van szó, és szerintem olvasni nem ilyenen kell(ene) megtanulni.

[@u9vata]

@@bencemervay Nem volt semmi félreértés, csak nem értek egyet 🙂. Azért mondtam, hogy én még harmadiknál is korábban olvastam és akkori énem szerint is nagy kedvenc volt - pont ezért írtam ezt le, mert számomra meglepő, hogy "de pont ezt a könyvet veszi valaki elő?". A könyv kifejezetten tanító hatású, az pedig, hogy érzelmeket érzel közben nem egyenlő a "depresszív a könyv" megjegyzéssel - vagy maradjunk abban, hogy neked az volt valamiért, de a könyben kifejezetten van személyiségfejlődés és ezt tényleg kifejezetten annak a korosztálynak jó szerintem olvasni ahol még nem alakul ki ezek közül mi miért jó, nem jó... Aranyos kis könyvecske, gyakorlatilag "hőstörténet" olyan szemmel, hogy miként alakul át a főszereplő. Én nem ismertem olyat, aki nem szerette volna, ezért furcsa - de hát kinek mi...

[@bencemervay]

@@u9vata köszi a választ! Lehet, hogy ideje lenne újra olvasnom felnőtt fejjel :)

[@tmk2436]

Szóval a ma esti programom az lett volna, hogy a Schindler listáját nézem meg, dehát az élet nem kívánságműsor

[@bencemervay]

@@tmk2436 jó szórakozást kívánok! Remélem, hogy tetszeni fog!

[@Blackwingsss]

Very good! I always forget how much different the pc version was to the playstation one. I would recommend trying it/them if there was an easy way.... what am I saying? Buy a used playstation setup!!!

[@bencemervay]

@@Blackwingsss maybe it can be done through emulation?

[@Blackwingsss]

@@bencemervay It can, but I had some unsatisfying experiences. The real thing is always better...

[@modplayer727]

i love this game , can you do the second one please ?

[@bencemervay]

Hi! Thank you for the comment! I think about it.

[@tuutelis]

How can Rowling be a mediocre writer? She made Harry Potter. It's a phenomenon. It's a masterpiece of accessible literature and one of the greatest fantasy worlds of all time.

[@bencemervay]

@tuutelis hi! Thank you for the comment. There is a difference between something being famous and being a masterpiece. Harry Potter is culturally significant, there is no doubt about it. It was/is also valuable on a societal level, because many children learned to read with Harry Potter (me included). But as work of literature, it is not all that great. Why do I say this? Have you read anything from Ursula K le Guin? (she wrote sci-fi and fantasy). She is a perfect example of how language can be used to convey beauty. To describe something, an event, a though with words so beautifully woven together that you just have to stop for a moment and say 'wow'. Rowling is not able to do that. The other shortcoming is the story itself. The plot (and the wizarding world in general) is filled with logical inconsistencies, the characters do not behave rationally many times, and yes, Harry and co are only children, we should not expect them to be always rational, but it is not only them. No wonder that when Rowling tried to write literature for adults, she failed. Because adults have much deeper literary knowledge and in comparison to other big writers, Rowling is overly simplistic, both in the plot and in the use of language. It is not an attack against Rowling. I admire what she achieved, the world she created and the positives her works brought to the world. But she is a mediocre writer. And there is nothing wrong with that. She put in the work and determination, she deserves her fame. But she is not a literary genius.

[@exotic-gem]

I wish I could still enjoy Harry Potter, but Rowling hates me and everyone like me and has now dedicated her life to try and destroy us 😞

[@FrozenCider]

Still better than Hogwarts Legacy

[@bencemervay]

@@FrozenCider i actually have not played that. I want to have an rtx capable card first

[@proclarushtaonasat]

i still cant believe, that they have not made a straightforward hogwarts simulator yet. either play as a student, or a fully grown wizard, but not half-assing your education by skipping the first 4 years, but still having enough time to go adventuring as the chosen one with special ancient magic stuff going on.

[@nevermindgaming6848]

Don't know if you're trolling or jerking off to nostalgia tbh it's two different games taking place in two different eras of Hogwarts. Also the game is not bad for a stand alone game

[@nevermindgaming6848]

​@@proclarushtaonasat you cleary never played the game lol 🤣