Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PS2) Review in 2022 | GL7

[@triforium_t]

Good review! I agree on a lot, having played this as a kid and revisiting it recently. However I found myself choking on my coffee towards the end of the video. The music in this game is NOT composed by John Williams (however an operatic genius he is), and certainly not directly from the movies. The score is composed by the magnificent Jeremy Soule, as is the case with the music from ALL of the Harry Potter games (years 1 through 4) for most consoles. He is truly one of the world's greatest video game music composers (I'm sure you're familiar with the music from Skyrim) and this deserves a correction.

[@SuperTed19021]

I've also just played this on the PS2 and completed it. Agreed, it was a once-an-experience game with no replay value. A lot of parts were fun, but other parts *really* made me want to pull my hair out. And there were several times I needed to use online guides to get past certain levels/puzzles. If you were a gamer, or even a kid (which the game was aimed at) growing up playing when this came out in 2004 when there was little to no such thing as online game guides/cheats and you got stuck, you *were* pretty much on your own. Thought also it needed an actual "save Buckbeak using the Time changer" level as well as an either Hogsmeade or/and Transfiguration level, and it was overall kinda short. Also thought the way you had to equip certain characters with their own spells was a pain, the unskippable cutscenes were unbearable and the character movements were plain clunky at times, with the camera or an *now* incredibly weak Flippindo & Expelliarmus spells not helping either. All surprising as this was made by EA. On the plus side, the graphics/design were great, the voice casting was fine, the soundtrack excellent and it did gave a good in-universe feel, especially exploring the *huge* Hogwarts castle grounds. Flying Buckbeak as well was fun and easy to manoeuvre. Overall, I gave it a *6/10.* Not bad at all, but one play is enough.

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

I haven't played any of these games except for some of the Game Boy ones due to novelty (some of them are examples of the relatively rare western-made Japanese-style turn-based RPG. Prisoner of Azkaban GBA actually reminded me of Golden Sun, from what I played of it). I do have a modded Xbox nowadays though, and have been looking at old sixth gen games on it to try beyond what I already knew about, and some of the old Harry Potter games did come to mind. I recalled them being compared to 3D Zelda titles, or stuff like Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, Beyond Good & Evil, etc. so that's good, and I liked the art style in the older games a bunch. Personally, I think the whole IP looks better the more stylized they go with it, and I don't find later games (or Hogwart's Legacy, if I'm being honest) that appealing to look at much since they're going for photo-realism (or however close to reality you can get with a fantasy-based IP). Kids in more realistic robes just do not look very cool or heroic to me, I guess :P I think out of the 4 on the original XBox, this is the last one that EA actually went with some stylized visuals for, so I was going to try it out anyway. Watching this made me give it a shot just now and, lol, I am 100% with you about the camera controls. I am NOT enjoying the left/right movement either right now! Or that up/down do more of a zoom in and out than angling the camera to look up or down, to be honest. OR that lock-on is on R instead of L; that doesn't seem right to me either. Wish there were more control options for sure right now! Beyond that, it definitely seems pretty cool (even if it'll be too easy for anyone above the kid demographic). Just finished up the opening train/dream sequence level and, yeah, I think I'll stick it out and try to get through this one soon - seems like a good game to play through during the Fall now anyway for some reason.

[@Gamelight7]

That's awesome man! I have a modded PS2 myself. I'm glad you understand my pain about somethings with the game lol. Have fun!

[@tomsautocadstudio6446]

order of the phoenix and half blood prince are the best games of the series.

[@yrooxrksvi7142]

No, they're really are not. They're decent, but they're just glorified walking simulators, especially Half Blood Prince. This one was much better.