The First Three Harry Potter Games | 2021 PC Review

Harry Potter and the Wizarding School, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as well as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were all adapted into video games the same years as their movie adaptations. This was to varying degrees of success.
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[@Rayuzx]

You're nothing but a shitty pirate, and you should be ashamed of yourself.

[@Patrician]

Two for three on short notice, I lost the first disc a while ago twitter.com/patrician_tv/status/1397383848510509056

[@Noversoft]

An odd thing to get upset over, considering these games are essentially abandonedware at this point.

[@shawbag11]

I mean if you know anyway to get hold of these games id love to hear it. you see its all well and good saying pirateing is bad but if there is no legal way to get the game by handing over cash then what choice do people have ? stuff like this will eather become forgoten or people can atleast try and let people still acsess it even if that is though slightly questionable means. i mean just to give a example lego island is a really popular nastaguic game that people still to this day stream and play and i can tell you now noone would realy want to pay for it cus of how rare it is and how stupid asking prices can be. if it wasnt for emulation and "pirateing" noone would be able to play the game and it would just become lost to history. and if you are telling me you are fine with old games from the past becomeing lost and never played again just because you think pirates are bad then you are no diffrent than sony when they where trying to stop people from buying ps3 games.

[@joshuasutton2558]

Sounds like someone had their dabloons plundered you salty dog

[@boisterousjoy]

I've never seen someone earnestly deride internet piracy like this thank you for making this a memorable day

[@e2rqey]

I didn't even remember I played these games until now. But hearing that "flipendo" line repeated over and over again in Harry's voice awakened some serious nostalgia in me.

[@rolay7730]

You got lucky, for me it just awakened trauma.

[@lerasilenko9950]

That shit just made me realize I have a PTSD

[@chrisherzog1367]

I’m pretty sure I only ever watched my friend play these as a kid and I instantly recognized the “Fliiipendo!” line

[@ryanambsdorf2859]

I vaguely remember I really liked playing the 2nd game for xbox

[@97Mizzo]

FliiiiiiIIIIIIPENDOOOOOooooo

[@DIEGhostfish]

11:32 The drawing minigame may seem okay on a laser mouse. But this was the era of the ball-mouse. It blew goats.

[@blahblahblah5155]

on god

[@andremuniz6623]

God, I don’t remember those until you brought them up. Truly the stuff of nightmares.

[@en1909s9iah]

yes! it was hard!

[@Ghosthacker94]

Yesssss it was such bullshit

[@Black-Swan-007]

I hate the drawing minigame so much. I can never get 4/4 on it. Even now, when I just finishing playing the first game again a couple days ago. Been playing these games for over 15 years and still can't get 4/4 on the drawing minigame. Absolute malarkey.

[@mrmr4622]

Honestly no idea how come nobody has yet tried to cash in on nostalgia for those games, I'm sure there's a lot of people who would love the remaster/update for them

[@gorge3030]

because no one who works at the studios that own the rights ever played them, or cares about video games

[@fer-pololono1436]

i belive there is a harry potter game in the making, its suposse to come out next year if im not wrong i will look it up and come back with some more info

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

There’s a Harry Potter game being made currently. I don’t even like Harry Potter but it looks fucking amazing.

[@spendsshanks6050]

@@jamesbrincefield9879 It’s a cinematic. Can’t look amazing until we see gameplay

[@yell0w355]

@@fer-pololono1436 thats not the same as a remake of an old game, though.

[@cr0wnest]

I played chamber of secrets to death back then. Replayed it so many times. Looking back I think it was ambitious for its time, considering the hogwarts castle and its grounds were sort of "open world" to some extent. That really impressed me as a kid, and it was fun going around looking for all the secret rooms in order to 100% the game.

[@astridroseby]

I agree so much with this! I loved it as a kid and played it over and over. I'm pretty sure it's still installed on a computer at my parents' house.

[@yrooxrksvi7142]

You should also check the PS2 version. It's pretty impressive for a 2002 movie-licensed game.

[@theodentherenewed4785]

Yeah, the openness of Hogwarts blew me away in HP2 and HP3. The castle is there in the books and the movies, but in the games, you get to explore the areas of it. It was so awesome to find secrets around the place. Hogwarts is again open in HP5 and HP6, but the games are less atmospheric, especially Half-Blood Prince turned out a bit uninspired, bland in the game version.

[@puskywastaken]

The moving stairs were so amazing. All the little secrets, too

[@fenrir9879]

Same

[@br9377]

The PlayStation One Harry Potter games felt like horror games to me as a child. PS One didn’t have the resources to put in a lot of NPC’s and the big empty castle that was supposed to be full of students felt really creepy and lonely.

[@PineJayForge]

To be fair, the castle is supposed to be pretty empty during Harry's first couple years. All the students at that time were born at the height of the wizard wars, when there was a pretty major slump in birth rates. Also, with how the PS1 NPCs look, I'd rather not see too many of them, it might make it even scarier.

[@vandad13]

@@PineJayForge that’s a interesting bit of lore I didn’t know

[@hithere4289]

@@PineJayForge by wizard wars you mean they also include voldemort trying to kill harry?

[@gregmcgregginton574]

i loved it as a child, played the second one a lot

[@PineJayForge]

@@hithere4289 yeah, that time period. Voldemort's first rise to power

[@RoeGi1337]

I actually did the same with the credits a few years ago on Chamber of secrets, i wrote an email to the guy who made the artwork for the Chocolate frog cards and told him that its really nice and that i still enjoy the game every now and then and he actually answered and wondered that someone remembers him for that and he did it years ago and stuff, felt really nice

[@Theaterfreak]

That’s so wholesome, omg.

[@adamjd3293]

I made the HP1 mod that improves movement :)

[@jamma.77]

Can you give me a link for it? I need this mod.

[@jamma.77]

@@adamjd3293 Thanks!

[@ursoxuntyd8805]

What a guy

[@cloudshines812]

Hey Adam! Nice to see you here :)

[@Camaraocompao]

I remember playing these with my father. He was obsessed With the Secrets, no corner or painting was safe from his eyes. He didnt advance in a level until he checked every little thing for secrets

[@FumblsTheSniper]

I gave my nephew my old gameboy and some games. Kid did exactly that with a game called Rayman. Dude was taking notes and drawing maps at six. It took me years to beat that game and he did it in weeks.

[@jacquesfrancois4275]

lmao same but with my mother in this case

[@citsune174]

The biggest thing I've always remembered from these games were the beans. Oh, the beans. Such nostalgia. There was something different about playing these games, especially on older computers.

[@NieOrginalny]

Hmm, yeah, it definitely seems that Chamber of Secrets has retained the most love out of them all, in general populace and my feeble memories. I do however think I conflated it quite a bit with the first game, I somehow completely forgot or always overlooked that 2 removed Wingardium Leviosa for example. The similar artstyle definitely played a hand, and created a version in my mind that kept better features of the both.

[@JustinQuinn623]

Harry shouting the spells was really exciting as a kid. I remember that in the sneaky part he still yelled even though it was in a whisper

[@animaol]

just seeing the jellybeans unlocked so many memories

[@aelius3805]

Playstation Hagrid is the sexiest man who has ever lived. He could also probably stop Thanos, even with the Infinity Gauntlet.

[@ethantaylor9613]

My mom doesn’t play any video games except these and sonic for the Genesis. She got so good at The second one she beat it without taking any damage and got the secret golden wizard card stuff. She beat the game so thoroughly she spent every bean so there were none left in the game at all.

[@jostijnhazelhoff]

This comment is so relatable haha. My mother never EVER played games, except for the first two Harry Potter games on PC and Prisoner of Azkaban on the Gameboy Advance. I remember being little (maybe 5 or 6 years old) when I reached the last fight against Voldemort in the first game and I just could not beat him. My mom helped me and actually spent a whole afternoon trying to figure out what to do and eventually helped me beat him. My mom is not necessarily against gaming, but she is also not a fan. And I sometimes now still joke about how she got me into gaming by playing the HP games so often when I was younger :p

[@zionellis579]

I never reply, but I loved the second game to bits. Did you know you can get infitinate beans and resources by placing a gnome behind an object you can Flipendo and trying to flipendo the gnome. It will trigger the object in front instead. It takes a bit of practice but you can get a gnome from the bathroom and toss it into other stalls. Because all the toilets are triggered with flipendo, you canget infinite everything without leaving the bathroom XD. This includes infinite genomes... which I once rained down like 50 of them into the lowest part of the stair cases room. They even save and will be there when you come back! I learned everything and then some, even turning on debug mode to do the unused challenge you can get to by flying through the gryffindor common room door at the top of the spiral stair case. It requires debuf turned on so you can No Clip through the mesh. Ahhh, good times and fond memories for sure. My favorite part was always the realization that what you just learned in a class can now be used all over the grounds to find more cool secrets ^_^

[@Michael-Rosen]

@@zionellis579 Or you could just win duels for beans. That's a way to get infinite beans.

[@themachine7534]

Can confirm , i was the last bean .

[@yellowsaurus4895]

@@zionellis579 i would spend literal hours using this exploit on the gnome-spawning toilets in moaning Myrtle's bathroom; then carrying them off one by one and trying to spread them as thoroughly throughout the school as possible (i dont think you could take them through loading screens so it was unfortunately limited to the main stairs area). By the time i grew out of that game the place was absolutely infested with gnomes lmfao

[@anam00090]

HP 2 is my 'happy place' game. I always have it installed and play when anxiety gets really bad. The sounds of walking into beans, dueling, bargaining for some weird ingredients to brew the potions, randomly bumping into Snape as he stands in the dungeons, chasing the chocolate frog even though your healthbar is full calms me down. Apparently PS version of Chamber of Secrets was the best, really wish I had had it, have seen videos and looks like a completely different game

[@Camaraocompao]

I played the console versions and i think the PC is better. Its one of my happy place games as well, together with kotor 2

[@StuckInBliss]

Most definitely. Side note; they really mucked up Goblet of Fire. Probably my first big game disappointment

[@anam00090]

​@@StuckInBliss Goblet of Fire was SO bad, it's the reason I'm not allowing myself to be hyped for Hogwarts Mystery. Soured me towards the new games in the franchise

[@Theaterfreak]

I have both but prefer the PC version, probably because I grew up playing it. Switching on debug mode and just flying around the game maps was so satisfying lol.

[@tonypotterz]

the nostalgia is making me tear up, so many memories were associated with the old Harry Potter games

[@anonnymousperson]

My girlfriend loved these games when she was a kid and doesn't stop talking about them. Thanks for giving me some insight into her nostalgia.

[@tomothybahamothy]

She's my girlfriend now

[@anonnymousperson]

@@tomothybahamothy I'd be impressed if you managed to find her. Even more if you managed to date her. Good luck.

[@Moshthun]

@@anonnymousperson yeah hello FBI, yeah this post right here...

[@skyfall-1738]

I remember getting these three games and quidditch world cup at one of those scholastic book fairs. Good memories, shame that the quidditch game didn't get a sequel, it was actually pretty fun!

[@adeptusfantasticus]

Dude fuck yeah, I still have mine today and still play with my brother, I'm 24 and he's 28, we've been playing since kids, and wb should be making a new quidditch game, that shits be tight on a current gen engine.

[@Heattokun]

Patrician, OP, cover quidditch pls

[@adeptusfantasticus]

@@Heattokun yes get quidditch trending to get wb to make a new quidditch game

[@zga042]

quiddich world cup was actually good

[@adeptusfantasticus]

@@zga042 #BigTrue

[@Doofkopf12345]

Man this brings back memories. I used to play these three games for hours on end with my older sister. I remember how scary the stealth segments in the first one seemed. Fun times!

[@ElliottPiano]

Man i feel i'm the one doing writing the comment exactly same story with my sister and the scary stealth

[@liahaggquist9758]

i also played them with my older sister!

[@turbotrup96]

7:49 This is why I love older games-- in modern ones lightning is often realistic and thus lacking artistic touches. Additionally, limited hardware made devs designs of the environment be less focused on visual noise from unnecesarry details

[@user-qs8kh5dn5w]

man, prisoner of askaban was THE game of my childhood. Completed it a dozen times. Skeletons scared the living shit out of child-me. So much love for this game :)

[@nedwhitney4123]

It was the troll sections that gave me anxiety :')

[@the88lundberg]

Hey the soundtrack of the first HP game was so cosy and good. I remember playing this when it came.

[@meneerlagerwaard2047]

It was composed by Jeremy Soule, he did the Elder Scrolls series since Morrowind!

[@the88lundberg]

@@meneerlagerwaard2047 it fits the tone of the game so perfect. I loved it as a kid and it put me in the right mode just as the movies.

[@DIEGhostfish]

@@meneerlagerwaard2047 And KotOR and more.

[@Camaraocompao]

There is a song from Skyrim who looks like It came from the first Hp game

[@the88lundberg]

@@Camaraocompao which one?

[@peterlewis2178]

It's interesting seeing the ways that Prisoner of Azkaban regressed, because it's always been my favorite of the three. Hogwarts felt more open and explorable to me, the individual challenges were more exciting and memorable, and I absolutely loved the fact that you played as Ron and Hermione as well. As an adult I can see the ways in which it was weaker than the previous two, but as a kid it was superior in every regard. Though perhaps that's also partly because Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite movie of the three.

[@Theaterfreak]

The console version of PoA was absolutely fantastic. I played it on GameCube, then played the PC version which is very different (much like the first two games). I found it weird how basically all of the spells in the PC version were given to different members of the trio than the console (like how in the PC version Harry learns Glacius, whereas in the console version it’s Hermione’s spell. I still love and replay the console on my GameCube version every now and again. If I could have any game from my childhood remastered or remade then I’d totally pick the console version of PoA, next to Quidditch World Cup.

[@peterlewis2178]

@@Theaterfreak I'm sure nostalgia plays a huge role. I imagine the quality of the different versions doesn't differ significantly, and they were never masterpieces or anything, but whichever ones you grew up with are always gonna be more meaningful to you. I've had similar thoughts about remasters of the PC versions, those games were a huge part of my childhood.

[@Theaterfreak]

@@peterlewis2178 definitely, I’m hugely nostalgic for all these games, both PC and console.

[@NenadlPopovic]

First 3 games were THE BEST EVER OF ALL HP GAMES! The only good thing that appeared in later ones was Hogwarts exploring map in 5th one, if they ever re-release original 3, they should use that map!

[@elephant35e]

I loved exploring Hogwarts in the 5th game, but I don't think they should use the map in that game if they re-release games 1-3. A lot of the fun in the first 3 games was finding secret rooms around the castle, and you can't really do that with the map from the 5th game.

[@serikazero128]

there was also a quiditch only game. based around the championship something something

[@Subject38]

I never realised until watching this video that the PC version was so drastically different from the console versions I was used to

[@drifter402]

Even different console versions were different from each other. PS2 chamber was made by different Devs from GameCube chamber yet they're remarkably similar.

[@largegroupofmales]

I remember playing the second one as a kid and after 30 minutes or so I ran into a wrinkly, skin colored goblin looking creature in a hidden stairwell and almost shit myself. Never played it again

[@BlazeFX100]

Ive got exactly the same experience haha

[@GavinGaile]

That's no way to talk about Draco..!

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Harry Potter Games' Zelda-like approach is what got me fascinated in action-adventure games. Nothing is more satisfying than an obstacles turning into a pathway. Also Jeremy Soule OST > John Williams OST

[@Fresca64_]

I'm still playing these games, and I love them so much.

[@Jhrama]

How do I play this on a new Mac laptop? I REALLY want to play this again

[@LunaNovaTarot]

How are you playing it ? I REALLY want to play the first one soooo bad

[@DarthOpinion]

same dude

[@PFworth]

Patrician I love how much our childhood gaming nostalgia crosses over. I’m so excited for this video

[@milktots6933]

Yeah it's almost like millions of children grew up at the same time playing the same games. Pretty nuts

[@mauromerconchini]

Oh man, the first two games on PC comprise a large amount of my childhood. I played them religiously every weekend, but never actually managed to beat them until many years later as a teenager. Thanks for a nice trip down memory lane, I should go replay these.

[@kated442]

I played the second game so much, I loved exploring and finding bugs. I was so disappointed when the fourth game didn't have any exploration, only missions. I like what you said about the lighting and design in a low-tech game making a better impression than more technically-impressive graphics and a boring environment.

[@dylanwatson8133]

I like your use of sonder when talking about the devs. Sonder - The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.

[@laguaridadelgremlin]

"Kids will learn to play any game" is a statement I've lost some faith on, really. Back in the day when these games were made and before that too, figuring out how to play the game, what you can do and what you have to do was _part_ of the game. Mechanical exploration of gameplay was par of the course and you'd spend nearly as much time seeing what you could do and what you couldn't as you would actually playing the game the way it was meant to. Overuse of "handholding" and objective markers, as much as I don't like the often-times shallow hate they get, have become so ubiquitous and game design has changed so much that, the kids I've introduced to this game, even if they were into Harry Potter, would get frustrated between the first 10-15 minutes and abandon it because "I don't know what to do", "it doesn't tell me what to do", and exploration and experimentation with the controls was not just something that didn't occur to them - it seemed strange, a waste of time and an arbitrary chore to them, like something they shouldn't "have" to do if the game was well designed and marked what they had to interact to next with a giant light and a big label with the correct keyboard key.

[@andrewpf91]

Right soon games will be hold forward and tap select when the icon appears. Wait nm we are already there.

[@danielthundersteel7146]

Have to disagree a bit there. I played Harry Potter 1 on Playstation 1 as a kid, and my memories are a bit blurry. but as far as I remember it, the game did always give you at least a broad indication of what you needed to do. take objective markers, HP1 didn't need those because there was no open world, most of the time you had only one way to go to. some levels had some exploration build in, but in a broader sense you never hat the choice wether you want to go to place A or place B. so the difference in handholding between HP1 and newer games isn't all that big imho. what occurs to me is that I found HP1 quite hard when I was I kid, and I believe a lot of that came from the wonky controls of that game. so it was not necessary the enjoyable variant of difficulty. apart from that, there weren't really that much mechanics to discover as far as I remember it. One big difference between kids nowadays and the time when I was a kid is how abundantly aviable computer games are today. back in my childhood and teens I played a lot of games because I had nothing else. so even if playing harry potter frustrated me and I quit, i started it again because I didn't have a lot of other games to play. So, in regards of you mentioning kids would get frustrated today, abandoning the game after 15 minutes: they would rightfully get frustrated by that old thing, and in that they would be just like me as a kid. I remember I got frustrated a lot when I played Harry Potter and other games of that era. I quitted it sooo often. but the kids nowadays have other games they can play instead, probably way better games, while I had nothing else. that made me start up the game again the next day to try it again and again until I figured out the hard sections. often, that was the opposite of fun and felt more like a chore. Don't get me wrong, I don't like overuse of handholding either. but a lot of that "tinkering things out" is seen through nostalgia glasses today and it wasn't always as fun as we remember it. So i would conclude "Kids will learn to play any game - if they have to"

[@jaysonthompson1215]

i agree with you, but i dont feel these things can't coesxist. kids will learn to play any game. I will learn to play any game, now and as a kid. but that doesn't mean i would want to waste my time with any game just cause it exist or someone recommends it. especially now a days when there are soooo many games to play! i feel like saying " exploration and experimentation with the controls was not just something that didn't occur to them" is kinda mean and patronizing though. as we know from that cup head incident adults won't spend time exploring or experimenting either after all ^^;

[@tomothybahamothy]

Who are all these kids your introducing to the game?

[@PrivateSessions]

Or you were a kid like me and just never played games right until hitting 12/13 years old, and even then, spending a lot of time actively ignoring what I knew I should be doing just to fuck around and see what I could break. It's embarrassing to admit, but I probably didn't even understand what the concept of "beating" a game was until I was in my teens. It's probably a combination of what the individual kids are like, and what games they are exposed to that will determine whether they can handle challenging games. The casualizing of games is definitely a worrying trend, but I also see kids pub stomp 28 year olds in Fortnite. I'd like to have hope devs and publishers understand that it's good business to have a variety of challenging and casual games, (or games that can be both) but then again, there's plenty of evidence to show they haven't much of a clue.

[@kairensintal]

what i really liked is how in the finale of the first game, you had to catch the key just like the snitch, transleted pretty well. I never understood why they didn't do that in prisoner, making a special night flight with buckbeak

[@BrutalOddball]

I still regularily replay Prisoner of Azkaban about once a year. When I was a kid, my family had a PC powerful enough for 1 & 2, but certainly not three so I played those to exhaustion. When we came to my uncle (who was a programmer) however, I was able to play Azkaban, which is why it holds such a dear place in my heart. The scarcity and generally solid game design (to someone who didnt know better) made it so cool.

[@MistaHoward]

I can't believe you didn't make the credits infinitely loop during the outtro.

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

16:54 Correction: getting all the Wizard Cards is an optional task. You can see how, in the task list, there is no "empty checkmark circle" next to it. I mean, it still sucks that you're forced to get almost-100%, but at least the Cards are optional.

[@Patrician]

Ah, I did the cards last because you get them from doing the other stuff anyways and had only 73/80 left. 1 (the Harry Potter card) is free for getting to 74 cards, and the last 5 cards are in the final bonus room you get for reaching 75 so really, I had only missed 1 card in Prisoner anyways.

[@michaelhawkins7389]

@@Patrician please do a review on the other Harry potter games like Order of the phoenix and Half blood prince

[@bookbagfox]

I loved these games as a kid so it's really cool seeing them again like this. Thank you for the genuinely in-depth review on something that was just a distant memory for me.

[@cblake4111]

I still like these games to this day (except maybe the third one a bit), and the reason isn't just because of nostalgia (sue me). The reason it still holds up with me to this day is really how well they managed to convey something in such a simple way. True, the story elements isn't completely on point, but I still find it memorable. Essentially, it's simple and linear, but the best thing about is that even due to the limitations of tech back then, _they made it work._ It portrayed it in a still engaging way, and even though it may not feel completely like the movie, it had the core of the story in mind and was just varied enough to where it was memorable. It took the elements of the film and condensed it into an easy to understand yet still fun and unique way. While it may not perfectly fit for adults, it's definitely enough to work for a kid. Some of my favorite examples are the forbidden corridor, where you seemingly travel through this dark expanse of nothingness, making you wonder just how massive is Hogwarts; Aragog's lair and the Chamber of Secrets also does this well, with so much atmosphere and engaging action compacted into a single stage. Even the environments, with low poly states, still keep me thinking fondly of them, and the soundtrack unique to Soule's perspective is still remarkable, and it's a shame it doesn't get more recognition.

[@philipbenhardb.velasco369]

dude, i remember when this came out and my brother played this on his laptop. This was the shhhiz. I was primarily a nintendo player so pokemon and pixels. This just blew my mind as a gamer back then

[@gbrading]

I remember playing a lot of 1 and 2, never played 3. Always thought they were quite frustrating but Chamber of Secrets I remember being such an improvement on Philosopher's Stone because the open world castle was way larger.

[@hylia9067]

Yeah, 1 didn't really have an open world, it was basically a linear game. 2 and 3 had open worlds. 3 was always a lot of fun, even though it's way shorter than 2.

[@elephant35e]

@1993DJC Different game developers.

[@Kiramb1999]

In 3 you got to turn into a little dragon and bunny and i thought that was so cool xD

[@scottishrob13]

I really liked the 2nd game, but not enough to want to get into the other two apparently. I do remember it rather fondly though: the exploration was fun enough and, at the time, it really felt like the Hogwarts space was realized more than I expected from a movie tie-in game. Messing around with Quidditch to see how I could push its limits was engaging for my young brain, too. I think I remember explicitly passing up the third game because I found out that not only did they not improve on the Quidditch mechanics, but it was cut from the game. Perhaps some day we'll get an "immersive sim" of sorts that could do so well in a space as complex, yet contained, as Hogwarts. The developer part of my brain even tingles at the possibility - I think it could be done well enough. Alas, I may be an old man long before something like that happens, and I can already feel that childlike sense of wonder at the idea slipping away.

[@cryssanie]

These 3 games are the definition of nostalgia and to me. I replayed the first one over and over again as a kid until I remembered the whole game by heart and could remember every single of the levels exactly room by room in my head whenever I wanted (a skill I tried to boast my family with little success). I was so scared of the giant plants in the Incendio level I taught my then computer-illiterate grandmother the controls so she would go around the plants for me. To this day I remember the adrenaline rush I got by sneaking around mrs. Norris in the stealth levels, and the relief I felt whenever she bugged walking into a library. I played the Chamber of Secrets game after the school with my best friend every day and when banished from the computer to go get some fresh air, we would pretend to be gnomes stealing beans chasing each other. The third game I developed a dementor induced PTSD because the Expecto Patronum class where Lupin makes you fall sudenly between dementors jumpscared me so much I fell off a chair, threw the mouse behind the table and screamed so hard my mum thought somebody broke into our house. While I was a Potterhead in all aspects that came with the Potter mania, looking back the games really stand out to me as the embodiment of the carefreeness and wonder that comes and goes with your childhood. Also, the soundrack slaps!

[@johnnybensonitis7853]

You're channel has really blown up, congrats! I found your Morrowind video a few months back and promptly went about consuming all your content. The effort you put in is much appreciated as I'm sure this videos don't make themselves haha.

[@VandergriftMoefies]

Man this vid was such a nostalgia trip. I absolutely loved (love) these first three games as a kid and I have the most amazing memories of them, and they will for always hold a special place in my heart. There is just something about the vibe off these games that just unmatched to me. You really understated when you said that these games where a bit different on the other platforms. These games ARE completely different on the other platforms. Like they share some art design things and mostly the music, but aside from that, they are all their own thing. My personal favorite used to be always the third game on the ps2. It was just an amazing game that I've played MANY times and I highly recommend in your checking does console version out. They just had more to offer, you could do more free roam stuff and in the 3th game you could switch characters when ever you wanted instead of how they had you locked in the PC version. I also want to say that these first 3 games have probably one of my fav game music/scores ever. Jeremy Soule did an absolutely phenomenal job and just hearing does tracks always bring me back. That moment when you step into Hogwarts and you hear that music kick in is just the best. With me loving these first three games this much, you can only imagine my extreme disappointment when I played the 4th game for the first time when I was a kid. I just can't believe how bad they messed up with that game. Just everything from the top-down camera, to it being linear as fuck, to it being just a non-stop action game. It just was all so fucking bad. I always loved how these games used to do its own thing. Like yeah, they came out simultaneously with the movies. But they never tried to be or look like the movies. But they even failed at that because the 4th book and films so easily lends itself to being translated into a game with the 3 trails, but they just turned does into lame ass mini like games. Music aside that was still done well, The game was just a mess and the fact that they just completely dropped anything from the first 3 games is just the worst. They tried to redeem themselves with the 5th and 6th games, that were indeed better than the 4th game, but still a FAAAAAR cry from the first three games. And the last 2 games, yeah I haven't even touched does. They were even worse than the 4th game. Now they just turned them into 3th person action games, because... why not. Fuck it! I would absolutely love it if you did a vid on these last couple of games and especially on the 4th, 7th and 8th game. They deserve to get roasted, hard. Anyway, great vid and awesome to see someone talk about these games. Believe it or not, but HP is still very popular under kids that haven't grown up with them. My nieces and nephews all love HP and most of them got born after the last movie.

[@ItsWhiteFang]

As a kid I remember being scared of that library level and falling into the abyss by making a wrong jump off the ledge.

[@SariaSchala]

I love these games! And about the third game's spells, I love Lapifors and Draconifors (especially Lapifors, I love bunnies).

[@MagnetismR]

5:44 I do remember Joe Sowerbutts from the first game. He voiced the very few lines of Harry that were featured (also did minor overdubbing for the movie). And later went on to act in another video game. Not voice act-act. A modern low-budget FMV crime thriller that I'm in love with called Late Shift.

[@fmsyntheses]

You're one of the dozen 'video essay' channels I subscribe to that I can remember anything about. Which is a compliment.

[@dantheman6808]

Awesome to see you reviewing these games. I used to play them a lot as a kid. I keep seeing reviews for the PS1 version, glad the PC titles are getting some attention

[@silvervase]

Thanks for the memories. One of my first video game experiences. These scenes brought back rainy afternoons with me and my sister on the couch passing the controller back and forth between us

[@BreakfastKing420]

Thank you. I’ve been looking for content about these three specific pc games but there’s not a lot on these versions. I have so much nostalgia for these

[@saltyshrimppasta]

Ironic that you make this video shortly after Micky D finished his Philosopher’s Stone playthrough, which was actually the first I’d ever heard of this game

[@nickspangler5912]

I was going to write this! The Morrowind KZbinr world is small 😂

[@saltyshrimppasta]

@@nickspangler5912 Man’s channel blew up in a matter of months, and it’s well deserved

[@spaceanimal33]

Love that you did a video on these games; it was a great review! The Harry Potter games were one of my first forays into gaming too, and I have fond memories of all three. Though I think that the second one is the best, I'm sure I clocked the most hours with the first one. It was so much fun trying to glitch out the first's levels, especially sneaking around Filch in the library and after you drop off Norbert. With the Norbert level, you can sneak past Filch on the bridge and get to the door before he opens it, and then inexplicably cast Incendio on the door and Mrs. Norris. It doesn't really do anything, but my sister and I always found it hilarious. I was pretty let down by the third one's choice to significantly cut exploration. Even when you did get the chance to explore, there was less to find; each floor of the castle had a small antichamber and that was it, which made the castle feel much smaller than before. And I definitely agree about the portrait passwords, they always felt like an unnecessary add-on, trying to add an exploration element where it didn't fit. POA hyped up being able to play the three characters so much, I wonder if that made the rest of the game's design suffer as a result? If you ever decide to review the mess that was the later games, I'd love to hear your take on them.

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

Event though the different versios of the games 1-3 wwre done by different studios, their contracts required them to share resources and documentation. With Prisoner of Azkaban - KnowWonder simply tried to do what the console version were doing, hence the whole trio is playable, and some other things taken straight from the console version. But overall, PoA PC just isn't the same...

[@spaceanimal33]

@@wariolandgoldpiramid Great point, I didn't know the different studios had to share resources (although Patrician may have mentioned it in the video and I completely missed it 😅). I had the PS2 version of PoA as well, and I remember liking that quite a bit more than the PC version.

[@Chaosian]

Kinda funny that when you talked about the credits ~5:50, I picked a name and by-god, I recognized the name. I had actually worked with Jason Zayas, Lead Animator for Harry Potter 2, on another project years later. And then I realized that I'd also done quite a lot of work with Gregory MacMartin, Lead Game Designer at the top of the list there. I think he'd told me he'd worked on the game and had been pretty proud of the final product.

[@pazz1239]

This was my first few games in pc and I remember hunting every bean and secrets and spongify was godly to discover. So much nostalgia

[@Unaimend]

Arx Fatalis when?

[@Adamadam889]

Holy Based, these games are still a blast to play and watch speedruns of

[@DoratTheKiller]

I clicked on this video simply because I was nostalgic, since these three games were my childhood. And I can safely say that it's probably the best review of them on KZbin, with analyses from both the technical standpoint and the adaptation one. Good job!

[@my80yearoldman]

I totally agree. Very well written and edited...better vocabulary and pacing than my thesis lol. This isn't a youtube review, it's a documentary!

[@lukismilenar]

These games are my childhood and from time to time I still love to play them. Its a shame they don't get much love. Lately I'm trying to play their completely different PS2 counterparts. Both of these versions have something to love.

[@Veyron722skyhook]

Yeah, its definitely a good idea to get the movement and camera mod for the first game. It makes a hell of a difference.

[@Garadares]

There's this obscure PC game called Captain Claw. Could you check it out? It's a 2D side-scroller platformer with a pirate cat.

[@ariton2990]

DUDE I played this game a lot back in the day when I was a kid.

[@Garadares]

@@ariton2990 Nice to hear that! :D I played it a lot too in my childhood, had no idea how to play it back then though but was still fun. Check out The Claw Recluse site if you would like to revisit it :)

[@golebiewsky]

I remember that it was huge in Poland back in the day

[@Garadares]

@@golebiewsky it's probably still well known in Poland even today but too bad there's no Claw re-release yet...

[@Garadares]

@@bogdan-ioanmoisa1613 it was my first ever PC game too. There are a few active romanian people in The Claw Recluse discord if you are interested to revisit Claw someday

[@orien2v2]

Man I missed these...I just love walking around the castle and just zone out after school. The bgm and the ambience is just perfect. Even the cards are fun to look at. I literally walked around aimlessly for hours just to enjoy my time in the world. Sure wish for a remake and I'll pay any amount for it.

[@Gusztika3]

Very nicely put together video. Great work. I used to played the first two games on PC when I was little a lot and loved them very much. Really loved the exploration, learning new spells and how with each new spell the game got a little bit more complicated. Never played the third one, but looking at the footage I would say it looks worse than the previous two. Amazing how a little bit of lighting can change the feel of a whole game.

[@JustMatt91]

Id love to somehow see these three get a remaster, I wish they could somehow take what they did with Order of the Phoenix/Half Blood-Prince and incorporate that with the first three games, that I think would be awesome to see.

[@jaredmatthews9403]

Fug yeah dude. Loved these. Especially 2.

[@gamerboysp2559]

man, the first two are nostalgia overload for me, I loved playing these games as a kid, and when I managed to find the disks at my thrift store, I immediately got them. It took awhile to get them running on windows 10, but it was all worth it

[@RealFuturePictures]

The reason for the color shift is because Chris Columbus directed the first two movies with whimsy and magic in mind, and after that they switched directors and wanted it to be all edgy and dark and serious because that's "grown up". Azkaban is essentially a horror movie in most spots.

[@PsychoticNinja]

I honestly would love to play more games like these three, especially COS.

[@Black-Swan-007]

These three games were my entire childhood and seriously got me into gaming. I ran into the same issue as you and my parents had to upgrade their computers for me to play these lol I also, literally, just finished playing through "Wizard's Stone" again a couple days ago. I can NEVER find that last card. Chamber of Secrets has always been my favorite, in all media. A tiny nitpick, though... it's Rictusempra, not Rictumsempra. There's only one M. ^^;

[@hanc2w]

I have those 3 games installed on my PC and I still play them once I feel nostalgic. This is amazing

[@derickyyy]

The sound effect of picking up the beans brought back memories!

[@KarnEvil92112]

4:39 Fire Crabs were first mentioned in the Goblet of Fire book, when we learn that the Blast Ended Skrewt is the result of cross breeding a Manticore with one of these crabs. It's ass fireball ability was added on the Fantastic Beasts book that came out a year later. It was written by Rowling so it is canon.

[@nicyt7391]

Dumbledore dies at the end of the review

[@spimatti]

18:01 Love the fire texture going on in the background 😂

[@paynt3770]

5:46 yo is that Greg Macmartin the not so famous dev for Quake who made e3 and the Aftershock add-on, hell yeah classic levels.

[@steampunkastronaut7081]

I remember laughing and having an absolute blast by just fooling around with the gnomes at the second game.

[@evertonc1448]

I actually replay the PSX chamber of secrets every year on Christmas.

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

Fantastic game. :)

[@patrickwelch7538]

I loved the first two on PC but i think the third one’s console port is the best version. i remember specifically wandering into the middle of the lake during the winter parts of the game and being perfectly content walking around hogwarts

[@Muskers92]

I don't remember which game I played as a kid but I remember running around the empty School feeling very lonely

[@stephenking5852]

It’s amazing how the characters had still faces in the first games, but in the third one, they were finally able to convey emotions.

[@_ruskie8853]

just subbed because you're the only person excluding me whos actually played these games lol

[@jaimematos6457]

Thank you for this video, it was such a nostalgic trip back in time! It was such good times as a kid and I actually never played any more HP games after this, so it would be awesome if you could do the same for more recent titles and compare how they changed? ALso I spent so many hours on the quidditch game of the first game, it was amazing, I'm surprised there was never a multiplayer version of that :D

[@constantinentakos2907]

Love seeing this these games were so much fun growing up, personal favorite was prisoner of Azkaban but interesting hearing your points on the game! Great vid!

[@NieOrginalny]

Yoooooooo It's been so long since I played these games Let's see how they hold up outside nostalgia

[@taepyeoon8245]

The triology blew my mind as a kid. I don't know, it looked so amazing to me on my CRT monitor. Then I had a lot of fun with chamber of secrets on the PS2. I think these are solid games, especially since they're movie adaptations.

[@deadchannel8965]

6:15 AH AH AH You thought you could get away with hiding Jeremy Soule from me!?

[@nachoguy5]

Some locked away childhood memories up in here. Wow. I played the PC version of of Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets before getting Azkaban on the Gamecube

[@Lestat13TheVampire]

Censoring Jeremy Soule's name seems like an unexpected move given some of the other videos I've seen. Will you talk about the music in Oblivion without talking about him, or maybe not talk about the music? Or was it just because you were saying to "pick a name on this list" as if they were all faceless but obviously he is not? Maybe I'm the only one who cares since I didn't see any similar comments, but I thought to ask.

[@Patrician]

His name was hurting my point because everyone was laser focusing on that and commenting on it, instead of anyone else. He wasn't blurred out in the original video and I still mention him at the end.

[@chezlonian]

I didn't realize I missed these games until this video

[@louisac8160]

i LOVED the quidditch games in the first HP computer game; I used to play that every Sunday morning!! All the flipendo clips really brought me back, too. AHH I wish I knew the programming hacks to be able to play the game again because I still have the original disc!

[@MightyMattTM]

My nostalgia hits hard for the 2nd game on the GameCube. I fondly remember riding on the Nimbus 2000 when you finally get it around the entirety of Hogwarts grounds. It was amazing. I never finished the game though. I was too busy imagining being Harry while riding on that virtual broom. In fact I remember it so fondly that I recently emulated it on my PC in Dolphin and it still was fun at age 28.

[@Papciopolak]

I didn't know I'm nostalgic for these games until I've heard the music tracks. It's Jeremy Soule's work, right? Incredible!

[@andrewpf91]

Year one troll on ps bent me over.

[@tomatosoupe4271]

Around 4:45 you asked for the inspiration of the "Crab that shoots fire out of its ass", its likely Hagrid's own invention, the Blast Ended Skrewt.

[@georgeoldsterd8994]

Concerning your question about being required to know a spell to be able to complete another spell's challenge: there's actually an npc student in the Lumos challenge that says they've been lost in the area for days. xD

[@xXfzmusicXx]

What's with the blurred name in the credits for the first game you show at 5:35

[@ReallyCoolGuy6969]

Also curious...

[@steveman9668]

I hope Hogwarts Legacy ends up being Bully but with magic. It probably won't, but we can dream.

[@Hip_Mozart]

Actually, you CAN cancel carpe retractum mid flight. There is actually one part of the level where there are several pylons in a large room and if you time it right you can spider-man between them if you cancel the spell midflight. Or you can jump and cast the spell while falling, and then you cancel it while you are being retracted and you get flung all the way to the ceiling.