It's actually quite a nice little thing. This is my first Game Boy Color game, and my first JRPG in general (although the genre can only be applied to the game to some extent), and it was quite interesting to play through this version and compare it with the versions on home platforms.

First of all, I love how complete the world is in this version. Hogwarts here is noticeably larger and more intricate compared to the PC and PlayStation versions, where, although it was somewhat open, it was not as much as here. I like that the interior design has its own logic - here is a classroom on the floor, and next to it is the teacher’s office; there is room for a music class or an art class, a Muggle studies class (with even a TV), a bunch of secret passages between floors and various service rooms (and all this is quite useful to check, for example, the best spells can be found in the library, and they are actually very easy to miss). Although this was done partly for the sake of the genre features of the game (you still need places to grind for experience and money, although it is almost optional here), but this is structurally the most interesting Hogwarts of the three versions of adaptations of the first film (or book, which this version is actually closer to). Yes, at first it’s hard to navigate, but towards the end you remember all the stairs and it even becomes quite cozy (which is also helped by good music and visuals, the game looks great).

In addition to the locations, this is also the most complete version of the first year in terms of plot. Which is of course not surprising, mechanically this is the simplest version and it was quite easy to stage all the episodes of the story here. However, this is still enjoyable, I especially like the segment with lessons - each of them represents a small side quest, and almost each has its own interesting small mechanics (and you choose the order in which to complete them). Other episodes are also not bad, although again, due to the genre, the number of similar battles can be tiring (especially at the beginning, when you are also defeated quite often). The only sad thing is that there is no Quidditch at all, which is strange, because there are episodes with flying and somehow they could have thought about adding Quidditch, but apparently the developers didn’t want to or didn’t have time.

Gameplay-wise, this seems to be a simplified version of a JRPG - experience is not deducted for defeats, and by the middle of the game it becomes quite easy, except perhaps for the bosses at the end, in battles with which you need to think (and without skippable spells from the library, it will be very difficult to defeat them). Also here you can buy or find stronger equipment, prepare potions (which you almost never use, but it’s good that there is such an opportunity) and collect a bunch of wizard cards (and even use different combinations in battle, which I almost didn’t do since at the end of the game I still didn’t have any cards for interesting combinations; it seems that for this purpose you can exchange cards with other players through the gameboy connection function).

It’s hard for me to compare this version with others, because it is even more distant in genre, but it's a fun game in its own right. It’s hard to recommend if you can’t stand the monotony of the genre (and I myself played most of the time while listening to a podcast in the background, to be honest), it has a number of strange decisions (like sometimes strange character sprites in dialogues), but overall it’s a good attempt to retell the book in a simple game form, and if you, like me, take the crazy path of going through all the game adaptations of the story about the boy who lived, this sweet, simple version is quite worthy (and probably more worthy of many that will come next) of your attention.

Eh... it’s quite sad and hard to be slightly disappointed in the new work of a team whose work you’ve been following for a long time. Open Roads from the team of the same name (from the former core of Fullbright studio) can hardly be called the next step for the creators of Gone Home and Tacoma, rather a child of its difficult development cycle. And it's really sad.

Well, the story is not bad. It brings you back to Gone Home in the way the game turns a slightly mystical premise into a down-to-earth, everyday ending, which is generally done quite well, but also quite simply. The game perhaps feels too short, and the choice of road trip structure, while fresh, seems to come at the expense of the excellent environmental storytelling skills that the team's previous projects have been known for. There simply aren't large enough locations to develop this skill beyond a very basic level of interaction, and the game as a whole struck me as disappointingly less interactive and detailed than previous works (only in the summer house segment does the story get an acceptably large location and path within it and layout plot-significant objects has at least a little more interesting thought behind the most basic level). However, the two main performances are not bad, the variety of dialogue between the heroines is pleasing (and there even seems to be some choice), and although the story itself does not feel too deep, the good chemistry between the characters lifts this aspect a little.

And at the same time, the hardest thing for me is to formulate my thoughts about a rather important and interesting decision in the visual aspect of the game. Despite (as before for the team) a rather realistic environment, this time the characters are drawn in a 2D style that seems to correspond to comics or animation of the era (and besides this, even in the environment there is a certain touch of “drawnness” that departs from realism (which, however, is not a bad thing at all and allows you to create beautiful background landscapes, especially in the segment with a summer house it is incredibly beautiful)). And if at first it looked rather repulsive and incongruous, then towards the end I came to terms with this stylistic decision a little. I just don't understand why they didn't use the characters themselves somewhere other than dialogue (where they look most unnatural), since in the scene in the car the mother looks pretty good while driving. Well, the characters themselves are drawn quite simply and without any attempt to synchronize speech with their faces, here they simply give out one of a small number of emotions and then seeing a static character while the dialogue is going on is quite sad. What's also sad is the technical part of the game. There is nothing critical here, but a few small moments that obviously could be seen in the very basic playtest (mainly with the mechanics of picking up items) slightly spoil the overall impression (considering that this is a very mechanically simple game and it is very difficult to break anything here). However, it's hard to criticize the game too much for this given its notoriously difficult production history.

So overall, I’m just a little sad that this project is more of a victim of circumstances and in no way a development for this team. I hope that these people will be able to create something more exciting in the future, perhaps separately and in new teams. Because it seems that Open Roads is a thing that needed to be finished and left behind, just as the heroines of this game actually do in their story.

How cheerful and fun it still feels! I'm really surprised how id Software in 1994 not only literally created the genre, but also immediately gave it just a reference lesson in level design, which is the first chapter. In the second and third they start to experiment and the results vary, but it is still very high quality, very easy to understand at first and quite difficult towards the end. Small details like the swinging of weapons when walking, the face of the main character at the bottom of the screen, secrets in levels that often trick you at the same time, or interesting design solutions so easily raise the cult status of this game years later. Did Carmack, Romero and company know that they were creating such a cult project then? I don’t know if there is an exact answer to this question, but I think that they definitely knew that dynamically destroying demons with a lot of blood and a cheerful soundtrack would be a fun experience. And in this they were absolutely right.