Another impressive jump in quality from its previous iteration, this PS1 version of a Harry Potter adventure takes its best qualities from the PC version of Sorcerer's Stone. The exploration is so much more satisfying when going through a bookcase doesn't always lead to a bad minigame (though there is a football one here, just once, and it's truly awful), but instead to an entirely new, cool, mysterious and untouched section of a castle that you have to maneuver around instead. Some of these sections even require you to return once you obtained a necessary spell! Don't get me wrong, the castle is still small, but the game is short enough that every one of those areas felt like an entire new level.
Another bonus is the atmosphere. While the game is probably the campiest one yet, with its abundance of wacky sections (being chased by cupids, running after Ron as he pukes slugs, catching said slugs in Fang's bowl and much, much more) these larger secret areas create a much better sense of space and counterbalance it with the moments of calm exploration; the music, which is much more prominent here by the way, establishes the same balance between the joyful and the mysterious as the aforementioned PC game. There's a lot of reused assets (the funny character models work much better here though), but the focus on all the new content is strong enough that it becomes basically meaningless.
Few things hold it back. First is the fact that the main collectible—the beans—are absolutely useless. There's still a nice little sound when you pick them up and getting to the areas is satisfying, but you need a total of 250 beans to get all the cards they can buy you. I had around 400 by the time I got to the point where I could buy them, an hour into the game. I was reaching around 700 by the time I was done. It's just a bit too nonsensical, and really makes the levels that much less fun to explore, knowing that there's very little reason to aside from the obvious secrets where the wizard cards will be.
The other big thing for me is a very underwhelming finale. I didn't play this video game with all these new things popping at me every other second only for the final section to be a super basic rethread of everything up to this point. It starts with an awful slide section, then there's an overlong duel with Lockhart, during which I believe he can only knock you out with a specific, easy to dodge spell. After that there's three rooms with basic mechanics seen throughout the game, and finally, one of the worst boss battles in video gaming history. You hit The Basilisk in its open mouth with a charged up spell as it spits acid on the floor, and then you draw the sword and... deal 3 times less damage to it, having to work through the poor controls for any bit of damage by reflecting a beam back at its tooth of all places, which has a very wonky hitbox. It's the worst ending to any of these games so far.
With those things out the way, while they do sour me on the game a little bit, the rest was really fun. This is what I wanted out of the previous PS1 game, it just makes a much better use of the console it's on, and as such genuinely stands on its own merits.
Another bonus is the atmosphere. While the game is probably the campiest one yet, with its abundance of wacky sections (being chased by cupids, running after Ron as he pukes slugs, catching said slugs in Fang's bowl and much, much more) these larger secret areas create a much better sense of space and counterbalance it with the moments of calm exploration; the music, which is much more prominent here by the way, establishes the same balance between the joyful and the mysterious as the aforementioned PC game. There's a lot of reused assets (the funny character models work much better here though), but the focus on all the new content is strong enough that it becomes basically meaningless.
Few things hold it back. First is the fact that the main collectible—the beans—are absolutely useless. There's still a nice little sound when you pick them up and getting to the areas is satisfying, but you need a total of 250 beans to get all the cards they can buy you. I had around 400 by the time I got to the point where I could buy them, an hour into the game. I was reaching around 700 by the time I was done. It's just a bit too nonsensical, and really makes the levels that much less fun to explore, knowing that there's very little reason to aside from the obvious secrets where the wizard cards will be.
The other big thing for me is a very underwhelming finale. I didn't play this video game with all these new things popping at me every other second only for the final section to be a super basic rethread of everything up to this point. It starts with an awful slide section, then there's an overlong duel with Lockhart, during which I believe he can only knock you out with a specific, easy to dodge spell. After that there's three rooms with basic mechanics seen throughout the game, and finally, one of the worst boss battles in video gaming history. You hit The Basilisk in its open mouth with a charged up spell as it spits acid on the floor, and then you draw the sword and... deal 3 times less damage to it, having to work through the poor controls for any bit of damage by reflecting a beam back at its tooth of all places, which has a very wonky hitbox. It's the worst ending to any of these games so far.
With those things out the way, while they do sour me on the game a little bit, the rest was really fun. This is what I wanted out of the previous PS1 game, it just makes a much better use of the console it's on, and as such genuinely stands on its own merits.