Is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery P2W?

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery? What is this? Well its was released recently, as of April 25, 2018.
It's a game that receives some heated debate. People seem to be devoted to this game due to it's name and support it. Vast majority I presume, going off the reviews. It's a tactic many popular games use to survive and keep on going despite negative feedback.

What's the number one thing this game seems to have? Slow stamina recovery. Now I'm not in a position to question the stamina recovery duration that's optimal, but I can speak about how it is a whale. I don't care for it at all. Who it punishes? Those with little or no money into the game. There are certain game models that slow stamina recovery doesn't impede upon and rather helps you, but this isn't one of those games. Why this model of stamina recovery doesn't bother this game's ratings, is very likely due to nostalgia and the audience. Those like me who grew up with Harry Potter, are now all adults. We are in our 20's to our 40's. We do have money to burn. Why not burn it on something that we grew up with? Currently on Android store, this game is #57 as of June 10, 2018. I'll talk about how the "Top free grossing app" charts work at another time, but with such a status, this game shows there are some dedicated people paying their way on it.

I'm amazed that these are the 1st reviews I see on IOS store. A smaller bracket of reviewers, but it seems much more friendlier on here.


 Without much further talk from me, I will post a review from my good reviewer, Joeyxxa. This game was a change of pace for him, but I gave a chance for this to happen, so I did. Please read and give your thoughts to this post.

Story of game moves very slow unless you pay to gain more energy, otherwise you have to wait for a long time.



The cap for energy is at 24 at the beginning of the game. It can only be increased through certain milestones of the story, specifically completing broom activities. So far, I have only gained 3 extra to the CAP.





Energy recharges by 1 every four minutes, meaning a total of 96 minutes is required for a full recharge of energy(24 energy).



Some story activities are under a set time limit, and must be completed in that specific time, such as 2 hours or so. If not, then the activity fails and you must redo it. These activities require energy. A story activity could most likely be done under that time, but it would require the user to come back 30 minutes or so later to finish it off. If they forget for an hour or two, then they must redo the entire activity. Though some story activities are 8 hours. But even so, you’ll very much need more than 50 energy for an 8 hour activity, meaning you’ll need to check it every few hours. (Some people just don’t have time for that)



If you fail a story activity, you can pay crystals to give you another hour. Only 1 hour. Different activities simply end and you cannot get more time.



Accessories and different costumes cost a ton of money, or even diamonds. So much that it would take hours upon hours of grinding, unless of course you just buy it with real money. The few things that don’t cost as much look generic.




Every level up, you can choose to get 100 coins, 1 diamond, or 1 energy. But sometimes there are different options, such as House Points for the Harry Potter Faction System. Sometimes even skill points. But those aren’t what we’re talking about here. The amount of coins/diamond you can get from level ups are very low, almost as if urging you to buy since it will take too long.



When you run out of energy, the message comes up in front of your screen, reading as, “1 point of energy recharges every 4 minutes. Wait for your energy to recharge or buy 30 more now!” And the options are ‘I’ll wait’ or of course, to use 55 Diamonds. The entirety of this feels almost manipulative, especially if it were for children.




For the scene Escape The Devil’s Snare, a message appears on your screen, even if you have energy, read as, “If you run out of energy, don’t worry - you can either buy more or wait for it to recharge.” It was quite uncalled for, and kind of just barged itself onto me. The task needed to be finished in 8 hours, which is more than enough time. But of course, that’s if the user even wants to wait for an hour for his energy to recharge. He might forget, or he may be impatient and buy more. I was only able to complete because I leveled up mid way, which recharged my energy.




The amount of energy used to escape The Devil’s Snare was high. Almost as if calculated to drain the capped 24 energy. (Of course, these aren’t as relevant to the P2W aspect, but it is notable how obvious they want you to pay. It’s like a dog with a bone!)



There is no multiplayer as far as I know. (May 21)



Some story activities are locked at a certain time limit. This mostly happens when you reach a milestone in the chapter, which is very common. You must wait for the timer to end, or you can pay diamonds and resume playing. That is, if you have energy to keep going afterwards. (If not, then just buy more.)




The amount gained from buying money/diamond/energy seems pretty formulaic to App Store games. The amount that can be bought goes higher, up to 100$, but I think we all get the gist. On another note, a good in-game cosmetic would cost about 10$ or more. And to restore your energy, it always asks for the 55 diamond option, which would be about 2$




I’ve realized now that sometimes when you accomplish a long mactivity, upon completion, you can choose a good amount of skill increase, or even 1000 coins. It feels generous, but still takes a long time to get. Not sure how to feel about it. So far, there’s no big reward for diamonds. The biggest I’ve seen for a Diamond is 6.





And that seems to be it. I’ve reviewed the game on its pay to win perspective, and it seems very much influenced by money, although it’s mostly single player. The only thing in terms of multiplayer, that I’ve seen, is the leaderboards. (Or, at least I think it’s multiplayer) The House with the most Points wins 100 crystals. This can be easily taken advantage of if one of the players pays money and does a ton of quests. The game certainly feels like its trying to get money out of you.


(NEVERMIND, I just checked. It’s NOT online. It’s just A.I.)

(I know because I haven’t played for 3 days, and nothing on the leaderboard has nudged a single bit.)

Leaderboards:

I didn’t pay, but I’m still winning.

This is one of those games I would had love myself, if it wasn't in it's first year, but it's not. The earlier game apps from long ago had similar models, long stamina and frequent reminders of stamina. Not many games have it now because they are generous and had whales to drastically drop the pricing. As for this game, we will just have to wait till this game isn't so much money grabbing. Really, the 1st wave of players are always the one who suffers the most. It may not be pay to win, but it sure as hell not ashamed of itself to scrounge every coin you have. I will have to rate this game an 80 out of 100 for how P2W it is.