Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a game allowing Harry Potter fans to live out their long-awaited fantasy of going to Hogwarts and being a student. However, the game failed to rise to expectations because of its obvious money-grabbing techniques.

There was a lot of excitement for Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery before it came out. The trailers for it made it seem like it was going to be a RPG, or roleplaying game, that allowed fans to live out their dreams. The game promised the full Hogwarts experience complete with the classes, characters from the book and a customizable character.

While it did deliver in its promises, like so many mobile games on the market many of its features are only accessible with the use of gems. These gems, purchased with real money, allows the player to buy clothing, hair styles and accessories. The gems also can be used to replenish energy.

In all the tasks, like classes, the character uses small amounts of energy for different activities. Eventually, enough of the completed tasks allows the character to earn a star and progress in the class. There are varying time limits and varying numbers of stars needed to complete a task.

This is a very common in mobile RPGs, but Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery starts the player off with a limit of 24 points of energy and a replenish time of four minutes. To regain full energy at the beginning takes over an hour.

While it’s understandable that the creators have to get money, the energy is frustrating even for RPGs. The amount of energy needed to complete tasks makes it hard for a player to get drawn into the game because the energy goes down fast. Even with a 27 energy limit, a player can use the full amount up in a single class in 10 minutes at most.

When the player isn’t in class, there’s usually a task that they can do. These quests or side quests usually have waiting periods for up to eight hours. This can be frustrating when there’s nothing for the player to do but wait for the clock to tick down so that they can move on in the story. If the player wants to stop waiting, they can use gems.

Though the graphics for the game are great, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery isn’t enjoyable for players. It’s a free-to-play game that doesn’t have ads every few minutes, which is a nice rarity, but the lacking energy system practically forces gems to be bought if the player wants to experience the game longer than a few minutes.