Retro Review - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS1)

over 3 years ago

For quite some time now I've wanted to play the PS1 Harry Potter games again out of simple nostalgia, as I remember them quite fondly, but nostalgia is such a strong feeling that it makes you believe that some things are better than they really are and over time, I've seen how those games were never what I thought. Today are some video games from which they can get hundreds of memes, due to many aspects and situations of the game, that's why to break once with the mental image that had the first Harry Potter game for PS1, I decided to play it again and the result was = MEMES.

Today's Retro Review is about: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS1).

Before telling the story of this game, I'm going to recount something I had previously written in a post (I don't remember exactly which one), but the first Harry Potter game for PS1, was the first game I had for PS1 along with the X-Men: Mutant Academy 2, and at that time I liked the movies of the orphan magician very much, so a "semi open world" game in which we could go through some of the Hogwarts locations was a dream come true, I remember I spent hours investigating and trying to find secrets, they were very good times, but something happened: Adulthood.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone largely follows the events of both the first book and the first movie, but with many variations to make its adaptation to video games fun. The game changes and removes several events from the story (logically, because they weren't going to adapt the whole book), but basically the plot is similar. The game starts with a sequence that I always liked, and in fact, when I played it again I continued to like it, since the introduction is a kind of comic in which the facts are told and the artistic style they used in this drawing is quite good. I think everyone already knows the story of Harry Potter, but in short, it is about an orphan boy, who is adopted by his uncle and aunt who abuse him, one day he discovers that he is a wizard thanks to a semi-giant who does not cut his hair and who uses a flying motorcycle, then they send him to the "best" school and magic and sorcery where they will be with another group of children with almost unlimited powers. And during all the years things of high danger always happen. I'm sure more children have died than history really tells us. Just imagine: such a big school, with children and those children have powers, there are creatures of all kinds, a forbidden floor where there are many more dangers, but still it is the best school in the whole magic world.

The graphics of this game can cause you two things: fear for the faces of the characters, which are horrible, terrifying, deformed, strange, some characters seem to have had some car accident that disfigured their face, especially the face of Ron Wesley. On the other hand, it can also make you laugh a lot, because of what I mentioned before, and it's that this Harry Potter game is a meme festival, seriously, for each character that is presented you can make a meme, the truth, I don't understand how someone came up with the idea of making a video game like this, but in a way I appreciate it, because I laughed too much playing again and seeing those strange faces that the characters have. None of them are saved, they all have weird faces and strange movements.

With regard to other graphic aspects, such as the scenarios, I think that despite the limitations that the developers had with this game, they did a great job in recreating, to some extent, the castle and its surroundings, in fact, despite the years that have passed, and the above, this Harry Potter game has relatively large scenarios and some even quite original. Although as happens with many things, I remembered that the scenarios were huge, even as a child I got lost in the scenarios because of this, being older, I realized that they are really quite small, but still, are quite good and that although they are not as big as I remembered, have a good size and as I said before, manages to recreate very decently the castle and its surroundings.

Without any doubt the best aspect of the game, the music of this title is wonderful, it transmits the same as the melodies of the film, that is: magic, fantasy, mystery, suspense, joy. The feelings that the soundtrack of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone manages to transmit are very varied, because the nostalgia that I managed to feel when listening to the melody of the introduction was so great that it made me remember those afternoons when I played, in fact, I also remember that in those times. In short: The music is great from start to finish. On the other hand: the voices. I played it in Spanish (Español de España) and once again, I was very happy to hear it again today, that is, it is a good job of performing voices, in most cases, in fact, it is quite good, but there are certain translation errors that to this day I still don't understand why they did it this way.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone OST Playlist

FLIPENDO FOR EVERYONE! Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is a game of platforms, adventures, exploration, puzzles. I remember the first time I played this title and I was quite impressed with everything I saw. At the beginning, after the introduction, we see Harry at the main entrance of the school and then a slightly deformed Dumbledore appears welcoming us and explaining certain things to us. After that we have to go at our own pace and discover the magic of this magical world.

Being quite realistic, this Harry Potter game is not a wonder, in fact, the nostalgia factor makes it look better than it is, but once you play it after so many years you realize how many mistakes it has and how short it is. I remember that in those years, I didn't have a Memory Card, so I had to play the game again from the beginning every day (a real torment); but I still had fun. In this game the exploration is primordial, since in certain places there will be hidden walls where we will be able to obtain collectibles, or items that later we will be able to exchange for these collectibles. In fact, after several years, I discovered 2 secrets that I didn't know were in the game, one of them is a better broom to be able to play Quidditch and some gloves that give us better protection against projectiles in Quidditch games. I don't know if there are more secrets, but at least these last two I just mentioned, I never discovered them until now.

We will be able to collect different types of "Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans", which we will be able to exchange with the Wesley brothers and they will give us "Chocolate Frog Card" of famous wizards and witches, they are few, I believe that 17 in total. But they are interesting because each card has a small description of the character in question.

The Quidditch games are quite boring and monotonous, consist of chasing the Golden Snitch and this released giant rings of magic (perhaps), which we must cross, once we have crossed enough is filled a bar, and the game mode changed a little, as now we must catch the Golden Snitch, as boring as possible. When I was little I liked this mini-game, but now I realize that it is too monotonous.

Without a doubt, the worst part of this game is going to Gringotts to look for money, since not only must we do a series of tasks in a bank where the floor is too slippery, to a frustrating point, but before the mini-game in which we have to collect the coins, we are forced to run across that slippery floor to get some scrolls. So in order to get YOUR MONEY out, you have to do all sorts of tasks. But the worst comes after this part, because after you have overcome THREE TIMES, the challenge of getting the scrolls on the slippery floor, we must mount a kind of death swing fused with some air train tracks, in which we must collect the coins, in total we must get enough coins to fill 3 bars and during that journey of deadly speed, there are several obstacles that only make you more frustrated. But as if that wasn't enough, we must do that fucking mini-game TWICE MORE. That is, in order to be able to take out YOUR MONEY, in that bank, you must have an excellent physical capacity, and a professional driving level, because if not, you will run out of money. To this day I still don't understand why the developers made this mini-game so difficult, because even with my current age I found it difficult to complete this part. And this game was supposed to be for children? Still, I can't deny that I had fun playing this game again, and despite this bad moment, it was quite rewarding to remember good times.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (PS1), one can say that it manages to fulfill very decently the interpretation of this mythical school of magic and for a child of that time, this was an incredible game. With its certain logical changes in the story, although with a plot in general quite accurate to the original story, it is still an adaptation to video games that fulfills (although there are certain things very random) however, something I liked about this game and it is something they didn't do in the movies, is that they included the character of the ghost Pevees, so Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for PS1, in this aspect, has an additional point with respect to the movie.