Harry Potter: Magic Awakened was released in 2021 in China and is a mobile MMORPG for Android and iOS. But those who want to click away annoyed already, should take their time. Because in the first reviews, the game is surprisingly well received. It also includes many elements that fans missed in Hogwarts Legacy.
What kind of game is this exactly? In Magic Awakened, you create a character and visit the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry about 10 years after the books. You start together with Hagrid in the famous Diagon Alley to gather all the important equipment.
As a first-year student, you then participate in the typical house sorting ritual (you can influence the outcome yourself) and meet well-known teachers like Minerva McGonagall, who is now the headmistress, or Filius Flitwick.
You can explore the castle completely freely and continuously encounter other players who are also roaming around. This makes the school experience much more lively than in many other “Harry Potter” games. Additionally, you frequently stumble upon dangers during your explorations, such as a troll that you must then fight.
- The combat system is turn-based, and your positioning plays an important role.
- You collect over 70 different cards during gameplay, through which you learn new spells or upgrade old ones.
- In general, you follow a main campaign but can also complete side quests. This includes dancing at a festival. There is also the Forbidden Forest, a kind of roguelike dungeon. You can enter this alone or with up to 10 players.
- There is an alchemy system through which you can brew potions.
- There are PvP duels in 1v1 or 2v2 against other players.
- You can even participate in a mini-game of Quidditch – a feature that was removed from Hogwarts Legacy.
- The entire gaming experience is voiced in English and features German texts and subtitles.
The game was developed by NetEase in collaboration with Warner Bros. Games. It was supposed to be released here in 2022, but the release was delayed. Since June, you can play it for free.
Good game, despite gacha system and story flaws
How is the game received? Surprisingly well. The website Android Police headlines in their review: “No joke, it’s really good” and praises especially the large fan service. Everywhere there are references to the books, as a fan you know every spell, and it is clear that the game was indeed made by fans for fans.
However, there are also isolated criticisms. The story is said to be very strongly trimmed towards Harry Potter himself, for example with Hagrid’s initial visit or the fight against the troll. Therefore, one should not be too picky with the lore.
Further criticism is directed at the gacha system. You can buy many spells through a random loot box. This could have negative effects on the PvP duels. However, it is not clear how significant the influence on the endgame is.
Other testers were also positively surprised by Magic Awakened. The YouTuber dagilp_lbh started a Let’s Play of it, titled THIS GAME is SO MUCH BETTER than expected!
The French website Jeuxvideo rated the game with 75/100 in their test.
What do player reviews say? Harry Potter: Magic Awakened can be downloaded for free from the Play Store or the App Store. There, some players have already given their ratings:
- In the Play Store, the game has a score of 4.4 stars with over 46,000 reviews and more than one million downloads.
- In the App Store, it even reaches 4.7 stars with only 129 ratings.
I myself have only played for about 30 minutes so far, but those were very entertaining.
Have you had any experience with the new Harry Potter
-MMORPG yet? Or are you generally put off by mobile games?
We’ve gathered the best mobile MMORPGs for you here: The 10 best mobile MMORPGs 2023 for iOS and Android.
