Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a mobile app made by Jam City in 2018 (and still getting frequent updates in 2023). It takes place in the Harry Potter universe and focuses on a Hogwarts student created by the player attending Hogwarts during the seven years before Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts. The Beyond Hogwarts expansion takes place simultaneously with the Harry Potter series.

During the character's time at Hogwarts, they dedicate much of their time to finding the mysterious Cursed Vaults in order to find their missing brother Jacob and save Hogwarts from the curses of these Vaults.

This game contains examples of

• A Dog Named "Dog": The Magical Creatures are this by default, but can be renamed.
  • Barnaby's pet Knarl is named "Knarl".
• Alpha Bitch: Emily Tyler.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Some sidequests, reaching maximum level friendship with most characters and many of the events in the game give the player new clothes. Most of these are not acknowledged in-universe.
• And Your Reward Is Interior Decorating: Although rarer than clothes, furniture items are sometimes also included as event rewards. Certain Time-Limited Side Quests also give items which are placed in the dorm room. Earning Club XP also unlocks furniture for the Secret Clubhouse. However, all pieces of furniture have a fixed location and cannot be moved.
• Animorphism: The player character can become an Animagus in the time-limited Become an Animagus achievement quest. Talbott Winger and Minerva McGonagall are also Animagi (although the latter is never actually shown transforming in-game).
• Ascended Extra: Charlie Weasley, who barely appears in Harry Potter, has a much more notable role in Hogwarts Mystery.
• Ascended Fanon: The term "Cruppy" referring to Crup puppies originates from fanon, and has been used in the game. Although it is still made unclear whether this is an official term is questioned in-game, and the term "Crup puppy" is used more frequently.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three female love interests in First Date are Penny Haywood (blonde), Merula Snyde (brunette) and Tulip Karasu (redhead).
• Broken Streak: Until the final match of Quidditch Season 1, Ravenclaw/Slytherin has not lost a single match since Rath joined the team. The streak may or may not break depending on how well the player does in the final Chapter of Quidditch Season 1. If the player loses, the streak is broken at the beginning of Season 2.
• Call Forward: To the Harry Potter books.
• Character Customization: The gender, appearance, name and Hogwarts house of the main character are chosen by the player.
• Character Level: An XP based level exists, but is almost meaningless in terms of gameplay other than the occasional extra energy from reaching a new level. Some clothing items are level locked, but all level-locked clothes are still unlocked fairly early in the game. Since the player cannot see the amount of XP they have and need for the next level, the timing of level ups is often unpredictable.
  • There is also a Magizoologist level, which increases by gaining Magizoologist XP (can only be gained by taking care of creatures). Reaching higher levels unlocks more possible creatures to buy.
  • There are also three separate Club levels, each increasing by collecting its respective Club XP. Reaching higher levels leads to more objects appearing in the clubhouse and for each club, a time-limited side quest activates when level 5 is reached.
• Christmas Episode: The achievements Christmas at Hogwarts (Year 1/2018), Christmas at the Burrow (Year 2/2019), The Gift of Gratitude (Year 3/2020), Holidays at Hogwarts (Year 2/2021) and Hagrid's Holiday (Year 2/2022). Oddly enough, three of them are supposedly set in the same year, despite the content of the quests contradicting this.
• Cosmetic Award: The events (Crest Events, House Pride, Full Marks, Clean Sweep, Club Constellation, Puzzling Potions, Magical Milestones) give clothes, pet skins and furniture which do not affect the plot in any way.
• Doomed by Canon: Any character who dies in the Harry Potter books is guaranteed to survive Hogwarts Mystery (or at least the initial seven years), due to its nature as a Prequel. Said characters include Nymphadora Tonks, Cedric Diggory, Fred Weasley, Dobby, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Quirinus Quirrell, Peter Pettigrew, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, Remus Lupin, Amelia Bones and Bathilda Bagshot.
• Double Unlock: No reveal variation 2. In order to become friends with Talbott, the player must complete the Birds Of A Feather achievement. But before the player can get that achievement quest, they must first complete Become an Animagus. Both also require progressing to specific chapters in the story.
  • Talbott's friendship reward could be a more straightforward variation of this, as the friends list only shows the friendship reward after the character is unlocked. Same with Chiara and Dobby, whose friendships require completing the Packmates and Meet the Malfoys achievements, respectively.
• Everyone Is Bi: Every dating option is available in the dating quests and for the romance feature, regardless of the player character's gender.
• Evil Redhead: Patricia Rakepick.
• Flying Broomstick: Most prominently in the Flying classes and Quidditch storyline.
• Friendly Target: 'R' is threatening to kill one of the main character's friends starting in Year 5. They initially fail in Year 5, but succeed in Year 6 after Patricia Rakepick murders Rowan Khanna with the Killing Curse.
• Giant Spider: The Acromantula who guards the Forest Vault and one in the Magical Creatures Reserve.
• Golden Snitch: In the All-Wizard Tournament, the winner of the final task gets 500 points, which is more than the combined total of the first and second tasks, worth 100 and 300 points, respectively.
  • The Trope Namer itself appears in the game, but has not been used in a way that fits the trope.
• Halloween Episode: The achievements Howling Hallowe'en (Year 1/2018), Duelling Deathday Parties (Year 2/2020), Secrets of Godric's Hollow (Year 3/2021) and The Tale of Pumpkin Johnny (Year 3/2022). Packmates was also released around Halloween in 2019 and features Chiara (who was initially introduced in Howling Hallowe'en) but other than one line by Ben, the quest is not connected to Halloween and can be activated at any time of the year.
• Holiday Mode: In October and December, Hogwarts is decorated for Halloween and Christmas, respectively, regardless of what time of the year it is supposed to be at the current point of the story. However, this is caused by updates, rather than the calendar on the device. Summer decorations have also been present since 2022.
• Instant Expert: The player character, who has never even watched a Quidditch match before, suddenly becomes talented enough of a Chaser to make it on the Quidditch team.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Rubeus Hagrid, who is in his 50s-60s, is on the friends list.
• An Interior Designer Is You: The player can choose which furniture to place in their dorm room (flat in Beyond Hogwarts) and the Secret Clubhouse, though each furniture type can only be placed in fixed locations and only the latter has multiple spots available for furniture of the same type.
• Irrelevant Sidequest: Many of the sidequests in the game are irrelevant to the main story, and often seem out of place with how light-hearted the sidequests tend to be compared to the main story.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: One of the more unnatural hair color options (dark blue) does this sometimes, becoming more green or purple at times.
• Kid Hero: The protagonist is eleven at the beginning of the game, and is already involved in saving the school from the Cursed Vaults by the end of their first year.
• Level Scaling: Done in some side quests to prevent fully up to date players from being ridiculously overpowered while still keeping activities doable for lower level players.
• Limited Wardrobe: Every character except the player character, whose outfit can be changed at any point. Most characters only have one outfits, and named students are usually seen wearing either their distinct outfit or standard robes, and Quidditch characters can also be seen in Quidditch gear. Exceptions to this happen in the dating related quests, where each of the date options have their distinct outfits for the date (except Tulip in First Date).
• Magic Wand: As with all Harry Potter material, wands are present in Hogwarts Mystery as well.
• Man in White: Kazuhiro Shiratori, a villain.
• Match Maker Quest: In Crushed, the player character helps Ismelda confess her feelings to Barnaby. It doesn't work out.
• Money for Nothing: The coins were considered this by many active players until the Duelling Club and Quidditch Friendlies were added. Although there were still a few activities which cost coins (mainly the friendship activities, which refresh regularly), players kept reaching the maximum coin count of 50,000 and complaints were frequent. This quickly changed with the infamous Duelling Side Quests.
• More Friends More Benefits: Every character in the romance feature gives rewards for reaching a new level, so to maximize rewards, the player has to date all eight.
• Multiple-Tailed Beast: The Crup and Crup puppy.
• Never Trust a Title/Spotlight-Stealing Title: Besides a few mentions, Harry Potter himself does not appear in the game.
• Nominal Importance: Most of the interactable background characters are simply given generic descriptions such as "Slytherin Student". Even the Quidditch teammates (excluding Skye, Orion, and Bean starting in Quidditch Season 2) are simply called by their Quidditch position rather than a name. The exception is the leaderboard, where the non-notable characters are given randomized names, but these are not the same as the Hogwarts student NPCs. A few generic-looking NPCs are named, but they tend to have a somewhat major role in one sidequest.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Face Paint Kid"
• Opposing Sports Team: The Ravenclaw (or Slytherin) Quidditch team in Quidditch Season 1.
• Play Every Day: The Daily Planner, with three tasks each giving a reward and one reward for completing all three. Whether or not the rewards are actually worth it varies. There is also a Daily Planner Stamp Card, where getting the biggest reward requires the player to complete at least one Daily Planner task on 12 out of 14 days. The Charisma level (which increases the amount of friendship and romance XP earned from interactions) is also based on consecutive days of opening the game, reaching its maximum value at seven days and resetting if the player misses a day.
  • Energy accumulates over time (one energy every four minutes) and caps at a certain value which increases as the game advances (starting at 24 and becoming 53 by Year 7 Chapter 43).
• Poltergeist: Peeves.
• Romance Sidequest: After reaching level 7 romance with a specific character, there is a side quest which ends with the character asking the player character to be their girlfriend/boyfriend. Choosing yes makes the player character go exclusive with that character, after which they are the only character available for dates.
• School Play: The An Enchanted Kiss quest involves the characters preparing for one. This eventually go wrong, but the player character does not give up and performs the play in Hogsmeade as the sole actor.
• Sidequest
• Stat Grinding: The three attribute types (Courage, Empathy, Knowledge). Each attribute can be gained from specific classes, and there are also multiple other (often less predictable/reliable) ways to earn them.
• Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors: The Duelling works with a rock-paper-scissors mechanic, where Aggressive beats Sneaky, Sneaky beats Defensive and Defensive beats Aggressive. Became less important following the updated mechanic, where the chosen tactic only determines who attacks first (but ties still prevent attacking).
• Taken for Granite: The statue curse in Year 6 does this to its victims.
• Teens Are Short: There is quite a notable height difference between the adults and the students. After the player character and their friends graduate, they also suddenly grow after being the same height for seven years.
• The Unfavourite: Ismelda Murk to her parents, who gave much more attention to her older sister, as revealed in the Year 5 side quest "Crushed".
• Valentine's Day Episodes: The achievement quests Valentine's Day (2020), Valentine's Day Ball (2021), A Ticket to Love (2022) and The Valentine's Day Masquerade (2023), though unlike the Christmas quests, they can be activated at any time of the year (though all were added in February) and serve as dating quests. Oddly enough, all of them are placed in Year 5 in the achievement section despite the quests clearly taking place in different years.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Plenty of opportunities to do so. Making friends usually requires you to show some care for them.
  • The player has the option of inviting Filch and Mrs. Norris to Hagrid's pet gathering. If you do, once they show up, you get to see a rare smile out of Filch as he admits "We don't get invited to many parties" and thanks the player character for inviting them.
  • The player is also given multiple opportunities to be nice to Merula, despite her bullying and mean-spirited tendencies.
  • The player gets to take care of and adopt Magical Creatures.
• Werewolf Theme Naming: Chiara Lobosca, from lobo. Remus Lupin and Fenrir Greyback appear as well.
• Wham! Episode: Year 6, Chapter 18 - "Into the Forest". Rowan Khanna dies.
• Wizarding School: Almost the entirety of the game is set at Hogwarts.
• You All Look Familiar: The unnamed background characters reuse the same models, with different versions of the model for each Hogwarts house. Even some named minor characters, such as Pippa Macmillan and Eliza, use these models.