The masterpieces of Harry Potter games include the game “Prisoner of Azkaban” for PlayStation2 (GameCube / XBOX).
Retro games… For many, the first Harry Potter games on consoles remained unplayed and even completely unfamiliar.
Nevertheless, these games exist, they are in demand, and our site would like to return them to all fans of Harry Potter games.
A little grumbling
The game did not reach the Russian user on the same scale as, for example, the computer version of the same game. In the mid-2000s, consoles were not yet so common, they are not affordable for children. And now they have already been pushed aside by new types of media devices, the PS2 has been discontinued altogether, and the discs themselves are simply not available. There was a discrepancy – the games are a thing of the past, and the “Harry Potter” brand, as it was, has remained.
The game has not been officially translated into Russian. Licensed discs – only with Russian documentation.
However, the Russian version of the game was released by domestic producers on DVD. To call them by their proper names, these are pirated discs that run only on chiped (hacked) consoles capable of scrolling DVDs. They will not be read on the original ones. Russian Russian localization was the only sound translation of the game, there was a menu in Russian and a subscript translation. The translation, of course, is pirated, but this is quite enough to get your bearings.
Running the game on a computer is only possible using the GameCube Emulator (this version is identical to the PS2).
See the article Harry Potter for GameCube on Dolphin Emulator
In the opinion of an amateur
We begin, as in the computer version, with reading the press, the Scabbers escape, a monstrous book about monsters and a dementor attack on a train. Hogwarts Express, as it turned out, had a dining car for more affluent students, and Malfoy meets us there. By tradition, Harry loses consciousness, Hermione runs away somewhere, and Ron gets to defend himself alone from the dementor. Ron’s task this time is to drag Harry’s body through all the carriages.This dragging of another character, dragging him along the ground, will be repeated more than once during the game. Having driven away the dementor, Professor Lupin hands over an Album of monsters (Folio Bruthi). It has only one page – about dementors. The remaining pages will have to be collected during the game. They contain information about how to defeat a particular beast. Without knowledge of this information, sometimes it is difficult, or even impossible. |
 At Hogwarts, we, as always, fall under the care of the Weasley twins in an abandoned toilet. The twins are trying to sell us their magic wreckers.Among the trinkets there are also useful things, up to the Book of Spells. Gemini sells not only in exchange for sweets, but also offers to complete certain tasks so that you can get bonuses for free. It is impossible to understand without translation what they want from us. We need to go to their shop more often, maybe we have already completed our task without noticing it ourselves, and we are entitled to a prize. The marauders’ map has to be extracted by themselves at the beginning of the game, somewhere in the bowels of Hogwarts, the entrance is behind Fred and George’s toilet. |
 We have several spells to learn. Teachers in their lessons send us to some magical space outside the classroom so that we get there Spell books. And only after that the spell is considered studied. If we recall the computer version, then there, on the contrary, we first learned the spell, and then applied it in practice.Getting spells from the Book are magical moments in the game, so to speak, the visualization of magic. This method of obtaining knowledge was also used in previous games. Some books need to be found in Hogwarts itself, without them it will be impossible to advance the plot. |
 Workshops in the game are very dangerous, complex and cumbersome. With a lot of quests and puzzles. A spotlight that needs to be switched and directed to another spotlight, which, in turn, activates a kind of Magic Eye that will spill a puddle on the floor, which should be frozen and turned into a cube, then to drag it up and climb up – this is a very fascinating and obscure process we have to do more than once.Workshops for 1 time, it will be impossible to replay them. But if you forget to take something there, it can always be found in the Hogwarts chests, in the first one, which you will open immediately after the workshop. Unlike the PC version, Lupin and Flitwick somehow switched places. Carpe-retractum is taught by Flitwick, and Glacius is taught by Lupin. And there is no McGonagall’s Dragonforce lesson at all. |
We are waiting for battles with such colorful and little-known monsters from the world of Rowling, as Red Caps, Ghouls and Hinkipanks. And at the end of the workshops – artificially created by teachers iron bosses .
Iron Bosses
Each hero has his own set of spells. There are differences from the PC version. As always, Hermione is doing well, she has the most spells. And the spell Glacius in her performance is just like a fire extinguisher of some kind.
| Comparative table of spells | ||
| PC | Ps2 | |
| Carpe-retractum | Ron | Harry |
| Draconiforce | Hermione | Hermione |
| Glacuis | Harry | Hermione |
| Expecto-patronum | Harry | Harry |
| Flipendo | Harry, Ron, Hermione | |
| Lumos Duo | Ron | |
| Reparo | Hermione | |
You can control all three characters in the game – Harry, Ron and Hermione. Switching between them is similar to how we switched characters in the LEGO Harry Potter games, with a single button. In the computer version of the game “Prisoner of Azkaban” there was no free switching.
Interestingly, there is a girls’ bedroom, where only Hermione can go. Ron and Harry can’t go in there, but Hermione can go into the boys’ bedroom.
Girls’ and boys’ bedrooms
If the levels in the game are very dark and scary, then Hogwarts itself welcomes us very warmly. This is exactly what, in fact, is worth playing this game for.
Hogwarts classes are very recognizable for fans of Harry Potter games – climbing the ladder in DADA’s classroom, running between the desks at Flitwick and even running through the upper gallery at McGonagall is almost everyone’s dream.
In the heart of Hogwarts you can find Muggle Studies Room. This is a kind of museum from the life of Muggles. Muggle toys, musical instruments, sports equipment, vehicles – all this is presented in the form of exhibits. Among other things, we unexpectedly stumble upon real computers and slot machines (outdated models of previous years). Whether they will turn on and work at Hogwarts is a question!
Computers at Hogwarts
Going outside, we will see the outer Hogwarts : painfully familiar and long–lived places for the games “Order of the Phoenix” and “Half-Blood Prince”. All the same locations – from the Stone Circle to the Boathouse, a kind of reverse deja vu of later computer games. However, there is a palpable emptiness around, there is no one else but us. In computer games, these locations are populated with models of students, so they look more fun there.
Boathouse and Viaduct
We have to attend several potions lessons from Professor Snape.
The one, angry, gives the task – to collect ingredients , which will have to work with in the next lesson. It is not difficult to find them on the street, there is a glow from them, visible from afar. But how to assemble them is more difficult. When extracting ingredients, information from the “Folio Bruti” is needed.
Although, for example, seahorses can be caught just like that, on a whim.
Seahorses
In the game you can earn points for your house.
In the Gryffindor living room, they post notices about missing items and where they can be found. If you are using a copy of the game in a foreign language, then without translation it is difficult to search for something without knowing what. The advice is to take everything that is lying around and take it to the board, there they will give 10 points and a new task.
The maximum number of points earned is 500. At the end of the game, the presentation of the school cup awaits.
End of the game
In addition to ingredients, finds and spell books, you can collect several more types of bonuses in the game, among which, of course, there are cards . The card is turned to us with the reverse side, therefore, we have to look for what we found in the album every time, and it’s difficult to navigate there (there was still one drawback in the game!).
For any fully assembled set of cards, additional stamina is given to one of the characters. You can’t buy cards from students, only from Fred and George.
There is always a Dueling Club waiting for us in the Great Hall, hippogriff flights and owl races on the street. Several times in the story you will have to fly with a Buckbeak for a while. There are day and night levels, seasons and weather changes.
In general, there is so much in the game that it is impossible to fit all the nuances and features of the game into a brief overview.
In general, we can say that “Prisoner of Azkaban” in the console version is a masterpiece, which among other games about Harry Potter was not and is unlikely to be ever again.
See also the Guide to the game “Prisoner of Azkaban” for PlayStation 2 in Russian in pdf format :
The page uses graphic and video material from the game “HP and the Prisoner Of Azkaban” для PlayStation2.
All rights to the game belong to the company Electronic Arts Inc.
Author of the review: OOKS.
Video: IraOOKS.