While I don't think this format of a game had much of a chance to begin with, this is a significant improvement over the Part 1 game.
You continue to control using primiarily the stylus, but there's even less need to use buttons, with only a shoulder button being necessary to have a fighting chance against some late-game enemies. This control scheme would be awkward even on the DS, and it still is on an emulator. This is the main reason why I think these games were doomed from the start, this gimmicky approach to design has been a plague when it comes to the handheld Harry Potter titles from the fourth movie onward. It feels cheap, and it aged poorly.
There is music in this game! If you were to only read about this game, this might not be a big deal, but Part I only ever had music in very few instances, so its presence is welcome. I'm not going to give it credit for having music for goodness sake, but it is worth noting.
I enjoyed the rather robust cast of playable characters. Aside from the main trio, you get Neville, Seamus, McGonnagal and Flitwick, with all except the last having unique abilities. There are seemingly even more characters available in the multiplayer, even Voldemort, but I am not forcing someone to try it out with me, sorry.
I enjoyed the combat more than the puzzles, however. They're pretty much the same typical bs as almost every other handheld HP game: there's one thing on the screen, click it. Few of them did require slightly more effort, there were BLOCK SLIDING PUZZLES, truly my favorite for sure, but they were individual moments rather than a consistent challenge. So, again, this is mostly just mindless walking.
The combat, while similarly simple, actually manages to occasionally provide a feeling of being a powerful wizard, taking on multiple enemies at once and casting these multi-target spells with ease, or repelling hordes of enemies while protecting your ally. In many ways I enjoyed it more than even the mainline version of Part I.
While all these novelties are good and all, like I mentioned I think this format was doomed from the start, and these two games couldn't manage to overcome their gimmicks. Very little could have been achieved here in my opinion, but I'll give credit to this part for squeezing something out of it.
You continue to control using primiarily the stylus, but there's even less need to use buttons, with only a shoulder button being necessary to have a fighting chance against some late-game enemies. This control scheme would be awkward even on the DS, and it still is on an emulator. This is the main reason why I think these games were doomed from the start, this gimmicky approach to design has been a plague when it comes to the handheld Harry Potter titles from the fourth movie onward. It feels cheap, and it aged poorly.
There is music in this game! If you were to only read about this game, this might not be a big deal, but Part I only ever had music in very few instances, so its presence is welcome. I'm not going to give it credit for having music for goodness sake, but it is worth noting.
I enjoyed the rather robust cast of playable characters. Aside from the main trio, you get Neville, Seamus, McGonnagal and Flitwick, with all except the last having unique abilities. There are seemingly even more characters available in the multiplayer, even Voldemort, but I am not forcing someone to try it out with me, sorry.
I enjoyed the combat more than the puzzles, however. They're pretty much the same typical bs as almost every other handheld HP game: there's one thing on the screen, click it. Few of them did require slightly more effort, there were BLOCK SLIDING PUZZLES, truly my favorite for sure, but they were individual moments rather than a consistent challenge. So, again, this is mostly just mindless walking.
The combat, while similarly simple, actually manages to occasionally provide a feeling of being a powerful wizard, taking on multiple enemies at once and casting these multi-target spells with ease, or repelling hordes of enemies while protecting your ally. In many ways I enjoyed it more than even the mainline version of Part I.
While all these novelties are good and all, like I mentioned I think this format was doomed from the start, and these two games couldn't manage to overcome their gimmicks. Very little could have been achieved here in my opinion, but I'll give credit to this part for squeezing something out of it.