The game could easily be trashed for its simplicity and bugs, but that would require me completely ignoring what an achievement capturing the setting truly is. For a child living at the time this franchise was at the peak of its popularity, these movie tie-ins were nothing short of awesome.

Exploring Hogwarts in 3D, even at its simplest form, still fills me with giddinness. It's designed so cleverly, as even though you don't explore that much of it, the rooms differ ever so slightly every time, making for the feeling that the entire castle is alive, ever-changing. The game has this ominous aesthetic, the music is haunting and most of the rooms are dark and dangerous, but it is occasionally intercepted with these joyous discoveries where the music becomes happy once again. Those short moments stick with me over the years: stumbling upon Nearly Headless Nick's hidden napping place, finding a gigantic statue of a dragon, Fred and Goerge popping up out of nowhere to get their 25 beans. I think they made up the core of what made this a great game for children, it added a sense of wonder and amazement, providing a peek behind the courtains of what the movies or books haven't shown/described. They add some personality to this iteration of the story.

Of course this isn't a definitive game based on this particular part of the saga. Every game has elements that other games are missing—you don't get to explore Diagon Alley in this one, but on the other hand you get a longer section with the invisibility cloak.

Games like this make me nostalgic for the time where video games based on pre-existing IPs were extremely common. Sure, they were rushed and often underwhelming compared to other products on the market, but the value of being able to explore the IP itself, taking control of these scenarios and seeing everything about it expanded upon, is worth much more than I realized. Nowadays, when these sort of games are announced they are made out to be a huge deal, but they often end up as underwhelming compared to their contemporaries, and draw just as much inspiration from them. In reality, little has changed, we just get to be teased about these experiences instead of getting more of these tiny, passionate projects like the Harry Potter video games.

The PS1 version of Sorcerer's Stone is largely a downgrade on the PC version, but it has certain things going for it, that's for sure. For one, Hogwarts is slightly more open, you discover a lot of the secrets at your own pace and can return to certain areas to collect missing cards or beans. Not every area though. The platforming is pretty tight, the auto-jump gives you this huge boost of speed after you jump off a platform, and you can climb really high ledges, making for some reasonably fun moments. There is a semblance of a combat system, though I honestly prefer the instantaneous, mouse-aiming spellcasting of the PC version. Also, the character models are funny, the voice acting is very British, the situations you play through are ridiculous and some of the mechanics and even entire sections (such as returning to Diagon Alley to collect some ingredients) are unique to this particular version of the story, adding to the charm.

My problem lies in the general atmosphere. The lack of music during exploration is brutal, as the over-exaggerated sound effects really stick out without it. The game's secrets are actually hidden minigames a lot of the time, but they're not particularly exciting or fun, so I wish they just weren't included honestly. I'd rather just go in and pick up a card and feel clever that I found a secret, rather than have a kid or a ghost already be there and give me it as a reward for some trivial task. Collecting beans leads to upgrades for stuff like Quidditch or your basic offensive spell, but they are not noticable in the slightest. The game doesn't have spell challenges, which I enjoyed in other versions because they added scale and mystery to the castle. Here, Hogwarts feels much, much smaller, and a large chunk of this game is just really forgettable due to the level design being really messy. Just like with the discoveries, there is no impact, no special music, no pizzazz.
And absolutely fuck the Gringotts Mine Cart minigame. I really want it gone.

I wanted to like this game more, but I think it doesn't have the staying power some other versions have. Even though I think I liked playing it more than the GBC RPG, that game was far more unique and interesting to go through. This one just feels too small and limited for the system it's on.