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Timeframe[]

Are there any clues in the game that could be used to establish when it's set? It would be great if we were able to specify when (or approximately when) the events within the game occurred. Starstuff (Owl me!) 20:53, December 4, 2016 (UTC)

I've been trying to look for clues that establish some sort of time frame as I play, but so far the closest is the presence of a £50 banknote (first issued in 1994 and was withdrawn from circulation in 2014) on one of the Act 4 scenes. The only thing this tells us, of course, is that the game is set sometime after Goblet of Fire, which isn't much help. Mind, there are some distinctly modern-looking appliances in some of the scenes (like the computer at St. David's in Act 5), but I wouldn't know how to date them. --  Seth Cooper  owl post! 21:41, December 4, 2016 (UTC)
Trying to pin down the time too, though Extendable Ears make an appearance as a hidden object. If we assume that the hidden objects in gameplay accurately reflect the current in-universe timeframe, then it would have had to been after 1996 when Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes would have set up and made the Ears available to public. Also, to add onto Seth Cooper's note on technology, we do see a hidden-object laptop and flip phone in St. David's Hospital. A personal estimation for the timeframe would be anytime between 2000 and now (2016), and a personal guess would be the current year (2016, so that today's players would best related to the gameplay), though alas this is only my own conjecture. FangWolfsbane (talk) 16:50, December 5, 2016 (UTC)
My bad, I forgot that Philbert Chivers actually revealed that he was using Extendable Ears in Case 6 Act 1. This would strengthen the case that it is at least after 1996. FangWolfsbane (talk) 17:00, December 5, 2016 (UTC)
Technology unfortunately isn't a reliable indicator of timeframe here because technological development in the Potterverse does not completely align with reality. Consumer electronics in the 1990s in the Potterverse were apparently 5 to 10 years ahead of the real world.
In the Half-Blood Prince film, a Muggle is shown using a cameraphone shortly before the bridge attack, and there's also reference to a Muggle filming the attack on a phone in a prop newspaper. Per our canon policy, we treat things depicted and mentioned in the films as canon, so long as they don't contradict a higher-tier canon source (namely, the books or JKR herself). We also treat the films as following the canonical timeline of the books despite onscreen references to them being set in the 2000s. Thus, in the Potterverse, cameraphones were on the market by 1996, a full decade before they became widely available in reality.
There's also the matter of Dudley owning a PlayStation in summer 1994 in Goblet of Fire. The console wasn't commercially released until December 1994 in Japan and September 1995 in Europe. I mean, it's possible his parents got their hands on a prototype, or it's possible the PlayStation was released earlier in the Potterverse than in our reality.
The Grangers are also shown as owning a moderate collection of DVDs in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. That part of the film is set in summer 1997. DVDs were commercially released in late 1996 in reality. It wouldn't have been impossible for someone to have amassed a collection of DVDs so soon after their release, if they were indiscriminate and well-monied, but it's also possible further evidence of consumer technology having advanced quicker in the Potterverse.
TL;DR: The presence of smartphones in this game wouldn't necessarily preclude it from being set within the 1990s because technological advancement in the Potterverse differs from reality. Starstuff (Owl me!) 03:56, December 31, 2016 (UTC)

The traffic camera footage from the new Harry Potter: Wizards Unite trailer is dated 14 December 2018. I think this can be interpreted as establishing that Cases and Wizards Unite are set in the 2010s. Starstuff (Owl me!) 10:41, December 22, 2018 (UTC)

Since Wizards Unite was released on June 20, 2019 and took place in real time, I think it's reasonable to assume that the FB: Cases did so as well. That game came out in 2016, only three years prior, and Ceberus Langarm, who looks early middle-age based on the game design, and the same is true for Sage Bragnam. These are middle-aged people, and typically, middle-aged people don't visibly age as much on a three years as young adults do. And yet, Mathilda Grimblehawk look older, who by my estimation looks like she is in her early to mid twenties in FBC and looks like she's pushing 30 in WU. The fact that Ceberus and Sage are both in the same age range is key here, but still. ^^'

Tfoc (talk) 12:21, July 4, 2020 (UTC).

It probably comes as no surprise that I don't think we should assume the events in Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World must take place at the same time as its release in the real world. However I do agree that the overlapping cast of characters with Harry Potter: Wizards Unite puts them near each other in time. Are there any references from WU to events in FBC? (A couple years back there was this escaped Hippogriff" type of thing? Seems something like this would make a good easter egg for fans and help determine how the time range for these sources relate. Thanks --Ironyak1 (talk) 12:53, July 4, 2020 (UTC)

I'd argue that I'm not as much assuming as I am deducing, but I see your point, As for references in WU to FBC, I'd say that the appearance of the characters in that game are a reference of sorts in and by itself, but no, not as I can recall. I happen to know someone with a google document containing all in-game dialouge from brilliant events, so I'll look and see if I find any. Tfoc (talk) 14:45, July 4, 2020 (UTC) I've looked high and low, and I can't seem to find any direct reference to FBC game beyond the characters from that game. However, as mentioned above, the fact that there are only three years between the release of the game, and the fact that the character models of middle-aged characters from FBC, which is to say, Cerberus Langarm, Sage Bragnam and Gethsemane Prickle are all the same, which should say something about how much time has passed between FBC and WU, the latter of which, again takes place in real time.  Tfoc (talk) 19:24, July 4, 2020 (UTC)

Well it was worth a shot - thanks for checking! I'd say that sticking with the 2010s then is the best we can do given the considerations above and the fact that the characters return in WU looking the same. No real value to overplay the inference and say the events must be exactly in 2016 IMHO.
As for this google doc with all the WU dialog, is that available to the public? If not, does it seem like most of the content is covered here on he wiki or do we have a large gap that needs to be fixed? Thanks --Ironyak1 (talk) 20:10, July 4, 2020 (UTC)


And I could probably have begged to differ with you on that to both of us got blue in the face, but since that wouldn't be an alltogether productive enterprise, I have suppose I could just link you the documents instead. :P

Brilliant dialogue.

Confoundables-Foundables.

There's also this other webpage I came across - Hasn't been updated since Christmas, unfortunately, but if you just look, I am confident that it holds every piece of dialogue not found in the first document: SOS Dialogue.Tfoc (talk) 21:43, July 4, 2020 (UTC)


Did you see the document, Ironyak1? Tfoc (talk) 12:37, July 5, 2020 (UTC)

Ref name incomplete[]

The ref name :2 is incomplete and therefore broken in the article.  Harry granger   Talk   contribs 23:41, July 26, 2017 (UTC)

All fixed. --Ironyak1 (talk) 00:45, July 27, 2017 (UTC)

Should This Informatin Be Added to the Profile? 

The game has officially been taking off the iTunes Store and the game was officially closed as of January 14,2020. https://jkrowlinggamessupport.wbgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039705374-Fantastic-Beasts-Cases-Game-Update-12-10-2019

I was going to play it to look for further clues for the timeline but I was only at case 2 so this is no longer possible.

MrOptimistic1001 (talk) 23:23, May 28, 2020 (UTC) 

From game to visual novel[]

As I mentioned in an exchange with Ironyak1 earlier, I am in the process of teaching myself to edit videos. I don't have a tablet to play this game on, though, and I tried to play it on a simulator on my PC, but it always started lagging. Are there anyone who would be willing to record themselves play this game, preferably with sound, and then they can send me the recordings, and I can edit it as to remove all the grinding parts and just include the storytelling parts and publish it on YouTube as a resource for the wiki so we can update articles with in-universe information from the game? Tfoc (talk) 07:49, 9 June 2021 (UTC)

The servers for the game shut down back in Jan 2020, so the app won't download any of the additional levels now. As such, you'd have to work with whatever footage already exists like on youtube, which unfortunately appears to be very incomplete. If you find videos for the later levels please share as there is a lot of material we are missing. Cheers --Ironyak1 (talk) 19:05, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
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