Growing Up

okay, so, this game was decent. if we're using the rating system i use i would give it three stars. which translates to "there are a few awesome things about it, but there are also a few things wrong with it." to be clear, i played through the first main story, and got to the beginning of when the kid i grew up as had his own kid. the good things are: the writing was decent. i like the way they characterized people and the dialogue didn't feel offensive or emersion breaking, honestly all the dialogue felt pretty natural! (apart from when sometimes it felt like they said something that didn't feel right for what age their at, but that's up to interpretation and also is to be expected in these kinds of games.) at first i thought they were going to lean pretty heavy in clichés, but they took what i expected and ever so slightly twisted it. i didn't expect somethings, and it felt really natural and interesting to explore. I'm interested in exploring more character's stories, which I'm assuming there's more of considering i didn't see most of the characters that are advertized in the previews. the growing up system honestly felt pretty natural, i like how you grow up slowly as you complete more levels, it feels like there's more of a build up between big transitions to different grades. this is a common thing, it feels like progression with almost everything feels built up, nothing really just jumped out of no where, your choices DO feel like they matter quite alot. the things i didn't really like: it DOES get grindy. now, it took me awhile to realize how certian mechanics worked, which slowed my progress SIGNIFICANTLY. I'm sure if i played more then i would get the hang of it and find a balance, which i suppose is nice, considering this game was designed to be played many times. but since it WAS meant to be played many times, i would appreciate it if there were some more variety, or i suppose more incentive to choose more fun things rather then desperately trying to even give yourself a chance at passing the final exam. it felt a little empty sometimes. this game was meant to be played kind of fast, not like speedrunner but you're definitely speeding a little faster then other games I've seen. which is fine on it's own, but i feel like some things could have used more time and care. for example: the parents. do. nothing. there were no dynamics, every time i thought that there was something that hinted to more about my relationship to them, i was reminded that their only purpose was to push me to interact with more of the game mechanics. thats a fine thing to do, but it would have been nice to have SOMETHING. the dialogue does ALOT of heavy lifting when it comes to the relationships with the other characters, which were GOOD, but. i feel like they could have had a little more, especially since i feel there's alot of chances to have small interactions with them. it just feels a little wasted. this game was mid, but there was one *big* thing that made this into a game that i would recommend to a game that i don't. the ONLY time i was given the option to kiss one of them, which as far as I'm aware, is the ONLY WAY TO ROMANCE THEM, it was during the lowest point in their story. there were SO MANY OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, it genuinely felt intentional on the writers part. apologies for the spoilers, but i cannot convey the seriousness of what i mean without mentioning them: the only times i was given the option to kiss one of them was when 1. she had just gotten done telling me about how her famous mom blasted the fact that her brother has a deadly heart condition on live tv and she was surrounded by fake grief, i was given the option DIRECTLY after she earnestly asked me if i was real (as in her real friend) and 2. almost DIRECTLY after her brother died, after i hadn't seen her for a month, while she was sobbing on the bathroom floor. this one detail genuinely kind of put me off. like, a part of me wants to keep playing because i genuinely do find the writing interesting and i like the stories they've made so far, but this one detail feels like I'm holding out lost hope. there was so much they could have done to improve this game, made it feel more FULL. but i feel like they just didn't have the confidence to do so. i love love love the concept, the execution was mid at best, and "shut up about your dead brother and kiss me" at it's worst. I'm sorry. i really really wish i could like this game more. remove that one detail and that's all it will take for me to reccomend this as a good time.

Growing Up is a stat-raising life sim where you raise a child from birth to age 18 by having them learn skills, organize their schedule, fulfill parental expectations, and manage their mental health. Along the way, you'll have the opportunity to make friends with other characters, and ultimately unlock an ending based on your skills and stats at graduation. The gameplay loop is pretty simple. Each turn, you select which attributes to level up in a minigame called the brain map. Then, you're able to unlock different subjects using general knowledge points and your accumulated skill in each subject's related attribute. You also have action points, which let you perform different actions around town, and schedule slots, which let you study different subjects or take actions you've unlocked. Every action allows you to improve attributes, parental satisfaction, mental health, and/or earn money. The game proceeds through four different life stages which get gradually more complex, with more activities available and more things to manage. Between the other activities you do, you get requests from your parents and periodically have conversations with side characters that progress their stories. At the end of each life stage, you have an exam minigame. Doing well on the exam gives you a bonus at the start of the next life stage, and your score on the SAT at the end of high school plays a part in determining your final ending, along with your relative attribute levels, and possibly what bonus skills you unlock. You aren't able to make any choices about your final career. Once you get the hang of the mechanics, it isn't too hard to keep your character happy enough to unlock enough skills to finish side stories and do well on exams, although trying to keep mental health and parental satisfaction high at the same time can be challenging at different points. There were also a couple of points where the parental expectations you get don't make sense or are impossible to fulfill (perform outside non-entertainment activities when you haven't unlocked any, for example). For each of the stages at school, you meet a new friend. There are 12 friends you can meet, four for each life stage, and other than each having a specific life stage when they'll meet you, which friend you get each game is random. The conversations you have with them will determine whether or not you stay friends, whether you have a relationship in high school, and what your friend's epilogue ending is. Making choices to stay friends is usually pretty common sense, but some of the romance options are less intuitive to unlock. A couple of them also felt like they required you to make a romantic choice at an inappropriate moment and would not give you the opportunity to try for romance again at a less serious moment later on. I liked all of the friends that I met, and I appreciated that even the ones you only meet in high school have deep stories. There are also a number of mentors that you can meet that are associated with optional skill trees you can unlock around town. These characters were all fine, although their dialogue choices don't change the progression of their stories at all. What I didn't like about these characters is that your interactions with them don't affect the rest of the story in any way. Aside from occasionally unlocking specific locations, your choices with each character don't affect your relationships with other characters or your parents. I had a couple of times where my character got in big trouble with a friend, but they still had really high parental approval. The game gets super repetitive after a couple of playthroughs. Other than the friend relationships, the gameplay is basically the same every life. Playing a second generation of the same family has no affect on the game other than skipping the tutorial and ruling out the previous generation's friends as your second character's friends. The personality of your parent (or parents if your first character got married to a friend) has no affect on the expectations or conversations they have with their child. Overall, I enjoyed Growing Up. I liked the main gameplay loop and trying to unlock different endings, although it's too repetitive to want to do more than a couple of playthroughs in a short period of time. I liked the side characters in general, although there were a number of places where I wished the game had a bit more depth. 7/10

I always go back to this store page to see if there any other games like this. It's just the best for my silly sim-loving brain. The gameplay is so deliciously mindless but relaxing. The art is fantastic. I just want more incredibly basic 'princess builder' style games like this. Raise from birth and put x points into y to create z outcome.

I really love the game, I recommend it a whole lot. I just have things I wish was in there. A texting or phone system- I kinda wish there were another why to talk to people other than cutscenes and at the school I might be a little nic picky, but I also wish the parents proudness didn't only grow from doing work for school. I wish it's when you earned money or did something that rose certain areas (like Physique and intelligences). I also wish there was more Varity in your life. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like every game has the same copy and paste parents that don't influence your life. While the side/background characters have parents that influence their life and personality. Overall, it's still a great game. I just wish there was more.

I am so surprised by the overwhelming positive reviews. I love life management sim. I love managing my characters stats and relationships to see how it's going to affect his life. I put over 100h in Exocolonist exactly because of that. But here I got bored almost instantly. I didn't even got to meet any character because of uninterested I was in the gameplay Had it been a game on phone, I would've say "Cool game to kilm some time", but to play on computer/steam deck, the brain map/schedule system really feels lacking. And then you get to the exam and it's this sort of.... bejewel mini-game, and the game lost me.

Игра приятна глазу, истории хорошие, ивенты тоже интересные. Играла несколько часов, получала удовольствие от процесса. А потом история стала подходить к концу, и нам вроде как предоставили логичное завершение истории. Но есть нюансы. Навязчивая, всеобъемлющая толерантность, которая нам тут предъявляется вроде как следствие случайного подбора дружеских персонажей. ГГ попалось трое подруг ее же пола, каждому из которых игра предлагала признаться в любви. Но хоть одного персонажа другого пола можно? Ну чтобы хоть выбор был, нет? Сыграли в куколки, но Кенов не завезли. И итогом игра вновь спрашивает, а может все же женимся на персонаже своего пола? Нет? Ну жаль, конечно, но вот вам усыновленный ребенок. А то вдруг все же у вас однополая пара, а сделать слишком продуманную развязку на разные случаи делать отчего-то не стали. Проще же прописать один сценарий на все случаи жизни, да? К другим минусам (и по сути самым важным) можно отнести как будто отсутствие связи между выбором навыков и жизненным путем. Игра не смотрит на то, какие навыки прокачиваются, не дает более частых ивентов, связанных с выбранными доп занятиями. Если я качаю преимущественно интеллект, то в игре вы это заметите только благодаря маленькой циферке, обозначающей баллы этого навыка. На этом всё. И моё ожидание, что преимущественная прокачка определенных навыков повлияет на процесс взросления персонажа и на его последующую жизнь, разбилось вдребезги. И в итоге приятное ощущение от процесса игры после получения туманной концовки смачно разбилось как муха об лобовое стекла.

希望能回顧曾經的腳色 不然每次結束就感覺歸零了 感覺父母對玩家的影響不太明顯 其實家長的經濟情況 情商 等等都會對孩子成長有影響 大概完兩輪就不太想繼續玩了 如果滿分十分 我認為是六分的遊戲

every lifetime is different-- i can replay this as many times as my heart desires.

Sabe aquele jogo aquele que é uma cópia mais popular de OUTRO jogo melhor? É esse daqui. Vai ter uma galera que vai ler isso e vai ficar p*ta comigo e podem ficar. Se eu não conhecesse o VOLCANO PRINCESS, provavelmente acharia que Growing Up era pica, mas de verdade para mim é uma versão nerfada (e até piorada em alguns aspectos) do VOLCANO e, pra mim, isso devia ser o suficiente para você ir lá comprar esse outro que te falei. Eu até em dar uma DEDADA positiva pra esse jogo, mas quando tava fazendo a review, eu ficava com mais vontade de jogar o VOLCANO PRINCESS do que esse daqui. Você vai me dizer: "ah, mas Machado, esse negócio é 2x mais caro". MENTIRA! É o mesmo preço, cara! Compra o Volcano, vai por mim. Esse daqui é frustrante. Por isso, tudo que eu vou falar aqui embaixo no VOLCANO PRINCESS têm (e por consequência, esse aqui não tem, capiche?): > Saves Manuais - você consegue salvar manual, nesse aqui não. Eu entendo que a vida não tem save, mas vamos combinar, imagina você querer fazer conquistas ou ver finais diferentes e ficar perdido com isso. > Indicador claro de como atingir certos finais - No Volcano é muito mais fácil. Fica escondido, mas você consegue repetir e ir fazendo finais com base nas HABILIDADES que você constrói na vida. Nesse aqui, não. Nesse aqui é oculto. Por exemplo, eu quis fazer um JOGADOR DE FUTEBOL, mas como eu estudei pro MIT o jogo decidiu que eu era um PROFESSOR DE GEOGRAFIA FRACASSADO. TÁ BRINCANDO COMIGO? EU QUERIA SER O NEYMAR DA BOLA OVAL (aliás, falando nisso...) > Finais mais interessantes - tem final pra PORRA. Só olhar a lista de conquistas do Volcano Princess. > Sem Testes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ - qualquer "prova final" é ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pra mim. ARGHH para quê colocar aquele joguinho de celular idiota no meu jogo? No Volcano não tem essas porra. > Fantasia Medieval x Sonho Americano - é mais uma questão pessoal. O Volcano é full-fantasia épica, então você vai lidar com maldições, uma storyline mais mágica e personagens interessantes; Esse daqui mais me parece uma PROPAGANDA DO PROERD, ou de SETEMBRO AMARELO. Sabe? Nada bom como você estar fazendo uma run retardada, pra se divertir e aparece um EMO falando de saúde-mental ou seu amigo de infância envolvido com traficantes. Tipo, assuntos pesados, legal, mas é tipo "mais-um-jogo-indie-que-fala-de-depressão" e não se diverte. > Personagens Carismáticos/Bonitos/Interessantes - consigo dizer que os interessantes românticos são meio feios. Sei lá, as sprites não ajudam, a líder de torcida (única interesse romântica mulher que me apareceu :( ) parecia que tinha 30 anos e preenchimento labial e as histórias são meio paia. A mais engraçada é a do seu amigo traficante (quer dizer, se você consegue fazer ele levar um tiro no epílogo) e olha que ela é para ser TRÁGICA, mas eu achei engraçada porque me parece uma propaganda do PROERD. O VOLCANO PRINCESS tem lá suas coisas trágicas, mas pelo menos as storylines são curtas/interessantes, porque você tem MUITAS OPÇÕES (sua filha pode terminar com mais de 30 personagens, homens, mulheres, um trisal e até mesmo um harém) e acha os desenhos bonitos. Por que foram tão tímidos nesse? > Mais coisa para fazer - O Volcano Princess tem as mesmas atividades e mais até (como dungeons, mini-jogos, encontros, armas, etc.), além de uma storyline "principal" mais interessante dentro da mitologia do mundo. Esse daqui é para ser um "roguelike" de vida real, mas, cara, é artificialmente feito porque não tem os saves. Enfim tá aí, pica relatada. Vocês merecem por transformar meu Neymar do Futebol Americano num PROFESSOR DE GEOGRAFIA.

Cool!