Growing Up (2021)

A creative take on a life simulation, Growing Up can feel repetitive but with numerous choices at the helm it can entrance players for hours.

The biggest factor in Growing Up that convinces players to play the game more than once is its character stories, which I personally find are sufficiently good rewards in exchange for the whole grueling gameplay the game puts me through. If coming-of-age stories of young students are not one’s cup of tea, then they would have to be quite the completionist in order to stay motivated enough to replay it for all the different career endings. Otherwise, the game mechanics themselves — from the disappointing parents to the numerous Brain Maps that are easy to grow weary of — actually discourage one from replaying too many times. But considering one to three playthroughs, this game is worth playing. Its strong points lie in the art and music departments, and the general portrayal of the 1990s. All in all, Growing Up is a so-so stats-raising game with some meaningful and thought-provoking stories to tell.

Growing Up is an entertaining visual pseudo novel, where we will have to accompany our character throughout his journey to adulthood. Perhaps it sins of being repetitive, and that in the end, the gameplay does not change especially between the different branches that we can choose, but it can give us a few hours of entertainment if we like this type of proposal.

Growing Up allowed me to go back to those times for a moment, so although as a reviewer I consider it to be only a decent title, as a player for these few hours I had a great time with it.

Visual novel meets match 3 game where choices... somewhat matter.