Growing up is a “life simulator”. The game takes you from birth to late teens. During these years of your life, you get to choose everything major that happens in the life of your character. You choose what major aspects in life you are good at like more physical or mental and then branch out from there. you can put more points in creative thinking or problem. Solving in the mental tree and be more powerful or nimble in the physical tree. There are a lot more branches and directions you can take. Next up you choose some interests. In your infant years, do you put more time in walking or learning to talk? Do you spend time thinking or playing? All these decisions shape the stats of your character.
The game features some very nice music and artworks while you do your decision-making. And this all sets up for an enjoyable game. Now, I am not the guy who needs constant action or thrills to enjoy a game. I love simulator games but this one seems too in-depth in some ways and not enough in others. The ‘minigame’ to level up your stats is monotone and does not really change and if you do not actively try to make different types of characters you often end up with the same type of person.
for example, for every playthrough I did, I came to the same conclusion. Your relationship with your parents is the opposite of your mental health. My first character was fully invested in mental skills, a literal genius. I did jigsaw puzzles for ‘fun’. but the parents want you to not have fun at all, or you’re throwing away your life. I don’t mean to pry or assume but it feels as if there are some underlying issues with the devs and their parental relations.
The artwork and music are beautiful! However, that alone does not make a good game. The learning and progression mechanics are in my opinion not enough to be an engaging game. And if this game is meant for young people to learn some parenting skills, then I think this goal is also not met. Another negative point is the translation. A lot of spelling mistakes were found in the play-throughs. I will not play this game again and am baffled this gets 83% positive reviews on steam. Final verdict: beautiful but boring.
