History VideoGame / GrowingUp

* ChildhoodFriendRomance: You can date your elementary or middle school friend and marry them in the epilogue if your sexual orientation is compatible and you developed your relationship with them well enough.

* DoubleUnlock: In order to unlock a new skill, you first have to have enough of a certain stat, which is increased by collecting resources from the Brain Map, and then you have to buy the skill with Knowledge Points. You can reduce the cost of the skill by further increasing your stat that's associated with it.

** Because of the rampant discrimination in the game's time period, homophobia is a major plot point in Charles' route, where he struggles with his homosexuality [[spoiler:because of his father's discrimination. In his good ending, Charles comes out to him but gets kicked out of the family, but he's actively fighting for LGBT+ rights with his sister (and you if you marry him as a boy).]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: If you decide to go for a GayOption with one of your classmates, the game will remind you that same-sex marriage was illegal in the US during the 90s since you're [[ModernStasis still stuck in that time period despite you and your partner becoming adults]], but despite that, they'll still marry you. In fact, homophobia is a major plot point in Charles' route, where he struggles with his homosexuality [[spoiler:because of his father's discrimination. In his good ending, Charles comes out to him but gets kicked out of the family, but he's actively fighting for LGBT+ rights with his sister (and you if you marry him as a boy).]]

* ThatCloudLooksLike: One of the entertainment activities you can do is go cloudwatching. "Failing" it has you imagining a pile of poop in the clouds while "succeeding" in it has you spotting Bunny & Quack in them.

* YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: The movie theater can be unlocked as early as in the elementary stage in Bobbie's route, but you can't learn cinematography skills or buy tickets until middle school.

* ProducePelting: Some failure animations in studying or practicing non-academic skills have the protagonist being pelted with tomatoes by the audience for their poor performance.

* ProducePelting: The failure animations for Marketing and Acting Practice have the protagonist being pelted with tomatoes by the audience for their poor performance.

* ProducePelting: The failure animation for Marketing has the protagonist being pelted with tomatoes by the audience for their bad sales pitch.

* InWithTheInCrowd: If you befriend Alicia, she'll invite you to her GirlPosse and go out shopping with you thanks to her dad's credit card. [[spoiler:However, she starts drifting away from her clique in high school when she's forced to volunteer at the hospital after her parents' divorce.]]

*** She invites you to hang out at the mall with her. You can suggest hanging out at the movies instead, but she'll insist on going to the mall and take you there anyway, so the other option does ''not'' unlock the movie theater as the game would make you think, but least it unlocks the bowling alley.

** The protagonist's description for the activity "Reading Comics" is, "I wonder how [[Franchise/SpiderMan arachnid-person]] will get out of this one!"

*** She invites you to hang out at the mall with her. You can suggest hanging out at the movies instead, but she'll insist on going to the mall and take you there anyway, so the other option does ''not'' unlock the movie theater as the game would make you think. At least it unlocks the bowling alley as of the December 20, 2021 patch update.

* LuckBasedMission: Some locations are only unlocked in certain routes, such as the Sky Tower Observation Deck in Jake's route and the Alley Way in Charles' route[[note]]until a patch update on December 20, 2021 added the latter in Alex's and Wendy's routes[[/note]]. Since the classmates you'll meet are randomized with every playthrough and you can only meet three in one life cycle[[note]]there are 64 possible combinations of meeting them as of the November 23, 2021 update[[/note]], you better hope you meet the one you want if you plan to learn the skills offered by these exclusive locations. Even then, you have to make the right dialogue choices to unlock them.

** Wendy often gets called [[Literature/PeterPan "Captain Hook"]] by her bullies for her prosthetic arm, and the achievement you get for getting her good ending is called [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet "Wendy Krueger"]].

* YouShouldntKnowThisAlready: The movie theater can be unlocked as early as in the elementary stage in Bobbie's route, but you can't learn cinematography skills or buy tickets until middle school.

** Some interactions with Wendy involve talking about how much the player character hates PE, even if very athletic.