We're not sure if we're fans of the one-week per class schedule; it doesn't feel natural and consumes too much time. It'd be nice if Backbone could break it up into fewer days to give the player more of a sense of interaction with the scholastic and social environments. After school's done for the week, the character will either participate in his or her club, or go to work to earn money. When the weekend hits, it's all about studying. Players can make up for grade deficiencies by studying certain topics, or take a holistic approach and do a general overview.
When it's all said and done, the game will end at, of course, Senior Prom, which Senior Software Engineer Isaac Bender described as "the ultimate high school boss battle." So far, Brooktown High still has a ways to go in regard to production. The game is in its alpha stages, so certain elements are being tinkered with at this point. With that in mind, it's got some quirky issues, such as balancing in the minigames, that can still be fixed before its Spring release. Visually, it looks quite good, although we're still not sure how the concept will go over in the US, or what demographic Konami is planning to market it toward. We came into Konami's press event a bit cynical about a dating sim, but we've left the event feeling slightly charmed by the game's earnestness. We'll undoubtedly have more on Brooktown High as it gets closer to release, which will probably be somewhere between Senior Prom and Graduation Day.
