History VideoGame / HighSchoolStory

The game now has a spinoff called ''{{VideoGame/Hollywood U|RisingStars}}'' where your character there is a student at an acting school, and a VisualNovel BroadStrokes sequel (explained in game as a potential future), VisualNovel/HighSchoolStory, as part of Pixelberry's Choices collection.

* ShoutOut: There are lots of references to TV shows, books, and movies, usually under the auspices of a BlandNameProduct. The staff mentions that many of them are big gamers, which explains all of the game references.
** One of your nerds may go through a minor crisis when "[[Series/{{Firefly}} Lightning Bug]]" gets cancelled.
** A set of books about [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] you can order is called "[[Literature/{{Twilight}} Sparkles:]] [[{{Glamour}} A Fallacy]]".
** Sakura even mentions ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', possibly [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar the most family-unfriendly game]] you could reference in a game like this.
** One of the gamers' outfits strongly resembles [[Characters/TheLegendOfZelda Link's tunic.]] At one point, one of them even mentions [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime the Water Temple.]]
** Sakura mentions she "[[Franchise/MassEffect made out with a Quarian on the eve of the battle of Rannoch.]]" This also makes her a CrossPlayer, since the Quarian in question is a romance option for Male!Shepherd only.
** Nishan once chose [[Franchise/StarWars "Womp Rats"]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra "Fire Ferrets"]] as team names.
** When your main character goes into Kallie's bedroom during the Extra Credit quests, he/she observes that some of Kallie's [[GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals stuffed animals]] are dressed up as the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' cast.
** For her performance in a pageant piece, Hearst High's prom queen Phoebe showcases her martial-arts skills by breaking several strategically-placed boards...while the infamous ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' theme plays in the background.
** While waiting for Mia and Payton to finish shopping, Julian is shown playing a phone game. He curses how the [[VideoGame/FlappyBird "stupid bird won't flap." ]]
** In the Fast Food quest, your character has to act for a commercial. The Filmmaker asks if you have have ever considered [[VideoGame/HollywoodURisingStars a Hollywood career. ]]
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: The Auto Club help quest is not really a "help quest" as compared to every other help quest. Same for the Goth help quest, where the Goth student isn't the one who needs help resolving an issue.

* GeekReferencePool: The pool is fairly wide, [[OneOfUs as expected from the devs]], but the way the questing system works, ''all'' your Nerds are interested in ''all'' facets of nerdery. Except if your main character is a Nerd, in which case you'll be surprisingly ignorant of a lot of things.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The Nerd quest has their favorite show, [[Series/{{Firefly}} Lightning Bug]] being cancelled, calling the network money grubbing jerks.

* TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Autumn and Sakura, this is brought up in a quest when they have to do a project together, while they hang out with a lot of the same but not necessarily at the same time. They are two very different people and the quest is all about reconciling that.

* AlphaBitch: Kara of Hearst, [[spoiler:and Lacey of Athena]].

* BetaBitch: Mia at Hearst High. [[spoiler: When she transfers to your school, she becomes a FormerFriendOfAlphaBitch.]]

The game now has a spinoff called ''{{VideoGame/Hollywood U|RisingStars}}'' where your character there is a student at an acting school.

* RoguesGallery: While the main cast of characters are regular teens attending high school as opposed to being superheroes (except in Nishan's fan-fiction), they do have to face a small but still threatening number of enemies, most of them hailing from Hearst High, the school which opposes your school from the moment of its inception at the start of the game. Those hailing from Hearst include [[JerkJock Max]], [[AlphaBitch Kara]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Natalie]], and [[AbusiveParents Principal Warren]] on a more low-key note (as in, his actions only affect your school during your Rebel student's help-quest, and Mia during your Dream Date scenario with her); while other antagonists include [[UpperClassTwit Asher]], [[JerkAss Jack Carver]], [[TheCracker Razor]], and [[SchoolIdol Lacey]] to a lesser extent [[spoiler:unless you count her actions as Pandora, in which case her antagonism is tripled]]. It bears mentioning that many of these individuals not only do stuff that goes against your school as a whole, but also stuff that opposes specific characters in your main cast as well; Max is a persistent thorn for his sister Mia and his rival Julian and has also bullied Nishan in the past, Kara behaves spectacularly bitchy to Mia, Asher is on both your main character's and Julian's hate-lists due to his treatment of Julian's sister Hope and her friend Chelsea, Jack has a longstanding rivalry with Ezra, Razor is Koh's evil ex, and Lacey has been known to manipulate and bully Katherine [[spoiler:even without taking her Pandora identity into account]]. Depending on how you view the character interactions during game-play, [[SternTeacher Professor Edwin]] and [[CompetitionFreak Zero]] may also count, given that the former can come down rather hard on the students at times (though she's usually a ReasonableAuthorityFigure on a good day) and the latter treats Sakura's concerns about sexism in competitive gaming very shoddily at one point in the main quest. Then there's [[ManipulativeBastard Bartholomew de la Cruz]] [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ace]], who's described by Wes as being rather cutthroat when it comes to politics and whose character arc actually turns the entire district against your main character [[spoiler:and almost gets your school shut down, though you have the option to forgive him and unlock him as part of your student body later]].

* RoguesGallery: While the main cast of characters are regular teens attending high school as opposed to being superheroes (except in Nishan's fan-fiction), they do have to face a small but still threatening number of enemies, most of them hailing from Hearst High, the school which opposes your school from the moment of its inception at the start of the game. Those hailing from Hearst include [[JerkJock Max]], [[AlphaBitch Kara]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Natalie]], and [[AbusiveParents Principal Warren]] on a more low-key note (as in, his actions only affect your school during your Rebel student's help-quest, and Mia during your Dream Date scenario with her); while other antagonists include [[UpperClassTwit Asher]], [[JerkAss Jack Carver]], [[TheCracker Razor]], and [[SchoolIdol Lacey]] to a lesser extent [[spoiler:unless you count her actions as Pandora, in which case her antagonism is tripled]]. It bears mentioning that many of these individuals not only do stuff that goes against your school as a whole, but also stuff that opposes specific characters in your main cast as well; Max is a persistent thorn for his sister Mia and his rival Julian and has also bullied Nishan in the past, Kara behaves spectacularly bitchy to Mia, Asher is on both your main character's and Julian's hate-lists due to his treatment of Julian's sister Hope and her friend Chelsea, Jack has a longstanding rivalry with Ezra, Razor is Koh's evil ex, and Lacey has been known to manipulate and bully Katherine [[spoiler:even without taking her Pandora identity into account]]. Depending on how you view the character interactions during game-play, [[SternTeacher Professor Edwin]] and [[CompetitiveGamer Zero]] may also count, given that the former can come down rather hard on the students at times (though she's usually a ReasonableAuthorityFigure on a good day) and the latter treats Sakura's concerns about sexism in competitive gaming very shoddily at one point in the main quest. Then there's [[ManipulativeBastard Bartholomew de la Cruz]] [[spoiler:a.k.a. Ace]], who's described by Wes as being rather cutthroat when it comes to politics and whose character arc actually turns the entire district against your main character [[spoiler:and almost gets your school shut down, though you have the option to forgive him and unlock him as part of your student body later]].

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Your musician gets subjected to this from the other students after a music test results in the school's power being knocked out at an ''extremely'' inconvenient time for a number of active school clubs at that very moment. Your main character also gets this treatment during the Ace storyline [[spoiler:thanks to some skilled manipulation on Ace's part, to get your school and the district council against you]].

* LostForever: Certain limited-edition costumes will be gone for good if you don't get them within a certain time limit. Also, you won't be able to play the time-limit quests again if you let their time of availability run out before accessing them.

* LampshadeHanging

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Sakura is extremely competitive and confrontational, especially when compared to the meek Nishan, who she is occasionally hinted to have a crush on.
** In fact, Nishan even has her playing the bad cop when he tried to interrogate the Athena girls about Pandora.

''[[http://www.highschoolstory.com/ High School Story]]'' is an Android and iPhone game which allows the player to build a high school to attend. It's developed by Pixelberry, the creators of ''VideoGame/SurvivingHighSchool'' (with which it also shares a universe and several characters.) The player creates a student and then helps direct the development of the school by building classrooms, purchasing books, and admitting more students. Quests can be completed to upgrade the school, help out a fellow classmate, or just advance the plot.

* DontGoInTheWoods: In her introductory quest, Janey tries to keep the main characters [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Max]] from lingering too long around a certain section of the local woods where a local Bigfoot-like creature is said to have attacked a campsite. [[spoiler:Actually, it's because she doesn't want them to know her family's mansion is located nearby--she's SecretlyWealthy and not happy about it]].

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: While it's certainly possible to pair any two students together as a couple, an exception is made for siblings Talia and Tariq--if you're selecting one of them to be part of a couple, when you're going to select the other half of the couple, the other sibling will be blocked from selection.