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Get used to it, you're going to be seeing a lot of this.
Syukusho Gakuen or Shrink 'High in its English incarnation, is a freeware Japanese game created in RPG Maker VX.

The plot revolves around the detective, Chijinda You, investigating the mysterious events and disappearances at Yabaize High School. The game plays itself out like a straight JRPG, where you explore for clues and items and engage in various battles for the first part of the game. You'll find yourself running into characters from Japanese anime left and right. You can even get Kyon as a party member. It seems quite innocent enough.

Then you find out just why it's called Shrink 'High.

Needless to say, the focus of the game takes a sudden turn. Suddenly, 90% of the cast is bigger than you. And most of the 90% will either mistake you for an insect, or be a part of the secret society that's behind it all, and will do anything to ensure you don't meddle in their plans anymore.

This game was until recently Japan Only, but a fan translation was created with added content. The only currently available download of the English version is here. NOTE: that file requires that you install RPG Maker VX runtime package separately (it comes pre-packaged with VX Ace RTP, which is incompatible) and paste this .dll file into the game's folder to make it work correctly.

Has a sequel referred to in English as Shrink High Gaiden Hanpane Island. Unlike the original game, it is distributed commercially, so the English patch is useless if haven't bought the game itself. It takes the adventure to a girls' boarding school on the eponymous island. Chijinda must go there to investigate a series of disappearances similiar to those at Yabaize, while also searching for his missing friend/partner, Narue...

This game provides examples of:

  • Academy of Adventure: Yabaize High School and the surrounding area. No, this is not just because of the A.S. Society's shenanigans; there's a fair bit of paranormal activity going on that has nothing to do with them. Same goes for the girls' academy on Hanpane Island in the sequel.
  • Affably Evil:
  • A God Am I:
    • The Director has a really subtle example even before her Villainous Breakdown, in that her basic attack is called "Fist of Heaven's Judgment." It could be passed over, but it's a subtle hint that despite her Affably Evil attitude, her ego is really out of control.
    • The President, if she's not redeemed, gets a god complex upon realizing her power as the Daidarabotchi. Like the Director, she also has an attack alluding to this: "Endless Natural Law."
  • A.I. Roulette: Shamisen the cat is an uncontrollable party member, and he's usually not very helpful to your party. When you want him to leave someone alone because you have them caught in a Sleep/Poison lock, Shamisen will helpfully scratch them awake with his claws. When you want him to attack, Shamisen might just decide to use his "Catnap" ability, going to sleep and allowing him to recover HP and AP...whether or not he needs any and whether or not you need him fighting.
  • All-Powerful Bystander: Madoka may be this; it's unclear what her exact powers are, since her fight against you and her destruction of the A.S. Society are All Just a Dream if you win. Either way, she knows about the plot, but doesn't get involved beyond her interactions with Chijinda.
  • Almighty Janitor: The nameless C-Rank Member you first encounter is quite a bit more powerful than average. Part of this is, of course, because you meet her well before C-Rank members become regular enemies, but she also has more HP than normal and, when you fight her while shrunk, is capable of attacking with both feet instead of just one, a skill only shared by Reina and Madoka.
  • Amazon Brigade: The Advanced Sciences Society. All its full-sized combat members are female.
  • Anti-Villain:
    • The majority of the high-ranked villains, in contrast to the rank-and-file Mooks, are trying to make the world a better place through horrific methods.
    • In the second game, the President dislikes humanity, with the exception of Chijinda, and she wants to be restored to her true form, the titanic Daidarabotchi. She's a villain because she doesn't really care if the world burns so long as she can stop being trapped in a weak, confining human form, but the player's choices will determine whether she is an enemy of humanity afterward.
  • Ascended Extra: Mizuho and Tetsuko/Lady Masque are potential party members in the sequel, after just being a part of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in the first game.
  • Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Higher-ranked A.S. members are exponentially more powerful than lower-ranked members, whether they're actually in combat units or not.
  • Ass Kicks You: Chijinda can end up sat on—accidentally or otherwise—by a giantess if he's not careful. This can also be done as an attack move against the entire party, but is less likely to be a One-Hit Kill.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: THIS a thousand times. It's essentially the entire point of the game, and once you're shrunk you'll be hard pressed NOT to run into this. It's not just humans, either... Most of these are just POV specific, though, as the game DOES focus on shrinking. For this trope played completely straight see the Director snapping and enlarging herself to ran rampant in the endgame. And, while missing the 'attack' part, Narue possibly enlarging to help fight her off.
  • Author Appeal: Macrophilia, obviously, along with a variety of related fetishes.
  • Big Bad: The Director heads the A.S. Society and is the one behind The Plan in the first game.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: In Hanpane Island, the various enemies are allied, but not precisely in any form of hierarchy. The Heavenly Queens and the President have their own agendas, the Heavenly Queens have varying levels of allegiance to their group, and Narue has no real agenda at all and doesn't take orders from anyone; she just wants to play. In the end, either Narue or the President becomes the final Big Bad.
  • Big Damn Heroes. In the sequel the Vice-Director repeatedly pulls this card to get the party out of a sticky situation. It reaches its peak in the finale where she reappears as a giantess to fight her equally titanic foe.
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: You can fight C-rank A.S. members while shrunk. It's probably better to just run.
  • Bragging Rights Reward: The Challenger's Soul. It's a decently-powerful accessory, but if you're strong enough to get it, the rest of the game will be a cakewalk anyway.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Kyon lacks Chijinda's Psychic Powers, and his abilities primarily revolve around developing his raw stats to higher-than-normal levels.
  • Charm Person: The "Moe Appeal" and "Tsundere Appeal" attacks can inflict the "Love-Struck" status effect (essentially Paralysis that only works on men). So can Kanon's "Call Me Queen!" attack, which is a charm effect delivered via a whip strike. The player characters are made of sterner stuff than most, though; the average shrinky gets Love-Struck just by getting a glimpse of a giantess' panties.
  • Combat Tentacles: The "tentacle rape" attack.
  • Covert Pervert: Narue puts on the show of simply being her boss’s peppy sidekick, but it’s clear she has feelings for him and is giddy to see him shrunk down to a cuter size. She also has an optional scene that has her having sex with him, which turns out to be All Just a Dream on her part. These tendencies were extracted from her in the sequel in order to create a wicked clone who doesn’t have the same inhibitions she does.
  • Cutting Off the Branches: The second game goes with the ending where the Director is killed and Narue becomes a giantess.
  • Degraded Boss: You can fight a C-rank fighter early on, first at human size, then as a shrinky. You don't fight any other A.S. members until much later.
  • Disc-One Nuke:
    • Subverted by a Magnificent Bastard of a game designer. The Death Note is an Easter Egg item that's not all that hard to find, and kills all non-boss enemies on the field when used. It also reduces your party's max HP if used too often, and doesn't tell you about it until you suddenly look at your HP and find that you're a hundred HP short of where you should be. There's a couple of times where it's really virtually necessary to use to pass opposition that's entirely beyond your level, but otherwise, use with caution.
    • Completing the Madoka quest early can get you a piece of endgame-class gear.
    • Save Scumming the Lottery can net you a legendary supersword.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": The Dragon gets pissed off whenever people don't refer to her as her proper title.
  • Dragon Ascendant: In the second game, Madame Vice-Director is the highest-ranking member of A.S. left standing. However, only Erika is still loyal to her. The Four Heavenly Queens are pursuing their own agendas, and not all of them appreciate her involvement.
  • Dual Boss: At one point, the Vice-Director and Erika team up to fight you together. If you defeat one, the other Turns Red.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After defeating the Director, she reveals she is actually from a distant post-apocalyptic future two centuries from now, and the atrocities she had committed were all necessary to her plan to ensure that it never comes to pass. With her defeated, humanity still faces the spectre of collapse, but the nations of the world are forewarned against the threat and the Vice-Director can help restore the surviving shrinkies to normal.
  • Elite Mooks: A.S. Society combat members.
  • Enemy Mine: Mizuho and Lady Masque team up with Chijinda fairly early on in the sequel, after Narue shrinks them all, along with their village.
  • Enemy Without: In the sequel, 'Narue', who had seemingly pulled a Face–Heel Turn, actually turns out to be this- she's a clone whose mind is filled with Narue's repressed desires. The real Narue is a prisoner of the NASS.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: The Director. At least one girl at Yabaize is shown having heart-shaped thoughts of her.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: From bugs, mice, birds, to robots, to giant high school girls, you'll be hard pressed to find something that won't try to kill you.
  • Eviler than Thou: In the second game, Clone Narue and the President end up trying to decide who the Big Bad is. Which of the two becomes the Final Boss is decided by the player's actions.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin:
    • Shrink 'High, well...involves people shrinking. Pretty clear there.
    • The game takes place in Yabaize High School, which can roughly be translated into English as 'One Dangerous High School'.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Erika basically functions as a garbage can for the Vice-Director's failed experiments. She also swallows any shrunken people the Vice-Director wants to have killed off.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Chijinda's brain kinda turns off in the sequel when he meets a girl heading the "Neo-Advanced Science Society." He knows that something's wrong at the Girls' College, but missing the fact that a resurrection of the organization involved in the Yabaize shenanigans is also involved in things at the College is inexcusable.
  • Faux Affably Evil: In the sequel, Narue's text boxes imply that she speaks in a cheerful, singsongy voice whilst she enslaves/slaughters entire villages.
  • Fetish-Fuel Future: For some reason, everyone at Yabaize High (with the exception of Kyon, Hiroshi of the Furyou Brothers and the shrinky prisoners sans the brainwashed shrinkies) is into the giantess fetish. Every boy goes crazy with lust when he's shrunken and looks up at a girl, and every girl who gets a chance to play with shrinkies thoroughly enjoys it. (This may have been arranged by the villains.)
  • Forced Level-Grinding: If you don't want to be killed by mice, you'd best grind your ass off. There's a Schmuck Bait item available that appears to assist in this. However, the Death Note will ''take away your Max HP if you use it more than a few times. And the worst part is that you won't even know that your Max HP went down unless you look. Did we mention that the game is Nintendo Hard?
  • Fun with Acronyms: "Advanced Science Society." The Vice-Director even pokes fun at it once.
  • Gambit Pileup: Hanpane Island is completely out of control. Every major character has an agenda of their own at some point.
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: In between shrinking people, the villainesses create Cute Monster Girls in the lab, including a succubus, a fairy and a Cat Girl.
  • "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: Erika gets off completely scot-free for murder and cannibalism, and Mia's probably getting released as soon as the stink dies down. This is justified: Mia's in an extremely good position to plea-bargain for both of them, being the only one who the authorities can turn to to restore the shrinkies to normal, and in addition Chijinda is going to bat for them.
  • Giant Equals Invincible: There's a difference between being a 1/100-size human attacking full-sized humans, and being a human attacking a giantess. The former is a difficult battle, but possible. The latter requires either tanks with anti-giantess weaponry or a giantess of your own to help; as one path in the second game shows, it's simply impossible to do any damage on your own with just a magic sword.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: You'll be avoiding these.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Madoka (no relation) not only has no relation to the main plot, nobody even tries to explain what she's doing in the game. She simply exists to reward you for solving a puzzle, provide fanservice, and later face you in an Optional Boss battle.
  • Giant Woman: From the player’s perspective, all of the women in the duology are going to be this. However a truer example arrives in the climax of both games.
    • In the first game the Director snaps and enlarges herself to a size far larger than buildings and goes on a rampage. If Narue decides to fight fire with fire then she also becomes this size.
    • In the sequel regardless of which path is chosen the President unlocks her true form through science and eclipses Narue in size. If Clone Narue survives she takes control of the real Narue and uses her gigantic body as her plaything. Finally in either scenario the Vice-Director pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment and arrives as a giantess thanks to her drinking a growth potion earlier.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Midway through the game Kyon gets the skill "Ally-oop!", which consists of him throwing Chijinda at an enemy, for quite a lot of damage. defeating a powerful Optional Boss in the late game unlocks "triple ally-oop!", which has him throw Chijinda, Narue and Shamisen one after the other, all in one turn.
  • Guide Dang It!: There are a lot of times that you're given absolutely no indication of where to go, particularly near the beginning of the game, and there are many items that are permanently missable without warning or indication that they were even there.
  • Handsome Lech: Chijinda.
  • Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Random encounters can be ridiculously hard if you haven't ground enough. The majority of the bosses, by contrast, can be handled by any party that can get to them in the first place.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: The Director regains her sanity after you defeat her giant form, but by then it's too late to save her.
  • H Game POV Character: Chijinda is a Type IIIB. He is perverted and often ethically-questionable, peeping on girls and even taking advantage of them while they sleep, but he's rather likable and not actually a bad guy except in the I Can Rule Alone ending.
  • Infinity +1 Sword: It exists, but the effort required to get it is almost as hard as beating the game itself. Essentially, there are five swords that can be forged into it, but you have to know where they are, which bosses drop them, and what the conditions TO get them to drop them are. If you miss even one, you cannot go back and try for it again.
  • Mad Scientist: The Director and Vice-Director, as well as many lower-ranking A.S. members.
  • The Many Deathsof You: Any situation where there is at least one giant girl (including Narue before she joins your team or is sleeping) is involved, and trust me, there's a lot of them, chances are Chijinda is going to die in some way, shape or form if he's not careful. In fact, 'Any time a giant girl kills you, it has a unique death screen.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Characters from several anime and games cross into the game. Some are even main characters.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The majority of the A.S. Society's forces are composed of these.
  • Medium Awareness: Kyon is more or less aware that he's in a video game, though he doesn't bring it up too often. At one point, he even mentions that "there's enough holes in the fourth wall around here already."
  • Meta Guy: Kyon. He's in charge of Lampshade Hanging, Shout Outs and generally having an encyclopedic knowledge of anime, manga and video game tropes and memes.
  • Minored in Ass-Kicking: The Director would rather not get her hands dirty, and prefers diplomacy or a shrink ray to engaging in violence. When it comes down to it, though, she's the head of an organization where Authority Equals Asskicking, and can throw down harder than any of her subordinates when Chijinda comes calling.
  • Minigame: Avoiding the Giant Foot of Stomping is done through a minigame.
  • Motive Rant: Chijinda encourages the Director to give one as she's dying.
  • Multiple Endings:
    • Three endings. Two depend on whether you enlarge Narue for the final battle. The final one has Chijinda take over from the Director and enlarge the remaining girls to conquer the world.
    • Hanpane Island has two endings, depending on which final boss you get, either Clone Narue or the President. The main difference is that the President survives in the former, and in the latter you get a scene with Da Chief summing up the plot and dangling threads.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Kyon invokes the trope by name inside Erika's stomach.
  • Nintendo Hard: If you're not careful, mice can murder you if you stray too far without grinding. Not to mention the widespread status inflicting enemies, as well as the instant death scenes you can trigger.
  • Noodle Incident: Detective Chijinda, and sometimes others occasionally brings up a prior case of his that occured in Borneo. whatever it was, it was both enough of a nightmare to make Chijinda traumatized and hesitant to talk about it, and enough of an Offscreen Moment of Awesome to be the reason Yabaize's principle specifically chose him to investigate the strange happenings in the area. it also apparently involved the paranormal, considering that Chijinda's reaction to being shrunk is that it's "Borneo all over again!".
  • Nonstandard Game Over: Plenty of them, usually involving giantess-related deaths. Sometimes you survive... as a plaything.
  • NPC Roadblock: The area behind the principal's fireplace is blocked off by maids. You have to wait for Kagami to move out of the way.
  • Optional Boss: Your first encounter with Reina is a subversion of a Hopeless Boss Fight. You're not supposed to be able to defeat her, but if you do, the game accepts the outcome and gives you some nice rewards (as well as possibly saving the life of two minor characters).
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: There's an area on Death Mountain that, early in the game, spawns endgame animal monsters. Using a certain Disc-One Nuke, it's possible to accelerate your Level Grinding a fair distance, but don't do too much of it.
  • Perky Female Minion: Erika.
  • Physical God: The awakened Daidarabotchi in the sequel is the largest giantess seen in the game, and has psychokinetic powers that dwarf Chijinda's as much as her body does. On the route where she turns evil, she starts claiming godhood, and is absolutely capable of backing it up.
  • Press X to Die: When you're shrunk, save often to separate slots. The game does not play fair.
  • Pride: Regardless of the sizes of anyone involved, the Director's ego will be the biggest thing around.
  • Psychic Powers: Chijinda develops them early on, and they form his personal suite of special abilities.
  • Psycho for Hire: Kanon doesn't care about the Society's vision, goals or organizational culture. She just likes to hurt people.
  • Punch-Clock Villain: The rank-and-file A.S. members tend to range from this to Psycho for Hire.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Possibly. The Furyou Brothers can make a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure that you get to the enlarger. It's possible to avert this by defeating Reina, however.
  • Renegade Splinter Faction: The Four Heavenly Queens form the Neo-Advanced Science Society in the second game, planning a second Operation: Humanity's Reduction for their own reasons. They've broken ties with Madame Vice-Director, who would otherwise be the Dragon Ascendant.
  • Retcon: In the first game, the Four Heavenly Queens are killed in the penultimate boss fight. In the second game, they're alive, well, and running around.
  • Save Token: While you can save at any Save Point, you can use bookmarks to save at any time, which are expended after use.
  • Schizophrenic Difficulty: While the game's always Nintendo Hard, some parts are harder than others; generally speaking, once you've adapted to an existing difficulty, the game changes the rules on you, resulting in the difficulty varying.
  • Worthy Opponent: The Vice-Director and most of the Heavenly Queens view Chijinda this way. In the former case, it leads to a rather blatant crush.

Alternative Title(s): Shukushou Gakuen

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