In Childhood Friends With Benefits, protagonist Yukihisa’s life is turned upside down by one sentence from his childhood friend Shiho — “Should we have sex too?”
Childhood Friends With Benefits comes from Orcsoft, who might, after Oral Lessons With Chii-chan and this game, end up in my top five nukige developers. It provides plenty of hot steamy sex-friend action while addressing the subject matter in a respectful, humorous, and believable way. After a mixer transparently run by a pair of acquaintances so that they could officially come out as a couple, Yukihisa and Shiho find themselves alone at a local diner. Shiho explains that a sexual relationship with no emotional connection would feel off to her, and that the effort of building an emotional relationship with a stranger with the intention of having sex would be similarly troublesome, and therefore sets the stage for her years-long carnal relationship with Yukihisa.
Notably, for those of you who read about Oral Lessons and gave it a pass because technically Chii-chan was cheating on her neglectful boyfriend, you should know that there’s not a whiff of NTR content here. Enjoy.
Themes and Story
Childhood Friends With Benefits answers the question “how horny can two teens be?” Pretty damn, as it turns out. The nukige format of filling most of the game with sex scenes works perfectly for this visual novel as two young people explore their urges without shame.
There’s no sub-plot about either character pressuring the other to be a couple for real, or distracting plots about school events or secret traumas, Childhood Friends With Benefits focuses solely on the ups and downs of a mutually thirsty relationship. There are dry spells, where the protagonists focus on their studies. There are uncomfortable practice dates where neither really wants to be recognized around town with each other — but they hide the relationship more because it’s something purely between them than because of concern for their reputations. It’s private, and nobody else’s business. And the leads’ lack of shame is appreciated for avoiding cheap puritan drama.
Not everything about Shiho and Yukihisa’s relationship is perfect. These two characters have a past, one that’s revealed just enough — mostly through pillow talk — to drive the main conflict in the background while the two go about like rabbits in the foreground. The main story expands on the exploration of sex friends and maturely addresses possible outcomes of the inevitable bitter-sweet impermanence of life. That’s the overarching theme, impermanence. Enjoy what you can, while you can. Avoid regret. It’s a timeless story, built into a game about friends banging instead of pursuing their small business dreams, or finding love at Christmas by happenstance.
That said, getting both endings is a special hell. Any combination of answers through Childhood Friends With Benefits leads to the second or bad/neutral ending except for one. At least I’m pretty sure that’s true, because I ran the whole game at least six times to get it right. So for the good ending, the one with the after-story, follow this specific path: answer “It’s Tough Sometimes”, “Ask Shiho Instead”, and “Honestly, I Do Get Jealous”. Sorry about the lack of context, but it’s best you go in spoiler-free.
Design and Art
Sound design-wise, Childhood Friends With Benefits has upbeat, energetic music for sex scenes and generic tracks elsewhere, which is par for the course. The sex scene music is particularly catchy though, setting a pace and attitude to the scenes that give it high marks. For some reason, when Yukihisa is at school it has a country-sounding track, but I didn’t even notice until the second playthrough and on, because you’re at school so rarely.
Shiho’s voice actress is pleasant to listen to. She has a low, just faintly dragged out nasal-drawl that reminds me of Kuroko Shirai from A Super Scientific Railgun. The seductiveness of Shiho is set up by her art but is sold by her voice. The voice work also sells Shiho’s human side, her insecurities, and hesitations, the meat-and-potatoes of the plot when nothing sexy is going on.
The background art is generic but well drawn, though the diner stands out as an important location. The CG artwork is as beautiful as ever, with details like bursting clothing and Shiho’s freckles standing out particularly to me. If you’re looking to enjoy some thiccness, Shiho has it in spades.
The most impressive element of the artwork though, is how Shiho evolves. With only one heroine, outfits and style can become boring, or at least lose their excitement value. Shiho doesn’t stay stagnant, her design changes as the story progresses. This culminates in a time-skipped mature Shiho that I badly wish wasn’t just in a final few scenes. The variety Childhood Friends With Benefits gives is something even multi-heroine visual novels could benefit from, and I loved seeing it.
Conclusion
Childhood Friends With Benefits is about the relationships that define parts of your life, and how those relationships inevitably change. It is bitter-sweet life in action, punctuated heavily by hot steamy sex scenes. And it is available now online, including from JAST USA (NSFW).
