Childhood Friends (PC) Review

Akihara Shiho, and protagonist Senou Yukihisa, have known each other since children. Now, in their late teens, and upon experimenting with group dates, they realise that their romantic skills need plenty of work. They decide to exercise their lovey-dovey abilities by training with each other, and become a couple, and do… couple stuff, in order to be ready for the real thing. Eventually, this leads to the main character starting to fall in love with his gal-pal Shiho. The result is a medium-sized, slice of life kind of deal, where these two start having typical visual novel dates, with trips to the local malls, arcades, and so on.

Sadly, this plays things a bit too safe. That's not a complaint about the complete lack of NSFW scenes (at least in the Steam version tested for this review), but about the lack of interesting scenarios. Yukihisa goes out with Shiho, engage in some chitchat, drink their coffee, shop, and sing their karaoke tunes, and that's about it. Occasionally Yukihisa might make a comment on Shiho's… erm, bulging physique, or talk about his virginity, or whatever, but character development (what little there is here) can be described as mild at best.

It doesn't help that these two are the least exciting people ever crafted for a visual novel. Yukihisa is even more boring than the purposely super-virgin weaklings of most VNs - an insignificant nobody, with no special traits. As for Shiho, if it weren't for her - almost comically - mammoth breasts, without any exaggeration, most wouldn't be able to remember her name. Even worse, their chemistry is non-existent - they are just… there. Two people that just hang around, and do stuff together. There's no comedy or drama, no emotional or playful scenes, nothing that will make you like or dislike them.

There was an attempt to subvert gender stereotypes, with Yukihisa being sensitive, and good with cooking, for example, whereas Shiho is the casual, girl next door that doesn't really care about girly stuff. Does that matter one big, though? Not much. It's definitely nice, however, that Shiho, despite her fanservice-y look, isn't the typical rom-com character, who is obsessed with the protagonist, and has no reason to exist other than to become a part of his life - but, again, this doesn't change the overall experience one bit.

It's also important to note that there's only one crossroad here, with only two choices, a part which basically acts as the ending selection screen, with both endings being very sort sequences that carry the same, boring vibe as the rest of the journey. Finally, the visual aspect of this Visual Novel is lacking as well. The background images are the typical, squeaky-clean streets, classrooms, and cafes of… pretty much every VN ever, but the real problem is that there's only one character to interact with, and aside from her occasional change of clothes, she seems to be stuck in the same, emotionless pose, with the two/three facial expressions failing to convey any real emotion.