Let’s not stay friends – Frenz ~ Plot & Character Analysis

I’ll be honest. I have not played many indie otome games on Steam. And I have a couple of reasons for this:

1. I prefer to play otome games on the Switch.
2. I prefer games that have voice acting.
3. Call me picky, but I’ve found (after a few failed attempts), I don’t enjoy otome games that I don’t find visually appealing. And for me, I have found few indie otome games that are drawn in an artistic style I like.

Now, I did get my start on Steam with Amnesia and Hakuouki. And considering Hakuouki is one of my favorite otome games of all time, I do spend a certain amount of time on Steam with my favorite Shinsengumi captains.

During a general perusal of the otome games available on Steam, I stumbled upon the game: Let’s not stay friends. And the moment I saw it, I thought it looked cute. So, I bought it on DEEP discount and waited until I was looking for a quick, fluffy read.

Well, I finished Frenz route, and I have to say that I was charmed. No, seriously.

I love this grumpy, arrogant battle mage…and his route! 

As always, character and plot analysis and spoilers after the cut!

Okay, so unabashedly, the childhood friends trope is one of my favorites!

I love the idea of two people who have been together since childhood, falling in love and building their marriage (or future relationship) upon that friendship. I love how characters in this trope have a history together that is well-established, they know each other inside and out, and this foundation allows the characters to explore other topics in the story, besides getting to know each other. Now, a relationship can’t be built on the past, so the best childhood friends routes build upon and grow the established relationship between the characters. People grow up and mature; relationships have too as well.

And to me, Inske and Frenz’s relationship hits all these hallmarks of the childhood friend trope. They have been together since they were children. Their moms are friends and have always made comments about how Frenz and Inske behave like brother and sister. But, as they got older, Frenz came to hate being described as an older brother to Inske. He found himself angry with the title of brother. He wanted more. And with graduation from the magical academy, they both attend, looming over his head, Frenz realizes he needs to say something to Inske before they go their own separate ways after graduation.

Inske and Frenz have a very comfortable relationship. They tease and playfully bicker with each other, and sometimes get under each other’s skin. Frenz has an arrogant, cynical streak and can be sarcastic and hard-headed, and Inske dishes it right back to him. But they also look out for each other and are loyal friends. Inske knows all the good traits of her cynical friend that the rest of the student body doesn’t get to see. And there are moments when she genuinely disarms him (cue the blushes!) with her compliments of his character.

Inske trusts Frenz completely and knows she is safe with him. Which is important for Inske because she’s a bit absentminded and scatterbrained. She is very passionate about becoming a master of artifacts, whose job is, to go around the world looking for magical artifacts and gemstones to make magical amulets. She is very good at making amulets and has found the perfect job for her skill set. But she is also the kind of person who forgets to lock her dorm room door when she leaves for class, forgets to pick up her laundry, and forgets to fix her alarm clock so she keeps running the risk oversleeping for class.

Frenz on the other hand is calm, level-headed, reliable, and dependable. He protects and takes care of his scatterbrained friend, which has been his goal for years. He chose to become a battle mage because he knew Inske wanted to be a master of artifacts. And in this magical world, battle mages protect, while the master of artifacts searches for magical artifacts. So, Frenz knew that someone would have to protect Inske, and he wanted to be the person to do that. And after he made his decision to be a battle mage, he turned all his focus into becoming the best battle mage he could be. This dedication earned him the title of the best battle mage at the academy. But Frenz didn’t care about being the best in the academy, or all the people who constantly wanted to challenge his position. All Frenz cares about is being able to protect Inske.

Frenz is arrogant and confident about his battle mage abilities and schoolwork, which leads everyone at the academy, including Inske, to think that Frenz is invincible. However, that’s not true.

Frenz is scared to death to admit to Inske that he is in love with her. He is scared that if he says anything, he would lose her friendship. So, for years, Frenz stays her best friend and tries to stay content with their relationship.

And poor Inske doesn’t do her long-suffering friend any favors. She is completely oblivious to the fact that her best friend is in love with her. Normally obliviousness in otome games drives me crazy! I mean, sometimes the hero or heroine is so oblivious to the affections of another character they just come off as stupid. But because of her scatterbrained tendencies, I can see how she’s so busy just trying to get by with her daily life (and maintaining her scholarship), that she doesn’t have the brain bandwidth to notice how Frenz acts around her. Also, this route is really short, so Inske didn’t have much time to be oblivious, which helped matters greatly.

Frenz and Inske partner up for a field exam that determines whether or not they graduate. They have to enter a section of the grounds around the academy and find the portal that will bring them back to the exam end point in the academy. The grounds around the school are filled with ferocious beasts and wild, carnivorous plants. This is why, historically, battle mages accompany the master of artifacts. The battle mages protect the master of artifacts from all the dangers around them.  Frenz, the battle mage, and Inske, the master of artifacts, have to work together to survive and pass the exam.

So, with limited time before graduation, Frenz has to find the courage to confess his feelings and desires for a romantic relationship to Inske. And Inske has to figure out her own feelings and whether she wants to pursue a romantic relationship with Frenz.

Now.

I’ll be the first to admit, that this route moved fast.

While in the Forest of Wise Dew, Frenz finally reaches his limit with being compared to a brother or father and talking about Taf (another student who is constantly hitting on Inske). He stops thinking about all the “what-ifs,” and out of frustration of not being seen as a romantic interest, he passionately kisses Inske.

Depending on the choice selection, the reader can choose to have Inske end the kiss and they just “stay friends” or you can choose to have Inske let it happen which is essentially Inske accepting Frenz’s kisses and the relationship.

And it was a bit jarring for Inske to go from having no blatant romantic interest in Frenz to having her latent physical desire for him awoken by his kisses. I mean, it didn’t feel tawdry to me because Frenz and Inske have a deep friendship where they already know each other so well. So, the physical desire is just a new element to an already established relationship. But I will say, Inske wasted no time kissing Frenz back, which in a lot of ways represented an entire paradigm shift in how she saw her best friend. She processed her feelings really quickly!

As they are in the forest, their “defining the relationship” conversation, keeps getting interrupted. First, by a woolvyr (wild beast), that Frenz has to fight off to save himself and Inske. After they survive the attack of the woolvyr, Frenz admits that he loves Inske and she continues to process his confession. But then Inske pauses the conversation again, because she realizes the sun is setting and they haven’t found the portal yet. They both realize that staying in the forest overnight is dangerous and they need to get back to the academy to pass their exam.

This leads to another reader choice. Look for the portal now and finish the conversation later. OR. Stay here and finish the conversation, with the thought that you’ll have to camp out in the forest overnight. I really wish the writers hadn’t separated the story into two different endings here.

The look for the portal ending had such a cute moment with Professor Aknerash (the kindly, sadistic teacher who created the exam). I LOVE Aknerash! He’s so hilariously morbid! It turns out that Aknerash is Frenz’s grandpa, which explains why Frenz is the only student in the academy who is not terrified of Aknerash. The bummer about this ending is that Frenz learns of Inske’s feelings the following day because he overhears Inske tell Taf to stop making passes at her because she likes someone else. And this ending gives a little less closure to the future of the couple. Inske and Frenz find the portal and pass their exam. They are still together, it’s just not as clear as the other “good” ending about what the future will hold for them.

If the reader chooses to stay here, it essentially means that Inske doesn’t want to put this conversation on hold and is willing to spend the night with Frenz in the forest. And this selection culminates with Frenz and Inske consummating their physical relationship in a cave.  After they sleep together, they discover it’s the same place where Aknerash hid the portal. It’s the cave of the woolvyr that Frenz fought off earlier in the story! Aknerash wasn’t going to make passing this exam easy on his grandson! (HAHA!) With the portal in the cave, Inske and Frenz are able to go back to the academy that night and pass the exam.

The positive of this ending is that Inske doesn’t delay confirming her feelings about Frenz and she decides figuring out their relationship takes top priority. It’s also sweet to see them together as a couple, excited about their future. Also, I can’t deny how sweet Frenz was after they had slept together in the cave. He was so adorable! And this is the “true” ending because it gives the most closure to their story. After graduation, the two get jobs working together. Inske will be a master of artifacts, and Frenz will be her battle mage. It’s all they ever wanted. And it is implied that Frenz is carrying around a wedding ring, but he hasn’t worked up the courage to propose! (So cute!)

Both “good” endings are cute and have their merits. I just wished it had been combined into one really fleshed out ending. Still, I can’t deny that I enjoyed the endings as they are.

While not perfect, it was a lovely ending for Frenz and Inske.

-Final Thoughts-

I love Frenz! He’s a great hero for me, who hits a lot of my favorite character traits! He’s grumpy at times, but completely capable and trustworthy.  It’s so cute when Inske compliments or encourages our grumpy, cynical hero and he has no retort. He only blushes! That’s the best! 

Inske is a great heroine! She’s a young woman trying to do well in school to maintain her scholarship and graduate so she can pursue a career in a field she loves. Her friendship with Frenz means the world to her, and in this route, she chooses to live a life with him by her side.

What can I say?

Yes, the pace was fast. Yes, it wasn’t a deep story with amazingly detailed world building. Yes, the characters were uncomplicated and straight forward.

And I enjoyed every minute of it!

This is a good route for me! I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet little story. Frenz’s route in Let’s not stay friends is a short story that allows you to just sit back and enjoy a tale of two friends who decide they don’t want to live without each other.

And I loved it!