Friendship with Benefits 2 - 'Castle 1' Rewrite (Patreon)

Hey, everyone! I've written this in a few places, but I just thought I'd announce it so everyone is on the same page. Spoilers for Friendship with Benefits 2 from here on out:

'Castle 1,' which is the big climactic confrontation with Aurora and more, is getting a huge rewrite. Some fans have told me that it felt rushed with incredibly fast pacing, and I completely agree.

I was hesitant to have such a long story arc, and thus was too focused on getting back to the status quo, so I didn't let several moments that had been built up for the entire story so far breathe.

That includes satisfying character moments showing their development and evolution across the story, along with interesting interactions between the cast now that they're all together. I even glossed over some cool implications with the Virtue's magic.

I think this ultimately happened because I was too focused on the idea that this is a porn game, and a long action/story-focused arc would bore people. But I think someone who's already played this far into the game would be invested enough to let the porn take the backseat for what should be the culmination of all the story events thus far.

Fortunately, the game's still in development, and a second pass is easily done at this stage! The rewrites are almost three times longer filled with new character interactions, new sections of the story, and I even snuck in three new h-scenes:

Here's what the scenes were before:

Meeting Aurora -> Court -> Dungeon -> Aurora vs. Midnight -> Chaos in the City -> Old Arcadia -> Victory -> Celebration

Here's the new plan:

Meeting Aurora -> Court -> Dungeon Extended (much longer sequence with Morrigan and longer prison break with light fighting) -> Laying Low (Camping downtime with the cast) -> Nevermore Forest and Aurora vs. Midnight -> Old Aracadia Extended (new trials that the cast split up to solve) -> Preparation in the City (Training downtime with the cast) -> Final Battle -> Victory -> Celebration

I think the downtime where the characters can just sit around a campfire and discuss the events adds a lot. It lets the events and pacing of the story breathe while also giving me an opportunity to discuss previous events in more detail and set up future events. For example, I've had Blackcurrant start the arc feeling weak and unhelpful, then added training for her later on, and by the end she learns new tricks and contributes to the team. It's small, but it's much more than just her standing around, as in the present version.

I'm also happy to say that this big rewrite, although a lot of work, won't impede any of the other content planned for v0.8. Friendship with Benefits 2 is getting a second arc after all this action, and it's kicking off with a bang with the following routes:

• Farm 4 (feat. Blossom and Melody)

• Bar 4 (Fear. Riku, Skye, and Blossom)

• Boutique 4 (Feat. Sky, Blossom, and Melody)

• Morrigan 1 (Feat. Morrigan, Lily and Butters)

So yeah, that's probably even bigger than v0.1 overall, with 8 sex scenes.

Moving forward, now that the cast is together, there's a lot more freedom in how I can rewrite these stories and combine the cast. So it's fair to say that the game is definitely going to be split in half with 'Castle 1' being the dividing point.

Future content planned so far includes:

• Castle 3 (Feat. Princess Selene)

• Castle 4 (Feat. Princess ???)

• Castle 5 (Feat. Princess ???)

• Dawn 1 (Winner of Ruby Poll)

• Dawn 2 (Winner of Ruby Poll)

And there are a few other ideas I'm thinking of expanding on for a 1.1 update:

Honeycrisp x Riku route. Penelope x Butters route. Ruby x Blackcurrant route.

As you may be able to see, I'm thinking of characters that haven't interacted much so far in the series and pairing them up!