In general, visual novels will often feature at least one childhood friend. Whether or not the main character ends up in a relationship with them depends on the player's choices. So much so that they have been documented here
and here.
- Aquarium: Theo has met Aqua on a beach 10 years ago, and she returns as his potential love interest.
- While Minori's technically Unlucky Childhood Friend in all routes of Brass Restoration except her own, it's only really mentioned in Yoshine's. And also in Yoshine's route, there's Koutarou. Minori's unlucky even in her own route. Just as things seem to be going well for her and Ryo, Ryo fails a Test Kiss and she takes it badly. The rest of the route involves little more than getting things back to the way they were.
- In Butterfly Soup, Diya and Min-seo become close friends at age 8. The two very clearly like each other (most obviously on Min's part), but Min moves away across the country. They reconnect after Min moves back after 5 years when they both start high school. Their budding romance is one of the main story-lines throughout the game.
- Quite common in Choices: Stories You Play.
- The Crown & the Flame: Dom, Kenna's childhood friend, is one of her love interests.
- It Lives: In It Lives in the Woods, Andy, Ava, Lucas and Stacy, all childhood friends of Devon, are love interests for him/her.
- High School Story: In the Class Act trilogy, Rory, Bailey's childhood friend, is one of his/her love interests.
- Home for the Holidays: Holly and Wyatt, Scarlett's childhood friends, are love interests for her.
- Wishful Thinking: Jaime, Lydia's childhood friend, is one of her love interests.
- Save the Date: Simon, Lauren's childhood friend, is one of her love interests.
- My Two First Loves: Mason, Emma's childhood friend, is one of her love interests.
- Foreign Affairs: Tatum, Kennedy's childhood friend, is one of his/her love interests.
- Wake the Dead: Troy, Ash's childhood friend, is one of his/her love interests.
- Kiri is an Unlucky Childhood Friend for Hiroki in Canvas 2, though he secretly reciprocated. Unfortunately, Yanagi was also one of these and Hiroki wanted to give those two a chance instead.
- In Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Maki Harukawa and Miu Iruma share a romantic fantasy of this kind. Maki's is with a childhood friend she met at an orphanage, and Miu's is with a childhood friend who continues to take care of her and is the only one who can see through her loud-mouthed perverted persona.
- In chapter 5 of The Devil on G-String, its revealed in a conversation by Haru & Kyousuke that they actually met each other when they were children, with Haru proposing marriage if they reunite as adults. In the true ending, they were together as a couple & had a daughter.
- In Doki Doki Literature Club!, one of your fellow club members is your childhood friend Sayori; she's the one who invites you to join the club in the first place. You can choose to devote poems to her and otherwise spend time with her. She confesses to you, and you can nicely reject her or accept her confession, the latter of which makes you a couple. It's then horrifically subverted when she commits suicide that evening.
- In DRAMAtical Murder, Aoba Seragaki met Koujaku when they were children and he comforted him over Aoba's parents being loving but very into their work. So, if Koujaku is the chosen love interest, this trope will take place at full throttle.
- Dreamy Days in West Tokyo revolves almost entirely around love between childhood friends. The Player Character returns to her old neighborhood after ten years and reconnects with the boys she used to be friends with as a little girl, causing old crushes to revive into full-blown romance.
- Kei from ef - a fairy tale of the two. is Hiro's childhood friend who has a crush on him.
- Yoko from ''Every Day's Different was close to the protagonist when they were little and has ben carrying a torch ever since. The protagonist had somewhat put her out of mind after he moved away but if the player pursues her route he realises how much he missed her and the two grow closer still.
- Hashihime of the Old Book Town is an interesting case. Although three of the five love interests/routes feature a childhood friend, Minakami is the one mostly fits the stereotype and the one that the main character canonically loves in the four routes that happen in the same timeline, as well the one with the longest route in the game and the one that even gets confessed by the main character in routes that are not his.
- Ryouta and Hiyoko in Hatoful Boyfriend are, for all intents and purposes, this because even though the female protagonist can romance other pigeons, the game's longest route has him choose to stay with her for as long as it takes to cure him of his disease and transplant Hiyoko's brain and spirit into a body.
- Honoo no Haramase Oppai Shintai Sokutei ~ Osananajimi Joshikousei Karada Sokutei de Zenin Nakadashi Paradise! (please excuse the long and Intentionally Awkward Title) allows you to get a Harem Ending with fourteen different Childhood Friends!
- Kanon: Childhood love interests are the theme of the harem (with the notable exception of Shiori, which is why it's recommended players finish Shiori's route first, since you don't learn about any childhood friends in her route).
- Chie and Shika in Kira☆Kira. She finds it very difficult to admit to him, but does eventually.
- Nicholl (the blue-haired half fairy and resident magic tutor/best friend to Princess Charming) from Lads In Distress is confirmed to have a route in the upcoming full version of the game and thus will presumably qualify for this trope.
- Lamune: After a series of She Is Not My Girlfriend, Kenji and Nanami do end up together.Interestingly/conveniently enough, it happened right as he was beginning to shape up to be one himself.
- In Little Busters!, the main heroine, Rin, is part of a group of very close childhood friends the protagonist has belonged to since he was quite young — the eponymous Little Busters. The Ship Tease between Riki and Kyousuke would also count as this.
- Three of the five main heroines in Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! are Childhood Friends. Miyako, in particular, is the Patient Childhood Love Interest, to whom Yamato has been maintaining a Just Friends stance to for the last several years, despite her being rather pushy about it.
- The protagonist of Melody can have one of these with Isabella. They liked each other since high school, but never dated due to Isabella's brother, Tim, being the protagonist's best friend. Now that they’re both single again, there’s a path to them finally getting together in the High School Sweetheart Ending.
- Morenatsu has this, as all potential love interests save one are all childhood friends of the player. Justified that it's been five years since the player last saw his friends, as he moved away to the city back when he and his friends were in early puberty. Some of them even had crushes on him back then before he left, and the rest (including the player) start to harbor feelings over the course of the game.
- Junpei and Akane from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors have been friends since elementary school. They have deeper feelings than just friendship, however... She praises and admires Junpei every chance she gets, and his biggest concern is escaping the Deadly Game with her. They even share sexual innuendos here and there throughout the game. However, they do not end up together... in this installment, at least. You have a chance to get them together in Zero Time Dilemma, which is part of the same series.
- Kouhei and Nagamori in ONE ~To The Radiant Season~ if you choose Nagamori's route. She gets flustered when he brings it up and Kouhei is such a jerk to her its amazing she still likes him.
- Both installments of Our Life can have the Main Character be childhood friends with their neighbors whom they can romance later.
- Chiho Sagisawa and Masaya Okonogi in Princess Evangile, who have known each other since elementary school. In her route, she's the victorious one, while in all other routes she's the unlucky one.
- Miou and Masayuki in A Profile. She is presented as unlucky since she and Masayuki broke up in the past. She appears to be the main heroine, however, meaning that in many ways she's still 'victorious'.
- Yoh from Saya no Uta is Fuminori's childhood friend who has a crush on him. Losing him to Saya, however, is the least of poor Yoh's various horrors and troubles.
- Makoto Itou and Otome Katou, if you choose her over all the other girls in School Days. The anime downright makes her the Unlucky Childhood Friend despite her sleeping with Makoto. Then again almost EVERY girl in the cast sleeps with him in that continuity.
- Shall We Date?: Ninja Assassin has the Player Character, Yui Takao, and her potential boyfriend Ichika. Ichika's fatheer and Yui's Disappeared Dad were good friends, so they've known one another for years. Problem is, Yui ends up involved with the Edo Vigilantes after the murder of her parents, and Ichika not only has no idea but he should never find out...
- Anyone you choose in SHUFFLE! will become the Victorious Childhood Friend except for Primula since they had all met Rin sometime as children and Asa met him in Jr High. Mess up going after a girl and you end up with Kaede, wishy washy on your choices and you end up with Kaede. She is clearly the default heroine in the game, even more so because she lived with him for most of the series EVERYONE becomes a Victorious Childhood Friend if you choose Tsubomi in Essence+ although it's implied that this is the expected end for the first game too when you choose a girl and Eustoma and Forbesii remind you that polygamy is legal in heaven.
- Souji and Sayaka in Suika. It can be subverted in the alternate route, though. However, in the main story she is the winner.
- Sunao Fujimori and Matsuri Honjou are both Sora Hashiba's childhood friends in Suki Na Mono Wa Suki Dakara Shoganai. You can choose either one in the visual novel but in the anime Sunao is the victorious childhood friend.
- Ava Crescentia and Kayto Shields of Sunrider grew up together and became romantically involved in their last year of high school. Then Ava went off to join the military right after graduation, with Kayto promising to follow in her footsteps. When they finally meet again twelve years later, Kayto has become captain of the Sunrider and Ava is his second-in-command; as such, she refuses any attempt to restart their old relationship as it wouldn’t be proper and could compromise their judgment. They can get together in the non-canonical [RE]Turn scenario and the Sunrider Academy spinoff, but the main series merely hints at the possibility as of Sunrider 4: The Captain's Return.
- Torta from Symphonic Rain is Chris' childhood friend and appears to be the main heroine although the golden ending features Arietta, Torta's sister and Chris's other childhood friend as the main heroine.
- True Love Junai Monogatari: This is what happens if the PC gets together with Mikae Morikawa, whom he has known since kindergarten and had a sort-of Childhood Marriage Promise with.
- Kindred Spirits on the Roof has Yuna and Hina, the only couple in the game that has known each other since before middle school. During the month of September, Hina learns that her track team captain and vice-captain are in a relationship, which helps her realize the nature of her feelings to Yuna and confess to her. Yuna is initially shocked, but after some soul-searching, accepts her confession.
