Skinship and Best-friendship

This section describes the two biggest new features to the Nintendo DS version of Girl's Side: skinship and best friends. Use the two in combination to get the new Best Friend endings!

Skinship
Best Friends

Skinship

Oh, the confusing glory of the skinship system. In a nutshell, you poke and prod and rub your man to gain Love or Friend Points, which are required for the Best Friend endings. In addition, they give small (but significant) bonuses to Tokimeki and Friend parameters.

How to skinship!

In a nutshell, you can use skinship whenever the guy appears on the right-hand touch screen, and while his dialogue appears on the screen. (Exceptions are: 1) when talking to the guy at the cafe afterschool, or 2) when 2+ characters are on the screen (one is on the left and one is on the right).) To use basic skinship, just follow these three easy steps.

When the guy is on the right and his dialogue is on the screen, slide the pen across the touch screen instead of tapping it.
Rub, tap, or squiggle across the screen.
Continue until the icons appear to raise (or lower) skinship!

Icons

Some of the following icons may appear during skinship. Each icon represents 3 points. Up to 6 icons can appear at once.

Pink heart	Love Points up!
Blue heart	Love Points down!
Yellow music note	Friend Points up!
Pink music note	Friend Points down!
One star	Close, but no extra effect
Three stars	Minus effects are cut in half, while good effects are given 1.5 points.

Note

Take note of where and when you find the three stars. On a good date, these stars can give you huge bonuses!

Love/Friend level

After performing skinship, a short piece of dialog appears appears on the screen, and the color of the dialogue box indicates the skinship level. What do these matter? Well, getting a high Love level makes it easier to get Love points, while getting a high Friend level makes it easier to get Friend points. The starting point along the route is determined by your relationship level.

Color	Level	Leads to	Starting
Green	1	Level 2 Friend Level 2 Love	Normal
Pale yellow	2 Friend	Level 3 Friend Level 2 Love	Friendly
Yellow	3 Friend	-	-
Pale pink	2 Love	Level 2 Friend Level 3 Love	Like
Pink	3 Love	-	-

Note

Although you can move back and forth with Level 1 or Level 2, Level 3 goes nowhere else. Therefore, if you accidentally move too high along the wrong level, you may actually want to score minus points to move back down.
These levels reset every encounter or date. Think you can't score that many points on one date? Then you're not skinshipping enough!

Skinship screen

For the most part, skinship is possible any time the guy appears at the right side on the touch screen. The screen is divided into 12 sections representing Head (forehead and hair), Face (eyes, ears, mouth, nose), Body (neck, chest, shoulders), and Hand (wrist, palm, fingers). The areas are sometimes reassigned depending on the guy's pose (ex: Mihara-kun often poses with one hand raised, and Suzuka sometimes has both hands behind his head), but the area for the divisions stays the same. The following image shows the basic divisions:

Skinship locations

There are up to eight possible locations for skinship during a date, and two other major possibilities outside of dates.

	Location	Advice
Date	Meeting place	The entire screen reacts the same way. Can also be used when you get hit on while waiting.
	Arrive at date	Skinship!
	Choose specific date	Examples: Which ride at the amusement park, which area of the seaside park. Do NOT skinship until AFTER choosing your response.
	Multiple choice	Do NOT skinship until AFTER choosing your response. If you give a good response, skinship away! If you give a poor response, do NOT skinship!
	Date rating	If the guy enjoyed the date, skinship away! If the guy hated the date, do NOT skinship!
	Spend more time/ Walk home	The screen is divided into two areas: hands and not hands. Select the hands to hold hands on the way home, or select the other area for some solid skinship.
	In front of house	The entire screen reacts the same way. You'll get a bonus skinship opportunity if you're holding hands.
Not date	CG event	The entire screen reacts the same way.
Not date	Afterschool	The entire screen reacts the same way.

Note

You cannot fail with normal skinship at the meeting place. It even works for Field Trips with Himuro-sensei!
Although there are exceptions, in general, do NOT skinship when the guy asks a question.
After the multiple choice or during an event, the guy may talk for a long time. Although you can skinship as much as you want during these times, doing too much makes the guy upset. In my experience, limit yourself to two skinship opportunities during these events.
Swimming-related dates (beach, pool) have fewer skinship opportunities.
The most skinship opportunities can be found with the Night Parade at the Amusement Park in August. Milk this event for skinship!

Holding hands is a great way to get massive amounts of skinship points, but guys won't hold hands with just anyone. Watch the following two areas and check the reaction to other types of skinship before attempting to hold hands.

Build at least 500 Love and/or Friend points with skinship. (There's no way to see the exact number of points, but just understand that it's a significant amount.)
Get relationship to at least "Like".

Skinship movements

Although unconfirmed, the type of movement you use on the touch pad seems to affect the results. I've gotten good results with drawing little check marks, slashing in different directions across an area, and just plain poking. The guide book recommends rubbing very quickly across a small area "the size of one lens from Morimura-kun's glasses" to gain the three stars. Personally, it doesn't seem any more effective than less stressful actions, but try different motions for different reactions.

Common skinship

The following skinship tips apply to all characters.

When your relationship is Like or Love and you reach a third date at the same location, try to find the "special" answer for a long speech and extra opportunities for skinship.
The effects of skinship change depending on the relationship and the number of dates.

The "best" places for skinship often require building Love or Friend points first.

Certain general date locations work well with certain types of skinship:

Crowded dates (shopping, fireworks) = Body
Dark dates (movies, planetarium) = Hand
Cold dates (skiing, skating) = Body
Nice outdoors (park) = Head

Special date locations work very well with certain types of skinship according to individual. Find these for huge point bonuses.

Skin dates = Beach, swimming
Exciting dates = Amusement park
Scenic dates = Habataki Tower
Sound dates = Movies, concerts

Skinship is okay before answering the multiple choice question for the following dates:

Cherry blossom festival (hanami)
Fireworks
Beach
Karaoke
Other individual locations (see "Individual Skinship" below)

In short, pay attention to where you are, to the guy's personality, and to how the system may interpret the skinship. Suzuka-kun might not appreciate a bear hug in the middle of the mall, and Himuro-sensei probably won't react well if you start smacking his head in the middle of the movies.

Individual skinship

Each character has a best area for skinship, special locations where you can perform skinship before answering a question, and a unique skinship quirk. Remember that you may have to build points before the "best" area kicks in, and don't forget the common special locations noted above.

Name	Best	Pre-question locations	Quirks/Notes
Hazuki	Head	- Planetarium - Zoo	- Imagine gently rubbing his head like a little kid - Don't glomp onto him in public areas - Focus on his head when arriving at a date location - Skin dates = Body
Morimura	Face	- Green Park - Greenhouse	- Poke at his glasses. Seriously. - Trying "teasing" him. You'll lose points, but jump Love levels. - Skin, Exciting dates = Face
Mihara	Hand, Head	- Merry-go-round - Bungee jump - Green Park	- His flowing hair and soft hands are the key to skinship - Hands are more effective early on, while Head is more effective later - Love points are hard to get until Like/Love relationship, so build Friend points early - More Friend points also help jump Love levels later - Skin dates = Face
Kijo	Face	- Bowling - Haunted house	- Kijo scares of easily, so don't aim for just Love points. Love points will only increase with Friend points. - No bad skinship at special date locations. In particular, Skin dates work very well, so work the swimming dates!
Suzuka	Face	- Bowling - Pool - Ice skating	- Aim for the sexy bandage on his face - Suzuka gets embarrassed easily. Build Love points quietly in places where you're alone or no one will see - No bad skinship when he saves you from being hit on at the meeting point - Build good skinship at the beach
Hibiya	Hand	- Seaside Park - Aquarium	- Hibiya is jumpy, so don't touch the same place repeatedly - Pay attention to the general date locations (crowded, dark) noted above. They work extra well with Hibiya - Once on the Love levels, minus effects disappear - Don't be afraid to aim for skinship that gives big points to Love/Friend and takes away from the other
Himuro	Head, Face	- Billiards - Museum	- Careful, casual skinship works on Field Trips, too - At Friendly or lower, aim for the Head - At Like/Love, aim for the Face - Love points cannot be gained until Like/Love - At Like/Love, you can climb the Love levels quite easily
Amanohashi	Body	- Shopping - Cruiser	- When shopping, pre-question skinship will not fail - Build Friend points to make it easier to move along the Love levels - Love levels reduce bad skinship - Sound dates = Body

Best Friends

With so many guys around, it makes sense that you can't possibly love ALL of them at once! So "1st Love" gives you a new option: Make some of these guys your best friend. To make a best friend, you need two guys: the future Best Friend (abbreviated below as BF) another another Friendly Guy (abbreviated below as FG).

Requirements for BF

Relationship of Friendly or higher.
Highest total Tokimeki and Friend.
Dated at least 6 times

At least 2 dates for adults (not including Field Trips with Himuro-sensei)

Requirements for BF Event

FG has relationship of Friendly or higher.
Date FG twice within 8 days.

Either date on continuous holidays or date two Sundays in a row.

FG must walk you home at the end of the date.

Time frame

Event will occur only between May, Year 2 and February, Year 3.
Event will occur only ONCE per character.

Note

Although unconfirmed from official sources, it's possible that the event only occurs once for BOTH characters. In other words, if Hazuki-kun is the FG in the above event and makes Morimura-kun the BF, Hazuki-kun cannot be used as either FG or BF later on. I ran into this situation once, and for the life of me, could not make Hibiya-kun my best friend later on in the game.

The BF will show up at your house at the end of the date. Call the BF. You'll get two choices:

"There's been a misunderstanding."

The character does NOT become a best friend. This character can still achieve a normal love ending.

"I like someone else."

The character becomes a best friend, and the following changes are made:

Tokimeki -50
Friend +50
Hurt = 0 (fixed)

This means NO MORE BOMBS.

Relationship = Friendly.

However, the internal relationship level can actually be higher! Check the Tokimeki Panel with Tsukushi for the internal relationship values.

Conversation changes.

See Afterschool.

You can achieve Best Friend endings.

See Best Friend Love Ending or Best Friend Ending .

Skinship is the key to getting best friend endings, so build the Love and Friend Points like mad to achieve each type of ending.

Note

For a normal character, it's relatively easy to get best friend endings, since you can continue to ask him out on dates even after he becomes a best friend. Himuro-sensei and Amanohashi are another matter. Although I haven't tested it out yet, in theory, the best (and perhaps only) way to achieve these endings would be to treat most of the game as if you're trying to achieve a real ending for the adult character. Build up all the required skinship points before triggering the best friend event (try putting it off until January, Year 3, if you can).

Back to the Index