WTC: Relentless Protagonist review

A Relentless Creator

I don’t go out of my way to disparage anybody’s work. It takes a lot to make a game of any type, and it does me no pleasure to tear apart something somebody has worked hard on and that they clearly have a passion and interest in. All of that being said…

I did not like this one.

I’m going to do my best to evaluate WTC: Relentless Protagonist based solely on what it has, and not what it could have or should have. If you’re a fan of visual novels, take a deep breath with me, and let’s get started.

I went into WTC: Relentless Protagonist completely blind, as I do for just about any game I can. I didn’t know what I was getting into other than that it was a visual novel, a genre of game I generally enjoy. I’ve played all the major ones at least, the Danganronpa and the Zero Escape games.

What I wasn’t prepared for, was the next-to most recent entry in a long-running series I had never heard of before.

WTC (Welcome to Chichester) is a visual novel series created by Triority Interactive Novels, which has been running since as far back as 2018, and probably even before that (the earliest entry in the series hit Steam in 2018). There seem to be at least twelve titles in the series that I can tell, but the actual number is muddy because the developer has thoughtfully included the scripts and project code as DLC for those who might benefit from learning how the games are made, which is very cool and very commendable.

Story (?) Time

The WTC series appears to follow a male character (which can be named by the player, and defaults to “Ethan Lewis”) who is a spy (?) and serves as the protagonist, and also a female character named Grendel Jinx who is the protagonist’s partner, but she’s also a villain, and she steals money from the protagonist relentlessly, but she’s also incredibly wealthy and owns every bank in their city along with her mother…

If you feel lost reading that, that’s pretty much the experience I had with the first portion of the game. You’re immediately dropped into a scenario with these characters as if you’re supposed to know them, which isn’t necessarily the game’s fault since it’s at least number eleven in a series of twelve games, but I was often left scratching my head.

The first of several prologues (yes, several) just feels like it drags on and on, and you’re faced with a static screen for a majority of the 5-10 minute sequence depending on how fast you can read. To make matters worse, the game’s writing definitely didn’t appeal to me, although I can see how it could have collected a community of fans.

The strained attempts at humor didn’t exactly sway me, and the confusing, hyperactive, seemingly impulsive asides basically made my eyes glaze over. There’s probably some silliness and fun to be had in WTC: Relentless Protagonist, and there are some shocking twists and turns, but I couldn’t cut through the noise to find much that I enjoyed in the entirety of the narrative experience.

Where WTC: Relentless Protagonist does excel, are its menus and accessibility options. You can tell these games have been around the block a few times, and it must have benefitted from a ton of player feedback or testing because it has all of the options and features you could want in a visual novel. Text manipulation options like high contrast, size, kerning, and line spacing, are all here. Additionally, you can also turn self-voicing on or off to have the story read to you with a robot voice, among several other helpful settings in the preferences menu.

The design of these menus is simple, but functional as well. I wouldn’t say they carry a theme of any sort, but they do what needs to be done and they do it well.

Make What You Want of It

Another place WTC: Relentless Protagonist shines is its extras! From the main menu, you have your standard array of start, load, and preferences, but then you also have the Extra Options menu. Here, you can access quite a number of things, including a music player that contains all of the game’s (serviceable) music, story recaps, the still backgrounds, all of the possible achievements you can collect throughout the game, and more.

I wouldn’t say these kinds of features are uncommon in the visual novel genre, but it was still nice to see them here. The only strange note I have, which is also in line with the rest of the game’s apparent inability to focus, is that the fourth through the eighth buttons on the start menu all take you to the menu. In fact, clicking “Extra Options” actually takes you to the “Achievements” page, but there is also a separate button on the start menu for “Achievements” that takes you to the same place. Huh?

Anyways, it’s a small gripe for an otherwise great feature. I just wanted to make a note of it.

Art, even in video games, is relative.

With that said, I wasn’t exactly bowled over by the presentation of this game. I think everything looks a little bland, but serviceable. From what I saw, it seems that the same assets are used more or less between WTC entries, which I think is a smart way of cranking out stories when you have a bunch of them to tell, which the developers at Triority Interactive Novels clearly do.

There are some interesting situations and locations that players will visit over the course of the game, but I wouldn’t expect anything like you might find in a Spike Chunsoft game. This is very clearly an indie effort. A valiant one, but an indie effort all the same.

Now’s the part where I’m supposed to wrap everything up, bring it on home, and give the game a score.

I’ll reiterate what I said at the beginning of this review: I don’t get any pleasure out of knocking down a creator who has had the courage to make something and put it out for judgment. I’m not interested in denigrating something somebody put effort into.

No, I didn’t like WTC: Relentless Protagonist. I like visual novels, but I don’t think this one was for me. It absolutely is for the fans of the game who have been there for the other ten or so entries, and they’ll likely be there for the next ten as well.