Uh....huh.....well....that was a punch to the family jewels. I watch the intro for this game, and it has a passable James Bond Wannabe theme tune and a stylish, kind of imposing vibe to what appears to be some kind of tecno futuristic conspiracy.....thang.

I think to myself "hmm, visual novels are not my bag, but by golly this intro has me intrigued. This bodes well for the game"

And then it starts.....yeesh! I'm not going to rag on this for having no gameplay, because I didn't even get far enough to see if there is any. And anyway - ranting over a visual novel not having any gameplay would be like raging at a duck because it's not a chihuahua. It is what it is, and what it is is cheesy manga artwork and storytelling, with awfully twee music and general sensibilities.

The tone of that intro is so misleading - it looks swish, the theme tune is slick and mildly soulful, and it suggests an adult story of dark themes. Then you see the in game artwork....oh boy! Simple designs, basic colours and detail, and bog standard anime designs. Fine, if you like that kind of thing, but, uh, I don't, sooooo.....

The writing is terrible: cheesy, stupid, and very much at the tweenage level of execution. The premise of the game seems to cover relatively mature elements such as drama, suspense and danger, but then goes the "kooky" route, with silly personalities and exaggerated images. Big eyes? check! Overdone poses to compensate for limited animation? check! Goofball characters to compensate for the limited attention span of our audience, and the writers lack of skill? check!

Ten minutes of crap jokey bits, cringe inducing character interactions, meandering dialogue, plinky plonky music, and lame visuals, was enough for me. Two options presented themselves: (1) undertake a lobotomy to achieve the necessary dulling of my senses and mental faculties so as to be able to enjoy this experience further, or (2) turn it off.

I like my brain as it is, so opted for the latter.

This review does come with the caveats though, that I dislike:

anime stylings
tweeness in style and storytelling
visual novels (not all of them - just crap like this one. It just so happens that most of them I've experienced have been like this)

So, if you like any, or all, of those things: this is probably a recommended. But, for me, I found it hugely tedious and not worth bothering with.

Vn short to hang out.

Now that this episode of the series has gone free to play, and seeing as there are further instalments just around the corner; I thought that this would be a good time to take a look at Welcome To Chichester 2 Part 1.

As I type this, I still have no idea which way the thumb icon at the top of this review is going to be pointing. Having seen some other games of the series previous to this, I have had the opportunity to warm to some of the characters, and this, I am certain, helped to make this one more palatable than might otherwise have been the case.

As the game opens, we are treated to a quite inspiring opening sequence complete with a professional soundtrack, which is likely to grab your interest, but could also be seen as misleading for what is to come if you are new to the Chichester catalogue. Following this we have a more traditional VN presentation with most of the traditional options and extras, excepting a gallery.

The fairly brief story continues on from The Spy Of America & The Long Vacation, which is now also free to play. If you have not seen this, then there is a quick recap option from the opening menu, which may thin the fog a little as to what is going on, but it won't leave you with a clear picture. Nonetheless it is a good inclusion and I'd certainly suggest watching it before starting the game proper.

The player character wakes up in a hotel room believing that they have arrived in Chichester, New Hampshire for a mountaineering holiday they had booked in Part 1. It soon becomes apparent that not only have they failed to escape from the game's main antagonist, Grendel Jinx, but also that the aforementioned has scuppered the holiday plans and redirected them to Chichester on the south coast of England; for reasons that will remain obscure throughout this instalment; although with the apparent intention of pairing up the MC with the tourist guide of the title. As per the theme of the series, the narrative style is one of casual, slapstick nonsense.

- Great introduction and decent soundtrack throughout
- Previous story recap option
- Choice of main character gender and name
- All expected in-game options available, including back, log, and skip
- Large sprites for every primary and secondary character, several expressions, but no animation

- Bewildering story especially for new players to the series
- Only a couple of decision moments therefore limited player interaction
- Strange ending that is likely to leave you thinking “huh?”
- Considering translation isn't an issue, there are far too many grammatical errors

I read every available review before starting to play this game, and have come to the conclusion that if you take all of them and then work out the average assessment, you will have an accurate representation of what lies in store. For those of you who don't want to make that much effort; I feel that it mostly comes down to whether or not you are already familiar with these games, and whether flippant spoof narration appeals to you or not. I am going to finish by responding to a couple of observations that I found among the other reviews and comments:

- ”This is a complete load of unfunny garbage”
In the late 1990s/early 2000s, there were “comedy” programmes broadcast in the UK called “The League Of Gentlemen” and “Little Britain”. These series left me cold. To my tastes they were completely unfunny, trash material that were not worthy of broadcast. And yet, they were tremendously successful, loved by millions. I believe that, in principle, the same applies here. I didn't get any audible laughs from the text, but I did have 3 or 4 pronounced smiles. Whether you find this amusing or not, will come down to personal taste. It is not a clear case of black and white as to whether it is funny or not.

- ”the art style of the characters and background don’t work together, tonally or humorously”
I think this is a little unfair. A small section of the game involved a tour around the town and features actual photographs of the area as game backgrounds. The game is happy to mock itself, with the characters recognising that is all that they are; and cartoon characters imposed upon real life backgrounds has been used previously on film to tremendous success. Here is what it looks like in-game:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1020574038070125525/2A26DF43C2357E94AF7A2559848E3FFCA6B70B35/

And here is an example most of us will have enjoyed a great deal during our younger years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nyu46d6RaM

Final thought: if you fancy a broadly mindless cruise through a silly light-hearted story which has further instalments to follow, then go work your way through Part 1 before trying this. If you want something with more depth, then this is not going to work for you. After much deliberation whilst constructing this review, I am going to give it a thumbs up, but only on the basis that you have already gained some familiarity and are happy about what to expect.

Please follow our curator page, Otome Lovers, if you'd like to see more reviews like this one!

(Got this game courtesy of the developer's submission to OMEGA Trade - G. Thanks!)


After playing several bad games lately, I heard this one had recently gotten achievements. So I thought...I may as well try it out...after all, it is short (clocking in at about 75 minutes for me, but taking longer to read all dialogue and try to get all achievements). I remember playing part 1 to this story, so when I saw this offer land at my feet, I was intrigued to continue the story.

Welcome To... Chichester 2 : The Spy Of Chichester And The Eager Tourist Guide (for the rest of the review, it will be called "this game" due to the long title...I know it lacks a professional flare, but I don't want to torture my hands that much...nor your eyes) is a decently written visual novel. It picks up where the prequel left off by leaving you in Chichester....but not your Chichester....what do I mean by that? Probably best to play the first game to find out (well....turns out that what used to be "chapter 1" is now a "chapter 0 preview", so there's a missing chapter in-between...but I feel like I'm still up to speed with chapter 0 telling me what happened, even though there's still that missing chapter...if that makes any sense....). Point is, you're not where you thought you are, which leads to some light-hearted comedy antics (like implied yuri r*pe, when the punchline is far more comedic......though I wouldn't mind the former either.~ )

Now, although this game is well-written, it's not without flaws. There are several areas where punctuation is absent, and after several attempts to get all achievements, I'm missing "Bad Luck", which seems unattainable...also, my name is locked at "asdf" now, my 2nd attempt name when I had several other attempts after. Now I'm unable to change my name even if I start a new file (heck, my name is still "asdf" before even asked for my name). There is also a bug where the dialogue breaks the 4th wall (Cindi says 3rd wall instead of 4th) at the stone tablet and the previous dialogue that was there to briefly discuss the tablet is no longer available on subsequent playthroughs. I would love to see these ironed out and to hear back from the developer of this game in regards to my concerns (if he chooses to read this....) .

The visuals are nothing stellar, but the female characters are pleasant on the eyes. There seems to be various parts where character portraits don't appear though. It's not a major bug, but it is an oversight...it's namely involving the "loli-ish" character Grendel. As for the music, it's pretty standard-issue visual novel quality. Not great, but it gets the job done.

So, do I recommend this game? Of course! Though I'm apparently missing a chapter in the complete understanding of this series (missing part 1...unless part 0 is more-or-less the same game/plot), I still say that it's a competent title that will hold your interest if you're looking for something light-hearted. I do hope that part 3 will elaborate on the vague situation Cindi is involved in, though. If you're looking for something serious, then this may not be for you as there is far more goofy humor than anything resembling a serious plot (well....until the last moments of the canon ending and the epilogue).

7/10 I enjoyed part 0 (formerly part 1) and I enjoyed part 2. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this series.

EDIT: So, the game went through some technical changes, which made it stop making problems on my system and maybe more importantly, replaced the character art with sprites that look fine and are consistent in style. Also, it seems that some minor errors and typos had been fixed over time. The core content, however, still is what it is and, at best, barely worth the asking price.

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So, this is a bit more of... A thing(?) than the first one, thanks to being a bit longer, but generally, it's the same random mess of free assets and poor jokes. I also had a huge problem to get it running, being greeted by black screen pretty much every time I've tried to launch it, only succeeding once - fortunately, I didn't need more tries to "complete" it.

The only value in it is the fact that I've learned about Chichester being a town in England and a few facts about it. Later checked it out on Wikipedia and I guess that 12th-century cathedral is quite cool... Wait, what was I writing about? Right, the game! It's horrible, I think the author means well, but don't waste your time and money on it. Even those $2.

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PS If you're interested in quality Western VNs, check out my curator page.

This is a complete load of unfunny garbage. The assets (ie the backgrounds) feel like they were stolen and this visual novel is visually derivative. Sorry, this is a short, terrible, boring PowerPoint presentation seemingly completed lazily, not worth your time.

Style

Art
This was done on a budget, and it shows.
Eroge Content
Nope.

Music and sound

It's there.

Story

Basics
I was asked to review this, and I feel a bit like a school teacher being asked by a student to review an assignment they weren't particularly confident about.

The story in this feels like something someone would write without considering that if you want to write for others, you have to come up with something they'll be interested in, not something that's filled with non-sequiturs and what seem like in jokes they share with their friends, and completely seems like its written for their own amusement.

All I can remember from this after playing it is the protagonist is remarkably obtuse and resilient to being smashed by frying pans, he has terrible geography, and is friends with someone who constantly enjoys abusing him. It's got Archer vibes, without really having any of the endearingness or humour of Archer.

Characters
I didn't have a clue who they were, what they were doing, or why, and they were so random and annoying eventually I didn't care. That's not good.

Plot
There's some kind of plot here that's quite involved, but I was only given the second game out of a trilogy, and the thoughtful recap function that was included didn't help me at all figure out what was going on. So appreciate the effort to have it there, but it didn't help the slightest, and I still didn't have a clue what was going on.

Gameplay

No game elements.
Replayability
I didn't have a clue what was going on the first time through, I wasn't really invested enough to try a second playthrough.

Summary

So when I read a VN, I start with 'okay, does it have sex'. If the answer is no, that's fine, does it have a story and characters I'm invested in. If the answer is still no, then it goes on to 'does it look like it had a huge budget or a lot of love put into it'. And if that's still no, then I go play something else and tell others not to waste their time.

If you want something budget and cheesy but still cute, go play the Without Within series to see what you can do without being a super great author or artist. A game doesn't have to cost a lot to be good, and in this case, just because it's cheap doesn't really mean it's worth a try, because surely your time is also worth something to you.

If you're the dev and want some constructive criticism, feel free to contact me.

Welcome To... Chichester 2 has a rather amusing story that doesnt take itself seriously. It adresses the Reader, makes fun of him and has a few intriguing moments. If you are looking for a serious Story this wont be much fun for you, but if you are just looking for a hour worth of playtime and a few good laughs this could be the right Game for you. The Spelling and Grammer are pretty good and only have a few minor mistakes. Furthermore the Art is nothing extraordinary, but the Character Design is good and the Backgrounds fit to the Plot. Also there is a small Tour through Chichester England in this Game if you are interested in that sort of thing. In the End i would recommend this game if you have the money left to spare and dont have too high Expectations from this Game. It will make you Smile at least once and it actually makes you interested in the next Part.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

My Currator Page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34401214/

Take a zany tour through Chichester, England... NOT AMERICA!!! As our male protagonist Spy realises he is in the wrong country in this comedy Visual Novel. If you have played the first WTC Visual Novel then you know to expect plenty of wild Austin Powers type sarcastic humour BUT if this is your first experience, like it was mine, then throw all seriousness out the window and enjoy this hilarious romp...

Created using Visual Novel Maker, this point & click comedy VN is spread over 7 brief chapters and are all controlled by the click of the mouse.
There is a Start menu with very useful Settings providing options of : General for screen choices, Message for text speed, skip text and click progress choices and Audio for Sound effects, Music Volume & Voice volume for all characters. There is a Save & Load, a Gallery (that's accessible after completing the game) and a Quit button. Also while the game starts you have a mini-menu accessible in the lower left corner for Skip, Log, Load, Save and Title which is a great feature.
There are catchy songs to the OST by Josh Woodward and the range of graphics are by Pexels, Degica and Nicholas Kingsley who also wrote the tongue-in-cheek spoof script.

WTC opens with the words : 'This... This is not how I wanted to go... why?' then you can sit back and enjoy the glorious visuals (designed by RenderForest) accompanying the intro song by Hardcastle titled I am Catastrophe ~ very much fitting with this Spy VN and a song that would easily be mistaken for a James Bond theme.
Once that thrilling song ends you begin the journey waking up to an alarm call attempt. From this point on we find ourselves inside a Hotel bedroom and meet the first of two female Protagonists - Grendel the instigator! She may look short, sweet and cute with her pink/lilac hair but beware because a famous Shakespeare quote perfectly describes her :-
'She may be small but she is fierce' - a MidSummer Night's Dream
After Grendel introduces us to Mr Frying Pan, there is our first Choices matter where you answer a question from the Hotel Receptionist.

The second female protagonist we meet is Cindi the Tourist Guide who gets an early initiation with Grendel featuring brussel sprouts, custard and a game of Funopoly! Finally there is the spoof Chichester tour which features a hilarious 'slideshow' and more crazy fun comes our way after Grendel makes a reappearence that gradually leads to the multiple choice of 5 endings!

This game is a sequel to a tester game (Welcome to Chichester - Start of the End) & a third game will follow and has very zany & dry humour that some players may not appreciate or be to their style of humour.

I received this product free by the developers, thanks for that guys!! I hope this review helps but if it doesn't please spare me from Mr Frying Pan

~~~~~~~~Liked what you see? You can find more at Have a Word~~~~~~~~~~

This is an extremely fun visual novel with about 1 hour of play time to it. Easily worth the price. Lots of funny gags and moments that genuinely made us laugh! Can't wait for part 3 !