Cav's Place

Back when a bundle of X-rated games were given away on GOG.com in reaction to Steam and itch.io bowing down to the threats of the major credit card companies to block transactions unless they remove many such titles, apparently following a campaign led by an Australian activist group, I grabbed it and thought that a few of the titles could actually be interesting, or at least playable enough to allow me to finally get a direct impression of what some of the better games in this genre are like. I mean, I firmly support their existence and lash out vehemently against attempts to censor sexuality in general, but the only games I played which may be somewhat considered as being in this category weren’t that explicit to begin with and I played them 20 to more than 30 years ago, so there’s a huge difference in terms of what could be depicted.
However, Fetish Locator Week One was definitely not among those that seemed interesting, but quite the contrary, one that I knew won’t be my thing at all. But, just because it seems to be one of the most, well, pornographic of the bunch, I still took it into consideration, and while I didn’t care for it to be even more so, meaning that I didn’t want the recent update that apparently added AI-generated voices and animations, that was actually what prompted me to go for it, not wanting to risk forgetting that I didn’t want that update and download it later. So I must note that I played it without that update and can’t say anything about what it changes, but I’m thinking that those who are actually interested in this sort of games may find it, well, useful. And, if not, the announcement states that those enhancements are optional.

To finally get to the game itself, I’ll say that I was initially preparing to be far more scathing. Yes, the name alone should make it clear what sort of game this is and that I’m not in its target audience, and I also have next to no interest in visual novels in general, but I’m sure that a whole lot more can be done within the confines of the genre. However, the first part of Fetish Locator Week One offers a story that’s little more than an excuse for the gratuitous, blatant porn scenes that make up pretty much all of the relevant moments, some being unavoidable even if you make use of the occasional choices to not play the game as intended. But those choices don’t include quite a number of times when the main character automatically does or says things I wouldn’t want him to. And there’s also the fact that he’s head over heels for someone from the beginning without any story or context being provided, and in fact without any actual contact with her being presented, so without any reason whatsoever for me to care… And, while that may be interesting if it’s actually on purpose, I’ll also point out that she’s one of the very few characters that don’t strike me as particularly attractive.
Yes, that means that the large majority of the characters actually look really nice, and not disproportionate or with that artificial look that plagues many games of this kind, which does matter for something like this. But what’s more important from my point of view is why I said that the criticisms listed above refer to the first part, and that’s because the game is split into two, by the party. Technically, the split comes just before it, when you need a certain amount of points to continue normally, but I’d say that a more appropriate place to make the separation would be what, from the point of view of the player character, is the end of the party. That’s when he makes himself noticed by Lydia in quite a dramatic fashion and she’s properly brought into the story, the way things develop with her after that being quite all right, and while for me it was rather too late, my attention being focused elsewhere by then, that’s also the moment when the entire purpose of the game seems to change. A number of topics are brought up, including some that you wouldn’t quite expect, you may start to have reasons to care for other characters and relationships, and the game actually starts to become somewhat interesting overall, revealing a proper plot and eventually hinting at developing in a manner that may make some steps towards the detective genre.
Admittedly, that only happens shortly before the end and remains only a hint, so I’m guessing that all of that gameplay, if it actually exists, was left for the following games in the series. But, if you do somehow find yourself sufficiently interested, you get the option to continue even if you didn’t play this one as intended and didn’t obtain the required points. There is a “game over” and a, well, quite literal splash screen if you fail the first goal and a few lines of text that describe a bad ending if you fail the second one, but you can simply choose to pretend that you succeeded, getting to the party in the first case and making a save that should carry over in the second. And I’ll also mention here that, on top of allowing saving at any point, the game lets you just “scroll” back directly, and it also autosaves whenever there is a choice, cycling between no less than six slots, which is a feature that many incomparably better and more complex games could use. However, there are moments when a single choice is presented, apparently in order to remain consistent with other choices made previously, so you have these methods of going back to change choices, but it seems that you’re not allowed to change your mind while going forward, which can be quite frustrating. And it also struck me as surprising that the last act, if you make the choice that leads to it, isn’t used for points… Even more so considering the partner.

In truth, even within the confines of a visual novel and despite a few redeeming qualities in the second part, there’s not that much to Fetish Locator Week One in itself. But the name alone should be a good enough indicator of what to expect and those who actually find themselves interested know just why that is and their enjoyment of it probably depends on how, and in fact whether, their particular fetishes are covered. And it also most likely means that they enjoy watching such content in this form rather than, or at least on top of, movies, so the fact that most characters actually look good should help. On the other hand, for those who just happened to stumble into it and consider trying it just to see what such games are like, I’ll say that it’s probably not a good place to start unless you actually mean to dive into something “stronger” right away and perhaps move on to, if I may use the term, classier ones later. Still, if you are just giving it a go in this manner, it helps that you don’t need to play it as intended and can choose to just get through it even if you avoid the fetishes that would bother you, or which you’d just rather not watch. And it does make an important point about reading the terms of service!