Visual novel spotlight - week 8

I feel it is hard for me to describe this visual novel because it was so...okay. The art was good but not spectacular. The music didn't set my mood to anything but it didn't feel out of place. The characters didn't get any strong development during the story but I can't say that the result wasn't good. The UI wasn't fabulous(unlike witch/knight) but it wasn't dull either. The routes are what I feel really gives this visual novel something to feel unique about. There are three 'main' routes,each featuring good and bad endings,for a total of 14 endings. If you haven't found all of them yet,here's a walkthrough. While some endings are somewhat similar to each other(esp. in Veir's route) I think that the fact there are essentially 3 different stories in makes up for that fact. The parent's good ending(if you choose he isn't a good father) was my favorite.
Reaching different endings unlocks character profiles,which gives you some information about the character's background, designing,and possible future. You may notice that there are references to other works - the first being 'fetish 1.0'(with fetish: every second counts being considered 2.0) which only contained Cain's route and is entirely embed in this visual novel. The other work referenced is an incomplete comic about Cain,which I have included in the bonus folder in my download. A sequel to this game,tentatively called 'fetish otome' and set 6 years later,is being worked on.

Stopped playing your VN recommendations because I was trying to work on my backlog, but this one is really tempting.

Downloading, thanks. :p

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SORCERY!!!

The Aristocrats - The Game

Fetish makes one thing clear from the start - the protagonist Hexia is a horrible person. She kills men and collects their eyes as trophies. Having a protagonist like this creates specific expectations, at least for me. I expect stories that follow a criminal or murderer to show their reasons for doing these acts, their psychological struggle, moral dilemmas. Fetish has nothing of this. Hexia's serial murders are presented as just a hobby, nothing more. No mention of why she started doing this except of line about her liking his brother's eyes in profile, no meaningful resolution either - she just "tires" of this in good endings. Her murders, after being featured prominently on first pages, are even not factor in the plot in two paths out of three.

Story paths present another problem - each is completely separated from others. All events and characters encountered in any given paths are absent from other paths, as if choice at the branching point eliminated them from existence entirely. For example, on Cain's path Alec Sage will visit the mansion regardless of Hexias attempts to avoid contact, while on Vier's or parents' path he's never mentioned. Writing several story branches is good, but they have to be interconnected, otherwise I don't see a point in putting them in a single game.

Unlocking additional choices by letting the timer run out could be an interesting feature - if it was indicated somehow. Walking Dead and Sakura Wars have a shrinking line on screen to show how much time left for player to make a decision; I had no idea I can (and must!) wait out some choices in Fetish until I read the walkthrough - started to wonder if it have any good endings at all or it's supposed to symbolize the inevitable punishment for the murderer.

Avoiding psychological or moral questions, all that Fetish is really about is a daily life of unsympathetic, idle, rich an spoiled family.