PIOFIORE: FATED MEMORIES

Piofiore takes place in the fictional city of Burlone, Italy in the year 1925. This is a mafia town, parts of which are controlled by three factions. There's the Falzone, the Visconti, and Lao-Shu, which is a branch of the Liu Huang Hui in China. Liliana grew up in an orphanage run by the Catholic Church; she's now an adult but continues to work at the orphanage to help the nuns in thanks for them raising her.

Liliana gets wrapped up in mafia business -- the reason changing per love interest -- but you have two Falzone routes, one Visconti route, one "Church" route, and one Lao-Shu route. There's also a "finale" route which is a bizarre mix of a true route, a secret route, and a non-canon route, depending on how you look at it. The storyline changes dramatically from route to route, so it's honestly difficult to pin down a true plot. Lili is dragged into the underworld and has to figure out her place in it, which is the short and sweet of it.

This game is always a top recommended otome. If you ask in any otome group what your first game should be, or what to play next and you haven't listed this, it'll ALWAYS be suggested. Naturally, I had to pick it up due to its popularity. It only took half a route to discover that this is genuinely the worst otome I've ever played if not the worst game in general. I've played some really bad games. Like Division 2. Piofiore takes the cake as the worst due to having one of the most mind-numbingly stupid and useless MC's I have seen in my life. I'm a lesbian, I'm a woman apologist in every form, but I can't apologize for Liliana. She's boring. Her main and perhaps only trait is that she's a good cook and baker. Other than that, she's naive, not very smart, and worst of all she truthfully has barely anything to do with the plot. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the plot moves around here, rather than with her or because of her. In most of the routes, she sits at home alone while the LI's go off to do plot-relevant things. They come home and tell her about it later. What?! People will always try to defend Lili, but she's genuinely the most insufferable MC I've seen in my life.

In addition to Lili being unbearably boring and useless, this game comes packed with the most bizarre and difficult-to-swallow personality 180s from the LI's depending on the route. Now, don't get me wrong, they're mafia guys -- of course, they're going to kill people. My problem was that they could easily go from sweet and loving to holding Lili captive and sexually assaulting her nightly depending on the bad ending, or if they're showing up in a different LI's route. Huh? And for some reason, people are eating this up and think it's super romantic! To each their own, some people are into that, but I'm not super into hearing about Lili being locked in her room because the LI dived off the deep end and now he comes home to assault her, and she likes it. Sure...I'm not even someone who would consider themselves squeamish or easily triggered, but I swear every new bad end I'd open had me going "What in the fresh hell...?" While I agree bad ends are supposed to be BAD, and I don't mind them being high stakes, it would feel like I'm reading someone's bizarre noncon and dubcon fetishes baked into an otome.

This game is chock full of trigger warnings. Here is a list of some off the top of my head, having been a while since I've played the game: rape (noncon and dubcon), torture, mutilation, kidnapping, mind control/mind break, excessive drug use and abuse, murder, death of children, childhood sexual assault, mental and physical abuse, religious trauma, sorta incest, human trafficking. Some of it is more shocking than others, and frankly, there's more than what I've listed, some of it is just so minor compared to others that at this point it's slipped my mind. This game isn't for someone who's looking for light and fluffy fun times, let's just say that.

As for women in this game, there are a few female characters of note. Sister Sophia is the main nun Lili spends time with and is treated vaguely like her adoptive mother over the other nuns. She is a kind elderly woman who loves taking care of the children, although she can be strict. Elena is Lili's best friend and fellow orphan-turned-Church-helper. She's the same age and also continued to stay at the orphanage after aging out. Elena is very sweet, and naturally, because this is "We Can't Have Anything Nice: The Game" she's brutally tortured in Yang's route. Lan is the twin sister of Fei; they're both 15. Lan is a ruthless killer, but is also very funny, especially when she's bouncing off her brother. Giulia is the Falzone's head cook. She takes Lili under her wing in the two Falzone routes and takes care of her to the best of her ability. Kinda a MILF. Smash.

Gilbert and Finale routes are locked until the end. I followed OtomeKitten's route order, but other than doing Nicola first, I don't know that you necessarily have to follow it. As I said, the storylines are all different so there's not much spoiling of one another going on. Dante has the most important plot information, but it's only relevant in his route, Orlok's route, and the finale. Even in Orlok's route, it's only vaguely relevant. Frankly I don't know what they were going for with the barely connecting plots, but it is what it is. Follow your heart or follow the guide, doesn't matter in my opinion.

Nicola Falzone

Nicola is the "underboss" (2nd in command) of the Falzone family and is Dante's cousin. He's flirty and loves teasing all the ladies. He's loyal to the Falzone family first, which makes Lili second -- although I don't know that she's smart enough to notice that. Nicola's route is where the sorta incest takes place, as he loves Dante so much, it borders on the erotic. I'm all for deep familial love, especially between men who frequently are expected to hold each other at arm's length, but it gets WEIRD in here.

Nicola was my favorite at the start, but his route quickly turns into a slog of bizarre deceit. I felt like I didn't know what was going on half the time, and his motivations were strange. You understand them by the end, but it feels like a lot of work for what he wanted/got out of it. OtomeKitten says he's a good introduction to the mafia world, and I agree with that. You get to dip your toes in the craziness before dedicating yourself to the real crazy.

It doesn't take long for you to realize that Nicola will love Dante more than he'll ever love Liliana. If you thought "Aw this guy is cute, I want to see this romance" then I'm just going to tell you right now, it's surface-level at best. Boooooo.

Dante Falzone

Dante is the icy cool boss of the Falzone. He takes himself and his job as the boss very seriously. So seriously, that he spends at least half his route completely ignoring Lili while trapping her at the lavish Falzone mansion to "protect her" because he's soooo busy doing...mafia boss stuff, I guess. When the romance finally develops (rapidly, and without reason) he is very sweet and loving.

Dante's route has probably the most interesting storyline and is sort of the linchpin for the finale route plot. Once you get over the hurdle of him pretending Lili doesn't exist, I quite liked his route. In many ways, he feels like he should be the true/locked route, but for some reason isn't. You would understand what I mean if you played his route; they're fated lovers, I suppose. Maybe doomed lovers as well, I dunno, I refuse to play the sequel. His plot involves the most bizarre and convoluted Church connection and I had to put the game down I was so flabbergasted by the big reveal towards the end. I really can't spoil it at all because if you're genuinely interested in playing, you just have to see it for yourself.

Dante's route is romantic once you get over the ignoring Lili thing, and also has a lot of plot. It's probably the most well-balanced as far as plot vs. romance goes.

Yang

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Deep breath. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh my God, I thought I hated characters before, but I've never hated a character as much as I hate Yang. He's everyone's favorite trash LI, and I seriously worry for the mental health of everyone who claims he's their favorite. Whatever, we all have our horrible characters we like because it's fun, but this man drugs women and trafficks them to China, and Lili just sorta goes "Haha wow that's craaaaazy" and lets it go?!?!?!?!?!?! If you allowed me to just completely eradicate one character from everyone's consciousness I would pick Yang immediately. And I lived through Oncest.

Anyway, Yang is the head of the Lao-Shu and is a lazy bastard who rules through fear instead of respect. This is clear because of how little he respects Liliana or any of his mafia members. He keeps Lili as a pet, and she's only there to fulfill his wishes. He's cunning but deeply cruel. He treats Lan and Fei like nuisances even though they deeply respect him; although, admittedly, they're very annoying by nature of being teenagers.

I have no idea if you can consider anything Yang does as romantic in any normal definition of the word. I think Lili just has Stockholm Syndrome or something, but a lot of people think Yang's idgaf attitude and lack of respect or care for Lili to be hot. If you're into that sort of thing, I guess. Yang's story is -- in my opinion -- the least relevant to anything having the do with the main plot, but I will say I had fun hanging out with Lan and Fei.

Orlok

Orlok is probably the only character that didn't make me want to drink myself to death. He's an assassin for the Church (...yeah...) and is VERY good at his job. He's quiet and meek, but a complete ruthless savage when someone needs to be put down. Rather than using guns like the Visconti or Falzone, or Yang's shuang gou, he uses a hidden knife. Somehow, he parries bullets with the thing. He's just such a sweet bean that I let that make sense.

Orlok suffers greatly from the "Lili is sitting around doing nothing" vibe this whole game has. His treatment of Lili is very different than everyone else. He reveres her and will put down his life to keep her from harm. He's very innocent and knows nothing about having a love life, as his whole life is dedicated to the Church. He was raised as a weapon and knows nothing else than being that weapon. He's also extremely devout. I LOVE religious trauma, I eat that shit up, so I thought he was a compelling character.

Orlok's route is very romance-lite. He truly doesn't understand what romance is, so it's difficult to compare it to the other routes. He doesn't even get a kissing CG (bar his tragic ending) so that tells you how irrelevant it is to his story. His plot is also meh, but you learn a lot about the Church through him. If you want something more sweet and less spice, Orlok is your guy. Orlok's tragic ending is also pretty much universally considered to be the most fucked up bad ending that has ever existed in an otome game.

Gilbert Visconti

Gil is the charming and charismatic leader of the Visconti mafia family. Unlike the Falzone -- who you can only join if you're related -- the Visconti care more about skill than blood. You quickly learn that in the Visconti section of town, the people love Gilbert. He's a nice guy and strikes me more as a politician type than a mafia boss.

Gilbert is a gentleman and is very sweet with Lili. His route is locked because it has some important plot points for the finale section. You'll quickly realize he has a better relationship with the others; he tolerates Yang and is decently friendly with Dante and Nicola -- at least as friendly as a rival mafia boss can be. He's very likable.

Gil's route is decently balanced between plot and romance. He's a very romantic guy, and his route is very...calm, compared to the others. OtomeKitten calls him vanilla, and that's loving. If you were like "I need a break from this madness," then Gil is here to save you. Lili has slightly more agency in his route than in others, but that's only SLIGHTLY! Still, it was a nice change of pace.

Liliana Adornato

I already complained about Lili being an obnoxious, passive, horrible pushover so I won't go into detail a second time. As far as her good traits, she's very patient and can keep a cool head, although I think that's because she has nothing going up in there. I mean look at that vacant stare. She has the same vacant stare in 75% of the CG's you can see her face.

Lili has the potential to be SUCH a good character, but they decided to leave her rotting in whatever house or hideout she's stuck in for a route instead of letting her do things. It drove me crazy watching Orlok or Dante wander back in to tell her what they did. I mean, it's not like she's some amazing fighter so I get it, but can she at least stand around and watch? Give the poor girl something to do other than cook, please!

My hatred for Piofiore runs strong. It burns with the fire of a thousand suns. Every woman in this game is treated poorly, and the lack of agency they give Lili is insulting. I genuinely have nothing nice to say about it. Even the characters I did like still sucked. I know a lot of people love trash media because of some escapism thing, but what exactly are we escaping to in Piofiore? Being ruthlessly abused and neglected? Being treated as lesser for being a woman? Cooking all day for a man? This is an escapist fantasy for tradwives who want to go back to the 1950s. If you want some trash media escapism at least have some self-respect and pick up Twilight or something.