Came for Gilbert Redford, stayed for... EVERYONE! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Pros:
✓ The Story - the overall world-building in this game is great, the setting is clear and the characters' places in society is made evident at the very beginning. The routes themselves are also very entertaining.
✓ The Character Images are top notch! I usually hate playing the bad endings/tragic endings in Otome Games but the artwork is so beautiful it made me WANT to play every ending just to complete my image collections.
✓ The routes vary a lot. I love this because one thing central to many otome games is the repetition between routes especially if you play routes back-to-back. However, Piofiore varies so much between routes that other than the very beginning dialogues there is seldom you need to skip.
✓ The LI's are just phenomenal. They're all quite different and all have flaws (some more than others cough Yang cough). You won't always see their full spectrum of colors until you do other routes and get a good grasp of them outside of their main routes.
✓ The voice acting is elite. Seriously, some of the best I've seen in otome games. All the voices fit the characters to a T, and if I had to pick my absolute favorite it'd be Yang's VA. He delivered the voice of Yang to infinity and beyond. Seriously just buy this game for Yang's voice acting no cap.
Cons:
✕ I wish all of the routes were as equally action-packed and interesting. I won't go into much detail here to avoid spoilers, but there is definitely an imbalance when it comes to entertainment factor between routes. Some routes will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time and others will pale in comparison.
✕ The bad endings (NOT to be confused with the tragic endings) are forced and mostly for the sake of "completion". There is absolutely nothing interesting about them and they actually undo good characterization (especially Orlok's bad endings).
✕ Without spoiling anything, people need to beware there are mature and uncomfortable themes in this game (Yang's route specifically). It wasn't something that bothered me, but there are a lot of people that could be triggered by such things. I didn't see much of a "disclaimer" type thing for this game so I wish they had made it a little more evident that there are potentially harmful themes in this game. Please that in mind before purchasing if you are someone who may be upset by the nature of these themes.
✕ I'm a sucker for side characters so I wish they had at least some more background information on characters like Marco, Luca, or Roberto (Roberto deserves a route highkey).
Rankings:
These are my personal rankings from Most Interesting to Least Interesting when it comes to ROUTES. This takes into account how much *I* enjoyed the story and how engaging it was overall.
1) Yang - Edge of your seat interesting.
2) Dante - Lot's of one-on-one time...
3) Nicola - Great story progression and plot twists!
4) Gilbert - Ehhhhhh.
5) Orlok - Romance factor is pretty much non-existent.
Here are my rankings for the actual LI's themselves (totally personal preference).
1) Gilbert - I've got a thing for eye-patch guys okay?
2) Dante - Have you seen Dante tho.
3) Yang - His voice is just... PLAY THIS GAME FOR HIS VOICE.
4) Nicola - Tbh his character art is way better than his main appearance but meh.
5) Orlok - I prefer mature looking LI's and he is the opposite of that lmao.
Pros:
✓ The Story - the overall world-building in this game is great, the setting is clear and the characters' places in society is made evident at the very beginning. The routes themselves are also very entertaining.
✓ The Character Images are top notch! I usually hate playing the bad endings/tragic endings in Otome Games but the artwork is so beautiful it made me WANT to play every ending just to complete my image collections.
✓ The routes vary a lot. I love this because one thing central to many otome games is the repetition between routes especially if you play routes back-to-back. However, Piofiore varies so much between routes that other than the very beginning dialogues there is seldom you need to skip.
✓ The LI's are just phenomenal. They're all quite different and all have flaws (some more than others cough Yang cough). You won't always see their full spectrum of colors until you do other routes and get a good grasp of them outside of their main routes.
✓ The voice acting is elite. Seriously, some of the best I've seen in otome games. All the voices fit the characters to a T, and if I had to pick my absolute favorite it'd be Yang's VA. He delivered the voice of Yang to infinity and beyond. Seriously just buy this game for Yang's voice acting no cap.
Cons:
✕ I wish all of the routes were as equally action-packed and interesting. I won't go into much detail here to avoid spoilers, but there is definitely an imbalance when it comes to entertainment factor between routes. Some routes will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time and others will pale in comparison.
✕ The bad endings (NOT to be confused with the tragic endings) are forced and mostly for the sake of "completion". There is absolutely nothing interesting about them and they actually undo good characterization (especially Orlok's bad endings).
✕ Without spoiling anything, people need to beware there are mature and uncomfortable themes in this game (Yang's route specifically). It wasn't something that bothered me, but there are a lot of people that could be triggered by such things. I didn't see much of a "disclaimer" type thing for this game so I wish they had made it a little more evident that there are potentially harmful themes in this game. Please that in mind before purchasing if you are someone who may be upset by the nature of these themes.
✕ I'm a sucker for side characters so I wish they had at least some more background information on characters like Marco, Luca, or Roberto (Roberto deserves a route highkey).
Rankings:
These are my personal rankings from Most Interesting to Least Interesting when it comes to ROUTES. This takes into account how much *I* enjoyed the story and how engaging it was overall.
1) Yang - Edge of your seat interesting.
2) Dante - Lot's of one-on-one time...
3) Nicola - Great story progression and plot twists!
4) Gilbert - Ehhhhhh.
5) Orlok - Romance factor is pretty much non-existent.
Here are my rankings for the actual LI's themselves (totally personal preference).
1) Gilbert - I've got a thing for eye-patch guys okay?
2) Dante - Have you seen Dante tho.
3) Yang - His voice is just... PLAY THIS GAME FOR HIS VOICE.
4) Nicola - Tbh his character art is way better than his main appearance but meh.
5) Orlok - I prefer mature looking LI's and he is the opposite of that lmao.