So I finished Piofiore and it took a lot longer than I expected. I think it’s probably around 40 hours but it felt like 60 by the time I finished. There’s a sequel to it but more so a continuation of this one. So I’ll just be calling this one 1925 and the sequel 1926(it’s part of the name). 1925 kind of has its own conclusion but it’s basically telling you that the plot isn’t over and that you should get the second one. I considered maybe reading the sequel before going over this one but I decided against it since I don’t have the right mindset or energy to continue it right now, especially considering that the sequel is just as long as this one. So I’ll be talking about just 1925 and it’ll help stick my memories to make 1926 a better experience for me.
I’ve written about a different otome before but I don’t think I ever released it and I should do that eventually. This one is mafia based and honestly there’s quite a few of them. The mc is an orphaned lady raised in the church, the church resides in a town that’s run by three mafia groups. Depending on your actions, she either get saved or abducted by the guys and you explore their territories and how they handle things. There’s an overarching plot revolving other major powers and the protag is a key piece for some factions and a bargaining piece for others.
The soundtrack is snazzy. There’s 24 tracks but some are alternates so it’s more around 19 or 20. Some tracks are massively overplayed and it sucks because that’s the ones that you’ll remember. They went crazy with the clothes but especially with the flower motif. The backgrounds didn’t interest me all that much but they’re also stupidly varied. But really the selling point is the hair. It’s kind of gotten to the point that the illustrator for all of it was really super into it, felt like they got a really good contract or wanted to keep their mind occupied.
My favorite character is probably Gilbert with Yang being a close second. But I guess the best set piece was done with Nichola. Technically I liked the main villain, but I felt that was more that I liked how he sounded than anything else he provided to the plot.
I think you can only start with Nichola or Yang depending if you’re overall nice or skeptical respectively. It’s best to start out with Nichola’s route since it covers most of the important cast outside of Yang’s group. It’s kind of weird that the emphasis on the cops are strongest in this one and then just semi forgotten for a huge chunk of the title. It does try to tie in by the end but honestly it was more like a footnote and probably just a stepping stone for the sequel. Which is kind of sad since I had a lot fun with the relationship dynamics between Nichola and Roberto.
Roberto is the angry detective that wants to drive the mafia off the land. He’s funny in a few ways, mainly that he’s the stereotypical standoffish detective like the one in persona 5 or the one from Cartagra. But the main one is unintentional, his last name means ugly in my language. So every time he gets a name card, it’s calling him ugly. There is a dry spell with Nichola around the middle and you have to power through it but it ends well enough. I guess I should say that each route has three endings excluding the bad endings of her just dying. So the best, normal and bad endings. Though really it’s put as the best being the prologues to 1926 and the bad ending being the sad endings.
Anyways after Nichola covering most of it, Yang covers the china faction. He’s interesting and overall he’s a fun character to read because he’s unabashedly a shitty person that just wants to alleviate his boredom. Basically each character has a main attribute like Dante being overly strict, Orlok being docile and Gilbert being playful. Nichola and Yang are kind of like the two sides of the same coin and just a nudge can push their stations. But Yang is also rapey so there’s going to be a sour taste to at least a portion of the fanbase. But really, if you removed it all and then had a poll of who’d the most likely to do that, it’d probably still be Yang. He probably has the more interesting sad ending too, though I guess Orlok’s bad ending was kind of funny if you have a screwed up sense of humor.
I’m not sure when the others are unlocked, but the route order is better off with Nichola>Yang>Orlok>Dante and then Gilbert. Gilbert’s common is used as the base for Finale. Honestly I think they used too much of it, you can consider it like maybe 20% changes. And overall that’s the major issue with this title. Each new route after the first two doesn’t really delve to whatever they’re about too deeply. So it’s more like 10% new context of what’s going on, and then the rest is setup and follow-through of the guy you picked. Sure it’s not my demographic but you can tell it could’ve been done better.
It’d be a different case if the title was all about the guys but they’re supposed to be sharing the spotlight with the overarching plot. I think most of the issues I had stems from the antagonists being the same. So you you’re always against some or all factions until one time where there’s an antagonist that unifies the three factions for that period. And overall that’s fine but let’s say if Dante was the antagonist, he acts relatively the same throughout the routes, this can be said for all of them. And that’s good in terms of consistency but I just got bored and you can assume what’s going to happen even more often than normal.
And the sad thing is that Orlok and Dante aren’t all that interesting to me. They’re routes cover why the main character is important but really that was already covered in Yang’s route. They just go deeper into with their own factions and fill out the remaining pieces. These two slowed down my reading pace considerably. It’s not even that they’re bad characters, they’re interesting in their own right but just got screwed over not being the first routes. Because like I said before, now you’re just getting small increments of the remaining plot. For those that really just care about going out with the guy, then most likely you wouldn’t even notice the sluggish pace of the overarching plot.
The finale was also really dull in terms of what a finale usually entails. A lot of it is already in Gilbert’s route. Even without that, it was just kind of dull, the routes themselves were more interesting. Sure the finale puts in the remaining pieces but it’s more so a way to bridge the two titles than ending with a bang with some foreshadowing to the next.
Overall
Overall, if this was only Nichola and Yang then I’d probably place it as an 8 that was closer to a 9. With all of it together, it’s more like a 7 but closer to a 6. Really it blurs the line and I can see it as a 6 that’s closer to a 7. The art kind of carries the title but the characters are interesting semi regularly but more often with Yang or Nichola. I also had fun going through Gilbert’s route but the ending felt lackluster in comparison to the first two. I felt like they could’ve added more scenes with the cops but that might just be me since I found the two interesting.
Spoilers: What I liked
So the spoilers are kind of on stuff I talked about offhandedly before. Roberto is pretty much a crazy asshole that’s different from Yang. And that’s more on that he can be fooled, he gets a lot of tunnel vision. The dude is all about justice but he goes all Kira and just starts killing off whoever is in his way. But that’s only in Nichola’s route and he’s semi gone for a huge chunk of the vn. He does come back in Gilbert and the true route and he’s pretty cool there too. He’s no longer crazy and kind of has that bro rivalry with Nichola. Basically he sees what the old detective was always talking about and sometimes you have to play along to get shit done.
Yang is pretty fun for kind of the same reasons. The dude is just bored and is basically and adrenaline junkie. If he doesn’t find you interesting, you’re dead. Hell you can be the most important piece to get business done and you’re still most likely going to die. He has a lot of action scenes and there’s times he reminds me of that Madara guy from Naruto when he’s fighting either Guy or Hashirama. He even gets a little mopey if his target just wants to do something else and this happens with him and Orlok. Because Orlok is somehow a super beast and can one hit kill most people. And that’s pretty funny considering Yang is also seen as a super soldier type guy. He can get shot throughout the whole fight and still keep going. There was one scene by the end of his route where he just throws the mc to the ground just to get an extra second of distance. His bad ending was also pretty neat, he ends up killing the mc because he found her boring. But by the end he kills off this other lady because she told him that he had someone he loved but he didn’t notice it. So the basis is that Yang is an asshole but he’s entertaining to read about.
Orlok is kind of whatever. He’s the goodboy of the group but his plot didn’t have much. He’s like a tsukihime nun. His combat stats is basically Leo from Rose Gun Days but none of the charm of Leo. His plot does key in some details of the bishop and this other guy. It’s interesting but the funniest thing about him is his bad ending. Where Orlock gets captured by Dante and Dante just cucks him whilst he’s imprisoned. And it’s understandable considering he was raised with minimal social interaction.
The main bad had a great voice actor that just shittalks the rest of the group. It’s rather short but it was entertaining while it lasted. He’s also pretty decent in his own route and I think he’ll play a larger role in the sequel but but I didn’t look into it
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