Video Game Review: Piofore: Fated Memories

Piofore: Fated Memories

Aksys Games

Romance, Visual novel, Drama

Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch has been getting lots of otome localisations recently which is great for fans of the genre and Piofore: Fated Memories is the latest one to receive the Switch treatment. Set in Italy in 1925, within a city ruled over by three vying mafia families, the game follows an innocent girl of the Church, Lili, as she gets involved with them. This isn’t the first time that the mafia has appeared in otome games (others such as Arcana Famiglia and Ozmafia! have also played with the concept), but this does look to be one which takes the concept more seriously. The game doesn’t shy away from the violence and brutality of the setting, although this might turn off someone looking for a lighter, more romance themed game. It’s worth mentioning for those who such plot elements may be a trigger warning as well, that the game deals with aspects of abuse as well as violence and bloodshed. I personally found some of these abuse-related plot points, rather uncomfortable, and particularly in the bad endings, it left a bad taste in my mouth.

The game has a total of five routes (and one secret finale route), with only two initially being made available to the player for two characters from the Falzone family. Of these two I went with Nicola Francesca first, the charismatic underboss of the Falzone – given how Nicola is viewed rather negatively in the other routes it might be the best choice to play his first to get the best experience. At times the routes felt a little rushed between events however which was a little confusing at times, and time seemed to pass in strange ways with sometimes days or even a week or so going by with barely any mention. The plot points of Lilli being essentially kidnapped and in need of protection is something I’ve seen a lot before in otome games and it gets a little tiring in this one. Thankfully Lilli herself is very sweet and does show a mind of her own in some routes which are nice to see and make her a likable enough protagonist.

Visually the game is a treat, with gorgeous artwork and CGs, as well as some interesting stylistic choices to fit the era and tone of the story – everything is washed in an antique faded sort of palette, with various decorative patterns overlaid over that too. The music frequently tends towards more of a jazz soundtrack which fits the mafia theme a lot, and the combination of the music and art makes it feel almost like you’re watching an old movie at times. The writing itself is a little clumsy at times and certain choices seemed to lead to events that didn’t really appear to have any direct link but overall I did find the story quite engrossing to read.

Mechanics wise, the game itself is fairly easy to navigate, with the menu and dictionary elements accessible with the touch of a button. On the switch, there is also the option to use the touch screen to progress the story. A few little elements I did find frustrating however was the use of the ‘Meanwhile…’ add-in which popped up every so often, allowing you to switch the perspective from the protagonist to another scene to find out more of what is going on around Lili. Whilst a neat idea in practice I felt this often distracted from what was happening in the main story, as it would often come whilst you were in the middle of a conversation and forcibly take you away, upsetting the tone. It was nice to see some of the background being revealed but it also served to highlight exactly how to cut off and kept in the dark, the protagonist was left.

The game also has its fair share of bad endings, which I usually like in a visual novel game if it wasn’t for the fact that for most of these endings, it involved the romance in the route chosen taking a rather… twisted turn. For example, in one route Lili essentially becomes the plaything of one of the men with very little real emotion showing between the two, and in another the concern one love interest felt for her turned into a dangerous possession and insanity resulting in Lili being locked away in a room for the foreseeable future, to keep her safe. Whilst, I appreciate how this was perhaps representative of gender roles in that time era, this is still a modern created game and I would have appreciated that Lili is treated with a little more decency even in the ‘bad ends.’ Unfortunately, seeing one of these bad ends before the good end marred the rest of the experience for me and really coloured my judgment regarding the love interest knowing exactly what kind of things they could be capable of. It’s one idea perhaps to showcase how none of the love interests are particularly ‘good’ due to the nature of them being in the Mafia, and I applaud the attempts to make the characters more complex, with shades of grey,  but the bad ends felt a little heavy-handed.

Overall this was an interesting game with a good amount of worldbuilding and a colourful cast – whilst I had some issues with the pacing and the character arcs themselves, the game was otherwise an engrossing story of the mafia, intrigue, and romance.

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