Piofiore: Mama I'm in love with a criminal

 

 

 

I don't know what's most shocking here: the fact that I managed to quote Britney Spears two posts in a row, or the outrageous, indecent delight I derived from playing Piofiore. No otome since Amnesia:Memories has challenged me so hard, making me feel deliciously on edge. I had to work to get those good endings, and I relished every minute of it. It certainly doesn't hurt that all that challenge is backed up by stellar production values: I swear I could play that game solely to gaze at its gorgeous vistas and listen to its lush soundtrack. And my, the food descriptions! Gosh, I was salivating just reading them. Last but not least, there is that unique Piofiore atmosphere, which cannot be described in words yet sweetly grips my heart every time I think of the game. 

 
All praise aside, I can now proudly claim full mastery of the Status screen's inner workings. It obviously indicates the state of affairs between the MC and the beau du jour; and alas, it's not nearly as clear as Amnesia:Memories' convenient metric gauge. After playing all five Routes, here are my conclusions: the raising of Affinity is indicated by the colouring of the flowers on the left, while the lowering of the Attribute is indicated by the grey stains appearing from the top right. The Attribute actually represents a quality that the player themselves should display as the MC — of course, it kinda makes sense that your resident perfect otome heroine should be Honest, Respectful, Wise, Tolerant, Trustful and Cooperative, on top of being a virgin with a mysterious birth mark on her chest. The Attribute gauge is somewhat filled upon starting a Route, and can deplete if the player fails to manifest the Attribute in their choices. Here are the four possible combinations of Affinity and Attribute: 

High Affinity / High Attribute

Low Affinity / Low Attribute

Low Affinity / High Attribute

High Affinity / Low Attribute

Landing the Best Ending requires colouring the flowers and keeping the Status screen clear of stains. Fortunately, Piofiore is not completely ruthless: you neither have to fill up the flowers entirely nor to keep the screen totally clean to land the Best Ending. From my experience, I can safely claim that the game will tolerate plateauing at the stage right below full flower (i.e. Piena Fiore), as well as one stain in the right-up corner, and still good-naturally deliver the Best Ending. 

 
And since I'm mentioning the stains, it's crucial to keep the Attribute gauge as maxed out as possible, because some mandatory choices do lower it no matter what. It then becomes a matter of choice between bad and worse, with one option lowering the gauge by one notch and the other by two notches. I had to endure a bit of staining after such choices in most of my runs; and although I managed to wipe the Status screen clean later on, I swear it was darn uncomfortable while it lasted. And since I'm mentioning runs, I'll see you soon with my very own run reports — and they'll be juicy indeed. Until then, dear fellow gamers, keep playing and take care!