Piofiore no Banshou ピオフィオーレの晩鐘 – Review / Summary

In the 1920’s of Italy in a city called Burlone, the heroine Liliana is an orphaned girl who lives at a church with other orphans and a nun named Sophia. She also has a mysterious mark on her chest but has no idea why its there or what it means. She often leaves to go shopping outside the church but only stays in the “safe” area where the mafia groups agreed to not start any fights there. The parts of Italy is essentially “ruled” by different mafia groups called the Falzone, Viscounti, and Laoshu. Arc is the safest district while Vereno and Strano areas are dangerous.

Dante Falzone (CV: Kaito Ishikawa) is the serious capo (leader) of the Falzone mafia and took over the job fairly early since his father died.

One day, a guy breaks into her church demanding he come with her. The nun, Sophia, who took care of her tries to help but gets pushed aside by the guy trying to kidnap Lily. Thankfully, she’s saved by Dante who takes her to his mansion. There, she’s held there for a few days not knowing what’s going on or what happened with the church. She finally talks to Dante but refuses to tell her the situation but says he’s keeping her in protection since the guy who tried to kidnap her is after her. But Lily has no idea why and since Dante gives her no answers, she attempts to escape out the window. She uses sheets from the bed to make a rope but it ends up breaking and she almost falls but Dante catches her.

Dante yells at her for being dumb but she doesn’t care since she still wants to know more and so finally Dante agrees to speak with her. He tells her that Sophia died during the incident, which puts Lily in a depressed state. Leo then suggests they invite her to eat together at dinner and Dante has him give Lily books and things to tide her over. Even so, when Leo gets more busy, Lily feels more lonely. So after she tells this to Dante, he decides to get Leo to give her a kitten but doesn’t want him to tell her it was his idea lmao. She names the kitten Carlo and one night, the kitten runs away into Dante’s room. He treats the kitten gently and Lily sees a more gentle side of him. Especially after she starts crying about Sophia and he comforts her.

Regardless, the next day Lily finds out that Sophia is actually alive and having a discussion with Dante. Unfortunately, Dante kicks her out of the room and Sophia is sent away before she can ask any questions. So eventually, Dante comes to Lily’s room to apologize for lying about Sophia. She apparently has a relationship with the Falzone family and he didn’t want to involve Lily into the matter. One day, Nicola takes Lily to an underground dungeon where they’re torturing a Chinese mafia kid named Fei for information. Fei calls Lily a “Key Maiden” which apparently both Nicola and Dante seem to know but won’t tell Lily. Regardless, Nicola tells Lily he showed her this to basically say that the mafia isn’t fun and games and this is the shit she’s involved in now.

The next day, Dante and Falzone prepare to interrupt Laoshu’s drug trade. So, while the family is gone, Lily visits the church with Leo but finds out Sophia still hasn’t come back. They run into Gilbert all the while, who suspects something is up for Dante to keep Lily with him. After they get back, Lily meets with Dante and treats his injured arm. She apologizes for turning away from what his actual “work” is but he tells her he gets it since the Mafia is a criminal organization that will resort to violence. Lily kind of accepts he’s gonna do whatever he needs to and leaves. Eventually, Lily encounters Dante again after a meeting went bad. He’s awkwardly silent at first but Lily suggests making sweets for him. He also helps get a leaf out of her hair lol.

After this, Lily wants to know more about why she’s called a “maiden key” but has yet to try and ask Dante. One day, Leo suggests to take Lily out of the mansion again to visit Sophia who’s back at the church. In doing so, she asks about the “maiden key” but of course Sophia can’t tell her. Unfortunately, on their way back they’re attacked by Laoshu’s mafia group and so Leo leaves to get transportation to bring Lily back without drawing attention. Leo returns to the mansion for Dante’s help and so they try to find Lily who was left with the police but also encounters the leader of Laoshu, Yang. He knows she’s the “maiden key” and wants her for the purpose of turning the tide on the Falzone forces since half of their group has been wiped. But Dante intervenes and manages to fend him off in time for Lily and Leo to escape. After Nicola appears, Yang retreats and they all go back to the mansion.

Dante is clearly pissed at Leo and Lily but she admits she just wanted to know what the hell the “key maiden” was all about. Before Dante can answer, they’re attacked so Dante has to retreat to his secret hideout with Lily. It’s a hideout only limited Falzone people know about and even Nicola pays a visit. It’s then Dante finally decides to explain more background on the “key maiden”. Apparently the Falzone protected holy relics that have been sealed so they wouldn’t be misused for a long time. So the “key maiden”, along with the blood of a Falzone, is supposedly the way to unseal them. So they believe Laoshu’s goals are related to this but also don’t understand why someone part of the church would be after her since they’re the ones who usually support Falzone. Anyway, after this Dante falls asleep on the couch and Lily accidentally trips over the kitten making her kabedon Dante lmao.

So Lily and Dante spend a lot of time together at the hideout while Nicola often visits to relay information. But then Lily starts to feel insecure about Dante and the only reason he’s nice to her is because she’s the “key maiden”. But he debunks that thought in saying he’s glad she’s the key maiden. One day, Nicola brings wine but apparently it was spiked so Lily wakes up in the Visconti mansion with Gilbert greeting her. He tells her he kidnapped her in order to use her as a bargaining chip to make the church listen to their demands. So Dante and Gilbert meet each other with Lily present. Dante basically asks for Lily back while stating to do things that benefit both families (since Laoshu is their main enemy). But Gilbert never had intentions to attack the Falzone family and believes it would be in his best benefit if the other families just killed each other and Visconti was the last standing. He also tells him it was Nicola who kidnapped Lily in the first place and had been feeding him info. So he returns Lily to Dante.

Nicola didn’t foresee this outcome but basically confirms he betrayed him before leaving. Lily and Dante then stay at a hotel but Dante ends up getting sick so Lily leaves to get help from the mansion. In addition, bad rumors about the Falzone family start to spread. After Dante gets better, he basically admits he wants to protect Lily because he loves her and not because she’s a key maiden. Lily of course basically says the same thing and she fell in love with him too and loves him as “Dante” rather than the capo of the Falzone family and kiss 😘. The next day, Dante explains a bit more on the relics and how it’s said they can perform miracles and there’s of course legends about the holy grail and how it can be a medicine to cure diseases.

So Dante and Lily figure the best thing to do is to just visit the building where there’s an altar and supposedly the relics are sealed there. Dante doesn’t know exactly how to unseal the relics but they visit anyway to see if they can find any clues. In going there, they encounter a boy named Emilio who basically tells Lily she is not a perfected key yet and needs the “8th sacrament”. So he tells her to come back when her mark changes color. They have no idea what he means though and decide to go back to Lily’s church where she grew up to find books to research. All the while though, Lang’s lackey named Lan goes on a rampage in the city and starts killing people. She demands for Dante and when he does appear, he shoots her dead.

After this, Lily and Dante then sleep together for the first time and the next day, Lily notices the mark on her chest become a darker red color. They decide to go back to the altar but encounter Yang there. Dante and Yang fight but then Orlock intervenes to try and protect Lily but ends up getting stabbed to death by Yang. Dante then gets Lily to fire the gun he gave her and it creates an opening for Dante to shoot Yang dead. After this, Dante almost dies from blood loss but thankfully Gilbert and Nicola arrive to kill the rest of Yang’s group. Lily takes Dante to the altar and supposedly the holy water heals his wounds so he’s okay. Emilio appears again and confirms that Lily and Dante are able to obtain the relics now that they have tied together (I guess sleeping together made the key active?? Lol). So in the end, Nicola never actually betrayed Dante and just infiltrated Viscounti to get info on Laoshu and such. Lily decides to stay with Dante instead of going back to the church.

In the good end, Dante and Gilbert form an alliance after things get heated within Falzone and fake rumors spread. During this, Nicola admits he never actually betrayed Falzone and just didn’t want the burden of Falzone on his shoulders. So the night before Gilbert and Dante plan their attack, Dante visits Lily at night. He tells her that the way to unlock the seal is for them to be tied together. He then kisses the mark aka her boob and assures her he loves her for her and not as a maiden key. So, that night, he ambushes Laoshu and has a showdown with Yang. Gilbert and Nicola help and Dante kills Yang. After this, Lily goes back to live in the church but she and Dante still frequently see each other.

In the bad end, Dante tries to negotiate with Yang but it doesn’t end up working out. Gilbert then appears and basically has Viscounti over power both of them. Dante and Lily then go to the church where they meet Nicola. He basically wants to free Dante from his mission and decides to try and kill Lily. Dante ends up killing him but then some other mafia member shoots Lily when she protects Dante. So Lily ends up in a coma and Dante hopes she’ll wake up someday.

Thoughts: Aghhhh character wise Dante is totally my type as the cool kuudere but after Orlok’s bad end I had a bad taste in my mouth (its rather ironic because his bad end made him look legit the worst out of all the routes even though he was completely fine in his own). I already heard about Orlok’s bad end before I played and man people weren’t kidding. Honestly, the first few hours of Dante’s route were kinda slow paced and boring but it did kinda pick up and become more interesting I guess. One of the things that was annoying about this route was how secretive Dante was about Lily’s origins and her situation. Like why not just tell her the situation she was randomly put in??? But anyway, the whole “key maiden” thing just seemed so… arbitrary?? It seems most important in this route (esp w/ the lore) but … nothing happens with it?? So what was the point?? Idk, the plot was kinda hit and miss. Sorta interesting at times but then just kinda all over the place w/ the key maiden stuff. Half the time I just wanted to imagine Dante as Dimitri from FE3H (same seiyuu and all).

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Nicola Francesca (CV: Kimura Ryouhei) Is the underboss of Falzone and Dante’s cousin.

Lily gets almost kidnapped by some guys who are traffickers and Nicola saves her. He takes her back to the Falzone mansion and she’s put under protection there while she still may be a target. All the while, Nicola and Lily bond a lot as days pass. She also learns he and Dante have been close since they were kids and if Dante wasn’t there, he would’ve been the next in line as the Falzone leader. One day she bakes crostata to thank Dante for his hospitality and Nicola taste tests it for her by having her feed it to him. So over time, Lily is watched over by Falzone. But it doesn’t last long as Nicola decides to betray Falzone and kidnap Lily. He takes her to Visconti where Gilbert resides.

Nicola gives no explanation as to why he betrayed Falzone but continues to tell Lily that he betrayed Falzone of his own volition and intended to use her from the beginning. Of course, that doesn’t stop Lily from questioning Nicola and believes he wasn’t completely lying. He basically admits he wasn’t completely lying and starts to warm up to Lily again. So as Lily decides she wants to willingly stay with Visconti, the rest of the mafia groups have a meeting to have a temporary truce. Meanwhile, one of the detectives named Robert (that is often with his superior Marco) goes on a solo mission to try and kill Nicola. He tries to shoot him but Lily gets in the way and a bullet grazes her. Nicola takes Lily back to the mansion and Marco arrives to take responsibility for Robert suddenly attacking.

Back at the Visconti mansion, Nicola is upset with Lily for almost risking her life for him. But he becomes so horny when she tells him she wanted to protect him no matter what that he starts making out with her on the bed lol. Meanwhile, Robert starts losing his mind and Yang manages to manipulate him to take matters in his own hands in killing Nicola. So because Robert hates the crap out of the mafia he’s easily persuaded and decides he’s going to kill Nicola and “save” Lily from him. So the next day, he attempts to assassinate Dante and even kills Marco himself. News spreads to try and frame Nicola for the murder. Of course, Lily doesn’t believe it at all, even when she sees Robert and he tries to convince her to leave the mafia.

One night, Nicola admits he betrayed Falzone for the sake of destroying Falzone. In doing so, there would be no “capo” so Dante would be free from his role. Lily doesn’t think Dante would want this, but Nicola tells her she wouldn’t understand (lol okay but she’s right…). So she finally tells him she’s in love with him but with everything going on right now he can’t accept her feelings yet. So Nicola and Gilbert realize that the culprit is Roberto and he’s been going after Nicola the whole time. Gilbert cooperates with Dante to stop him so they have Nicola come to protect Dante. Just before they leave, Nicola hugs Lily and tells her he’s worried about leaving her at the mansion but hopes nothing will happen.

But of course, Lily is lured away by a mafia member who brings her to Roberto. He tries to convince her to leave Nicola once again but she tells him nope cause she loves him. He loses his shit but Nicola saves her just in time and they run away back into the city. Roberto just loses it completely and starts shooting random civilians until Nicola comes out of hiding. And so Nicola reveals himself and tells Roberto to leave him and his beloved Lily alone or else. Well, he doesn’t listen of course so Nicola shoots him dead. After this, Gilbert has a newspaper that basically exonerates him from his betrayal, saying it was for the sake of finding the culprit, Roberto. So Gilbert sends Nicola back to Falzone and Nicola tells Dante why he really betrayed him. Dante tells Nicola he he’s continuing to be Capo of his own will (basically telling Nicola his betrayal was dumb and pointless).

In the good end, Nicola decides to ask Lily to come run away with him and leave the country. So they go on a boat and travel around Italy lol. In the bad end, Dante is assassinated so Nicola pretty much loses his entire purpose. Nicola kills Gilbert, then goes back to Falzone and becomes the new Capo. Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there with Nicola just slowly going down a darker path. After Dante’s funeral, Lily tells him she’ll stay with him. Nicola clings to this and starts to guilt Lily into staying with him. After Viscounti is gone and destroying Laoshu things seem better but then he just goes yandere and keeps her locked in her room and won’t allow her to talk to anyone anymore (cause apparently his life is over if Dante isn’t alive…).

[“shhh don’t look at me while i imagine you’re actually Dante” he whispers in hear ear]

Thoughts: I didn’t care for Nicola at all to be honest; I’d def peg him as my least fave. If it weren’t for his dumb motives behind things I think I would’ve considered him a better character. But not only was his reason for betraying Falzone dumb, Roberto suddenly being a crazy asshole was such a weird choice to me (esp with the way he was introduced at the very beginning of the game). He was legit trying to kill Lily left and right in Dante’s bad ends but beyond that in retrospect he’s kind of dumb to think Dante would want to not be the mafia leader. Its just a stupid, selfish act on his part to try and destroy Falzone. Half the time it seemed like he was more in love w/ Dante than Lily lmao. Also one of my least favorite things in his bad end (sudden yandere out of context is so dumb to me).

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Yang (CV: Nobuhiko Okamoto) is the sadistic mafia leader of Laoshu who has a cynical sense of humor and likes irritating others.

Lily is kidnapped by Laoshu while she’s with Elena. She tries to escape but meets the leader Yang on the roof who suddenly kisses her out of nowhere. She slaps him away but he just gets amusement out of her resistance. After that, he basically tells her he hates idle talk and will only give her information if she can figure out where she is and who he is. After pinning down he’s the leader of Laoshu and that he’s kidnapped her for some reason, he tells her that he heard she has some sort of value to Falzone. So, he tells her she’ll be staying in his room much to her reluctance. But since Lily knows she basically has no choice but to listen she complies. He tries to seduce her and tells her she’s his now but she tells him she doesn’t want to make love to some guy she barely knows. He tells her she reminds him of a cat and then uses her as a body pillow before going to sleep (ok…).

So Lily wakes up with Yang literally holding her. During breakfast, he has her on his lap while feeds her like she’s his pet 😳. He also assigns Lan and Fei as her body guards when she goes out. Things seem so chipper with those two but Lan threatens to kill Lily if she tries to run away. So they show her around the district they live in, Veleno. Apparently the backstory with them is that they were on the streets and Yang happened to kill a guy who was beating them. So they just attached to Yang ever since even though Yang never intentionally saved them. So the next day, Yang starts to suspect his subordinate Lee who seems to be suspiciously out and about on his own. He has the twins visit him and they drag along Lily to meet him at his residence.

In doing so, she finds Elena in his room all drugged up and in a sort of Stockholm syndrome state for Lee. Shortly after, Lee comes back and makes her lick his shoes while he basically tells the twins he has nothing to hide. Of course, this just makes Lily super worried but she’s unable to do anything and the twins warn her to meddle since Lee is dangerous. After that, Lan gets Lily to try on one of her dresses. This for some reason pisses off Yang but then he leaves to go buy her a dress he thinks would suit her better. After this, Yang decides he’s going to be the one to do the transaction of the drug trade instead of Lee this time (which clearly pisses him off). He takes Lily with him since the twins suggests it again.

On the boat, Lily finds out it’s not just drugs that Laoshu is trading but also people with their human trafficking trade. Lily is disgusted by this but Yang kinda just tells her it be what it be 🥴. Suddenly a bomb explodes the boat their on so they have to retreat to another one. Yang immediately realizes it’s Falzone and Visconti trying to kill him. So Yang, Lily, and the twins walk back to Burlone on a different path since they know Visconti and Falzone are looking for Yang’s body. When they get back, Lee is right about ready to take over Laoshu before Yang barges in showing he’s alive and well. So, after this Lily is now more interested to know more about Yang and starts thinking he’s justified in selling drugs as long as he doesn’t force anyone to use them lol.

At this point Lily basically admits she’s in love with Yang I guess but still wants to try and save her friend Elena even if she’s too mentally damaged from the drug. The next day, Lee kidnaps Lily and admits he wants to take over Laoshu as the leader. He was also the one distributing a more more dangerous drug which gave Falzone and Visconti more reason to target Laoshu. So Yang comes to Lily’s rescue and kills Lee before he can assault Lily. After this, Dante and Nicola appear and try to convince Lily to come with them. But Lily refuses so Laoshu and Falzone fight each other until Yang kills Dante. Nicola manages to escape and plans to get revenge with Visconti. Yang then tells Lily that they brought Elena back who’s mentally disturbed from the drugs and abuse. Lily takes care of her for days until she’s finally able to speak normally again.

So during this time there’s a lull in Laoshu and so Yang is bored for the most part. He and Lily go on a “date” where Yang basically bitches about how bored he is lol. After that, Elena tells Lily she wants to go back to the church and raises the question for Lily as to what she plans to do. Elena wants her to come back to the church with her, but now that she’s in love with Yang she doesn’t want to anymore. So the day after she brings Elena to the church, Elena comes back to Laoshu to tell them that Nicola has invaded the church and threatens to kill everyone there if Yang doesn’t show his face. Yang thinks it’s just an empty threat though and doesn’t care enough to bother. But Lan and Fei do care since they met the children there and want to help.

So Fei and Lan go back to the church with Lily and Elena to help. Fortunately, Yang decides to come anyway and fights Nicola one on one. Yang ends up killing Nicola and then they go back to their hideout where Yang asks to speak with Lily. He basically tells her he’s a a crap guy who only cares about doing sadistic things but Lily doesn’t care either way and still loves him. He even tells her that he won’t let her go anyway and that she eases his boredom AND if she does try to escape, he’ll kill her (I mean joke or not, that ain’t very romantic). 🥴 So Visconti finally attacks and so Laoshu manage to defeat them with Yang killing Gilbert. So after this, Laoshu basically takes over Burlone and Yang tells Lily he no longer has business in Burlone anymore. So, he decides he’s going to be going to London and tells her to get a coat ready lmao. He also tells her that his real name is Mao and she asks to call him that privately from now on.

In the good ending, Elena thinks back on Lee and because of her hardcore Stockholm syndrome, she wishes he never died since he “saved” her from her current traffickers (albeit he didn’t really cause he just treated her like his toy and even told her thats what she was to him…). Elena ends up luring Lily to the Visconti mansion where Gilbert is fighting Laoshu. Elena tries to shoot Yang for revenge for Lee but is killed by Yang. Gilbert then ends up holding Lily hostage to try and lower Yang’s guard. Yang acts like he doesn’t care but ends up killed because he’s unable to kill Gilbert because of Lily being a human shield.

In the bad end, Laoshu is attacked and so Yang runs off with Lily. They encounter Nicola who’s holding Elena hostage and wants Lily to come with him to Falzone or he’ll kill her. Yang tells her to go with him and he’ll come back to get her later. He ends up getting shot by Dante from behind but manages to escape with Lily and Elena brought to Dante’s mansion. Meanwhile, Lan and Fei are held captive in a dungeon in Dante’s mansion. Yang helps them escape then visits Lily the same night from the balcony telling her he intends to come back for her. So the day he infiltrates Falzone, Yang is overpowered by Dante, Nicola’s, and Orlock. Yang then decides to grab Lily and toss her at Dante before stabbing the both of them (yikes 🙃).

Thoughts: I actually didn’t dislike Yang’s route as much as I thought I would. In so many ways, Yang is definitely an asshole. But, he kinda had a cynical sense of humor that was kind of funny at times lol. I kinda found his route more entertaining than the rest because of this. That being said, did I really think he was suitable for Lily? No, not really. I think Lily was mainly a source of entertainment for him (his plaything so to speak). Lily falling for him legit makes no sense to me when you consider the events of his route. Either way, I liked how Yang didn’t really give a shit that no one liked him and pretty much made it apparent he was an ass (so his bad ends weren’t surprising). But even Yang’s bad end wasn’t as bad as Orlok’s and it made him look like a saint compared to Dante in that route like dear god (Yang woulda just put them out of their misery). His good end was def more bittersweet in a way, but certainly not a good end LOL. Elena had legit Stockholm syndrome in that end… yikes. His bad end wasn’t really as bad as I thought it would be either tbh. I half expected something really terrible (esp because w/ how violent and dangerous Laoshu was) but I kind of expected him to sacrifice her to save himself somehow LOL.

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Orlok (CV: Toyonaga Toshiyuki) is a sort of Informant that works for the church and is adamant on protecting Lily.

He kidnaps Lily one day and when Sophia tries to stop him, he knocks her over and runs away with Lily. He takes her Laoshu’s hideout where Yang resides. Suddenly Falzone appears so there’s a shooting between them and Laoshu while Orlok fights Dante and Nicola. They retreat and Orlok goes back to the hideout to explain to Lily he was sent to protect her. He serves Joseph von Roseburg who is the pope that watches over Burlone. It’s Orlok who has been given the mission to oversee the conflict among the mafia. And apparently this guy claims he heard god say that a girl with golden hair will be the key to stop the conflict in Burlone.

So from then on, Lily is put into protection by Laoshu with Orlok escorting her. He decides to let her go back and forth to the church and apologizes to Sophia for pushing her down. So Lily and Orlok visit the church a few times but Yang decides to give them escorts from Laoshu just in case. Because of this, Lee ends up announcing to the Visconti territory that Lily is a Oracle saint according to Roseburg. Meanwhile, Falzone makes plans to retrieve Lily but Dante also remembers Orlok being the murderer of his father and vows to take revenge. Eventually Lily realizes Laoshu really doesn’t care about religion or the church at all and is working on their own agenda. Lily tells this to Orlok which he didn’t even realize until she told him.

After this, Falzone attacks Laoshu at the church and Dante confronts Orlok. The both of them fight until Orlok has the upper hand and almost kills Dante. But Nicola gets in the way and gets stabbed instead. Lily and Orlok run away back to the Laoshu hideout in the meantime and since Nicola ends up dying, Dante vows to get revenge. Meanwhile, Yang threatens to kill Lily for the sake of making her die as a tragic maiden and bring peace to Burlone. So because of this, Orlok and Lily run away together to Orlok’s hideout. Orlok has no bed or anything so they just huddle with a single blanket together. Orlok also admits he’s glad she’s the one he’s protecting and that he likes Lily but she feels his “like” is more like a child.

So with both Falzone and Visconti hunting them down, both Lily and Orlok hideout for a while until Orlok comes back injured from Gilbert attacking him. Lily helps treat him but they leave the following day after Orlok tells Lily that Rosberg has returned to Burlone. He hopes that he’s come to bring Lily out of Burlone albeit Lily has doubts about him. So they go to a hotel where Rosberg is staying and Lily meets him for the first time. He basically tells her that he was working with Laoshu until he realized their ideals were different but intends to let Orlok and Lily stay with him. Lily doesn’t trust Rosberg and her distrust proves to be correct when Rosberg tells Orlok he heard another Oracle from God which told him that Lily must be killed for Burlone to become peaceful again (exactly what Yang had told them).

So Orlok goes to Lily’s room and puts his dagger to her throat before asking if she believes peace is important enough to sacrifice for. She answers she believes “happiness” is more important. Orlok gives up on killing Lily and tells her that Rosberg ordered him to kill her for the sake of saving Burlone. Lily tells him she knows that even though he kills, his heart is in the right place and she loves him. So the two of them decide they need to leave Burlone before it’s too late and sneak out of the hotel together. They end up at where the homeless kid named Luka was staying. They stay with him until he gets sick and passes away. This upsets Orlok who starts questioning God and his beliefs but Lily comforts him.

After this, Yang appears after tracking them down and threatens to have Lee kill Lily if Orlok doesn’t fight him. Orlok basically promised Lily he intended to not kill again but Yang starts getting Lee to beat up Lily. So this pushes Orlok to slaughter Lee, Yang, and some of the other Laoshu people before taking Lily and running away. He apologizes and feels bad for killing again but she tells him it’s okay because he was merely trying to protect her. After this, they go to an abandoned temple where they encounter a kid named Emilio. He tells them that Rosberg has betrayed them and Orlok was originally an apostle that was to assist Falzone. Rosberg really just wanted power and authority and was intending to use Lily and Orlok for that.

After this, Lily and Orlok go back to the church where they encounter Gilbert and his Visconti men. Gilbert tries to kill Orlok for tarnishing the reputation of Visconti but suddenly Dante appears and shoots Gilbert so he can kill Orlok himself. He kills Rosberg in front of them then tells Orlok to meet him tonight so he can settle his revenge for him. Orlok of course wants to live together with Lily so he decides he’ll do what it takes to do that even if it means killing Dante. So he and Lily meet Dante and Orlok and him until he kills Dante. In the epilogue, Orlok loses his right arm from the injuries and gains a prosthetic one. So Lily and Orlok live happily together while Orlok makes up for his past sins.

In the good end, Orlok is driven to kill Gilbert and then Dante appears to try and kill Orlok. Lily manages to stop Orlok from killing Dante and so they get on a train and run away together while Dante is determined to find them. In the bad end, Orlok and Lily are encountered by Direttore, a man who runs the casino where the mafia often conduct meetings. Lily and Orlok are suspicious of him but with no where else to go, they decide to go to his casino. There, Orlok decides he wants to speak with Rosberg one last time. So they go to the hotel the next day but find Rosberg and next to him is Gilbert holding a gun to him. Rosberg randomly tells Orlok that he’s his son but couldn’t reveal it or would risk losing his position.

Gilbert kills him, so Orlok goes batshit and kills Gilbert but ends up getting shot multiple times by Dante who intervenes. Lily and Orlok wake up in a bedroom with Dante sitting in a chair to greet them. Orlok is chained and Orlok begs him not to kill Lily as long as he keeps her safe. Well, he doesn’t promise that but instead gives Lily the condition of becoming his and he’ll let Orlok live. Unfortunately, Lily just ends up becoming a slave to Dante who rapes her while Orlok is constantly tortured and even has his legs damaged to the point where he can’t walk anymore. Lily sneaks into the dungeon where she meets with Orlok. They try to convince each other to run away but Orlok can’t walk anyway and Dante catches them anyway (that was a terrible ending). 😥

[Why is Orlok’s only kiss CG a terrible bad ending?? ? I HAT E THiS]

Thoughts: Orlok is definitely one of the less trash routes IMO. I personally felt kind of bad for him cause he was raised to be a church assassin & his dad aka Rosberg was a POS / MIA parent. I don’t know why they try to make Rosberg seem more likeable (also throw in that hes Orlok’s father RANDOMLY in the bad end) when he lied for his own selfish reasons but also said Lily needs to die lmao ok. Anyway, the plot kinda felt rushed in the sense there wasn’t that much happening (Lily / Orlok just running away after staying in Laoshu’s base)  and we didn’t really get the whole backstory on why Orlok killed Dante’s father. So, okay, Orlok killed his dad AND Nicola. I do get that Dante would be pissed and want Orlok dead, but REALLY DANTE? THAT BAD END……. LIKE NO. You were all about protecting Lily and her well-being in most routes but keeping her as your sex slave while Orlok is tortured in your mansion’s dungeon?? IM…….. i dont know why they would tarnish his character like that I was so annoyed. Not to mention Orlok’s only kiss CG is in that end. Ugh, I hated it. Honestly, I think a sole romance route w/ Orlok would be cute but I don’t want another bad end like that, lol no thx. Im just waiting for ppl to play this in english and see that awful bad end tarnish their view of Dante.

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Gilbert Redford (CV: Showtaro Morikubo) is the leader of the Visconti mafia group with a good sense of pride and high confidence in himself.

Unlike with everyone else, Gilbert doesn’t kidnap or take Lily against her will. Instead she ends up running into him after the church is invaded by Falzone, Laoshu, and Orlok; all of them aiming for Lily. Orlok helps Lily escape and she runs into Gilbert who decides to take her in the Visconti family to protect her. The next day Gilbert takes Lily out to buy her some new clothes and even buys her some gelato. The next day, Lily finds out Gilbert has been arrested for the claim of using counterfeit bills. Oliver gets him out on bail but they need to find the actual culprit before his trial. Gilbert then decides to meet with Falzone and Laoshu at the casino to discuss this matter. The bills being counterfeited are American bills; because they have the most worth and are more profitable in trade.

The main reason Gilbert is suspected is because even though he’s Italian, he was born in America. So, knowing that this whole counterfeit bill ordeal would tarnish all of the mafia’s reputation in Burlone, all 3 mafia groups decide to work together. Albeit Yang believes another drug trading group he’s in cahoots with called Liu Feng Hui would have reasons to try and rid Laoshu so because he believes they could be involved, Yang decides that Laoshu will have a truce with both Visconti and Falzone until the counterfeit bill ordeal is dealt with. That night, Gilbert and Lily take a walk and he gives her his jacket to keep her warm. She then thanks him for taking care of her when she had no place to go.

So the next day, Gilbert brings Lily to the Falzone home where Dante explains about the “key maiden” and Lily’s connections to it. After that, Gilbert visits a homeless kid named Luca who gives him info and a bag he found that had letters from the casino and a fake bill. Gilbert decides to go to the casino using the bill as the invite and takes Lily along. He ends up betting on Lily with a random guy to get info on the supplier of the fake bills (although she’s the one who insisted he bet on her because she believed he’d win anyway). Gilbert also asks Lily to make the church the meeting place of the mafias so Visconti, Falzone, and Laoshu can easily communicate about the counterfeit bill ordeal.

One day, Gilbert and Lily help a lost child find her mother while they’re out and end up getting caught in the rain. Gilbert then gives Lily earrings to thank her for helping him before. She decides to ask about the eye patch on his eye and he tells her it’s because his left eye is weak. When he grew up in America, his dad was abusive and he ended up getting a glass shard in his eye from a beer bottle. Since then, he just uses his right eye which has better focus anyway especially when shooting. After this, Lily starts to get more conscious of her feelings for Gilbert so she gets even more shy around him. One day she falls asleep on the couch and Gilbert watches her realizing he too has feelings for her lol.

The next day, Luca comes to visit Gilbert and Lily with information on the counterfeit bills. Luca ends up getting a fever and stays at Gilbert’s mansion to recover. They find out there’s an abandoned factory where the bills are being produced so Gilbert gathers the mafia families again to discuss. They pinpoint Direttore being the culprit behind trading bills within the casino. After that, Lily finally confesses that she’s in love with Gilbert. He of course already knew and was waiting for her to realize her feelings so he could finally convey his feelings too. 🥴 That night, Oliver is attacked while retrieving documents from Nicola and ends up getting hurt in the process. Nicola ends up missing but Falzone ends up threatened by the fact they’re working with Visconti.

So Gilbert goes to trial and is proven innocent. Meanwhile, Yang and Orlok infiltrate the abandoned factory making fake bills and kill the people responsible. Dante finds Direttore at the casino and manages to corner him until Gilbert and Lily arrive. Direttore basically reveals he hates Burlone and wanted to cause chaos for whatever reason and also killed Nicola. He starts blowing up the casino to rid the evidence. Regardless, Gilbert chases after him and he manages to get arrested. After that, Lily returns to the church and Gilbert invites her to a hotel one day where they finally make love lmao. In the good end, Direttore isn’t caught and Nicola’s whereabouts are still a mystery. Gilbert also considers going back to Chicago in America where he grew up and to take Lily with him.

In the bad end, new (obviously fabricated) evidence points to Gilbert being the culprit so he’s taken into custody. After being beaten and interrogated, he’s convicted during his trial. With no other options, he’s broken out of jail and decides he’s no longer going to associate with Lily to protect her since the government will be after him. Lily meets him one last time before he leaves and he tells her to find happiness.

[I am thankful for a bittersweet bad end instead of some random yandere shit]

Thoughts: Legit, Gilbert is literally the only character who: A. doesn’t kill Lily in a bad end & B. doesn’t have a random POS moment. I actually enjoyed Gilbert’s romance & I felt like there was more chemistry between him and Lily more than any of the other characters. The plot was completely focused on proving Gilbert’s innocence and helping fix the mafia reputation so seeing all the mafias work together was a nice change from them trying to kill each other. Since this was a route that gave the mafia a common enemy, I got to see some fun interactions with them. Honestly, if you could erase legit everyone’s route aside from Gilbert, everyone would seem so much more likeable LOL. I could definitely see myself wanting to play the FD for the sake of seeing more romance with him. He also reminded me a lot of Houou from Kenka Bancho Otome (like, he even looks similar).

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Finale

Henry (AKA Direttore) (CV: Tachibana Shinnosuke) is a man who was involved with the mafia after an incident with his sister.

So newspaper articles come out that tarnish the mafia’s reputation and cause chaos in Burlone. Meanwhile, the mafia groups try to find out more about Direttore’s identity since they know he’s the culprit behind the counterfeit bills. Yang ends up stealing a picture from Direttore’s office of a girl with blonde hair. Her name was Chloe and she was originally Silvio’s (the past capo and Dante’s father) wife’s maid. She lived in the Falzone family with her younger brother “Riton” and was also the past key maiden. So Lily is now staying at the church again and runs into the man named Henri she met prior to the events before. He saves her one day while she’s trying to get help for Luca who collapsed near the church after getting sick. Lily puts an iced cloth on his face and thanks him for helping her.

Henri wanders off again but Lily tells him she hopes to see him again. Meanwhile, Lily learns more about Chloe from Julia. She was in love with Silvio even though he was already engaged with his wife Beatrice and believed they were “destined” to be together. After they gave birth to Dante, Chloe started growing more unstable and had to be on watch by the maids. One night she escaped the mansion and ended up accidentally falling off a cliff to her death. Rinton didn’t believe this was the case though and blamed the mafia after he started on a mission for revenge for his sister. With all these details and after meeting Henry again, Lily starts to realize he’s probably Rinton after a French boy tells her the nickname for Rinton would probably be Henry.

So Nicola asks Lily to help him infiltrate in one of the factories where Henry is having counterfeit bills produced. After gaining proof, Lily asks Nicola to leave her and she’s taken to the casino where Henry resides. He basically tells her he wanted to meet her because he wanted to see just how similar the next “key maiden” was to his sister. Soon, the rest of the mafia arrive to save Lily as Henry continues to show his contempt for the mafia and Falzone. His memory of Chloe’s death seems to be distorted though because he believes she was murdered somehow when in reality she killed herself. Suddenly, the place is blown up and the whole casino is up in flames. Everyone escapes unharmed but Lily decides to go back in to help Henry.

After finding him, he opens a secret passage way for her to escape through but she refuses to leave without him. So, he follows her into the secret passage as they escape the casino. Lily gets tired so she rests with him as he tells her of his past and how he killed a lot of people to get where he was today. But rather be scared, Lily starts crying because she feels bad for him and his loneliness. So Lily tells Henry she wants him to live for the sake of making up for his sins (also cause she doesn’t want him dead) and goes with him. In the epilogue, Lily is living with Henry in some church in a far-off area of France. For some reason Emilio is there (and I cannot for the life of me understand why or how tf he got there) and discussing how Henry is forever haunted by his sins but wants to continue to live with Lily.

In the other end, Lily and the others make their plan to go to the casino and confront Henry for his crimes. He ends up blowing up the casino again but thankfully Lily and the others escape before they’re burnt alive. After this, Henry is nowhere to be seen but the mafia are no longer hated as Gilbert is proven innocent and all Henry’s crimes are exposed. In the epilogue, Lily spends Christmas with everyone and I guess all of them hang out and chill now lmao.

Thoughts: Uhhh this plot was so random?? Considering this is clearly the final plot reveal (and what you find out after every route) but why the focus on some random character who only appears in a few routes? I feel like part of the point of this route was to show that traditions can change w/ this “key maiden” thing (like the key maiden having to be with a Falzone or whatever) but i really just didn’t get why they went with such an arbitrary plot. Its not like the “key maiden” thing was a huge focus in the game in the first place so in retrospect, Lily wasn’t all that important. I can tell the other end was supposed to be a “harem” end w/ Lily’s bois (and if this got an anime it would definitely go down this route) but man…. it was kind of underwhelming for a mafia game LOL.

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Final Thoughts: I’ve heard so many different opinions of this game and I can definitely agree that there’s things to dislike about all of these characters (except Gilbert; he really was a gentleman and treated Lily fine). But it wasn’t so much the characters (I already had low expectations LOL) that disappointed me more than the plot itself. It all just felt so arbitrary. None of the routes really had a connected plot and the “big reveal” in the finale isn’t really a reveal more than it is just a random backstory on someone who barely appears. It doesn’t really help that this game didn’t really have a common route (it was a prologue that was fairly short & gave descriptive world building). Lily being a so-called “key maiden” didn’t even really mean much?? Like, it literally just felt like an excuse to get her involved with the mafia. It was just so badly incorporated. There was also sometimes way too much arbitrary dialogue vs. things happening imo. I can’t even really say I had a favorite. I did really like Dante… until Orlok’ bad end (im so MAd). Also what the actual fuck was the point of Emilio’s existence?? This little bitch just teleports to different places to show how whimsical he is and how he seems to KNOW EVERYTHING yet he doesn’t say shit and keeps it vague af. Literally he was just a mysterious character used as a plot device to give some sort of importance for Lily (yet i didnt understand any of it).

Story – Piofiore focuses on the heroine named Lily who grew up in a church as an orphan. The mafia groups she’s involved with have often been in conflict with each other, but she gets involved because her “existence” is important to the Falzone family. The best word I have for the plot of this game is “arbitrary”. It just felt like things were happening for the sake of things happening. There’s good world building and the game sets an interesting tone (especially if you’re into mafia stories). However, there isn’t exactly a “set plot” and it’s more a series of events that take place dependent on which route you’re on. The overall story itself is somewhat jumbled and all over the place at times, with things happening arbitrarily (especially involving the importance of Lily).

Characters – Lily is a pretty average heroine with no special abilities but is definitely portrayed as more innocent (with her living in a church). Because of that, her chemistry with the other characters can seem forced in my opinion. Unfortunately, it felt like Lily was just there at times and barely acknowledged. As one of the characters, she just doesn’t feel very important compared to everyone else (even when she seems to be). That being said, with the plot surrounding mafia organizations, or “criminals”, the characters are sort of what you’d expect. They all have traits or do things in routes that make them seem unlikable and sometimes even contradict themselves for the sake of being the enemy in another route. The biggest issue with the characters is that most of them can seem okay, but do things that make them unlikable later (the same can be said for the sub characters too). Personally, I think Gilbert was probably the most tame person out of them all.

Visuals/System – The UI is stylized with the sort of old 1900s feel (as expected). I didn’t have any issues with the system itself. I’ve never played any otome game with RiRi as the artist, but I like the designs and thought the CGs looked really good. I hate it when otome games use CGs at such terrible times or don’t properly utilize them. But this game definitely used CGs at perfect points in the game and for that I commend them.

Music – If anyone asked me to hum a song from this game I don’t think I could. It wasn’t really memorable. I did enjoy the OP song though.  The BGM also had a jazzy feel to it to give you a feel for the italian mafia atmosphere it was going for.

Final Thoughts:  I went into this game with low expectations so there wasn’t much room to be disappointed. I didn’t hate this game but if I were to give one word to describe this game I think I would just use… “meh”. I don’t think its terrible and I can tell there was effort put into the setting, but there are definitely a lot of cons and I didn’t particularly enjoy it all that much myself. First off, Lily doesn’t feel important enough to even be involved with the mafia. She only seems important in Dante’s route (sort of), but even then she just sits in her room or stands somewhere while the mafia are discussing important matters she’s not really involved in. I guess I just don’t enjoy games where the heroine feels like a third wheel. I really love a game that appreciates its heroine. She was thrown around like a hot potato and never given answers when clearly she just wanted to know what the hell was going on half the time.

Well, beyond that, the plot itself was just so arbitrary and even kind of boring at times. There were intense scenes that were interesting but there wasn’t nearly as many action scenes as I expected there to be. Half the time you saw a quick preview of what was happening (mainly because Lily either had to be standing there witnessing it or it had to go to someone else’s POV because she wasn’t involved) but it ended pretty quickly. I kind of made jokes to myself that this game was like the otome mafia version of Fire Emblem Three Houses (esp cause both Dimitri and Claude’s seiyuu play main characters & three mafia families lmao).  Aside from the characters, I guess I expected more from the plot itself? They sorta tossed in the romance but because the development of the characters with Lily was poor so it wasn’t as enjoyable. Like, imagine if Lily was a heroine who literally became involved with the mafia instead of just standing there to just get tossed around. Also, the routes themselves aren’t too long, but damn they REALLY made the bad ends longer than the good end.

Anyway, if you excuse the characters actions and don’t give two shits about how they acted in one route the characters aren’t really unlikeable in their own route. I think Dante, Orlok and Gilbert are fine for the most part (esp Gilbert). I don’t know how many reviews are out there of this game that are praising it but to me I think it really just depends on your tastes. Surprisingly, Aksys localized this game and it comes out soon but really, if you think you’d like the game, go ahead and play it. I’m not expecting people to completely agree with me. The characters are definitely likeable enough (even if I find a lot to dislike). Well, it certainly took me FOREVER to play this game. I bought it when it first came out on Vita but got sidetracked by other games and into my backlog it went. I’m not sure if I want to play the FD (want feels like a strong word), I think at this point it would be mere curiosity to see where they would go with it or if it would be romance > plot. Also to note, this is the Vita version that I played. I think the switch version has extra scenes with CGs but I’m not sure what exactly it adds.