Just like every anime/game/manga series’ own collab cafes, the food is mostly tolerable (read: inedible), the goods are nearly sold out (probably good or bad, depending on what you’re collecting), but the bonus items given for every dish and/or drink ordered are [surprisingly] decent.
It’s been awhile since I went to a collab cafe, with the last one being Voltage Inc’s 100-Koi (Japan’s Love 365) cafe last February of this year, so I was looking forward to the goods buying for Piofiore during the 3-day weekend.
I have actually forgotten just how intense fandoms can be in terms of goods buying (my fandom isn’t that popular so goods get sold out after some time) because as soon as I got to the venue, I found out that the ones that I did want to buy have been sold out since 14 November. Luckily for me and my wallet, I do not have the strong urge to buy the merch, so I ordered the drinks.
Anyone who’s been to a collab cafe knows how barely edible the food is most of the time, so my friend and I decided to simply buy drinks and dessert as it’s the most reasonable thing to buy; ordering a dish from the food menu costs between JPY850 to JPY980, while one drink cost JPY700. On top of that, there’s a fee of JPY600 that you need to pay in order to join the collab cafe.
After paying the JPY600 fee for the cafe, my friend and I ordered the more reasonably-priced dishes and drinks. I went for the fizzy-type of drinks, which ended up being decent enough for my taste.
Right: Dante’s Lychee Grape Soda
Both of us ordered panna cotta, which turned out to be decent enough. I like sweets so I gobbled it down in no time.
The lemon tart was surprisingly good!
As time went on, both my friend and I passed the time by discussing Piofiore, as I sought her opinion on the game so far. She has yet to complete Orlok’s route so I avoided all the spoiler talk for his route.
We ended up discussing Dante and Lili’s relationship, which resulted in hilarious innuendo and religion, as I have some knowledge in the latter topic. At one point, we both kind of trashed the game, but in no way do I hate it. It’s good, but the plot has not moved me in any way.
At one point during the cafe, the staff played the OP movie of the game, as well as the character image songs of Orlok, Gilbert, and Yang. My friend commented that it was probably a way to convince people to buy the CDs and I agreed.
I took this time to rest my legs as I was on my feet the whole morning of Saturday to go to a museum, though at one point, I contemplated buying a pen at least… which ended up being blind merch.
1 in 5 chances for me to get a Dante Falzone-themed ballpen? Sign me the fuck up!
In the end, I luckily did manage to get it.
Cost: JPY660
Aside from the ballpen, since my throat was slightly dry and itchy from all the sweets I ate on that day, I opted to get something hot.
Tepid at best but I needed something to cleanse my palate
Our cafe time ended at 5PM so we left the cafe before that. On our way out, I took more photos.
Honestly speaking, the cafe was more fun with my friend since we used the time to chat about the game. The bonuses I got were nice, though I wish I got more Dante…
Having said that, my friend teased me, saying that I should approach the other attendees so that I can trade my items for more Dante, but I backed out, saying that I was too exhausted to interact outside the current social bubble.
In the end, I managed to get the following:
Bottom L ~ R: Gilbert Redford (holographic ver.), Orlok
L ~ R: Dante Falzone, Orlok, Yang
With that, I realized the following about myself with regards to Piofiore:
- I got into the series because of Nicola, bought the game because a lot of people were getting worked up over Yang, yet my favorite ended up being Dante
- Collab cafes are nice but damn is it expensive; I had no hesitation whatsoever with Voltage Inc’s collab cafes but I balked with this one in terms of ordering. I guess it’s because I’m not very invested in this series [yet].
- Still remains to be seen but it seems like I’m a Yang magnet… guess I should expect him more when I go for random/blind merch? I’ll let everyone know if that’s the case.
- Talking to my friend about Piofiore’s religious aspect revived my knowledge in the matter and realized that whoever wrote this game did not research properly on the topic (read: Dante and Lili banging before marriage = bad)
- As mentioned earlier, game did not move me. At all.
- My other friend was right when she said that Otomate’s target audience are teenagers; you’re forced to read between the lines to check and see if anything sexual happened between the main girl and the love interest. Guess that’s the difference with console games and mobile games.
- While Yang’s items are more expensive in the second-hand market, everyone’s hella thirsty for Dante.
On a lighter aspect, my friend was shocked when she found out about Episodio 1926. All this time, she thought that the Stella Worth set I bought last November 12th was from the first game, that I actually bought the Japanese version of the game for the heck of it, bought a digital copy of Piofiore: Fated Memories, and then bought the physical copy as well, totaling it to three. After explaining calmly that Piofiore: Fated Memories/ricordo and Episodio 1926 was very different, with the latter being the sequel, she then asked, “Are you gonna play it in English if it comes out?”
I guess I would; hopefully, it does get localized.
With my first Piofiore event mostly underwhelming, I’ll probably still go to another if I have the time and resources for it. If there’s another cafe collab for Episodio 1926, I’ll go again.
Hopefully, the collab would have a better selection of food and drinks, and goods would be stocked up properly.
Wanderlust 