Piu-Piu (born Alexander Piulitzer) is the shopkeeper in Chaos Rings, Chaos Rings Ω, and Chaos Rings II. You can buy or sell items, weapons, armor, and jewels from him, and he also saves you from dungeons if you're defeated, at the cost of 10% of your money. In Chaos Rings II, he also runs the P.U.B., a series of side quests that involve either collecting items or fighting bosses. He is a huge pervert and often provides comic relief in the games. He is accompanied by his papier-mâché cutout women, Jodie and Catherine, plus Meg in the third game.
Background
Alexander Piulitzer, known during his college days as Piu-Piu, was a brilliant scientist who discovered time travel and immortality. At some point, Piu-Piu had three children and probably a wife, but they are all dead, presumably because of the Qualia. Along with Theia, Cyllis, and Ayuta, Piu-Piu was one of the original founders of the Ark. As noted by Ayuta, his current body is not his actual body, but his soul placed into an artificial body. This is because the Ark would only be able to sustain two people (Ayuta and Theia) at a time, therefore the artificial body would allow him to exist on it safely. A side consequence of this procedure was that Piu-Piu lost his sense of shame and became a "HUGE pervert." His perversion was sealed off into a Prototype Agent, who became so powerful that it surpassed the Agent and became known as the "Crimson Demon." In Chaos Rings, he functions little more than shopkeeper and comic relief. Each couple has scenes with Piu-Piu involving having the male try on a bikini, asking the female to give him her breastplate, and explaining why his cutouts don't like the male. In Chaos Rings Omega, he has a much bigger role. He sides with Vieg against Cyllis and Yorath, and he also helps babysit Ohm when Vieg and Vahti go into the dungeons.
It's unknown whether he survived the Ark's destruction at the hands of the Qualia, but it's possible he did as he starts packing up his shop after the player beats The Almighty, so he may have left before it was destroyed. Additionally, after the credits a picture of him is shown surrounded by real-life versions of his paper-mache cutouts, further implying he escaped the Ark before its destruction.
In Chaos Rings Omega's Extra Mode, Piu-Piu serves as the host. At game start, he summons Vieg, Vahti, Dante and Rachel (from a different timespace than the ones in the main campaign) to retrieve his "Piu-Piu Collection", a series of items which pertain to Piu-Piu's personality, past, or break the fourth wall. At the end of Extra Mode all the characters return to their original world and the Agent confiscates Piu-Piu's collection again (which he refers to in Chaos Rings, although when these events take place is unclear due to the constant time travel and parallel timespaces in the games).
In Chaos Rings II, it is confirmed that Piu-Piu escaped the Ark and is now, for some reason, working as a salesman for the participants in the Rite of Resealing, which he calls a "hellhole". He now has a new cut-out girl named Meg, who was mentioned in the Extra Mode of Omega.
Battle
- Main article: Piu-Piu (Chaos Rings boss), Perturbed Piu-Piu, Berserk Piu-Piu, Piu-Piu (Chaos Rings II boss)
Piu-Piu serves as the superboss in Chaos Rings. In order to fight him, a couple must defeat the Qualia and all nine bonus bosses which are locked in cylinders across the five dungeons. Afterwards, talking to Piu-Piu will cause him to ask if you want his Super Bikini; answering yes leads to a fight with him. Beating Piu-Piu with all couples changes the title page.
In Chaos Rings Omega, Piu-Piu is fought three times during Extra Mode. The first fight takes place at game start, and is impossible to win, since Piu-Piu has the same stats he had in the first game, while the player characters are only level 1. The other two take place much later in the game; giving him the whole Piu-Piu's Collection and the Viper Vitality will, respectively, trigger fights with Perturbed Piu-Piu and Berserk Piu-Piu, both of which resemble grotesque humanoid versions of Piu-Piu's normal form.
In Chaos Rings II, Piu-Piu is the boss of the Yours Truly Returns P.U.B. quest, which is unlocked by defeating all dungeon bosses and Amon, and completing all previous P.U.B. quests. Defeating him leads to the humorous and (presumably) non-canonical Yours Truly Returns ending.
Trivia
- He is voiced by Chie Kōjiro.
- His face appears on the Ohnz coins of Chaos Rings III, possibly as a reference to his self-proclaimed love of money and his role as the merchant in the previous games. The SP Shop music in Chaos Rings III is also based on his theme, "Merchant's Song," which is used in the three previous titles in the series.