Kiane, our protagonist. Not pictured: Kiane's brain.
- Every boy have a secret. One of them is bones.
Pizza Game is a 2019 comedic "shitpost" visual novel written by Plasterbrain
, and with art by her brother Brendan Blaber.
Kiane is a college graduate who has just landed her dream job: the secretary of Mr. Arimnaes, billionaire tech CEO and serial killer (which is a very poorly-kept secret). While her main goal is trying to win Mr. Arimnaes' heart, she has plenty of time for other tasks, such as taking night classes or working as a pizza waitress. There are also plenty of other single people she could choose to romance, such as the mascot for the local pizza restaurant, or her incredibly buff Driver's Ed instructor. With the help of her sassy thought bubble, Inner Me, there's nothing Kiane can't accomplish!
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Human: Sensei and his family seem human, but there's enough off about them to bring that into question. For example, one of them is able to adjust his eyeball, and later does the same with his "earball." Flower Sensei also supports this idea, both in being a regular flower who was transformed into a Sensei and in openly questioning whether or not the other Senseis were something else before.
- Bad Liar: Mr. Arimnaes' murderous tendencies are made incredibly obvious (to the audience) despite all his attempts to explain why his office is covered in human bones. Thankfully for him, Kiane is an Idiot Hero that can't see the truth even when it's spelled out for her.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The True Route is pretty dark compared to the rest of the game. From Kiane finding out on the first day that Mr. Arimnaes is a serial killer, to learning that Flordaddle is stuck repeating the same five days until he gives the Eldritch Abomination MOTHER her bone powers back. That said, it's still Pizza Game, so there are still some light, comedic elements, such as MOTHER's friendly attitude toward the people of Flordaddle, even as she openly judges whether or not to spare them, or the flashbacks having everyone speak Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe during the Carter administration.
- Cloudcuckoolander: To an extent, everyone, but in particular:
- Sensei has a very strange thought process, to the point that even Idiot Hero Kiane is weirded out by him.
- Most of what Warped Lamp says comes across as either completely bizarre or outright crazy. Her idea of "cool" is very different from literally anyone else.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Arimnaes is a massive Jerkass who fires Kiane repeatedly for the smallest screw-ups and claims to only eat pizza with her to mock her standrad of living, among other things. Near the end of his Boastful Rap, he mentions evicting 40,000 orphans. Oh, and there's also the whole serial killer thing.
- Cute and Psycho: Rare Male Example. In his route, Chris is a little too willing to kill people to place his zucchini beacons.
- Dreadful Musician: In Sensei's route, Mr. Arimnaes plays the piano while Kiane and Sensei try not to be caught by him. Kiane has a hard time not screaming in pain, making perfect didgeridoo sounds, or karate-chopping Mr. Arimnaes in response to how horrible his playing is.
- Foreshadowing: Getting a Non-Standard Game Over will show a poorly written fanfic written by Kiane telling her teacher she forgot to study for a spelling test and wrote an erotic fanfiction shipping Mr. Arimnaes with herself. The paper has red ink marking the paper, one giving a grade of "F—" and "See me after class". The Reveal at the end of the True Route reveals the whole game is actually a 200,000+ word story that Kiane, a high schooler, is reading to a class taught by Mr. Arimnaes. He warns her if she reads another similarly written story instead of a book report, he'll send her to the principal's office; when she offers to show erotic artwork she drew, he makes good on that threat.
- Gratuitous Japanese:
- "Sensei" is a Japanese term, yet this game takes place in an American town and no one calls him anything else.
- Kennarnor sometimes lets honorifics slip into his speech, like referring to Flordaddle's financial situation as "economy-kun" being down on hard times.
- Horned Humanoid: Chris gains a pair upon the reveal that he's a demon.
- Idiot Hero: Kiane is not the brightest bulb in the box. Inner Kiane is smarter and more of a Deadpan Snarker, but not by much. That said, she's probably squarely in the center of the spectrum of this game's characters, with Warped Lamp and Sensei being distantly behind her. Then again, it could just be because they have an even looser grasp on reality that Kiane.
- Intentional Engrish for Funny: The entire visual novel is grammatically butchered, as part of the joke.(From the trailer): "over 185,000 WORDS! all of them are TYPOS!"
- Leitmotif: Most characters have at least one.
- Medium Awareness: At one point, Kiane can attempt to get Mr. Arimnaes to kiss her by taking control of a Dialogue Tree.
- Multiple Endings: Seven in total; one for each possible love interest, plus a True Route. Notably, according to achievements on Steam, every love interest only has a "bad end" and no "good end".
- Odd Job Gods: Crysanthemum, AKA Chris, is a demon that presides over fried chicken.
- Once More, with Volume!: Occurs during Kiane’s pizza date with Mr. Arimnaes:Mr. Arimnaes: One pepperoni pizza please, and hold the bitching
Keenarnror: what did you just say to me?!?
Mr. Arimnaes: Oh, was I not loud enough? I said HOLD. THE. BITCHING. - Punny Name: Kiane Pepper is named after Cayenne Pepper, which is often used in cooking spicy meals.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Roobit, the pizza mascot that's probably also an alien.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: The game makes extensive use of typos. The characters even pronounce them in the voice-acted launch trailer.
- Teacher/Student Romance: The Sensei routes are basically this. The Non-Standard Game Over and the ending of the True Route reveal that Kiane is actually a high schooler attempting to invoke this but her teacher, Mr. Arimnaes, is rebuffing due to this being inappropriate.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: On Day 1, Mr. Arimnaes complains about not getting his bonus for dealing with the garbage proletariat. He then remembers that he's the boss and puts the bonus back in, saying he'll get it from Kiane and Nancy's paychecks.
- Show Within a Show
- Several moments in the game are treated as this, such as the cooking and exercise scenes in Mr. Arimnaes' route, with the characters even calling them shows.
- The Reveal at the very end features Pizza Game itself as a 200,000+ word story being read by a high school student named Kiane, with her teacher, Mr. Arimnaes, sending her to the principal's office when she offers to show some erotic art she drew for it.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Everyone in Sensei's family is as incredibly buff and strong-jawed as he is.
- Stylistic Suck: There are a lot of spelling errors intentionally left in, starting with the main menu's "Start/Contine/Extars/Leave".
- Take That!: The game on the whole, towards visual novels in general. Zero Time Dilemma (and its audience) gets a particularly big one when the game casually and unavoidably gives away a major plot point.
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Kiane has a roommate named Johnny, who she occasionally refers to as a pet.
- This Loser Is You: Implied by the true ending, which reveals Kiane, who wrote all of Pizza Game, is actually a failing student with a crush on her teacher, presented the story to class instead of the book report she was given, and has drawn Rule 34 of the characters.
- Tuckerization: Multiple characters in the story, such as Warped Lamp, Roob(it), and Siv (Illian), are named after Plasterbrain and JelloApocalypse's actual friends.
- Vampire Hunter: In Chris' route, Sav reveals he is a vampire-demon-slayer that's hunting down Chrysanthemum, AKA Chris.
