History VideoGame / TheCloserGameOfTheYearEdition

* BalefulPolymorph: In [[spoiler:the Gritty Reboot world]], @twitter is distraught to find itself turned into a blue but otherwise realistic chicken.

Currently SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove due to being a rather obscure title.

* HopelessBossFight: Every match against "The Machine" [[spoiler: until Game 7]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: When the manager of the New York Yankees decides the Closer can't finish off Game 7--because his media reputation has tanked in response the Game 6 disaster--the Closer does not take it well. He leaves the party immediately, and they soon find out he's locked himself up in an abandoned PEZ factory so he could consume the candy and learn new pitches that way. [[spoiler:Moose quickly comes to the realization that the Closer confused PEDs for PEZ]].

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: When the manager of the New York Yankees decides the Closer can't finish off Game 7--because his media reputation has tanked in response the Game 6 disaster--the Closer does not take it well. He leaves the party immediately, and they soon find out he's locked himself up in an abandoned PEZ factory so he could consume the candy and learn new pitches that way. Now, in the context of baseball, what hot acronym does PEZ sound like?

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler:The Illuminati are what truly drive the plot, creating Rodriguez so he can constantly antagonize the Closer and his friends and prod him into fulfilling his part of their apocalyptic prophecy. You only find this out late in the game, after stealing the very ball Rodriguez sent flying out of the park in Game 6.]]

* {{Leitmotif}}: The Machine's "walk-up theme" plays whenever he shows up to hassle the main cast. This is intitally lampshaded, and during two instances where [[spoiler:The Machine isn't really there, but rather a body double/hologram]], the walk-up theme cuts out immediately.

** Zizek is an example on a deeper level: While the actual philosopher's last name is supposed to be spelled Žižek (with carons over the Zs), the characters simply refer to him as Zizek (without the carons) and that is that.

** The Closer is inspired by Brad Lidge, a modestly successful MLB player who played for the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies but also suffered a humiliating gaffe against St. Louis power hitter Albert Pujols in a 2005 game. Meanwhile, Carlos Rodriguez is fittingly a dead ringer for Pujols, right down to his nickname "The Machine". That said, the stakes in-game are higher than they were in real life (the incident happened in the playoffs instead of the World Series, the game was ultimately salvaged by Lidge's fellow Astros, [[spoiler: and of course there was no prophesy having the fate of the world rest on the two of them]]).

''The Closer: Game of the Year Edition'' (or ''The Closer'' for short) is an RPG developed in ''VideoGame/RPGMaker XP'' by Redbird Menace and published by Thesis Games in 2015. It weaves an absurdist and existential narrative around a major sport, not unlike ''Literature/TheTimTebowCFLChronicles'' or ''WebOriginal/SeventeenThousandSevenHundredSeventySix''. Yet the sport that serves as the backbone of the game's plot is not gridiron football but UsefulNotes/{{baseball}}.

[[caption-width-right:350:The title screen, and the encounter with aforementioned [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek Slovenian philosopher.]]

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* LivingMotionDetector: Twitter [=HQ=]'s employees cannot detect people standing still.

* TakeThat: The game is also pretty good at getting some potshots in at other things. For example, the characters constantly deride [[spoiler:the Gritty Reboot world]] for being too edgy for its own good. And just before that, there's Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog (who's become overcome with nihilism) and [[Franchise/DragonBall Goku]] (who's pretty much {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed into spouting shounen-isms that don't actually help the characters.)

* HopelessBossFight: Every match against "The Machine" [[spoiler: until Game 7]]

* MortonsFork: Invoked by [[spoiler:the Illuminati, who have put into motion a prophecy concerning the Closer meeting Rodriguez for a showdown in the last moments of the final game of the World Series. It doesn't actually matter whether or not you win against The Machine at that point, because all the Illuminati care about is the two players fulfilling their destiny and playing the game to completion. Naturally, the only way to defy the ensuing apocalypse is to "fuck that" and smack Rodriguez with the ball, forcing a walk and extending the game beyond the showdown in the process]].

** The Closer is inspired by Brad Lidge, a modestly successful MLB player who played for the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies but also suffered a humiliating gaffe against St. Louis power hitter Albert Pujols in a 2005 game. Meanwhile, Carlos Rodriguez is fittingly a dead ringer for Pujols, right down to his nickname "The Machine". That said, the stakes in-game are higher than they were in real life (the incident happened in the playoffs instead of the World Series, and the game was ultimately salvaged by Lidge's fellow Astros).

* NoodleIncident: While the manager of the New York Yankees is fine with the Closer going on an epic journey to remake himself as a pitcher (and believes the personal re-examination that may occur along the way would be beneficial), he makes it clear the Closer's contract forbids any attempt to get in touch with existential mystery. We're not given any meaningful backstory to this clause, only that it happened weeks after Alex Rodriguez began reading Nietzsche while drinking mescal. And the manager got a tattoo of [[Myth/HinduMythology Ganesh]] in that timeframe; he still hasn't found it by the beginning of the story.

* NoodleIncident: While the manager of the New York Yankees is fine with the Closer going on an epic journey to remake himself as a pitcher (and believes the personal re-examination that may occur along the way would be beneficial), he makes it clear the Closer's contract forbids any attempt to get in touch with existential mystery. We're not given any meaningful backstory to this clause, only that it happened weeks after Alex Rodriguez began reading Nietzsche while drinking mescal. And the manager got a tattoo of [[UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}} Ganesh]] in that timeframe; he still hasn't found it by the beginning of the story.

** Zizek is based on the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, which pretty much explains his character.

* GeniusBonus: [[invoked]] Weaponized by Moose [[spoiler:and later Kami]] when the party participates in trivia night. The questions ''look'' sound on the surface, but he [[spoiler:and she]] know a few things that expose just how poorly worded the questions were. For example, the first question Moose tackles is "What artist is best known for 'The Night Watch'?" The answer is, of course, Rembrandt...except it's more complicated than that. Moose points out that while Rembrandt did paint that piece and it was his best-known painting, the ''real'' title is the longer-winded "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch Preparing to March Out".

*** Five pitches:
*** [[spoiler:No Moose or Dragon Slayer: He makes the starting rotation and performs decently.]]
*** [[spoiler:Moose rescued but no Dragon Slayer: He becomes a reliable, competent starter.]]
*** [[spoiler:Dragon Slayer successfully used but no Moose: He gets put on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame for his excellent skill as a starter.]]
*** [[spoiler:Moose rescued ''and'' Dragon Slayer successfully used: The Closer's GoldenEnding. He gets into the Hall of Fame, wins multiple Cy Young awards, leads the Yankees to even more World Series Championships, and becomes one of the greatest pitchers in the modern era of baseball.]]

* DiscriminateAndSwitch: An NPC at [[spoiler:The Machine's mansion]] offers to pay the Closer $20 to steal a baseball bat from [[spoiler:the mansion's bedroom chambers.]] While the Closer balks at first because he thinks the NPC is racist, they save face by clarifying that he looks like a main character of a story--one who takes the time to help out random people in exchange for minor rewards while pursuing their major quest. That leaves the Closer ''slightly'' less hesitant to agree to the job.

*** Five pitches, [[spoiler:no Moose or Dragon Slayer: He makes the starting rotation and performs decently.]]
*** Five pitches, [[spoiler:Moose rescued but no Dragon Slayer: He becomes a reliable, competent starter.]]
*** Five pitches, [[spoiler:Dragon Slayer successfully used but no Moose: He gets put on the ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame for his excellent skill as a starter.]]
*** Five pitches, [[spoiler:Moose rescued ''and'' Dragon Slayer successfully used: The Closer's GoldenEnding. He gets into the Hall of Fame, wins multiple Cy Young awards, leads the Yankees to even more World Series Championships, and becomes one of the greatest pitchers in the modern era of baseball.]]

* HashtagForLaughs: Much of @twitter's is filled with dialogue that contains at least one #hashtag, and a good number of those are often snarky or otherwise humorous. For instance:

Currently NeedsMoreLove due to being a rather obscure title.