No Seriously. Play the game first. It's free on Steam.
There's no reason not to play this game. Do it. Then come back.
Now, with that out of the way... onto the review.
Doki Doki Literature Club
Rating: Instant Fav
Themes/Genres: Psychological Horror, Visual Novel, Depression
Main Characters:
Just Monika
Overview:
Welcome to the Literature Club! It's always been a dream of mine to
make something special out of the things I love. Now that you're a club member,
you can help me make that dream come true in this cute game!
Every day is full of chit-chat and fun activities with all of my
adorable and unique club members:
Sayori, the youthful bundle
of sunshine who values happiness the most;
Natsuki, the deceivingly
cute girl who packs an assertive punch;
Yuri, the timid and
mysterious one who finds comfort in the world of books;
...And, of course, Monika,
the leader of the club! That's me!
I'm super excited for you to make friends with everyone and help the
Literature Club become a more intimate place for all my members. But I can tell
already that you're a sweetheart—will you promise to spend the most time with
me?
Summary:
If you haven’t heard about this
game yet… do you even Internet, bro? For
the past few weeks the internet, and horror fans especially, have been blowing
up about this new super adorable-looking visual novel called ‘Doki Doki
Literature Club’, DDLC, for short. From
the very cutesy visual novel-esque art style, featuring four S Tier waifus, and
the bouncy, happy-go-lucky piano
music constantly playing in the background, DDLC looks like your average dating
sim trash VN. (Not that I don’t play
VNs, but don’t lie to me, you know most of them are trash and that’s why you
play them)
Now, originally, I wasn’t even
sure if I wanted to review this because, frankly, just having it on a horror
review blog gives away its actual genre.
But, again, if you’re on the internet right now, you’ve probably already
heard this game has a twist. It’s
probably what led you to look into it in the first place. It’s what drew me in, that’s for damn
sure. Deceptive horror is the best
kind. But, you can also only get so far
with that deception considering, on top of everyone already talking about it,
the ‘psychological horror’ tag is right there on the steam page. Not to mention, the game literally starts out
with a warning and disclaimer.
You already know something’s going down.
That said, just knowing its
horror does not prepare you for the true intentions behind this conniving,
brilliant game. On top of all that, this
felt like the perfect game to round the year out with, especially considering
some changes I’ll be making to the blog starting next year. Which I’ll talk about in another post.
But back to the game:
The first couple days of the VN
start off pretty basic, as well. You’ve
got your girl next door, your tsundere, your overly shy bouncing boobs, and, of
course, the star athlete, student president that everyone loves and
adores. You join end up joining an after
school club, dragged along by your girl-next-door long-time best friend, selling your soul for promises of cupcakes. You meet the rest of the girls, take a
backseat to some shenanigans, and then go home to write a poem for your chosen
waifu.
This continues for a couple days. Pick a girl, write her a poem, spend the club
activity time with her, and eventually spend the weekend with her preparing for
the festival.
 |
| This is actually hella clever. |
Nothing out of the ordinary. A
couple dark hints here and there but you just think, “oh, it’s going to cover
some real life issues under the guise of a cute game. Not bad,” and it compels you to play
more. Find out more. Focus on one girl more.
But then the weekend comes
around… and Sayori drops some heavy shit.
But even then, you’re still like
“oh, okay, this game is getting a bit real but it’s still not bad.” And you spend your weekend with your chosen
girl. More minor hints… and then a visit
from Sayori.
That’s when it starts.
Something is clearly wrong.
And what did Monika say to her, exactly?
But the festival is coming up and
you’re reading to get it over with and spend the entire day making sure Sayori
knows she’s loved. You’re going to make
sure she stays out of her head and you’re going to help her through her
depression from here on out. Everything
will be fine.
Then suddenlyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy………
She’s not at school the next
day. Monika’s being extra creepy. And that poem.
You need to go check up on
her. You should have waited. After everything she told you, you should
have waited for her that morning. You left her hanging, after all.
And that’s where it all goes
wrong.
You done fucked up…
 |
| And now you need to pay your revelution |
Now is when the true brilliance
of this game begins. In a very ‘Eternal
Darkness’-like way, DDLC and Team Salvato take full advantage of the fact that video games can do what no other
platform can. PC games, especially. The game takes advantage of visual
‘glitches’, the ability to manipulate file directories, and completely messes
with your basic video game habits, such as relying on save files.
Screens change, text glitches
out, broken images fill an entire screen, entire character files are completely
deleted from the game. The fourth wall
is so shattered and obliterated in this game it barely existed in the first
place. The best part, though, is that
everything was right there in front of you the entire time. Everything about the girls’ lives, and
Monika’s awareness, was right there… in the poems. In the dialogue. In the
background.
So subtle. And yet, screaming so loud.
Then there are the subtle changes
and differences between each play through.
Depending on how you write the poems, who you spend your time with, how
you react to certain decisions… and even whether you’re recording or not, on
top of just some straight up RNG moments (such as the warning when you start up
the game. In case anyone was wondering,
I managed to get that one in a million “easily dismembered” warning. Yay me), the game changes and alters
ever-so-slightly… or sometimes really obviously. Sometimes a face glitches out. Sometimes a glitched out Sayori bow
appears. Sometimes Natsuki breaks her
damn neck. You just never know what’s
going to happen!
But no matter what… you’re
spending a weekend with a talking, subtly decaying corpse. My favorite kind of weekends, personally.
(Props to the subtle decay, by the way.)
My only minor complaint is that the game forces you into a
Yuri-focused route the second time around.
Personally, I was into Yuri, anyway, and focused on her just naturally,
but the fact that there’s no real option to focus on Natsuki (because she
literally just breaks her own neck if you try) was a little disappointing. You still get plenty of shenanigans involving
Natsuki, but not nearly as many as Yuri.
But, I can’t imagine the amount of time and coding that already went into this game, especially
since it’s FREE, so I’m not going to fault the developers much for that. Especially since that’s literally my only complaint for this entire game.
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| Yuri: A.K.A. Crazy-Eyes bein' cute as shit |
All in all, this game is amazing,
fucking terrifying, and goddamn
brilliantly constructed. It is one of
the most creative games I’ve seen since Undertale and I hope to god that Team Salvato make more and
continue pushing gaming boundaries. I
have never closed a game faster from downright terror than I did several times during this one. It really raised the bar for what horror
games should be striving for and it’s going to be pretty hard to beat.
Have a nice weekend.
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| delete her |
