Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017)

Finally, I get to experience the weirdness that is Doki Doki Literature Club. I played it in a room with several Doki Doki veterans, so they got to enjoy the many stages of my experience. "Oh, you're playing #DokiDokiLiteratureClub. Is it because you want to be bored and freaked out at the same time?" Yeah, they knew stuff.

I'm not super into Visual Novels, so the first part of the game was a bit of a chore for me. I spent a lot of time listening to girls argue about whose poems I liked. The poem mechanic was quite fun, but on the whole I was pretty bored until it got a little darker, which quickly became SUPERDARK.

I spent a long time looking at that first, horrible choice. I was hiding in my scarf and hoodie and everyone around was laughing at me: "Congratulations, and that's just the first layer of suck that you'll uncover".

The game routes around many meta moments and a few puzzles, but one moment still blows my mind. It's where the game suddenly addresses me with my staff number from my actual job :o :o :o

It took me five minutes to realise that this number is also my computer name. Creepy AF!

So, in short, would play through the boring part again to get to the the quality meta headfuck!

This, as a game, is a short (but still a bit too long), somewhat tedious visual novel. I'm not a fan of visual novels (usually because they're like books with picture that have a habit of prattling on mindlessly for too long about stuff I don't care about and it feels like padding the experience). DDLC is pretty similar on that front...

However, as a story, DDLC is interesting and complex and a story well told. The 'game'-y bits are really contrived and unnecessary, but my suggestion is to pick a girl and follow along and let the game take you for a ride. After that, go read into it and find out all the cool stuff hiding under the surface.

I have mixed feelings about Doki Doki Literature Club, a free-to-play visual novel on Steam.

It postures as a dating sim, but it's deeper than that, becoming an examination of mental health through a character whose depression feels achingly real to me. There's a warning as you launch the VN that people with mental health issues may want to give this one a pass; I kind of blew the warning off, but in hindsight--I don't want to say I wish I didn't play this (because I don't think that's true)--I do think the sort of depression portrayed here can be triggering for those who have been in that place before.

You play a faceless high school male (which I didn't realize until the VN asked me to name my character and I picked "Julie"--oops) whose best friend demands you join her after school literature club. You're not excited about it, but she is a friend, and there will be cupcakes. Upon arriving, you discover the rest of the club members are also pretty girls and... look, it's a dating sim, you know where this is going.

For most of the VN, my biggest problem with Doki Doki Literature Club was how obviously each of the other club members flirts with you. That's hardly unique in the dating sim world, but I do prefer the approach that I saw in Sweet Fuse: At Your Side where the relationship grows organically and it's not like the rest of the potential love interests are fawning at your feet the whole time. Here it feels like at any moment you could make any one of the girls' week by saying something nice to them.

But i was still enjoying it. Some cringy moments, sure--I have a low tolerance for the stutter/blush side of the early wooing stages (esp. as anime/manga regularly portray it)--but I liked the one girl and the dynamic between her and the main character.

It's a visual novel with some decisions/dialogue responses, but the biggest place for interaction is when you can compose poems. Despite being a literature club, they all start writing poems and sharing them with each other. (I had flashbacks to my days in my college writer's guild, so I was pretty into the poetry emphasis here.) While you don't actually write poems, you do have a chance to chose words for them in a little minigame that takes place after each school day. The word selection supposedly influences the opinions of the other club members, and the VN assumes that you're picking words to specifically target one person. I said, fuck that and just picked words based on my own gut feeling. Luckily (or not), my gut apparently aligned with the girl my character was all about. While you never actually see the poems your character writes, you do see a fair number from the other characters. I'm happy to report that the poetry is better than you'd expect. I was copy editor of my college's literary rag and the poems here were on par with stuff submitted--a few might have actually made it in. Now, I'm not actually much of a poetry guy--prose is my jam--so I can't say anything else about their quality, but "on par with stuff submitted" places it quite a few notches above what I'd expect out of a free-to-play VN.

There Be Spoilers Here On

I dislike the ending I found. I don't know how many endings there are, how many are good, how many are bad, or anything like that. But my ending (ahem, again--spoilers! you have been warned) featured a suicide. And it's not the suicide itself that discolored my experience, but the way the VN treats it as a failure of the main character; as if making different choices would have helped him prevent the suicide of a character.

Look, preventing suicide is a good thing, but mental health is much more complicated than being nice to someone or giving them more attention. Depression doesn't work like that. It warps reality to suit its own self-destructive means. Being nice to people is good, but a depressed person will interpret that as someone forcing themselves to be kind.

I would be more forgiving if the game allowed us to work through the grief process with the main character, but alas it ends without any deeper investigation than that.

What a concept. However, game of the year? No, I don't agree with that notion.

Gameplay

The game is a visual novel, so you will read a lot of text and then make choices as it prompts you. There are three rounds of word selections (mini games) that you will select to align with one of the girls' interests. There are both choices that can affect which girl you will spend more time with as well as discovering their dark nature, and choices that have no affect on your play.

Characters

You play, as usual, some plain, typical dude that girls crush on. You will interact with the four girls of the Literature Club in varying degree depending on your selections. They are not joking when they say disturbing content is in the story - you should absolutely not play this game if you are sensitive to certain trigger warnings. The four girls each represent a stereotypical character type - I would just pick the one that appeals to you the most. If you find that a certain type grinds your gears, it will be irritating to sit through all the conversation just for the sake of completion.

Story

You end up joining a Literature Club at school because your childhood friend makes you stop by after school. While in the Club, you will engage in conversation with certain girls and play a mini game selecting words. As the Club begins preparations for the upcoming festival, a certain event will alter the entire course of the game. There is no way to talk about this without ruining the experience, so if you don't mind slogging through some fairly boring storyline for a good 1-2 hours, you will certainly be in for quite a surprise.

Overall

At first, my thoughts were, "Wow, how unique! What an unusual concept for gameplay through a visual novel." After the first run, all the thrill from the disturbing aspects went downhill and became lackluster. I definitely see why this game was so notable and exciting, as I have never encountered a storyline quite like this before. However, I was disappointed by the lack of "endings" - that is, the repetition quickly became dull and I lost interest after two runs. I have read that there is a "true/normal" ending, but I really just do not want to slog through it all again.

I would recommend for someone to play this game once as a full run, but not worry about attempting to get "complete" endings. However, if you are generally a fan of VNs and enjoy the repetition nature, you may find the appeal of achieving the true ending (steps can be found online).

Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC) i best played blind with an open mind and no demands/expectations.

The less you know about this the better but DDLC deserves every non spoiler review it gets and deserves to be played by as many people who can appreciate it.
I LOVED this game! DDLC is a bit like a mix of Vall-Hall-A (gameplay) , Stanley Parable (style) and Moirai (unusual for the genre). It's based, built and inspired on VN's and various other things that share ties with the manga culture but at same time it seems its not really manufactured for that demographic. It's hard to pidgeonhole just what kind of person would like this beyond someone who plays a lot of games in general, and might be open to playing anything (including a VN). I liked that I could identify with the protagonist anyway.

DDLC overall has a nice and clean look. Both the text and rendered backgrounds are reminiscent of the stuff I seen of PC98. Audio is very simple and really just looping music but it works with the atmosphere. There are other things in this game that are really well designed. I wont mention them but I can only hope that some of these things become a trend in video games when possible.

I am not very seasoned with VN genre but this game makes me want to to play more. So far I've had good experiences with Doki Doki Literature Club, Va11-Ha11-A. I've also played and enjoyed things like Snatcher and Blade Runner. From what I gather these aren't traditional games in the genre though.

DDLC is a great game due to its ability to keep you engaged and and its multi-faceted cleverness. Just by it's title alone it raises questions indirectly throughout the game like "is manga literature?" or if video games are art and mocks a lot of things irreverently. (The cleverness isn't limited to anime, manga or VN's though as a my favorite parts extended with run of the mill game design in general)

and while it isnt perfect (its a bit short, the initial 45 minute staging might drive some off, and player interaction is somewhat a bit limiited) it had an exceptional ending and managed to temporarily suspend my belief and go along with it in a way hardly any games try to do anymore. It's also free. IMO everyone should play this unless you 'get triggered' are sqeamish about controversy in games. Also, DDLC might possibly piss you off if you play VN's since it seems to use the VN pretense as a 'staging' for what is otherwise a different genre. Then again you might like it for what it does with the VN genre too if you dont mind the poking fun bits.

I am hyping this game a bit for three reasons, first it's free and that rubs me right way (free really shouldnt be a factor), second I liked these 4 girls and the way their characters evolve as you play the game, and third, in high school i was in a creative writers club 'class' that consisted of me and about 4 girls and this game reminds me it.

I think if you know anything about this game going in, there's no point playing it.

As such, I recommend anyone reading who hasn't played it to stop reading about it immediately!

The first third of the game is essentially what I perceived as a gross dating sim that was overly complimentary to the player and simplifies the female characters to the point of objectification.

When the turn happens about a third of the way through, it is initially horrifying, then downright creepy and suspenseful. Once you figure out what is actually going on, it's kind of a brilliant and admirable parody of this genre of game (which, clearly, I was not very familiar with going in).

It felt to me like this game is what you'd get if you put one of those creepy 'sexy anime' ads you see on dodgy streaming sites into a blender alongside a creepypasta and The Stanley Parable. A twisted work of genius that I'm very confident would suck if you know anything about it before you play.

Rating: 8/10

I'm not a visual novel guy really so I tend to only play the ones that get good reception, but I don't often hear about them because I don't know anybody who plays them. This was mentioned on, I think, IGN recently so I checked 'er out.

I knew there were twists coming but even so, the beginning portion almost lost me. I found it boring, and even though it was letting me get to know these girls I almost just gave up. But I continued on because I knew it got weirder and I wanted to see how.

It became pretty sincere, even though I predicted some of it. The writing isn't always the best--sometimes it's more explanatory than fluid--but for the most part it's solid enough. I did care about the characters, maybe because I've known people like this, but even if I didn't then the plot was interesting enough to keep me engaged.

It's not a terrifying game, but there is a creepiness to it that I appreciate. I'm not ready to lose my shit over this but it's definitely worth an 8 outta 10, which is by all means a great rating.

Doki Doki Literature Club is a freeware visual novel. This one initially presents itself as a cliche saccharin-sweet dating sim, but as things progress, you'll realize there's more to it than meets the eye. As this game is highly susceptible to being spoiled, I'll be keeping this review short and relatively vague so that anyone who reads this will still have surprises in store for them when they play the game.

• While the game has certain surprise elements that set it apart, the majority of the time you'll spend with it will be in the form of a classic dating sim. The game's developer absolutely nails the tone, characters, and scenarios of classic 90s PC dating sims. Much to my surprise, before the various twists happen, Doki Doki Literature Club is actually a pretty decent dating sim visual novel in its own right.
• Since the game is about a literature club, the game's main sections involve sharing poems between the protagonist and the various girls in the club (of course the protagonist is the only male member... I told you this is a cliche dating sim). The protagonist's poems are generated by picking a selection of words from a menu. The player never sees the protagonist's completed poems, but the words you choose will affect your dialog with each girl. Reading the girls' poems is more interesting than I expected. The writing in these sections does a good job of giving the characters a little more depth beyond their otherwise trope-laden personas.
• Like the writing, the music also perfectly captures the tone of classic dating sims while lulling the player into a false sense of comfort. Unique instrumentation of the music plays while reading each girl's poems, which is a nice touch. The pleasant soundtrack also distorts appropriately when the twists start coming, which is another little detail I appreciated.
• Without saying what actually happens, when the game finally starts deviating from being a dating sim (you'll know when you get there), it does so in a way that is interesting, but not entirely unique. As someone who has played other indie games that hinge on deceiving the player, I wasn't as shocked by the turn of events as some other players might have been. That being said, some of the twists were very well executed, but I felt that a few were handled a little clumsily.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with Doki Doki Literature Club. The main portion of the game was a pleasant nostalgia trip to my days as a dorky teen playing dating sims on my parents' computer late at night. The post-twist segment, while not completely original in concept, was still effective and stuck with me for a while after playing. If you like dating sims and games that go to strange and dark places, I'd highly recommend Doki Doki Literature Club. If you don't like dating sims, however, you will likely find yourself getting bored long before you get to the twist.

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