Doki Doki Literature Club is a ren'py visual novel about making poems and delving into relationships with the girls of the Literature Club you're pressured to join. What starts as a harmless set up for an average dating sim turns into something with much greater consequences and depth as the story progresses.
This review is not spoiler-free, but will also not discuss the endgame of DDLC. To see a spoiler-free TL;DR review, please scroll down to the end of this post.
❤Characters:
The characters of DDLC are very well explained on both the Steam store page and website. Each follow a dating sim staple to a T; Sayori being the childhood friend trope, Natsuki being the assertive/tsundere trope, Yuri as the shy and soft-spoken girl trope, and Monika as the trustworthy, capable leader tope.
However, as the game progresses, more motive is revealed as to why the girls are the way they are, and it counteracts the conventional "that's just how she is" attitude of conventional dating sims. Per example, Sayori is extremely happy— but this is a front, as she only wants to make others happy so others won't worry about her, as she has severe depression. The usual "clumsy childhood friend who oversleeps" ideology is offset by Sayori revealing that she can't get out of bed most mornings due to her depression.
Aside from Sayori, the other three girls have things you can learn about them as well, using the "showing not telling" writing skill that creates a more realistic experience. Even their poems are hinting at their troubles.
These deeper meanings to the characters are paramount to the experience when it comes to realizing that DDLC is not like other games of the genre. It gives the girls flaws and personalities that one could experience in the real world. For this reason, I must say that the girls of DDLC are probably among one of my favorite casts of characters I've had the pleasure of meeting.
❤Plot:
The plot of DDLC for the first half of the game revolves around you joining a Literature Club per the request of your childhood friend, Sayori. The club leader, Monika, as well as the other two members, Natsuki and Yuri, accept you into their club with open arms, despite you claiming you only read manga and haven't picked up an actual book in years.
To break the ice, Monika decides to make the club write poems, which are then exchanged with fellow club members the next day.
I personally recommend that you play the first half of the game blindly. If you're reading this review and wondering whether or not to play this game or not, please download it and get to the halfway point.
The rest of this plot section will refer to the second half of the game.
Upon Sayori's suicide, starting up a new game will reveal what the warning at the start of your play session was regarding. What most dating sim enthusiasts would call a Bad End actually cannot be avoided, and is the catalyst for the second half of the game's occurrences- Sayori's suicide permanently erases her from the game, and DDLC acts accordingly.
The second half is spent replaying the events of the first half, with much more sinister connotations and happenings. Use the skip button very infrequently here, as some dialogue is changed and "glitches" will grab you by the collar.
DDLC is not a traditional dating sim, nor is it a traditional horror game. Rather, it takes what you expect from both genres and combines them, having cute moments one second and shutting-off-your-computer scary moments the next. It manipulates textures, sprites, and texts, and is by far the most adventurous ren'py VN I have ever played. Most importantly, however, it will manipulate your computer.
Have the DDLC file on your computer open as you play through the game. As you progress, new information and pictures will be added and removed according to story, delivering an interesting and creepy narrative to the player.
Please spend as much time as possible in the endgame.
❤Gameplay:
DDLC is played through standard VN text reading, as well as the occassional branching choice. The main gameplay aspect of the game, however, is the poem making, which occurs three times throughout a first half playthrough and three times again in a second half playthrough. A poem is made by picking from 10 randomly generated words 20 times, and, depending on which words you've picked, you will spend the next day with a person who would like your poem the most, as well as have your poem judged by others. As an example, if I picked words that Yuri liked, I would then spend the day with her, and Natsuki would not like my poem because of its darker nature.
- Sayori enjoys happy and sad simple words.
- Natsuki enjoys cute words.
- Yuri enjoys the longer, more sinister words.
(The word choices also reflect how the characters act.)
Post Act 1, the game will occasionally glitch out or become self aware. Sprites will be garbled, music will speed up or slow down depending on the nature of the events occurring, and characters will speak in garbled text that puts what they may want to say in a more crude way. It will also manipulate the barrier of game and reality; as an example, if played in full screen, reading Monika's third poem will appear to "crash" your computer.
As said before, a part of playing the game is having the DDLC file open in the background as you play, so you can see what has been added or removed. Deleting things in the files also acts as a gameplay mechanic with much more weight than you would expect.
There are 10 CGs available in DDLC, which you collect by picking appropriate poems for the girl you like. Making three poems Yuri likes will give you three different CGs, as an example. As for the art quality, both sprites, environments, and CGs have a lovely polish to them that I adore. The music for the game is also extremely cute and fits whatever mood that is being conveyed at any event.
❤My Review
Doki Doki Literature Club is a game I will never be able to forget. Not only for its interesting characters and its provocative gameplay, but its spin on what a dating sim is/can be and human-to-computer interactions completely hooked me on it. I cannot think of a moment when playing this where I was ever disappointed or upset with the events that occurred, made in part by the flawless script and characters, but also by Dan Salvato, the dev, himself. He described this game as a love letter to the dating sim genre, and, although some who have played the game may not agree, I could not agree any more. DDLC with its ~3 and a half hour completion time does not pull any punches with what it can make the player feel.
I recommend going for Natsuki in the second half of the game.
❤tl;dr:
Would I recommend you play this game? YES!
Would I recommend you play all of this game? YES!
Does this game offer a lot of content? Absolutely. I would highly recommend playing through the game blindly on your first run, then replaying and trying to get the secret ending, which entails getting all the CGs of the game (achievable by save scumming before the end of the first half of the game): this process totaled just around 6 hours for me, but it was more than worth it, especially to go back and see the foreshadowing of events.
Is figuring out how to make proper poems hard? Not at all! You'll fall into a pattern very quickly, especially if you consider each girls' personality and habits.
I rate this game a 111111111111111111111/10.
Hope I helped! ❤ lone
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