|
|
Police and schools have recently issued warnings over the anime-style ‘visual novel’ that features suicide and psychological horror.
|
Lead image via the official Doki Doki Literature Club website.
Warning: This article contains discussions of mental health, self-harm and suicide, as well as spoilers for Doki Doki Literature Club.
In the summer of 2015, someone found a wooden box left in a mall. Inside the box – clamped shut by elastic bands – was a detailed confession note, apparently written by a 19-year-old student who had recently killed a woman she’d come across in a grocery store “just to see what it’s like”. The person who found the box then took it home, typed out the confession, and uploaded it to Tumblr under the title ‘Linda Watson’ – the name of the victim who had been murdered. That post was then shared 379 times.
This is all bullshit, obviously. There was no box and there was no note. There was a Linda Watson – murdered in 2000 – but this has got nothing to do with her. Instead, it’s a story dreamt up by a 23-year-old guy from New Jersey called Dan Salvato. At the time, he was getting heavily into writing Creepypasta-style horror stories. But he also wanted to create something bigger, more immersive, something that truly broke the fourth wall. And so, he began working on a new ‘visual novel’ in secret, using the skills he’d learned as a proficient computer developer, coupled with an interest in anime and psychological horror.
Two years later, Doki Doki Literature Club was born. It was Salvato’s first ever computer game, and just three months after release, it had already been downloaded over one million times.
If you’re like me – neither at school, nor particularly into computer games – you might not have heard of Doki Doki Literature Club. But over the past year, it’s gained a cult following among young people and gamers for being a “cute-looking” romantic story about a school literature club with some extremely dark narrative twists.
These twists generally involve depictions of self-harm, suicide and violence, but they also involve some weird immersive psychological stuff, like characters becoming “self-aware” and telling you they can manipulate the game’s files to change the other character’s personalities, such as “making them more and more depressed.” You're also addressed by name throughout, and can choose what happens to different characters. Essentially, it's like a horror movie – except you're personally involved in the storyline – and it takes hours and hours to get through.
As with any pop culture phenomenon like this (see: Slenderman, 13 Reasons Why, Marilyn Manson’s entire career, literally anything seen to glorify violence or self-harm), Doki Doki Literature Club has quickly caused moral panic among schools and parents. Mostly, they're concerned about the game's disturbing content as well as how easily accessible it is for children (the game's developers claim it's suitable for over 13s and it's free-to-play. On top of that, from the outside it looks like any other anime-style computer game – even the music is cute.)
Complicating things further is the fact that two young teenagers in the UK recently died by suicide, their parents pointing to the game as an influence on their children in the months beforehand. In particular, the worry centred on how the game seems to blur the line between real life and fiction. The Greater Manchester police then issued a warning about Doki Doki's risks to vulnerable people, and The Sun predictably ran with the screaming headline: “KID KILLER Inside twisted Doki Doki Literature Club game which parents say caused ‘suicide’ of their children.”
Obviously, whatever angle you’re coming from, it’s hardly a laugh-a-minute watching an overtly sexualised cartoon school girl stab herself to death – and the idea that young kids might be seeing this feels particularly uncomfortable. Studies have shown that children's brains are particularly malleable and vulnerable to trauma, and even older teenagers are sensitive to outside influences while they're still developing, so it's reasonable to think something like Doki Doki could be damaging for younger viewers.
But you could also say the same thing for any piece of media that deals in dark or distressing themes, whether it’s an illegal stream of Hereditary or last week's episode of Love Island. What’s more important, surely, is that there are adequate support networks for kids and vulnerable people who might be struggling with their mental health, so that something like a computer game isn’t going to make things worse.
In 2014, a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that up until 2007, suicides in Europe had been declining. 2009, the year after the economic crash, saw a 6.5 percent suicide rate increase – a level that was sustained until 2011. Furthermore, mental health charity Young Minds has said that delays for treatment mean children are starting to self-harm as they wait for an appointment – and they are currently having to wait for up to 18 months.
In other words, it's probably far more helpful to focus on Britain's mental health crisis, rather than one single gory anime-style computer game. It's fucked up, sure, but what's more so is the fact that one third of NHS children's mental health services currently face cuts or closure, in addition to the relentless cuts to public health budgets in general.
As for Dan Salvato, he doesn't seem perturbed by the backlash. His game won the IGN People's Choice Award in every category last year, and it currently holds a 10/10 rating on Steam based on nearly 100,000 reviews. “People become disturbed when forced to think about things they don’t want to, or shown a reality that they always try to ignore,” he said in a recent interview. “But humans aren’t rational creatures. It’s when we’re emotionally charged that we become inspired to do something for ourselves, or for others.”
@daisythejones
- Tagged:
Doki Doki Literature Club is not a traditional visual novel. This being the case, the amount of actual endings to the game are different to what the game lets on. You may see the ‘End’ screen a number of times throughout your playthrough, but some of these aren’t endings at all, but more like checkpoints.
The game has three actual endings: a bad ending, a best ending, and an alternate special ending. Justin bieber believe rar.
Obvious spoilers ahead. This is your warning.
Bad Ending
This is the ending that most players will receive on their first playthrough. There aren’t any special requisites to obtaining this ending; all you have to do is reach the end of the game. None of the dialog options that you choose will affect this.
Since this isn’t a traditional visual novel, you cannot just cruise through the game by reading. Sometimes the game may appear to be frozen or looping, but there’s usually a fourth wall breaking solution. Here’s how to get through some of these segments:
- When the game hints that you can fix something by reloading the game, just carry on playing as normal. To get the bad ending, you’ll never have to reload an old save file.
- After getting the first ‘End’ screen, the game is not over. Simply select the option in the main menu that has replaced the ‘New Game’ option.
- During the scene with Yuri where the textbox keeps producing gibberish, press the ‘skip’ command and wait for some time to pass to advance.
- During the scene with Monika towards the end of the game, she will tell you how to advance. You must delete the ‘monika.chr’ file in the game’s files directory. If you’ve downloaded the game from the website, simply find the file in the characters folder that is located in the same folder that you use to launch the game. If you’re playing the Steam version, right-click Doki Doki Literature Club in the my games section of your Steam library, then click properties, local files, browse local files…, characters.
- When the game progresses to the title screen, select ‘New Game’ and continue playing until you reach this ending.
Best Ending
NOTE: If this is your second playthrough, you will have to reinstall Doki Doki Literature Club and select “yes, delete my existing data” to replay the game.
In order to get the best ending, you will have to find all of the CG images before deleting the ‘monika.chr’ file. This can only be done by saving and reloading at specific parts of the game. Your save states are deleted at certain points, so it is vital that you reload your save before this happens.
Play the game as normal up until the point where you have to construct your first poem. SAVE YOUR GAME. If everything is done correctly, this is the only time you’ll be required to save, as the three different paths split from here.
Sayori’s Path
- At three different points, you’ll have to write a poem by selecting a series of predetermined words. Selecting a word that Sayori likes will cause her icon to bounce up and down. Make sure that a majority of your selections are words that Sayori likes. Here are some words that will work: adventure, alone, amazing, awesome, beauty, bed, bliss, broken, calm, charm, cheer, childhood, clumsy, color, comfort, cry, dance, dark, daydream, dazzle, death, defeat, depression, embrace, empty, excitement, extraordinary, family, fear, feather, fireflies, fireworks, flower, flying, forgive, friends, fun, grief, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, hopeless, hurt, joy, laugh, lazy, loud, love, lucky, marriage, memories, misery, misfortune, music, nature, ocean, pain, party, passion, peaceful, play, prayer, precious, promise, rainbow, raincloud, romance, rose, sadness, scars, shame, silly, sing, smile, sparkle, special, sunny, sunset, sweet, tears, together, tragedy, treasure, unrequited, vacation, warm, wonderful.
- Some time after the third poem, you’ll be asked which girl you’d preferably like to help with the festival. Select “Yuri.”
- When you’re talking to Sayori after hanging out with Yuri, select the option “I love you.”
- Once you get the CG image of Sayori hugging you, reload your save.
Natsuki’s Path
- Now center your three poems around words that Natsuki likes: anger, blanket, boop, bouncy, bubble, bunny, candy, cheeks, chocolate, clouds, cute, doki doki, email, fantasy, fluffy, games, giggle, hair, headphones, hop, jump, jumpy, kawaii, kiss, kitty, lipstick, lollipop, marshmallow, melody, milk, mouse, nibble, nightgown, papa, parfait, peace, pink, playground, poof, pout, puppy, pure, ribbon, shiny, shopping, skipping, socks, spinning, sticky, strawberry, sugar, summer, swimsuit, twirl, valentine, vanilla, waterfall, whisper, whistle.
- After the third poem, when asked who you’d preferably like to help with the festival, select “Natsuki.”
- When Sayori shows up after Natsuki leaves, reload your save.
Yuri’s Path
- Center your three poems around words that Yuri likes: afterimage, agonizing, ambient, analysis, anxiety, atone, aura, breath, breathe, cage, captive, climax, contamination, covet, crimson, desire, despise, destiny, determination, disarray, disaster, disoriented, disown, dream, effulgent, electricity, entropy, essence, eternity, existence, explode, extreme, fester, fickle, flee, frightening, graveyard, heavensent, horror, imagination, incapable, incongruent, infallible, inferno, infinite, insight, intellectual, journey, judgment, landscape, lust, massacre, meager, melancholy, philosophy, pleasure, portrait, question, raindrops, secretive, sensation, starscape, suicide, tenacious, time, uncanny, uncontrollable, unending, universe, unrestrained, unstable, variance, vertigo, vibrant, vitality, vivacious, vivid, whirlwind, wrath.
- Select whichever options you want until you are asked to tell Sayori that you love her. Select “I love you” again. Don’t reload your save!
- Carry on playing until the last scene with Monika. Do not immediately delete the ‘monkia.chr’ file when prompted. Instead, let the dialog play out. Monika will ask you to write a poem for her, after which the dialog will carry on. Eventually the textbox will disappear and you’ll be left with Monika staring at you. This counts as a CG image. At this point, you can safely delete the ‘monika.chr’ file.
Following these paths will net you all of the CG images. Carry on playing until you are taken to the title screen, then select ‘New Game’ as normal. From here, you will be taken to the best ending.
Alternate Ending
The alternate ending is a strange little inclusion that ends the game before it even begins. To receive this ending, launch the game, and before selecting ‘New Game,’ delete the ‘monika.chr’ file. You can now select ‘New Game,’ and after a couple of lines of dialog the game will crash. Launch the game again to be treated to a special screen. The only way to fix your game after this is to reinstall it.
Fun fact: the Japanese words for cute and scary sound quite similar. This is especially appropriate when considering the phenomenon that is Doki Doki Literature Club, a bleak, horrifying psychological thriller disguised as a schmaltzy dating sim. With a slew of terrible fates awaiting these loveable young girls, you can’t help but feel as though disaster is lurking around every turn. Fortunately, the modding community has taken on the task of adding their own touches here and there, to help alleviate the crushing pressure. Or in some cases, make it much worse. It can go either way, really. To help separate the wheat from the chaff, we’ve compiled a list of the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods you can’t play without.
NOTE: Spoilers ahead. And probably some rather depressing concepts, too. Best to read this best Doki Doki Literature Club mods after you have experienced the main game, and preferably not on your birthday.
Monika After Story
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Dearest Monika is such a sweetheart, and she only has eyes for you. If her existentialist murder sprees aren’t enough to satiate your desire to be together, then Monika After Story could be the ideal solution.
Engage her in conversation, play music together, and even give her gifts for special events.
She’s the girl of your dreams, which is appropriate, since she would probably watch you as you sleep.
For Monika fans, this is unquestionably one of the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods out there.
The Yuri Parable
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
If you’re a fan of The Stanley Parable, and Doki Doki Literature Club, two games that both unexpectedly took the world by storm, than The Yuri Parable is going to be a must play for you.
The Yuri Parable is one of the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods out there, is highly influenced by the classic Half Life 2 mod, and like the game it’s inspired by, it features multiple endings for you to figure out.
The promotional Reddit post for the mod, explains it best without spoiling anything for you. Here’s the download link to jump in if it sounds like it’s for you.
“This is the story of a girl named Yuri. Yuri was a schoolgirl like any other; she would go to classes, have lunch, and meet with her friends in the literature club. While she didn’t deem her life as particularly exciting, it was interesting enough for her.
After all, she had plenty of things to do: Expand her knife collection, try new types of tea, and explore the world of poetry.
At this point, it didn’t matter what Yuri’s future held for her, or how her past treated her. What matters is that Yuri… was happy. But then one day, something peculiar happened…”
Our Time
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Another of the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods is once again based around the idea of dating Monika. Our Time takes place in an alternate version of events where all of the other girls are fine, and you get to spend your days with Monika in peace.
It’s a sweet sentiment for the perpetually lonely and creepy antagonist to finally have the life she so desired.
We swear, we will have some non-Monika best Doki Doki Literature Club mods here, too. You don’t want Just Monika, now do you?
The Festival
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
A lot of the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods available allow you to tackle scenarios and ideas that you didn’t get to experience in the actual game.
Though most may associate the festival with the chilling discovery of Sayori, many were left wondering why they couldn’t enjoy the event itself.
Picking up at the end of Act 1, this mod allows you to join your favorite Literature Club members at the festival and beyond.
Don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security, it doesn’t make things much nicer for our hapless heroines.
Doki Doki Do You Lift Club
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Because of course this is a thing. In this exquisite mod, the cast gain a few key improvements that make them more beautiful than they’ve ever been before.
After all, if there’s one thing that every Japanese schoolgirl aspires to someday become, it’s a hulking ten-foot-tall behemoth named Buffsuki.
Will you lift your way into her heart? …Good lord, we certainly hope so.
A Brand New Day
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
A more humorous and upbeat mod than most (don’t you dare suggest that Do You Lift Club is funny, it is serious business), this one tinkers with the original story in a few places, described as being a little bit like a ‘remix.’
As you progress further, things take a turn for the weird – and considering the source material in question, that’s a definite achievement. Looking for an alternate story? Then this one’s for you.
The Normal VN
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
What is Doki Doki Literature Club without its petrifying undercurrent? Perhaps it’s this mod here, the self-proclaimed Normal Visual Novel, where you get to date the girls in peace, free of the risk of Monika becoming all self-aware and homicidal.
Does it defeat the purpose of what made this game so popular?
…No, dammit! We just want to date cute girls without fear that they’ll haunt our psyche forevermore. As it is, spending time with Natsuki isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Doki Doki! RainClouds
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
When we initially unleashed this article of best Doki Doki Literature Club mods on the world, the general consensus was that RainClouds’ glaring omission could not go on.
As such, we have been sure to quickly amend this mistake, adding one of the most unique mods to these illustrious rankings. In it, the script is flipped, bringing you back to the events of act 1, but from Sayori’s perspective.
Her pain is yours, her sorrow is yours, her fate? … Well, you’ll just have to wait and see about that.
It is equal parts poignant and disturbing playing as the franchise’s most tragic figure, particularly knowing the amount of pressure that ultimately falls on your shoulders. Have fun with that!
… Stressful, traumatic fun!
SayoriDate
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
In much the same way that Monika dominated the first few entries on this list, we have now shifted to the Sayori-focused mods. It’s not intentional, we assure you – but if we can somehow get Just Sayori trending, we will die happily (and knowing this game, probably in a fairly gruesome manner).
As you may have anticipated, SayoriDate focuses on the growing relationship between yourself and the pink haired martyr. Will you make her happy at last? It’s doubtful, and the mod description even warns of graphic imagery, as well as quickly flashing screens that could trigger epilepsy.
With all this considered, odds are not great that Sayori will reach a blissful ending, leading to your crippling guilt and her crippling fatal injury.
Honestly, even just typing this is a downer.
MC’s Revenge Mod
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Monika’s self-awareness is one of the major plot elements of Doki Doki Literature Club. She uses this knowledge in order to not only mess with the other characters in the game, but actually distort and damage the very world she exists in. What could be more meta than that?
The protagonist possessing the same ability, that’s what.
In MC’s Revenge Mod (which sounds like a sweet diss album from the early 90s), your character shares the enlightenment of knowing about his own fictional nature, and sets about using this ability to stop Monika before she destroys everything he holds dear.
It’s a bit like a God Mode, except for teenage boys – an age where most would use infinite cosmic power to see endless boobs.
Note: This mod does not contain endless boobs.
After Sayori
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Sick of Sayori? Would you rather just see what things are like once she’s dead and gone? First of all, whoa nelly there – what did she ever do to you? (Unless you are in fact Monika, in which case, hello Monika! Please don’t delete us.)
After Sayori takes place following her demise, and the ramifications it has on the rest of the group.
How will Monika atone for her sins? Can we really heal our frayed souls after all that has happened? You’ll have to find the strength somehow, both in yourself, and in your friends. If only Buffsuki was here. She knew all about strength. And carb loading.
Doki Doki Easter Hunter
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
If you liked After Sayori, you might enjoy this short mod from the same creator. Doki Doki Easter Hunter for the most part is a short, wholesome mod that just essentially gives you a new, extra event that allows you to spend more time with the Dokis.
There’s a small twist though, because it wouldn’t be Doki Doki if it didn’t have one right?
New Eyes
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
From the modder who brought you RainClouds comes New Eyes, a mod where it’s Yuri’s time to shine – placing her as the protagonist, you will be seeing the world through new eyes.
At least, we hope that’s the meaning of the title… rather than, y’know, her sinister quest to acquire a new pair of peepers, ripped violently from the heads of those who oppose her. It’s Doki Doki, guys – we’ve seen worse.
Poor Yuri doesn’t get as much love as she deserves (having to settle for third place in our character rankings), so it’s nice for her to be given the starring role for once. At last, the unfathomable agony she suffers can be your own – you lucky person, you!
Dokis & Dragons
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Sick of going through the same routine with your pals from the Literature Club? Write poetry, giggle, share secrets, witness a grizzly death… It’s so blasé, we could use something new to spice things up! In Dokis & Dragons, the group’s activities focus instead on the fine art of table top RPGs.
Why dive deep into the descent into psychosis, when you can dive deep into a dungeon and smack some goblins around?
This mod rolls a +10 on fun.
Doki Doki Meme Club
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
That moment when a self-aware game becomes bathed in self-aware content.
As you probably surmised, this mod fills your heart and your high school with more memes than you could possibly fathom.
From the familiar to the surprising, to a delightful cameo by a most unexpected fellow, there’s enough packed in here to keep you guessing at every turn.
Normally we’d warn you about excessive bad language present in this mod, but with a game of this nature, that’d be fairly redundant.
Our Final Heartbeat
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
For anyone who has exhaustively tackled every angle in their futile quest for happiness, and wanted just a little more satisfaction, Our Final Heartbeat could bring you the salvation you have been seeking all this time.
It can only be pursued after unlocking the golden ending, and it sets out to be the definitive final chapter of all mods.
In this mod, nobody is left behind. Not Sayori. Not Monika. Cerainly not Natsuki, even though she keeps taking all of our goddamn icing. Maybe they can all be OK… once and for all…
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts in shards, all over the floor…
Steamed Hams, But It’s a Doki Doki Literature Club Mod
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
Forget everything that was just said prior to this. Delete the files from your memory, if you must. Because we have tracked down the best mod and the only one worth your time. This is the true happy ending.
In this mod, Monika visits Natsuki’s house for an unforgettable luncheon. What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse, pitting two cunning masterminds against one another. Indeed, anything is possible – even aurora borealis, at this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within Natsuki’s kitchen.
And the best part? This isn’t even the only Steamed Hams Doki Doki mod. You can never have too much of a beautiful thing, really. Especially when that particular beautiful thing is a mod that steams a good ham.
DDLC the RPG
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
OK so to be honest, this one is less a mod, and more a standalone RPG game, inspired by the visual novel.
But still, it’s something that most DDLC fans will probably want to at least have on their radar in case they might be interested. DDLC the RPG was made in RPG Maker, and is a roughly four hour campaign that follows up on the main game with up to five possible endings.
Rise of the tomb raider ice ship. What’s nice is that it’s not just a quick stomp for the story, you’ll actually need to flex some RPG muscle to get through this mod.
True Literature Club
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
True Literature Club aims to tackle the mental health issues presented in DDLC in a more serious way and vows to deliver a happy ending for all of the Dokis.
The creator makes it a point to say that he didn’t take issue with the original game, but rather, his mod was inspired by the shocking scenes in DDLC which he stated is the main reason why the game is so beloved and popular.
The mod follows the original game very closely, with the main changes starting with you who decide to spend your Sunday with and the festival. You can download the full mod right here.
Doki Doki Yandere Club
Best Doki Doki Literature Club Mods
It’s actually quite surprising that there hasn’t been a mod like this a lot sooner. Doki Doki Yandere Club gives all of the Dokis a psycho-Yuri vibe, and turns them all into potential killers.
The mod is pretty short, but if you want a quick, funny mod that sees the Dokis torture the MC even more than they already have, then go for it right here.
Keep in mind, again, that as the name would suggest, the mod is like the game, and definitely not for the feint of harder, sensitive, or easily disturbed.
And there you have our top picks for the best Doki Doki Literature Club mods you can get right now.
Doki Doki Literature Club! | |
---|---|
The cover art of Doki Doki Literature Club!, featuring the four main characters (from left to right) Sayori, Yuri, Monika and Natsuki. | |
Developer(s) | Team Salvato |
Publisher(s) | Team Salvato |
Designer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Programmer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Artist(s) | Satchely (characters)[1][2] VelinquenT (backgrounds) |
Writer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Composer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Engine | Ren'Py |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Visual novel |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Doki Doki Literature Club! is a 2017 American visual novel developed by Team Salvato for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. The game was initially distributed through itch.io, and later became available on Steam. The story follows a male high school student who joins the school's literature club and interacts with its four female members. The game features a mostly linear story, with some alternative scenes and endings depending on the choices the player makes. While the game appears at first glance to be a lighthearted dating simulator, it is in fact a metafictionalpsychological horror game that extensively breaks the fourth wall.
The game was developed in an estimated two-year period by a team led by Dan Salvato, known previously for his modding work for Super Smash Bros. Melee. According to Salvato, the inspiration for the game came from his mixed feelings toward anime, and a fascination for surreal and unsettling experiences. Upon its release, Doki Doki Literature Club! received positive critical attention for its successful use of horror elements and unconventional nature within the visual novel genre.
- 2Plot
Gameplay
The poem writing minigame in Doki Doki Literature Club!
Doki Doki Literature Club! is a visual novel. As such, its gameplay has a low level of interactivity and consists of scenes with static two-dimensional images of characters in a first-person perspective. The narration and dialogue are presented in the form of accompanying text. The narration is provided by the game's protagonist, a member of the titular literature club, to which he was invited by his childhood friend Sayori.[3][4][5] At certain points, the player will be prompted to make decisions that determine the course of subsequent events. Such decisions affect the development of the protagonist's relationships with the key female characters Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika.[6] The characters' interactions with the protagonist are also influenced by a minigame in which the player is required to compose a poem from a set of individual words. Each girl in the literature club has different word preferences, and will react positively when the player picks a word that they like.[3][4][5][6] The characters' reactions are represented by chibi versions of the characters that are displayed at the bottom of the screen during the minigame.[3] Depending on the results of these minigames, the player can enable additional scenes with the character to whom the poem was dedicated.[5][6] The narrative is divided into three acts, between which the player must restart the game.[7] At a certain point, the player must access the game's files in order to advance the narrative.[8]
Doki Doki Literature Club Official Website
Plot
The protagonist is invited by his cheerful childhood sweetheart, Sayori, to join their high school's literature club as a remedy for his insular nature.[3][4][5] The protagonist reluctantly agrees to her proposal and meets the other members of the club: the assertive Natsuki, the shy Yuri, and the bubbly club president Monika.[3][5][6][9] The protagonist writes and shares poems with his new club-mates and deepens his relationships with them. As the club prepares for the school's upcoming cultural festival, Sayori reveals to the protagonist that she suffers from depression and confesses her love for him.[10] The following day, Monika passively shows the protagonist an uncharacteristically morbid poem by Sayori that insistently orders someone to get out of her head. Realizing that something has happened to her, the protagonist rushes to Sayori's home, where he discovers that she has hanged herself, and the game abruptly ends.[7][10]
The player is sent back to the main menu, with all previous save files erased.[11] The narrative repeats upon the start of a new game, but Sayori is glaringly absent; her name and dialogue are rendered illegible, and the characters do not remember her existence. In addition, the character sprites appear corrupted from time to time.[10][12] Monika takes Sayori's place in inviting the protagonist to the club. Aside from the game's frequent distortions, the normally calm and shy Yuri becomes gradually unstable, possessive and prone to self-harm.[7] Yuri's decline in sanity culminates in the act of giving the protagonist a 'poem' that is indecipherable and covered in blood and other bodily fluids. When Monika seems to be callously dismissing this anomalous behavior, Natsuki secretly passes the protagonist a message under the guise of a poem that begs him to seek help for Yuri, only to be immediately manipulated into telling the protagonist to disregard the message and devote his attention solely to Monika. After a heated quarrel over who the protagonist will help with the school festival, Yuri ejects Monika and Natsuki from the room and privately confesses her love for the protagonist. Whether or not the protagonist accepts Yuri's confession, she commits suicide by repeatedly stabbing herself.[10] Due to the game's broken script, the protagonist is stuck motionless in the room with Yuri's decaying cadaver over the course of a weekend. Natsuki returns upon the weekend's conclusion, but is horrified and nauseated by the sight of Yuri's body and flees the scene. Monika appears and apologizes to the protagonist for the 'boring' weekend he had spent, and begins a display of compensation by deleting Yuri and Natsuki's character files from the game and sending the player back to the main menu.[7]
A new file is started automatically, and the protagonist is placed in a room with Monika seated across from him. Monika reveals that she is a self-aware video game character who has the ability to manipulate and delete other character files, which she used to alter the behavior of her club-mates in an unsuccessful bid to make them unlikable and prevent their confessions of love to the protagonist. She expresses her loneliness from being relegated to a fruitless supporting role within an empty world where her only company had been 'autonomous personalities' designed only to fall in love with the protagonist, and she confesses her own love not to the protagonist character, but directly to the player.[7][10] Monika will sit and talk to the player indefinitely about various topics until the player manually enters the game's directory and deletes Monika's character file. Monika initially lashes out at the player, but ultimately forgives them and remorsefully repents by restoring the game and the characters excluding herself.
Endings
Depending on the course of action taken by the player, the game can come to three possible conclusions. The standard ending sees Sayori introducing herself as the president of the literature club and thanking the player for getting rid of Monika. As she adopts Monika's possessive characteristics, Monika intervenes via text prompt and deletes Sayori to save the player. Monika deletes the game over the course of the credits, and the game concludes with a note from Monika, stating that she has disbanded the literature club because 'no happiness can be found' in it.[7]
A more positive ending occurs if the player has viewed all of the optional scenes in a single playthrough, which requires saving and loading at several points before witnessing Sayori's initial suicide.[13] Sayori instead expresses her gratitude to the player for emotionally supporting all the club members, tearfully bids farewell and assures the player that all the club members love them before deleting the game herself. After the credits, the player is presented with a message from the game's developer, Dan Salvato.[14]
If the player preemptively deletes Monika's file from the directory before starting the game, Sayori is made the default leader of the club. Upon realizing the true nature of the game and her role in it, Sayori panics and forcefully closes the game. Opening the game again will display an image of Sayori having hanged herself. If this image is left on screen for ten minutes, a line of text will appear next to Sayori's corpse reading: 'Now everyone can be happy.'[13]
Development and release
Doki Doki Literature Club was developed by American programmer Dan Salvato over the course of approximately two years, and is his debut title in the video game industry.[15] Prior to its release, Salvato was known for creating the FrankerFaceZ extension for Twitch.tv,[15] his modding work in the Super Smash Bros scene,[16] and for his custom Super Mario Maker levels.[17][18] Salvato was inspired to create a visual novel by his 'love-hate relationship' with anime, and emphasized the abundant use of clichés in the genre and the frequent plots centering around 'cute girls doing cute things', which he saw as both an asset and a detriment to the viewer's enjoyment. Salvato sought to create a title that would attract the player's attention regardless of how they personally view anime.[15]
Discussing the horror elements of the game, Salvato explained that he was inspired by 'things that are scary because they make you uncomfortable, not because they shove scary-looking things in your face.'[15] To achieve this, Salvato developed the façade of a cute setting, which would break down over time along with the behavior of the characters, and eventually the role of one evil character who had seized control of the game from the player would be revealed. In creating the game's horror elements, Salvato drew inspiration from Yume Nikki and Eversion, and emphasized to his team that he wanted the market for visual novels to become much more daring and less reliant on the same plot concepts.[19] The game's characters were based around standard anime archetypes and were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere characteristic of Western-produced visual novels. The sole exception to this format is Monika, who received an English name as a hint to her individual nature compared to the other characters.[20]
The prototypical versions of the cast of Doki Doki Literature Club were created by Dan Salvato in a free online program for creating anime characters.
Because Salvato lacked artistic skill, he used a free online anime-creation program to create the initial character designs and applied these designs in test versions of the game.[21] Salvato recognized that a product of such quality would not satisfy potential players,[21] so he made a request to his friend, a translator for Sekai Project, for sketches of school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters.[22] Salvato then handed initial visual development over to Kagefumi, who left the project very early on. After Kagefumi's departure from the project, Salvato contacted the freelance artist Satchel, who created the final character sprites, over the course of a few months.[2] The sprites were created in several parts to give the poses more variety.[23] The background images were originally created as three-dimensional models, and then processed by the artist VelinquenT.[24]
Salvato also composed the game's score.[25] The introductory composition, 'Doki Doki Literature Club!', is primarily performed by piano and flute with accompaniment by string instruments. The composition 'Okay, Everyone!' has five different versions, four of which are performed by different musical instruments that represent each of the four female characters. Monika's version emphasizes the piano, Yuri's version uses pizzicato and harps, Natsuki's version is played by xylophone and recorder, and Sayori's is played by ukulele. The game's score is generally calm and serene with the exception of two tracks, 'Sayo-nara' and 'Just Monika', which are ominous in tone.[26] 'Your Reality', a vocal song performed over the end credits, is sung by Jillian Ashcraft.[25]
Doki Doki Literature Club! was first released on September 22, 2017 on itch.io, and was later also released on Steam.[27] The game is available as freeware with an optional pay what you want model. Paying US$10 or more unlocks a bonus 'Fan Pack' that includes desktop and mobile wallpapers, the game's official soundtrack, and a digital concept art booklet.[28] The game's soundtrack was released on two compact discs respectively consisting of 15 and 10 tracks. The first CD contains all the main compositions of the game, while the second consists of remixes and alternative arrangements.[26] The soundtrack saw another release on 'crimson smoke' vinyl in the first quarter of 2019.[29]
Reception
Reception | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||
|
In its first three months of release, Doki Doki Literature Club! was downloaded over one million times,[35] and exceeded two million downloads about a month later.[36] The game was received positively by critics, and accumulated a score of 78/100 on Metacritic based on 7 reviews.[30]
Steven T. Wright of PC Gamer described the game as 'a post-modern love letter to the genre it represents', and compared its deconstructive quality to Undertale and Pony Island.[4] Robert Fenner of RPGFan noted that traditionally, major visual novel developers such as Key and 5pb. produced lengthy day-by-day narratives of a standard anime protagonist's relationships with their supporting cast. According to Fenner, previous attempts to revise the format, such as Hatoful Boyfriend and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, could not escape the conventions of their genre and fully reveal their dramatic potential. He then declared that Doki Doki Literature Club! had succeeded in this field by making unusual use of the Ren'Py engine and providing unexpected plot twists.[3]
Reviewers emphasized that the game achieves its surprising impact on the player due to its outward resemblance to typical eroge games: it has a pronounced anime style in its character design,[3][8] and the game's goal is to develop a relationship with one of the characters.[11][12] In addition, the characters consist of anime stereotypes whose behavior is sparsely displayed through their sprites,[5] and the game's musical accompaniment is light, bouncy, gentle and playful.[3][4] According to critics, these aspects combined to create the impression of a standard visual novel that would prompt the player to become attached to the characters.[4][5][8][12] VisualNovelist of Jeuxvideo.com positively compared the game's visual quality to Everlasting Summer, another independent visual novel with the appearance of a professional production.[31] Reviewers pointed out that the game's horror was built on the destruction of a sense of control over what happens in the game and the feeling of helplessness that stems from the distortions in the game's world.[8][11] Victoria Rose of Polygon stated that this approach was strikingly different from traditional horror games and films, where the viewer remains alienated from what is happening on the screen.[11] Amy Josuweit of Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted that while earlier visual novels have broken the fourth wall by crashing the client or adding extra files, Doki Doki Literature Club! changed the angle by deliberately destroying files rather than adding them.[8]
GQ's Tom Philip commented that at times the narrative felt like 'a slog, clicking through endless amounts of inane, flirty conversation about poetry.'[37] Fenner opinied that the game did not pass the Bechdel test and positioned the protagonist as a seductive casanova. However, he emphasized that the plot is ultimately a 'sharply aware polemic against harem anime/visual novels' in which 'the lengths the ladies go to are not wholly because of the protagonist, but rather he can be read as a symptom—an easy outlet.' Fenner also felt that the game, like Katawa Shoujo before it, 'appears to veer dangerously close to fetishization of very real issues'.[3] Nevertheless, reviewers recognized the game's plot focus as successful and relevant.[3][4][5]
At IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award each for 'Best PC Game',[33] 'Best Adventure Game' (for which it was also a runner-up),[38] 'Best Story',[39] and 'Most Innovative'.[40] The game won the 'Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award' and was nominated for 'Trending Game of the Year' at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.[34][41]EGMNow ranked the game 16th in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017.[42]
References
- ^Satchely (June 1, 2019). 'Satchel on Twitter: 'Is anyone able to edit the DDLC Wikipedia article? I got notified that for some reason I'm not credited as the artist anymore''.
- ^ abSatchely (June 2, 2019). 'Satchel on Twitter: 'Suddenly the artist credit is being switched around in the article, I don't think it was like that yesterday. Kagefumi didn't draw the final sprites and backgrounds. Her art isn't in the game because she left the project very early on.''.
- ^ abcdefghijkFenner, Robert (December 24, 2017). 'RPGFan Review--Doki Doki Literature Club'. RPGFan. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
- ^ abcdefgWright, Steven (October 26, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! hides a gruesome horror game under its cute surface'. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
- ^ abcdefghiClarke, Billy (February 14, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Review'. GameGrin. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdTamburro, Paul (November 28, 2017). 'Trust Me, You Need to Play Doki Doki Literature Club'. GameRevolution. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdefFujita, Shōhei (March 4, 2018). '【完全ネタバレコラム】世界を大いに盛り上げる「Doki Doki Literature Club」の真の目的と少女たちからの救難信号' (in Japanese). IGN Japan. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdeJosuweit, Amy (October 31, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is a hidden horror game for the internet age'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
- ^Couture, Joel (October 13, 2017). 'Get to Know Your Fellow Lovers Of Writing With Doki Doki Literature Club!'. Silicon Era. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^ abcdeLineham, Mitch Jay (February 16, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel worthy of a Black Mirror episode'. PCGamesN. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdRose, Victoria (October 22, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is an uncontrollably horrific visual novel'. Polygon. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
- ^ abcJackson, Gita (October 11, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Scared Me Shitless'. Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^ abPayne, Jamie (December 7, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club: How to Get All Endings'. Twinfinite. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^Bell, Larryn (January 3, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club: How to Get the Best Ending, Fulfilling Ending'. AllGamers. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdJackson, Gita (October 20, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club's Horror Was Born From A Love-Hate Relationship With Anime'. Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
- ^Good, Owen (September 13, 2015). 'Powerful mod adds replay feature to Super Smash Bros. Melee'. Polygon. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Blain, Louise (October 9, 2015). 'P is for Pain is the new contender for Mario Maker's hardest level'. GamesRadar. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^'Eversion-Inspired Super Mario Maker Level Uses Doors In An Ingenious Way'. Silliconera. September 21, 2017. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 3
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 4
- ^ abSalvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 5
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 11
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 18
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 20
- ^ abTeam Salvato (September 22, 2017). Doki Doki Literature Club!. Windows. Level/area: End credits.
- ^ abGaspar, Marcos (September 22, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! OST'. RPGFan Music. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^'Doki Doki Literature Club! on Steam'. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^'Doki Doki Literature Club Fan Pack on Steam'. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Estrada, Marcus (September 19, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Soundtrack Coming to Vinyl'. Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ ab'Doki Doki Literature Club! for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
- ^ abVisualNovelist (November 19, 2017). 'Test : Doki Doki Literature Club : ne jamais se fier aux apparences' (in French). Jeuxvideo.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^Chick, Tom (January 18, 2018). 'The first rule of Doki Doki Literature Club is not to talk about Doki Doki Literature Club'. Quarter to Three. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^ ab'Best of 2017 Awards: Best PC Game'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^ abIGN Studios (March 17, 2018). '2018 SXSW Gaming Awards Winners Revealed'. IGN. Archived from the original on March 18, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
- ^Barnett, Brian (December 11, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Hits 1 Million Downloads'. IGN. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
- ^Jones, Ali (January 15, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! surpasses two million downloads'. PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
- ^Philip, Tom (October 19, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Is the Most Messed Up Horror Game You'll Play This Year'. GQ. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Best Adventure Game'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Best Story'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Most Innovative'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^McNeill, Andrew (January 31, 2018). 'Here Are Your 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards Finalists!'. SXSW. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
- ^EGM staff (December 28, 2017). 'EGM's Best of 2017: Part Two: #20 ~ #16'. EGMNow. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Doki Doki Literature Club! at The Visual Novel Database
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Doki_Doki_Literature_Club!&oldid=904161770'