Not What It Seems: Doki Doki Literature Club/Plus (PC/Switch/XbOne/XbSeries/PS4/PS5, 2017) Review

 NOTICE: This review contains spoilers of a story-heavy video game. If you have not played it and are interested in doing so, it is advised you do not read this review until you do so. I am not responsible for any readers being spoiled from this point forward.

This review also regards a game containing themes and depictions of suicide, self-harm, depression, death, and abuse. Any content warnings from the game itself apply here. Reader discretion is advised, especially if you deal with anxiety and depression and/or are sensitive to these types of themes.

In all honesty, when I first heard of Doki Doki Literate Club - around the time it was released on Steam and trending around for a little bit - I… didn’t really know what to make of it. To an extent it just kind of looked like, well, an anime dating simulator, but I didn’t really understand what the hype was about. I mean, I guess I had also heard about it’s horror elements but… I dunno. I did try to get into it a few times, and while I did like the atmosphere and characters, I could never get myself to quite make it past the first scene or so.

Little did I know that I should’ve kept playing past the first scene.

Doki Doki Literature Club was the creation of a man named Dan Salvato - who had experience with modding Super Smash Bros and making Super Mario Maker levels, but until this point never had created his own video game. He stated that part of his inspiration comes from his “love/hate” relationship with anime and his love of surreal experiences that subvert the players’ expectations. He developed the game over the course of two years, largely in secret, and released it on September 22, 2017 for PC, where the game became a hit for it’s unexpected, surreal nature.

Fast forward to less than 4 years later - when the game was re-released as part of “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!” with a whole sleuth of added content, including remastered artwork, six new unlockable side stories, a music player with the game’s soundtrack, and image art including wallpapers, promos, sketches and game art. This version of the game also received physical copies and was released on consoles in addition to PC.

To go on from earlier, after I played through the original game’s story, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it, largely as a result of my subverted expectations going into it. However, I will have to admit that I never played through it again since my initial playthrough in 2018, and in all honesty, I didn’t really think I would enjoy it quite as much playing it again. On the other hand, I have been on a kick for story-based video games for the past couple years, and the fact that the game was being re-released for the Switch, I figured now would be a good time to try it again.

And I’ll just say this, Doki Doki Literature Club is probably the first game I can ever think of that I enjoyed more than I was expecting to… twice.

But let’s elaborate on that in a moment.

Doki Doki Literature Club isn’t really a “video game” in the traditional sense, more of a visual novel. And admittedly despite my interest in story-based video games, this isn’t really a genre that I am very familiar with. It’s not really something for everyone - aside for many of them having different endings there isn’t much interactivity with them beyond reading the text and pressing a button to go from scene to scene, but there is definitely an audience for these types of games. Especially in Japan.

With those types of games, story and gameplay are basically completely intertwined. And when one looks at Doki Doki Literature Club - maybe just by looking at it’s Steam page or whatever - they may think that it’s basically just another anime-based visual novel or ‘dating simulator’ as some may call it. And the first half of the game does sort of appear that way.

The story starts out with ‘you’ (or, should I say, your character) meeting an old friend, named Sayori, who urges you to join a club, and after school invites you to the ‘Literature Club’ run by Monika, and containing two other members - Natsuki and Yuri. Your character gives into these requests, and the night after the first ‘meeting’, you have to write a poem. 

In the ‘poem writing’ scenes, you choose from a variety of words listed that appeal to either Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri. This is sort of where the ‘dating’ aspect comes into the game, as the words you choose not only dictate who you “appeal” to most, but also who you spend time with in the next scene - in which your character gets into interesting scenarios with the others. This is basically how the first act goes - you spend time at the Literature Club, some wackiness relating to the character you wrote for occurs, you share your poems, potentially more wackiness occurs among the characters, and you write another poem.

But as you play through the game, you may notice that the girl you met at the start of the game - Sayori, your old friend and neighbor - starts to appear more depressed or willing to hang out with you - regardless of whether you write for her or the other characters, and on the last day before the weekend and festival, she leaves early. You are left with choosing to help Natsuki or Yuri for the festival (while Monika and Sayori are also given as options, it basically just amounts to a small cutscene as the game railroads you into picking Natsuki or Yuri anyway). 

You may also notice that there’s something… off about Monika too throughout the game, but it doesn’t matter, since you’re now spending a day of the weekend with Natsuki or Yuri. Before which you go to check on Sayori, who reveals she’s depressed, and ultimately wants to be alone for the day. So you return home, the girl you chose comes over, and you spend time preparing for the festival as more wackiness occurs.

But after that scene, Sayori comes over just as the girl is about to leave (and after the girl starts getting a bit too close to you), leading to you having to confess whether you love her or just see her as a dear friend. But regardless, the festival starts the next day, and… Sayori doesn’t seem to be there. But your character remembers that she always sleeps in late, so initially it doesn’t seem to be a big deal, until you read the Literature Club’s pamphlet and find an… odd poem just repeating “Get Out of My Head” over and over again, and since you realize this is way too early for Among Us memes, you decide to head over to her house and make sure she’s okay. She doesn’t answer initially, so maybe she’s still asleep.

And then you gently open the door. Little do you know, the second you press the button to read the next text box, the game… starts showing it’s true colors.

Of course, since I did warn about spoilers, you may probably know what happens if you played the game. Regardless of whether you choose to confess or not, you find her in her room having killed herself, making for the most unnerving scene of any video game I have played.

I do have to admit that this scene… initially was sort of spoiled for me, largely as a result of a SiIvaGunner video, but at the same time, even when knowing what’s going to happen, it’s still a very off putting scene. It’s a mix of just what happens, combined with the visuals glitching out and the “Sayo-nara” theme which just sounds extremely eerie and uncomfortable. I’m sure that if it hadn't already been spoiled, the unnerving feeling I get out of this scene would’ve at least been somewhat multiplied but at the same time knowing what happens doesn’t make it that much less frightening. I mean, even on my second playthrough that I did just after getting DDLC+ on Switch, I still just had an overwhelming feeling of anxiety in just the scene before as a result of knowing what’s awaiting me.

But although the game says “END” after that scene, it… doesn’t quite end there. You are sent back to the main menu, but Sayori’s character on the screen is now just a garbled mix of Monika, Natsuki and Yuri, and the “New Game” text is glitched and unreadable. You can still start a new game, but the game doesn’t start out quite the same, and now we’re in the second act.

The game starts in a similar fashion, but everything about it is… broken. Sayori is completely missing from the story, the rest of the characters seem a bit more aggressive, and everything appears very… creepypasta-esque, for lack of a better word. You are able to write poems, but regardless of the words you choose, Yuri ends up seeming a bit *too* close to you.

That leaves the question - just… what’s going on here? Well, I stated earlier that something seems off about Monika throughout the game, and after spending a weekend in class with Yuri’s dying corpse, it turns out that Monika was manipulating the characters behind the scenes - messing with their personalities and making them more aggressive - driving Sayori and Yuri to kill themselves and outright “breaking” the script of the game. She ends up deleting Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki, leaving you with only her in the third act. Kind of reminds me of Yandere Simulator but the guy who made it isn’t an asshole who took a century to make a game full of spaghetti code.

In all honesty, this is really where Doki Doki Literature Club subverted my expectations on my first playthrough. Even knowing about the game’s horror elements, I was expecting the deaths of Sayori and Yuri to… basically be the extent of it. But I wasn’t quite expecting the fourth wall break involving Monika manipulating the game’s files.

I think this is really where the way DDLC subverts your expectations really helps it stand out. Obviously it’s far from the first “meta”/postmodern type game that subverts your expectations - Undertale being a good example of one of those types of games - but it does so in a very unique way. Not only is Monika aware that she’s in a game, but she also has the power to change files around and manipulate the script to her liking.

You may also notice that out of the four main girls of Doki Doki Literature Club… Monika is the only one who, at least in the first act, you don’t really have the ability to “appeal” to. You can appeal to Sayori, Yuri and Natsuki, but Monika isn’t an option - essentially being reserved to a bystander position as club president while you get options to date anyone else. She is definitely aware of that, though, and becomes envious of that as she reveals that she’s fallen in love with… you. Not your character - you, the player, to the point where she purposefully exemplified the negative traits of every other character while inadvertently making them more aggressive, in addition to deleting their character files.

On that note, I think one other thing this game does that is unique in it’s subversion of expectations is how the game’s files are basically a core part of the gameplay. By that I mean, not just with the coding and assets of the game, but when you get to the third act with Monika, you have to delete her character file in order to finish the game - meaning going into the game’s directory and deleting her file that way. Once you do that, she laments about her feelings, before deciding to restore the other characters, bringing you to the last cutscene, credits, and her just deleting the game entirely until you reinstall or reset it using the enclosed .sh file.

This is definitely, in my opinion, a fairly unique approach to interactivity, where manipulating the files you have on your computer does have an actual impact on the game - largely from within the character folder. Not in the way that missing files in your game will cause the removal of assets within or adding mods, but where you can’t beat the game without going into your directory. And the game acknowledges this - Monika even gives a hint towards the start of the third act telling you that there is a folder with the character files inside. Alongside that, Monika mentions the “script” being broken, acknowledging the components of the game and what is going on outside.

This also leaves potential for various Easter Eggs. Sometimes files will show up or be altered throughout the game, and the .chr files have some… interesting properties as well. Plus you can also delete the ‘monika.chr’ file before the game even starts which leads to another short cutscene.

I bring this sort of thing up because it does still make Doki Doki Literature Club stand out both as a ‘visual novel’ and when compared to other post-modern/meta story-based games due to how it handles it’s concepts and the ‘reality’ around it. Monika, at least, is aware that you, the player, are in a different reality, and the game of Doki Doki Literature Club was just something programmed with all the characters having pre-generated personalities. 

The game acknowledges itself as being part of a separate reality, but also sort of blurs the line between the ‘real’ world and the world of the game, aided by how the game’s files can be manipulated. That sort of theme can be sort of hinted at throughout the game up to that point, even in the ending credits song - “Your Reality” - when actually listening to and/or reading the lyrics.

And what helps that is that… honestly, Doki Doki Literature Club would work fairly well as a visual novel on it’s own. I mean, for one thing the presentation is really good. The illustrations of the characters and background are really nice, and the soundtrack is also great - having a very calm and serene feeling for the most part aside for “Sayo-nara” and “Just Monika”, which are a lot more tense given the context for those scenes. I already mentioned how Sayo-nara really helps to make… that scene feel intense and nerve-wracking, even when knowing what’s going to happen, and the game knows when to change the tone of it’s soundtrack to fit the context.

But let’s look at the first act on it’s own and put the horror and subversion elements aside. Along with the presentation, the atmosphere of Doki Doki Literature Club is initially really nice - having a very calm, welcoming feel to it that’s just pretty happy in nature. 

But that aside, the characters of Doki Doki Literature Club are also pretty well-written. All of them have distinct, developed personalities but bounce off each other in really good ways. Sayori is generally pretty happy on the outside, but also hides her depression - putting on an emotional mask. Yuri is shy and introverted, often trying as much as she can to avoid confrontation, but is also enthusiastic and talkative when it comes to her interests. Natsuki is sort of similar in the last aspect, but can also be a lot more stern (or, well, tsundere). And of course Monika serves as a leader and is outwardly kind, but… well, we know how that turns out.

But ultimately, I really like how each character is written - having deep personalities that are developed more as you play the game - especially based on the character you appeal to and hang out with in each scene. It makes each character feel dynamic in their own way - having their own personality traits while overlapping with the rest of the group, and each character is generally really likable. Of course, the best girl is Natsuki, but I definitely enjoy the rest quite a bit. 

Not to mention, I can see them being relatable - for me I definitely feel like Natsuki and Yuri were generally the most relatable to how I am. I’m into cute things, I get easily flustered, but I’m also very timid around others and overly apologetic, but either way I’m also enthusiastic about my own interests, so as such, I see a bit of myself in both those characters. I mean, hell, I see myself in Sayori to some extent too - with the kinds of things she talks about as she appears more depressed.

You’re also given the option to pursue a ‘good’ ending, in which you do multiple playthroughs where you appeal to each girl but (for the first two you choose anyway) make sure to start a new game before… that scene, adding a bit of extra replay value to the game and incentivizing the player to appeal to each girl to experience everything the game has to offer.

But to go back to my original point - all these elements really come together to make Doki Doki Literature Club, at least in it’s first act, appear as a nice, relaxing game, so when you see what actually unfolds, it’s quite the curveball. It’s definitely a game I would really say messes with your expectations and emotions, and I can’t really think of many games that are quite like it.

I do have to admit though, I do wish the game gave you a chance to understand and get a bit more in-depth with the characters without the horror elements in mind.

Is… what I would say, but as I mentioned, the game was re-released in 2021, as “Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!” with a whole sleuth of new content - including side stories relating to each of the characters.

But before I go into those, I definitely have to comment on Doki Doki Literature Club Plus as a whole package. To be honest, with the release on consoles, I was questioning how they were going to handle the “computer file” aspect of the game, and they did it in a way I quite like. DDLC+ takes place inside of what appears to be a virtual machine running an OS that’s still better than Windows 10, with folders, pictures, a music player, but most importantly - the game itself and the newly added side content.

The style of the “operating system” carries over the pink-color theme of the original and looks really nice, and I also like the touches of the BIOS loading and pressing a button to “log in” (as root). It’s a really nice interface and definitely provides a good way of converting the way the game handles computer files over to consoles. The pictures you unlock can also be used as wallpapers for the in-game operating system, which is another nice touch.

On top of that, the game’s illustrations are also given visual upgrades and are made available in 1080p. I will admit that I didn’t really notice this so much - probably as a result of playing the game on the Switch and mostly in portable mode - but it is definitely a nice addition.

The game itself is of course completely intact - just this time you have to delete the files from within the in-game operating system rather than from whatever you’re playing it on.

However, I think the side stories are definitely the main reason to go for this package even if you’ve already played the original game. The game features 6 two-part side stories that focus around two of the characters. Each character is paired with the other - starting off with Sayori and Monika, then Sayori and Yuri, Monika and Natsuki, Sayori and Natsuki, Monika and Yuri, and Natsuki and Yuri. Playing through all these unlocks one more side story titled “Equals” which is one part and features all the characters, essentially reminiscing on what they learned in the club.

And if you wanted a more wholesome side to Doki Doki Literature Club that focuses solely on the characters without any of the horror and subversion, I would definitely recommend playing through these. Not only do they build upon the characters themselves, but also their interactions with others, giving both of them in each story a good amount of character development and often paying off very well. It does deal with the same kinds of subjects that the game warns about, but more tastefully (for lack of a better word). At the very least, they allow you to see another side of the character and their bonds with others outside of the events of the original game that lets you grow to appreciate each of the characters even more.

Some of them really hit home with me too. Some of the situations and problems that the characters face are ones I really related to - having people judge me or give me shit for the kinds of things I enjoy, being a part of toxic friend groups that I don’t want to leave, getting the wrong ideas from how people talk to me or how I talk to others - all sorts of situations that I’ve found myself in before. Those subjects were handled really well, and allowed me to consider that… maybe I’m not the only one that doesn’t face those issues. 

My favorites were ‘Respect’ (the one with Natsuki and Monika) and “Self-Love” (the one with Natsuki and Yuri) as they were the ones that really vibed with me the most (and both involve Natsuki, interesting correlation), the ones that really hit close to home with me and, in some way, allowed me to acknowledge my own personal problems weren’t just something I suffered with on my own. Frankly I didn’t quite know what to expect from these Side Stories, but what I got… definitely managed to increase my appreciation for the game as a whole.

And that was kind of a theme when revisiting Doki Doki Literature Club on DDLC Plus. I feel like as I played through the core game, I was a lot more able to pick up on a lot of the foreshadowing through certain lines of dialogue or just parts of the game I didn’t really pick up on initially. I wasn’t really sure how I would feel about the game going back to it, but now that I have… it’s definitely earned a place among my favorite games

Conclusion

I mean, what else can I add? Doki Doki Literature Club is definitely a great game that does a good job of subverting your expectations, especially with how it draws you in through it’s atmosphere and characters. And the Plus package makes for even better experience overall with the Side Stories it adds alone.

This is usually the part where I recommend the game, and if you haven’t played it and read this review for some reason, it’s worth a shot since the core game is free provided you abide by it’s content warnings and decide if it’s worth playing for you. 

But as for the DDLC Plus package… admittedly, if you weren’t a huge fan of the game in the first place, it might not appeal to you, but for the $15-$30 price (depending on whether you want to buy this game digitally or physically), it does add quite a bit of content in addition to now being available on consoles. I mean granted the game isn’t too hard to run on an old PC, but the option is there - especially if you want to play it on the Switch where you can take it portably. And for that price point, I’d still say it’s better than most recent remasters and re-releases that we’ve gotten over the past few years. If you liked the characters a lot especially, it might just be worth it for the side stories alone. The physical edition also includes a few small goodies and a download code for the soundtrack which also may sweeten the deal.

But yeah. Doki Doki Literature Club, again, is a game I feel like has managed to exceed my expectations on two different occasions, and I can’t not love it for thaAAAA̸A̵A̸A̵A̶A̶A̷--

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