Game Review: Doki Doki Literature Club +

You’d be forgiven for assuming Doki Doki Literature Club is just an ordinary visual dating simulator game. It’s overall pink and cutesy anime design gives it a very comfortable impression which players would not think much more about.  Looks can be very deceiving however, as this game is anything but an ordinary dating simulator.  When you dig deep into its foundation, you’ll discover a psychological horror game with a lot of heavy topics and themes. I knew about this game’s reputation by the point my partner had begged me to play it, so I knew pretty much what I was getting into.  On that point however, I didn’t know how the game planned to introduce these themes and that to me was where a great number of the surprises came from when playing this game.

Despite being an anime game, this game was not initially developed or published in Japan.  It was actually developed by an American programmer/modder by the name of Dan Salvato. Prior to Doki Doki Literature Club Dan had a known reputation online for his works in the modding scene for Super Smash Bros. as well as his custom Super Mario Maker levels.  Dan touted the inspiration behind Doki Doki Literature Club was based on his love-hate relationship with anime in itself.  He noted how the genre of animation often relied too heavily on cutesy designs and stories with little to no substance or depth.  He went into developing this game with the desire to present something that initially seems like a traditionally cute anime experience but to subvert players expectations when the psychological horror elements begin to present themselves gradually and develop throughout the course of the game.

In terms of its development and release, the game was entirely self-developed by Dan for the most part.  He did note due to his lack of artistic ability he worked with a freelance artist by the name of Satchely to help him create the final renders of the games titular characters. Initially released on September 2017 through Indie.Io and Steam, the immediate reception noted how successful the game was in its shock horror twist and it became an almost immediate hit online with a lot of players.  As word and mouth helped progress the games sales, Dan had made an agreement with the publisher Serenity Forge to release Doki Doki Literature Club to mainline consoles on June 30th 2021. Sales information is rather limited online though I did find an article which noted the console version did top 1 million sales as of 2023.

The narrative behind Doki Doki Literature Club is layered in a metatextual sense.  You start out the game actually booting the game up within a in-game PC supported by Metaverse Software. Once you boot the game up within the menu, you are immediately presented with the traditional anime dating tropes. You play a school student who gets invited to an after-school literature club by their life long best friend Sayori.  Once you arrive at the club, Sayori introduces you to the other members of the club.  There’s Natsuki, the brash and vocal member of the group. Yuri, the intelligent yet overly shy member of the club. Then there’s Monika, the club’s leader and primary organizer.  As you spend time with the club and get to know it’s members you begin to develop relationships with them and in some cases sprout potential romances. The romantic tension soon boils over however and the game breaks down and reveals itself as a horrific nightmare which you have to work through if you have any chance of surviving.

The romantic subplot which serves as the games primary introduction is long.  I’m no stranger to long-winded visual novels but the build up behind its story requires this sense of length in order for the horror twist to work effectively. I think dependent on the type of player you are however, you may end up getting tired of how long its opening segment is and check-out. When the horror twist comes into effect however, the narrative really delivers on all of it’s potential.  The way the game hits you with its terrifying sucker punch and then constantly trips you up all throughout the remainder of the story is simply genius.  It’s a fantastic narrative experiment all things considered and I would encourage anyone to really give it a go even if they may have misgivings about the opening segments tone and length.

From a gameplay end, the game has minimal offerings which I think is probably my only notable gripe with it. I know visual novel games are very reliant on text and that’s fine, one of my all-time favourite game franchises is Ace Attorney so I have no issues on that front. Where Doki Doki struggles in comparison to games like that however it’s clear lack of variation when it comes to gameplay, at least in its opening segment.  The only shift in gameplay is the poem construction section you do to build a poem, but doesn’t offer much in terms of engaging gameplay in all honesty.  When the horror twist comes into effect however, the metatextual element comes into effect and that’s a nice added flavour.  You’ll have to navigate to the virtual desktop and examine files to get a better understanding of things and hopefully direct the game towards a good conclusion.  It’s not much but it feels representative of the metatextual themes at play so it works nicely in conjunction with everything.

In terms of visual and audio design, the game is excellently presented for both it’s cute and horrific fronts.  The amount of detail put into the backgrounds, character sprites, animations and interfaces really excel in giving this game a quintessential vibe for both of its core themes.  The audio design itself deserves top praise, as it knows the importance of when to use sound and when to leave things uncomfortably quiet.  Dan himself composed the soundtrack for the game and its happy beats are perfectly matched with darker parallel compositions for when the horror stuff takes effect.

Doki Doki Literature Club is a fine example of why you shouldn’t write-off or pre-judge a game from the initial stages.  Dan Salvato did an incredible job taking a conventional concept and switching it up in a very surprising and interesting fashion.  Do all of it’s implementations work? Not really, but it’s the only blemish I can really draw on with this otherwise unique and well-constructed experience.  You’ll come for the waifus, and ultimately want to leave because of them as well.