*Spoiler Free*
Doki Doki Literature Club! by developer Team Salvato may seem like a cute anime style story based dating simulator but don’t be fooled. This game has several warnings against kids under 13 playing this game. There is a warning before going to its download page on Steam and before the menu screen after you have downloaded it. You may think, “Oh this game is so cute! What could possibly go wrong if I let my child play this?” The answer is they will be scarred for life. Like seriously – don’t! BUT, if you love crazy unexpected horror games (and are older than 13), then please play! This game has outstanding reviews on Steam and just won People’s Choice for every category it was nominated for! Those categories include Best PC Game, Best Adventure Game, Best Story, and Most innovative. Team Salvato, congrats on the amazing work from all of us at Gaming Cypher!
The game starts off as you trying to decide what club to join, your best friend Sayori suggests you visit her literature club and enjoy some cupcakes. You decide to stay when you realize that the club is filled with hot girls. Monika is the president, a girl who was in your class last year and is way out of your league. Yuri is a dark and mysterious book worm with a big bust. Natsuki is a short tempered first year who doesn’t know how to show affection. Lastly, Sayori, your best friend from childhood who is just a ball of sunshine. Monika decides you should all write poetry. You must pick the words to impress the girl you like the best. As the schools festival gets closer things get weirder.
I rate this game a solid 10/10. Team Salvato has really raised the bar with this game. Doki Doki Literature Club! is a compelling ride you won’t regret taking. Congrats again!
Now if you have already played this game (or have already spoiled it by watching Let’s Plays like I did) and are looking for a review keep reading, but if you haven’t be warned SPOILER ALERT!
*SPOILERS*
Like mentioned above, the game starts off as you trying to decide what club to join, your best friend Sayori suggests you visit her literature club and enjoy some cupcakes. You decide to stay when you realize that the club is filled with hot girls. Monika is the president, a girl who was in your class last year and is why out of your league. Yuri is a dark and mysterious book worm with a big bust. Natsuki is a short tempered first year who doesn’t know how to show affection. Lastly, Sayori, your best friend from childhood who is just a ball of sunshine. These girls are not as perfect as they seem, all because of Monika.
Monika is a self aware AI who likes to mess around with the coding of the game. She is jealous that her character was written to never be the choice of your main character. So she had a little fun adding twists to the characters coding. Yuri has a knife fetish and self harms. Natsuki has some hinted upon Daddy issues. Sayori has major depression which she masks by being overly happy.
Mokina slowly starts to slip up and reveal her act as you fall in love with the other characters. She breaks the fourth wall by giving a tip about saving your game before making tough decisions. She then breaks it again when Natsuki makes a joke that would only make sense in Japanese. Everything starts to get scary when Sayori starts acting weird, admitting her depression and suggesting Monika told her to kill herself. Sayori eventually does kill herself when her depression is too much to handle. The game starts to break as Monika rewrites the coding. She ends up deleting Sayori’s character all together. She even disappears from the game’s files. The game resets and instead of Sayori inviting you to the club it’s Monika. From here on, Yuri and Natsuki start acting super weird too. Things will start appearing in your game files so make sure to keep watch for that. Without Sayori things start to fall apart. Things become way less PG and family friendly. The characters start cussing and you catch Yuri cutting herself. She admits to masturbating with your lost pen. Natsuki glitches out. Sayori appears in different ways. Monika is losing control of the game so she has Yuri kill herself as well but this time in front of you. Monika isn’t very good at coding so the dialogue breaks. I suggest skipping a head because you’ll be there a while. When the dialogue is finally over the other characters return for the festival. Monika realizes her mistake and decides to just delete everyone. It’s just Monika. Just Monika will last forever if you don’t delete her from the game files. This will restart the game again but this time without Monika. Sayori and Yuri are alive and Natsuki is her old self. But then Sayori starts acting weird. The president of the literature club is doomed to be self aware and the process is about to start all over again… unless Monika has a say in it. She deletes the game all together which leads you to the credits.
There are many possible dialogue options depending on your choices. You may have to play the game several times to get all the information about all the characters. This game is just a gift that keeps on giving. There are so many theories and secrets to this game. I just suggest playing with it and see what you can do. Team Salvato definitely earned their awards.
I was curious about this take on mental health as someone who deals with it personally. I feel like it says something about the character Monika to have picked these traits to amplify as a way to turn you off from the other characters, while she herself obviously is not mentally sound. I honestly don’t know how I feel about its portrayal. I didn’t find any of it offensive or insensitive since the game always made it clear that it isn’t real. That’s the whole point of the game. That the characters aren’t real and that the scenario isn’t real. It’s coding and anything can be coded or deleted. It may be triggering for some as it does show graphic images. So if you are sensitive to these subjects, please be aware.
I rate this game a solid 10/10. Team Salvato has really raised the bar with this game. Doki Doki Literature Club! is a compelling ride you won’t regret taking. Congrats again!
Take a Look at the Doki Doki Literature Club! Trailer:
Doki Doki Literature Club! is available for PC via Steam as a free download. You can also purchase the Fan Pack for $9.99.
PC Review
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Overall Score - 10/1010/10
I'm a postgraduate Information and Library Studies student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. I'm originally from Texas and have a BFA in Creative Writing from SFASU. I grew up playing video games and now enjoy watching other people play as well. I love anything with a good story!
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