Doki doki literature club logo heart8/11/2023 The game encourages you to pick a girl to write a poem for, and depending on your choices, you may draw closer to the club’s charming, sweet members.Ī typical scene from early on in Doki Doki Literature Club. Of course, your protagonist is hoping to forge new bonds with some of them along the way. It’s a slow burn that begins with you and group of cute girls who must prove that their literature club is worth becoming an official school organization. Since its release, the game has earned a reputation as an innovative scare. (Some light spoilers follow below here’s your spoiler warning.)Īlthough it looks like a dating sim, Doki Doki Literature Club is a free-to-play, psychological horror game, produced by indie studio Team Salvato. It exploited my confidence in the visual novel genre and turned that into a twisted game of its own. Like I do with haunted houses and horror films, I always know that none of the scares are real.īut a romantic visual novel, of all things, petrified me recently - just by completely subverting my expectations. I've already seen my fair share of Resident Evil 7 Let's Plays without feeling much in my gut. Gore doesn’t irk me, and monsters are so yesterday. I often feel the same sense of ease when playing horror video games. I can round a corner and, well, gosh! It’s … a dude in a costume and usually some pretty cool makeup. As for haunted houses, with the exception of a few “intensified” experiences, ghouls can’t touch me, and the scares are predictable. ![]() I know that movies will progress without my input even if I’m shrinking back a bit in my seat, it’ll keep moving, and I can live out the full experience. I’m immune to haunted houses and horror movies, because neither one force me out of my comfort zone. As the game ends and the credits cue, Monika performs a cute bubbly acoustic song, “Your Reality,” as her farewell to the player.During the fall season, I spend a lot of time searching for fresh scares. She’s had time to think in the cloud and realizes the healthiest way to show her love is by rescuing them. She sacrifices herself and her world not for her own manipulative reasons, but surprisingly as a selfless effort to protect the player. Before the game even gets very far, Monika returns from the cloud and deletes DDLC. And it will leave you reevaluating if any of those dating-sim tactics you use when wooing an NPC are creeping into how you’re trying to hold your real-life relationships.įor players who revisit the game after Monika has been defeated and are looking to enjoy a dating sim free from corruption, they will discover that now the sweet and caring Sayori is becoming as sentient and even more dangerous than Monika. It gives considerable insight in how to grow outside of your goals with another person. But it presents an actual look at how we view our own relationships and crushes. It certainly isn’t cute or cuddly, and I’ll note it should be avoided by those with triggers surrounding mental illness. I’ve made it a habit to watch my friend play DDLC every Valentine’s Day as a cathartic reminder of how love is supposed to work. ![]() Sayori is the sweet and slightly awkward girl next door, Yuri is the dark academia witchy weird girl, Natsuki is the slightly bratty spunky small one, and then Monika is the popular put-together club president. The game is a psychological thriller disguised as a cozy Japanese schoolyard dating sim in which the player joins an after-school poetry club that features four of the genre’s classic stereotypes. What can be better than dating in a controlled environment where you can reset the game, change your answers, and re-raise that support level?īut whenever I’m feeling too cozy with an in-game crush, I can’t help shaking the fears that the 2017 indie classic Doki Doki Literature Club instilled in me. It’s fun to give an NPC their favorite gift to build relationship points or pick that conversation answer that gets a heart emoji from your in-game crush. However sweet, fun, or spicy your experience with dating sims has been, gamers have been connecting to virtual girls and boys since at least 1992. What do you think of first when you hear the term dating sim? Do you get a sweet feeling of soft fond memories of gaining heart events with your Stardew Valley spouse? Maybe it reminds you of competing for a werewolf’s affection against friends in Monster Prom? Am I the only one who recalls slamming the off button on the laptop as a young teenager when I heard a parent walking down to the computer room after I had first decided to explore a smutty Newgrounds game thinking the family had gone to bed? This article contains spoilers for Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC ).
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