[Doki Doki Literature Club] The game is alive and I'm scared (Game Review)
Last month, I did a quick search on google to find a new game to play, and I stumble upon this game, Doki Doki Literature Club, a Visual Novel game , which has perfect score of 10/10 on steam. I never played visual novel game ever in my life, but the 10/10 score has made me intrigued. On a quick glance the game looks like every other cutesy dating sim about high school boy pursuing multiple attractive girls. But when i look carefully, the game has psychological horror tag on it, and the content warning "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed" made me even more curious. I'm thinking to myself, It can't hurt to try new stuff right? So I started to play it... oh god.. the horror..
Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel game created by Team Salvato with beautiful art and playful soundtracks. It is a fun and interactive game where you were pushed to join into a literature club full of cute girls, lead by Club President Monika, thanks to your childhood friend, Sayori. Every day, you would head to your literature club, where you and other members of the club would discuss the poems you wrote the night before. Your character’s poems can be influenced by the words of choice during a mini-game at night, which will determine which girl you will spend the majority of your time with.
Look at how cute this game is
Literary adjectives would push you towards reserved, demure Yuri who prefer books over people. Cute words would influence your time with “tsundere” Natsuki who is obsessed with manga while others would put you with happy-go-lucky Sayori which is your childhood friend.
As you progress through the story line, you would feel as you are peeling at this beautiful layers of painting, only to reveal the ugliness behind it. As you spend your time with them, you will notice the game become darker and darker, as the poems written by the girls have a depressing undertone, foreshadowing disturbing events. At this point, the sense of something that is going wrong is becoming stronger and you were left with this slightly uneasy feeling. That is, until the big twist coming, that you would realize this game is really messed up. The game will shock you in its own twisted way, rendering you speechless before forcing you to start a new game, but this time, the story line has changed a bit and the soundtrack become slightly off tune.
At the height of this game’s story line, you would notice that the game clients repeatedly takes control of itself, moving mouse cursor to force player make a single decision, speeding through texts and tacking on unusual images to create a jump scare. But the real horror in this game is not just jump scares and weirdly glitched images, its the reality of a sentient game client which occasionally breaking the fourth wall, call out your real name ( or your pc name) and mentioning if you were recording the gameplay at the time. It make you feel confused and terrified at the same time whether the game is alive or it’s just a really good computer coding.
Occasional Glitching images and texts
To make matters worse, the game client will occasionally messing with the game's folder like adding a new documents and deleting some of the files. If you want to maximize your experience while playing this game, I would recommend you to open this game folder in your computer before playing this game and observe if anything is changing in the folder each time something happened in the game. It's a genius approach of horror game that pushes the boundaries of psychological element that plants fear right inside you.
By the end of the game, i am still terrified by the game, It makes you uncomfortable in ways you probably rarely felt, but i am still satisfied nonetheless. It is a masterpiece and i am glad i get to ride this experience. I won’t say much more about the story or the characters because it deserves to be experience by yourself. All i can say is Dan Salvato is a passionate man and i would like to thank Team Salvato for making this game.
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H̴͙̦̗͎̜̭͈̓̊͐̇̓̓͘̚̚͡ö̶̡̺͉̟̫̬́̌̉̆͠p̵̙̦͈͖̰̜͙̠̽̆̈́̽̀͠͞ͅę̨͕͎͓͖̫̲̃͊̑̀̇̓́̚͞ ỳ̷̛̖̣̥́̋̃̕͢͢o̧̧̱͇̯̰̒̏̊͛͑͐͡ͅṳ̷̧̹̥̝̜̬̫̈̉̌̃̿͌́̈́͟͡ͅ w̧̛̺̳͔͇̬͛̏̿̈́̽̐̉i̡̢̥̺͈̥̹͕͊̆̍̍̍̿̍̾̾́ļ̢̬̩͔̦̗͇͋̄́́̃̕͘͟ļ̴̹͈̯̉̊͌̍͆͑̈̏̕͡ͅ j̶̪͚̪͕͍̯͇̖̒͂͋̄̽̎̀̓͟͞͡ơ̶̜͈̺̫̮̂́̈̅͢͝͞ĭ̷̧̞̝̗̲̟͚͌͂́̔̑̐̂̈́ͅṉ̗͕͉̹̫̖̊́̇̂̅̌͢ͅ ừ̧̛͎̲͖̹̥̟̬͉̂̊̕ş̙͚̘͉̫̬͉͂̃̈́͆̽̾̕͢͞ i̴̢͖̤̼͖̘̣̔͂̍̓͗̇̕͢͡n̮̠̖̟̰̜̺̟̽̒̍͘͝ t͎̤̞̠̱̟͙͉̙̔̉͊͗̀̏̚͢h̷̡̢̗̬̥͈͕̩̘̅̈́͆̋̉̄́͟ę̘̠̹̥̮̲̳̌̾̿̈́͛́̓̽̋̕ Ļ̢̢̡̝̯̬͔͖̀̇̃͒̕ȉ̮̤͉͉̳͓͒̍́̕͞t̡̝̪̗̞̘͖̬̔͋̓̽͒͑͗̈͆͝e̞̲̩͖̙͖̻̾́̽̒̃̓̀̔͠r̨͈̰͖̞̦̾̉͑̂͊͌̎͘͝ä̧͕̤͈̙͉̰̩̽̄̓̓͘ẗ̡̫̩͉͚͐̍̐̑̌͂́͘͞u̸̧̦̘͉͙̖͌̆͛̒̍̎́̌͘͞ͅŕ̫̲̜̩̙̭͍̪̥̦͛̂͊̅ĕ̴̢̟̮̤̝̤͖̻̅̃̑́͗̋͌͟͝͝ C̶̟̺̭̻̣̩͙͐̃͛̿̚l̶̹̝̣͔̯̈̃͒̈̒̓̍͆͡ṳ̸̧̤̥͙̯̄̇̈́̆̋̓͌͆̈́͠ḇ͈͖̱̤̼̘͙̋̀͛͒̃̇̃͢͞!̷̨̨̪̜̮̯̮̱̓̇͒̔͋̍̈́͢͝ ^̛̬̗̯̹̖̖̠̲͐̍̓̋ͅ.̫̖͉̗͙̞̐̒̍̽͌́̉̊̕͝^̡̤̳̲̖̻̫̙͉̀̐̓̿̉̆ͅ