Doki Doki Literature Club: What Makes it So Effectively Horrific [SPOILERS AND DISTURBING CONTENT]

What seems like an unassuming visual novel is actually a horrifying concept disguised as a video game.

This blog post is very spoilers-heavy and contains a lot of disturbing content. If you do not like either of those things, either read with caution or don't read at all.

If you haven't played this game and would like to, it is FREE on Steam. 

So what makes it so effective?

1. It doesn't fuck with you until it's good and ready to.

I spent the first thirty minutes of this game wondering why someone had recommended me play it for Halloween. I was totally confused- it was cute, full of pink, and all about wooing one of the girls in the club. Frustrated, I quit the game, and didn't touch it again for about six months.

As I found out, it was only getting warmed up. The only warning you will get at the beginning of this game (without looking too hard) is from Monika, who tells you to save your game after reading the girls' poems on the second day. Fourth wall break for sure, but it doesn't really tip you off to the horror that's soon to come.

Oh no. Eventually, little Sayori, your best friend, sees you getting closer and closer to Yuri or Natsuki (Yuri, in my case), and she begins to change her behavior. She tells you she is depressed, and that she is desperately in love with you. You can accept her confession or "friendzone" her. You can do everything in Sayori's favor, and think you did the right thing. 

Until the next day. You find her hanging from the ceiling in her room, dead. Everything gets fuzzy, hazy, distorted, until the main menu pops back up again, only this time, Sayori's character is a distorted version of all four girls. That's when you realize that this game is not a joke, not cute, not about wooing girls, but rather, saving them from themselves (or so you think).

2. It reinforces the idea that you, the player, are responsible for what is happening in the game.

In every game I've played that used player choice, this is the first one that actually made me feel 100% responsible for what was happening. 

How does the game do this, exactly? For one, there are files that pop up in the game's folder throughout the game as you go through it. You can read which ones come up, and gather hints from them. But the most important files that you can backup (and please do backup your game files for this one) are the character files that represent each girl. They are, quite literally, deleted out of the game, by the game. You are responsible, in the end, to save the girls from digital purgatory. All except one. 

Monika makes an incredibly interesting point about what we, the player, can do what she can't- make an infinite number of choices. We have the power in our hand to do whatever we want, while she is only able to make a few choices, and force herself to watch the rest of what happens. 

This point is further underlined by the fact that the person that we are playing as in the game, in fact, has extremely limited options for what they can do. In fact, much of our choices don't seem to matter too much- what happens is what happens. But the player is free to roam beyond the game and manipulate what they can.