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It continues on the lasting wave of smaller independent games that deconstruct the medium, blurring the line between player and protagonist, and even involves some game file manipulation for good measure.

Essentially, something bad happens at the day of the school festival, as there is always a school festival in these kinds of stories, and then the foundations of both the game and story break down into a compelling series of oddities that gradually escalate before bellowing into an uneasy climax where the game becomes seemingly self aware of the player’s actions, and the confines of the game must be broken. This in turn leads to their eventual deconstruction, as Doki Doki Literature Club is not a typical dating sim, and after a few hours in, the game’s very genre shifts into what many have pegged as “psychological horror”. The writer is clearly familiar with why these characters appeal to people and as such is able to write them effectively, without straying too far beyond their more superficial conceptual origins. As that happens, so too does their characters, with each member of the cast gradually growing more detailed. All of them, excluding the iinchou, function as potential love interests for the protagonist, and after a fairly typical introduction, the player may freely choose one of them to pursue, as this is a dating sim after all.įrom there the game then adopts a routine of club activities, writing a poem by selecting what keywords your chosen girl enjoys, and then returning to club to see the protagonist and chosen girl develop their relationship. Including a demure yandere, weeaboo tsundere, flawless class president, and the aforementioned hyperactive childhood friend. One centered around a lightly detailed protagonist who, on account of his hyperactive childhood friend, finds himself joining a school literature club, one coincidentally occupied entirely by attractive young women who personify a predictable assortment of anime-esque character archetypes.

In doing so I found one of the most interesting games I have played all year.ĭoki Doki Literature Club starts off as a seemingly innocuous little dating sim. Combine this with a strong recommendation for the game from my significant other and my realization that the game was actually free, I decided to give Doki Doki a shot. At first, the game seemed to be a rather typical dating sim, but one with the very curious disclaimer that the game is not suitable for children or the easily disturbed. Doki Doki Literature Club is one of the many titles I inadvertently stumbled across while perusing the cluttered Steam marketplace in search for interesting sounding titles that I might not have heard about otherwise.