As you know, indie developers always have many ways to throw
super creative games. On the one hand, you meet an attempt to reshuffle a
nostalgic old-fashioned gameplay through a pixel-based visual approach. But the
ease with which to release game releases on Steam also opens up space for indie
developers to offer something creative or a concept that may already be popular
in other countries but never get proper western translations. This is the Doki
Doki Literature Club currently available on Steam, free of charge!
And when dealing with unique games like this one, we also
have to change the discussion format just to make sure you get the gameplay
experience you should have. Especially if the product stands on a charm that is
so fragile and vulnerable to be destroyed, if you do not enter with different
expectations. For Doki Doki Literature Club, this is defined by the visual
identity of the novel that ended, not its main attraction. Therefore, it is
essential and recommended for you who are reading this review, not to read this
review further if you do not want your play experience to be injured. You can
download the game here, and please jump right in.
Therefore, we also changed the format of our review for this
game Team Salvato concoction this one. That unlike most game review formats
where we write all the interesting things related to this game and just draw
conclusions, we will write a conclusion first here. He will summarize what kind
of rough experience you will get and of course, the reason we recommend it.
REMEMBER, after conclusion, anything you read on the second and subsequent
pages, potentially to disrupt your gaming experience related to this product,
is beyond our responsibility.
PLOT
Welcome to Doki Doki Literature Club. You act as a male
student who does not seem to have much motivation to follow the extracurricular
activities provided by your school. But thanks to the encouragement of a good
friend you've known since childhood - Sayori, you also decided to follow extracurricular
form Literature Club. Simply put, it is a club that focuses on writing and
reading activities.
There, you meet with three other Sayori friends: Natsuki,
Yuri, and Monika. Monika itself acts as chairman of the club, while the rest of
the characters that carry the characterization that seems to be no stranger to
you who often watch anime. There is Natsuki - the Tsundere loller who continues
to express his interest through grumbling, There is Yuri - the shy girl with
the body proportion spoiling the eyes that is hard to get along with, and of
course the Monika - the ever-reliable chairman. In the middle, is Sayori - the
jolly girl you already know so close.
Along with the more often you join the move with this club,
the more clearly you also understand the personality of each girl. Along with
the journey, you are also more open to Sayori's feelings and also, on the
contrary. But beyond your deepest heart, especially through the written poetry
and ending you read, you understand something is "wrong" with the
four girls you are dealing with. That behind their smiles and innocence, there
is a "black shadow" that seems ready to pounce. Everything changed
when he began to take the lives of the victims.
So, what really happened in this Doki Doki Literature Club?
What happened to each of these girls? Why does this game come with a loud
warning at the beginning, that this game is not suitable for children who are
mentally impaired easily? This review will discuss it more deeply for you.
Jumping In "Madness"
As you can predict, Doki Doki Literature Club does not look
like what is in sight. That it's never a matter of book clubs with cute girls
in it. Slowly but surely, you begin to recognize the psychological disease
characteristics of every sweet girl you are dealing with. From depression,
sexual harassment, to the desire to self-harm is reflected not only by
responses, but also through the poems they write. Stop there? No. This is just
the gate to get into the "madness" that you never predicted before.
Warning about "This game is not suitable for mentally
disturbed children" at the beginning of the game seems to have given clear
clues what you will find. It all starts with the fact that this game is ready
to break your heart to pieces. Obviously, the developer "entraps" you
to build personal relationships with your best friend from small - Sayori.
Which man is not happy with the romance story along with childhood friends who
are sweet, carefree, and always try to keep you alive? He may not be perfect,
but in your eyes, there will be no better women. Stories and drama about love
triangle began to rise and distract you as if this is a "normal"
Visual Novel. Love the triangle which then ends with one of the deciding
characters, to hang himself in the room.
And it all began to sink in the navel of insanity. Not from
the side of the story, but from the fact that Doki Doki Literature Club turned
out to be a Visual Novel game with a META-based twist - that he realized he was
a video game. After the death of one of these characters, the game suddenly
repeats itself, and you have to start everything from scratch again. But this
time, no more characters have just hanged themselves in the Playthrough before.
There has never been a conversation about this character, never a visual form
that he appeared, and you, as if you never remembered that he had accompanied
your days. Like a great cyclone of sanity, you are bombarded with strangeness
in various angles. The eye of the hurricane that you are pulling in is starting
to make Doki Doki Literature Club no longer "fun".
What you find is a horror game that is conscious of its own
existence, which realizes that it is nothing more than a "courting"
simulation that makes you a constantly chased main character, aware of making
glitches and bugs a part of the content horror that is ready to make your heart
continue to hunt fast, especially if you enjoy it with a steady audio quality.
This is a horror game that managed to wrap itself up as a sweet novel visual
game. A game that is so smart, he managed to deceive anyone who was just about
to enter into this free product.
Cool? All these fears come from the design that hit the
fourth wall, that the game is trying to communicate with you in the real world,
not the "favored female" character you are tasting. Glitch began to
happen, a strange programming language out on the screen, and one of the
characters can even stand beyond the existing text line of speech. Death,
murder, attempts to eliminate the existence of a character burst with visuals
ready to make you feel sick. As an example? One twist even bumps into the fact
that it is a novel visual game with limited animation. Suddenly a character
begins to punch a knife into his own body. And you will not be able to move
from the scene or replace it, and end up having to wait for 7 days (in game)
that is full of absurd languages that can not be understood to move to the
next event.
The end result, is an intelligent horror game. A game that
not only offers a gore theme or just a heavy character complexity, but that
creates "special" terror through the destruction of the fourth wall
that it carries along with all the existing jump-scare. This is a horror game
that recognizes itself is a video game, when else will you find a game concept
like this? Believe it or not. An experience that will leave a strong impression
if you try it, without ever knowing what you will meet.
Conclusion
Doki Doki Literature Club is a game full of surprises, there
is no longer a better word to explain the game that is actually worth
categorized as Visual Novel this. You are taken on a teenage romance story that
is actually cliched in the beginning, but then faced with a theme that is
getting heavier as the story goes. It was originally present to reflect the
complexity of each character, having personal problems with severe
psychological problems. More cool? Instead of being thrown explicitly, he
implicitly implies through poetry writings that are, to be the theme of this
game, as well as the title that he usung. Writings that reflect the darkness in
teenagers that sometimes you will not be able to handle and handle. And believe
it or not, Doki Doki Literature Club takes it even deeper.
Nevertheless, regardless of the praises that appear here and
there, it's hard not to comment on some of the flaws, especially considering
that it is a novel visual game that focuses on the story. Although we include
gamers who do not often play visual novels, whether the theme of explicit adult
or not, but the story is so linear still a major weakness Doki Doki Literature
Club. It ends up being a game that asks you to follow a definite line of story,
despite having a small branch here and there. The response that you sometimes
give does not give much different results. In fact, most of the time the
gameplay you spend will end passively, just reading the story that appears on
the screen.
But as you can predict, we're sure you're smart enough, that
just teenage problems will not be the "reason" why we ask you not to
read this review before you taste it. There is something more interesting
waiting for you at Doki Doki Literature Club, and combined with its free
distribution scheme, there is no reason not to taste it. Prepare yourself, your
heart, a capable sound system, and enter into a visual novel that you never
thought about, will make you fall in love.
Advantages
Artwork that pamper the eyes
The basic story is quite touching, though cliche
Full of unpredictable surprises
Cheerful music
Design a character that deserves thumbs up
Description of character personality via poetry
Deficiency
Too linear
Suitable for gamers: who are looking for an unusual gaming
experience, wanting to get a quick adrenaline kick