Doki Doki Literature Club Review: Horror Game with Unique Gameplay!

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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