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Content Warning and Spoiler Warning:
Game has graphic content, including: violence, self-harm, and suicide.
And there will be spoilers - I'm assuming you've already played the game!
Popular ‘dating sim’ style surreal horror game Doki Doki Literature Club probably leaves a lot of people shaking their heads.
What does it mean?
What are the people who made the game trying to say?
Can you handle a quartet of yanderes?
What if I told you the main point of the game isn’t to talk about some waifus in serious need of therapy, but that it’s about books. It’s a cry for help from books. Download icecream screen recorder pro full crack 2017 mega. Finish us! Pay attention to us! We’re not just here to sit on your shelf to make you look smart! Not that – we want to be read or anything. BAKA.
A crisis of our age is that the rise of screens has meant the fall of paper books. Bookstore chains have been dying steadily since 2000. Barnes & Noble has made up for the declining popularity of printed materials by having Starbucks cafes in the store and selling fandom-related merchandise, toys, games, puzzles, gift cards, and trendy office trinkets like lap desks and the ‘Buddha board’. They’ve also been selling their e-reader, called the “Nook”. Amazon started as an online bookstore, but now has become an online general store, and they made their own e-reader, the “Kindle”. Amazon acquired Audible in 2008.
But the question is, are people still consuming the same amount of literature on new technological formats? Answer: No.
Reading books at all has become less popular (scary articles 1,2,3). So there’s a bit of a paradox: It’s never been easier to read or access books, but trends seem to show people declining in fictional reading. Many classics are available for free, and many ebooks cost a fraction of what the paper version of the book would cost. Also the internet is an open platform, a place where anyone can self-publish, so there are more authors to choose from than ever. But people aren’t, generally, reading books.
Is it that too many choices causes inaction (overchoice)?
Maybe it’s that people’s brains are being rewired by social media.
Or maybe the economy going south in the mid to late 00's made people have a work, work, work mindset, and we see reading as a luxury?
Or maybe, people just don’t see the value in reading fiction. There are important mental and emotional benefits to reading fiction, but they’re less tangible than say, nonfiction books or helpful 'how-to' style blog articles. Maybe people want direct words, telling them what actions to take in an uncertain world. Fiction is indirect and allegorical. It uses figurative language to create an image in the minds of readers. Maybe that indirect, romantic, mysterious, emotion-laden way of expressing oneself is seen as belonging to a bygone era.
Also, almost every popular novel is now a movie. People used to read because that was the only way to connect with their favorite story, besides oral recitation. They had to train their imaginations and attention spans for reading - no other choice. With movies, you don’t have to use your imagination. The studio does all the mental labor - turning written words into complete audio-visual experiences. I often say “the book is better”, but what I’m saying when I say that is “my imagination is more powerful than the imaginations of most creative teams who adapt books into movies and TV shows”. But maybe, not everyone thinks this way about reading. Maybe not everyone has the imaginative power I do. So they prefer a visual storytelling format.
One thing's for sure, we have many more choices available now. People didn't suddenly start hating fiction. They've just begun to engage with media that are more visual, aural, or interactive. The rise of video games might have something to do with the fall of the book. Speaking of video games, let's get back to our dear friend, Doki Doki Literature Club.
Why 'Doki Doki Literature Club' Is Primarily About Books
The thread that unites all the characters in Doki Doki Literature Club is desperation. Suicidal and/or homicidal, each girl is desperate for the affection of you, the player character. As you play through the game, you can see their behavior become more unhinged. They gradually lose the masks of normality they have on at the beginning of the game. Even though you barely know them (except for Sayori), they fall for you instantly, so much so that they become crazily jealous of each other.
Couldn’t you see all that as a metaphor for how books themselves might feel in today's world, if they had feelings? Think about how the girls in Literature Club resemble books themselves:
- They represent different writing styles. One is dark, brooding, intellectual, and 'edgy'. Another likes manga and direct, simple language. Others are mysterious and/or something in between these opposing styles.
- The girls communicate in text and subtext. Text is what happens when the game is normal, with the cheerful music is playing. Subtext is what you get when the game goes all weird, for lack of a better word. The girls pretend the subtext isn’t real, that none of that stuff really happened. Subtext in books is similarly shielded with a layer of plausible deniability. You infer subtext in a book, while text is what is actually written on the page. For example, subtext in X-Men may lead you to think gaining mutant powers is a metaphor for puberty, but that’s never actually stated explicitly.
- They all act very desperate for any attention at all. The literature club is small, and far from the most popular club in school. Ok so what, there’s a metric fuckton of anime and light novels about starting a school club, and they’re almost always the underdogs. Standard anime trope, right? But it could also be about the waning popularity of literature vs. anime. Anime club is the only major club at the school that is explicitly mentioned, multiple times. So the writers of the game may be trying to get us to think about the popularity of anime vs. the waning popularity of literature.
If they wanted to make a game that says something about anime yanderes and waifus, why a literature club? That choice of club, and the use of writing as a game mechanic that helps you unlock secrets about the girls’ psyches, was deliberate.
The Importance of Reading for Building Empathy
Steam
It wasn’t Stephen King who first said that writing is telepathy, but he talks about this concept in his book On Writing. Writing is powerful because it lets us, using words, send images and concepts and emotions to other people. That’s why literary fiction is important, it builds empathy. As we read more and more fiction, we get better at putting ourselves in the shoes of the characters, even if they are very different from us. Empathy isn’t some magical gift, it’s more like a muscle, and experiencing fiction is one of the ways you can exercise it.
Monika talks about this in the end of the game scene, where she is alone with the player. She talks about how video games have an empathy problem, because players become used to killing people in a game, desensitized to it. But Doki Doki Literature Club, if it’s trying to say anything at all, is saying we need a way to bring empathy back. They want to make it scary when a character goes from acting normal to acting crazy. They want it to be impactful when a character kills herself or threatens others. In anime and games, we sometimes see a lot of violence that is just spectacle, that doesn’t weigh heavily on us emotionally. Maybe it’s because A Million is a Statistic. Maybe it’s because the violence is sometimes cartoonish and other-worldly.
But mostly, this is caused by lack of an emotional connection to the fictional characters. If you really love a fictional character, seeing them hurt in any way becomes emotionally devastating. If you don’t care about them at all, you’ll probably just end up laughing if they get killed. Doki Doki Literature Club is about literature as an empathy-building experience. And it does that primarily by showing the devastating consequences of a world where empathy has gone out the window, and people are just pursuing their own selfish aims, regardless of any cost to others.
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[Intro]
Doki, doki!
[Verse 1: Sayori, Natsuki]
Hey, hey
My heart's beating when I'm hanging out with you
Why does my heart ache
When I hear you feel the same way too?
Just like a sundae
It's sweet every time I teach you something new
Is this by chance or fate
Whenever it's just me and you?
(Don't get the wrong idea!)
[Pre-Chorus: Yuri, Sayori]
When we touch
It'll never be enough
Is it way too much
If you had to choose just one of us?
[Chorus: Natsuki, Sayori]
Tell me, tell me, please
Is this what I think or is it just me?
Don't wake me up from this sweet little dream
Where we'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart (Doki, doki!)
Will it be okay?
If I express my love for you this way?
No matter what you do or what you say
Where we'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart
[Bridge: Monika]
(We're never gonna be apart)
[Verse 2: Yuri, Sayori, Monika]
Hey, hey
When I'm next to you, I don't know what to do
Why does it feel so great
When our eyes meet out of the blue?
(I-I'm sorry I said too much!)
I really love-
--The way you write even when you don't have a clue
I wanna hear you say
'This love that I am feeling is true'
[Pre-Chorus: Natsuki, Yuri]
Tasty love
Something I want more of
Will it make the cut
If you had to choose just one of us?
[Chorus: Monika, Yuri]
Shall I leave you be?
Is it love if I can set you free?
But even if it's not reality
Let's be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart (Doki, doki!)
How can I convey
My love for you before they fly away?
I think about it all day everyday
We'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart
[Outro: Monika, Sayori]
One by one
They only
Fall apart
Can it be undone?
Why can't I just be the one for once? (Doki-)
We’ll be together, forever
We’re never gonna be apart
Maybe we’ll never be together
But forever you’ll be in my heart
Doki, doki!
[Verse 1: Sayori, Natsuki]
Hey, hey
My heart's beating when I'm hanging out with you
Why does my heart ache
When I hear you feel the same way too?
Just like a sundae
It's sweet every time I teach you something new
Is this by chance or fate
Whenever it's just me and you?
(Don't get the wrong idea!)
[Pre-Chorus: Yuri, Sayori]
When we touch
It'll never be enough
Is it way too much
If you had to choose just one of us?
[Chorus: Natsuki, Sayori]
Tell me, tell me, please
Is this what I think or is it just me?
Don't wake me up from this sweet little dream
Where we'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart (Doki, doki!)
Will it be okay?
If I express my love for you this way?
No matter what you do or what you say
Where we'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart
[Bridge: Monika]
(We're never gonna be apart)
[Verse 2: Yuri, Sayori, Monika]
Hey, hey
When I'm next to you, I don't know what to do
Why does it feel so great
When our eyes meet out of the blue?
(I-I'm sorry I said too much!)
I really love-
--The way you write even when you don't have a clue
I wanna hear you say
'This love that I am feeling is true'
[Pre-Chorus: Natsuki, Yuri]
Tasty love
Something I want more of
Will it make the cut
If you had to choose just one of us?
[Chorus: Monika, Yuri]
Shall I leave you be?
Is it love if I can set you free?
But even if it's not reality
Let's be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart (Doki, doki!)
How can I convey
My love for you before they fly away?
I think about it all day everyday
We'll be together, forever
We're never gonna be apart
[Outro: Monika, Sayori]
One by one
They only
Fall apart
Can it be undone?
Why can't I just be the one for once? (Doki-)
We’ll be together, forever
We’re never gonna be apart
Maybe we’ll never be together
But forever you’ll be in my heart
Doki Doki Literature Club is not a traditional visual novel. This being the case, the amount of actual endings to the game are different to what the game lets on. You may see the ‘End’ screen a number of times throughout your playthrough, but some of these aren’t endings at all, but more like checkpoints.
Nexus mod manager and steam workshop compatibility. How can the answer be improved? Nexus Mod Manager and Steam workshop - posted in Skyrim Technical Support: I don't want to use steam workshop. I want to use the Nexus Mod Manager. However, the mods I download are no longer showing up in my data files. At the top it says 'skyrim workshop' and below there are no mods to activate. I assume I must have downloaded the steam workshop or something. Sep 13, 2013 About this mod. This is a TUTORIAL. In this tutorial I will show you how to obtain manual control of the Steam Workshop Skyrim mods, and how to install them with Nexus Mod Manager. Steam workshop is broken and it`s terible handling mods. Use Nexus and a mod manager like MO ou NMM #4. Dec 13, 2016 @ 2:01pm Originally posted by Eggs: I'm still not sure if this is ok or not but since Steam does not have all mods I was wondering if I can use Nexus mods and put them in my Skyrim game. If so how do I do that?
The game has three actual endings: a bad ending, a best ending, and an alternate special ending.
Obvious spoilers ahead. This is your warning.
Bad Ending
This is the ending that most players will receive on their first playthrough. There aren’t any special requisites to obtaining this ending; all you have to do is reach the end of the game. None of the dialog options that you choose will affect this.
Since this isn’t a traditional visual novel, you cannot just cruise through the game by reading. Sometimes the game may appear to be frozen or looping, but there’s usually a fourth wall breaking solution. Here’s how to get through some of these segments:
- When the game hints that you can fix something by reloading the game, just carry on playing as normal. To get the bad ending, you’ll never have to reload an old save file.
- After getting the first ‘End’ screen, the game is not over. Simply select the option in the main menu that has replaced the ‘New Game’ option.
- During the scene with Yuri where the textbox keeps producing gibberish, press the ‘skip’ command and wait for some time to pass to advance.
- During the scene with Monika towards the end of the game, she will tell you how to advance. You must delete the ‘monika.chr’ file in the game’s files directory. If you’ve downloaded the game from the website, simply find the file in the characters folder that is located in the same folder that you use to launch the game. If you’re playing the Steam version, right-click Doki Doki Literature Club in the my games section of your Steam library, then click properties, local files, browse local files…, characters.
- When the game progresses to the title screen, select ‘New Game’ and continue playing until you reach this ending.
Best Ending
NOTE: If this is your second playthrough, you will have to reinstall Doki Doki Literature Club and select “yes, delete my existing data” to replay the game.
In order to get the best ending, you will have to find all of the CG images before deleting the ‘monika.chr’ file. This can only be done by saving and reloading at specific parts of the game. Your save states are deleted at certain points, so it is vital that you reload your save before this happens.
Play the game as normal up until the point where you have to construct your first poem. SAVE YOUR GAME. If everything is done correctly, this is the only time you’ll be required to save, as the three different paths split from here.
Sayori’s Path
- At three different points, you’ll have to write a poem by selecting a series of predetermined words. Selecting a word that Sayori likes will cause her icon to bounce up and down. Make sure that a majority of your selections are words that Sayori likes. Here are some words that will work: adventure, alone, amazing, awesome, beauty, bed, bliss, broken, calm, charm, cheer, childhood, clumsy, color, comfort, cry, dance, dark, daydream, dazzle, death, defeat, depression, embrace, empty, excitement, extraordinary, family, fear, feather, fireflies, fireworks, flower, flying, forgive, friends, fun, grief, happiness, heart, holiday, hope, hopeless, hurt, joy, laugh, lazy, loud, love, lucky, marriage, memories, misery, misfortune, music, nature, ocean, pain, party, passion, peaceful, play, prayer, precious, promise, rainbow, raincloud, romance, rose, sadness, scars, shame, silly, sing, smile, sparkle, special, sunny, sunset, sweet, tears, together, tragedy, treasure, unrequited, vacation, warm, wonderful.
- Some time after the third poem, you’ll be asked which girl you’d preferably like to help with the festival. Select “Yuri.”
- When you’re talking to Sayori after hanging out with Yuri, select the option “I love you.”
- Once you get the CG image of Sayori hugging you, reload your save.
Natsuki’s Path
- Now center your three poems around words that Natsuki likes: anger, blanket, boop, bouncy, bubble, bunny, candy, cheeks, chocolate, clouds, cute, doki doki, email, fantasy, fluffy, games, giggle, hair, headphones, hop, jump, jumpy, kawaii, kiss, kitty, lipstick, lollipop, marshmallow, melody, milk, mouse, nibble, nightgown, papa, parfait, peace, pink, playground, poof, pout, puppy, pure, ribbon, shiny, shopping, skipping, socks, spinning, sticky, strawberry, sugar, summer, swimsuit, twirl, valentine, vanilla, waterfall, whisper, whistle.
- After the third poem, when asked who you’d preferably like to help with the festival, select “Natsuki.”
- When Sayori shows up after Natsuki leaves, reload your save.
Yuri’s Path
- Center your three poems around words that Yuri likes: afterimage, agonizing, ambient, analysis, anxiety, atone, aura, breath, breathe, cage, captive, climax, contamination, covet, crimson, desire, despise, destiny, determination, disarray, disaster, disoriented, disown, dream, effulgent, electricity, entropy, essence, eternity, existence, explode, extreme, fester, fickle, flee, frightening, graveyard, heavensent, horror, imagination, incapable, incongruent, infallible, inferno, infinite, insight, intellectual, journey, judgment, landscape, lust, massacre, meager, melancholy, philosophy, pleasure, portrait, question, raindrops, secretive, sensation, starscape, suicide, tenacious, time, uncanny, uncontrollable, unending, universe, unrestrained, unstable, variance, vertigo, vibrant, vitality, vivacious, vivid, whirlwind, wrath.
- Select whichever options you want until you are asked to tell Sayori that you love her. Select “I love you” again. Don’t reload your save!
- Carry on playing until the last scene with Monika. Do not immediately delete the ‘monkia.chr’ file when prompted. Instead, let the dialog play out. Monika will ask you to write a poem for her, after which the dialog will carry on. Eventually the textbox will disappear and you’ll be left with Monika staring at you. This counts as a CG image. At this point, you can safely delete the ‘monika.chr’ file.
Following these paths will net you all of the CG images. Carry on playing until you are taken to the title screen, then select ‘New Game’ as normal. From here, you will be taken to the best ending.
Alternate Ending
The alternate ending is a strange little inclusion that ends the game before it even begins. To receive this ending, launch the game, and before selecting ‘New Game,’ delete the ‘monika.chr’ file. You can now select ‘New Game,’ and after a couple of lines of dialog the game will crash. Launch the game again to be treated to a special screen. The only way to fix your game after this is to reinstall it.
(Redirected from Doki Doki Literature Club)
Doki Doki Literature Club! | |
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The cover art of Doki Doki Literature Club!, featuring the four main characters (from left to right) Sayori, Yuri, Monika and Natsuki. | |
Developer(s) | Team Salvato |
Publisher(s) | Team Salvato |
Designer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Programmer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Artist(s) | Satchely (characters)[1][2] VelinquenT (backgrounds) |
Writer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Composer(s) | Dan Salvato |
Engine | Ren'Py |
Platform(s) | |
Release |
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Genre(s) | Visual novel |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Doki Doki Literature Club! is a 2017 American visual novel developed by Team Salvato for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. The game was initially distributed through itch.io, and later became available on Steam. The story follows a male high school student who joins the school's literature club and interacts with its four female members. The game features a mostly linear story, with some alternative scenes and endings depending on the choices the player makes. While the game appears at first glance to be a lighthearted dating simulator, it is in fact a metafictionalpsychological horror game that extensively breaks the fourth wall.
The game was developed in an estimated two-year period by a team led by Dan Salvato, known previously for his modding work for Super Smash Bros. Melee. According to Salvato, the inspiration for the game came from his mixed feelings toward anime, and a fascination for surreal and unsettling experiences. Upon its release, Doki Doki Literature Club! received positive critical attention for its successful use of horror elements and unconventional nature within the visual novel genre.
- 2Plot
Gameplay
The poem writing minigame in Doki Doki Literature Club!
Doki Doki Literature Club! is a visual novel. As such, its gameplay has a low level of interactivity and consists of scenes with static two-dimensional images of characters in a first-person perspective. The narration and dialogue are presented in the form of accompanying text. The narration is provided by the game's protagonist, a member of the titular literature club, to which he was invited by his childhood friend Sayori.[3][4][5] At certain points, the player will be prompted to make decisions that determine the course of subsequent events. Such decisions affect the development of the protagonist's relationships with the key female characters Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika.[6] The characters' interactions with the protagonist are also influenced by a minigame in which the player is required to compose a poem from a set of individual words. Each girl in the literature club has different word preferences, and will react positively when the player picks a word that they like.[3][4][5][6] The characters' reactions are represented by chibi versions of the characters that are displayed at the bottom of the screen during the minigame.[3] Depending on the results of these minigames, the player can enable additional scenes with the character to whom the poem was dedicated.[5][6] The narrative is divided into three acts, between which the player must restart the game.[7] At a certain point, the player must access the game's files in order to advance the narrative.[8]
Plot
The protagonist is invited by his cheerful childhood sweetheart, Sayori, to join their high school's literature club as a remedy for his insular nature.[3][4][5] The protagonist reluctantly agrees to her proposal and meets the other members of the club: the assertive Natsuki, the shy Yuri, and the bubbly club president Monika.[3][5][6][9] The protagonist writes and shares poems with his new club-mates and deepens his relationships with them. As the club prepares for the school's upcoming cultural festival, Sayori reveals to the protagonist that she suffers from depression and confesses her love for him.[10] The following day, Monika passively shows the protagonist an uncharacteristically morbid poem by Sayori that insistently orders someone to get out of her head. Realizing that something has happened to her, the protagonist rushes to Sayori's home, where he discovers that she has hanged herself, and the game abruptly ends.[7][10]
The player is sent back to the main menu, with all previous save files erased.[11] The narrative repeats upon the start of a new game, but Sayori is glaringly absent; her name and dialogue are rendered illegible, and the characters do not remember her existence. In addition, the character sprites appear corrupted from time to time.[10][12] Monika takes Sayori's place in inviting the protagonist to the club. Aside from the game's frequent distortions, the normally calm and shy Yuri becomes gradually unstable, possessive and prone to self-harm.[7] Yuri's decline in sanity culminates in the act of giving the protagonist a 'poem' that is indecipherable and covered in blood and other bodily fluids. When Monika seems to be callously dismissing this anomalous behavior, Natsuki secretly passes the protagonist a message under the guise of a poem that begs him to seek help for Yuri, only to be immediately manipulated into telling the protagonist to disregard the message and devote his attention solely to Monika. After a heated quarrel over who the protagonist will help with the school festival, Yuri ejects Monika and Natsuki from the room and privately confesses her love for the protagonist. Whether or not the protagonist accepts Yuri's confession, she commits suicide by repeatedly stabbing herself.[10] Due to the game's broken script, the protagonist is stuck motionless in the room with Yuri's decaying cadaver over the course of a weekend. Natsuki returns upon the weekend's conclusion, but is horrified and nauseated by the sight of Yuri's body and flees the scene. Monika appears and apologizes to the protagonist for the 'boring' weekend he had spent, and begins a display of compensation by deleting Yuri and Natsuki's character files from the game and sending the player back to the main menu.[7]
A new file is started automatically, and the protagonist is placed in a room with Monika seated across from him. Monika reveals that she is a self-aware video game character who has the ability to manipulate and delete other character files, which she used to alter the behavior of her club-mates in an unsuccessful bid to make them unlikable and prevent their confessions of love to the protagonist. She expresses her loneliness from being relegated to a fruitless supporting role within an empty world where her only company had been 'autonomous personalities' designed only to fall in love with the protagonist, and she confesses her own love not to the protagonist character, but directly to the player.[7][10] Monika will sit and talk to the player indefinitely about various topics until the player manually enters the game's directory and deletes Monika's character file. Monika initially lashes out at the player, but ultimately forgives them and remorsefully repents by restoring the game and the characters excluding herself.
Endings
Depending on the course of action taken by the player, the game can come to three possible conclusions. The standard ending sees Sayori introducing herself as the president of the literature club and thanking the player for getting rid of Monika. As she adopts Monika's possessive characteristics, Monika intervenes via text prompt and deletes Sayori to save the player. Monika deletes the game over the course of the credits, and the game concludes with a note from Monika, stating that she has disbanded the literature club because 'no happiness can be found' in it.[7]
A more positive ending occurs if the player has viewed all of the optional scenes in a single playthrough, which requires saving and loading at several points before witnessing Sayori's initial suicide.[13] Sayori instead expresses her gratitude to the player for emotionally supporting all the club members, tearfully bids farewell and assures the player that all the club members love them before deleting the game herself. After the credits, the player is presented with a message from the game's developer, Dan Salvato.[14]
If the player preemptively deletes Monika's file from the directory before starting the game, Sayori is made the default leader of the club. Upon realizing the true nature of the game and her role in it, Sayori panics and forcefully closes the game. Opening the game again will display an image of Sayori having hanged herself. If this image is left on screen for ten minutes, a line of text will appear next to Sayori's corpse reading: 'Now everyone can be happy.'[13]
Development and release
Doki Doki Literature Club was developed by American programmer Dan Salvato over the course of approximately two years, and is his debut title in the video game industry.[15] Prior to its release, Salvato was known for creating the FrankerFaceZ extension for Twitch.tv,[15] his modding work in the Super Smash Bros scene,[16] and for his custom Super Mario Maker levels.[17][18] Salvato was inspired to create a visual novel by his 'love-hate relationship' with anime, and emphasized the abundant use of clichés in the genre and the frequent plots centering around 'cute girls doing cute things', which he saw as both an asset and a detriment to the viewer's enjoyment. Salvato sought to create a title that would attract the player's attention regardless of how they personally view anime.[15]
Discussing the horror elements of the game, Salvato explained that he was inspired by 'things that are scary because they make you uncomfortable, not because they shove scary-looking things in your face.'[15] To achieve this, Salvato developed the façade of a cute setting, which would break down over time along with the behavior of the characters, and eventually the role of one evil character who had seized control of the game from the player would be revealed. In creating the game's horror elements, Salvato drew inspiration from Yume Nikki and Eversion, and emphasized to his team that he wanted the market for visual novels to become much more daring and less reliant on the same plot concepts.[19] The game's characters were based around standard anime archetypes and were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere characteristic of Western-produced visual novels. The sole exception to this format is Monika, who received an English name as a hint to her individual nature compared to the other characters.[20]
The prototypical versions of the cast of Doki Doki Literature Club were created by Dan Salvato in a free online program for creating anime characters.
Because Salvato lacked artistic skill, he used a free online anime-creation program to create the initial character designs and applied these designs in test versions of the game.[21] Salvato recognized that a product of such quality would not satisfy potential players,[21] so he made a request to his friend, a translator for Sekai Project, for sketches of school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters.[22] Salvato then handed initial visual development over to Kagefumi, who left the project very early on. After Kagefumi's departure from the project, Salvato contacted the freelance artist Satchel, who created the final character sprites, over the course of a few months.[2] The sprites were created in several parts to give the poses more variety.[23] The background images were originally created as three-dimensional models, and then processed by the artist VelinquenT.[24]
Salvato also composed the game's score.[25] The introductory composition, 'Doki Doki Literature Club!', is primarily performed by piano and flute with accompaniment by string instruments. The composition 'Okay, Everyone!' has five different versions, four of which are performed by different musical instruments that represent each of the four female characters. Monika's version emphasizes the piano, Yuri's version uses pizzicato and harps, Natsuki's version is played by xylophone and recorder, and Sayori's is played by ukulele. The game's score is generally calm and serene with the exception of two tracks, 'Sayo-nara' and 'Just Monika', which are ominous in tone.[26] 'Your Reality', a vocal song performed over the end credits, is sung by Jillian Ashcraft.[25]
Doki Doki Literature Club! was first released on September 22, 2017 on itch.io, and was later also released on Steam.[27] The game is available as freeware with an optional pay what you want model. Paying US$10 or more unlocks a bonus 'Fan Pack' that includes desktop and mobile wallpapers, the game's official soundtrack, and a digital concept art booklet.[28] The game's soundtrack was released on two compact discs respectively consisting of 15 and 10 tracks. The first CD contains all the main compositions of the game, while the second consists of remixes and alternative arrangements.[26] The soundtrack saw another release on 'crimson smoke' vinyl in the first quarter of 2019.[29]
Reception
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In its first three months of release, Doki Doki Literature Club! was downloaded over one million times,[35] and exceeded two million downloads about a month later.[36] The game was received positively by critics, and accumulated a score of 78/100 on Metacritic based on 7 reviews.[30]
Steven T. Wright of PC Gamer described the game as 'a post-modern love letter to the genre it represents', and compared its deconstructive quality to Undertale and Pony Island.[4] Robert Fenner of RPGFan noted that traditionally, major visual novel developers such as Key and 5pb. produced lengthy day-by-day narratives of a standard anime protagonist's relationships with their supporting cast. According to Fenner, previous attempts to revise the format, such as Hatoful Boyfriend and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, could not escape the conventions of their genre and fully reveal their dramatic potential. He then declared that Doki Doki Literature Club! had succeeded in this field by making unusual use of the Ren'Py engine and providing unexpected plot twists.[3]
Reviewers emphasized that the game achieves its surprising impact on the player due to its outward resemblance to typical eroge games: it has a pronounced anime style in its character design,[3][8] and the game's goal is to develop a relationship with one of the characters.[11][12] In addition, the characters consist of anime stereotypes whose behavior is sparsely displayed through their sprites,[5] and the game's musical accompaniment is light, bouncy, gentle and playful.[3][4] According to critics, these aspects combined to create the impression of a standard visual novel that would prompt the player to become attached to the characters.[4][5][8][12] VisualNovelist of Jeuxvideo.com positively compared the game's visual quality to Everlasting Summer, another independent visual novel with the appearance of a professional production.[31] Reviewers pointed out that the game's horror was built on the destruction of a sense of control over what happens in the game and the feeling of helplessness that stems from the distortions in the game's world.[8][11] Victoria Rose of Polygon stated that this approach was strikingly different from traditional horror games and films, where the viewer remains alienated from what is happening on the screen.[11] Amy Josuweit of Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted that while earlier visual novels have broken the fourth wall by crashing the client or adding extra files, Doki Doki Literature Club! changed the angle by deliberately destroying files rather than adding them.[8]
GQ's Tom Philip commented that at times the narrative felt like 'a slog, clicking through endless amounts of inane, flirty conversation about poetry.'[37] Fenner opinied that the game did not pass the Bechdel test and positioned the protagonist as a seductive casanova. However, he emphasized that the plot is ultimately a 'sharply aware polemic against harem anime/visual novels' in which 'the lengths the ladies go to are not wholly because of the protagonist, but rather he can be read as a symptom—an easy outlet.' Fenner also felt that the game, like Katawa Shoujo before it, 'appears to veer dangerously close to fetishization of very real issues'.[3] Nevertheless, reviewers recognized the game's plot focus as successful and relevant.[3][4][5]
At IGN's Best of 2017 Awards, the game won the People's Choice Award each for 'Best PC Game',[33] 'Best Adventure Game' (for which it was also a runner-up),[38] 'Best Story',[39] and 'Most Innovative'.[40] The game won the 'Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award' and was nominated for 'Trending Game of the Year' at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.[34][41]EGMNow ranked the game 16th in their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017.[42]
References
- ^Satchely (June 1, 2019). 'Satchel on Twitter: 'Is anyone able to edit the DDLC Wikipedia article? I got notified that for some reason I'm not credited as the artist anymore''.
- ^ abSatchely (June 2, 2019). 'Satchel on Twitter: 'Suddenly the artist credit is being switched around in the article, I don't think it was like that yesterday. Kagefumi didn't draw the final sprites and backgrounds. Her art isn't in the game because she left the project very early on.''.
- ^ abcdefghijkFenner, Robert (December 24, 2017). 'RPGFan Review--Doki Doki Literature Club'. RPGFan. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
- ^ abcdefgWright, Steven (October 26, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! hides a gruesome horror game under its cute surface'. PC Gamer. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
- ^ abcdefghiClarke, Billy (February 14, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Review'. GameGrin. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdTamburro, Paul (November 28, 2017). 'Trust Me, You Need to Play Doki Doki Literature Club'. GameRevolution. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdefFujita, Shōhei (March 4, 2018). '【完全ネタバレコラム】世界を大いに盛り上げる「Doki Doki Literature Club」の真の目的と少女たちからの救難信号' (in Japanese). IGN Japan. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdeJosuweit, Amy (October 31, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is a hidden horror game for the internet age'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
- ^Couture, Joel (October 13, 2017). 'Get to Know Your Fellow Lovers Of Writing With Doki Doki Literature Club!'. Silicon Era. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^ abcdeLineham, Mitch Jay (February 16, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is a visual novel worthy of a Black Mirror episode'. PCGamesN. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdRose, Victoria (October 22, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club is an uncontrollably horrific visual novel'. Polygon. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
- ^ abcJackson, Gita (October 11, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Scared Me Shitless'. Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^ abPayne, Jamie (December 7, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club: How to Get All Endings'. Twinfinite. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^Bell, Larryn (January 3, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club: How to Get the Best Ending, Fulfilling Ending'. AllGamers. Archived from the original on October 2, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ abcdJackson, Gita (October 20, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club's Horror Was Born From A Love-Hate Relationship With Anime'. Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
- ^Good, Owen (September 13, 2015). 'Powerful mod adds replay feature to Super Smash Bros. Melee'. Polygon. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Blain, Louise (October 9, 2015). 'P is for Pain is the new contender for Mario Maker's hardest level'. GamesRadar. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^'Eversion-Inspired Super Mario Maker Level Uses Doors In An Ingenious Way'. Silliconera. September 21, 2017. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 3
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 4
- ^ abSalvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 5
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 11
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 18
- ^Salvato, Dan (2017) Doki Doki Literature Club! Concept Art Booklet, p. 20
- ^ abTeam Salvato (September 22, 2017). Doki Doki Literature Club!. Windows. Level/area: End credits.
- ^ abGaspar, Marcos (September 22, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! OST'. RPGFan Music. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^'Doki Doki Literature Club! on Steam'. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^'Doki Doki Literature Club Fan Pack on Steam'. Valve Corporation. Archived from the original on March 31, 2019. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
- ^Estrada, Marcus (September 19, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Soundtrack Coming to Vinyl'. Hardcore Gamer. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ ab'Doki Doki Literature Club! for PC Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
- ^ abVisualNovelist (November 19, 2017). 'Test : Doki Doki Literature Club : ne jamais se fier aux apparences' (in French). Jeuxvideo.com. Archived from the original on February 27, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^Chick, Tom (January 18, 2018). 'The first rule of Doki Doki Literature Club is not to talk about Doki Doki Literature Club'. Quarter to Three. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
- ^ ab'Best of 2017 Awards: Best PC Game'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^ abIGN Studios (March 17, 2018). '2018 SXSW Gaming Awards Winners Revealed'. IGN. Archived from the original on March 18, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
- ^Barnett, Brian (December 11, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Hits 1 Million Downloads'. IGN. Archived from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
- ^Jones, Ali (January 15, 2018). 'Doki Doki Literature Club! surpasses two million downloads'. PCGamesN. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
- ^Philip, Tom (October 19, 2017). 'Doki Doki Literature Club Is the Most Messed Up Horror Game You'll Play This Year'. GQ. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Best Adventure Game'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Best Story'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^'Best of 2017 Awards: Most Innovative'. IGN. December 20, 2017. Archived from the original on January 2, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
- ^McNeill, Andrew (January 31, 2018). 'Here Are Your 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards Finalists!'. SXSW. Archived from the original on February 2, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
- ^EGM staff (December 28, 2017). 'EGM's Best of 2017: Part Two: #20 ~ #16'. EGMNow. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Doki Doki Literature Club! at The Visual Novel Database
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