Doki Doki Litterature Club: definitely not a dating simulator

Doki Doki Litterature Club (DDLC) is a visual novel released on 22 September 2017 by Team Salvato and if you haven’t played it yet you can find it here. This is the end of the non-spoiler part of this article so if you haven’t already played it, go for it.

Welcome in the spoiler part. So, this game, at first glance, looks like a cute, silly visual novel and the four girls featured in the main menu can make you think that it will be a dating simulator but in fact, this game is a psychological horror game.

How does this game make one feel so uneasy with its cutesy appearance ?

First, this game is discomforting because of its subject. At the beginning, your character joins a litterature club after listening to the advice of your friend Sayori. In the club you meet its four members: the radiant Sayori, the mysterious Yuri, the tsundere Nastuki and the leader Monika. Quickly, you have to choose between them who you’re going to try to seduce and, consequently, you can see Sayori starting to behave strangely. Later, she lets you know the reason, she has been a nervous depressive since forever and even with all your efforts you can’t prevent her from committing suicide. At this time, the player understands that the game will not be a cute dating sim.

After this event, the game lingers on the image of your friend hanging from the ceiling for too long, it looks like the game has had a bug and someone tells you that the bugs are because of Sayori and they delete her. After that you get back to the title screen, your save has been deleted and you have to create a new game to continue. So, the game starts again, but without Sayori. Quickly, you understand her influence because this new story is much worse than the previous. For example, an argument that was prevented by her previously gets out of hand and seems inevitable. Moreover, since the suicide, the game seems full of bugs as if something is wrong. These “bugs” let you know that each girl has a problem. One has scars her arms, another is beaten by her father...

All these subjects are unpleasant. In real life, we would rather to avoid them and, in video games, they are implied but mostly not shown like, for example in Life is Strange, where a suicide scene is cut short before the impact. In Doki Doki, the suicide is shown and it lasts long, too long. You can’t just turn a blind eye to this. It creates a deep feeling of discomfort which can, at some points, turn into fear.

This game inspires fear by its story because your character seems to not have any control on it but it’s also enforced by the mechanics. In fact, during most of the game you can choose the girl you want to talk with but, at some point of the game, you lose this choice and you’re forced to talk with one of them who acts quite creepily.

The ambiance of the game is also really disturbing, particularly in the music. Like the rest of the game, the music is first cute and peaceful, like real dating sim music, but, at some point, it becomes weird with heartbeats, laughs, voices, and sometimes, it completely stops. The absence of music creates a shift with what we’re used to as a player. That makes us understand something is wrong and creates an unbearable wait.

These moments are associated with the bugs of the game. At these parts, the ambiance completely changes, the music but also the textures appear damaged. This looks really disturbing especially when a character suddenly loses her face. Being unable to recognize a face is one of the most disturbing things to the mind.

These bugs strengthen the most creepy and disturbing part of the game: the metafiction, in other words, the blurring of the distinction between fiction and reality. In fact, in IT technical language, bugs and errors express something that is not planed, something not controlled. However, even if in games, people want the unexpected, they want to be surprised, in real life, they don’t want to, they want to be sure of what happens next. So, bugs which show that no one is in control can be frightening.

One of the characters of DDLC enforces the metafiction of the game because she’s a homodiegetic narrator, Monica. She knows that she’s a video game character and she often breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to the player. This also creates a greater self-identification with your character because you can’t know if she’s talking to you or him.

Monica and the other girls also break the boundaries between reality and fiction with the poems. Indeed, the first time someone plays, each girl will make them read a poem she wrote, but, when they will restart the game, they will understand that each poem, through word play and others stylistic process, have a second meaning that reveals the untold story. That makes them think, all the characters already know what’s going to happen and strengthen the feeling of lack of control.

Moreover, the game hits the player outside of it. In fact, one gameplay phase takes place in the game folders, a character uses computer data to get your real name and many other things are hidden in the game folders which change when they plays the game. It gives the feeling that the player isn’t safe, even if they quit the game. They can feel the loss of control over the game.

Of course, many other games may have disturbed the player before but, it is mostly related to his avatar, for example, in Spec Ops: The Line or in Little Nightmares, where players can be discomforted or even disgusted by the actions of their characters. However, in Doki Doki, it’s your actions that have consequences, you cannot hide yourself behind the avatar, saying “he’s awful but he’s not me”. In my opinion, this is the reason why so many people were perturbed by this game. Even if it came out the same year than Nier Automata, a year after Pony Island and two after Undertale, the rupture of the fourth wall still uncommon for players, and, like we can see in these games, the way it can disturb them is a great way to make them think about the consequences of virtual actions.

Lastly, this game provides a bittersweet experience by playing with the player’s expectations, using hidden mental processes to frighten them, the whole covered by a cute appearance. After playing this game, there is only one thing you can ask yourself: