It uses the Ren'py engine, like Katawa Shoujo, but it gets really creative and does some pretty neat stuff. No spoilers but if you're a fan of Kojima-esque mind strawberry floats you'll enjoy this,
I just finished playing through it. Great VN! So many twists and turns!
I want to protect all their smiles
Also, I wish there was more choice in the game play. I know they're trying for a narrative and I think they did a great job of that but still would have been nice.
I know there are mods out there for this but I've yet to try any. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:25 am
by Squinty
My mate has talked about this. It sounds all kinds of messed up.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 10:16 am
by Saint of Killers
I started this but have yet to return to it. Only played a bit of it and so have yet to see anything messed up... makes me wonder if it's all a ruse to get people to play a VN about girls joining a school club
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:19 am
by That
No spoilers: this is a good game!
Mild spoilers:
I liked how something starts to feel a little off even in the opening act. There is a very nice horror curve to this, going from happy to 'off' to sad/unsettling to upsetting/creepy then all the way to depressing/horrific and finally existential/weird.
Major spoilers:
J U S T M O N I K A
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:26 am
by Tafdolphin
I finally finished this yesterday after getting distracted by other things over the Christmas period.
Yeah, that's a good video game. I'm not an aficionado of these sorts of games but it was fascinating to see the ways this messed with expectations and tropes. It reminded me an awful lot of Undertale in fact, a game that would work perfectly well as an homage to the genre it is satirising (well, the first act at least) but instead veers off into some very dark and disturbing realms. As Karl says, I loved the subtle indications that something is off right at the start: the inclusion of some decidedly dark words in the poem creator, the allusions to horror and its ability to change people's perspectives, the subtle reveals of the girls' issues...it's all very well done indeed. And that music. Urgh.
It goes without saying how truly strawberry floated up it is, but man. It's strawberry floated up. After doing some reading after the end it turns out there are a lot of occurrences that rely on pretty high odds to occur. This includes a transition wipe morphing into a strawberry floated up version of the already strawberry floated up Secret Poem 'Happy Thoughts', Natuski's eyes literally exploding out of her head and Yuri's left eye graphic slowly floating away from her face. About the only one I didn't see was one of the classroom posters being swapped out with the image of Sayori's hanging.
Needless to say, this is one of the scarier games I played this year.
Squinty wrote:My mate has talked about this. It sounds all kinds of messed up.
This is a shame as going in blind is half the fun.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:21 pm
by That
Tafdolphin wrote:...
A cool moment that's easy to miss: There's a part of the game where you have to delete Monika. I backed her up, got past that check, then restored her; when I then launched the game, I got a message in which she asked me to let her stay dead, and then she deleted her own file. It was a nice touch. Though it's by no means the most impactful thing to happen in that segment, the attention to detail made it one of my lasting memories of the game.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:22 pm
by Mafro
This looks like a Karl game.
Katawa Shoujo
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:28 pm
by That
Mafrozen wrote:This looks like a Karl game.
Katawa Shoujo
Cheesy, poorly-written dating sims are definitely my thing. But...
Very mild spoilers: This game uses the saccharine stylings and tropes of an anime dating sim to provide a comforting backdrop which is then subverted in increasingly unsettling ways. It's not a dating sim, it's a psychological horror.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:35 pm
by Tafdolphin
How long did people let Monika talk for at the end? I left it for about an hour, give or take, and she covered some really interesting topics including the ridiculousness of mental health stigmas (and encouraging the player to seek help if they need to), whether God exists, the effects of lack of sleep on people, a truly disturbing and in depth description of Sayori's final moments and the reveal that she has her own twitter account. Lord knows how long it goes on for.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:38 pm
by That
Tafdolphin wrote:How long did people let Monika talk for at the end?
That scene was really fantastic. But...
You probably caught this, but in case not: that's not quite the end. There's a pretty lengthy scene after that. You have to do a bit of lateral thinking to activate it, though.
The game isn't over 'til the credits roll.
EDIT: My previous post aimed at you was about the section following-on, so sorry if that was a bit confusing. Reading it back, I don't think it really spoiled anything as it won't make a lot of sense til you figure out the puzzle. Though when you do it'll tinge your excitement with "so that's what Karl meant", so, err, sorry about that.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:47 pm
by Tafdolphin
Oh yeah, I did the deletion thing ( by end I meant "towards the end") but I still let the talk run for ages!
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:50 pm
by That
Tafdolphin wrote:Oh yeah, I did the deletion thing but I still let the talk run for ages!
Cool, good stuff. I'd've been really sad if the one other guy here that really liked the game didn't see the credits.
If only for the creepy-but-kind-of-touching ending song! " -but-also- "
I have heard of people assuming that bit you mentioned before was the ending, which I think is somewhat understandable, though does involve missing some quite heavy hints.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:56 pm
by Tafdolphin
Yeah, the hints are ladled on pretty strong right from the start. Did you see the easter egg that plays if the game detects you're streaming? Worth looking up if not!
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:59 pm
by Rightey
It really is an amazing game with so many little details. Here is one more thing that I found really cool *Spoilers in the video*
Karl wrote:
Mafrozen wrote:This looks like a Karl game.
Katawa Shoujo
Cheesy, poorly-written dating sims are definitely my thing. But...
Very mild spoilers: This game uses the saccharine stylings and tropes of an anime dating sim to provide a comforting backdrop which is then subverted in increasingly unsettling ways. It's not a dating sim, it's a psychological horror.
The thing I love about it is it's not just a horror, I really did feel awful when Sayori died, so of course I wanted to go back and try to save her, but it just doesn't let you
It makes you feel pretty helpless and just forced to go along with it, but of course you can't stop playing because you need to see if it is possible to save them
Apparently there is a good ending though, I'm going to try and get it, but I doubt it will be what I expect.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 3:02 pm
by That
...I want it noted for the record that I do not jerk it to anime visual novels.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 3:57 pm
by Mafro
Free you say.
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:01 pm
by Mafro
Interesting content warnings at the start
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 8:20 pm
by That
Mafrozen wrote:Interesting content warnings at the start
How's it going mate?
Re: Doki Doki Literature Club
Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:19 pm
by Mafro
Karl wrote:
Mafrozen wrote:Interesting content warnings at the start
How's it going mate?
Just eating cupcakes and reading some poems with the gals ^_^
-but-also- 
"
