If they accept, a couple of unique lines of dialogue ensue, and the player receives a unique image of Sayori (shown below) as a sort of “reward.”Īgain: so far, so typical for an anime dating simulator. The player also gets a chance to try their hand at DDLC’s poem-writing mini-game, in which they can pen a literary masterpiece to woo the girl of their dreams.Īfter becoming acquainted with the girls of the literature club, Sayori then confesses her feelings for the player, and they have the option to accept her confession or reject her.
MONIKA DOKI DOKI JUST MONIKA SIMULATOR
We start off with what looks like your typical anime dating simulator in Act 1, during which the player can romance Sayori, Natsuki, or Yuri, spending time with their love interest performing the standard dating-sim tropes like reading manga or eating chocolate together. The most obvious aspect of DDLC’s psychological horror is the way in which it subverts player expectations at almost every turn. Join me as we consider each of these in turn in order to discover just how DDLC writes its way into our hearts-because it’s not in the way we’d first expect. Breaking the fourth wall between player and game.Trapping the player within the game’s story.In this article, I argue that Doki Doki Literature Club (“ DDLC”) creates a unique sense of psychological horror through four main mechanisms, all of which are peculiar to the gaming medium in some way. It is a profound, complex work of fiction that is only made possible by the special storytelling features of video games. Either way, this is quite a horrifying visual from Team Salvato’s psychological horror masterpiece, Doki Doki Literature Club-a game that purports itself to be a lighthearted anime dating simulator, but that ends up leaving the majority of its players crying themselves to sleep at night, for fear of Monika taking over the world.ĭoki Doki Literature Club has many of the ordinary elements of horror, but it is not your typical horror story. Maybe this picture sends shivers down your spine, or maybe it gives rise to a deep sense of unease. Take a moment to stare into Natsuki’s dark, glitched eyes. A Comprehensive Theory of Majora’s Mask.