Doki Doki Literature Club

Warning: This entry contains spoilers.

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About

Doki Doki Literature Club is a free-to-play anime-style psychological horror game presented as a romance visual novel, which was released for Windows and Mac systems by the game development studio Team Salvato in late September 2017.

History

On February 12th, 2017, Team Salvato founder Dan Salvato posted an "ask me anything" thread to the /r/smashbros subreddit, where he hinted about the game, saying "I'm also doing some stuff for a literature club."^[1] On September 8th, 2017, Salvato tweeted that he would "reveal information" regarding his "never-before-seen next big project" the following week (shown below).^[3]

The following week, the Team Salvato Twitter feed was launched.^[4] On September 22nd, Doki Doki Literature Club was released for download on the website DDLC.moe^[7] and Steam.^[8] Additionally, the trailer for the game was uploaded to the Team Salvato YouTube channel (shown below).

Premise

In the game, the player is invited by their childhood friend Sayori to join a literature club at school. There, he meets Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika, the club president. All the girls seem to express some romantic interest in the player-character. By "creating poems," a mechanic in which players select words that either resonate more with either Sayori, Yuki, or Natsuki, leading the player down their "route." Monika does not have a route.

The game is presented in three acts.

Alternate Reality Game

On September 23rd, 2017, Redditor Mithost submitted a post to the /r/arg^[10] subreddit about files contained in the game's program folder, which revealed that several .chr files contained secret QR codes, images and messages as part of an alternate reality game.

Online Presence

Fandom

On September 24th, 2017, the /r/DDLC^[5] subreddit was created for discussions about the video game. On September 26th, YouTube ManlyBadassHero uploaded the first in a series of "Let's Play" videos of the game (shown below).

On October 6th, the Doki Doki Literature Club Wiki was launched.^[2] On Twitch,^[6] a directory was created for streams of the game.

Mods

A modding community has surfaced emerged around the game, as demand for different, happier versions of the game arose. On September 26th, 2017, work began on a mod called Monika After Story^[20][21] started by Backdash, which changes a late scene in the game such that the player can simply spend a lot of time with the character Monika and have conversations that the original game's ending doesn't allow. On October 15th, YouTuber Karl Campers uploaded a playthrough of the "Monika Route," gaining 220,000 views (shown below).

Afterwords an internet user named Pi, who was interviewed by Kotaku,^[18] as well as Redditors CampinKate, Logokas, and -PM_ME_SOMETHING_ went on to form the mod Discord chat.^[19] Some users also went on to find the /r/DDLCmods subreddit.^[18]

Other mods include Doki Doki Literature Club 1.1.0^[22] and the in-progress work A Brand New Day.^[23] In both versions, the player can save the girls from their fates. A mod announced on January 21st, 2018 in the /r/DDLC subreddit called Doki Doki Literature Club: Purist Mod aims to present the game as a more traditional visual novel.^[24] Mods for the game have been covered by Kotaku.^[25]

On YouTube, play throughs of different mods of the game have generated hundreds of thousands of views. On January 15th, 2018, Game Theorists streamed themselves playing mods, gaining over 318,000 views (shown below, left). A video by Bijuu Mike playing Doki Doki Literature Club 1.1.0 gained over 980,000 views (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Buff Natsuki / Buffsuki

Buff Natsuki , also known as Buffsuki is a fanart/fan edit of the character Natsuki with an extremely muscular body. Her body is based off of a piece of Kingdom Hearts fan art known as Buff Riku.

One of the earliest postings of Buff Natsuki was an unfinished illustration by @desperosolace, posted on on October 29th 2017 (shown below).^[14] The drawing gained 36 retweets and over 120 likes. The finished image was later posted on @desperosolace^[15] Twitter feed on November 6th (shown below, right).

While @desperosolace posted her finished work on the 6th, edits of the character began appearing before then. For example, on November 3rd, Tumblr user aku-no-homu^[16] uploaded an edit that gained over 3,200 notes (shown below, left). The finished image has been used in various photoshops, as well as receiving fan art of the image itself. For example, on December 11th, Redditor MrMutlu^[17] uploaded an edit to the /r/DDLC subreddit that gained over 360 upvotes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Just Monika

WARNING: Spoilers

In the game's second act, it becomes clear to the player that a force is trying to drive the player to choosing Monika in the dating sim. At one point, Natsuki's dialogue is seemingly taken over and the face on her character art erased as she suggests she and Yuri are no good for the player and the player should focus their attention on Monika. The game then requires you to click on a button which says Just Monika (scene shown below).

The line became a meme within the game's fandom as a cryptic reference to the game's final reveal. Artwork and humorous remixes depicting Monika as a yandere for comedic effect have grown popular online. On October 6th, 2017, YouTuber Pengu uploaded an edit of Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5 that changed all the women's names in the song to Monika, gaining over 44,000 views (shown below, left). On October 14th, YouTuber ANGELILYworks uploaded a clip from Family Guy which also poked fun at Monika's attraction to the player.

Additionally, the meme has spread online in various ways without directly addressing the game's ending. There is an /r/justmonika^[12] subreddit with over 600 followers, as well as a Twitter account for the character,^[13] which was launched several months before the game's release.

Controversies

Manchester Suicide

In February of 2018, 15-year old Ben Walmsley of Greater Manchester, England, committed suicide. His father Darren later stated that he believed Doki Doki Literature Club may have contributed to "dragging" his son into a dark place.^[26] Quoted in The Sun, Walmsley said:

Ben was growing up fast. It is hard for parents but this needs to be highlighted. There is no confirmation yet, but we believe that the game could be linked to Ben’s death. Characters suggest things and you decide what to do. It drags you in and they make it very real. Ben did not speak about it, but parents need to be aware of this game and other similar games. It is free to download but once you get into it, it will not leave you alone. The characters befriend and love you and give you tasks to do but if you do not do them, they turn nasty.

Ben's high school, Philips High, said in a statement:

"A concern has recently been brought to our attention by HM Senior Coroner regarding the use by young people of the online game ‘Doki Doki’, also known as ‘Doki Doki Literature Club’. A concern has been expressed that the game may trigger suicidal thoughts in young people who may be emotionally vulnerable. Please monitor and check your child’s internet use regularly and be mindful of the time spent."

There is currently a police inquest into Ben's death.^[27] Walmsley also claimed that Ben had been frequently awoken at night due to texts from the game's characters.^[28] No such function exists in the game. This detail was discussed in a thread on /r/DDLC.^[29] Videos about the controversy were uploaded by users appabend (shown below, left) and FamilyGamerRadio (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References