User:TheUnGhost/Doki Doki Literature Club!

Current inspiration is based on Super Mario Galaxy's article.

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Doki Doki Literature Club!
Developer	Team Salvato
Publisher	Team Salvato
Platform(s)	Windows Linux macOS
Release date	September 22, 2017
Language(s)	English
Genre	Visual novel
Media	itch.io: Digital download Steam: Digital download

Doki Doki Literature Club! (occasionally known as Doki Doki Literature Club without the exclamation point, occasionally abbreviated as DDLC) is a horror visual novel developed by Dan Salvato and released under his company, Team Salvato. In the game, the player controls a male protagonist who visits a literature club at the request of his childhood friend, Sayori. At the Literature Club, he meets the girls Yuri, a shy and awkward girl who is into in-depth and meaningful literature and complex horror novels; Natsuki, a short child-like girl who enjoys manga and "cute" things, and Monika, a popular student at school and the Club President of the Literature Club. It has the appearance of a Japanese-styled visual novel and gives off the impression of a dating simulator. However, it eventually reveals its true nature near the of the first act, introducing occasional horror elements such as suicide, depression, and abuse, as well as instances of breaking the fourth wall. The game has four acts and three routes for the girls Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri, with Monika not having her route. The player can get these routes by choosing the girls' favorite words in a minigame where they compose a poem using various words that relate to their personality. It was released for free on itch.io on September 22 and on Steam on October 6, 2017 for Windows, Linux, and macOS. The game uses the visual novel game engine, Ren'Py. Doki Doki Literature Club! has received a large following with various internet memes and fan-made material.

A remake called Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! was released on June 30, 2021, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Windows, and Mac.

Story

Main article: Story of Doki Doki Literature Club!

Doki Doki Literature Club! is split up into four acts. The first act starts as a traditional visual novel, while the later acts start including horror elements. Each act has a code that prevents the player from reusing a previous save file to return to these previous acts.

Gameplay

Screenshot of Act 1

In Doki Doki Literature Club!, The player assumes the role of a boy and his experience through the Literature Club. The player can name the protagonist with any name they choose. The game consists of text and, occasionally, a few dialogue choices to achieve different outcomes. The player can speed up the text by using the "Skip" function, though by default, the player can only skip text they have already seen unless they have "Skip - Unseen Text" toggled in the Preferences menu, which allows the player to skip almost all text. The only time the player can not skip text is when the player sees Yuri's pupilless face on the fourth day in Act 2, Natsuki and Monika return to see Yuri's corpse in Act 2, the entirety of Act 3, and Sayori's final message in Act 4. In Act 3, if the player attempts to skip dialogue with the "Skip - Unseen Text" option, Monika will notice this and turn off the skip function.

Most choices in Doki Doki Literature Club! do not significantly change scenarios and, in some cases, give the same result. For example, selecting either "Yes" or "No" to Yuri's confession in Act 2 on the fourth day will always result in the same dialogue and the same scenario where she kills herself.

Save files

Monika catching the player "cheating"

“Sometimes you'll find yourself facing a difficult decision...” “When that happens, don't forget to save your game!” “You never know when you might change your mind...” “...or when something unexpected may happen!” “Wait...is this tip even about writing?” “What am I even talking about?” “Ahaha!”

—Monika, Act 1, Day 2

The player can usually save their game at any point, load it back, and save it over fifty-four slots in over nine pages, each with six slots to save their game. While they can initially reload saves from a previous state, this becomes impossible once the protagonist finds Sayori hanging in her bedroom in Act 1. Afterward, it is impossible to load saved files prior to that scene. Attempting to load them would result in a fake error message stating that Sayori's .chr file is missing. It will then delete all of the player's previous saves up to that point. Usually, using another file after Act 2 is impossible because the game generates a random six-digit number on a save file. If the player attempts to load another save file, a black screen appears with the text box saying, "The save file could not be loaded." "Are you trying to cheat?" Monika will then appear, saying, "You're so funny, [player]," before restarting the game. To restart the game, the player must go to the game's directory, go to the "game" folder, and delete the file "firstrun". Reloading the game will result in a menu that allows the player to delete their previous save and start back from the beginning of the game. Another moment where the player can not reload their previous saves is during the scene where Yuri stabs herself in Act 2 with the accompanying CG of her body. If the player attempts to reload the game, load another save file, or quit the main menu, it will return to the scene, which will change to the next time. During Act 3, the player can not save the game, though it does save automatically from the last dialogue message. It also saves at the beginning of Monika glitching out after her deletion.

Using the save and load feature serves a role in unlocking an ending where Sayori thanks the player for spending time with the rest of the girls via this feature. To achieve this ending, the player must obtain all the CGs before the ending. The player must write poems for each of the girls to enjoy. They must also work with both Natsuki and Yuri on the festival. The player must save after the protagonist's narration says, "Sayori waves goodbye after her." and once he says, "Sayori--" for it to track Natsuki and Yuri. The player must say, "I love you." to her once the dialogue choice appears. Lastly, the player must not delete Monika's save file early in Act 3 and must see her respective CG before deleting her. Once the player meets these conditions, Sayori will thank them instead of trying to spend time with them, without Monika interfering.

Characters

Doki Doki Literature Club! has five characters, with the protagonist being the only male and the rest female. The girls have typical Japanese tropes and personalities, with Natsuki and Yuri even being described by Monika as tsundre and yandere, respectively. Natsuki mentions Minori, a character in Parfait Girls, her friends, and her father, though these characters do not visually appear.

Name	Description
Protagonist	The player assumes the role of a boy throughout the game. He is Sayori's childhood friend who joins the Literature Club after she tells them about bringing in a new member. While initially having a significant role in various dialogue, he has fewer lines in the second act and only speaks again in the fourth act. Monika will also refer to the actual player with the name they choose for the protagonist.
Sayori	A bubbly, clumsy girl who is the childhood friend of the protagonist and Vice President of the Literature Club with an interest both heartwarming and sad stories. While appearing to be a cheerful individual, The protagonist learns of her depression once he visits her at her house on Sunday. After he helps Natsuki or Yuri at his house, Sayori interrupts a possible kiss from them, fearing that she likes him more than he likes her. The next day, as he prepares for the festival, the protagonist reads %, an unorthodox poem she wrote. He rushes towards her house to find her hanging on a noose from suicide, for which he takes responsibility. Sayori's .chr file is "deleted" by Monika, as revealed through a traceback file. After the game resets, Sayori is no longer present, with Yuri taking her position as Vice President. References to Sayori appear throughout random events in the second act. However, in the third act, Monika finally brings up her demise, where she admits she increased her depression to prevent her from confessing. Sayori returns in the fourth act, after Monika restores her, where Sayori is now the Club President. As a result, she gains self-awareness and attempts to spend time with the player again before Monika stops her.
Natsuki	A youthful-looking girl with a bossy attitude. She is the youngest of the club and is interested in manga and "cute" subjects. During her route, she introduces the protagonist to Parfait Girls, a slice-of-life series. There, he learns how her friends dismiss manga as "for kids." Natsuki also brings up her father, who appears oppressive to her. The second act implies he is abusive to her, as the edited text states that he would beat her if he found out about her interest in Parfait Girls. During the second act, Monika reveals that her father does not give her lunch money or leave her food at home, which she speculates is the cause of her short stature. She and Yuri have opposite viewpoints and interests, which causes them to argue, though Natsuki shows concern for her in the second act and is horrified when she sees her dead body.
Yuri	A shy girl who enjoys stories with a profound meaning and horror novels. She introduces the protagonist to the horror novel Portrait of Markov during her route. If the protagonist chooses to help Yuri at the festival, she reveals her fascination with collecting knives. Yuri and Natsuki tend not to get along due to their differences. In the second act, she replaces Sayori as the Vice President. Monika modifies Yuri to be much more deranged and perverted. The game later reveals that Yuri cuts herself with the knives she collects when the protagonist checks up on her in the hallway. Near the end of the second act, Yuri stabs herself with a knife to death after the protagonist (or the player in this case, as he does not say any actual dialogue) confesses his true feelings for her. The player then has to stay onscreen with Yuri's corpse for an in-game weekend as her body decomposes, a process that can be sped-up with the skip function. Monika restores Yuri at the end of the third act.
Monika	A popular student at school and the leader of the Literature Club, as well as the game's titular villain. She is known for her intelligence, athleticism, and appearance. Unlike the other girls, she does not have her route, which results in the game's events. Monika occasionally breaks the fourth wall and is in love with the player. Monika changes Sayori's and Yuri's personalities to make it harder for them to confess to the protagonist, though it is unclear if this also applies to Natsuki. Monika attempts to stop potential romances with the other girls occasionally. She reveals her true nature at the end of the second act and the beginning of the third act. After the player deletes her .chr file, Monika regrets her actions. She restores all the characters she "deleted" for the player as an apology, resulting in Sayori becoming Club President, giving her the same self-awareness Monika had. Monika stops Sayori before ending the game.

Notable mistakes and errors

Doki Doki Literature Club! contains a few errors in terms of visual and textual. Later versions of the game fix the typos. The errors that still exist in the latest version of Doki Doki Literature Club! also apply to Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!.

• Whenever Doki Doki Literature Club! is mentioned by name, there are two instances where it is referred to as Doki Doki Literature Club without an exclamation point which happens during the disclaimer (which is not italicized) and when Sayori thanks the player for spending time with all the girls in the fourth act. It has also been referred to as Doki Doki Literature Club throughout other mentions and merchandise.
• Sayori's sprite and artwork render shows her bow on the left side of her head. However, her bow is on her right side when she flips around during the poem minigame in her chibi sprite. Another instance of her bow on the left side is when the "I love you" option is on Sunday, where the player receives the CG of them hugging.
• Despite Yuri owning a knife collection, in the second act, she kills herself with a generic kitchen knife rather than a unique one like the one she shows to the protagonist in the first act. Dan Salvato admits that this is an artistic error.
• When Yuri is stabbing herself, the handle of her knife is black. In the following CG, it is now brown.
• Two errors existed before version 1.0.3.
  • If the player tries to load a previous save file on the second act, the text that is supposed to read "File error: "characters/sayori.chr The file is missing or corrupt." is written as "File error: "characters/sayori.cha The file is missing or corrupt."
  • An error would appear during the third act on Monika's twenty-sixth topic due to it technically not existing.
• Prior to version 1.0.4, during the third act, Monika's thirty-ninth topic would be skipped.
• Before version 1.1.0, the Steam release, during the third act, one of the lines in Monika's forty-sixth topic reads, "That's kind of stating the obvious, but the affects the way they try to get their point across." Later versions replace "the" with "it." Version 1.1.1 fixes this for itch.io.
• Prior to Version 1.1.1, various typos were present.
  • Both versions of Monika's Save Me poems spell cacophony as cacophany.

External links

• Official website
• Doki Doki Literature Club! at The Visual Novel Database