User:TheUnGhost/Doki Doki Literature Club!

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 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, abuse, and 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 on itch.io on September 22 and on Steam on October 6, 2017 for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Doki Doki Literature Club! has received a large following with various internet memes and a large fan community.

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

Doki Doki Literature Club! is split up into four different 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.

Act 1

Day 1

A boy and his childhood friend, Sayori, are walking towards school when the latter asks if he has joined a school club yet. He states he is uninterested in joining new clubs, much to Sayori's dismay. After the school day, the protagonist thinks about joining a club to satisfy Sayori, initially considering the anime club. Sayori, however, suggests he join the Literature Club, where she is Vice President, previously telling them that she is bringing in a new member and even telling Natsuki to make cupcakes. The protagonist decides to stop by, specifically for the cupcakes. He eventually visits the club to see Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika. He learns that Yuri and Natsuki have written their poems, impressing the protagonist. Monika then suggests that everyone go home and write poems to share with the rest of the club. The protagonist states that he did not say he was joining the club, causing all four girls to frown. Out of respect, he then states that he is joining the club, and all go home to write their poems.

Day 2

The protagonist returns to the Literature Club and meets Monika, followed by Yuri, Natsuki, and Sayori. Yuri pulls out a book for the protagonist to read in case they both want to discuss it.

Sayori route

Sayori and Monika discuss what to do about the upcoming festival while the protagonist listens to them. He eventually falls asleep, only for Sayori to wake him up. The protagonist notices Sayori's unkempt appearance, including her unbuttoned blazer. He attempts to help her, including buttoning up her blazer, which no longer fits her. She then unbuttons her blazer for comfort. Monika returns to let everyone share their poems.

Notable mistakes and errors

• 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. This oversight still applies in Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!.
• 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." was incorrectly 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.